Font Size:
Deep City, the entire private club in the southern district was bathed in a soft, misty glow of dusk.
Xu Zhiqiao pointed her phone at the sky and snapped a photo.
A young man already halfway up the steps turned back, his tone and expression brimming with impatience. “Are you coming or not? If you get snatched by some trafficker, don’t go crying to my Father again!”
“…” Xu Zhiqiao stepped onto the stairs, her eyes curved with a smile. “If I get snatched, how would I even tell on you?”
Just the sight of her smiling made Ji Huailuo irritable.
“Your Big Brother Zhou Cong is coming later,” he warned. “He hates it when girls try to get close to him. Don’t smile at him like that.”
“Big Brother,” Xu Zhiqiao asked sweetly, “are you worried about me?”
After all, the Zhou family’s Young Master had a playboy’s face, a volatile and sharp personality, and a dark, calculating mind. Xu Zhiqiao would steer clear of him even without Ji Huailuo’s warning.
“…”
Damn it.
It was exactly this feeling.
He was clearly annoyed with her—
But she always managed to twist it into concern.
If it weren’t for his own Father Ji Shou saying, “Take the little darling out for your birthday. I’ll transfer you from logistics to a core department,” Ji Huailuo would rather die than drag this burden around.
“No matter what you see or hear today,” Ji Huailuo growled in warning, “if you dare repeat a single word, I’ll beat your face crooked.”
Xu Zhiqiao paused, quietly cupping her cheeks in both hands, her eyes sparkling with an unintentional smile.
She didn’t believe his threat at all.
Which only made Ji Huailuo more irritated.
A group of his troublemaking buddies was waiting in the private room, claiming they had a surprise for him. Knowing full well what that bunch was like, Ji Huailuo swallowed his annoyance and emphasized again, “Don’t freak out or make a scene… or better yet, go find something else to do. I’ll come pick you up when I’m done.”
Xu Zhiqiao turned her head and walked further inside on her own.
“My Mother said,” she murmured softly, “as long as I behave and attend your birthday, she’ll let me live on campus.”
The new semester would be her first year at University.
“…”
Damn!
So she had a mission of her own.
She wasn’t even here for his birthday to begin with.
Realizing this, Ji Huailuo’s face turned dark as he strode past her.
His long legs quickly left Xu Zhiqiao behind.
The private room was on the second floor. Ji Huailuo pushed the door open with a scowl—
“Surprise!!!!”
Confetti and streamers exploded from behind the door with loud pops, and colorful glitter cascaded down like snowflakes.
Ji Huailuo was instantly covered.
Xu Zhiqiao slowed her pace by two steps, only a few pieces of glitter stuck to her hair and the tips of her shoes.
“I… damn!” Ji Huailuo gritted his teeth. “Who set this up? How tacky!”
“Yo, Young Master Ji doesn’t like tacky? Brothers, let’s give him something even fancier.”
As the slick words left his mouth, the dozen or so people inside quickly parted to reveal a long table hidden behind them.
The table was two meters long, surrounded by fresh flowers.
In the dim, ambiguous light, a woman was half-lying in the center of the flowers.
She extended a hand painted with bright red henna and coyly called, “Young Master Ji~”
Ji Huailuo jolted, his expression turning even darker. “I…”
Before he could say another word, as if suddenly recalling something, Ji Huailuo turned sharply, his tall and imposing figure shifting to the right, completely blocking the woman on the table.
Xu Zhiqiao heard that soft, alluring voice, but she didn’t see the woman. Curiously, she stretched her neck to peer inside.
Her gaze was suddenly interrupted, and she looked up. “Big Brother, I’m not freaking out.”
It was him, who kept acting like this, one moment calm, the next agitated.
Ji Huailuo suppressed his irritation and suddenly turned again, looking at the people inside. “Hurry up and clean this up. Zhou Cong hates scenes like this.”
“Zhou Cong? The Young Master is coming too?”
“Huailuo said he would come, and he always does. Among us, only Huailuo and Zhou Cong have any real connections.”
The words carried a hint of bitterness.
Ji Huailuo, clearly displeased, shot back, “Are you cleaning it up or not?”
“Alright, alright!” someone drawled, “The Young Master is raised with care, and his family’s strict. If the elders find out we showed him something like this, they’ll probably have us skinned alive.”
Ji Huailuo frowned.
The waiters streamed in quickly, tidying up the mess in no time.
“Jiang Bin,” Ji Huailuo asked sharply, “What’s your game?”
Jiang Bin still had that sarcastic tone, “We’re all brothers, but other than Huailuo, the Young Master doesn’t go to anyone else’s birthday.”
His words were laced with unspoken insinuations, dripping with mockery. “Don’t tell me… he’s taken a liking to your half-sister?”
Xu Zhiqiao was only 18 and had just moved into the Ji family’s home this summer. Not only was she young, but she was also unfamiliar with these people.
Bringing her into the conversation was nothing more than an underhanded jab at Ji Huailuo’s efforts to get in Zhou Cong’s good graces.
Ji Huailuo’s face turned cold, and he immediately began rolling up his sleeves.
Xu Zhiqiao felt a tightness in her scalp and immediately grabbed his shirt corner with perfect timing. “Big Brother! Uncle said we can’t fight!”
“That’s right, it’s your birthday, forget it, forget it…”
“Jiang Bin, have you had too much to drink?”
The people in the private room quickly tried to persuade him.
Amid the rising noise, a voice suddenly cut through the crowd—
“What do you mean, ‘too much to drink’?”
Xu Zhiqiao, still standing by the door, immediately turned to look upon hearing the voice.
In the bright corridor light, the young man seemed to have rushed over from the banquet. He held a suit jacket in one hand while adjusting his tie with the other, leisurely loosening it.
His steps were slow, casual, and unhurried. The sharp, wild gleam from his earlobe piercings added an edge to his otherwise handsome face, giving him an air of arrogance and nonchalance.
The once noisy crowd fell silent all at once.
The tie was already undone and coiled around his hand. He stopped beside Xu Zhiqiao, completely ignoring the frozen atmosphere and teasing, “Oh, our little darling is here too.”
Xu Zhiqiao wasn’t familiar with him. She only knew that his family was involved in military industry, and anyone associated with it carried the Zhou family name.
And Zhou Cong was the sole heir to the next generation.
He was also Ji Huailuo’s friend.
“Hello, Big Brother Zhou Cong.” She greeted him politely.
The man lowered his gaze, staring at her for a moment before lifting the suit jacket that was dragging on the floor, offering it to her with a casual smile. “Here, little darling, help Big Brother hold this, and I’ll buy you some candy later.”
“…”
The suit was made of fine fabric, probably scented with perfume, emitting a faint, elusive, and cold fragrance.
It was much like Zhou Cong himself—his presence conveyed a distant, enigmatic aura.
Mysterious, understated, yet unmistakably luxurious in its coldness.
Ji Huailuo was still fuming. “Zhou Cong, what are you trying to do?”
Zhou Cong leisurely twisted the tie in his hand, loosening it in circles, then tightening it again. His eyelids lazily lifted, and his deep, melodic voice echoed, “Repeat what you just said.”
“…”
Everyone knew he was referring to what Jiang Bin had said earlier.
But no one dared to speak up.
Zhou Cong’s gaze drifted indifferently over to Jiang Bin’s face.
“If you speak, then the tie is just a tie,” Zhou Cong said with a smile playing at the corners of his lips. “If you don’t speak, this tie becomes your noose.”