The heartless beauty is addicted to being licked by a seemingly obedient and loyal dog.

"If you don't mean it that way, I'll take it to bed. I've kept it for so long, it has to come in handy eventually."

"I haven't tried Shuang'er yet."

Song Yunqi stood outside the door, her backpack strap slipping down her shoulder.

Then came Lu Jinci's voice, carrying a languid and nonchalant quality that Song Yunqi had never heard before.

"No, don't even think about it."

"I like this little gadget, but I'm afraid of breaking it, so I want to keep it and savor it slowly."

Little gadget.

Lu Qingyuan said something else, but his voice lowered, and he couldn't hear it clearly.

Then Lu Jinci laughed, with a greasy, alien quality that felt completely foreign to him. That laugh was like a needle, piercing his ear and reaching the deepest part of his heart.

"vomit……"

The boy's body reacted before his brain did; a wave of nausea surged in his stomach, and the acid rose to his throat only to be swallowed back down.

He felt nauseous, but didn't move, remaining stiffly standing there like a wooden stake nailed to the ground.

Recalling all the moments he had spent with Lu Jinci over the years, all the details he thought were "brotherly affection" were instantly recolored and transformed into something completely different.

That's not love.

It's not even family affection.

Song Yunxi didn't know how long she had been standing there; maybe a minute, maybe five.

Later, he quietly slipped out with his schoolbag, retreated to the front door, pressed the doorbell again, and pretended that he had just arrived home.

He didn't show any abnormality during dinner that night.

He smiled as he served food to Lu Jinci, chatted with Lu Qingyuan with a smile, and told him about the funny things that happened at school. His cheeks were a little sore from laughing so much.

Lu Qingyuan's gaze towards him was as cold as ever, and Lu Jinci's gaze towards him was also as affectionate and doting as ever, along with many other emotions that he couldn't understand.

Now he understands that it was possessiveness.

That night, Lu Jinci held Song Yunqi as usual while they slept. His arm was around Song Yunqi's waist, his palm pressed against Song Yunqi's abdomen, and his body temperature radiated through the thin pajamas.

Song Yunqi had her eyes closed, her eyelashes trembling.

He lay awake in the darkness, staring at the sliver of moonlight filtering through the curtains, tears sliding from the corners of his eyes and silently disappearing into his pillow.

He didn't know why he was crying.

Was it out of fear and disgust? Or because he was betrayed by the person he trusted most? He couldn't say for sure.

All he knew was that tears kept falling, one after another, soaking a small patch of his pillow. It was cold and uncomfortable against his face.

Lu Jinci felt the person in his arms trembling.

He opened his eyes and looked down to see glistening watermarks on Song Yunqi's face. He reached out to touch his cheek, his fingertips feeling a damp patch.

"What's wrong?" Lu Jinci's voice was filled with genuine concern.

Song Yunqi didn't open her eyes and buried her face in the pillow.

"elder brother."

His voice was very soft, so soft that it was almost inaudible.

"Um?"

"I want my own room."

He sniffed, his voice muffled, nasal and tearful.

"All my classmates have their own rooms, but I don't."

silence.

Lu Jinci's arm lingered on his waist for a few seconds before slowly withdrawing.

He propped himself up in bed, and the bedside lamp turned on, its warm yellow light spreading between the two of them.

He looked at Song Yunqi, who was curled up on the pillow, with her eyes closed and tears still clinging to her eyelashes. He remained silent for a moment.

"Okay," he said.

The next day, Song Yunxi had her own room.

It turned out to be a simple matter of just one sentence from Lu Jinci, but Song Yunxi waited for many years.

The room was at the end of the third-floor corridor, facing south, bathed in sunlight, with its window overlooking the old locust tree in the courtyard. Lu Qingyuan had it renovated, making it warm and comfortable, like a young girl's boudoir.

Song Yunxi was very happy the day she moved in.

He didn't have many clothes or other necessities, so he didn't bother the servants and made three or four trips to move everything himself. Finally, he closed the door, sat on the edge of the new bed, and looked around.

The room was beautiful; sunlight streamed in through the windows, casting large patches of golden light on the floor.

There was a faint smell of new furniture in the air, a light woody fragrance that wasn't pungent.

He sat there and suddenly felt very relaxed.

It wasn't the bedroom he had shared with Lu Jinci for years, but this small room that was all his own.

At that moment, he made a decision.

He wanted to leave the Lu family, to have his own identity, his own career, and to become strong enough to no longer need to depend on anyone.

He doesn't want to be anyone's possession, anyone's plaything, or anyone's appendage.

He wanted to be like Song Yunqi.

He is not the adopted son of the Lu family, nor Lu Jinci's younger brother, nor is he anyone's "trinket".

It was just Song Yunxi.

……

Lu Jinci kept his head down and remained silent, looking at the pale golden tea in his cup, the surface of which reflected the chandelier on the ceiling, swaying back and forth.

"I didn't," he said.

Song Yunxi, who did not intend to get entangled with him, had already reached the bedroom door when she heard this and stopped.

"I have not treated you as an accessory, nor as a tool for sexual gratification."

Lu Jinci looked up at Song Yunxi's back. The collar of her shirt was loose and open, revealing a section of the back of her neck, with a few strands of hair falling on the collar, as beautiful as ever.

"You're hurting me by saying that."

There was an unusual vulnerability in his voice, completely different from the Lu family's young master who usually wielded immense power in the underworld.

Song Yunqi turned around, leaned against the bedroom door frame, and crossed her arms.

There's no need to keep pretending in front of me.

"I overheard your conversation with Father in the study during the summer when I was fourteen."

He paused, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly, but the curve wasn't exactly a smile; it was more like a casual mockery.

"What's wrong? Your memory's getting bad after a while, and you need me to help you remember?"

Lu Jinci gripped the teacup tightly, his knuckles turning white. The porcelain cup made a soft scraping sound in his palm, as if it might shatter at any moment.

"You were too young then, you didn't understand anything," he said, his voice a little hoarse.

"And what you heard was just snippets of information; you didn't..."

"What do I not understand?" Song Yunxi interrupted him.

"Don't you understand what 'little gadget' means? Don't you understand what 'bring it to bed' means? Don't you understand what 'never tried twins' means?"

He spoke these words without any fluctuation in his tone, as if he were reciting a passage of text unrelated to himself.

But those long, narrow eyes stared straight at Lu Jinci, the corners of their eyes slightly upturned, giving off a condescending, superior air, as if they were standing on a high place judging a criminal.

"I didn't quite understand back then..." Song Yunxi said, lowering her voice.

"But I'm not stupid."

He looked at Lu Jinci's sharply defined face, which was filled with embarrassment, and spoke slowly.

"Do you know why I cried that night? It wasn't because I was scared, it was because I felt disgusted, really disgusted."

Lu Jinci's fingers twitched slightly.

"I was lying in bed, and you were holding me as we slept, your arm around my waist, your palm against my stomach."

Song Yunqi said calmly, "I closed my eyes and replayed your voice in my mind over and over again. Every word you said, the tone of your voice, the sound of your laughter."

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

"Then I felt really nauseous."

The air conditioner in the living room was blowing warm air, but Lu Jinci felt that her fingertips were cold.

He looked at Song Yunqi leaning against the doorframe, her face divided in two by the light and shadow at the boundary between the living room and bedroom; one half was bathed in the cold white light of the chandelier, the other half hidden in the dimness of the bedroom.

"You've played the role of the good older brother in front of me for so many years, aren't you tired?" Song Yunxi asked.

Lu Jinci remained silent.

The silence lasted for a long time.

Song Yunqi smiled and took two steps toward Lu Jinci.

"But it doesn't matter anyway."

Lu Jinci looked up at him.

"Shen Chonglu is very good," Song Yunqi said, her casualness tinged with deliberate nonchalance.

"His kung fu is pretty good too; he always makes me feel very comfortable."

He looked into Lu Jinci's eyes and uttered each word carefully.

"I'm definitely better than an old man like you."

These words were like a knife, precisely piercing Lu Jinci's most sensitive spot.

It's not because he's "old"—twenty-nine years old isn't considered old by anyone—but Song Yunqi's comparison of him to the young and vigorous Shen Chonglu makes him seem older.

The bloodshot in Lu Jinci's eyes intensified. His jaw tightened, his masseter muscles bulged slightly, and a vein throbbed on his temple.

"You did it on purpose," he said, his voice low and restrained.

Song Yunxi tilted her head slightly, as if considering whether or not to admit it.

I guess so.

Lu Jinci stood up, his knee bumping the coffee table, causing the tea in his cup to spill out and spread across the glass surface.

He was taller than Song Yunqi, and when he stood in front of her, he had to lower his eyes slightly to make eye contact, but this angle made his expression look even more gloomy.

He stared at Song Yunxi for a few seconds, then reached out his hand.

Song Yunxi didn't dodge; she merely raised her chin slightly, meeting his gaze with an almost defiant air. Lu Jinci's hand hovered in mid-air, only centimeters from his face, yet it never fell.

The hand finally landed on Song Yunxi's shoulder, its five fingers tightening around her shoulder, trembling slightly uncontrollably.

"I broke up with him."