"Okay, this way, Sir," the dean said.
This time, Jessy was working on some tests for medical students. She had no classes left for the day, so she was ready to go home.
"Hello, Lecturer Jessy. May we come in?" the chairman asked.
"Please, just call me Jessy, or 'Student Jessy' is fine. And yes, you can come in," she said.
The three elders looked at each other. "She is too humble," one whispered.
"I like this side of her," Mr. Gray noted.
That idiot... I can't miss this opportunity to make her my daughter-in-law, Mrs. Gray thought to herself. Aloud, she smiled warmly.
"Okay, Student Jessy, kindly meet our university sponsors..." the chairman began.
"Oh no, Mr. Mark, please stop with the formality," Mrs. Gray interrupted. "We are the Gray family. We came here just to see and meet you. Since you joined our university, you have brought nothing but excellent results. So, when we heard you were on campus, we decided to travel down here."
Mrs. Gray was widely known for her cold attitude and sharp tongue. The chairman was deeply surprised to see this side of her. She is way too polite, he thought.
"Yes, child, we traveled all this way to see you, but you have surprised us, dear. You are so young... You are..." Old Master Gray trailed off.
"I am turning nineteen soon. Thank you, elders, and I am sorry if I disrupted your rest," she said.
"No, no... Dear, you didn't cause any trouble at all. We wanted to make sure you were safe," Mrs. Gray said. "And we realize that you are new to this city. Did you manage to find accommodation?"
Deep down, the Grays were all praying that she would say no.
"Yeah, I'm new here, but I have a place. I arranged it before coming to the city almost two years ago. Thank you," she replied.
They were visibly disappointed, but what could they do?
"Well, since you are new here, our daughter is also around," Mrs. Gray pressed on. "She was supposed to come with us, but her brothers took her with them. Do try to go shopping with her sometime. She is friendly, open-minded, and she's twenty-three."
"Okay, I will. You can take my number so she can contact me. Though I don't like noisy environments, I hope she will take me somewhere quiet," Jessy said.
"Then you and our daughter will get along perfectly! She is very low-key, has no friends except for her brothers, and prefers a silent environment," Mr. Gray said, pleased.
They were delighted with how she carried herself. As for Jessy, though she tried her best not to get emotional, she couldn't hold it in for long after they left. I can't believe it's been so long since somebody took good care of me. Recalling her mother's smile, she suddenly remembered the white jade pendant she had been given.
Meanwhile, out in the hallway, the chairman turned to the others. "That child is a good child. She is way too humble. Seeing how the Grays talked to her, and how respectfully she addressed us... I wish I could adopt her."
"I couldn't believe it until today," one of the lecturers added. "The great goddess of studies is just an eighteen-year-old girl with a Ph.D. I salute her."
Jessy packed her things and left the school building for home. On her way, she felt an intense need to relieve the tension building up inside her. She drove into her villa and changed into simple clothes—her mother's old clothes. She hadn't known back then that they would someday be useful, but now she needed to disguise herself as a poor woman so that no man in his right mind would notice her.
She carefully adjusted her face mask. She hated looking at her real face or walking around with it, as it reminded her too much of her late mother.
Many people thought she didn't resemble her mother, but that was a lie; her mother had taught her exactly how to use makeup to hide her true features. "Always put on this makeup until you are strong enough." Those had been her mother's words. Since she was four years old, she had lived in disguise. She slipped on a long, oversized black dress. It was huge on her, but the craftsmanship was clearly the work of a professional.
She rode her bicycle to a local venue called the Loveless Bar. She had no idea it was one of the most dangerous bars in town, owned by a man named Lee Ming.
With her shabby hair out of place and her disguised face looking wrinkled and plain, she pulled out a VIP card and showed it to the guards. Stepping inside, she looked around and immediately felt out of place. Women were dressed provocatively, people were making out in dark corners, the music blasted through the speakers, and the heavy stench of alcohol hung in the air. But this wasn't what brought her here.
She walked straight to the counter and spoke to the bartender. "Hello, give me your most expensive drink, but make sure it has a strong alcohol content."
"Okay, Miss. Your drink will be served in a minute," the young man replied.
Across the room, a group of elite men watched her.
"Hey, look over there. That lady is too ugly," Lee remarked.
"Haha, look at her unkempt hair, her dress, her handbag... and her face has wrinkles all over," Drake laughed. "I think this one is perfect for you, Lee. You have no taste when it comes to women anyway."
Just as they were mocking her, a group of arrogant young masters from the city walked over and surrounded her table. Jessy didn't even lift her head or look frightened. Instead, she took her drink and gulped it down in one go.
"Hey, hey, ugly duckling. Aren't you here looking for a one-night stand?" one of the handsome men sneered. "So why are you pretending you can't see us? Do you know how desperately the other ladies in here want to just breathe the same air as us?"
"You'd better start by pulling up that ugly dress," another guy barked. "We don't care whether you're ugly or not. All we care about is what's between your legs."
"Sure, I'll give it to you," Jessy said calmly.
She lifted one of her legs, and what the men saw instantly freaked them out. A gun. This woman had a gun strapped to her thigh.
Before they could react, a young master lunged for her, but Jessy didn't even blink. In one fluid motion, her leg swept out, a flash of black fabric following her kick. A sickening thud echoed through the bar as he crashed to the floor. Before the others could draw breath, she became a blur of violence—efficient, cold, and deadly.
All of the young masters were knocked out on the floor within five seconds.
But immediately after the adrenaline faded, Jessy lost consciousness and collapsed onto the ground.
"What was that?" Lee was the first to react, his eyes wide.
"You saw it. This ugly woman is a total badass. She's no joke," Drake muttered in awe.
Edward opened his eyes, fixed his gaze on the unconscious woman, and moved toward her. He didn't fully understand what internal force was driving him to rescue her, but he lifted her up and carried her to his penthouse in a luxury building not far from the bar.
When Jessy briefly regained consciousness, her mind was completely hazy. Her body was burning with an unnatural heat; all she could think about was finding relief. She pulled Edward close and kissed him desperately.
"Please help me... my body is on fire. I need you," she whimpered.
Without realizing what she was doing, her hands wandered over his body. Edward froze. No matter what type of high-class woman he had met in the past, no one had ever made him lose his composure. So why was this plain, wrinkled woman the only one capable of breaking his control? When Jessy reached for his trousers, the sudden friction shattered his restraint entirely.
They lost themselves in each other the whole night.
When Jessy finally woke up, it was around five in the morning. She looked around the unfamiliar, luxurious room and realized with a jolt that she wasn't at home. Enduring a pounding headache, she dragged herself off the bed, gathered her torn dress and her handbag, and quietly slipped out into the dawn.
In her haste, she forgot one crucial thing: the white jade pendant.
The night before, amidst the tears and passion, she had cried out that it was the only thing her mother had left her, and that she had recently discovered the man who raised her wasn't her real father. She had felt so frustrated, lonely, and out of place in the world, with no one to turn to except a few distant friends she messaged online.
Edward, who usually never slept for more than thirty minutes at a time, had been sent into a deep, five-hour sleep by the intoxicating scent of her skin.
Jessy rushed back to her villa, washed herself, and stripped off the ruined disguise. She quickly applied a completely different face mask, changing her appearance entirely before drifting back to sleep.
Meanwhile, back at the penthouse, Edward woke up. The side of the bed was still warm, so he assumed she was just in the bathroom. He leaned back lazily against the pillows, waiting for her to walk out. The lingering scent of the woman reminded him faintly of a young girl he once knew, and a rare, lazy smile crossed his lips.
Three minutes passed. Five minutes. Ten minutes.
When she still hadn't appeared, he got out of bed and threw open the bathroom doors. It was completely empty.
"Shit... this woman dared to escape from me?"
His face darkened. He grabbed his phone and dialed his assistant, Carl. "Hello. I need you to find a young woman for me. I'm sending a photo. She ditched me after using me," he snapped, slamming the phone down.
No woman had ever dared to leave his bed without permission, let alone sneak out like a thief in the night.
As he went to pull the sheets, his fingers brushed against a cold, hard object resting on the pillow. He picked it up. It was the white jade pendant.
Edward's eyes narrowed dangerously. This wasn't just any ordinary stone. The craftsmanship was ancient—imperial.
"You used me as a cure, and then you ran," he whispered, his voice a lethal mix of anger and growing fascination. "But you left your heart behind. I will find you, 'Ugly Duckling,' even if I have to flip this city upside down."