Chapter 15: Bowed in Submission

When Nan Zhi was yanked up by her long hair, she finally realized her face had been buried in the man’s lap.

“I’m sorry, but if your people hadn’t dragged me into this private room, that accident wouldn’t have happened.”

Her beautiful eyes, clear and dark, lifted to meet the man’s deep gaze. She wanted to say more, but her voice caught in her throat.

Sharp, cold brows, tightly pressed, crimson lips, and eyes so enigmatic and intimidating that they seemed unfathomable.

Wasn’t he the man from the car that morning?

How could fate be so uncanny?

She had thought she would never see him again.

To Nan Zhi, her stunned expression was just her marveling at the strangeness of fate, but to others in the room, it meant something entirely different—

A lazy, devil-may-care voice echoed across the room, “Damn, Fourth Brother, the girl fell at your feet the moment she arrived!”

“Master Mu’s charm is something else, ha! Beauties keep throwing themselves at you, each with her own tricks.”

But the man himself made no comment. He simply took another hand-rolled, imported cigar from a mahogany box, and accepted a silver butane torch from one of the rich young men nearby.

He clicked the torch, and a blue flame leapt up, casting his striking, flawless features into sharp relief before Nan Zhi’s eyes.

Her heart gave a jolt.

He was outrageously handsome.

Every line, every feature seemed carved by a master’s hand—handsome, yet uncompromisingly masculine.

But those deep, shadowed eyes, veiled and cold, held not the slightest warmth. They were like those of a demon risen from hell, and Nan Zhi could not suppress a shiver.

“Taste good?” he asked, drawing on his cigar and sending a cloud of acrid smoke curling toward her face.

Somewhere in the room, a lewd laugh sounded. Nan Zhi recognized the voice—it belonged to that rakish, wickedly handsome man.

Though she had a child, her experience with men was nearly nonexistent. Her only encounter had been under the influence of herbal sedatives—apart from the soreness the next day, she remembered nothing.

So when the man on the sofa asked, “Taste good?” she had no idea what he meant.

She thought he was talking about the cigar smoke. It was a little harsh and biting, but the flavor wasn’t unpleasant.

She stood up from the floor, answering as she did, “It’s all right, I suppose.”

A strange, heavy silence fell in the room.

Even the man on the sofa, languidly smoking his cigar, was momentarily taken aback. He raised a brow at the woman who could barely stand, the corners of his seductive lips quirking in a mocking smile. “You say it’s good before you’ve even tasted it. Pretty face, sharp mind.”

Nan Zhi was speechless.

It seemed she and this man were completely out of sync. She couldn’t understand a word he said.

Glancing around at the men and women in the room, all watching her as if she were a joke, Nan Zhi—who had reformed after having a child and only wanted to be a gentle, quiet girl—was desperate to escape this den of vice.

“I’m not one of the club’s girls. You’ve got the wrong person,” Nan Zhi said, uncertain if this arrogant, cold man on the sofa was the one she’d once slept with. She could not risk offending him outright.

She had just taken a step toward the door when a low, chilly voice with a hint of menace stopped her. “You think you can come and go as you please? Is this a marketplace to you?”

Nan Zhi was no meek soul herself. In recent years, for the sake of little Kai, she had reminded herself to be gentle, creating an illusion of softness. But in her bones, she was still the fierce, proud, and wild heiress she had always been.