The Hongqi L5 glided silently into a high-walled, secluded compound beside the Rear Sea.
The vermilion gate opened quietly, then closed again, shutting out every trace of worldly noise.
As the overall head of security and household affairs, she sensed at once that the atmosphere inside the car was anything but ordinary.
A wordless, airtight intimacy and undercurrent, perceptible even through the dark glass.
Wang Sheng said nothing, but with a brisk flick of his wrist he signaled the area be cleared.
Several equally well-trained staff immediately caught the cue.
They soundlessly retreated beneath the corridor eaves or into the gatehouse.
In an instant, only Xia Li remained beside the car, standing motionless like a sculpture.
She kept the posture of respectful attendance, yet maintained a precisely measured distance.
Those outside could not see in, but those within could see out.
Pressed against the window, Wang Yuyan flattened her cheek to the cool glass, her blurred gaze fixed on the courtyard that had emptied so quickly.
Only when Wang Sheng led the others away did her clenched teeth finally part.
But almost at once she noticed something odd about Xia Li.
Everyone else had turned and left without hesitation.
Only Xia Li still stood there, her eyes… more focused than usual on the motionless car.
There was no curiosity in that gaze; rather, it seemed the tautness of someone awaiting confirmation—or perhaps a complexity she herself barely sensed.
She had met Xia Li before.
To her, Xia Li's duties resembled those of a high-end villa Private Butler at Luxury Hotel.
Both roles meant living cheek-by-jowl with the employer, demanding exceptional professionalism… and boundaries.
As someone who had walked that path, she knew too well how overpowering Jiang Cheng's pull on women could be.
More than wealth and power, it was a charisma laced with supreme confidence, fleeting depths, and a childlike possessiveness that surfaced at moments.
From their first meeting she had detected, beneath Xia Li's cool exterior, a flicker of something different when the woman looked at Jiang Cheng.
Respect, absolute obedience—and perhaps a ripple of attraction forcibly suppressed.
She herself had once stood outside that boundary, only to be drawn in step by step until she crossed it willingly.
Entering a realm rife with danger and intoxicating allure.
She knew any normal, feeling woman,
breathing the same air as Jiang Cheng day after day, sensing his effortless control,
would find it hard to keep her thoughts strictly professional.
Ten seconds later, just as Xia Li was about to turn away,
Wang Yuyan, still pinned to the window, gasped softly and dropped her gaze to the small window-control button on the armrest.
The tiny button glinted with a cold metallic sheen in the dim light.
The sight sparked a bold, provocative, subtly declarative thought across her mind.
What sort of expression would Xia Li wear if I pressed this?
As one of the "most sensible" women beside Jiang Cheng,
she prided herself on being understanding, tactful, knowing when to appear and when to vanish.
No tantrums, no jealousy, no trouble for Jiang Cheng.
From the moment she became his, she had stowed every emotion away, burying every improper fancy.
But "sensible" is not inborn.
It is the optimal strategy chosen after weighing reality—a matter of restraint, not absence.
She could not control who entered Jiang Cheng's orbit.
His world was too vast, its gravity too strong.
She was merely a nearer, brighter star in his boundless sky.
Nor had she ever dreamed of monopolizing that firmament.
Yet… she longed to occupy a place at its very center—within Jiang Cheng's heart.
A unique, irreplaceable spot stamped with Wang Yuyan's mark.
Ambitious, perhaps, but she saw ambition as no sin.
On the contrary, it proved how deeply Jiang Cheng affected her.
Just now, that bittersweet thrill was something she wanted to possess for life.
Fanned by desire and the sight of another woman caught in Jiang Cheng's gravity, this buried ambition fermented, hot and restless.
Moments later, the emotions she had suppressed—delicate, feminine—rippled across her like rings on a pond.
A silent contest, an intuitive test of who felt more "special."
Seconds passed.
Just as Xia Li began to turn away,
"Mm…"
Pinned to the window, Wang Yuyan was jolted into a soft, involuntary moan.
The sound was sweet and tremulous; even she felt her ears burn.
Feeling her provocation achieve its effect,
her fingertips, driven by that heat, slid with feigned inadvertence—thanks to Jiang Cheng's unceasing "assault"—and "happened" to land on the window button.
The instant it depressed, Wang Yuyan's head flew back, pressing of her own accord against Jiang Cheng's face.
Skin met skin; Jiang Cheng lowered his head and claimed her soft, petal-like lips with precise hunger.