“With that icy personality of his, what woman could stand him?”
Jiang Ruitian lay sprawled on her stomach, kicking her feet up and down as she complained to Zhou Suisui.
“You have no idea. Just last month, he fired a blonde foreigner. She was a Harvard graduate—a beautiful, talented young woman. All because she bought him breakfast and he decided she had a thing for him.”
Remembering the scene, Jiang Ruitian laughed so hard she nearly choked.
The corners of Zhou Suisui’s mouth twitched. She couldn’t find it funny at all.
“Tiantian… What would your brother do if someone used his name to take the blame and framed him?”
“Stop joking around. Who would dare frame my brother, that demon? Even I, his own sister, get no special treatment in front of him. He’s always docking my allowance or locking me up. He’s terrifying.”
By “locking her up,” she meant locking her in the study. She wasn’t allowed out until she finished the assigned work.
For a hopeless student, that was torture of the highest order—without a doubt.
Jiang Ruitian sighed. “Lately, Mom’s been pressuring him to get married. In my opinion, her dream of holding a grandchild is probably never going to come true. I honestly can’t imagine my brother ever falling for a woman. His wife is his career.”
Zhou Suisui wholeheartedly agreed.
“Tiantian, what kind of woman do you think your brother likes?”
Jiang Ruitian’s imagination suddenly ran wild. “Maybe he doesn’t like women. Maybe he likes men.”
“Huh?”
“I’d say there’s an eighty percent chance… Uh… Brother, I didn’t say anything. Really, I—listen to me explain! No, wait, listen to me make excuses—”
What did people mean by “the higher you climb, the harder you fall”?
Looking at the tall figure that had suddenly appeared in the doorway, Jiang Ruitian wanted to cry.
“Brother, why are you suddenly back? Didn’t you say you were going to stay at the hotel to recover from jet lag?”
“Don’t mention the hotel.”
Jiang Zongyan’s face was dark and grim.
All he had wanted was a good night’s sleep, but Zhou Sui’an had called and cursed him out.
Then, the moment he arrived home, he heard his own sister gossiping with Zhou Suisui and mocking him for liking men.
How had he not known he had such a preference?
“Heh. Your brother likes men and not women?”
Jiang Zongyan’s voice was ominously cold. “Is this the kind of rumor you go around spreading about your brother every day?”
“Brother, let me explain!”
“Your allowance is revoked for this month. One hundred sit-ups. Now.”
“?”
A chilling voice suddenly came through the phone speaker.
The magnetic, sensual bass carried a faint electric current, making Zhou Suisui’s ears grow hot.
Jiang Zongyan was actually home?
And he had heard her and Jiang Ruitian gossiping about him liking men?
Zhou Suisui was scared out of her wits. She nearly threw her phone, then hurriedly hung up.
That nearly scared the life out of her!
Amitabha. Jiang Ruitian, you’re on your own.
After hanging up, Zhou Suisui was consumed by frustration. She couldn’t keep using Jiang Zongyan as an excuse. She still had to find a way to wake her brother up before it was too late.
Before she could come up with a plan, Cui Wu hurried over and knocked on the door.
“Miss, this is bad. Miss Su was stood up by the young master when he was supposed to confess his feelings to her, and now she’s threatening to jump into the river. The young master was called away by her.”
“What?”
Zhou Suisui sprang up from the bed in one swift motion.
She was so angry she nearly laughed.
Her brother really was hopeless!
“Miss, you can’t leave. The young master just ordered us to keep watch here.”
She had only taken a few steps forward when two bodyguards blocked her path.
One was called A-Ling, and the other A-Biao. They were twins.
Cui Wu’s expression turned cold. “You two really dare to block Miss?”
“Miss, please show us some mercy and don’t make things difficult for us brothers. We’re only following orders.”
“Fine, you win. I just won’t leave through the door.”
With that, Zhou Suisui dragged Cui Wu into the room, slammed the door shut, and swiftly locked it from the inside.
Outside, A-Ling and A-Biao exchanged a look.
“Should we tell Young Master?”
“Let’s wait and see.”
Inside the room.
Cui Wu watched as Zhou Suisui took the bedsheets from the cabinet and twisted them into a rope. She asked in astonishment, “Miss, what are you doing?”
Zhou Suisui tied one end of the sheet to the foot of the bed, then tossed the other end out the window.
The room was on the second floor, but the Zhou family villa had a ten-meter-high atrium.
Looking down from above, Cui Wu was so frightened that she screamed, “Miss, don’t do anything rash! What if you fall?”
Holding on to the sheet, Zhou Suisui stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down. Her vision went black.
Something came to mind, and her little face turned pale.
The tragic memory of jumping from the thirty-second floor in her previous life was still fresh.
Zhou Suisui closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and forced herself not to look below.
“Sister Wu, I’m going to climb onto the windowsill in a moment. Hurry and start a video call with my brother.”
“Understood.”
Cui Wu immediately took out her phone and initiated a video call with Zhou Sui'an.
The call was answered almost at once.
“Oh no, Young Master! This is terrible! Come back quickly! Miss heard that you went out and is throwing a fit because she wants to go find Young Master Jiang.”
Zhou Sui'an had just driven out of the villa compound.
Through the shaking video, he saw the girl gripping the sheet with one hand as she climbed unsteadily onto the windowsill.
Her tiny body looked as though it could fall at any moment.
Screech!
The sound of emergency brakes tore through the quiet asphalt road.
Zhou Sui'an opened his mouth and roared into the phone, “Zhou Suisui, stop right now!”
Cui Wu said miserably, “Young Master, you’d better come back quickly! What are we going to do if something happens to Miss?”
“What about the bodyguards? Are they just there for show?”
“Once Miss starts making a scene, even they can’t stop her.”
“...”
The fingers Zhou Sui'an had wrapped around the steering wheel turned white. “Zhou Suisui, get back inside right now.”
“No! Brother Yan is still waiting for me. Why do you get to leave while locking me up here?”
“Fine, fine. Just wait until I get back. You’ll be in serious trouble.”
Zhou Sui'an was furious enough to laugh. He immediately spun the car around and rushed home.
A few minutes later, the car screeched to a stop outside the house.
Zhou Sui'an practically tumbled out of the car. His steps were disordered, and sweat covered his forehead. This time, he was genuinely panicking.
One of Zhou Suisui’s legs was dangling outside the window, making the scene terrifying to behold.
Standing below, Zhou Sui'an looked up at his sister sprawled across the windowsill, both furious and frantic.
Was she flying a kite up there?
Zhou Sui'an wanted nothing more than to grab her and tan her hide, but he was even more afraid that he might startle her and cause her to fall.
He took a deep breath, spread his arms, and said anxiously, “Suisui, pull your leg back inside. Whatever it is, we can talk about it.”
“Aren’t you going to find Su Wan? Then go! What did you come back for?”
“...”
Zhou Sui'an ground his teeth so hard they clicked. “I’m not going. I’m not going, all right?”
The moment he finished speaking, his phone rang.
When he saw that it was Su Wan calling, irritation flashed across his face as he answered.
“Sui'an, where are you? Have you arrived? I’m standing alone on the bridge, and so many people are watching me... I’m scared!”
Zhou Sui'an was already at his wits' end, frazzled beyond belief.
When he heard Su Wan's words, his handsome face immediately darkened with rage, and he roared, "Is jumping into a river fun? One after another, it's either jumping into a river or off a building—do you think threatening me is some kind of joke?"
"What?"
Su Wan was completely stunned by his outburst.
Who's jumping off a building? Did Zhou Sui'an get hit by a ton of bricks to yell at her like that?
"Go home on your own! I already called 110 for you!"
With that, he didn't even bother to check if Su Wan was upset, and hung up the phone right away.
"You heard that, he's not coming. Get out of here now!"
After hanging up, Zhou Sui'an looked up at Zhou Suisui, his heart practically leaping out of his throat.
"No way, you have to promise you won't hit me first."
Zhou Suisui deliberately took a half-step forward, her body, half hanging over the edge of the rooftop, swayed in the open air.
Zhou Sui'an's vision went black for a second out of fright, and he quickly held up three fingers again.
"I swear, I will never hit you."
Out of his line of sight, Zhou Suisui flashed a triumphant grin, and quickly climbed back over the safe side.
Zhou Sui'an stormed upstairs in a fury.
Zhou Suisui had already told Sister Wu to lead everyone else away, leaving only the two siblings alone in the room.
"Brother, you promised not to hit me."
Zhou Sui'an's teeth ground together, but far more than anger, he was overwhelmed with relief. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was just now?"
"I know, don't scold me anymore. I won't run off again."
Zhou Suisui meekly admitted her mistake, and when she saw her brother's expression soften a little, she spoke up again. "Brother, do you really have to go see Su Wan?"
"She's the one who saved my life, she's kind and innocent. Suisui... once you spend more time with her later, you'll see she wouldn't even step on an ant, let alone hurt it."
Zhou Suisui let out a snort of disbelief.
"She wouldn't step on ants? She'd pour boiling water right on them!"
"Stop talking nonsense, it's getting late. Go get some rest."
Zhou Sui'an rubbed his temples wearily. This little troublemaker... is going to be the death of me sooner or later.
"I'll sleep on the couch in your room tonight, I'm not going anywhere. You can rest easy."
"Okay."
Zhou Suisui smiled faintly, looking perfectly obedient.
The confession had been stopped, and now she had to figure out her next moves... she would never let Su Wan's schemes succeed again.
That night, the two siblings, one lying on the bed and the other on the couch across from it, had a silent unspoken understanding. They were both worried the other would sneak out, and only felt at ease keeping each other within sight.
-
That night, Zhou Sui'an never went to find Su Wan, and stood her up once again.
Eventually, Zhou Suisui, who had been running on high alert all day, couldn't hold on any longer, and her eyelids grew heavy before she drifted off to sleep.
Only after she was fully asleep did Zhou Sui'an dare to send Su Wan a message.
"Wanwan, I'm sorry. I'll give you a proper explanation another day."
After sending the message, he walked over to the bed, looked down at his little sister's peaceful sleeping face, and let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.
"Alas, what am I going to do with you?"
"If anything ever happened to you, what would your big brother do?"
Unfortunately, Zhou Suisui could not hear those words.
Probably because her nerves had been stretched taut the entire day, she ended up having a terrible nightmare.
One moment, she was reliving her previous life where she died a brutal death, eyes still wide open with unrelenting grievance, blood pooling all over the floor.
The next moment, it was her brother's angry face. He found out she had lied to him, that she was never actually dating Jiang Zongyan at all, and that she had made him miss his chance to confess to the girl he liked. He was so furious he was set on punishing her.
She was crying so hard her face was soaked with tears, clinging to her brother's arm and begging pitifully for forgiveness.
"Brother, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lied to you."
Her brother threw the baseball bat in his hand to the ground, and dragged her straight toward the door.
"Brother, where are you taking me?"
"To apologize to Su Wan. You know you were wrong, so you're going to make amends."
"Apologize? Apologize for what? Didn't you two break up already?"
Zhou Suisui blinked awake, her eyes still hazy with sleep, full of utter confusion.
"Of course this is so I can beg her to forgive me and give me another chance. You took away my shot at being her devoted admirer."
Oh my goodness!
He actually openly admitted he was a total simp, and he wasn't even embarrassed about it—he was proud of it. That was totally backwards.
"If you want to apologize, go do it yourself. Why are you dragging me along?"
"You're coming with me."
"What? I have to apologize to her too?"
She tried one last time, "What if Su Wan won't forgive us?"
Her brother's gaze was so firm it looked like he was about to swear into the party. "Then we keep kneeling until she's not mad anymore."
A ridiculous thought flashed through her mind, and her voice trembled a little, "I have to kneel too?"
"Yep, you're kneeling right there with me."
He's lost his mind, completely lost it.
Turns out, there's no logic at all in the world of a hopeless simp.
Am I just some disposable, lowlife person to him as his little sister?
Zhou Suisui itched to slap her brother right across the face to knock some sense into him.
Pushed past her limit, she lifted her hand and smacked it straight against his infuriatingly smug face.
There was a sharp, loud "crack", and five bright, glaring red fingerprints immediately bloomed on that pale, cold skin.
The person who turned around after being hit was none other than Jiang Zongyan.
Boom—her brain went completely blank.
Oh no!
She just hit Jiang Zongyan.
She met the man's eyes, which were burning with unbridled fury, and she broke out in a cold sweat, jolting fully awake right then.
No way, I have to think of another plan fast, she thought. If I keep using Jiang Zongyan as a human shield, he's going to kill me sooner or later.
