Chapter 1

My sworn enemy mocked me for being single since the womb. Furious, I pinched my own neck until it turned red.

“See? My boyfriend kissed me.”

He scoffed. “Who’d ever want a woman like you?”

Later, when I was crying outside the obstetrics department, that same nemesis showed up with a thunderous look on his face.

“Who’s the bastard? I’ll beat him up.

“Stop crying. I’ll take responsibility for you and the baby.”

1

When I opened my eyes that morning, I found myself in bed with a man.

Completely naked.

But that wasn’t the scariest part.

The scariest part was that the man was none other than my sworn enemy, Chen Yiyue.

Everyone in Beijing’s upper circles knew our feud reached higher than the sky and ran deeper than the sea.

Last night, we’d gone drinking at a bar and lost a dice game. The penalty was to kiss.

Afterward, Chen Yiyue lounged lazily against the sofa and smirked at me with shameless arrogance.

“Miss Zhang’s firstborn seems a little stiff. Was that your first kiss?”

I was so annoyed that I secretly pinched my neck until it turned red, deliberately showing it to him.

“See? My boyfriend kissed me~

“My boyfriend is amazing! He’s a thousand times better at kissing than you.”

Chen Yiyue’s expression had darkened. He stared coldly at the “hickey” on my neck, his gaze unreadable.

Then he sneered. “Zhang Yumian, who’d ever want a woman like you?”

Maybe he was in a foul mood because he’d lost to me. That night, he—who normally didn’t like drinking—got absolutely wasted.

I took him home, planning to snap a few embarrassing photos while he was drunk.

Instead of getting the better of him, I ended up in his bed all night.

Damn it!

I bit my lower lip in frustration and tried to wriggle out of Chen Yiyue’s sleeping embrace.

The moment I moved, he instinctively tightened his arms around me and buried his handsome face against the hollow of my neck, nuzzling me.

“Yumian, be good. Let me stay inside a little longer…”

Yumian?

Well, look at that. He was still inside me, and yet he was calling out to the girl he had a crush on.

Jerk!

It took every ounce of strength I had to escape his arms and climb out of bed. The moment my feet touched the floor, my legs went weak and I nearly collapsed.

The room was a mess. There were suspicious wet marks even on the sofa and out on the balcony.

Fragments of last night’s memories flashed hazily through my mind.

Chen Yiyue had grabbed my ankles, squeezed my waist, and lifted my legs around him. Even my fishnet stockings had been torn to shreds…

I was about to slap myself and ask why I hadn’t fought back.

But when my eyes drifted toward the bed, my hand stopped.

That body. Those muscles. That size.

Who could possibly resist?

I decided to count it as a free night with a male escort—and a top-tier one with a very Western-sized package, at that.

2

Among the heiresses, there was a saying: if you sleep with an escort, keep it secret.

Better to show some skin than show your face.

If word got out that I’d slept with Chen Yiyue, I’d never be able to hold my head up in Beijing again.

I swallowed the soreness and hurried to destroy the evidence, cleaning every corner of the room until not a trace remained.

At one point Chen Yiyue nearly woke up, so I had to sell my charms—kissing and touching him until he settled back to sleep.

After sneaking out of his villa, I found a convenience store and sat down, ready to breathe a sigh of relief.

My phone suddenly rang.

It was Chen Yiyue.

He had clearly just woken up. His voice was low and warm, a little hoarse. “Zhang Yumian, where are you?”

As soon as he spoke, I couldn’t stop remembering how he’d bitten my ear last night and told me to relax.

My face heated up. I stammered, “W-what do you want?”

“Did you bring me home last night?”

“Mm. Oh, I… I was just passing by. I wanted to see how pathetic you’d look when you were drunk.”

Unlike usual, Chen Yiyue didn’t trade barbs with me. His voice dropped. “Did you sleep at my place last night?”

I calmly made up a story. “…Yes. I’d had too much to drink too, so I slept in your guest room. I left as soon as I woke up.”

“You didn’t sleep in my bed?”

“…No.” I gripped my phone guiltily. “Don’t flatter yourself! Who’d want to sleep in your bed?”

“…”

Chen Yiyue fell silent.

At that moment, a male college student walked past the convenience-store entrance and bumped my shoulder. I let out a startled cry.

Chen Yiyue immediately asked, “Are you with a man?”

I jumped in. “Oh, I’m with my boyfriend. We’re about to get busy. So hurry up and tell me what you want.”

Chen Yiyue’s voice betrayed no emotion. “Nothing. I must’ve been dreaming. I’m hanging up.”

Dreaming about what? A… a wet dream?

Good, good, good. Better for him to think that.

I’d told myself he couldn’t possibly figure anything out. After all, I had ten years of experience cleaning up my father’s cheating scandals and helping catch him in the act.

To be extra safe, after hanging up I posted on my social feed, photoshopping an intimate picture of myself with a faceless, muscular man.

I added three red-lips emojis.

As it turned out, my flirtatious little trick worked perfectly.

The following month passed in complete peace.

Chen Yiyue not only didn’t suspect a thing, he didn’t even come looking for me once.

I finally relaxed and threw a party to let loose.

But before I could swallow even one sip of wine, I lurched forward and vomited.

3

The moment I held the test results in my hands, I froze.

I was pregnant.

Was that bastard Chen Yiyue some kind of pregnancy-striker? How had he hit the target so perfectly?

The doctor had just asked whether I wanted to keep the baby. My head was pounding. I wanted to pull the covers over myself, sleep, and avoid the problem for a while.

But things didn’t go my way.

I was still sitting outside the obstetrics department when my mother called.

“Zhang Yumian! Auntie Wang just called. She saw you at the obstetrics department. Are you pregnant?”

A sudden wave of hurt welled up inside me. I wanted to confide in her. Choking back tears, I said, “Mom, listen to me. I think I might want to keep it…”

But before I could finish, she cut me off.

“Get rid of it immediately!

“I’ve already picked out a husband for you. Come back and register your marriage with him. We need to secure the land in the eastern district and get your father on our side first. We’ll deal with the rest later…”

I was stunned.

It felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over me. My whole body, my entire heart, went cold.

“Mom… You’re not even going to ask how I’m doing or who the father is? You’re just telling me to abort it?”

“It doesn’t matter who the father is. Your illegitimate older brother has climbed high in the company. A child born to his mistress is already trying to compete with me for the family fortune!”

“Mom, is that all you care about? Am I just a tool for you to compete with Dad’s mistress for his favor?”

“Don’t you dare act crazy with me! If you were a boy, would I have to work so hard to fight for anything? It’s because I wasn’t lucky enough to give birth to a son. But haven’t I always made sure you had everything you needed? I’m only asking you to marry someone. How can you talk to your own mother like this?”

“You’re only asking me to marry someone? Have you ever thought about how I feel?”

My hand trembled around the phone with rage.

“Every time you needed money, you deliberately caught Dad cheating and pretended to have me take his side. You had me clean up his affairs, then used that as an excuse to get him to pay you a huge sum for my silence!

“Mom, you can put up with this twisted marriage, but I won’t!”

My mother was silent for a moment. Then she said coldly,

“I don’t care what you say, Zhang Yumian. You have one week to abort the baby and come home to register your marriage. Otherwise, don’t call me your mother ever again—and don’t expect a single cent from this family!”

A cold beep sounded in my ear.

I couldn’t hold back the burning sting in my eyes any longer. I covered my face and cried pitifully.

I didn’t even bother to pick up the phone when it slipped to the floor.

Through my broken sobs, a pair of polished leather shoes appeared between my tear-blurred fingers.

“So the eldest young lady of the Zhang family looks this ugly when she cries.”

A warm voice, threaded with laughter, sounded above me.

I jerked my head up and met Chen Yiyue’s narrowed, peach-blossom eyes fixed on me.

W-what was he doing here?

Remembering the state of my smeared makeup, I wiped away the tears and turned my face aside. “Mind your own business!”

Chen Yiyue slipped one hand into his pocket without moving his feet, amusement lingering at the corner of his mouth.

“That muscular boyfriend you showed off on your feed didn’t come with you to your appointment? Did he dump you?

“Crying alone outside obstetrics makes it easy for people to get the wrong idea…”

I sprang to my feet. “Don’t talk nonsense! I’m not pregnant. I’m not here because I’m pregnant!”

A second later, a nurse came out and addressed me.

“Ms. Zhang Yumian, are you still scheduling the abortion procedure? If you don’t book it, we’re full for today.”

Me: “…”

Chen Yiyue clearly hadn’t expected it to be true. He abruptly looked up at me, his gaze sharp. “Zhang Yumian, how far along are you?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he caught sight of the test result I’d left on the chair and bent to pick it up…

4

My heart nearly stopped!

I lunged forward and snatched the test result before he could, hiding it behind my back.

That was close! If Chen Yiyue found out the baby was his, he’d definitely force me to get rid of it right away.

“Chen Yiyue, what are you doing? A woman’s uterus is… private! You can’t just look at it whenever you want!

“If you want to know, I’ll tell you. I’m pregnant… nine weeks. What, are you going to mock me for getting pregnant before marriage?”

I lifted my chin and glared at him.

My argument was flimsy, but I delivered it with conviction.

The acting skills I’d honed over years of pretending in front of my father were finally paying off.

Chen Yiyue stared at me for over ten seconds, apparently unable to find any clues.

But when he heard the words “nine weeks,” his expression inexplicably turned colder.

Obviously, the timing didn’t match the night I’d brought him home.

He suddenly asked, “Is the baby your muscular boyfriend’s?”

I answered guiltily, “…Yeah.”

“He doesn’t know?”

“…W-why does he need to know?”

I pretended not to care.

“Call him,” Chen Yiyue said expressionlessly. “Tell him to come here. Right now.”

“…”

How could I call someone who didn’t even exist?

I gritted my teeth and lied. “He blocked me.”

“He blocked you?”

Chen Yiyue repeated the words in a low, icy voice. His tone carried the pressure of a mountain about to collapse, a storm about to break.

“Zhang Yumian, you’re usually so arrogant, so loud. Now that a man’s dumped you and bullied you, you’re just going to cower like this?”

He mocked and pressed me, sounding as if he were furious.