Leopards in the African plains would hide themselves for up to 24 hours just to observe their prey. They would find the right time and the best angle to extend their sharp claws. When they strike, it would be a guaranteed deathblow. Ying Qingcang was such a man. He was a man who would tear his prey apart in the most savage of ways, snapping its throat, not giving it any chance to toy with him.
"I can hand you over to Young Master Shen right this instant. He"s got tons of lackeys over there. More than enough to make it impossible for you even get out of bed after they"re done with you." Ying Qingcang said as he slowly approached Molly. He stared right into her eyes. "Or I could just douse you with aphrodisiac right now, and then throw you into a prison full of h.o.r.n.y men. Tell me... Do you think you can get out of there alive?"
Molly refused to believe that he would do that. "You really have the guts to do that? How would you explain it to my family, then? Your grandfather would not forgive you."
"Hahaha..." Ying Qingcang laughed at her mockingly. "Who do you think you are, huh? You think your family would risk making an enemy of me for your sake?" Ying Qingcang threw a stack of doc.u.ments right in her face. "See for yourself!"
Trembling, Molly picked up the folder from the floor. After flipping through a few pages, her entire face morphed into a look of surprise as she shook her head. "You... You planned this from the start. How dare you?"
"Why won"t I dare?" Ying Qingcang stood tall and looked down at her condescendingly. "If you have the b.a.l.l.s to negotiate with me, then you should have prepared yourself to be torn apart. In fact, you should have prepared to pay the price the moment you humiliated Xin Qing at the auction!"
When Ying Qingcang had helped Molly secure half of her family"s a.s.sets, he had bound her family"s business together with Ying Enterprises. Right now, if Ying Enterprises divested itself of her family"s business, Molly"s family would face bankruptcy due to poor cash flow. It was what Ying Qingcang had decided to do from the very beginning. n.o.body could take advantage of a beast and then walk away with their bodies fully intact. To get a beast to stretch out its claws for your sake, you have to be prepared for it to turn on you.
"I was wrong... Ah Cang..." Molly kneeled on the floor and crawled towards him, wanting to hug Ying Qingcang"s leg. But Ying Qingcang kicked her away before she could reach him. "I am a man of my word. I will announce our engagement after Chinese New Year. After that, you will tell me everything you know obediently. I won"t touch your family. Of course... It would be a different story if you dare defy me from now on!"
Molly picked herself up from the floor, stumbling all the way. "You"re a demon. You"re a G.o.dd.a.m.n demon." She mumbled.
Frowning, Ah Nan watched as Molly ran out of the room as if she had just seen a ghost. "It"s because of this woman that the young master and the young miss are in such a state," he thought. "Young Master, why are you still going through with the engagement? We already have full control over her family."
Ying Qingcang"s eyes shone as bright as the stars. With inborn confidence, he said, "Since everyone is putting on an act, it won"t be right if I miss out on the show."
"Then the Young Miss..."
"She"s got nowhere to run." Ying Qingcang said, narrowing his eyes. "I told you from the start that I"m the only person she can marry. I"ll let her play around for a while." Ying Qingcang paused. "Tell the one who"s in charge of her security detail that if anything else happens after this, he can kiss his job goodbye!"
Xin Qing was the winner of the academy"s "Student of the Year" award. She was even granted a scholarship worth 800 Euros. CK had already prepared an employment contract, which she had signed. Now, she could start working at CK whenever she wanted. Nonetheless, Xin Qing decided to complete her studies at the academy first. She still had another half a year left to go next year.
She had used the money from the scholarship to buy gifts. She had even bought some for Xin Yudie"s children. Xin Qing had no idea why she did that. When she was picking out a gift for Ah Sha, she thought she found something that suited Xin Yudie"s kids, so she bought them along the way. One week before Chinese New Year, Xin Qing returned to China. At the airport, Zhang Mi started shouting the moment she spotted Xin Qing from afar.
"Xin Qing!" Zhang Mi, in her red leather skirt, looked like an eye-catching fireball. She hurtled in Xin Qing"s direction, turning everyone"s heads along the way. When she reached Xin Qing, the two of them hugged and were soon leaping around.
"Oh, I"ve missed you to death!" Zhang Mi pinched Xin Qing"s face. "I haven"t seen you for almost a year!"
Shi Qianqian strolled towards them casually and then pulled Zhang Mi off of Xin Qing. "Watch yourself, will you? Your skirt is so short."
"This is just me being emotional!" Zhang Mi said with red rimmed eyes. "You two got to hang out with each other for half a month. h.e.l.l, I don"t care. I"m going to France after I graduate next year. You"ll have to take care of my living arrangements and food!"
"Won"t you just add to Xiao Qingqing"s troubles by going there?" Came a teasing voice. Young Master Shen stood there smugly in a grey fur coat. Pa.s.sing women were all staring at him with starry eyes. Young Master Shen headed towards the three of them, smiling all the way. Xin Qing and her friends could only feel the eyes of the other women in their surroundings. Those women were like hungry tigresses who were mere seconds away from pouncing on them.
"Hey, Flower Peac.o.c.k, it"s the middle of a freaking winter, stop being in heat!" Zhang Mi felt like biting Young Master Shen"s head off everytime she saw him. Even more so considering that she had lost her virginity to a man like him. At that thought, she felt the urge to skin Young Master Shen alive and then swallow him whole.
Although Young Master Shen still had the perfect smile on his face, the words leaving his mouth were like lethal venom. "Why don"t you try it if you can! See if the men around you would even spare you a single glance."
"Ha!" Zhang Mi had perked up at this point. "Me? You think no man would want to look at me? Just you wait!" In the next second, she removed her overcoat, revealing the skimpy leather shirt that she wore underneath. Then, she made two rounds in the area, her hips swaying and her three-inch knee-high boots clicking with every step she took. It was a display that had induced numerous catcalls. She walked up to Young Master Shen. Then she lifted her head and shoved her breast right to his face. "I"m the real thing. Unlike those people with tiny c.o.c.ks. Hard on the eyes and hardly of any use!"
Young Master Shen glared at her before his face broke off into a grin. "Mine? Hard on the eyes and hardly of any use, you say? I seem to recall the way a certain someone had screamed my name for the entire night."
"B*llsh*t!" Zhang Mi raised her leg and gave Young Master Shen a kick, which he blocked. The sharp breaths taken by the surrounding men were audible. A few were sporting nosebleeds right then and there.
Xin Qing quickly took the coat and covered Zhang Mi with it. "Put it down, put it down, put your leg down! You"re flashing your underwear!"
"Enough, you two. This is a public place, so watch yourselves, both of you." Shi Qianqian pushed Zhang Mi and Young Master Shen apart. "Why don"t you two just hook up." She said, looking at Zhang Mi at first before turning to Young Master Shen, "And have a love-hate relationship with each other!"
"Oh pooh!"
"Eww!"
Then the two of them spoke at the exact same time.
"I won"t marry her even if she"s the last woman on earth!" "I won"t marry him even if he"s the last man on earth!"
Xin Qing and Shi Qianqian glanced at each other. "They have so much chemistry, and yet they"re flat-out denying the possibility of hooking up..." They thought both thought.
They went along with their original plan, which involved Xin Qing staying at Shi Qianqian"s place. By Ying Qingcang"s decree, Young Master Shen was supposed to follow Xin Qing around at all times. As of that day, bickering voices of a man and a woman could be heard in Shi Qianqian"s house bright and early in the morning. If Shi Qianqian had not been staying in a detached villa, someone would have reported them to the police ages ago for disrupting the peace.
On the third day of her return, Xin Qing called Xin Yudie.
Over the phone, Xin Yudie told her, "If you aren"t scared, just come to my house!"
So Xin Qing went to Xin Yudie"s house, though Young Master Shen was the one who had driven her there and Zhang Mi would sit beside her throughout the entire meeting.
"Let me look at you. You look pretty well, and I heard you"re a famous designer now!" Xin Yudie invited them both into the house. She even shot a glance at Young Master Shen, who sat in the car acting as the pair"s bodyguard.
The moment they stepped through the door, two children, who looked like exact clones of each other, rushed towards them. "Mom, which one is auntie?"
"These are your twins?" Xin Qing asked in pleasant surprise. "They"re so cute!"
The current Xin Yudie was a completely different person from the Xin Yudie from one year ago. She had always been beautiful. But now that she had purged herself of all the jealousy and the foul intent that she once held, her entire aura had changed into that of happiness and feminity. She looked beautiful and elegant. In that moment, Xin Yudie was smiling as she picked up her two children. "There, this is beautiful aunt right here. She"s your auntie. She"s also my younger sister!"
"Nice to meet you, auntie!" The two voices rang out in unison, both of which had originated from two faces that looked like the exact copy of each other. Their soft and gooey voice could literally make anyone die from an overload of cuteness.
Not wanting to be left out, Zhang Mi approached the two children. "And me! And me! I"m Auntie Mi! Come on! Greet me! Greet me!"
The twins glanced at Xin Yudie. When their mother gave them a nod, they turned her head to Zhang Mi and shouted in unison, "Nice to meet you Auntie Mi!"
"You"re really the one who raised them?" Zhang Mi looked at Xin Yudie doubtfully as she hugged the twins and gave them a kiss each.
Xin Yudie did not take offence at Zhang Mi"s insinuation. She merely chuckled and invited her guests to take a seat. When hot tea was served by a maidservant, she said, "It"s precisely because I"ve been taken advantage of in the past that I should raise them carefully." Xin Yudie smiled at Xin Qing. "I don"t wish for my children to go down the same path that I did and repeat my mistakes. I want them to lead lives of their own."
"You"ve done a fantastic job!" Xin Qing took out the gifts she had brought and gave them to the twins. The two children took the gifts happily before stepping aside to open them. "Their father..."
Xin Yudie knew what Xin Qing was trying to say. She pointed behind them, towards a corridor whose far end was adorned with a wedding photo. The photo showed Xin Yudie and Huang Jianbin; each of them was holding one of the twins in their arms.
"I"m his only legal wife. He treats us very well." Xin Yudie let out a chuckle. "He still has other women outside the house though, but what can I do? A while back, one of those women came to the house, but Huang Jianbin nearly beat her to death before he threw her out. He"s using this way to guarantee my position and status. He told me that other than me, the rest are merely his playthings. I think this is fine, though. Sometimes we have to be grateful."
When she finished speaking, Xin Yudie appraised Xin Qing for a moment. "What about you? When are you coming back to marry Ying Qingcang?"
"It"s over between us." Xin Qing said in a flat voice. Her face betrayed neither happiness nor anger.
"Wait, don"t tell me it"s true?" Xin Yudie said in suprise. "Old Huang did mention something about Ying Qingcang"s plan to marry some kind of princess from the British royal family. Could it be..."
Xin Qing nodded. "It"s the truth. They"re probably about to be engaged soon."
"I was against the idea of you going with him since the start, and look at you now." Xin Yudie sighed. "But with your current abilities, you can live a good life even without a man!"
Xin Qing stayed at Xin Yudie"s place until afternoon. On the way back, Xin Qing suddenly had a wonderful feeling. Before, Xin Yudie would want nothing more than to bring death upon her. Xin Qing had once hated Xin Yudie"s guts too. But today, they were able to chat and laugh with each other like they were old friends. Although they were not even close to being sisters, they could still feel the other"s sincerity and kindness. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they shared the same blood. This inborn fact, one that could never be changed, had brought the two of them closer and closer to each other!
The following day, Xin Qing decided to drop by Ying"s residence. She was starting to miss Ah Sha. Before this, she had asked Young Master Shen to relay a request to Ying Qingcang. She wanted to ask if he would allow Ah Sha to stay at Shi Qianqian"s place for a while. Ying Qingcang had agreed on the condition that Xin Qing would come by the house to pick up Ah Sha herself. So Xin Qing had no other choice but to drop by the house. In fact, it was Ying Qingcang himself who had come to pick her up. They had not spoken a single word to each other throughout the entire drive. When they walked through the door, they immediately heard Ah Sha"s crying voice. They also heard the sharp, rebuking voice of a woman.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d child! Eat! Did you hear me?! Eat!"