The Subtle Seduction of My Ex-Girlfriend’s Aunt - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Is She Not Treating You Well?

Tang Ran stared straight at her, the roiling emotions in her eyes intense and thick as ink.

Song Zhixu turned her head away, breaking eye contact.

It was obvious Tang Ran wasn’t fully awake yet; she had mistaken her for someone else.

The act of avoidance seemed to trigger something. Tang Ran once again grabbed the lapels of Song Zhixu’s disheveled shirt. Tears welled in her eyes, and her body trembled slightly as she rasped, “Why?”

Her voice was hoarse from crying, and her words were filled with a heavy sense of grievance.

Tang Ran’s surging sorrow hit Song Zhixu like a tidal wave. Song Zhixu sighed inwardly and opened her lips to ask: “Is she not treating you well?”

Song Zhixu knew about the relationship with Song Wuqi because her mother, Jiang Mei, had told her. Tang Ran’s mother, Tang Wanru, was an acquaintance of Jiang Mei.

When they first got together, Jiang Mei had called Song Zhixu immediately to share the news, using the opportunity to nag Song Zhixu about her own life. After all, Song Wuqi was a niece seven years younger than Song Zhixu.

Due to corporate restructuring, Song Zhixu had spent most of the past year either in Beijing or abroad. She had only returned to Jiang City twice and hadn’t paid much attention to their affairs. In the phone call she received yesterday, Jiang Mei had even mentioned that Tang Ran and Song Wuqi were getting along well and were planning to finalize their marriage.

However, the scene before her looked nothing like what her mother had described.

Tang Ran seemed to have woken up, but her consciousness was still blurred. She didn’t answer the question, only staring stubbornly at Song Zhixu. “Why do you treat me like this?”

Why have you been lying to me? Why won’t you let me go even after the Tang family went bankrupt? Why must you destroy my family?

Tang Ran gripped Song Zhixu’s collar tightly. Song Zhixu curled her lip slightly. Instead of arguing, she followed Tang Ran’s logic to soothe her: “It’s my fault.”

In the less than an hour since they had met, this girl had already cried twice.

Tang Ran looked at her blankly. She understood the words, and the moment they left Song Zhixu’s mouth, tears spilled uncontrollably from Tang Ran’s eyes. Large droplets slid down her cheeks and shattered on the floor like broken pearls.

“Don’t cry.”

Song Zhixu raised her hand, intending to wipe away the tears, but paused. She changed direction and patted Tang Ran’s back to help her catch her breath.

The sobs in Tang Ran’s throat could no longer be suppressed. Leaning against Song Zhixu’s shoulder, her gasps grew more frequent until they turned into a heart-wrenching, agonizing wail.

Song Zhixu was not a cold-hearted person. Hearing such crying, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity. How badly must such a cheerful and lively person have been hurt to cry this sorrowfully?

After an unknown amount of time, the sobbing gradually stopped. The entryway light dimmed, leaving the room lit only by the neon shadows filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

A soft, cold sensation landed on Song Zhixu’s collarbone. Before she could process it, a sharp, piercing pain spread rapidly across the skin of her neck.

Tang Ran bit her, using a vicious amount of force. Song Zhixu could even feel the tips of Tang Ran’s teeth piercing her skin.

Song Zhixu hissed, taking a sharp breath of pain.

Half an hour later, the door to 1902 opened.

Passing the elevator, Song Zhixu didn’t enter but walked straight to the opposite unit, 1901. Fingerprint scan—access granted.

A call from her special assistant, Jiang Lin, came through. Song Zhixu had four secretaries and one special assistant. The secretaries handled business affairs, while the special assistant coordinated with them and also managed her personal life.

“CEO Song, CEO Xu of Wanrun returns to Yang City the day after tomorrow. Should I book your flight for tomorrow afternoon?”

Song’s subsidiary supermarket chain, Jiahe, intended to expand into the Yang City market. For the past few months, Song Wuqi had been busy with Jiahe’s acquisition of Daning, a long-established Yang City supermarket brand. Wanrun was one of the giants in Yang City’s commercial real estate; having CEO Xu as a mediator would be beneficial for both the acquisition and future market development.

Song Zhixu bent down to take off her high heels. The movement pulled at the wound on her collarbone, causing a sharp sting. She frowned. “I won’t be going to Yang City for now.”

“Understood.”

Jiang Lin didn’t ask further and hung up efficiently. Although she didn’t know why her boss had suddenly changed plans, as a seasoned special assistant, she could sense a subtle shift in her boss’s mood.

The Yang City expansion was a project Grandpa Song had used to test Song Wuqi, and Song Zhixu had intended to mentor her niece. Now that she had suddenly changed her stance and stopped helping, it was highly likely that Manager Song had done something to displease her.

Song Zhixu hung up and dialed another number.

“Little Aunt.”

The phone rang several times before Song Wuqi answered. Her voice was somewhat raspy.

“Email me the preliminary negotiation documents for the Daning project.” Song Zhixu unbuttoned her third button, loosening her collar so it wouldn’t rub against the wound.

“Okay.” Receiving a call from her aunt about work made Song Wuqi sit up straight as if facing a formidable enemy, creating distance between herself and Ye Xiaoyu.

Ye Xiaoyu bit her lip, shyly clutching her loose collar.

Having received her answer, Song Zhixu hung up. She went to the study for a first aid kit and then called Murong Yi back.

“Darling, are you here? I’ll send Xiao He to pick you up.” Murong Yi’s voice was hyper; she was clearly having a good time. Song Zhixu held the receiver further away to escape the noisy background before replying.

“Something came up. I won’t be coming over today.”

“No way!” Murong Yi let out a mock wail and began her accusation. “You finally return to Jiang City, we haven’t seen you in a month, do you know how much we miss you? As they say, one day apart is like—”

Song Zhixu interrupted the rambling. “I had Jiang Lin find the tickets for Zhong Yi’s concert. Come pick them up at Shengming Mansions tomorrow.”

Upon hearing this, Murong Yi’s tone flipped instantly. “Song Zhixu, I love you so much!”

The young girlfriend Murong Yi had recently started dating was a hardcore fan of the popular singer Zhong Yi. The girl had stayed up for several nights but failed to get tickets and had cried to Murong Yi about it. Murong Yi then asked Song Zhixu to find two VIP tickets.

“But why are you staying in that small apartment at Shengming Mansions?”

“Talk later, I’m busy.”

After hanging up, Song Zhixu took off her shirt and brought the first aid kit to the bathroom. Her body, conditioned by years of exercise, had perfect lines, and her tight abdomen had an enviable definition.

Deep, dark red teeth marks were embedded in her collarbone. In the center where the canines had sunk in, the skin was broken, and tiny beads of blood were seeping out.

Song Zhixu treated the wound. Her phone screen lit up—it was the email from Song Wuqi. She clicked it, scrolled through quickly, pointed out about a dozen areas that needed changing, and sent it back.

On the other side, Song Wuqi’s face darkened when she received the email. The negotiations were tomorrow. If she changed everything Song Zhixu pointed out, neither she nor her team would sleep tonight. But Song Zhixu’s suggestions were undeniably better; Song Wuqi had no grounds to argue.

The sun rose, marking a new day.

“The sun comes out and I climb the hill, I get to the hilltop and I want to sing…”

A fair arm reached out from under the duvet, fumbling by the pillow for a while before finding the phone placed neatly on the nightstand.

“Hello,” Tang Ran answered groarily with her eyes closed.

“Tsk tsk, why is your voice so hoarse!” The female voice on the other end immediately took on a gossipy tone. “Confess now! Did you and Song Wuqi do ‘that’ last night?”

“Tiantian?” Tang Ran recognized the voice. She sat up abruptly and asked in pleasant surprise, “Are you better?”

Miao Tiantian and her first love, Yu Qing, had been entangled in an on-and-off relationship for years. In the end, it didn’t work out, and she had fallen into depression. Tang Ran hadn’t heard Miao Tiantian speak in such a relaxed tone for a long time.

“Better from what? My cold got better ages ago. Don’t try to change the subject. Confess! Xiao Lu saw everything yesterday—Song Wuqi picked you up.”

Xiao Lu was a bartender at ‘He,’ but he had resigned and returned to his hometown two years ago. Furthermore, Miao Tiantian had had a huge fight with Tang Ran over Song Wuqi; she hadn’t mentioned Song Wuqi’s name in front of her since then.

“Hearing your voice, you must have been put through your paces last night. Oh my, when I get back from my business trip, we have to celebrate. Congratulations to our little Tang girl for finally breaking her twenty-two-year vegetarian streak.”

Those words were like a bolt of lightning, instantly clearing the confusion in Tang Ran’s mind.

Twenty-two years old… that was three years ago.

“Wait, you, wait a minute.” Tang Ran snapped her eyes open and scanned her surroundings.

Colorful cartoon murals, a Pikachu plushie in the corner. This wasn’t the villa where she lived with Song Wuqi after their marriage—it was her apartment in Shengming Mansions.

Shengming Mansions was a birthday gift Tang Ran had received when she was eighteen. She loved this apartment; the interior was meticulously designed to her tastes. To pay off her family’s debts after the bankruptcy, Tang Ran had sold this apartment at a low price.

Tang Ran never imagined she would ever return to Shengming Mansions.

“Hello! Hello! Tang Ran, what are you doing?” Miao Tiantian’s voice came from the speaker.

“Tiantian, I have something to do. I’ll call you back.”

Tang Ran hung up hurriedly and brought the phone to her eyes. An iFruit 7—a product from three years ago.

Tang Ran’s breath hitched. She stared intensely at the black screen, swallowed hard instinctively, and pressed her thumb against the wake button on the right. Her left hand gripped the duvet tightly while her right hand, holding the phone, trembled slightly. Tang Ran took a deep breath and pressed down.

The screen lit up. On the familiar cartoon background, the date was: May 21st, three years ago.

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