On the first night of her marriage, Song Xinya had an erotic dream.
She dreamed of that crazy, decadent night from a year ago.
The man's hands were planted on either side of her body. Scalding drops of sweat rolled down his forehead, landing on her snow-white, heaving chest, and slowly slid down her smooth skin, sparking a series of fine, dense electric currents.
The man's voice was deep, magnetic, and cool, like a strong, aged whiskey. When it fell upon her ears, the very air seemed to ripple with a tipsy intoxication.
"Baby, do you know who I am?"
Song Xinya tipped her snow-white neck back, like a fish tossed onto a chopping board—craving, anticipating, throbbing. All of her pleasure was given by him.
Her heart fluttered wildly. Her eyelashes trembled delicately like butterfly wings in the rain, and her hands tightly wrapped around his neck.
No man had ever loved her like this before, as gentle as a spring breeze, yet as fierce as a wild beast.
How could he be so good at this?
He held her, his embrace broad and warm.
He kissed her lips, kissed the tears flowing from the corners of her eyes—softly, lingeringly, tenderly.
She had never imagined her first time could be so perfect.
He was truly too good at this.
Even when faced with a stranger's body, he navigated it with such ease.
His technique was superb.
She felt immense pleasure because of him.
She opened her eyes, wanting to see clearly what he looked like.
And then she saw his face—
Qin Yuhe!
She dreamed that the man who had been entangled with her so passionately a year ago was Qin Yuhe!
How could this be possible!
How could it be Qin Yuhe!
She had walked into the wrong room while drunk, and the man lying inside was the crown prince of the Beijing circle, Qin Yuhe. How could it be such a coincidence!
She even dreamed that Qin Yuhe called her baby!
Such a cheesy pet name—how could Qin Yuhe ever call her that?
She must have seen that Qin Yuhe was handsome and had a nice butt, which sparked inappropriate thoughts about him, turning him into material for her erotic dreams.
Song Xinya knocked on her own head. "Stop imagining things, Song Xinya. You were never a lustful person before, how come you're starting to have wet dreams now!"
In the end, she couldn't escape the allure of worldly male beauty and tripped up.
Beauty leads people astray; it's all because Qin Yuhe is too good-looking!
Song Xinya jumped out of bed, went to the bathroom to take a shower, and changed into a clean pair of panties.
It was still early before work, so she put on a sports bra and yoga pants and started working out.
She did an hour of aerobics, then gripped a figure-8 resistance band with both hands, doing a hundred pulls to train her shoulders, along with fifty squats.
The yoga pants hugged her body, highlighting her long, straight legs. The soft, shapely fabric tightly wrapped around her round, perky buttocks with every squat, presenting the shape of a plump peach—sexy and alluring.
She was now used to exercising every day; if she skipped a day, she would feel uncomfortable.
Beads of sweat slid down her fair skin, dampening the loose strands of hair at her temples, trailing past her slender neck, and seeping into her light gray sports bra, leaving a small dark patch.
Song Xinya went to the bathroom for another quick shower, changed her clothes, and went to the kitchen to steam beef buns.
When the beef buns were ready, she lifted the lid of the steamer, and the whole house filled with a savory aroma.
Song Tingye woke up to the smell. He did a kip-up, sat up in bed, rushed into the kitchen, and reached out his dog paws to grab a bun.
Song Xinya whacked the back of his hand with a chopstick. "Wash your hands before eating."
Song Tingye: "A little dirt never hurt."
Song Xinya raised her chopsticks again.
Song Tingye threw his hands up in surrender. "I'll wash, I'll wash, I'll wash."
The sister and brother sat facing each other as they ate.
Song Tingye was seventeen this year, about to start his senior year of high school after the summer break.
Growing boys can eat their parents out of house and home. A teenage boy's appetite was exceptionally large; he demolished a whole pot of large buns in under twenty minutes.
Song Xinya was used to this, having steamed two pots.
She was chewing slowly when her phone rang.
It was from the nursing home. "Miss Song, when will you pay your grandmother's fees? It's already ten days late."
Song Xinya: "Please give me a little more time. My salary was delayed this month. As soon as I get paid, I will pay it immediately."
Nursing home: "Miss Song, we have already given you a ten-day grace period. If you can't pay on time in two days, please take your grandmother home."
Because of certain events, her grandmother had suffered a shock and lost her sanity, requiring constant care by her side.
If she stayed by her grandmother's side to take care of her, she couldn't work and earn money, and feeding the family would become a problem. If she went out to work, she couldn't take care of her grandmother. This was perhaps the modern dilemma of not being able to fulfill both duty and filial piety—very realistic and very helpless.
Over the years, Song Tingye's tuition and her grandmother's nursing home fees were all paid by Song Xinya alone.
Song Xinya took two bites of her bun, wiped her hands, and stood up. "I'm full. I'm going to work."
Song Tingye looked up at her and asked, "Sis, can you still go to that job?"
That middle-aged man who looked like a roly-poly toy definitely wouldn't let things go easily.
Song Xinya: "This month's salary and bonus haven't been issued yet. If I resign, according to company rules, I can get my salary, but the bonus will be gone. I worked hard for that money, so of course I have to get all of it. I'll wait until the salary and bonus are paid before I resign."
Song Tingye couldn't bear seeing all the financial pressure resting on Song Xinya's shoulders, so he said, "Sis, how about I go get a part-time job to earn some money?"
Song Xinya: "You haven't even graduated from high school and you're still a minor. What kind of job could you do? Even if you wanted to, no company would be willing to hire you."
Song Tingye: "Then how about I work under the table washing dishes at a restaurant? At least I could earn a little."
Song Xinya leaned across the dining table, reached out her hand, and flicked Song Tingye on the forehead.
"Does your sister need you to go wash dishes at a restaurant? What's the use of the meager pennies you'd earn washing dishes? It wouldn't even be enough to pay for the beef you eat for three meals a day. I get paid today, so you don't need to worry about money. In just over a month, you'll be a high school senior. You just go study hard. If you have free time, do a couple more practice tests, and when you're done, do two more. As long as studying doesn't kill you, study yourself to death. Go study."
Song Tingye rubbed his forehead and obediently said, "Okay."
Song Xinya rode her little pink electric scooter to the company.
The moment she walked into the company, she felt that the atmosphere today was off.
The way everyone looked at her was full of probing and scrutiny, mixed with a sense of avoidance, as if they were afraid of catching fire.
Bizarre.
Song Xinya walked into the office, sat at her cubicle, and wanted to ask a colleague next to her, with whom she usually had a good relationship, what had happened.
Before she could even open her mouth, the colleague stood up and walked away.
Colleagues are like birds in the same forest; they fly their separate ways even before disaster strikes.
However, very soon, Song Xinya knew the reason—
A woman with The Perm rushed into her office, stood menacingly in front of her, pointed a finger at her nose, and scolded in a questioning tone, "Are you Song Xinya?"
One look and you could tell she was here to pick a fight.
Song Xinya said, "I'm not."
The woman's fierce momentum instantly deflated, her head of The Perm left blowing messily in the wind.
Song Xinya picked up her teaching materials and walked calmly toward the door.
She made it out the door without a hitch.
Just then, Boss Wang walked up to her. Seeing Song Xinya, he greeted her cheerfully with his booming voice, "Song Xinya, you're here."
The Perm dashed out of the office and blocked Song Xinya's path. Pointing her finger right at her nose again, she snapped, "Stop pretending! You are Song Xinya!"
Song Xinya looked at the unfamiliar woman. "Who are you? I don't know you."
The Perm's words were sharp and venomous, her piercing voice echoing throughout the entire company: "You might not know me, but I know you! You homewrecker, you filthy slut who specializes in seducing other women's husbands!"
The once dull and monotonous morning instantly became thrilling and colorful. All the employees perked up, stopped whatever they were working on, and either stood up from their cubicles or poked their heads out to look at Song Xinya.
Oh my, what a drama to start the morning. Was this the legal wife catching the mistress?
Song Xinya remained unfazed, showing no signs of panic, forming a stark contrast to The Perm's aggressive, red-faced, and thick-necked fury.
The other woman looked like a shrew cursing in the street, while she resembled a proud, untainted rose blooming amidst the chaos of a turbulent world.
Song Xinya asked calmly, "Who is your husband?"
The Perm said with a face full of arrogance, "Your boss, Boss Wang."
Boss Wang walked over and tugged at The Perm. "Alright, stop making a scene. Let's talk about this when we get home. Teacher Song just had a momentary lapse of judgment; she didn't mean to have an affair with me."
His words seemed to defend Song Xinya, but in reality, they cemented the accusation that she had seduced him first.
He had shamelessly pestered her, and upon being discovered by his wife, he falsely counter-accused Song Xinya of making the first move. This kind of man was both wicked and cowardly, absolutely disgusting.
Hearing Boss Wang's words, The Perm's fury flared even higher. She snatched the teaching materials from Song Xinya's hands and smashed them heavily onto the floor with a deafening thud.
"I am the founder of this educational tech company! You eat the food I provide, yet you steal my man! It's the classic tale of the farmer and the snake, and you are the venomous snake biting your benefactor!"
"I heard you used to be a two-hundred-pound fatty, and now you've gotten so skinny. It's obvious you lost weight for my husband!"
"An ungrateful, promiscuous person like you who goes around hooking up with other people's husbands would have been drowned in a pig basket in the old days!"
"So young, yet you refuse to learn any good and insist on being a mistress. You really are a little bitch, a whore!"
The Perm raised her arm to slap Song Xinya's face.
Song Xinya reached out and grabbed her wrist, raised her other hand, and—smack!—slapped The Perm across the face.
The air fell dead silent. The crowd was astonished; everyone froze in place.
Boss Wang stepped forward and said, "Song Xinya, how could you hit someone? No matter what happened, hitting people is wrong. Hurry up and apologize to my wife."
Smack! Song Xinya slapped Boss Wang across the face.
A couple should always be kept neatly together.
Song Xinya glared at Boss Wang. "Fat-headed and big-eared, with a face full of grease. If you shake your head left and right, you'd slap yourself with your own pig ears! You think just because you have a few stinking pennies, everyone has to grovel at your feet. You mistake sleaziness for charm and shamelessness for personality. You can't even finish a piss in three tries; it's obvious you're a short, inadequate little thing with an enlarged prostate and a split stream!"
Song Xinya then looked at The Perm. "And you love such a disgusting man so deeply. I feel sorry for you, never having tasted anything good in your life, so blind you treat trash like a treasure. You happily hug a pile of crap and eat it, thinking everyone else is a fly trying to steal it from you. Rotten fish goes with stinking shrimp, a broken pot goes with a shattered lid. A wrecked car like you is a perfect match for a blown tire like Boss Wang!"
Her words were as sharp as pearls and as explosive as a cannon, ringing loudly through the entire company and making the listeners feel incredibly vindicated.
This couple was always delaying employee salaries, and the staff had been harboring a bellyful of resentment for a long time. Hearing Song Xinya slap and curse them out felt immensely satisfying. Many secretly wanted to give Song Xinya a round of applause.
Song Xinya knew that after The Perm's scene today, she definitely wouldn't be able to stay at the company anymore, so she had nothing to lose. There was no need to wrong herself any further.
The other employees supported her in their hearts, but they still had to keep working at this company. Playing it safe, they stood on the sidelines to watch the battle; not a single person stepped forward to defend Song Xinya.
The Perm knew this as well. She reached out and tore at Song Xinya's clothes. With a ripping sound, the fabric at her chest was torn open.
Boss Wang stood to the side, coldly watching his wife bully Song Xinya.
This woman, Song Xinya, was simply too arrogant. Her pride needed to be taken down a notch.
Song Xinya grabbed the torn fabric at her chest to avoid exposing herself.
The Perm then went to tear the clothing around her thighs.
Everyone watched; no one stood in front of Song Xinya.
Suddenly, a figure pushed through the crowd and charged over like a leopard. "Fuck you! How dare you bully my sister!"
Song Tingye ran to Song Xinya's side and stood in front of her.
The young man was full of youthful vigor, his solitary courage piercing the heavens. The determination in his eyes defied worldly conventions, holding the purest emotion in the world: no one was allowed to bully his sister, and he would protect her well.
Song Tingye reached out, grabbed the other woman's head of perm curls, and slammed her heavily to the ground.
The Perm landed hard on her bottom, her buttocks nearly shattering into four pieces.
She looked up aggrievedly at Boss Wang. "Husband, look at him."
The moment Boss Wang saw Song Tingye, the memory of nearly getting his bones broken the night before flooded his mind, and he turned and ran.
Song Tingye grabbed Boss Wang by his hair and slammed him to the ground as well.
A few fine, soft strands of hair drifted through the air and fell to the floor.
Boss Wang's already sparse hair suffered an even worse blow.
Song Tingye scuffled with The Perm and Boss Wang. To be precise, he took on the couple single-handedly, pinning them both to the floor and beating the crap out of them.
It was a highly satisfying beatdown.
The Perm and Boss Wang were left bruised and swollen, while he remained completely unscathed.
The company employees watched their boss and the boss's wife get beaten up, and not a single person called the police.
Song Xinya said, "Give me my salary and bonuses, and I will resign immediately."
The Perm shrieked, "You hit us and still want money? Not a chance in hell! We won't give you a single cent! Your brother maliciously assaulted us, which is intentional injury. We're going to call the police and have him arrested!"
The Perm and Boss Wang had been hustling in society for many years and had built up quite a network, which included some big shots in the capital's high society.
Boss Wang said to Song Xinya, "Just you wait, you two. Have you heard of the Qin family? The most powerful and wealthy family in the entire capital! The head of the Qin family, Qin Yuhe, is a very good friend of mine. With just one phone call from me, your brother will be locked up for years, and he can forget about ever getting out!"
It would have been fine if he hadn't mentioned Qin Yuhe, but the moment he did, Song Xinya suddenly remembered that she actually had a husband with heaven-defying power.
Song Xinya replied, "What a coincidence. I also know Qin Yuhe, and we have a very good relationship too."
If one were to describe their marital relationship, they were definitely not close.
But no matter how distant they were, she was still the legally protected Mrs. Qin and the first-in-line legal heir. Was her relationship with Qin Yuhe really not better than that of an outsider like Boss Wang?
Regardless of whether Qin Yuhe thought they had a good relationship or not, Song Xinya had already bragged about it loud and clear.
The Perm had a look of utter contempt on her face. She mocked and sneered, "This is truly the funniest joke I have heard all year. If you actually knew Qin Yuhe, would you still be trying to seduce my husband? You would have eagerly clung to Qin Yuhe ages ago. Young girls these days really have no skills, yet they talk such a big game."
Boss Wang scoffed in agreement, "Song Xinya, you ride a cheap electric scooter to work and you claim to know Qin Yuhe, the crown prince of the capital's elite circle. Do you know what this kind of behavior is called? It is an ant trying to beat up an elephant, a sparkler trying to fight an atomic bomb—it is a shameless scam!"
Boss Wang picked up his phone and made a call. Once connected, his voice dripped with flattery: "President Qin, it is me, Little Wang. There is a female employee in our company named Song Xinya who claims to know you. She even said you two have a very special relationship. Can you believe this nonsense?"
Qin Yuhe's voice came through the line. It was deep and mellow, like a fine red wine that could leave one slightly tipsy. Enhanced by the faint static of the phone, it sounded incredibly magnetic:
"It is not nonsense. Song Xinya is my wife."
The smile on Boss Wang's face froze.
The smile on The Perm's face vanished.
Everyone was beyond shocked, standing rooted to the spot, completely dumbfounded.
Song Xinya smiled faintly and called out to the man on the other end of the line, "Hubby."
