Inside the cramped storage room, Xie Lin hurriedly grabbed a jacket draped over a chair and wrapped it around my shoulders. His voice was careful, measured. “Princess, the air conditioning is too cold.”

Seeing his face flushed red as a boiled lobster, a wave of mischief washed over me. I shoved him hard, sending him tumbling onto the desk chair. Leaning down, I rested my hands on the armrests and locked eyes with him. “Blushing just from looking at me?”

He couldn’t bring himself to meet my gaze, muttering a soft, “I’m sorry.” That timid, submissive act of his was almost laughable. I deliberately tugged at the edge of my bath towel, issuing a cold command. “Look then. Take a good, long look!”

Xie Lin’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His eyes suddenly grew hazy, clouded by something unreadable.

I delivered a sharp strike to his face, leaving a violent red mark across his cheek. My lips curled into a disdainful sneer. “A stray dog actually dreaming about me? I’d hate to catch whatever disease you and your mother are carrying.”

Silence filled the room. After a long pause, Xie Lin stood up and walked over to his bookshelf. When he returned, he held out a clear plastic ruler, his expression painfully sincere.

“Princess. Use this next time. Your hand won’t hurt.”

I froze. This guy… was truly sick. Unhinged, even.

From that day on, Xie Lin grew even stranger. No matter how cruel my pranks were, he never snitched. If anything, he almost seemed… pleased by them.

Every time our paths crossed, his eyes would light up like a puppy catching sight of its owner. I vented about this to my best friend, Tong Zhen. The moment she heard the story, her eyes gleamed with excitement.

“Honestly? I think you hit his exact ‘kink.’ You think you’re punishing him, but in his head, you’re probably handing out rewards.”

She went on to offer an absurdly detailed lecture on leather whips and restraint harnesses, making me want to flip the table. Tong Zhen—a name that literally meant “childlike purity”—was a total misnomer. The only pure thing about her was her name.

During break between classes, the class president poked his head into the room. “Jiang Shuyu, your brother’s here.”

Xie Lin was waiting by the door, dressed in a simple athletic fit, looking so unfairly handsome that the girls nearby were already whispering about how to become his “sister-in-law.” I marched over, fuming. “Who gave you permission to claim you’re my brother?”

“I’m sorry. You forgot your lunch box. I made the sweet and sour ribs you like.”

Looking down at the container, my anger melted away by half. Just then, a female classmate walked by and asked out of curiosity who he was to me. I crossed my arms and announced coldly, “Not my brother. He’s my household servant.”

Xie Lin didn’t look hurt at all. Instead, he played along with a small smile. “Yeah.”

The girl walked off bewildered, muttering under her breath, “Doesn’t look like a servant… looks more like a secret lover.”

The word hit me like a sudden jolt of electricity, making my ears burn hot. I waved him away like a fly, but watching his retreating back, a strange, suffocating tightness settled in my chest.

He was the one being degraded—so why was I the one feeling so flustered and irritated?

…

Under Xie Lin’s rigorous tutoring (or more accurately, coercion), I successfully landed an acceptance to a top local university. The day my admission letter arrived, I immediately made a demand to my father: I wanted my own place.

Jiang Zhengan originally planned to refuse, but after a moment of thought and a quick glance at Xie Lin, he suddenly changed his mind. “Fine. Xiao Lin can move in with you. With him taking care of you, Auntie Meng Yu and I can rest easy.”

I nearly choked on my juice, instantly protesting, “I don’t keep pets!”

In the end, through pure, unyielding stubbornness, I secured the right to live alone. But right before moving out, I accidentally caught Auntie Meng Yu sitting dazed in my late mother’s old room, holding an ancient photograph with a deeply complex look in her eyes. An absurd, wild theory crossed my mind, but I chose to keep quiet and walked away.

Returning to my room, I found the door standing ajar. Xie Lin was inside, holding a fresh stack of folded laundry.

Because he was so tall, I decided to step onto the bed to give myself an intimidating height advantage. Predictably, my foot slipped. By pure instinct, I grabbed Xie Lin by the collar, dragging him down with me. We tumbled together onto the mattress. His lips brushed lightly against my cheek—a touch as soft as a feather, yet it sent a sharp shock straight through my nervous system.

To hide my flustration and the wild beating of my heart, I immediately straddled his waist and delivered a crisp slap to his face. “Bastard! Who allowed you to kiss me?”

Still not satisfied, I leaned down and bit hard into his collarbone. Hearing a low, muffled groan rumble from his throat, I finally dusted off my clothes and strutted out. What I didn’t see was Xie Lin touching his lips after the door slammed shut, his eyes darkening with something deep and predatory.

…

The day I moved into the new apartment, Xie Lin transformed into a high-end personal butler. He was dressed in a tailored black suit for his university orientation, yet he was bent over, mopping my living room floor.

The contrast was so visually striking that I had to throw a trash bag onto the floor just to remind myself: You still hate him. You hate him a lot.

While we were eating, Xie Lin’s phone rang. A girl’s sweet voice filtered through, asking if he could help fix her computer. He declined without hesitation, then suddenly looked up at me. “Princess, you don’t want me helping other people?”

I kept my tone stiff. “What you do for other people is none of my business.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll just text her back…”

“Don’t you dare!” I slammed my hand on the table and stood up. “You belong to me!”

The room fell dead silent. I almost bit my tongue, frantically trying to backtrack. “I mean… you’re my servant! You only take orders from me!”

The corner of Xie Lin’s mouth curved up, a victorious gleam dancing in his eyes. “Understood. I’ll block her number then. I don’t really like keeping in touch with strangers anyway.”

Looking at his perfectly docile, utterly fake expression, a sudden realization hit me: It seemed I had walked straight into a trap he’d set for me a long, long time ago.