Her stunning figure and beautiful face, combined with those misty, dazed eyes after drinking, were definitely a surefire way to seduce men.
"Don't judge others by your own mindset," Jiang Li squinted her eyes, trying her best to concentrate. Her voice then dropped, "Not everyone is like you, always driven by lust."
Xiao Yanzhi thought he had misheard, "… What did you say?"
"…"
Jiang Li came to her senses and wished she could pinch herself. What nonsense was she spouting under the influence of alcohol!
"I mean, don't assume all men are like you," Jiang Li didn't have the courage to repeat the last four words.
It was so against her persona.
She was pure and elegant. How could she say such things?
Just thinking about blurting out her innermost thoughts just now made her ears burn with shame, and she lowered her head.
She hoped Xiao Yanzhi would be sensible enough to leave, she thought.
But instead of leaving, the man draped his thick suit over her shoulders.
The weight on her shoulders made her look up instantly.
The suit still carried his body heat. Although Jiang Li wasn't short, she looked tiny wrapped in the suit.
The familiar, clear scent of snow and pine filled her nostrils. Jiang Li slightly shrugged her shoulders, and the nerves in her brain unconsciously began to relax.
She was very sensitive to smells and would instinctively get closer to this familiar fragrance.
The voice above her head was cold and deep, "I'll take you home."
Then, without any further ado, he grabbed her arm and stuffed her into the car that had been parked by the roadside with a cold face.
Once in the car and sitting in the spacious back row, Jiang Li felt the headache and drowsiness intensify. She bit her tongue to force herself to stay awake.
Xiao Yanzhi said, "Drive."
The car moved forward steadily. As Xiao Yanzhi had predicted, the rain had indeed picked up. The sound of raindrops hitting the car roof inside the car was quite hypnotic.
Jiang Li broke the silence, "Mr. Xiao is quite free. He even has the time to do good deeds."
"Not free. I'm very busy," he glanced at her sideways, "But I wanted to come and check on you, so I came."
Jiang Li unconsciously tightened her grip on the suit, and her voice also tightened, "Why are you checking on me? There's nothing interesting about me. You should care more about Miss Yu."
Xiao Yanzhi still looked at her, his tone unchanged, "You mind Yu Wan a lot."
Jiang Li immediately shifted her gaze, "I wouldn't dare."
What right did she have to mind? After all, it was a matter between the two of them. It was not her place as an outsider to make comments.
"Since you wouldn't dare, then how dare you suggest that I care about her?" Xiao Yanzhi retorted coldly, "I've never mentioned her, but you keep bringing up her name over and over again."
Jiang Li was silent for a moment.
"You mind the fact that I dated her before, and you care a lot about my current relationship with her. That's why you keep bringing her up," he said.
"… You're overthinking," Jiang Li rubbed her forehead, feeling that she had drunk too much tonight and was speaking without thinking.
To prevent making more mistakes, she decided to keep silent.
"Am I overthinking?" Xiao Yanzhi pondered her words, his voice cold, "So, you don't mind my relationship with her, and you hope that I can get back together with her. You can accept me holding her hand and walking into the wedding hall, getting married and having children with her from then on, right?"
"Yes, I sincerely wish you two happiness."
"Then why are you crying? You're shedding tears."
Jiang Li's breath caught. Her tears fell into the collar of the suit. She had wrinkled the custom - made suit in her tight grip, and her palms were starting to get sweaty.
He was always like this. Knowing the truth, he knew exactly what words could hurt her the most.
Xiao Yanzhi still stared at Jiang Li, "I met Yu Wan by chance. She's Tan Mizong's niece, and he introduced her to me as a marriage partner.
"At first, I didn't mind these things. To be precise, I didn't care much about my future partner. As long as it could reassure my parents, it didn't matter who my wife was."
That's why he had always complied with Yu Wan's every wish, whether it was traveling around the world or other requests.
Jiang Li's tears gradually stopped, and she began to listen to his story attentively.
"But later, I accidentally found out that she was getting too close to Tan Mizong and even suspected of stealing company data. Only then did I realize that her appearance was not just a simple marriage alliance.
"She not only wanted to marry me but also intended to let her uncle annex most of the Xiao family's property in the future, change the name of the Xiao family, and turn everything into the Tan family's possessions."
When he said these things, he was extremely calm, "But I discovered it a bit too late. The two families had already put the wedding on the agenda. So I came up with an idea and lied that the inheritance of the Xiao family's property was not in my hands but in Bai He's, emphasizing that this was a rule set by my grandfather before he passed away.
"If the inheritance right was not in my hands, Tan Mizong only needed to focus on dealing with my father to easily take over the Xiao family. By then, I would become a useless husband."
"At that time, I asked my father to go to Yu Wan and ask her whether she would choose 50 million yuan and leave far away or choose to marry me."
Jiang Li couldn't help but blurt out, "She chose the 50 million yuan?"
"Yes."
Jiang Li was speechless for a moment.
After a moment of silence, she slowly said, "So, you still intended to have a future with Yu Wan at that time. You two experienced a lot of things together. You traveled, walked on the beach, and took photos to commemorate..."
The more she talked, the faster her heart beat.
"Who told you that?" Xiao Yanzhi frowned slightly, "Did Yu Wan tell you?"
Jiang Li bit her lips, feeling a bit heart - broken, "Since that's the case, you should get back together with her. Now all your problems are solved. Tan Mizong has fallen, and the entire Xiao family is in your hands. There are no more obstacles between you two."
This would be the best outcome.
"The reason I offered the 50 - million - yuan condition was that I knew she would never choose me," Xiao Yanzhi's gaze dropped slightly, his voice indifferent, "She didn't love me. She only loved money. And I didn't love her either. Why should we get back together?"
Jiang Li was slightly stunned, "But you two had so many memories..."
"The around - the - world trip was because the Xiao family had a relationship with the royal family since ancient times. As the eldest son of the Xiao family, I had to go and strengthen the connection after I came of age. I just happened to take her along," he said, even pinching the space between his eyebrows impatiently, "Most of the time, I didn't accompany her. She stayed in the hotel alone, and the photos were just to fool the elders in the family."
Hearing these words, Jiang Li felt dizzy and had a sense of unreality, "You're making up a story to deceive me."