Volume One, Chapter 16: Did My Kiss Make You Feel Disgusted?

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Jiang Qin lifted her eyes to meet his, swiped to answer, and brought the phone to her ear. Her voice held the gentle warmth it always did when she was on the phone.

“Hello? Mom.”

Across from her, Huo Sili’s gaze deepened. He raised a foot and walked toward Jiang Qin.

She paid him no attention, staring blankly at a point in the air as she continued in an even tone, “What is it?”

At that, Huo Sili knew that the person on the other end was probably not Yuan Lianqing.

And indeed, the woman speaking to Jiang Qin was not her mother-in-law, but her biological mother, Wang Peilan. When Jiang Qin was seven, Wang Peilan had remarried, had a son with another man, and started a new marriage and family.

People often said that a stepmother meant there would be a stepfather as well. In truth, the reverse was just as likely: having a stepfather often meant having a stepmother too.

Perhaps because she was a woman herself, as Jiang Qin grew older and thought about her biological parents and the family she had been born into, she sometimes felt that her mother might have had her reasons back then.

But reason was one thing. The knife had truly fallen upon her, and Wang Peilan had truly abandoned her without taking responsibility.

As the saying went, a fortunate childhood healed a person for life, while an unfortunate childhood took a lifetime to heal. Jiang Qin belonged to the latter.

She could not forget the tragedies of her childhood, even now.

Jiang Chao, her abusive father, had slashed her with a knife before dying in a car accident, leaving her bleeding profusely. And her mother—Wang Peilan—had stood by and watched her bleed while rummaging through the house for money. She had apologized, taken the money, and run, leaving Jiang Qin behind in that dark little house as she cried desperately for her mother through the blood that would not stop flowing.

That day, four-and-a-half-year-old Jiang Qin had been living through the years when a child should have been discovering the beauty of childhood. Yet she had become utterly convinced that she would not live to see her fifth birthday.

Even now, whenever she thought of that terrifying despair, Jiang Qin would break out in gooseflesh, her eyes turning dull and ashen.

Of course, all of that had happened a long time ago. After graduating from university, she had transferred her household registration away from her abusive biological father, Jiang Chao. Taking advantage of the policy offering registration benefits to recent graduates, she had moved it to a major city in the south.

As a result, she and Wang Peilan—or rather, Wang Peilan’s new family—could be said to have absolutely no connection at all.

If they had any connection left, it was perhaps only the faint thread of blood-bound affection that, for some reason, still remained between them, not yet completely worn away.

But now, even that faint affection was probably about to be exhausted.

“Mom, are you kidding me?”

Hearing Wang Peilan’s shameless demand, Jiang Qin laughed aloud, her eyes filled with a gray, self-mocking bleakness.

She should have known. The last time Wang Peilan had called, she had been asking to borrow money in a roundabout way.

But that had been a year ago. At the time, Jiang Qin and Huo Sili had been deeply in love. He had helped heal her, and every day she had felt wrapped in sweetness. Besides, the Huo family paid well, and she had little to spend while living at Cloud Sea Residence. Her salary had nowhere to go.

So she had lent Wang Peilan the money. Back then, Wang Peilan had sworn she would pay it back within a year at the latest.

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But now, quite clearly, that year had long since passed, and there was not even a shadow of the money she had promised to return.

Lending money was an act of affection; refusing was only proper. She had yet to repay the one hundred thousand she had already borrowed, and now she had the nerve to ask for another one million.

One million. Jiang Qin found it absurdly laughable. The woman who had once abandoned her to fend for herself could now open her mouth and ask to borrow a million from her without the slightest hesitation. She had once heard people say that some individuals had skin thicker than city walls.

Now Jiang Qin realized that Wang Peilan belonged to that category.

Strangely enough, though, she had one father and one mother. How was it that she had inherited neither the violent streak nor the shamelessness?

Wang Peilan was still crying on the other end, saying that Jiang Qin’s stepfather, Jiang Jianrong, was being pursued by creditors. If he could not get the money within two weeks, they would kill him.

The moment Jiang Jianrong’s name came up, whatever patience Jiang Qin had left for listening vanished.

Naturally, she had not forgotten Jiang Jianrong. Shortly after her grandmother’s death, Jiang Qin had been in a terrible state.

The elderly Mrs. Huo had sought out Wang Peilan, who had readily promised to let Jiang Qin experience the warmth of a family and regain hope for life.

After that, Wang Peilan had taken her to meet her stepfather, Jiang Jianrong, and the family of four had shared a meal.

They had barely picked up their chopsticks when Jiang Jianrong began pointedly questioning her about her relationship with the Huo family.

Both openly and by implication, he had wanted her to use her connections within the wealthy elite on his behalf. Jiang Qin had already been in poor condition at the time, so naturally she had shown him no warmth. When Jiang Jianrong realized that she had no intention of helping him, he had taken all the meat dishes from the table and replaced them with boiled cabbage.

He had then hurled a string of feudalistic remarks at her, saying things such as how daughters were useless and women were born to suffer, deliberately trying to provoke her.

Once she had seen what kind of person he was, Jiang Qin had no reason to stay. She had left immediately.

“What did she say?”

With no intention of listening any longer, Jiang Qin ended the call and sat down on the sofa. Huo Sili came over and sat beside her without ceremony.

Frowning, Jiang Qin shifted away from him and put her phone into her bag.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” The disbelief in Huo Sili’s voice was unmistakable.

After a pause, he got up and moved closer to her. Meeting her eyes, he spoke in a noticeably gentler tone.

“Jiang Qin, we’re not divorced yet. If something’s happened, you can tell me. I’ll handle it.”

In recent days, aside from the moments when they had made love, they had rarely faced each other in such quiet proximity.

Yet his words made her realize once again, with painful clarity, that she and Huo Sili would soon be divorced.

If that was the case, there was even less reason to tell him anything. After all, once she had the divorce certificate in hand, she would resign from her job.

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Given the gulf between their identities, she would never have any connection with him again for the rest of her life.

“No.” Jiang Qin shook her head. “There’s no need.”

Her voice was faint. Huo Sili’s eyes darkened, and suddenly he let out a derisive laugh.

Jiang Qin closed her eyes, preparing to rest for a while. Dinner that evening was, in the end, still a social obligation. Eating by herself would have been far more comfortable and satisfying. There would almost certainly be a great deal of performance and mental exertion involved, and she needed to conserve her energy.

She heard the sarcasm in his laugh, but she did not want to respond.

This man was always skilled at accusing others before they could accuse him. He was dirty himself, yet believed everyone else was dirty too. And when all was said and done, he was the one whose heart had changed.

If that was the case, nothing she said would make him believe her. She could not be bothered to guess at his thoughts anymore.

Let him do whatever he wanted.

That was what Jiang Qin was thinking when warm lips suddenly covered hers.

She opened her eyes in shock. A handsome face filled her vision, enlarged by proximity. His long, black lashes brushed against her, stirring a faint, tingling sensitivity across the delicate skin of her face.

She instinctively closed her eyes, then gathered her strength and pushed against him. But he did not move an inch. Furious, she turned her head away.

“Huo—!”

Before she could finish his name, her lips were completely sealed.

She suddenly remembered that earlier in the car, Huo Sili had held her in exactly the same position, kissing her so fiercely that her legs had gone weak.

Heat surged to Jiang Qin’s ears. She pushed against him even harder, but with one particularly forceful movement, a sudden dull pain struck her lower abdomen.

Her heart jolted. She immediately withdrew all her strength.

Pain and worry drew her brows tightly together. When he released her and saw her expression, a mocking curve appeared at his thin lips.

“Does being kissed by me disgust you?”

Huo Sili bent toward her, his dark eyes gazing deeply into hers as though he meant to see straight through her.

Jiang Qin wanted to say no, but an ill-timed knock sounded at the door. The kindly voice of Uncle Wen, the old steward of the Wen family, floated in from outside.

“Mr. Huo, Mrs. Huo, dinner is ready. Please follow me to the dining room.”

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