The antique girlfriend of a chaebol heir

"long?"

Jiang Duo carried the pan-fried steak into the living room, his gaze sweeping over the sofa—it was empty.

He called out a few more times, his voice shifting from doubt to tension, echoing in the empty living room without a response.

Her light pink slippers were neatly arranged in the entryway, but her coat and shoes were nowhere to be seen.

At this time, the doorbell rang.

Jiang Duo breathed a sigh of relief, a helpless smile even appearing on his lips, and strode over to open the door.

"When did you leave? Why didn't you say anything?!"

The words came to an abrupt halt.

A girl was standing at the door.

A very young, unfamiliar face.

She was wearing a faded old cotton coat, her nose was red from the cold, and she was carrying a box wrapped in brown paper. She was looking at him timidly.

Jiang Duo paused slightly, his gaze falling on her face with a hint of doubt and distance: "Who are you looking for?"

……

Jiang Duo's usual high-end apartment is extremely large, and from the building to the entrance of the community, one has to walk through a long landscaped path.

The snow was still falling, and the road was a bit slippery. Shen Ci didn't dare to walk too fast and could only move forward carefully.

When she arrived at the entrance of the residential area, she opened a ride-hailing app.

The screen displays "Finding nearby vehicles for you," and the spinning icon keeps spinning.

Perhaps due to the weather, five minutes passed and still no driver accepted the order.

Snowflakes landed on her eyelashes, melting into tiny water droplets, blurring her vision slightly.

Suddenly, I heard a car horn behind me.

She turned around instinctively, her pupils suddenly contracting.

Jiang Duo got out of the car.

He wasn't even wearing a coat, just a thin white shirt.

That face, which usually carried a lazy smile, was now as cold as if covered with a layer of frost.

His dark eyes were fixed on her, his gaze deep and unfathomable, like a bottomless, icy pool, exuding a sense of oppression she had never seen before, almost terrifying.

This was the first time Shen Ci had seen such a terrifying look in Jiang Duo's eyes.

A sudden panic gripped her, and her body's sense of danger made her instinctively take a step back.

However, Jiang Duo was faster than her.

Before she could take a few steps back, her waist was gripped tightly by his strong arms.

He scooped her up with one hand, strode back to the car, put her in the passenger seat, and then locked the doors.

"Jiang Duo..."

Shen Ci spoke, her voice trembling.

"Sit still and don't talk to me yet."

His voice was low and flat, as if he was trying his best to suppress something.

In the blink of an eye, the car was parked in the underground parking lot again.

The silence fermented in the cramped space, becoming so thick it was almost suffocating.

Just as Shen Ci was about to speak, the car door was opened.

Jiang Duo leaned in, unbuckled her seatbelt, and then lifted her directly from her seat.

The movements were hardly gentle.

Shen Ci screamed in fright and instinctively grabbed the front of his shirt.

She crumpled the fabric into a ball, and she could clearly feel the rapid, heavy rise and fall of his chest, as if suppressing a storm about to erupt.

"Jiang Duo, put me down—"

He didn't speak.

The elevator doors opened, and he carried her inside.

The metal door cast two shadows, one stiff, the other trembling.

The heavy security door slammed shut behind her, and the motion-sensor light in the entryway turned on. Shen Ci's eyes almost instinctively scanned the living room.

It was very quiet inside.

She did not see Su Zijin.

As if he could see right through what she was looking for, Jiang Duo's already hard jawline tightened even more, and the low pressure emanating from his body almost froze the air.

He didn't say anything, but bent down and put her on the ground.

Shen Ci's feet touched the ground, feeling weak and unsteady.

Just as she was about to step back, Jiang Duo grabbed the zipper of her down jacket and pulled it down.

The movements weren't violent, but they carried an undeniable sense of power.

The coat slipped from his hands and he casually draped it over the rack.

Then came the shoes.

He knelt on one knee in front of her, took her ankle, and took her shoes off her feet.

His fingers were burning hot, his palm pressed against her ankle, the heat making her want to pull her foot back, but he held it even tighter.

"Jiang Duo...I..."

Almost immediately, she was airborne again.

Jiang Duo picked her up and carried her across the living room with an almost punishing force, leading her directly into the house where she used to live.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut, and the room was dark and suffocatingly so.

He slammed the door shut.

The next second, he grabbed her waist with one hand, turned her over, and pressed her against the cold wall.

Shen Ci's cheek pressed against the cold wallpaper, the chill seeping into her skin through her thin sweater. Before she could even scream, a burning hot body pressed against her from behind.

Jiang Duo pressed down on her from behind, one hand bracing against the wall beside her ear, the other gripping her waist, trapping her tightly between himself and the wall.

"Are you looking for her?" His voice rang close to her ear, low, husky, and rough, with a frosted texture.

Shen Ci's breathing froze.

She could clearly feel the rise and fall of his chest, rapid and heavy, each breath accompanied by an extreme tremor of suppressed emotion.

"Shen Ci," he called her name, emphasizing each word as if he were chewing them up and swallowing them.

"If you dare to tell even one lie today, I will—"

He didn't finish speaking.

In the darkness, the man's hot breath instantly enveloped her, carrying with it an extreme sense of danger and anger.

"When I was in the car accident, Su Zijing took me to the hospital and took care of me, right?"

Jiang Duo's voice came from above her head, each word sounding like it was squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a tense tension that seemed on the verge of breaking.

Shen Ci closed her eyes.

She stopped struggling and calmly said, "Yes. She should have told you everything just now."

She took a deep breath, as if using all her strength, and whispered, "I'm sorry, Jiang Duo. When you were injured and unconscious, it was Su Zijing who found you and took you to the hospital in time. As for me, I'm a liar."

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

Jiang Duo didn't react immediately. He just took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently, and the arm around her waist trembled slightly from the force.

"Then why not keep lying? Why bring her into my life in the first place?"

His voice was terrifyingly low, and his breath fell on the back of her neck, hot and heavy.

Shen Ci slowly opened her eyes, looking at the dim wall in front of her, making a desperate gamble.

"Because I don't want to continue."

She turned her head, trying to look into his eyes, her voice so soft it seemed a breeze could carry it away: "Jiang Duo, let's break up."

As soon as I finished speaking, I felt a sudden pain in my earlobe.

Jiang Duo took a bite.