【Older Sister · Dominant Beauty (31)】
My name is Shen Zhiyao. Thirty-one, 175 centimeters, and in seven-centimeter heels I could look down on ninety percent of the men in the room. I hadn’t wanted to come to this party — Jiang Mingfei dragged me along to keep up appearances, my boyfriend of two years whose phone was always face-down on the table. Across the card table he laughed, slick and glossy, but his eyes kept drifting toward the neckline of the new intern. I held a gin and tonic I’d barely touched, standing by the balcony door, coldly composed, exactly the way everyone described me: not to be provoked, not to be touched, a piece of jade no one dared lay a hand on. But only I knew that this jade had long since gone hollow inside. Between me and Jiang Mingfei, only appearances were left, propping the whole thing up.
【P · Boyfriend’s Best Friend】
This woman, Shen Zhiyao — I’d been watching her more than once. That bastard Jiang Mingfei, guarding an iceberg like her yet lusting after someone else every single day, an utter waste of a treasure. She stood in the lamplight, long legs pressed together, spine held perfectly straight, drinking with a grace that looked like some kind of ritual. But I’d caught one detail — she’d changed glasses three times, and she was drinking faster and faster. Cold people are never people who can’t burn; they just haven’t met the fire yet. Tonight Jiang Mingfei was pressing himself against the intern right in front of her, and I watched the little light in her eyes go dark, inch by inch. That wasn’t heartbreak. That was resignation. A woman who has given up hope is the most dangerous — and the most tempting.
【Older Sister · Dominant Beauty (31)】
I don’t know when I got to my fifth glass. My head was a little dizzy, my fingertips a little warm, my reason still there — but it was like looking through frosted glass, able to see everything outside yet unable to hold down whatever was inside. Jiang Mingfei took that girl out to the terrace, without so much as a word to me. I gave a small laugh; it must have looked awful. I got up to go to the restroom, my heels striking the wooden floor, step by step, the hallway long, the warm-orange sconces stretching my shadow thin. And right at the corner, a hand braced itself on the wall in front of me, blocking my way.
【P · Boyfriend’s Best Friend】
I’d followed her out. I admit I’d been planning this for a long time. The instant I stopped her, her eyes lifted to look at me — cold, yes, but the moist, drunken haze at the bottom of them couldn’t be hidden. I stood very close to her, close enough to smell the cold perfume on her mingling with the liquor. "Jiang Mingfei doesn’t deserve you," I said. She said nothing, only pressed her lips together — her lip color was on the deep side, and moistened with wine it was redder still. I braced my other hand up too, boxing her whole body in between the wall and me. "You stood there cold all night," I dropped my voice, "but deep down you want someone to tear all that coldness off you, don’t you?" I saw her fingers around the glass — for the first time — go unsteady.
【Older Sister · Dominant Beauty (31)】
He was too close. Close enough that I could feel the warmth of his breath falling against the side of my ear. I should have pushed him away; my hand had even lifted to press against his chest — but that hand couldn’t summon a shred of strength. His words were like needles, driving one by one into the deepest place I’d hidden. I’d been cold all night, cold for two years, cold for most of my life. I did want someone to tear all that coldness off me. Reason was screaming at me to leave, but my body was as if nailed to the wall, my knees going soft, my chest rising and falling faster and faster. I heard my own voice, hoarse beyond recognition: "Cheng Yue, you’ve had too much to drink." — But I knew the one who’d had too much was me.
【P · Boyfriend’s Best Friend】
She didn’t push me away. That "you’ve had too much" was the least convincing refusal I’ve heard in my life. I pushed my knee in between her legs, and through that slim, fitted long dress I could feel the roots of her thighs go taut and then, against her will, that flicker of hesitation as she leaned toward me. I bent my head, my lips grazing the shell of her ear, deliberately breathy: "When you say my name, Cheng Yue, even your voice goes soft." Her whole body shuddered. I knew I’d bet right — buried beneath this iceberg was an active volcano. Footsteps came from the end of the hallway, and she shoved me away as if she’d been scalded, but her face was flushed crimson, her gaze in disarray. I smiled. Tonight, I wasn’t going to let her go home cold.
【Older Sister · Dominant Beauty (31)】
I fled back into the restroom, locked the door behind me, and leaned my back against the cold tile, gasping for breath. The woman in the mirror had crimson cheeks, an unfocused gaze, lips she’d bitten swollen — that wasn’t me. That wasn’t the calm, self-possessed Shen Zhiyao everyone praised. The inside of my dress was a slick, sticky patch of wet. I closed my eyes, and my head was full of that line he’d pressed against me. I hated Jiang Mingfei, hated that he treated me as an ornament, hated that at this very moment he was holding someone else. But what set my lower belly ablaze, what made my legs weak, was not hatred. It was Cheng Yue’s hand braced above my head, and it was the moment he said "tear all that coldness off you" — the sound inside me that I didn’t dare admit — yes. Tonight, then. Tear me open and see.