The room had no air conditioning running. As if brewing rain, the air was exceptionally stuffy, as though even the airflow had solidified, pressing more fatally against Shi Sui’s already suffocating chest.

Her rationality lost control. With an expression cold as ice, she tried to remove the toy-like objects from her hands.

The chains struck against the solid wood door, making clanging sounds.

Behind her, Yan Tingli let out light, mocking laughter, more piercingly reminding her of the ridiculous futility of her current struggles.

Shi Sui could only turn around and desperately hit him with her elbows.

He looked down indifferently, grasping her slender wrists, his fingertips slowly caressing them.

—Good thing he had specifically embedded lambskin inside.

Otherwise, he would feel sorry for this pair of beautiful wrists.

“Yan Tingli,” with her hands restrained and in desperation, Shi Sui switched to ramming him with her head, “What exactly do you want to do?!”

“You,” Yan Tingli tenderly stroked her forehead with his hand, slowly answering, “does that count?”

Shi Sui was shocked by his shamelessness, staring at him with eyes that seemed ready to shoot flames.

She took a deep breath, not wanting to get entangled in such nonsense with him. Turning her face away, she asked what she had always wanted to know: “How exactly did you get in here?”

Yan Tingli’s fingers stuck to her cheek as he bent down, looking at her innocently: “Didn’t Uncle and Auntie tell Sui Sui that this house has already been bought by me?”

“Now, this place is mine.” He paused, then smiled and said, “It’s ours.”

Shi Sui’s face suddenly turned pale, completely incredulous.

“That’s right.” Yan Tingli smiled, “Uncle and Auntie always treat you like a child.”

Speaking of this, Shi Sui’s cheek was suddenly pulled outward by him, his tone suddenly turning heavy: “But they don’t know—what child is this disobedient, never listening to me?”

Shi Sui looked at him, her brain rapidly working.

The only thing that could make Yan Tingli this unhappy was tonight’s incident, where she rejected him and had Fu Ze give her a ride back.

She tried to stay calm, saying flatly: “I’ll resign and won’t have any contact with him anymore.”

Yan Tingli laughed softly, leaning down to press his cheek against hers, his voice becoming gentle again: “Although these words are very obedient, and I’m happy to hear them.”

“But that piece of trash won’t need you to resign.”

The casual indifference in his tone was consistent as always.

But Shi Sui didn’t have excess sympathy to spare for Fu Ze—she could only wish him luck.

Sensing that Yan Tingli’s emotions had stabilized somewhat, her heartbeat calmed as she said gently, “Then can you unlock me now?”

He looked puzzled: “Why would I unlock you?”

Shi Sui endured: “I already said I won’t get involved with Fu Ze anymore. Not just him—no one else either. So you should unlock me now.”

She could already feel that in just this short time, the temperature of his skin touching hers was getting higher and higher.

The night was stuffy, and there wasn’t even a trace of a cool breeze in the room.

Her back was gradually breaking out in sweat, mixing and merging with Yan Tingli’s—sticky and heavy.

This scent of sweat and temperature mixed could easily awaken some ambiguous, sensual memories, even making the senses transcend reason, making dangerous things particularly likely to happen.

Shi Sui had never had much confidence in her body’s self-control.

Even more hatefully.

This secret reaction seemed to be easily discovered by that person, too.

Yan Tingli placed his chin on her shoulder, letting out muffled, hoarse laughter from his throat. The hot air from his breath circled behind her ear: “Those are two different matters.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, my wanting to lock you up and him giving you a ride home are two different matters.” Yan Tingli said unhurriedly.

So tonight was premeditated by him?! Shock and anger flashed in Shi Sui’s eyes.

“Then what will it take for you to let me go!”

Yan Tingli placed his chin on her shoulder and neck.

Black mist gathered at the corners of his eyebrows as he began to lightly nibble the skin on the back of her neck, his long legs striding as he backed up, bringing her toward the bedroom.

Shi Sui keenly sensed his intention, alarms blaring in her mind.

But her limbs felt weak, and even her resistance and struggles seemed like reluctant compliance.

She was both irritated and angry until Yan Tingli easily pressed her onto the small bed in the bedroom.

Leaning over her, he whispered with curved eyes: “Does Sui Sui know how long I’ve been waiting for today?”

Shi Sui was full of rebelliousness: “Who cares how long you waited?”

“Three years.” He said to himself.

Yan Tingli’s dark eyes stared deeply at her, his voice drifting, his tone strangely calm: “Three years ago, I also waited for you in that house for three days.”

Shi Sui’s eyelashes moved slightly.

His words easily brought her back to that summer sealed in memory, that summer she still didn’t dare recall in detail.

She didn’t dare meet his eyes and slowly looked away.

Yan Tingli’s knuckles suddenly gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him, coldly saying, “Look at me.”

He stared at her, his gaze cold, as if trapped in some memory, his lips curved in a chilly arc.

“That night, lying on this bed, I had already figured out how to punish you.”

“That day I was thinking, once I caught you, I would lock Sui Sui on this bed.” Yan Tingli’s tone lifted slightly, “Train you into a little dog who couldn’t leave me day or night.”

Hearing this made Shi Sui’s spine tremble, her whole body breaking out in fine goosebumps: “You madman, psychopath!”

She instinctively tried to slap him.

The next second, the handcuffs on her wrists clanged, reminding her of her current desperate situation.

Shi Sui’s movements froze—she almost screamed.

She stretched her leg to kick him, but her ankle was easily grasped and caressed ambiguously.

Yan Tingli looked down, thinking for a moment: “Still wrong.”

He felt annoyed: “Next time, I should make Sui Sui a pair of beautiful ankle cuffs.”

“After all, running is done with feet.”

His monologue made Shi Sui even more furious and broken.

If the previous encounters with Yan Tingli had just been cat-and-mouse teasing, then today let Shi Sui once again viscerally experience that night years ago when he had locked her in the apartment.

—This was a kind of fear that made her scalp feel like it was about to explode.

Shi Sui finally couldn’t hold on, burying her head in Yan Tingli’s chest, her fingers gripping his clothes tightly, using all the tricks she used to employ.

“Brother Tingli, I was wrong.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have lied to you. Please just let me go.”

Yan Tingli’s pupils slowly moved, falling on her reddened eye sockets.

Staring at her for a long time, he repeated: “Let you go?”

His voice was somewhat muffled.

“You’re still asking me to let you go, even now?”

“Then what else do you want?!” Shi Sui said with a crying voice.

She couldn’t think of what else Yan Tingli could want from her—nothing more than the accumulated resentment from being deceived and toyed with over the years, not wanting her to live a good life.

“What I want,” Yan Tingli murmured with a laugh, “what else do I want…”

His thoughts seemed to drift.

Then he looked up at her, his eyes filled with pitch-black stubbornness, saying indifferently: “No matter what I want, thinking I’ll let you go—you’re dreaming.”

The last hope in Shi Sui’s eyes dimmed. She pursed her lips with an expression almost ready to cry.

But she forced herself to hold back. Supporting herself on her last thread, she sat up to unbutton his shirt, speaking recklessly: “I’ll do it with you. Let’s do it right now.”

“Isn’t this what you want? I’ll satisfy you now and serve you well.”

“When you get tired of it, will you let me go then?”

Yan Tingli grabbed her hand with a force that seemed ready to crush her.

He looked at her for a long time, his expression showing a kind of dazed emptiness.

Shi Sui couldn’t spare the emotional energy to carefully perceive it.

But she could still smell something—he seemed unconsciously on the verge of overflowing sadness.

Had she said something wrong? Why was he sad? Shouldn’t she be the more devastated one?

Shi Sui’s mind was in turmoil. The next second, Yan Tingli pounced on her like a beast breaking free from its cage.

The small bed, just 1.45 meters wide, creaked.

It suddenly reminded Shi Sui of that always precarious wooden bed in the small town.

Yan Tingli gripped her chin with his thumb and forefinger in a position where she could only comply, completely unable to avoid.

He couldn’t wait even a second before lowering his head to pry open her lips and teeth, his tongue easily reaching deep into her throat, licking every wall of her mouth.

Shi Sui’s tongue was stirred and sucked by him—no matter how she tried to hide, she couldn’t escape.

She immediately couldn’t stand this kiss that seemed ready to devour her.

She reached out to push him away.

But the handcuffs completely restrained her, unable to unfold.

“Can’t handle it already?” Yan Tingli withdrew a bit, his lips still covered with saliva from her mouth, sneering: “Then you have a lot to endure tonight.”

After saying this, Shi Sui was positioned with her legs spread, sitting on top of him. His palms maliciously pressed her waist, grinding up and down.

Yan Tingli kissed her while letting out mocking laughter.

“Your body is always more honest than your mouth.” His tone seemed indifferent: “Can’t fool anyone.”

Shi Sui also felt ashamed of this damned reaction, biting her teeth without making a sound.

“So who’s serving whom?” Yan Tingli, dissatisfied with her reaction, said expressionlessly in her ear, “Me serving you, or you serving me, Sui Sui?”

He carried her to the old house’s shower room.

The suffering Yan Tingli endured in this lifetime was probably all from being with her. Before, it was the creaky, broken bed in the small town, now it was the old house’s poorly regulated shower with inconsistent hot and cold water.

He couldn’t wait at all, taking her once in the cramped shower room while controlling her waist.

And without protection.

In the past, Yan Tingli would still hypocritically ask for her opinion, but this time it was blatant, crude, and malicious.

His movements were extremely slow, as if wanting to soak and stretch every cell to feel it fully.

When unable to suppress the pleasure, he would bite her nape to suppress the gasps in his throat.

Having been too long without this, Shi Sui’s eyelashes trembled—she couldn’t quite handle it, her hands curling tightly against the wet wall, leaving moist fingerprints.

She wanted to break free, but couldn’t.

So she played dirty, fiddling with the temperature control knob.

The water temperature fluctuated between hot and cold, pouring down his spine. He sneered, stubbornly retaliating elsewhere. Shi Sui’s fingers pressed so hard they almost turned white.

The last time with hot water, Shi Sui’s mischief backfired.

The shower suddenly became hot enough to sting the skin. Yan Tingli’s arm around her waist tightened as he let out a muffled grunt.

Yan Tingli made an angrily amused sound.

At the same moment, Shi Sui also opened her eyes, pretending nothing had happened as she adjusted the shower back.

But the milky white traces flowing down between her legs couldn’t be covered up.

Shi Sui didn’t like the feeling of having things left inside, saying flatly: “…I need to clean up.”

Yan Tingli brushed her hair to one side, chuckling: “Wait until you’re full before cleaning.”

Coming out of the shower, Shi Sui was thrown onto the small bed.

The 1.45-meter bed couldn’t accommodate Yan Tingli’s tall frame when he lay down.

He seemed deliberately not to turn on the air conditioning.

Usually, the neatest and cleanest person, his attitude in bed was completely different.

As if all the stickiness and sweat suddenly weren’t dirty anymore.

Just out of the shower, Shi Sui was already covered in fine sweat, murmuring: “Hot, so hot.”

“Bear with it.” Yan Tingli ignored her, turning her over, loosening one handcuff and fastening it to the bed frame.

From behind, he pressed against every inch of her skin to the maximum degree—sticky, soaking.

Yan Tingli didn’t have the habit of wearing cologne.

His body still carried his usual body wash scent—fresh, almost seductively fragrant mint.

Shi Sui had always liked it.

She suspected this was Yan Tingli’s special setup—catnip specifically for her.

Now this scent, mixed with bodily fluids and various other things, almost made Shi Sui’s consciousness drift, all her senses uncontrollably immersed in it.

In such dizzying desire, Shi Sui suddenly thought of that close encounter with Theodore long ago, the instinctive resistance and rejection at that moment.

Suddenly, she felt overwhelming despair.

It seemed.

She only physiologically liked, only liked Yan Tingli physiologically.

The rain finally poured down.

Lightning and thunder crashed outside, and cool wind penetrated the stuffy room.

When the wind blew across her face, Shi Sui’s consciousness finally became somewhat clear.

But Yan Tingli was still behind her, seemingly tireless.

He never stopped skin contact with her, as if this was the only way to confirm her existence.

While using a voice trembling with pleasure to whisper in her ear: “These years have been quite a search for me. Finally caught you.”

Shi Sui closed her eyes, feeling weary and powerless.

After an unknown amount of time, in her hazy consciousness, it seemed like dawn was about to break.

Her waist ached, her legs were numb, and her knees hurt too.

She really couldn’t take it anymore and asked him to finish.

“Beg me,” he said.

Shi Sui never acted tough in bed: “Please.”

“That’s not how you beg someone.” He turned her over to face him, his dark eyes bottomless.

It seemed that once physical connection was established, words could no longer be cold and hard.

This was exactly what Shi Sui feared most.

Once memories from the past opened even a small crack, afterwards they could never be cleanly separated again.

Across three years, memories of mountains and rivers flashed by.

The clearest in her mind was still that summer three years ago, the same kind of thunderstorm day, the low bungalow.

Back then, Yan Tingli’s eyes were very bright, completely different from this moment.

Shi Sui looked at him, emotions turning over and over in her chest.

She finally closed her eyes, using the hand without handcuffs to hook around his neck, gently kissing his eyes.

Just a weightless kiss, like a feather floating by.

But Yan Tingli’s eyelashes trembled rapidly, and his hand on her waist immediately tightened.

After a few seconds, he buried his head down but said nothing.

Not long after, he silently ended the final intimate act.

As soon as she relaxed, Shi Sui’s eyelids immediately began fighting, about to fall into unconsciousness.

Yan Tingli carried her to the bathroom to clean up.

But Shi Sui was unconscious of all this. She was truly exhausted—once her eyes closed, she fell into deep sleep.

Shi Sui opened her eyes a few times in between.

But today was Saturday, and after consecutive days of work plus the entire previous night, her physical strength was almost completely drained. Yan Tingli also had consistently good sleeping habits and didn’t wake her.

So Shi Sui didn’t care about anything, closing her eyes and turning over to continue sleeping.

Anyway, what should be done with Yan Tingli had been done, the sky that should fall had fallen—how much further could it fall?

But facts proved that the sky really could keep falling.

Shi Sui fully awakened the next afternoon.

At that time, Li Yin appeared in the room, staring in shock at her and Yan Tingli embracing on the bed.

Especially.

The handcuffs that had been on her hand all night were now attached to the bed frame at one end, and the other end was on Yan Tingli’s hand.

He had been awake much longer than she.

Properly dressed in a shirt.

Just with two buttons undone, exposing some ambiguous red marks on his collarbone and neck.

Completely unable to hide the full atmosphere of intimate desire.

While Shi Sui faced Li Yin, he still had not figured out the situation.

Yan Tingli’s expression showed just the right amount of panic as he immediately got up.

But the next second, his wrist was restrained by the handcuff. He looked toward her, his tone also seeming embarrassed: “Sui Sui, use the key to help me unlock this.”

What key? Where was the key? Shi Sui still didn’t know where the opening mechanism of these handcuffs was.

But Yan Tingli only mentioned it once. The next second, he turned his head, looking at Li Yin with guilt: “Auntie, let me explain to you immediately.”

“Please rest assured, I will take responsibility for Sui Sui. I can marry her right away.”

Li Yin finally reacted to this situation, embarrassed beyond measure. She nodded and quickly closed the door: “You two get yourselves together first before talking.”

Almost as soon as the door closed, the embarrassment Yan Tingli had put on immediately disappeared.

In front of her, he twisted and pressed, casually unlocking the handcuffs.

While approaching to kiss her cheek, asking with false concern: “Mom saw us, what should we do?”

“Don’t worry.” He kept smiling, “I’ll give Mom a reasonable explanation.”

“Once Dad and Mom approve,” Yan Tingli whispered softly, stroking her gradually paling cheek, “we can get married.”

Shi Sui’s pupils slowly moved, and at this moment, she finally belatedly saw through his calculations.

Since her return to the country, or rather several years ago, the entire setup targeting her had begun.

All the preparations Yan Tingli had made were waiting for this moment.

On the first day back in the country, the dinner with both sets of parents—threatening or enticing Song Jie to plant a possible seed in her parents’ hearts.

Then, using various means to tease and monitor her.

Forcing her back to this place, making her voluntarily give in to sleeping with him in a mental breakdown.

Then, using an excuse to have Li Yin, who had just returned from a business trip and didn’t know the truth, come to the old house and witness this scene.

Finally, he used his good image built up over these years to tell her parents a reasonable story.

From then on, even with ten mouths, she couldn’t explain clearly, forever entangled with him.

Layer upon layer of chills ran down Shi Sui’s spine.

She shook her head while slowly backing away.

Yan Tingli seemed unable to see her expression.

His whole being was in a state of extreme pleasure and excitement as he gathered his arms to hold her tightly.

“Sui Sui.”

“We can finally get married.”