Liang Jin hung up the phone, lowered her gaze, and explained, “My sister is sick. He wants to cover the costs.”
Shen Keye asked, “Keep you as his mistress?”
Such an ugly word coming out of Shen Keye’s mouth made Liang Jin frown. The girl lifted her eyes with a sarcastic glint. “Isn’t that exactly what you’re thinking?”
Shen Keye curled his lip, his tone growing colder. “Liang Jin, is this how you pursue someone?”
He hadn’t gotten the lighter yet. He held out his hand, his voice firm. “You think I’ll definitely help you, don’t you?”
Liang Jin’s jumbled thoughts came to a sudden halt. She slowly raised her head and met Shen Keye’s pitch-black eyes. Today, his black long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants gave him a casual look—slender and reserved. If she hadn’t known he was coveting her, she might have been fooled by his young, handsome features.
She might have actually found someone like him attractive.
Liang Jin looked away. She tamped down her inner turmoil and anger, then handed over the lighter. “Here.”
Shen Keye let out a soft scoff. He rubbed the silver lighter, tracing the engraving that was unique to Liang Jin. It still carried the warmth of her body.
“Last night, there was a poll going around at school,” he said. The flame leaped to life, softening the sharp lines of his cold face. Shen Keye explained the mini program’s betting pool. “It’s on who’ll come out on top.”
The mini program had popped up on SNS—probably the work of some computer science prankster—wagering on whether Liang Jin or Jiang Manyu would snag the female lead in the movie promoting all of Hong Kong.
Liang Jin’s odds were less than one in ten thousand. It had the feel of a horse race.
Almost no one believed she could take first place. The total bets on Jiang Manyu had already hit three hundred thousand.
One comment even read: 【Are the people betting on Liang Jin idiots?】
Liang Jin’s voice turned cool. “Did you bet?”
Shen Keye took a drag from his cigarette and sat down, tilting his head. “Not yet.”
Liang Jin suggested, “You should.”
She wanted to gauge his stance.
Liang Jin bet a hundred bucks on herself, then passed her phone to Shen Keye.
He stared at her, his gaze deep and probing. “You want me to bet?”
“Yeah.”
Shen Keye logged into his account and promptly dropped seven hundred thousand on Jiang Manyu.
Liang Jin stood frozen, convinced she’d misread the screen.
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
She struggled to keep her voice even. She never could have imagined Shen Keye siding with Jiang Manyu at a moment like this.
Liang Jin wanted to lash out, but she knew better. Compared to picking Deng Jiayi, Shen Keye was the smarter choice.
“Ah-Ye,” she said, “you don’t want to play chess with me anymore, do you?”
She knew she needed money now more than ever.
Two medical bills were waiting back in Jiangnan. Her mother’s life and her sister’s hung in the balance, all on her.
Her voice grew urgent. “Or does Deng Jiayi showing up make you happy? I can explain—”
Liang Jin had never been one to shy away from calling out someone else’s wrongs. She still looked much as she had that Friday when they’d first met: white blouse and short pleated skirt, her glossy black hair cascading over her slender white shoulders. Anxiety made her seem fragile and helpless, her dark eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
Shen Keye pressed his lips together and set the cigarette aside.
He arranged the chessboard and leaned back in the plain metal chair, crossing his legs in a relaxed sprawl. It didn’t feel like they were in the equipment room anymore. He seemed more like he was holding court at some high-society gala, stars orbiting him, power at his fingertips. “Two hours until the poll closes, Liang Jin,” he cut in. “You’ve still got a shot.”
Liang Jin couldn’t fathom why Shen Keye had suddenly thrown seven hundred thousand behind Jiang Manyu. “Are you scared of your uncle?” she pressed.
Her voice trembled, laced with barely restrained frenzy. “Or after weighing the odds, does the Crown Prince figure there’s no point fighting for this movie role on my behalf?”
Shen Keye tilted his head back to look at her. Liang Jin was teetering on the edge, her words spilling out like sharpened blades. She bit her lip until the pale flesh turned white.
The boy picked up the black king and sat there in solitude. He listened to her near-breakdown accusations with icy detachment, then asked, “Don’t you know how to tip the scales?”
He had taught her what a true game was.
Liang Jin let out a cold laugh.
In the end, it all came down to a single word from him. But deep down, was Shen Keye nothing more than a coward?
She told him flatly, “Shen Keye, I have to win for things to turn out the way you want.”
Shen Keye shot back, “And do you know what I want, Liang Jin?”
The girl lowered her eyes to him, her posture tinged with pity.
Her voice held a note of hesitation, but her conviction was unshakable.
She leaned down and said, “Me.”
~~~
The chess match dragged on interminably, and Liang Jin’s phone kept buzzing with incoming calls. Liang Wenbin had received a message from Deng Jiayi demanding answers about Liang Jin, and to top it off, he was still hounding her for the money he’d fronted for Liang Wei’s medical checkup.
Shen Keye told Liang Jin to put the call on speaker.
After a moment’s hesitation, she relented.
“Liang Jin, what’s your attitude toward Jiayi? Zeng Zhi has spoiled you rotten—you don’t even show respect to your elders.”
She had fought with Liang Wenbin right before the college entrance exams, an incident that had spread through the entire school and left her pointed at whenever she went out, but even then, Liang Jin had never truly felt humiliated. Yet now, with Shen Keye sitting across from her as her opponent, Liang Wenbin’s opening salvo of scolding hit her like a slap, making her taste shame for the very first time in her life.
Liang Jin hurriedly glanced at the board. She was at a clear disadvantage. “If there’s nothing else,” she said, “I’m hanging up.”
Liang Wenbin pressed on. “Jiayi says you’re with some other guy—what does that mean? Who is he? Do you even realize you only turned eighteen today?”
Liang Jin found it absurd that Liang Wenbin actually remembered it was her eighteenth birthday.
Shen Keye sat there, lifting his gaze. His moves were as ruthless as ever, and Liang Jin’s pieces were on the verge of being wiped out.
“Shen Keye.” If this kept up, she was bound to lose. Ignoring Liang Wenbin, she asked, “What do you want? Are you going to let me win?”
The young man propped his chin on his hand. When the girl called his name so softly, he suddenly curved his lips in a wicked grin. “Give me a kiss.”
His carefree posture made him look like a rakish playboy. The tiny mole on his straight nose bridge only added to his roguish, devil-may-care charm when he smiled, and Liang Jin couldn’t help doubting whether he meant it.
From the other end of the line, Liang Wenbin exploded. “Liang Jin, have you no shame? What kind of shameless thing is that to say!”
“I’ll tell your mother!”
The call cut off, but Liang Jin had no time for that.
She stared at him bluntly. “Shen Keye, you said before that I didn’t have to do things like this.”
She had no intention of kissing him.
Shen Keye responded nonchalantly, lifting his hand to tap the call log on her phone screen with the black chess piece he held. “Is this your father? Is he always like this?”
Liang Jin frowned. “What’s it got to do with him?”
Shen Keye seemed intrigued. He made a promise. “Tell me about it, and I’ll let you win.”
His sudden gentleness caught her off guard as he slowly raised his eyes to meet hers.
Shen Keye could be this tender, too.
Liang Jin froze in place.
“You first,” she demanded. “Let me win.”
Shen Keye chuckled.
And just like that, he made a blatant blunder.
Liang Jin stared at him in bewilderment.
“How many games will you let me have?” she asked.
“Two,” Shen Keye said.
Let two, chase three.
Was this guy just toying with her?
Unwilling to let it go, Liang Jin pressed, “What happens if I lose?”
They had agreed from the start that the loser would do as the winner said.
Shen Keye didn’t look at her. In a cool voice, he replied, “I want that thing—you know the answer.”
Liang Jin let out a soft scoff. “If you don’t let me play the female lead, I’ll leave the Hong Kong District. You won’t get me then.”
There was no point in continuing. Her delicate features showed no joy or sorrow as she fixed him with a steely gaze and conceded. “Shen Keye, no more games. I lose.”
There was no time left.
The clock struck twelve with resonant chimes—”dong, dong, dong”—perhaps startling the white doves at the distant church, as a flurry of startled bird calls echoed through the air.
The HKU Broadcast Station was riding the wave of excitement to announce the rankings for the movie casting.
The earlier standoff, plus the call with Liang Wenbin, had already wasted too much time.
The girl frowned and looked up, hesitating for a beat before rising to her feet.
“I don’t want to leave the Hong Kong District,” Liang Jin said.
She stood there, then stepped forward and abruptly grabbed the young man’s collar, leaning down to gaze at him.
Her dry, warm, soft lips brushed lightly against Shen Keye’s—a fleeting touch that parted as quickly as it had come.
The tender sensation carried the faint, cool fragrance of her scent, laced with a stubborn refusal to bow to fate.
The female lead was about to be announced. Liang Jin stared at Shen Keye. “Is this enough sincerity?”
It was a moment charged with complex, despairing allure.
Shen Keye had just been kissed. His eyes flickered subtly. He paused, then let out a breathy chuckle—thoroughly wicked. “What sincerity?”
Liang Jin said, “I need money.”
The words left her feeling helpless, so she rephrased it more delicately. “I like your money.”
She went on. “Don’t you want me? Here—your one chance.”
Her words tumbled out faster than usual, but those eyes of hers remained cool and proud.
The broadcast announcer beat her to it, however, diving straight into the procedure. “This round of voting for the 《Hong Kong Ballet》 movie used real-name registration. After verification, we’ve removed nearly three hundred thousand duplicate votes. We now announce the number one vote-getter across all of Hong Kong…”
The gentle female voice delivered the announcement first in Cantonese, then Mandarin, and finally English.
The broadcast teased its audience. “The female lead is——”
Shen Keye echoed the announcement.
“Liang… Jin.”
In an instant, Liang Jin’s eyes reddened slightly. That earlier brush of their lips had been nothing more than a fleeting touch, yet it burned with a scorching pain, as if her skin had been seared.
Shen Keye’s gaze drifted casually from the corner of his eye to her face.
Liang Jin suddenly realized her grave mistake.
Shen Keye wasn’t standing with Jiang Manyu at all. He had firmly chosen her side.
The three hundred thousand he had transferred to her was because he had long decided to play all five rounds with her.
The outcome didn’t matter—what counted was the process. Shen Keye’s goal wasn’t merely to claim her; he wanted to possess her to the utmost degree.
He provoked her to draw out more about her, and she had fallen right into the trap, handing herself over to him even more completely.
Shen Keye’s pitch-black eyes bored into hers, young and arrogant, a faint smile playing on his lips. He lounged against the cheap seat like a prize ripe for the taking, that small black mole to the left of his nose tip standing out aggressively.
Cheers and angry protests erupted outside the door.
Shen Keye glanced at the Equipment Room’s dark metal door. “The Mini Program votes were probably just you picking yourself.”
With a mere hundred yuan, Liang Jin had won Shen Keye’s seven hundred thousand and the whole school’s three hundred thousand.
He stared at her coldly, his posture that of a predator ready to devour her whole. “One million—your birthday gift.” The boy tilted his head. “You shouldn’t be short on cash for a while now, Liang Jin.”
The shocking words, combined with the realization that she had been thoroughly outmaneuvered, left her reeling.
Liang Jin’s breaths came quick and ragged, her entire body trembling.
Shen Keye caught her hand and casually pulled her onto his lap. At such close range, Liang Jin let out a startled cry, feeling utterly enveloped by his presence. She called his name in a desperate bid to stop him. “Shen Keye!”
He was too dangerous.
Liang Jin tried to wrench herself free.
“Happy birthday.”
Shen Keye let out a soft chuckle, lowering his eyes to gaze down at her mockingly. “What a shame, Baby. You lost yourself to me.”