Cheng Qingchong went back into the bathroom with the towel and gave it a good scrub. When she came out, Jin Ze didn’t seem to have moved. She studied the man for a while before pulling her eyes away.

His breathing sounds so even. He should be sleeping, right? Does this mean that I’m spared tonight?

Ultimately, she couldn’t bring herself to share a bed with a man other than Qin Yinan, so after standing beside the bed, contemplating it for a while, she turned and was about to head out the door when Jin Ze suddenly turned in bed.

His action was so sudden that Cheng Qingchong froze with her breath held. She turned around slowly to look at the man. His eyes were still closed, but for some reason, Cheng Qingchong felt like he was looking at her. He patted the empty space beside him and said, “Lie down.”

Cheng Qingchong’s heart quivered twice, but she stood there immobile. About three minutes later, Jin Ze flipped his eyes open, and in the same lumbering tone, he repeated his earlier words. “Lie down to sleep.”

It sounded ostentatiously patient, but Cheng Qingchong could hear the underlying warning.

Her hands gripped the edge of her clothes tightly, but she didn’t dare dawdle. She crawled into bed with shaking limbs and stayed as far as she could from the man. One more inch, and she would have fallen off the edge.

Jin Ze turned his head to look at the distance between them that could be occupied by another person, and he frowned. Without wasting time on Cheng Qingchong, he reached out to grab Cheng Qingchong’s wrist to pull her right into his embrace.

The scent of the unfamiliar man instantly filled up Cheng Qingchong’s lungs. It caused her spine to freeze, and her body shook uncontrollably.

Jin Ze’s hands fell on Cheng Qingchong’s waist to pull her deeper into his arms.

Cheng Qingchong’s mind was in such a panic as if thunderstruck. Forgetting the fact that she had sold herself to Jin Ze to save Qin Yinan, she started to struggle on instinct. Jin Ze didn’t expect her resistance. In an effort to save himself, he shoved her away, and she almost fell off the bed.

Jin Ze frowned and turned to look at the woman with displeasure. He was about to scold her when he saw her curl up on the edge of the bed, wrapping the cover around her like some kind of trauma victim. Her quivering eyes were looking at him full of guard.

The words that Jin Ze wanted to say stopped in his throat, and with a frown, he slowly approached Cheng Qingchong.

The anxiety within the woman amplified with his approach. She kept moving backward until her back felt the wooden headboard. Without anywhere else to turn, she looked about before deciding to jump off from bed.

However, before she could do that, Jin Ze reached out to grab her wrist to yank her before him.

Jin Ze didn’t say or do anything, but Cheng Qingchong started to lose control. As she struggled to escape from his grasp, she pleaded with tears choking up her words, “Please don’t… No… Don’t… I can’t… Help…”

Jin Ze’s brows furrowed deeply, and his grasp on Cheng Qingchong’s wrist tightened as he pulled her closer to his body.

His action caused the woman to panic even more. She collapsed in tears, and her mouth kept mumbling, “Please… give me some more time, please… please…”