Chapter 1 Huo Yanzhi, I'm here to keep you company.
"Don't touch me."
The woman on the sofa turned her face away from the hand that was reaching for her cheek.
The light fell on her face, reflecting an almost transparent paleness, as if it would shatter at the slightest touch.
The hand belonged to Shen Yu, who was wearing a well-tailored suit and had the gentle smile she used to know so well on his face.
But now, that smile only makes her feel disgusted.
Shen Yu's hand stopped in mid-air, but he wasn't angry. He slowly withdrew it, his tone like that of someone soothing a tantrum-throwing child.
"Yaoyao, what's wrong? The Huo family has fallen, aren't you happy?"
Ruan Yao shifted her gaze from his face to the empty carpet, her voice very soft.
"This was all your conspiracy, wasn't it?"
"The Ruan family's bankruptcy has nothing to do with Huo Yanzhi, right?"
Shen Yu, adjusting his cufflinks, smiled upon hearing this.
"It's alright."
“It was your cousin Su Mingyuan who was stupid and fell into a trap set by the Zhou family. Huo Yanzhi didn’t know about these things.”
Ruan Yao curled her fingers at her sides, digging them into the soft flesh of her palms.
"Was it you who drugged me back then?"
Shen Yu lowered his voice, admitting it quite frankly, with a hint of...
The hatred that had been suppressed for so long.
"yes."
"Unfortunately, that madman Huo Yanzhi snatched it away."
"Why did you lie to me?" Ruan Yao was almost swaying. "Why did you tell me that Huo Yanzhi did it, to make me hate him and fear him?"
Shen Yu walked up to her, squatted down to look her in the eye, and spoke in a tone so gentle it was almost tender.
"Lie to you? Yaoyao, haven't you always hated Huo Yanzhi?"
"He forced you to marry him, and every time he touched you, you were trembling with fear."
He said softly, "Look, I've driven away that demon who's been bullying you. You should be happy."
Shen Yu chuckled softly, as if sharing a sweet secret.
"Besides, our Yaoyao is really amazing. If it weren't for you, how could I have obtained the Huo family's secrets so easily? You should be thanking me."
His words were gentle, yet each one felt like a knife, cutting into Ruan Yao's heart.
She thought of Huo Yanzhi.
After an unexpected and absurd night with that man, he reappeared before her, exuding an irresistible force, and said he wanted to marry her.
He said that the Ruan family needed money, and he could provide it.
She agreed to marry him for money and to help her family through their difficulties.
She was prepared for all kinds of humiliation, and even imagined how he would humiliate her, a fallen heiress.
But married life was completely different from what she had imagined.
Huo Yanzhi gave her a black card with no credit limit, saying that the entire northern part of Beijing could belong to her.
Anything she glances at will appear in her house the next day.
He cherished her like a precious jewel.
Except in bed.
Huo Yanzhi's demands were an insatiable plunder.
He was like a dying traveler in the desert, and she was his only source of water.
He devoured her, drank her dry, and even crushed her bones into his own flesh, as if that would allow him to possess her forever.
No matter how much she begged for mercy, he wouldn't stop.
He would only crush her sobs with his burning lips, imprison her in his arms with his body, possess her again and again, and call her name in a hoarse voice.
Ruan Yao was terrified by Huo Yanzhi's suffocating possessiveness and almost pathological cravings.
She had also mustered up the courage to ask him why it was her.
He said he fell in love with her at first sight and was attracted to her beauty.
Huo Yanzhi's answer was as flippant as a joke.
But his eyes were as heavy as a swamp that was perpetually shrouded in rain and constantly sinking.
There was no light inside, only a slippery, wildly growing dampness and stickiness, twisting and binding everything tightly.
There was also something she couldn't understand... an emotion that was almost drowning her.
Because of Huo Yanzhi's attitude, the Huo family extended their affection for her to the extreme.
The elders of the Huo family held her hand and told her to treat the Huo family as her own home.
Huo Yanzhi's aunt gave her expensive jewelry, saying that Yaoyao would look good in anything.
Later, after the Huo family fell from power, Huo Yanzhi's mother pointed her finger at her and cursed her as an ingrate, vehemently accusing Ruan Yao of having a heart that could never be warmed.
Before Huo Yanzhi went to prison, he calmly signed a divorce agreement with her.
He said, "Yaoyao, no one will force you anymore."
He even took care of everything for the Ruan family, who couldn't pay off their debts, and had already prepared a fortune for her that she could squander for the rest of her life.
It wasn't until then that she realized something was wrong.
But it was all too late.
Huo Yanzhi died.
He committed suicide while in prison.
A tear slid down her empty eye socket and landed on the back of her hand; it was very hot.
Then, the second drop, the third drop.
When Shen Yu saw her tears, he reached out to wipe them away.
"Why are you crying?" he said softly, his tone tinged with confusion and displeasure. "The Huo family has fallen, and Huo Yanzhi is dead. You should be happy. Look, no one can take you away from me now."
Ruan Yao's tears fell even more fiercely.
Yes, she should be happy.
She got rid of the man she thought was a devil.
But why does her heart ache so much, as if it's being torn apart by someone's bare hands?
Everyone thought she hated him, and she used to think so too.
Ruan Yao suddenly stopped crying.
She looked up at him, her eyes blurry with tears, and her voice returned to its former softness, "Brother Shenyu, you're right, I should be happy."
She stood up and took a step closer to him, obediently leaning into Shen Yu's arms, her cheek pressed against the fabric of his expensive suit, her arms wrapped around his waist.
Shen Yu hugged her with satisfaction and whispered in her ear, "That's a good girl."
The next second, a sharp pain came from my lower abdomen.
Shen Yu's body stiffened abruptly, and he lowered his head in disbelief.
A silver fruit knife, the handle still in Ruan Yao's hand, the blade deeply embedded in his body.
Blood gushed out instantly, staining his white shirt and Ruan Yao's slender, pale hand.
"You..." He tried to speak, but his face was contorted with pain.
“I’ll take you to see him,” Ruan Yao said, her voice trembling with tears. “Don’t you hate him for taking me away? I’ll take you to him.”
After saying that, she used all her strength to hug Shen Yu and crash out of the floor-to-ceiling window on the seventeenth floor.
The wind whistled in her ears, blowing her thin skirt and long black hair.
The city's dazzling lights behind her resembled a distant and cold galaxy.
Ruan Yao closed her eyes.
Huo Yanzhi, I've come to keep you company.
This time, it's my turn to walk towards you.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
