CHAPTER 2: A DANGEROUS GAME

At the airport, Lu Su burst into the arrival hall like a sudden gust of wind. Scanning the crowd, he locked his eyes on me, surged forward, and threw his arms around me in an aggressive hug. Caught off guard, I froze for a second before hastily shoving him back. “Welcome home.”

Lu Su instantly pouted, his face falling. “Is that what you call a welcome? Feels more like you’re kicking me out.”

I chuckled, testing the waters with a half-joking tone. “Things are different now. I’m a married woman. I’ve got to keep my distance.”

He scoffed, rolling his eyes in exaggerated disgust. “Relax, I’m not here to be a third wheel.”

I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. It seemed he had genuinely moved on. But before my shoulders could fully relax, he suddenly leaned in close, his voice dropping into a teasing purr. “You’re awful tense… Don’t tell me you snuck out behind your husband’s back to pick me up?”

He stepped back into a safe distance before I could hit him. I shot him a glare. “What are you talking about? He’s not that petty. Besides, I told him beforehand.”

Lu Su let out a soft laugh, his tone laced with subtle irony. “Generous, huh… Older men really know how to put on a show, don’t they?”

—

The welcome-home party in our private room quickly turned raucous. Someone brought out a bottle, and before long, the whole group had transitioned to playing Truth or Dare.

Xiao Xiao was the unlucky victim of the first round. Choosing ‘Dare’, she was forced to call her younger boyfriend and break up with him. To everyone’s surprise, less than ten minutes later, the boy arrived at the venue, cornered her against the wall, and kissed her senseless until she took every word back. The two then dragged each other off to a hotel room upstairs to “resolve their internal conflict”, accompanied by a chorus of catcalls and loud wolf-whistles from the group.

“Younger guys really are something else, right, Nian?”

I nodded absently, glancing down at my phone. It was nearly ten o’clock. Qin Yu was probably about to start worrying. I chimed in, “Let’s just do one last round.”

Naturally, the spin of the bottle seemed to have a mind of its own, coming to a dead stop right in front of me. And the one administering the dare? Lu Su. A thoroughly wicked smile spread across his face.

“Keep it simple, call CEO Qin and tell him yourself: ‘Sorry, I still prefer younger guys. Let’s get a divorce.'”

The air in the room instantly went dead quiet. A few people tried to step in and save the moment, sensing the joke was crossing a line, but Lu Su casually fanned the flames:

“What, I haven’t played in forever, how was I supposed to know the rules? Besides, CEO Qin isn’t the petty type. He’s way more mature than Xiao Xiao’s boyfriend, a quick explanation and it’ll all be fine.” He turned to me, offering a painfully “considerate” look. “Or should I change the dare for you?”

I knew I was backed into a corner. If you play the game, you play by the rules; backing out would ruin the mood. I forced a small nod. “…Fine.”

The moment the line connected, Qin Yu’s voice came through, soft and low: “Should I come pick you up?”

My heart stuttered. Lu Su mouthed at me to drop it, but an irrational urge to prove something pushed the harsh words past my lips:

“I’m sorry… I still prefer younger guys. Let’s get a divorce, Qin Yu.”

Silence hung heavy on the other end for a few agonizing seconds. Then, his voice came back, as impossibly calm as ever: “Have you been drinking? Or are you playing a game? Tell me where you are, I’ll come get you.”

It was the exact response I should have expected, yet an uncomfortable knot tightened in my chest. He wasn’t angry? Or did he just not care?

Right then, Lu Su snatched the phone out of my hand, jumping in with a smug, triumphant tone: “Don’t bother coming, CEO Qin. We’re not finished playing yet, and having an adult barge in ruins all the fun. Don’t worry, Nian isn’t drunk enough to mean it, just treat it like a game… though if you two actually end up divorced, I’d feel just terrible.”

He switched off the speaker, the smirk on his face deepening as he listened to the response from the other end.

“I knew it, you really are so generous. After all… you *are* the uncle here.”

—

By the time Qin Yu arrived, I was completely sloshed. Lu Su was crouching in front of me, his face way too close as he tried to coax me into drinking water like I was a stubborn toddler.

Qin Yu’s eyes darkened instantly. Stepping forward, he cleanly inserted himself right between us, a quiet, effortless motion that nevertheless oozed the suffocating weight of an absolute possessive claim. Instinctively, I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, inhaling his familiar mint scent. “Qin… Yu?”

“Yeah.” He answered softly. As he did, his fingers casually tugged down my collar, exposing the scattered red marks left behind from last night, a silent, lethal warning to the man standing across from us.

I winced, whimpering softly. “It’s hot…”

“I know. My fault,” he murmured, taking the blame so smoothly I didn’t know whether to laugh or be mad. Taking a sip of the hangover soup, he leaned down and fed it to me through a deep, lingering kiss. The dryness in my throat faded, and I rubbed my face against his jaw, completely dependent. “Don’t want any more… ‘m sleepy…”

“Go to sleep. I’ve got you.” A gentle kiss landed softly on my forehead.

—

Outside the car, however, the atmosphere was a completely different story.

Lu Su swung a fist, but Qin Yu dodged it cleanly. With a few swift, calculated moves, he slammed the younger man to the ground. It was a brutally efficient strike, bone-deep agony, yet leaving his face completely untouched and unblemished, leaving him zero room to play the victim in front of me later.

Lu Su coughed heavily, letting out a cold, bitter laugh. “It’d be real interesting if I recorded this and showed her. A guy who plants a GPS tracker on his own wife, still trying to play the refined gentleman?”

Qin Yu’s gaze turned pitch black. “Try it.”

“Figures! For a guy who drove his own brother to his death, what’s a little deception?” Lu Su yelled out, his voice choked with rage. “Qin Yu, a piece of trash like you belongs rotting in the mud! If you hadn’t stolen the betrothal, the one who married Nian Nian would have been me!”

Qin Yu leaned down, his voice dangerously level, devoid of any emotion:

“You’re mistaken. Your betrothal was with the eldest daughter of the Song family, not Song Nian. If you’re that desperate, as your ‘uncle’, I could gladly help you make a formal proposal. And one more thing, remember to address her as your aunt.”

Lu Su tried to snap back, but Qin Yu’s bodyguards yanked him back, smothering his voice. Qin Yu cast a final, indifferent glance over his shoulder. “Don’t make your mother kneel and beg me again.”

—

Inside the car, a heavy silence reigned.

I was leaning against Qin Yu’s chest, squirming uncomfortably because his body felt like a furnace. To “get back at him,” I lifted my head and nipped lightly at his Adam’s apple, my tongue casually flicking over the spot.

The air inside the vehicle shifted in an instant. Qin Yu drew in a sharp breath, his hand coming down on my waist, burning hot through the fabric. “Wait till we get home.”

Unfortunately, my alcohol-addled brain had zero sense of danger. I kept stirring up trouble until a sharp, palpable edge of danger closed in around me. Startled, I tried to pull back, but he had already locked me firmly in place.

“Scared now?” He let out a low chuckle as he watched me nod frantically like a toy duck. “You should be.”

The car came to a stop, and the driver discreetly excused himself. I tried my old trick of faking sleep, but he called my bluff on the spot. His index finger slid over my canine tooth, his voice dripping with low, dark suggestion. “Still feel like biting?”

I shook my head violently, but there was no mercy left in him tonight. He leaned down, his breath brushing my lips. “Then it’s my turn.”

The cold wire frame of his glasses pressed between us. Without bothering to take them off, he kissed me slowly, thoroughly, until I felt completely weightless, spinning in space. He took my hands and guided them up to the gold temples of his frames. “Be good. Take them off for me.”

The moment that last barrier dissolved, Qin Yu became an entirely different person, primal, unyielding, and utterly relentless. I gasped for air, trying to grasp at whatever sanity I had left. “No… we can’t…”

Knock, knock.

A light tap sounded against the tinted window, and a tiny box was discreetly slipped inside. Qin Yu glanced at it and smiled, a thoroughly wicked, ungentlemanly grin. “Now we can.”

That night, he didn’t stop until I had cried myself completely hoarse, my eyes swollen red. Leaning down by my ear, his hot breath engulfed my senses:

“You can’t even handle me… and you still have the audacity to crave college boys, hmm, sweetheart?”