C1 Chapter 1

In a cramped room barely a hundred square feet, the air was cold and dim. Aside from white walls and a black chair, the only things left were the all-angle surveillance cameras mounted in each corner. The power lights that should’ve been blinking were all dark.

Long fingers tapped a steady rhythm against the tempered glass. Yan Jin studied her for a long moment and realized Hee Yu wasn’t the least bit surprised to see him—she didn’t even look like she planned to ask why he was here.

They’d spent the night together. Didn’t that at least earn him a hello?

“Assault with intent?” Yan Jin flipped through the case file on the table, raised an eyebrow, then tossed it down with a sharp slap.

“Slipped,” Hee Yu said with a faint smile, brief and to the point.

From the moment Yan Jin walked into the interrogation room, Hee Yu had been waiting for him to speak, too.

She’d cut off the cops’ questioning without breaking a sweat, taken over the room like she owned it, and shut down every audio and video device. Even an idiot would know the man she’d ended up in bed with last night wasn’t just anybody.

What she couldn’t figure out was why Yan Jin had come.

Yan Jin put on a look of sudden realization, folded his hands on the table, and fixed her with a cool, detached stare. “And if we add rape to the list, what kind of sentence are we talking about?”

Hee Yu’s face brightened into an easy, almost sunny smile. “Come on. Why are you messing with me? Rape? We’re adults. It was consensual. Where’s the crime in that?”

As for what happened last night, Hee Yu couldn’t really explain it—because no parents in their right mind would send their innocent daughter into the bed of a man old enough to be her grandfather. Even if she said that was what happened, who would believe her?

The cops? Or this stranger in front of her—the same man she’d spent the night with?

If fate had decided she was going to lose her first time no matter what, Hee Yu would still pick the stranger. At least he was handsome, tall, and solid—honestly, not the worst choice for a one-night stand.

Sure—if he insisted on calling their one-night stand “her forcing him,” then Hee Yu honestly felt like she’d swallowed a fly. Disgusting.

A flicker of admiration crossed Yan Jin’s usually icy eyes. He suddenly stood, his chair scraping back with a harsh series of noises, and slowly walked to Hee Yu’s side.

Leaning his hip against the table, Yan Jin bent down, pinched her chin between his fingers, and said, “How about you beg me?”

A flash of surprise crossed her eyes. Hee Yu hadn’t expected this man to show up just to make her ask him.

Beg him not to accuse her of rape?

Or beg him to get her out of the station?

She didn’t doubt Yan Jin had the power to fix the mess she was in—but why should she?

Since her mother died, since she’d been brought back into the Hee Family, since she’d grown up under Zhuh Qingwen’s watch, Hee Yu had never believed there was anyone left in this world who would be good to her—no strings attached—the way her mother had been.

Not even her biological father—Hee Zheng.

“I don’t think that’s really necessary,” Hee Yu said with a sweet, easy smile, not the slightest hint of discomfort on her face.

This setup—sending her to some old man’s bed—was nothing more than Zhuh Qingwen’s warning. As long as what she had in her hands was still there, the Hee Family wouldn’t let her rot at the police station.

Yan Jin leaned in again and brushed a light kiss against her lips, his voice low. “I think you should consider my suggestion.”

If any of Yan Jin’s usual buddies were here, watching the guy who normally kept women at arm’s length practically bend over backward to offer a woman an out, their jaws would’ve hit the floor.

Hee Yu leaned back against the chair, forcing a little distance between them, and said noncommittally, “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

If Yan Jin wanted a woman, the ones who’d throw themselves at him would be a dime a dozen.

Over the years, all kinds of women had come at him one after another, and Yan Jin had never once been interested.

The flirty, sexy types were too loud. The refined, proper ones were too stiff. With how obsessive he was about emotional “cleanliness,” Yan Jin had even started to think he must’ve been cursed in a past life—because he could never seem to meet the right person.

And then, last night, he met Hee Yu.

Maybe it was the way she stayed guarded while still looking calm and unbothered. Maybe it was the stubborn look in her eyes during that brief moment of clarity, even with her mind clouded.

For some reason, without warning and without explanation, he found himself intrigued.

But Hee Yu turned him down again and again, and the sting of it left Yan Jin embarrassed and angry.

“Fine!” Yan Jin snapped through clenched teeth. He tossed down a business card and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

A mocking smile tugged at Hee Yu’s lips. Without even glancing at it, she flicked the card straight into the trash can in the corner.

No matter how down on her luck she was, Hee Yu had never once thought about selling herself to anyone.

So what if she’d ended up in bed with him last night by accident? What did it matter? It was nothing more than a thin piece of skin.