Volume One, Chapter Nine: Is He More Handsome Than Me, Stronger Than Me?

“This is my private matter and none of your business.”

Qiao Nian’an glanced at him coolly.

Heaven knows how impatient Fu Yunzhen was as he watched her cold and indifferent refusal to answer his questions—his jaw clenched tightly!

None of his business?

Fu Yunzhen sneered bitterly, “A week from now, you have a gynecological checkup; might as well get your eyes checked too.”

“You actually like someone like Fu Jingchuan? After having tasted fine grain, how can you stomach pig feed? In what way is he better than me? Is he more handsome, richer, or stronger?”

Qiao Nian’an’s emotions were tugged by his words. When they reunited at the hospital, she had been caught off guard.

But she kept telling herself she couldn’t fall for him again, couldn’t sink back into that whirlpool.

Or else, in the end, she would be the one hurt.

She didn’t want any unnecessary contact with him, so she put on a cold expression and gave him the boot. “You’re trespassing. I could call the police. You’ve crossed the line.”

With that, she tried to walk past him to open the door.

But he cornered her against the wall, his tall and imposing figure pressing down, trapping her tightly in his embrace.

A crack appeared on his handsome face.

The familiar faint scent of wood that had haunted his dreams day and night for six years surged forth.

Qiao Nian’an was swept away by his breath, helpless and unable to resist. Before she could even struggle, he raised her hands high above her head, pinning them there, his eyes sharp and intense as they locked onto hers.

This was a gesture they had done countless times before; only now, the next move would have been to turn her over and lean her against the wall, beginning his wild indulgence behind her.

His ferocity, his pent-up passion—all directed at her.

Though unable to struggle, Qiao Nian’an fought in spirit, silently resisting. She looked up at him and said, “You should leave.”

If her mother came back soon, how could she possibly explain this?

Fu Yunzhen stood before her, disheveled and desperate, his obsession unmistakable. “Answer me first.”

There was even a slight tremor in his voice. “Did you pick Fu Jingchuan as your boyfriend just to disgust me? What’s so much better about him than me?”

Last night, he had been drugged and given a special injection. His body was restless. Hearing that that good-for-nothing Fu Jingchuan was planning to spend a billion to marry his ex-girlfriend shattered his composure.

During the long, sleepless night, he had longed for dawn, so he could confront her.

Now, hearing her words, his heart felt blocked by something, suffocated.

Qiao Nian’an was offended by his domineering intrusion, her face full of anger. “Let me go.”

They had been broken up for six years—why did he still have to provoke her?

Fu Yunzhen furrowed his brow, his expression dark as he looked at her. “Are you resisting me now?”

“Weren’t you the one who loved it when I loved you like this from behind before?”

Why, now that he acted this way, was she angry?

Qiao Nian’an gave a bitter smile. “You said ‘before.’”

Before, she had loved nothing more than being close to him every day, wanting to pull this aloof perfectionist from his pedestal.

How deeply she had longed to be intimate with him once, now she resisted all the more.

The Qiao family had fallen into decline, drowning in debt, while he, once a poor boy, had been welcomed back by the powerful circles of Beijing’s elite. They belonged to two different worlds, utterly mismatched.

Moreover, his biological mother had shown her photos of him successfully holding hands with another girl during a matchmaking event. He had promised he would only ever hold her hand in this life, but he had held another’s, tainting it—she didn’t want him anymore.

She could not accept that someone else occupied his heart.

Qiao Nian’an’s heart was tightly strangled by an invisible rope. She forced herself to suppress her emotions and appear as composed as usual. She spoke each word deliberately, “Fu Yunzhen, the past is the past. We have been broken up for six years.”

“Who I marry is none of your business. And I ask you to stop these intimate actions. Show some respect!”

Her eyes welled up involuntarily, her soft voice trembling with a hint of sorrow.

They had broken up, and he had moved on to a life and a person beyond anyone else’s reach—so why did he still cling to her?

Had he broken up with that girl who held his hand? Is that why he thought of her again?

Fu Yunzhen felt as if countless needles pricked his heart, numbing him with pain. His eyes reddened. “You said you wanted to break up back then—I never agreed!”

He did not even know what had happened between them that led her to want to end things.

Was it simply because the Qiao family had gone bankrupt?

He had been so poor he had to scavenge leftovers to fill his stomach. She never despised him, even using her family’s wealth and influence to save his grandfather and giving so much money.

How could he ever abandon her just because the Qiao family was ruined?