A collision like this would normally be child's play for Jiang Cheng.
With the boost from his physique stat
the parts of Jiang Cheng that were already hard became harder
and the parts that shouldn't harden started stiffening too.
With a body this tough, everyday bumps and bruises never bothered him.
A moment's patience and the sting would vanish.
But right now, everything was different.
Si Qing's favorability value slid from 90 to 80 as if on a playground slide.
Her face clearly said she was upset by his earlier forcefulness.
Her slightly knit brows, teeth sunk into her lower lip, eyes flickering with frustration and reluctance.
Seeing that look, Jiang Cheng tugged up his boxers in resignation.
The next second he hissed in pain
and slapped a melodramatic hand over his mouth and nose.
His expression suggested Si Qing had really hurt him.
The theatrical gesture hit the pause button
halting the flustered Si Qing mid-escape.
She stopped, turned, and walked back to him, apology written all over her face.
Guilt and worry filled her eyes.
Her hands reached out instinctively.
She laid them gently over his, voice trembling:
'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it—are you okay?'
When he kept pressing his nose, her panic grew.
She began carefully prying his hands away
eyes pleading for him to let her see the damage.
Feeling her gentle touch, Jiang Cheng knew this wasn't the moment to press further.
He dropped his earlier aggressive advance.
An idea flashed; like a child seeking comfort, he burrowed into her arms and played the sympathy card.
'Why?' he murmured, wounded. 'Even if none of this is real… don't you like me?'
The soft grievance brushed her heart like the first spring breeze
melting the ice inside her.
With the earlier danger defused, her feelings for him quietly rekindled.
Instead of pushing him away as before
her arms seemed drawn by an invisible force.
Regretfully she wrapped them around him.
'How could I not like you?' she whispered. 'But you can't belong to me…'
A sly spark flashed in Jiang Cheng's eyes—that was the line he'd waited for.
He lifted his head and stared straight into hers.
'Tell me, why such a strong reaction?'
Under that unflinching gaze
tears pooled in Si Qing's eyes like a lake about to breach its dam.
Inexplicable sorrow surged over her
the backlash of every lie she'd told.
Regret consumed her.
If she'd known that chance meeting at Simple Tea would snowball into this misery
she'd never have pretended to be Si Nian.
She bit her lip and summoned her courage.
'Sorry… I lied. My name is Si Qing; I'm Si Nian's older sister.'
Jiang Cheng had already mapped his counter-moves the moment she confessed.
From the start, the Character Scanning System had revealed the Twin Sisters' little secret—
and he'd silently gone along with their act.
Strictly speaking, while they were fooling him, he was quietly fooling them for his own ends.
It was a delicate game: whoever exposed themselves first lost the advantage.
So Jiang Cheng naturally avoided the domineering-CEO cliché.
According to the standard trope, he should have declared
'Woman, you think I didn't know? Everything is under my control; you're already mine—submit to my spoiling.'
Lines like that might make starry-eyed viewers swoon
since a CEO who knowingly plays along looks like favoritism.
But saying it now would hand her the initiative
turning him from pursued into pursuer.
He'd never planned a pure-love route with these twins;
his goal from day one had been a double kill.
Now that Si Qing had outed herself
all he had to do was latch onto her guilt
blame every 'wound' in their relationship on her.
From here on, Si Qing could never resent him;
in this messy triangle she would feel forever indebted, willingly giving him everything.
Trust between two keeps the third safe—so the saying goes.
With Si Qing exposed
he need only feign reluctant forgiveness
then build mutual trust with her.
Add her current guilt and this three-way affair would be rock-solid.
Seeing Jiang Cheng look so hurt
Si Qing—still the innocent lamb—had no idea she'd stepped into a second-layer trap.
Racking her brain for words to placate him, her guilt and anxiety rose like the tide.
Jiang Cheng gaped in staged disbelief
as if hearing a fairy tale.
Older sister? But you—
She caught his meaning, eyes dodging.
Flustered, she grabbed her phone from the coffee table.
Her trembling fingers finally unlocked the screen.
She opened the gallery, swiped to a photo of her and Si Nian
and held it out. 'We're twins—I'm the older sister, she's the younger.'