In just half a day, Luo Ningxi had chatted with no fewer than fifty guys!
Whether it was to take revenge on the Luo family or to shake off Old Master Sheng's pestering, she had to get herself married off as soon as possible!
After filtering out the men who were only after casual hookups or looking to live off a woman, she arranged to meet several gentlemen for further interaction. To her surprise, however, she sat in the café for most of the next day without a single one showing up.
As if by some unspoken agreement, they all stood her up!
With no other option, Luo Ningxi had no choice but to move on and try yet another dating app in her search for a match.
"Friends with benefits — what a coincidence?"
Just as she was registering a new account, a low, seductive voice suddenly drifted into her ear.
Luo Ningxi looked up and found herself staring straight into a pair of narrow, amused phoenix eyes — it was actually the gigolo from that night. The moment the shameful word "fuck buddy" reached her ears, her entire face flushed as red as a freshly boiled shrimp!
"Alone? You don't mind if I sit down, do you."
Luo Ningxi was furious. "Excuse me, I *very much* mind!"
Li Bochen seemed not to notice her resistance at all. His thin lips curved up ever so slightly as he settled gracefully into the empty seat across from her. "I hear you're planning to find a man to marry?"
Luo Ningxi's gaze turned guarded at once. "How do you know that?"
Li Bochen didn't answer; instead he turned the question around on her. "Compared to some stranger you met online, at least you and I have had closer-than-close contact before. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't — so, how about it? Give me some consideration?"
Luo Ningxi watched his sexy, thin lips part and close, and found herself thinking of all those men who had stood her up without exception.
She narrowed her eyes and demanded coldly, "It was Luo Zhiqin who sent you here, wasn't it?"
Li Bochen raised an eyebrow. "Luo Zhiqin? Who?"
"Stop pretending! I heard everything — that night, it was she who sent you to destroy my virtue! And now, how much has she paid you to come and marry me?"
Could it be that people in their line of work have absolutely no moral bottom line?
For money, he'd sell even his own marriage!
Li Bochen caught the disgust in her tone. His jaw tightened. "Who exactly do you think I am?"
"Not a good person, regardless."
Luo Ningxi let out a cold, contemptuous laugh. She pulled a banknote from her bag and set it on the table. "This one's on me. Go back and tell Luo Zhiqin — I fell once at her hands, but I will never fall a second time."
With that, Luo Ningxi rose to her feet and made to stride away—there was no point dragging things out with him any further.
Yet just as she passed by his side, her wrist suddenly grew heavy — and in the next instant, a great force wrenched her whole body backward, sending her sprawling.
She had no time to dodge. After a brief, weightless dizziness, she realized she had been pulled into Li Bochen's arms — and was now forced to sit on his lap!
The man gripped her slender waist with both hands, pinning her so she couldn't move an inch.
"You stinking duck, let go of me!" Luo Ningxi cried out in exasperation, thrashing with all her might in his embrace.
Li Bochen caught the faint, delicate fragrance rising from her — exactly the same as that night — and his eyes gradually grew deep and obscure.
In the past, he had no interest in women.
But that night, when she threw herself into his arms, that scent made him feel strangely at ease — and on some inexplicable impulse, he didn't push her away. Instead, he pulled her close…
"You should count yourself lucky that the man that night was me."
"You——"
"After you were affected, there was a man lurking in the shadows, watching you with predatory eyes — and a camera in his hands. In other words, if you hadn't thrown yourself into my arms, your compromising videos would already be spreading everywhere by now."
Luo Ningxi's mind went blank with a sudden roar, an incredulous cry bursting from her lips. "What did you say?"
Clack.
Li Bochen tossed his phone onto the coffee table.
"Don't believe me? See for yourself."
Half in disbelief, Luo Ningxi picked up his phone and unlocked it—only to find a surveillance clip from a hotel corridor inside.
In the video, she could clearly make out an aging, unattractive middle-aged man lurking in the shadows, camera in hand, his gaze fixed on her with a sinister leer — as though watching prey that was already within his grasp……
Not until Li Bochen stepped out of the elevator — and she stumbled forward and threw herself into his arms, then went into the hotel room together with him — did that man finally leave, and even then only with the greatest reluctance.
A bone-piercing chill crawled up her spine, and Luo Ningxi trembled all over!
Luo Zhiqin had not only drugged her and arranged a male escort, but had gone so far as to arrange one who was so vulgar, depraved, and ugly.
If he managed to film a video of it……
The consequences—she simply dared not imagine them!
"Even if you weren't one of Luo Zhiqin's people, how did you end up at that hotel? As far as I know, Elder Sheng had booked out the entire venue — no one without an invitation was allowed anywhere near it!"
A faint gleam shifted in the depths of Li Bochen's eyes. The top floor of that hotel was his standing private suite—no matter how many rooms Old Sheng booked, he could never book that one. He had only gone there that night to rest. Who could have known that the moment he stepped off the elevator, she would latch onto him…
Luo Ningxi stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly came out with something startling: "Don't tell me… some rich cougar called you over to *service* her?"
A vein throbbed at Li Bochen's temple. His fury crested into a cold laugh. "You really do have quite the imagination!"
"……" — did that count as a silent admission?
Luo Ningxi stared at him for two seconds, then gritted her teeth. "Fine, a duck it is—you're getting off easy! Follow me…"
Li Bochen gave a meaningful smile. "Going somewhere?"
"Didn't you want to marry me? Then of course we're going to the Civil Affairs Bureau — wait any longer and they'll be off work."