Chapter 1:

“Unbelievable.”

A hairline crack fractured the man’s icy composure. His lips curled into a slow, mocking smirk. “Well played, Li Yao. Well played.”

I clenched my hands into tight fists at my sides, fighting to keep my composure. Beicheng had always been Chi You’s turf. Lord knew how much courage I’d had to scrape together just to step foot back in this city.

Before leaving, I’d bragged endlessly to my friends about how I was heading to Sucheng instead. Their only response had been a round of applause followed by a soul-crushing evaluation: “Girl, you’ve got balls of steel.”

I wanted to cry, but reality slapped the tears right back into my eyes. Who actually wanted to come back here? But if I stayed anywhere else, getting my son into a decent school would be like hunting for a needle in the ocean.

And yet, I’d only been back for a few days, and here I was, pinned right under the thumb of the one man I needed to avoid at all costs.

At the thought, I quickly pulled Zuo Zuo behind my back. My voice trembled as I tried to backtrack.

“Mr. Chi, you’ve got it all wrong! Zuo Zuo has a dad, he’s just… he hasn’t arrived yet. What he said the other day about his dad being dead? We just had a huge fight, and I said some stupid things I shouldn’t have.”

The air around us instantly froze. It got so quiet I could hear my heart hammering against my ribs like a war drum.

Then Chi You let out a low laugh, his eyes glinting with dark meaning. “Oh? So you slept with me, then popped out a baby for someone else?”

I choked. Why the hell was he bringing up the past now?

While I was frantically scrambling for an escape route, my best friend Jiang Tian’s voice echoed from a distance. “Yao Yao!”

I spun around as she walked over. The second her eyes landed on Chi You, her brows knit together. “Chi You? What are you doing here?”

Perhaps not wanting to cause a scene, Chi You simply adjusted his cuffs, a faint smirk playing on his lips as if none of this was a big deal. He looked at me, dropping a line that was equal parts threat and promise.

“Li Yao. We’re far from done.”

As his figure receded into the distance, my eyes caught a glimpse of the cufflink at his wrist—a tiny glint of light winking from the edge of his tailored suit sleeve.

I froze.

It was the very cufflink I had given him all those years ago. And right now, it didn’t match the suit he was wearing at all.