Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The school doctor could return at any moment, and Ya Xue was still downstairs searching for her.

Yet there she was, held tightly by this vile man, unable to do anything.

Her lips were glossy and flushed deep red, every spot he touched burning and tingling like a live wire, slowly eroding her self-control.

As if punishing her for pretending to be mute, Li Yabo dug his fingers into her.

Fang Ning had a petite frame, delicate and slender, yet with softness where it mattered. His large, broad hands with long fingers were just the right size to mold her to his will.

His fingers, strong and elegant like those of a grown man, now fidgeted like a child’s—curious, eager to grasp and hold onto everything within reach, refusing to release her.

Fang Ning shut her eyes, her skin feverish everywhere, her delicate brows furrowing tighter and tighter. Meanwhile, in the shadows where she couldn’t see, the man’s gaze turned predatory.

He swallowed, his mixed-race eyes glinting with a faint blue as he looked down at her tightly shut eyelids and wildly trembling lashes. His low, hoarse voice seethed with frustration.

*Why is it Fang Ning who’s being twisted around his finger, yet I’m the one who has to endure?*

“You like this, don’t you?”

He murmured the question before abruptly lifting her and carrying her away from the window.

By now, Fang Ning had given up on pointless pleas—words like *we shouldn’t do this, it’s disrespectful to your father*—because Li Yabo wouldn’t listen anyway.

Even in his ice-cold recounting, she could sense his hatred for his father.

He believed a man like his father warranted no rest in the grave.

Nor did he deserve a faithful marriage or love, or a woman who would remain chaste and widowed after his passing.

Even if this was a school, even if they were tangled together on the infirmary bed—so what?

If discovered, people would only point fingers at Fang Ning, branding her a tramp, a harlot, an indecent stepmother who had just lost her husband and was already entangled with his son.

As for Li Yabo? As long as he remained the head of the Li family, as long as he held that position, people would still address him respectfully as *President Li*. Who’d dare cross him?

A wave of sorrow washed over Fang Ning.

She had lived in fear of loveless, destitute days, starved for love and security so desperately that she was willing to be a man’s accessory if it meant escaping her wretched life.

She had been Li Yiming’s dodder plant. Now that Li Yiming was dead, she was Li Yabo’s.

Amidst the sorrow, she forced herself to accept this truth.

Only then could she avoid truly becoming a man’s plaything.

Whether it was delusion or denial, she had to find pleasure in it.

At least she *was* feeling pleasure.

His invading tongue, carrying his cold, dominating breath, filled her mouth. Her body trembled with overwhelming emptiness. In this moment, Li Yabo no longer seemed like a dark, terrifying ally—just a man.

The dominating, edged with cruelty kiss and touch even made her heart race.

Shame and pleasure warred within her. Boneless with surrender, she yielded, legs splayed.

Downstairs, the sports meet was nearing its end. The sunlight curdled into a blood-red hue. On the pristine white infirmary bed, Fang Ning was flung onto it like a clean sheet of paper suddenly torn and stained with the stains of lust.

Are they going to be here?

Before she could even think, the door to the infirmary opened.

Fang Ning heard the school doctor's voice.

"Hmm? Mrs. Li?... She’s already gone?"

Oddly, even though she’d been terrified of being caught, now that it had come to this, she felt strangely calm.

With only a curtain between them—as if divine intervention—the school doctor suddenly stopped.

Li Yabo slightly lifted himself, just in time to meet Fang Ning's lifeless eyes.

He took in her flushed cheeks, damp lashes, and the look of arousal mixed with indifference.

She didn’t beg, didn’t even seem afraid—it was as if she was waiting for someone to discover their scandalous, illicit scene.

Li Yabo couldn’t help but frown, his heated breath cooled at her lifeless response.

He didn’t like the dead.

His mood snuffed out, the dark fire in his eyes gradually dimmed, and suddenly, he let out a silent laugh before releasing her, pulling the blanket over her.

Just like that, he was back to normal.

"We’re still here. Sorry—she was exhausted, so I took the liberty of letting her rest on the infirmary bed."

Li Yabo sat calmly by the bed, pulling a glasses cloth from his coat’s inner pocket. He lowered his gaze, casually wiping his glasses a couple of times before putting them back on, his fingers automatically straightening the frames.

His voice was calm, deep, still tinged with lingering arousal. After straightening his clothes, he pulled back the curtain.

One moment, he’d been tangled up with her in secret; the next, he was effortlessly handling the school doctor with ease.

After such an entanglement, Fang Ning was utterly disheveled, while he hadn’t even unbuckled his belt—only his clothes were wrinkled.

She was just another conquest to him.

Listening to Li Yabo effortlessly smooth-talk the school doctor, gently explaining their reason for borrowing the bed, Fang Ning hid her burning face under the blanket. While relieved he at least had some shred of decency, she couldn’t help but think how wicked and terrifying this man was.

What she didn’t realize was that, while the school doctor outside the curtain was speaking normally with Li Yabo, his eyes remained carefully averted.

Facing the school doctor, the man made no effort to hide the traces of a woman’s mark on the corner of his lips. Unbothered, the smudged lipstick on his refined face made a stark contrast.

A blatant reminder of what this polished man had been up to moments before.

The school doctor didn’t dare ask.

The calmer the man acted, the harder it was for others to guess his intentions.

These high-society types—all decorum in public, all depravity in private.

The school doctor told himself to shut up—his job was on the line, and he shouldn’t speculate further.

-

"Where did you two go?"

Stepping out of the infirmary, Fang Ning froze at Li Yaxue’s question. A hundred lies and excuses sat on her tongue, but none would come out.

After the track meet came dinner, and the school had set up a buffet in the dining hall for parents and students.

The cheerful buzz of neighboring families only made the tense and uncomfortable atmosphere among the three members of the Li family stand out even more.

Worse than any meal they'd ever had at home, this one was especially unbearable.

Li Yaxue had been bottling up his anger all day, his silver fork nearly bending from how tightly he gripped it. Finally, he blurted out, "What were you two doing when I was looking everywhere for you?"

Fang Ning pressed her lips together, while Li Yabo answered, "We had some things to talk about."

"Discussing what?"

Fang Ning remained silent. Li Yabo smiled faintly and said, "Adult matters."

Frustrated by his brother's evasive answer, Li Yaxue snapped, "What kind of 'adult matters'?"

This time, Li Yabo didn’t respond—only gave a light chuckle.

His gaze softened as he looked at Fang Ning, asking her, "Should we tell Yaxue?"

Faced with his shameless act of pretending not to know, Fang Ning looked away uncomfortably. But avoiding his gaze only meant confronting Li Yaxue’s curious stare next.

Unlike the cruelty masked by his brother's gentle tone, the boy’s eyes held curiosity, anger, and even resentment.

"Absolutely not!"

Fang Ning’s refusal was sharp. Li Yabo gave Li Yaxue a helpless look, as if to say, *It’s not that I won’t tell you—she won’t let me.*

Li Yaxue bit his lip, jealousy spreading through him like rampant vines, coiling around every inch of his body.

Li Yabo's patronizing attempt to comfort him only made him angrier.

And beneath that anger, there was a creeping sense of dread.

He remembered when their father had just passed away—how he had once witnessed his brother dismiss a faultless servant with unnerving calm.

Maybe his brother was never really kind or easy to get along with.

His own mother had died, and Li Yabo’s mother had passed away when he was very young.

Neither of them had a mother.

Fang Ning was their father’s new wife, but to them, she wasn’t a mother. Li Yaxue knew he could never see her that way—and he was sure his brother didn't either.

...So what was his brother's real view of Fang Ning? As their father’s wife? Or just a woman with no blood relation to them?

Li Yaxue realized then that he had never been able to decipher Li Yabo’s thoughts. But he knew his own—and finally understood why he had been so resentful all this time.

It wasn’t just that his brother and Fang Ning were too close, leaving him out.

It was the terrible suspicion that his brother was trying to take Fang Ning away from him.

Their father was dead, and now his only brother had returned—only to take Fang Ning away from him.