Mr. Tycoon's Daring Wife

It was a perilous standoff between people of the Underworld and the people under Jiang Zihui. Everyone was on high alert and ready to turn the area into a battlefield given the command of their respective leaders. It would only take the swift movement of a wrist for bullets to fly and the war to start. There would be countless casualties and the country would descend into chaos if the Underworld collided with the surface.

No one dared to breathe. It was silent to the point that the sound of a falling feather would be the most evident thing. Trained fighters and shooters were ready on standby.

Zhao Lifei turned to the car window behind her. She could not see properly because of the men surrounding the car. Through the crack, she was able to make out a very distinctive figure whose heavenly face could be spotted from miles away.

Yang Feng.

Her heart leaped in joy, her chestnut eyes morphing into a swirling pool of amber, igniting with happiness at the sight of him. She had never felt more relieved to see him until tonight.

Zhao Lifei tried to open the door again, only to find that it was still locked. She figured one of the men outside her car must’ve done something to it long ago. She was in the driver’s seat and repeatedly pressing the button to unlock the car. It was not working.

"Let me out."

"Sure, when hell freezes over." He scoffed at the stupid request.

"My man will bring you hell if you don’t." She blurted out without any thought. His eyes, the color of freshly cooked chestnuts, stared deeply into hers. She grinded her teeth and stood her ground when she felt the rolling tides of rage emanating from his whole being.

He was livid upon hearing ’My man.’ He never wanted those words to leave her precious lips unless they were for addressing him. And now look where she stood, securely in the arms of another man. Not for long though... He would make her his one day, whether she liked it or not. With or without her consent, she will belong to him, and him alone.

"Your man, huh." He let out an eerie laughter that could freeze hell altogether. "My little butterfly, it seems I have let you escape my clutches for far too long. I should cut off those wings of yours..."

"This is exactly why I never liked you in the first place." She countered him, her voice growing fiercer with every word. Now that she had discovered he was not the perpetrator that night, her fear towards him was slowly disappearing into thin air. "You think you own me, like some trophy on a bookshelf."

"And does he not think the same?" Jiang Zihui’s lips twisted into a cruel smirk. "Such double standards that you have...How can you be so unfair?"

"Because he will never hurt me."

"Is that what you think? Silly little thing, he has done much more than that to you in the past." Jiang Zihui slowly shook his head at her, as if she was a stubborn child who refused to listen to him.

"Being linked to him, the price on your head is astronomical. Do you know that?" He reached over to brush a stray strand of hair covering her eyes. She scampered deeper into her seat, flinching away from his hand, her back colliding with the cold, glass window.

"Don’t touch me!" She snapped at him. She was on high alert and defense. Even if he was not the one present that night, it did not mean she trusted him to be anywhere near her. He was a seemingly bipolar man and she was wary of him in general. If she allowed him to touch her, she knew he would be delusional enough to overread the tiny action as her consent.

Jiang Zihui’s hand stilled in midair. His fingers curled into a fist, a pained look flashed across his face. It disappeared as fast as it came and was replaced by a mask of emptiness. "You let him, someone who destroyed your childhood, to touch you and not me?"

"My childhood? What are you talking about?" There it was again, her childhood. She suspected something must’ve happened in her youth, yet, no matter how hard she tried to recollect the memories, nothing surfaced. If she tried to think harder, a massive headache would slam her and then she could only grasp her head as she writhed in unbelievable pain.

Jiang Zihui let out thundering laughter that made her flinch and hug her stomach in fear. "Oh my, did he not tell you what he did to you in the past?" He wiped his eyes even though they were drier than the desert. "Of course he did not. And I’m pretty sure it will remain that way forever."

He knew Zhao Lifei more than she thought he did. In an attempt to track her down, he had also dug deep, deep into her buried past. At first, he did not find anything interesting, until, he dug a little bit more and encountered heavily covered up tracks of a forbidden incident. And when he continued to probe, he found a gold mine of information, one that she would never discover. It was filled with sins and a plethora amount of mistakes. He found it extremely ironic that the ones she trusted and loved the most were withholding the worst secrets from her.

"You’re lying."

Jiang Zihui flashed her a pained smile, hurt that she would think he would lie to her. "Am I, my little butterfly, am I really?" He placed a hand on his chest and not giving her the chance to ask more, he opened the car door and stepped out. He pulled out a small, flat and rectangular device, pressed it, and then she heard the click of the door behind her.

Zhao Lifei scrambled out of the car like it was on fire. Her back collided with something hard and when she turned around, she saw it was the people blocking the door. She opened her mouth, ready to tell them to scram, but Jiang Zihui beat her to it.

"At ease." He commanded them. In abnormal unison, the men all saluted him and parted a path for Zhao Lifei, leading straight to the border known as Yang Feng’s men.

"I truly wanted to get you a gift for your birthday in three days but it seems I was outbid by your grandfather. You seem to treasure him and because of that, I did not argue back with him, unlike a certain someone."

Zhao Lifei knew Yang Feng heard him. She did not bother to respond. Turning her back to him, she stormed off to the other side and never once did she look back.

Jiang Zihui watched with an amused smile on his face as his little butterfly flew off to another man. He continued watching even when the people parted for her, then went back into formation. She was out of sight, presumably with her current lover. He reminded himself that the man was not here to stay and it would only be a temporary lover.

’Soon...my little butterfly, you will be mine forever.’ He thought to himself, turning around, and walking off.

Yang Feng’s dark, looming eyes were glued to the man disappearing into the distance. His expression was hard, cold, and lifeless. No one could fathom what was running through his head. The two men did not exchange any words, but the silence around them was enough to know neither of them was up to any good.

When Zhao Lifei broke through the clearing and was visible, he stormed to her, yanked her into his arms, and crushed her to him. Her eyes widened at how fast he hauled her into an embrace, but she relaxed and hugged him back, relishing in his warmth. She could feel her heart melt when his arms hardened and he hugged her tighter.

"Do you want me to kill him?"

His question sent a shiver down her spine and her heart nearly stopped. She could envision the chaos if Jiang Zihui was shot dead. The military would be after Yang Feng and no amount of connections could get him out of trouble. Imagining Yang Feng behind bars and not being able to touch, see, and be with him was a world she did not want to live in.

Zhao Lifei furiously shook her head. "No!" She shouted out, her voice filled with panic. She choked when the arms became unbearably rough, as his anger slammed her in the face. He was furious. More so than when he received the message from his men that their lady boss was unreachable and out of sight.

"Do you care about him that much?" His question was menacing. His voice was gruff with barely contained enmity, resembling the growl of a beast. If she was not hugging him back with her face buried into his chest, he would’ve hurt someone on the spot. Her sweet, floral scent was the only thing keeping him afloat.