Endless Summer: The Champion's Vengeful Kiss - Chapter 15

On the first day of autumn, the third phase of the partnership between Jin Enterprises and Zhong Enterprises officially began.

I called my mother and told her calmly, “Zhong Enterprises is mine now. If you want to leave my father, I will help you.”

In return, she screamed at me for being an ungrateful daughter.

After hanging up, I told He Linchuan, “I can’t save her. It seems her fate is to be tormented by my father for the rest of her life.”

He nodded, his hair slightly messy as he straightened my disheveled collar. “You’ve already lost seven years because of her.”

I couldn’t let my whole life be ruined by her.

I reached for my cigarettes, then thought better of it and put them back. “Jin Huai contacted me. He said he agrees to the divorce, but he wants to meet one last time before he signs the papers.”

He Linchuan’s expression immediately turned cold. “I’m going with you.”

Three days later, I met Jin Huai at the same bar as before. He looked at me with hazy, drunken eyes. His first words were, “I broke up with Song Tinglan. Ah Ni, can we get back together?”

Before I could answer, He Linchuan sneered from beside me. “The original is back. What use is there for a knock-off like you?”

Jin Huai’s face contorted when he saw him. He looked at me, his lips moving. “When did you two get together?”

“None of your business.” I held out my hand to him, my face impassive. “The divorce agreement. Give it to me.”

Jin Huai gave a bitter laugh. “Ah Ni, I really regret it. I looked down on you before because of all the terrible rumors about you. And you were always so submissive with me, your head always bowed. I didn’t know-”

“You didn’t know what?” I cut him off sharply. “That this is who I really am? That I smoke, drink, and usurped my own father? Or that you’re just pathetic, and you can’t appreciate someone who treats you well? That it takes someone who doesn’t give a damn about you to keep you interested?”

“We still have a business partnership, Jin Huai. You’re a man of the world. Stop this ridiculous act.”

Jin Huai’s face was ashen, his eyes filled with a cheap, manufactured pain. I ignored him, took the agreement from his hand, and walked away.

Later, Song Tinglan came to my office. She stood in front of me and screamed about how I was a fickle slut, shamelessly involved with He Linchuan before my divorce was even final.

I listened for a while, then lost my patience. I stood up, grabbed her by the throat, and brought the lit end of my cigarette close to her face. The glowing ember stopped just a centimeter from her cheek.

“Ah! What are you doing? You wouldn’t dare, Zhong Ni, you dare-!”

As she shrieked in terror, I smiled. “You worked so hard to suppress me, inciting your fans to bully me online. I didn’t bother with you before because I still needed Jin Huai. But now? With your pathetic little tricks, you’d be wise not to provoke me.”

I let her go, stubbed out my cigarette in the ashtray, and watched her flee in disarray. Then I called security. “Don’t let her in again.”

Only after all that did I speak to the empty air. “You can come out now.”

He Linchuan emerged from the shadows behind the curtain. “Zhong Ni.”

I turned to look at him.

“I had a classmate abroad do some digging for me recently. I found some interesting things. Whether you use them, and when, is up to you.”