A Twisted Love Affair
Chapter 132 - 131 what do you want me to do to coax you?_1

Chapter 132: 131 what do you want me to do to coax you?_1

Shen Jing swung her club. "You could tell just by the sound?"

"Easy to recognize," Xie Qinyang said, taking another shot.

People who had only met her a few times could recognize it. Wouldn’t Zhou Luchen know her accent? Wouldn’t he know where she was from? Yet he never asked.

In the end, Xie Qinyang didn’t ask for the specific reason either. Why pry into someone’s privacy for no reason? He was just curious and trying to make conversation.

"Want one?" Xie Qinyang politely asked while smoking, even tapping out a cigarette to offer Shen Jing.

She took it. "Here, lighter."

Curiosity. That’s just how she was. She wanted to know if the He Tianxia cigarettes and the Huanghe Building ones in Xie Qinyang’s hands tasted different.

But she didn’t even know how to hold a cigarette. Seeing this, Xie Qinyang reconsidered and decided against giving it to her.

"You clearly don’t know how to smoke. If Achen finds out later, he’ll deal with both of us."

Shen Jing put her cue down. "I’m not afraid of him."

"Did he upset you?" Xie Qinyang still didn’t give her the cigarette. "That shouldn’t be. The Zhou Family’s Second Young Master is known for being incredibly doting. I’ve never seen anyone feel wronged by him."

Shen Jing leaned against the pool table, gazing up at the twilight sky. "He didn’t upset me."

Xie Qinyang said, "Minor squabbles are normal. Often, things blow over after just meeting once. Achen has many women around him, but I’ve never seen him stay with anyone for long. If it doesn’t feel right, they just part ways."

Shen Jing uttered two words: "Playboy."

When she berated him, those two words carried a sharp sting.

Suddenly, Xie Qinyang laughed. "You remind me of someone."

Shen Jing turned her head. "Who?"

"No one," Xie Qinyang yawned, answering languidly. "Just kidding."

「From then on.」

Shen Jing learned to smoke, having sneakily acquired a lighter from Xie Qinyang.

It was clear she was in a foul mood.

She tried to mimic how Zhou Luchen used to smoke. How? By resting the cigarette on the corner of her mouth, lighting it with a nonchalant flair, her thin lips taking a sexy drag from the filter.

The Huanghe Building cigarette was mild, and she quickly grew accustomed to it.

The sea breeze caressed them.

The yacht’s lights blazed, deck upon deck.

Zhou Luchen rested his arm on the railing, his eyes fixed on the woman below. She had learned to smoke.

She wore a black spaghetti-strap dress, leaning against the opulent gold-trimmed acrylic pool table. She took a drag, holding the cigarette somewhat awkwardly between two slender fingers.

Her eyes, hazed by the smoke, narrowed as she lowered her head, laughing easily. A captivating charm was hidden in the simple movement of her hand lifting the cigarette. Her long hair fluttered loosely as the night wind eddied around her, stirring a potent, seductive allure.

The cigarette was alluring, the dress was alluring, and she herself was even more so.

Which family raised such a good girl? When she revealed this other side of herself, she was exceptionally, enchantingly captivating.

Xie Qinyang also leaned nearby, occasionally instructing her on how to inhale properly into her lungs, rather than just tasting the smoke in her mouth.

She learned with convincing imitation, her eyes crinkling at the corners in a teasing smile as she exhaled smoke into the air.

Like a bad kid teaching a good student to misbehave.

She found the taste utterly repulsive and gave up after just two drags, quickly popping a piece of gum into her mouth to mask the flavor.

She even grumbled, "Smoking is bad for your health. No one should do it."

Xie Qinyang merely hummed in acknowledgment.

Not touch it? It’s how men relieve their loneliness.

Xie Qinyang offered her more gum. "You’d better get rid of that smell. If Achen finds out, he’ll throw me into the sea to feed the fish."

Shen Jing unwrapped a piece and gently put it in her mouth. "I’ve tried his He Tianxia. It’s so strong it makes my throat numb. Yours is milder."

"What do you like about him?" Xie Qinyang suddenly asked.

Shen Jing spouted nonsense, "I like the way he doesn’t love me, that infuriatingly indifferent ’I-couldn’t-care-less-who-I-love’ attitude of his."

Xie Qinyang burst out laughing and couldn’t stop.

This woman was certainly amusing.

Zhou Luchen turned his head, no longer in the mood to eavesdrop.

「...」

When Shen Jing found Zhou Luchen, she was playfully blowing a bubble with her gum. Only after the bubble went POP! did she look for a trash can to dispose of it.

She was enveloped in a rich cloud of perfume, having borrowed some from one of the young women on the yacht to spray on herself. The scent—a blend of mature femininity, honey, and Chypre rose—was both potent and heavy.

"Zhou Luchen," she called sweetly.

She threw her arms around Zhou Luchen’s neck and jumped straight into his arms.

Ah, Zhou Luchen... he always catches her so steadily, his palm cradling her bottom as he holds her in his embrace.

She lifted her small face. "Do I smell good?"

"Tacky."

Zhou Luchen couldn’t stand that scent; he much preferred the faint, milky fragrance of her own skin.

"What?" Shen Jing pouted, displeased. "Have you smelled it on other women so often that you’ve grown tired of it and developed a resistance?"

Zhou Luchen avoided the question. He raised his hand, his fingers prying open her lips to give them a wicked pinch and rub.

"Smoking?"

Shen Jing leaned into his touch, lightly kissing his fingers. "Of course not. I promise I won’t touch it ever again."

When she looked at him again, her eyes curved into a smile that played only on the surface.

Zhou Luchen lowered his head, his voice soft. "Little Master Xie taught you well."

What Little Master Xie? Shen Jing was adept at saying pleasant things.

"Not as well as my Achen taught me."

The little fox certainly knew how to coax someone into a good mood.

Even though Zhou Luchen was tired of these words, finding them childish even, he rarely bothered to argue with her about such things. Still, a chiding sound rasped from his throat, "Of course, Achen is good. Achen wouldn’t teach you to smoke."

"That’s why Achen is the best," Shen Jing praised him lavishly.

Who could possibly sway Zhou Luchen with mere flattery? He wouldn’t take a single word to heart.

"Tell me," Zhou Luchen teased her playfully. "How am I the best?"

Shen Jing said, "Achen is the best tonight, you know? It’s been so long since I felt I could be this important. Fear, vulnerability, anxiety, running for my life in a torrential downpour... Just when my emotions were at their breaking point, a helicopter appeared right before my eyes! Do you understand the story of the Supreme Treasure arriving on his seven-colored auspicious cloud? It was so incredibly cool, okay?"

No matter what Shen Jing said, Zhou Luchen wouldn’t understand.

Ah, she had been shaped by the family environment created by Feng Jian and her mother.

And the man before her was a privileged young master, elevated by power and status.

Put the two of them together, and empathy was impossible.

Had Zhou Luchen ever experienced true hardship? No. Indeed, he was selfish and indifferent.

Knowing this truth, Shen Jing still chose to speak her mind.

Zhou Luchen just chuckled softly. "Achen is good, yet you sent a text message scolding Achen?"

What had she written again? Something like, "You’re all bad eggs."

She was too embarrassed to admit it, quickly changing the subject, "Oh, and Supreme Treasure likes Bai Jingjing, but he stubbornly denies that his heart belongs to Zi Xia."

Zhuang Ming, who had just reached the door, found his ears perking up. He kept hearing "Achen, Achen." She wasn’t calling him by his full name anymore.

"Come in." After saying this, Zhou Luchen set Shen Jing down on the sofa.

Zhuang Ming knew the command was for him and stepped forward to deliver his message.

"There’s a call from Switzerland for you, sir."

Zhou Luchen glanced at the woman curled up on the sofa, waiting for him to hold her. "No time."

Zhuang Ming could only remain silent.

「That day, the yacht began its return journey from the open sea.」

She spent the entire time held by Zhou Luchen on the sofa, playing a tile-matching game.

Level 466.

She’d heard Chen Yao mention that Zhou Luchen was a top graduate from ICL Business School in London. Was it really appropriate for him to be teaching her how to play a tile-matching game?

Shen Jing extended her index finger, lightly tapped the large hammer icon, and giggled like a naughty child.

Zhou Luchen gave her a cool glance and tossed his phone into her hands. "Play by yourself."

How childish she was, only knowing how to play this.

Zhuang Ming, standing nearby, opened a laptop, placed it in front of the two of them, then turned, closed the door, and left.

As soon as Zhuang Ming was gone, Zhou Luchen started working.

Shen Jing promptly stopped playing, plopped herself into Zhou Luchen’s lap, looked up at him, and her fingers tugged open his collar. She then proceeded to kiss and nibble at his Adam’s apple.

Bold and mischievous.

Her lips pressed against his again. The man’s sexy Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow; her teasing had thoroughly derailed his ability to concentrate on work.

"Can’t you sit properly?"

"You said it yourself at dinner, that you’d hold me and comfort me," Shen Jing blinked, feigning hurt. "Have you forgotten?"

Zhou Luchen rubbed his temples, shaking off his weariness, and a light chuckle rumbled from his throat. "And I’m supposed to be in your debt for that?"

"You can’t be," Shen Jing denied.

Zhou Luchen made a show of seriously considering it. "Oh?" he drawled with a smile. "Then how should I coax you?"

She simply said calmly, "Just like me a little bit, Zhou Luchen."