Qiongzhou Island, bathed in thick moonlight.
After the fervent encounter, the man gripped Xu Shiyan’s waist, his voice low and husky: "One more round?"
He clearly hadn't had enough.
Xu Shiyan reached out to stroke the man's abdominal muscles, feeling a hint of regret. She truly liked this tenant’s physique. Even though it was a drunken mistake and she hadn't even clearly seen his face, she felt the experience was quite good.
Except...
She quickly sat up, her tone languid: "No, I have to catch a flight tomorrow."
"A flight?"
The hand Bo Jinke was using to flick ash from his cigarette paused, and his brow furrowed slightly: "Aren't you the landlady of this guesthouse? Where are you going?"
Xu Shiyan was indeed the landlady of a guesthouse on Qiongzhou Island, but she was also the true daughter of the Xu Family. Three years ago, she had been sent to the desolate Qiongzhou Island by the Xu Family to reflect on her misdeeds. Fortunately, due to three years of development, the island had taken on a brand-new look. Because the Xu Family ignored her, Xu Shiyan had naturally opened a guesthouse there to survive.
However, Xu Shiyan had a pre-existing marriage contract with the second young master of the Sheng family. Now that the time had come to fulfill it, the Xu Family had decided to bring her back. Upon hearing the news, Xu Shiyan hadn't been in the best of moods; she had left the guest duties to Xiao Li and, having drunk a bit too much that night, had ended up in this situation.
At least the man was skilled. Her experience could be considered barely pleasant.
Xu Shiyan pulled her clothes around herself, raised an eyebrow, and replied with a light laugh: "Going back to get married."
In the darkness, Bo Jinke grabbed her wrist, his indifferent eyes filled with danger and displeasure, his tone cold: "You have a fiancé and you still slept with me? Using me as a tool?"
Xu Shiyan froze for a moment. Then, she smiled and arched an eyebrow, her fingertips brushing his chin. She was exuding a sense of laziness, laced with an indescribable charm and provocation.
"Mr. Tenant, there are no good people on Qiongzhou Island. Besides, I am single."
While Qiongzhou Island had developed quite well over the past two years, most people who came here were either fresh out of prison or homeless. Furthermore, although she and Sheng Zhiyu were betrothed, it was likely that the person Sheng Zhiyu truly longed for was someone else entirely.
Recalling the past, a flicker of coldness passed through Xu Shiyan’s eyes. Shaking off the thought, she let go of his hand and pursed her red lips in the darkness: "I had a great time tonight. The room fee is on me."
After dropping that line, Xu Shiyan pushed open the door and left, as if she didn’t care about this night at all.
And in truth, she didn’t. For the people of Qiongzhou Island, matters of passion were hardly worth mentioning. Here, staying alive was more important than anything else. Thinking of the events of the past three years, Xu Shiyan lowered her gaze, a trace of mockery vanishing from her eyes as quickly as it had appeared.
Fine. Before Aunt Qing passed away, she had promised to help fulfill her final wish. Since the Xu Family wanted her back, it was time for her to return.
Xu Shiyan left decisively, the moonlight stretching her silhouette.
Bo Jinke squinted, his peach-blossom eyes rippling with a sense of playfulness and lethargy, looking exceptionally dangerous in the moonlight. He had lost his composure tonight. Even with the influence of the drugs, his mind had remained clear. He had found the night quite addictive. Yet, he hadn't even clearly seen the woman's face.
As he was thinking, his phone suddenly rang. The voice of a young man came through the line: "Brother, I heard you went to Qiongzhou Island?"
"Yes, looking for someone." Bo Jinke replied casually: "Why?"
On the other end of the line, the young man seemed to gasp, saying helplessly: "Qiongzhou Island is not a good place; the people there are fierce and wicked. How could the person you are looking for be there? Elder Bo is urging you—you should come back quickly."
It was even uncertain if that girl truly existed. After all, for the past eight years, she had only appeared in his brother’s dreams. Everyone around Bo Jinke knew he had been repeating the same dream for eight years, a dream featuring a girl he yearned for. But upon waking, she would vanish like mist. Bo Jinke had spent eight years searching without results, which was why he had come to Qiongzhou Island to try his luck.
Bo Jinke didn't respond to this, his ink-dark eyes swirling with obscure emotions, though his expression remained indifferent. His peripheral vision swept over the stain of blood on the bed, and he paused, his tone unhurried: "Help me check on someone."
As the figure of the landlady, who almost perfectly overlapped with the girl from his dreams, flashed through his mind, he squinted his peach-blossom eyes.
A landlady?
Since when did this godforsaken place called Qiongzhou Island have such a bold and daring landlady who would "dine and dash"?
...
Xu Shiyan had already left overnight. She was taking a flight the next day, but one had to take a boat to leave the island before flying back to Shengjing.
At three o'clock the next afternoon, when she arrived in Shengjing, it was her third brother, Xu Minghua, who came to pick her up. Returning to Shengjing after three years, Xu Shiyan felt a sense of "things are different, and people have changed" as she looked at everything before her. The bustling traffic and prosperity of Shengjing left her feeling almost dazed.
At the airport, Xu Minghua’s gaze rested on her, his brow furrowed, his tone as cold as ever.
"It’s good that you’re back. In these three years on Qiongzhou Island, you should have learned to be better behaved. Once you return to the Xu Family, you must act with more discretion. Don't go embarrassing the Xu Family again."
Upon hearing this, Xu Shiyan instinctively touched the scar on her wrist, the corners of her lips curling up as she responded nonchalantly: "Understood."
Yet, her eyes were filled with sarcasm.
Learned to be better behaved?
Back then, she had been forcibly sent to Qiongzhou Island by the Xu Family, under the guise of teaching her a lesson. The Xu Family had frozen all the assets under her name and simultaneously declared to the outside world that Xu Shiyan was not allowed to return to Shengjing on her own initiative unless she completely changed her temper.
But no one knew that the once-infamous Qiongzhou Island was a kind of hell. Life there was not easy. For the first two years, she had barely survived. Most of the people on the island were desperate criminals, and it was only later that Aunt Qing led people to tidy things up bit by bit. Only then did boats begin to connect the island to the outside world. Nowadays, it even had the appearance of a paradise.
Anyone who had to "learn to be well-behaved" on Qiongzhou Island would have long since been stripped to the bone.
Remembering the past, Xu Shiyan lowered her eyelids, hiding the cold indifference in her eyes, and climbed into the car listlessly. Compared to the defiant and unruly sister in his memories, seeing the change in Xu Shiyan made Xu Minghua feel relieved, even though he was still dissatisfied.
The car drove toward the Xu Family residence. When Xu Shiyan stepped into the house, Mother Xu was already waiting. There were five children in the Xu family; besides Xu Nuo, Xu Shiyan had three older brothers. The eldest, Xu Mingxuan, was the CEO of Xu Corporation and was busy with work. The second, Xu Mingyuan, was a famous movie star and rarely came home. Therefore, only Mother Xu and her third brother, Xu Minghua, who had picked her up, were at home.
During those three years, the Xu family had never visited Xu Shiyan. Hearing that life on Qiongzhou Island was hard and seeing her daughter again after three years, Mother Xu’s eyes finally reddened as she pulled Xu Shiyan over to look her up and down.
"Shiyan, it’s good that you’re back. Let’s not speak of the past; now that you are home, just live well."
Xu Shiyan looked at Mother Xu, but her heart remained unmoved. Compared to the hardships of the past few years, this sudden display of warmth was nothing but a joke.
"Yanyan, let’s eat first."
At that moment, a sweet voice rang out from the doorway.
"Is sister back?"
Xu Shiyan looked toward the source of the voice and saw a girl walking into the house with her arm linked with a man’s. The girl was gentle and charming, and the man was cold and handsome. They looked like a perfect match.
If only the pair before her weren't her sister-in-name and her own fiancé.