Shao Xingyu had set up a private gathering for him that evening near Victoria Harbour.
Shen Keye was the last to arrive. He received a text message just as he walked through the door.
His brows relaxed in an instant.
Liang Jin wanted to come keep him company.
Shao Xingyu asked, “Got some news? Who is it?”
Shen Keye swept his gaze across the people in the room, his tone flat and casual. “Someone who’s chasing me.”
Shao Xingyu’s expression froze for a moment, suspicion flickering in his eyes. “You gonna call her over?”
Shen Keye sent the address, pocketed his phone, and said nothing.
After that “change leading lady” message went out, Shen Junbang’s dissatisfaction with him had spiked, and he’d cut off his living expenses.
It didn’t really affect Shen Keye’s usual spending, though.
Shen Keye tilted his head and asked, “Everyone here?”
“They’ve all arrived—a few are chatting out in the hallway,” Shao Xingyu said, lacing his hands behind his head with a helpless huff of laughter. “Ancestor, these are the people you told me to invite. If I don’t play along, are you planning to boot me out of the Hong Kong District overnight?”
Shen Keye shot him a sidelong glance but couldn’t be bothered to respond.
Shao Xingyu let out an “hey,” his tone suddenly turning serious. “So, you’re really planning to go up against your uncle?”
Word had come from Shanghai last week: the “mother” who’d raised Shen Keye had passed away.
Shen Keye fell silent for a beat, then gave a faint smile. “Wasn’t this the plan all along?”
~~~
Liang Jin took the bus for two stops to get there.
The address led to a clubhouse. It wasn’t decked out in the extravagant style of Ulta—instead, it had a low-key vibe, accented with subtle metallic gleams in dark tones.
Shen Keye was playing snooker.
When he wasn’t talking, he exuded a heavy air of melancholy. His profile was half-lost in the dim room, his tall, lean frame striking against the shadows.
Liang Jin pushed open the door, and the man guarding it did a double take. “Little miss, you in the wrong room?”
Liang Jin glanced at her phone to confirm. “Nope—4107.”
“Way too young. Whose girl are you?” The man glanced back at the room full of people and cracked a joke. “Did someone call their little sweetheart over from home?”
A few chuckles rippled through the room.
The man added, “We’re talking business here. Wait outside for now.”
The room held a mix of men and women, mostly middle-aged. The youngest by far was Shen Keye, who leaned casually on his cue stick. He stood there, his gaze faint as he looked her way without a word, seemingly waiting for her to respond.
Remembering that ambiguously teasing request Shen Keye had made right before she hung up at Ulta, Liang Jin said coolly, “I’m Shen Keye’s girl.”
Like the clubhouse itself, the girl carried a weary, aloof chill. Her gaze drifted over as if deliberately trying to provoke someone. “Ah-Ye, should I wait for you outside?”
The man blinked in surprise, his eyes following to the boy with the cold expression and faint smile. The rumors always said the Crown Prince kept his distance from women—they’d all thought no one could catch his eye. Turns out he went for girls like this.
When Shen Keye heard “Ah-Ye,” his mood seemed to lighten a touch. He let out a hum of laughter. “Come here.”
He was in the middle of a game against a man old enough to be his uncle. Liang Jin murmured softly, “I’m calling you that now, but I’ve already been fired from Ulta.”
She stood at his side and tilted her head with a smile. “Any severance pay coming my way?”
Her arrival had everyone tacitly dropping the business talk.
The room fell quiet.
Shen Keye bent down and potted the remaining ball with a clean stroke.
A crisp clink echoed.
He was skilled, but he played carelessly. All these big names who ruled the Hong Kong District saw right through it and quietly let him have his way.
Shen Keye finished his turn and glanced at the girl beside him. “Snooker—you know how to play?”
Liang Jin gave a soft “mm.”
Standing beneath the retro orange hanging lamp, the boy seemed pleased with her answer. The room hung heavy with his arrogant, aloof aura as he glanced at the table. “Seven balls left. You take over. I’ll pay you three times your part-time rate.”
His light, breezy words carried clearly through the room.
A few of the aunties smiled kindly.
Ninety percent of Liang Jin’s pay at Ulta came from commissions. Her biggest night had been the first time she met Shen Keye—240,000 worth of Moët & Chandon, for which she’d pocketed 15,000.
Liang Jin considered it for a moment, then deliberately hiked the price. “Three times eighteen thousand, then.”
Shen Keye handed her the cue and suddenly smiled. “Twenty thousand.”
The smooth shaft felt like polished white jade, cool against her palm. The moment she gripped it tight, she heard him say, “Win this game, Liang Jin, and it’s sixty thousand straight to you.”
Liang Jin froze for a second, meeting Shen Keye’s eyes.
Shao Xingyu sipped his tea from the sidelines. Earlier, his opponent—Uncle Lei—had deliberately let Shen Keye stay ahead by keeping the score gap to just under five points.
The problem was, Shen Keye craved a real challenge.
Uncle Lei’s businesses were mostly in North America. Shen Keye wanted to do the man a casual favor, but the guy was being way too enthusiastic and deferential.
Shao Xingyu lounged back like he was watching a show. The moment Liang Jin walked in, he’d been itching for popcorn. Now? The real fun was just beginning.
That sixty thousand dollars would never end up in Liang Jin’s pocket.
These people might yield to Shen Keye, but they would never yield to her.
Liang Jin didn’t grasp the intricacies, but after standing by the pool table and casually eyeing her opponent’s stance, she knew at once: this was a seasoned player.
She didn’t even need to take a shot. Her opponent cleared all seven balls in a single turn.
Uncle Lei simply wiped down his cue with some chalk, then smiled with refined elegance. “Ah-Ye, it looks like luck was on my side this round. Your little girlfriend won’t be getting her turn.”
Shen Keye glanced at Liang Jin. The girl was watching him with a hint of suspicion.
The business game didn’t drag on. Everyone soon parted ways.
Liang Jin walked beside Shen Keye, keeping a smile on her face until the others had gone.
Then her expression cooled. “Shen Keye, you did that on purpose.”
In that game, he had used her as a proxy to hand the win—and the sixty thousand—to that wealthy gentleman.
She had actually believed he would let her have the sixty thousand.
They stood outside the clubhouse, just a few steps from the stairs leading down to the river. Under the streetlamp, the young man lowered his gaze, his face aloof and distant. He checked his phone and said, “Shen Junbang cut off my allowance.”
Liang Jin paused, suspecting it had something to do with a text message. Softly, she asked, “So you’re broke now?”
Her words, laced with sarcasm, made him chuckle. He added, “He said if I don’t take Jiang Manyu to Macau next week for some fun, there’ll be fresh trouble.”
Liang Jin frowned. She knew Shen Junbang and Shen Keye didn’t get along, but she hadn’t realized it had soured to the point where he wouldn’t even pretend anymore.
“Jiang Manyu likes you,” she said.
Shen Keye let out a cold scoff. “What does her liking me have to do with anything?”
“I don’t like you.”
If Shen Keye liked Jiang Manyu, he wouldn’t be in trouble—and he could help her.
But since Shen Keye didn’t like her, how could he possibly help?
Liang Jin seemed to be teasing him on purpose. Her thin lips pressed together as she asked, “…If I said that, you’d get mad, right?”
He was looking at her.
The dark river surface stretched blindly before them, ships cutting through the chilly rapids. The glittering panorama of the riverfront unfolded—skyscrapers rising in serried ranks.
This was the Hong Kong District, a prosperity so intense it could suffocate.
Sometime during their exchange, a light rain had begun to fall, drifting down in fine sheets.
Liang Jin followed Shen Keye to the edge of the Pearl River and lit a cigarette.
Squinting her eyes, she said, “Shen Keye, I’m chasing you now.”
The words rang hollow with insincerity.
Yet in her current state—with the first hints of icy allure and extravagant poise shining through—even her arrogance and nonchalance carried a unique charm.
Shen Keye swept his gaze over her, letting it drift down to her lips clamped around the cigarette. “I’ll transfer the sixty thousand to your card.”
He drawled the words slowly, his smile loaded with deeper meaning, as if satisfied once more.
“Didn’t I lose, though?” Liang Jin hated this kind of ambiguous attitude most of all. She glanced at the man beside her. “Shen Keye, do you actually like me, or are you just toying with me?”
Shen Keye tugged at his lips in a carefree grin. “I offer you the money, and you don’t want it?”
Liang Jin shot back, “I do.”
The girl’s face was cool and detached, her dark hair adorned with a silver cross hairpin that sank into the murky night. Under the dim lighting, the diamonds gleamed like strands of starlight.
Shen Keye gave a soft snort. He leaned in close and lifted a hand to borrow the cigarette from between her lips.
“You should be asking me,” he said, “whether it’s liking you—or—”
Wanting to possess you.
He was very close now, his nose tip nearly brushing hers. That tiny black mole added a touch of danger.
His dark eyes bored straight into her, inscrutable and shadowed.
Liang Jin’s eyes stung, her body trembling as if offended.
—His thin lips, marked with the trace of her lipstick, gave the cigarette a light bite.
Frightened, Liang Jin averted her gaze.
Shen Keye asked, “Liang Jin, guess what—will I keep helping you, or dodge the new mess my uncle’s thrown my way?”
The girl’s voice came out flustered and curt, her brows lightly furrowed. It was less a plea than a command. “You have to help me.”
The day Shen Junbang demanded the Macau trip was October 23rd—Liang Jin’s eighteenth birthday, and the final deadline Zeng Zhi had given her.
Only seven days left.
“At latest, in one week, I want a fair shot against Jiang Manyu.”
Her fingertips had gone numb in the river breeze.
Liang Jin called his name in compromise.
Her nose tip flushed red as she turned to him, her intent to use him laid bare.
“Ah-Ye.”