Chapter 44: This Man Changed His Playbook

Jiang Yu was genuinely slow to react this time, her face blank with confusion as she lay with her back to him.

This man…

He changed his playbook!

He Lian leaned over, spotting Jiang Yu’s wildly trembling eyelashes, and let out an involuntary grin. Remembering what those women on the cruise ship had said, he prepared to put their advice into practice.

Jiang Yu pressed her knuckles against her teeth, suppressing any overwhelmed sounds from slipping out.

Yet in the end, she couldn’t hold back.

A soft, thin thread of sound escaped like a tiny kitten’s meow.

He Lian’s sharp ears caught it, and he felt as overjoyed as a thief who had finally picked a stubborn lock.

Those chatterbox women hadn’t been wrong after all!

She did feel it!

Jiang Yu was flushed red from head to toe, turned into a fully cooked shrimp.

This was completely different from the previous times!

He Lian cheated!

The air conditioner in the room was set at just the right temperature, but beneath the down comforter, it was an entirely different world.

He Lian controlled everything, his heavy breath crashing over her like incoming ocean waves that threatened to drown her.

Jiang Yu’s mind turned into complete mush, completely unaware of when it all finally ended. By the time she opened her eyes again, broad daylight had already arrived.

Flipping open the blanket, she found her body felt clean and refreshed—He Lian must have carried her to the bathroom to wash up last night.

Though her waist was sore, it genuinely didn’t hurt much.

Thinking back to how it felt last night, Jiang Yu grabbed her hair, sitting on the bed like a bewildered goose.

“…”

Was it actually supposed to be like this all along?

Having been locked away by the Song family since she was fourteen, she had no communication tools whatsoever. She only had a vague operational concept of such matters, but as for the actual process… she wasn’t particularly clear.

Thanks to He Lian, she had assumed it was simply painful.

But now, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

As she was contemplating, a maid pushed open the room door and said respectfully, “Miss Jiang, I’m here to assist you with washing up and getting dressed. The second young master is waiting for you downstairs.”

Jiang Yu snapped back to reality, her eyes quietly cold and focused.

Today was the day the Song family was coming over.

At this moment, downstairs.

Song Qian and Song Xueyan sat on the lobby sofa with fake smiles plastered on their faces.

Old Master He didn’t take these two seriously at all, practicing Tai Chi alone out in the courtyard, the sound of his sleeves snapping in the wind audible from far away.

He Lian and He Zhiyi sat upright directly opposite the two.

The former wore a white, loose-fitting utility suit, leaning back sideways in a posture that was lazily effortless and unrestrained.

The latter had dressed up meticulously, sitting with her arms crossed and legs folded, her eyes filled with open hostility.

Song Xueyan had heard of this little princess of the He family—she was raised in the palm of He Lian’s hand.

Today, Song Xueyan had specifically worn a custom-tailored Qipao, yet everything on her combined was worth less than the pair of high heels on He Zhiyi’s feet.

Although both the Song family’s old residence and the Han Palace Residence were built in the traditional Chinese style, the carved beams and painted rafters here bore none of the decaying, moldy atmosphere of the old estate.

The mere thought of Jiang Yu living in such a grand house made her grit her teeth in hatred.

The He family and the Song family weren’t even in the same social tier to begin with!

Why did Jiang Yu get to climb to such heights?!

Even if she couldn’t latch onto He Lian herself, Jiang Yu shouldn’t be allowed to have such good fortune either!

Song Xueyan put on a refined, graceful smile: “Mr. He, where is my younger sister?”

He Lian ignored her completely and let out a yawn.

He had felt too comfortable last night, so excited after finishing that he barely slept a wink all night. Just as he was rubbing his eyes, He Zhiyi spoke up from the side with sharp, stern words: “Spill it, how much money does your Song family want to get the hell out of here?!”

These words made Song Qian’s old face twitch violently.

It was one thing for He Lian to be arrogant, but even a little girl was being this rude.

However, being under someone else’s roof, he could only force a smile and say, “Miss Zhiyi, how can family relations be measured in money?”

He Zhiyi scoffed with disdain: “We’ve already told you we don’t want the inheritance, yet you still won’t stop, right? How can a family as shameless as yours exist in this world?”

Accustomed to playing the young lady, Song Xueyan thoroughly disliked He Zhiyi’s condescending aura. Relying on being slightly older, her tone turned earnest and heavy, almost like a lecture.

“Sister Zhiyi, my father and I were worried that Jiang Yu wouldn’t eat or sleep well at your house. We only wanted to take her back because we couldn’t rest easy. Could you please speak a bit more politely?”

“I can’t be polite.”

He Zhiyi spoke in a ringing, cold voice: “My surname is He—the He family of Jinzhou!”

He Lian let out a low chuckle.

Nice. Very good. She had learned how to use his power to intimidate others.

Though the logic was sound—he hadn’t raised his sister so well just to let outsiders bully her.

He Lian pressed down on his sister’s wrist, locking eyes with Song Xueyan: “Our He family serves eighteen dishes for every single meal, three times a day. Our beds are made of imported materials, costing a million apiece. In what way would she fail to eat or sleep well here?”

Song Xueyan was rendered speechless, choked by his words.

Indeed, that excuse couldn’t hold any ground at all.

Seeing this, Song Qian tossed out the core issue: “But Jiang Yu is a member of our Song family. By all rights and reason, she should be raised by us. Isn’t that so?”

No matter how great the He family was, they couldn’t ignore the legal family relationship between Jiang Yu and the Song family.

He Lian’s smile didn’t fade, seemingly not treating him as an opponent in the slightest.

“Jiang Yu is an adult.”

Just as Song Qian wanted to argue further, he was interrupted by a maid’s raised voice.

“Miss A-Yu is coming down!”

Song Xueyan was the first to turn her head.

On the staircase, Jiang Yu wore a casual, jade-green dress. Her long black hair was gathered behind her head, with a few stray wisps of hair falling across her clear eyes. Holding onto the handrail, she slowly walked down.

The flames in the depths of Song Xueyan’s eyes almost burst forth!

She recognized NG, a top-tier luxury brand—she had seen this exact dress in a magazine last month. It was a runway piece priced at nearly a million, bearing a lovely name:

[ The Lake ]

He Lian bought it for her?!

Disgust surged within her. Song Xueyan’s gaze pierced like an awl, desperate to catch a glimpse of panic or helplessness on Jiang Yu’s face upon seeing them.

Yet Jiang Yu’s expression was cool and distant. She merely glanced over them, her eyes instinctively landing on He Lian.

The man’s gaze darkened slightly as he quietly crossed his legs.

Intolerable.

He Zhiyi hurriedly waved her hand.

“Little A-Yu! Come over here quickly!”

She pulled Jiang Yu down to sit beside her, showing her off to the father-daughter pair as if displaying a prized treasure.

“If you two aren’t blind, it shouldn’t be hard to see how well A-Yu has been taken care of by us. So, if you know what’s good for you, get the hell out right now—don’t force me to let my brother step in!”

He Lian leaned back even further, stretching his arm across his sister’s back to gently stroke Jiang Yu’s head.

Song Qian couldn’t hold his composure much longer. Asking for her back was already difficult, and he hadn’t expected these siblings to play off each other so well.

One charging ahead on the front line while the other provided ironclad backup—he found himself unable to even open his mouth.

Beneath her eyelashes, Song Xueyan couldn’t stand seeing He Lian doting on Jiang Yu so much.

She was green with envy!

“Yes, A-Yu is an adult, but she has a mental illness! She cannot be considered a person with full civil capacity,” Song Qian said, growing increasingly anxious. “She can’t manage without people!”

He Lian: “Am I not a person?”

This rhetorical counter-question carried across He Zhiyi, making Jiang Yu clench her hand slightly as she struggled to hold back her laughter.

He Zhiyi burst out laughing directly.

Her brother usually kept his mouth shut—otherwise, he’d definitely poison people to death with his words.

Song Qian was utterly shocked and flustered, waving his hands in a hurry: “No, no, no, Mr. He, that’s not what I meant!”

He Lian: “Then what do you mean?”

“I… I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“If you didn’t mean anything by it, why did you two come here? Did you come specifically to fool around with me?”

“No, no, no.”

“Then you still meant what you said just now.”

“…”

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