Late at night, the dining room of the Zhou family villa was still lit by warm yellow lights.
The tense atmosphere from earlier had long since dissipated. Neither of the siblings mentioned their argument again. They quietly finished their noodles and then returned to their respective rooms.
The moment Zhou Suisui got back to her room, she collapsed onto the bed.
Putting on an act was exhausting—especially when it meant lying to the brother she cared about most.
Seeing how angry he had been made her feel awful too.
But then she thought about it again. Being deceived was still better than dying horribly.
She took out her phone and opened her WeChat chat with Jiang Ruitian. Scrolling upward, she found a string of worried messages, all fretting that her brother might beat her up.
Zhou Suisui tapped her fingers against the screen and sent her a reply.
【I’m fine. My brother’s just a paper tiger. He won’t do anything to me. Go to bed early.】
After sending it, she tossed her phone aside, pulled the quilt over herself, and rolled onto her side.
It looked like she still had a tough battle ahead of her tomorrow. She needed to get some rest and conserve her energy.
Yet the moment she closed her eyes, Jiang Zongyan’s amused, half-smiling face flashed through her mind.
He was definitely starting to suspect something.
That wouldn’t do. Without his cooperation, this charade really wouldn’t be able to continue.
She had to think of a way to show up in front of him more often and maintain the illusion that she was hopelessly infatuated with him.
Then she suddenly remembered what her brother had said earlier: “He has a first love.”
Who could it be?
She was a little curious.
A man like him… Once he fell in love, it would probably be earth-shaking and passionate, wouldn’t it?
She rubbed her head and shook it, as if trying to fling the water out of her brain.
“Zhou Suisui, go to sleep. What does this have to do with you?”
Besides, whoever he liked could never possibly like her.
She closed her eyes. Before long, her breathing evened out, and she sank into a deep sleep.
—
In the master bedroom next door, however, Zhou Sui’an tossed and turned for nearly an hour, unable to feel even the slightest bit sleepy.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the scene in the private room at Peninsula Club.
His precious little sister—the girl he had held in the palm of his hand since childhood, whom he could hardly bear to speak to in a loud voice—had actually been sitting in Jiang Zongyan’s arms, gazing at him with such infatuation.
Suisui was still just a young girl who had not seen much of the world.
And, to be fair, Jiang Zongyan’s face was indeed quite appealing to young women.
The more Zhou Sui’an thought about it, the more alarmed he became. He grew so restless that he could no longer lie still.
He abruptly threw off the quilt, got out of bed, and shuffled into the study in his slippers.
He switched on his laptop, opened the search engine developed by Zhou Group, and found the most popular relationship forum. After directly paying for a premium VIP membership, he posted a paid advice request.
#My nineteen-year-old sister has fallen for the wrong man. How should her brother persuade her to give him up?#
Because there was a cash reward for having one’s advice adopted, more than a hundred replies appeared within a minute of the post going up.
The responses covered every possibility under the sun.
Zhou Sui’an leaned toward the computer screen and carefully read through the comments one by one. A layer of cold sweat broke out across his back.
Reply 1: #My niece is nineteen too. She was sweet-talked into a daze by a thirty-year-old man. He looked respectable, but in reality he was hundreds of thousands in debt. In the end, he tricked my niece into mortgaging the fully paid-off apartment her parents had bought for her, then ran off with the money. My niece is now severely depressed and can’t even continue school! What a disaster.#
Reply 3: #Don’t try to stop her! The more you forbid it, the more rebellious she’ll become! Teenage girls eat this kind of thing up. The more you refuse to let them be with someone, the more they’ll believe society is standing in the way of their true love. They might even turn against you and elope with the man.#
Reply 4: #The person above is right. My neighbor’s younger sister was conned by some so-called domineering CEO. She got pregnant before marriage, and the man vanished soon afterward. Her parents were so furious they nearly had heart attacks and ended up hospitalized!#
…
Reply 88: #Money is the least of your worries. What if he’s only after her body? She’s just a young girl. In the end, she’ll be the one to suffer, and there won’t be anywhere for her to cry.#
Reply 89: #Agreed. A classmate of mine came from a family that favored sons over daughters. She had to wear hand-me-downs all year round, and her parents never gave her any spending money. In the end, a married pervert lured her into a hotel room with nothing more than a can of food. It was truly heartbreaking.#
…
Zhou Sui’an’s fingers stopped on the touchpad, trembling at the tips.
Money scams, emotional manipulation, sexual exploitation—even the destruction of an entire family?
He felt a chill surge from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
He could no longer wait until tomorrow to give his sister a bank card. He transferred all the money into her account that very night.
Only after seeing the notification that the transfer had gone through did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
With this, Suisui should feel secure, right?
She wouldn’t be tricked away by some man, would she?
The human heart was so sinister. His innocent little sister might encounter someone with wicked intentions and end up helping him count the money after being sold off.
“What a damn piece of work!”
Zhou Sui’an gritted his teeth as he cursed.
He felt that those people who set traps to deceive young girls were utterly vile and utterly devoid of conscience.
He cursed them with righteous fury, completely unaware that he himself had already become one of the people caught in the trap.
After spending nearly a year as a gullible, self-sacrificing fool, he had been sold off and was still helping count the money.
The farther he scrolled through the post, the more horrifying the examples became, and the tighter Zhou Sui’an’s heart clenched.
He had lost his parents when he was ten. Carrying three-year-old Zhou Suisui in his arms, he had raised her step by step to the present day. His little sister was his very life.
He would rather lose ten years of his own lifespan than allow Suisui to suffer the slightest grievance or harm.
Staring at the computer screen, Zhou Sui’an suddenly had an idea.
What if… he found Suisui a live-in husband?
With the man under his watch, he would absolutely never dare mistreat Suisui, much less deceive her.
The moment the idea surfaced, Zhou Sui’an found it more and more feasible the longer he considered it.
Yes… he could quietly start looking for suitable candidates.
—
The following morning.
The ink-blue sky slowly brightened as the first light of dawn spread from the east, while a faint smear of fish-belly white appeared along the horizon.
Zhou Suisui had slept wonderfully the night before, without a single dream.
When she woke up, she noticed the bank notification on her phone. She counted the zeros after the first digit and drew in a sharp breath.
Her brother had transferred the money to her overnight!
She put away her phone and went downstairs feeling refreshed.
As soon as she reached the dining room, she saw Zhou Sui’an sitting at the table.
“Brother, I saw the money you transferred to me. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it safe.”
“Mm. Spend it however you like. Your brother can always earn more, so don’t hold back.”
His voice sounded weak and listless.
When Zhou Suisui walked closer, she got a better look at him.
The man was dressed in a custom-tailored suit, and his hair was combed perfectly into place, but there was no hiding the dark circles beneath his eyes.
His usually bright, captivating eyes were bloodshot, and his eye sockets were red. He looked terribly haggard.
Zhou Suisui’s heart skipped a beat. Her first thought was: Oh no! Could that woman Su Wan have caused trouble again last night? Did they have a fight?
She hurried over, pulled out the chair, and sat across from him, her voice filled with concern.
“Brother, what’s wrong?”
Zhou Sui’an looked up at her.
The exhaustion from a sleepless night faded by more than half the moment he saw his sister.
He stubbornly shook his head and handed her a cup of warm milk. “Nothing. I just didn’t sleep well last night. Hurry up and eat. Sister Wu told the kitchen to make your favorite shrimp dumplings.”
Zhou Suisui took the milk and had a sip.
The suspicion in her heart only deepened.
She set down the cup and tapped the glass twice with her slender, pale fingers.
Pretending to be casual, she began probing for information.
“Brother, there shouldn’t be much going on at the company today, right? If things are quiet, you should go get some more rest. Your health is what matters.”
The hand holding his chopsticks paused. Zhou Sui’an frowned and complained, “Don’t remind me. It wasn’t even six in the morning, and it was still dark out when the finance director called me, saying there was an urgent matter at the company that he had to discuss with me in person.”
He looked displeased. “I have no idea what he’s up to. That guy has been getting more and more long-winded lately, always stopping halfway and leaving things unsaid.”
A flicker passed through Zhou Suisui’s eyes.
The finance director of the Zhou Corporation was Fu Jie, a young talent with a doctorate in finance from Tsinghua University. He was an upright, straightforward man.
Zhou Suisui knew him and had met him a few times before.
It had been her brother who personally brought him a lucrative contract and invited him to join the company. Moved by her brother’s sincerity, Fu Jie had finally agreed to work for the Zhou Corporation.
For him to contact her brother at a time like this, it was probably because of what had happened last night…
She had intervened and stopped the matter halfway through, so Finance Director Fu was probably in a difficult position.
