Chapter 2: On Our Wedding Night, Shouldn’t I Call You Mrs. Xie?

Xie Youci was practically slapped awake.

A slight crease formed between his brows as he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that greeted him was an exceptionally beautiful face.

Chi Yang’s eyes and the tip of her nose were red.

She looked at him as if she had suffered a tremendous injustice, tears threatening to spill at any moment.

“You have to make it up to me.”

Xie Youci rubbed the bridge of his aching nose. “Make what up to you?”

“My innocence, obviously!”

The accusation came out without hesitation.

In Chi Yang’s version of events, Xie Youci had clearly been the one who took advantage of her last night.

Lying lazily on the bed, Xie Youci fell silent for a moment before letting out a laugh that sounded half amused, half incredulous.

“Your innocence?”

He slowly sat up.

The blanket slipped from his waist, revealing the sharp lines of his lower abdomen and the seductive V-cut disappearing beneath the sheets.

Oh God.

That should be illegal.

Chi Yang’s face instantly flushed red.

She hurriedly tried to look away, desperate to avoid the dangerously intimate sight that absolutely should not exist between the two of them.

But before she could escape—

A hand suddenly caught the back of her neck.

Her face was turned back by force.

The moment she looked up, she crashed straight into Xie Youci’s narrow, arrogant eyes.

“Miss Chi.”

His tone was impeccably polite.

Too polite.

His voice was low and hoarse, his warm breath drifting between them. The web of his thumb still rested against the most sensitive spot at the back of her neck.

Chi Yang’s heartbeat became a chaotic drumroll.

Run.

She wanted to run.

Yet Xie Youci merely lifted his chin lazily.

“I suggest you take another good look.”

His gaze lingered on her.

“Last night, who exactly ruined whose innocence?”

As soon as the words fell, he leaned toward her.

Chi Yang froze.

Her first instinct was to grab the blanket and flee.

Unfortunately, Xie Youci seemed determined to make her face reality. He braced one hand against the headboard behind her, trapping her within a tiny, inescapable space.

Their breaths tangled together.

Her pulse raced.

The moment she raised her eyes, the marks on his neck and collarbone came into view.

As well as the scratches across his chest.

Chi Yang’s pupils shrank.

Fragments of last night flashed through her mind.

The bar.

The dim, romantic lighting.

She had been drunk.

Very drunk.

Wearing high heels, she’d swaggered over to Xie Youci and thrown herself into his arms.

“You know…”

Her cheeks had been pink from alcohol.

“I think you’re pretty handsome.”

Then she’d tugged up the hem of his shirt, slipped her hand underneath, and shamelessly felt around.

Tilting her head up, she’d even bitten his collarbone.

“Such a cute little abs boy~”

The memory ended there.

A thunderbolt struck Chi Yang’s soul.

She sat frozen, barely daring to breathe.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could still see the bite mark on his collarbone.

Dear heavens.

She’d actually done that.

And she had been the one who started it.

Regret hit her like a tidal wave.

If she’d known this would happen, she would never have touched a drop of alcohol.

After all—

She and Xie Youci had been enemies practically since birth.

At one year old, she’d smeared the paint she’d chosen during her first-birthday ceremony all over four-year-old Xie Youci’s face and clothes.

At six, she’d flushed his painstakingly completed summer homework down the toilet.

At twelve, she’d secretly swapped his speech script and nearly made him read a melodramatic love letter in front of an audience.

At eighteen, she’d even stolen his underwear, forcing him to walk all the way home from the swimming pool commando.

And now…

Now they had somehow slept together.

Worse yet, she’d been the one who initiated everything while drunk.

She’d bitten his collarbone.

Touched him all over.

And called him—

Cute little abs boy.

“…”

Chi Yang wanted to die.

Without another word, she yanked the blanket over her head, kicked Xie Youci away, and collapsed dramatically back onto the bed.

“I don’t care.”

Her muffled voice emerged from beneath the blanket.

“You have no proof.”

Xie Youci: “…”

Lowering his lashes, he glanced sideways at the blanket-wrapped lump.

His eyes were naturally sharp and cool, but whenever he smiled, they carried an effortlessly seductive charm.

At that moment, he stared at her in silence.

Watching.

Assessing.

Chi Yang immediately clutched the blanket tighter and scooted backward.

They were way too close.

She could practically feel his breath against her skin.

Still, she stubbornly lifted her chin.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Several seconds passed.

As though finally confirming something from her expression, Xie Youci slowly withdrew his gaze.

“I’m looking at a heartless woman.”

“A woman who refuses to take responsibility.”

“And won’t even admit it.”

A soft laugh escaped him.

“Impressive.”

The grievance in his voice came one complaint after another, making him sound exactly like an innocent puppy whose heart and body had both been stolen before being cruelly abandoned.

Chi Yang blinked.

A question mark practically appeared over her head.

Poking her face out from the blanket, she glared at him resentfully.

“It’s not like sleeping with me is a loss for you!”

Xie Youci said nothing.

Instead, he lifted his chin and deliberately displayed the evidence scattered across his neck and shoulders.

Then he tapped the faint slap mark on his face.

Chi Yang continued struggling.

“Even if that’s true, you still can’t prove I did it!”

“Oh?”

He arched a brow.

“A puppy did it?”

“…That’s possible.”

“Fine.”

Xie Youci looked away lazily, clearly accustomed to her shamelessness.

“Next time something like this happens, I’ll remember to record it.”

Chi Yang: “…”

Miserably hugging her blanket, she rested her chin on her drawn-up knees.

“But I’m the one who got taken advantage of…”

The young mistress’s eyes turned red again.

Despite the fact that she had been the drunken hooligan.

Despite the fact that she’d destroyed his self-control, bitten him, scratched him, and left marks all over his body.

She still looked as though she were the one who had suffered a great injustice.

Xie Youci narrowed his eyes.

Watching her increasingly reddened eyes, the last traces of pride inside him gradually crumbled away.

In the end, he sighed in surrender.

“Fine.”

“Actually, I didn’t touch you last night.”

A hand immediately shot out from beneath the blanket.

Chi Yang pointed toward the chaotic mess on the floor.

“Then explain all that.”

“We took our clothes off.”

He paused.

“But we didn’t go all the way.”

She looked at him suspiciously.

“You’re that much of a gentleman?”

“…”

Xie Youci let out an annoyed laugh.

Supporting himself on one hand, he leaned close again.

“Chi Er’er.”

He called her by the childhood nickname almost nobody knew.

Instinctively, she retreated.

But Xie Youci suddenly wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her firmly into his embrace.

The move was overwhelmingly possessive.

“You really want me to remind you, don’t you?”

His eyes never left hers.

At the same time, he reached toward the nightstand and picked up the two marriage certificates that had received their official stamps only yesterday.

Holding them before her eyes, he said:

“Last night was supposed to be our wedding night.”

“Miss Chi was passionately enthusiastic.”

“I was helplessly lured in.”

“In that situation, even if I hadn’t stopped before the end, it would have been completely reasonable.”

“Perfectly legal, too.”

“No one would’ve been the one at a disadvantage.”

His gaze deepened.

Then, with a faint curve at the corner of his lips, he asked softly:

“Or do you really want me to call you…”

His eyes lingered on her face.

“…Mrs. Xie?”