BDB Chapter 35

For some reason, as the male lead spoke, Jiang Rao’s mind was suddenly flooded with a bunch of nostalgic novel titles like “The Tyrant’s 180 Days Lover”, “The CEO’s Forceful Love: Priceless Little Wife”, and “Young Master Li’s Million-Dollar Baby”.

As she had thought before, during the era when these old-fashioned novels were popular, various novel portals hadn’t banned explicit content.

If she agreed to the male lead’s proposal, given his domineering nature and his obsessive fixation on her looks, he would undoubtedly take advantage of her.

Although she was a hedonist, she believed in having principles in life.

At that moment, she had no feelings for him. If the male lead dared to make a move on her, she would certainly make sure he regretted it.

A domineering president like him could never forgive her for such a thing.

If the plot dared to progress like this, from then on the two of them would surely end up in a love-hate relationship—You hit me on the head, I imprison you, force you, torment you, love you.

It was practically another classic drama of tortured love!

So Jiang Rao said, “Not good.”

Li Jueyan’s smile faded, and his expression turned icy.

He was, in fact, an extremely emotional person.

The six months spent in the military brought him not only the bad habits the Old Madam constantly complained about, but also the method of swift, thunderous action he had learned there.

He had always believed that such methods were correct.

Because luck seemed to favor him.

He used those methods to dominate the business world, quickly bringing the Li Group under his control and expanding its scale several times, making it involved in various industries.

He thought that as long as he continued in this way, Lady Luck would always be on his side.

But three continuous months of nightmarish dreams gave him a harsh wake-up call.

In his dreams, he wanted her.

So he kept her by his side.

In his dreams, he hated her for leaving.

So he shackled her with handcuffs and leg irons, and had servants and bodyguards watch over her.

Yet she always managed to escape. And he always treated her with such ruthless disregard.

So she lost her fertility. And on rainy days, he often wondered if the man in his dreams, who looked just like him, ever noticed a detail: she would frequently rub her elbow that had once been hit by a bullet.

At this thought, Li Jueyan felt like cursing.

But as he had used the arrogant ‘I¹’ word a bit too much in his agitation, he noticed her frowning tightly.

He could only curse himself inwardly.

He crossed his legs, turning his frustration into a cold, emotionless voice, “No? Then how do you plan to repay me? When will you repay me? The interest is 10,000 yuan a day. Are you going to pay or not?”

Jiang Rao wasn’t afraid of repaying the money.

Money was dead; people were alive.

Moreover, she hadn’t touched the 1.76 million she had earned from selling the properties, leaving only a 420,000 shortfall from the 2.18 million he demanded.

In the coming years, as prices skyrocketed, she believed that with enough effort, she could repay the money within five years at most.

However, the daily interest of 10,000 yuan obliterated this hope.

“There are only two paths. Which one will you choose?” At that moment, the man spoke again.

Jiang Rao was not the type to wallow in self-pity.

In her past life, she had ignored her parents’ favoritism toward her brother and the burdens they had brought her from external pressure and family troubles.

But life was about moving forward, and things would always get better.

The premise was that she needed to thoroughly resolve these persistent troubles.

“Will you stop harassing me once you get my money?”

Though she had a stern expression, aside from her slightly comical thick eyebrows, her other features remained unchanged.

He looked at her, and the sight of her face, with eyes as clear as a fawn and lips as charming as a peach, almost softened his resolve.

If the words spoken weren’t so infuriating, his determination, which had just hardened, would definitely have softened again.

Thinking of this, he felt ashamed and annoyed at his own lack of resolve.

He snorted and said, “Harass you? Do you think you’re that important to me?”

Jiang Rao didn’t believe a word of his nonsense.

Not to mention that the nightly nightmares had already revealed how obsessed the male lead was with her face.

Just thinking about the phone call he made on the train, “You’re fine? But I’m not fine. Where have you gone?” showed that he was definitely being insincere.

If he was so affected by her leaving, why was that? Was it because she had taken two of his properties?

Don’t make her laugh. He could easily make property prices rise by 20%, which meant all those properties were under his name. Besides, the arrogance of the male lead in such novels came from their massive wealth, which could easily rank in the top ten. Did he really care about those few properties?

Even if he did care, was it worth interrupting his hundreds of millions in business and spending precious time searching for her?

She thought for a moment and said, “Can we sign a contract? After that, we can go to a notary office to get it notarized.”

She truly didn’t trust the credibility of these morally questionable lead and supporting characters in the domineering CEO novels.

Li Jueyan was so frustrated he could only laugh.

“Sure, we can sign a contract. But even when I just took over the Li Group business, I never signed such a small contract. We can sign it, but the interest will be 20,000 yuan a day. I’ll sign it and go with you to the notary office.”

Regardless of her past or present, Jiang Rao never liked cursing or slandering others.

She saw such actions as pointless—wasting time and breath, and only making herself more upset.

But upon hearing the daily interest of 20,000 yuan, she wanted to curse out loud—“To hell with you, you turtle-headed bastard!”

To her surprise, after cursing in her mind, she wasn’t really angry. Instead, she felt an odd sense of relief.

Her heart was generally large, and after the brief relief, she took a deep breath and said, “Fine.”

Fine what? Damn it! What’s wrong with being with him?”

He wondered how she was going to afford the daily 20,000 yuan in interest.

She called over the café owner, and just as she gently asked if she could borrow a piece of paper and a pen, he spoke up, “A hundred for the pen, a hundred for the paper. If you have them, bring them over; if not, we’re leaving.”

Not making money when you could was truly foolish.

The café owner quickly handed over the pen and paper.

Seeing her lower her head to draft the contract terms, he said, “The 200 yuan were spent for the contract you needed, so you’re the one who has to cover that cost.”

Jiang Rao’s pen almost slipped from her hand.

She couldn’t be bothered to argue with this idiot. Considering she was already prepared to spend over 2 million to get rid of him, what was an additional 200 yuan?

After a brief ‘hm’, she continued to draft the contract.

Watching her bowed head and her indifferent attitude toward him, Li Jueyan’s frustration had nowhere to go.

With nothing else to do, he decided to observe her.

His gaze moved from her forehead to the tip of her nose, then down to her chin, and finally shifted to her rounded, full, pink earlobe.

Every inch of her was undeniably beautiful.

But wasn’t he also handsome?

In this world, those with money weren’t necessarily better-looking, and those who were better-looking than him didn’t have as much money. Those who were both better-looking and wealthier than him were either buried six feet under or had long been ancient history.

So why was he not good enough for her? Why did she look down on him, both in dreams and in reality?

The draft contract was quickly completed.

After a glance, Li Jueyan’s lips curled slightly.

What a line: [After the debt is cleared, Party A shall not harass Party B for any reason]!

He was really fucking soft-hearted; he should have raised the interest to 50,000. Let’s see if she’d dare to write that.

“Is it okay?”

Hearing her question, he pressed his lips together. “Yes.”

“Then when will you release my big brother?”

“After the money is transferred.”

Seeing her frown, he snorted. “Don’t worry. The Li Group business has been around for three generations. My grandfather and my father, the first and second generation capitalists, were law-abiding citizens who never dared to underpay taxes. With such family traditions, I’m the same. I won’t risk going to jail for a penniless ugly duckling.”

Jiang Rao: “…”

Wasn’t it you who wanted to break Jiang Pei’s leg with a steel pipe?

Wasn’t it you who used a gun to break the female lead’s leg in the original novel?

Jiang Rao didn’t agree with most of what the male lead said.

But she found his admission of being a capitalist somewhat honest.

When a capitalist takes action, they’re worth eight regular people!

When going through the notarization process, Jiang Rao once again experienced the atypical efficiency that she had encountered at the real estate agency during the property transfer procedures.

In about five minutes, two copies of the contract she had drafted were stamped and signed.

Holding her copy of the contract as she stepped outside, she heard the man behind her say, “It’s not too late to back out now. Otherwise, after today, there will be an interest of 20,000 yuan. Based on a term of 180 days for half a year at a price of 2.18 million, if you agree by then, you’ll have to spend an extra day and a half with me.”

Jiang Rao took a deep breath.

She didn’t look back.

Nor did she answer the obviously dumb question from the male lead.

She put on her mask and first went to an internet café she had passed earlier, transferring the balance from her account on the property-selling website to her bank card.

Then, she thought for a moment and headed to the nearest subway station.

Standing in front of a poster marked ‘Nationwide Reward Notice’, she lowered her gaze to the 500,000 reward amount.

After a while, she took a deep breath and dialed one of the reserved phone numbers listed on the poster.

After three busy signals, the call connected.

Jiang Rao pressed her lips together and said, “Hello, I’d like to ask if this reward is still valid?”

——
TL/N:

1. Please refer Chapter 4’s TL/N on the use of [ Lǎozi : father / daddy / “I, your father” (in anger, or out of contempt) / I (used arrogantly or jocularly). ] ↩︎