Font Size:
The signal tower still showed no signs of improvement, as if it had been forgotten by time, left abandoned in a corner.
Yet Ming Zhao didn’t feel bored in the slightest. Instead, she felt as if she had returned to those carefree days of childhood.
Back then, Zhou Tingyun was not yet a member of the Zhou Family—he was simply her Big Brother.
He would spend every day playing house and hide-and-seek with her.
Ming Zhao toyed with the buttons on Zhou Tingyun’s clothes, letting out a soft sigh in her heart.
Now he was even her boyfriend. What a wonderful setting it was, yet she still couldn’t fall asleep.
In this lifetime, this was the one thing she had to concede to Lin Zhiwei.
Lin Zhiwei had already slept with so many handsome men.
But she herself was so devoted, only wanting to sleep with this one man—and she still couldn’t manage it.
Zhou Tingyun didn’t know how to cherish it at all, she thought, letting out a faint hum of dissatisfaction in her heart.
As she thought of this, a sudden memory surfaced.
She suddenly straightened up.
Zhou Tingyun was adjusting the game controller for her, lowering his gaze to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
Ming Zhao’s eyes sparkled. “Big Brother, let’s go swimming!”
How could she have forgotten—she still hadn’t seen him with his clothes off!
Zhou Tingyun set down the controller he had just finished adjusting and glanced at the pool temperature displayed on the center console.
“Hurry up, hurry up!” The soft little figure was already impatient, flopping onto his back to urge him on.
Carrying her to the changing room, he set her down.
Ming Zhao pretended to head off to change, but midway she made a sudden turn, quietly sneaking back. She tiptoed to the doorway and crouched down silently.
At that moment, Zhou Tingyun had just lifted his shirt slightly.
He kept a consistent workout routine—his muscle lines were smooth, his abs taut and firm.
The veins along his V-line bulged faintly, trailing into deeper territory.
Usually dressed in formal suits, always appearing steady and refined—who would’ve thought that once the clothes came off, he would look so…
“Ming Zhao.”
“…” Her gaze slowly lifted, meeting the man’s eyes.
Caught red-handed peeking, Ming Zhao felt not a trace of guilt.
She lifted her chin proudly, speaking with righteous defiance, “What’s wrong with just looking?”
The next second, she accidentally noticed something.
Her brows slowly furrowed.
Then, in just a few steps, she rushed over, her round eyes filled with grievance as she glared at him. “Zhou Tingyun, you’re cheating on me! I want to break up with you!”
Zhou Tingyun: “…Which soap opera episode is this?”
He had just finished speaking when he saw that Ming Zhao’s eyes were already red, clearly not joking.
His heart tightened at once. He immediately softened his voice to coax her, seriously asking what was wrong.
Ming Zhao, furious, glared at him and poked at the spot just below his collarbone with her fingertip.
“What’s this?”
Feeling the soft press of her finger, Zhou Tingyun paused for a moment.
Then he couldn’t help but find the situation both funny and exasperating.
“What are you laughing at? Don’t you dare tell me I was the one who bit you!” The more she spoke, the angrier she became, grievance welling up inside her. “I haven’t even bitten you here recently!”
She was very precise—she even specifically used the word “recently.”
Zhou Tingyun pulled the little firecracker who was ready to slam the door back by her shoulders and patiently explained, “It’s not what you think. It’s a tattoo.”
…A tattoo?
Her temper dissipated a little, and Ming Zhao looked at him in a daze.
How could Zhou Tingyun possibly do something like that?
Her gaze dropped back to the mark.
Ming Zhao frowned and couldn’t help but reach out to touch it.
“Why would you get something like this?” she asked.
“When you bit me for the first time,” Zhou Tingyun said calmly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “I had it done to commemorate it.”
Ming Zhao’s mind went blank, and her face flushed a brilliant red.
“You…” She was at a loss for words, stammering helplessly.
After a long struggle, she finally squeezed out, “I—I’m going to change.”
She quickly walked to another changing room, pressing the back of her hand against her burning face, needing a good while to calm down.
Who in the world tattoos someone else’s bite mark on themselves…
In the swimming pool, Ming Zhao didn’t bother swimming properly—she just clung to Zhou Tingyun.
The water rippled, glimmering under the sunlight.
She couldn’t stop herself from sneaking glances at that bite mark.
A small, red circle.
Like some kind of mark, branded onto him.
The thought filled Ming Zhao with a secret delight.
“When did you get it?” She poked it again.
Zhou Tingyun supported her by the legs. “Right after you bit me.”
Strictly speaking, he wasn’t even old enough to get a tattoo back then, but the rules weren’t as strict a few years ago, and Ming Zheng never restricted him in such things, so it had gone smoothly enough.
Ming Zhao didn’t quite remember when she had first bitten him, but it must have been when she was around seven or eight years old.
Her ears burned hotter.
A secret joy bloomed slowly in her heart.
Resting her chin on his shoulder, she asked softly, “Big Brother, can I leave another one?”
Zhou Tingyun never refused her requests. He looked at her and said, “Where do you want it?”
“Anywhere I want?”
He gave a low hum of agreement. “Wherever you like.”
Ming Zhao lightly brushed her knee against his waist, her eyes sparkling with laughter.
“Then I want it here.”
Without any hesitation, Zhou Tingyun agreed.
She immediately brightened up, satisfied, wrapping her arms around his neck and speaking in a sweet voice, “Why are you so good to me?”
The man squeezed her leg gently. “Are we swimming or not?”
“Swimming, swimming—” she dragged out the word playfully.
But after only a few laps, Ming Zhao was already sprawled bonelessly against Zhou Tingyun, whining and whimpering that she was tired, coquettishly demanding he massage her legs.
By the loungers beside the pool, he kneaded the soft flesh of her legs, while she mischievously nudged his inner thigh with her toes.
The next second, her ankle was firmly caught.
Ming Zhao pouted, and could only obediently behave herself and set her foot back properly.
——
By evening, the air on the island gradually cooled, faint threads of chill silently spreading through the atmosphere. The sound of the rising tide was slow and tranquil.
Inside the room, Zhou Tingyun sat alone, leaning back in the office chair.
The document lay quietly on the desk, its pages still bearing the creases of being pressed and handled repeatedly, a clear sign of how many times he had almost opened it.
His gaze rested on it, his expression dark and unreadable.
There were few things he had ever truly feared.
Blood ties were both a bridge and a cliff’s edge.
They could draw people closer—or drive them even further apart.
Zhou Tingyun was so lost in thought that he didn’t hear Ming Zhao’s approaching footsteps.
It wasn’t until the door was pushed open with a soft sound that he snapped back to reality. Almost instantly, he swiftly tucked the document into the cabinet.
Ming Zhao’s gaze swept across the room, pausing ever so slightly at his movement.