Seeing that Tan Linyuan was about to go back on his word, Nan Yu took a deep breath and deliberately put on a shocked and heart - broken look on her face. "Uncle Tan, you just promised that you'd give me a ride on your way back."
"Nan Yu." Tan Linyuan propped his elbow on the steering wheel and looked at her leisurely. "There's no one from the Shen family here."
What he meant was for her to stop her exaggerated acting that could be seen through at a glance.
They had already been intimate with each other. What was the point of acting?
Nan Yu was too lazy to play games with him. She just dropped the act and insisted, "Then you still have to take me back."
"Okay." He was surprisingly agreeable.
Nan Yu thought he was true to his word. But when they reached the fork in the road ahead, he turned the steering wheel in the opposite direction of her place.
"Tan Linyuan, you're going the wrong way." The navigation on her phone had already alerted her that she was off - route. She quickly spoke up to remind him.
"I'm not going the wrong way." Tan Linyuan still stared straight ahead. His hand on the steering wheel was very relaxed. "Didn't you say you'd give me your room number later? It's more convenient to take you to the hotel now."
The astonishment on Nan Yu's face was obviously not feigned. Her voice suddenly rose. "Now? Go to the hotel?"
The man lifted his eyelids. "Didn't we agree on it at the Shen family's?"
"That was before Uncle Tan helped me 'ward off the bad luck'," Nan Yu replied stiffly. "Now, we're even."
Tan Linyuan ignored her. He just glanced at her casually when the red light came on at the crossroads.
His gaze was so clear and pure, but she still felt uncomfortable all over, always feeling that there was something sarcastic in his words.
"Even?"
Tan Linyuan repeated what she said, with an obvious smile in his voice. "Sure enough, you're the pampered young lady of the Nan family. You're half a beat slower than others in worldly affairs."
Nan Yu was already used to the obvious sarcasm in his words.
As soon as he finished speaking, the green light ahead came on. He stepped on the accelerator. "In your current situation, this marriage is a life - saver for you. But in my eyes, it's no different from a deed of indenture."
He shifted his gaze to the road and said straightforwardly, "Whether we're even or not is up to me."
He didn't intend to beat around the bush. He directly warned her, "If you want to hold on to this life - saver, you'd better listen to me obediently in the future. Don't even lose the qualification to sign the deed of indenture."
Hearing this, Nan Yu immediately understood.
No wonder Shen Suhai had a gloomy face after coming out of the study. He had refused her when she so obviously wanted to go upstairs to sign the contract. He just wanted to get rid of her. It turned out that Tan Linyuan had caused trouble!
Nan Yu buried her hands in her hair. After calming down for two seconds, she said sullenly, "Tan Linyuan, I've never had any grudges against you. Why do you have to push me into a corner?"
"Me push you?"
"Isn't it?" Nan Yu turned to look at him. There was resentment in her eyes. "If it weren't for you, I would have signed that contract by now."
As soon as she finished speaking, the car suddenly braked. Nan Yu didn't react in time and almost hit her head.
Tan Linyuan pulled the car over to the side of the road and looked at her half - smiling. The smile on his lips faded a bit. "For this little bit of money, you're so willing to sell yourself cheaply to the Shen family?"
This was different from his previous sarcasm about her being naive. This was clearly saying that she was cheap.
The anger she had endured for a whole day finally reached its limit. The shame and embarrassment that she thought had been trampled to nothing were now burning fiercely.
She turned to look at the man in the driver's seat and finally shouted, "Tan Linyuan, you know exactly what situation I'm in. Why do you always oppose me!"
Compared with the anger on Nan Yu's face, Tan Linyuan was extremely calm. He slowly rolled up his shirt sleeves and glanced at her. "I just think that if it's only because of money, you might as well ask me for help."
Nan Yu said, "You never said you were from the Tan family."
The man retorted casually, "It was your own rule, 'only talk in bed, not out of it'."
Nan Yu was stunned for a second. She took several deep breaths to calm herself down.
The relationship between her and Tan Linyuan was purely an accident.
Before she was twenty - one, she had always been a well - behaved daughter of the Nan family. She had never thought that she would sleep with a man she had known for less than three hours and maintain this relationship for several months.
It was her birthday that day. Not long ago, she had suffered the tragedy of her family's bankruptcy and her parents' double suicide. She had drunk more than a dozen cans of beer. Drunk, she squatted in front of the shelves of a convenience store where things would be discounted after ten o'clock, staggering as she picked out a paper - cup cake with cream on it.
That was the day she met Tan Linyuan.
If the first time was just a mistake after getting drunk, then the fact that they could continue this relationship later, Nan Yu unilaterally thought, must be because they were both satisfied with each other.
At least, she was very satisfied with Tan Linyuan.
To be honest, Tan Linyuan did give her a very pleasant experience, allowing her to briefly forget the tragedies and pains in life.
But the night wouldn't last forever. The suffering life still had to go on.
So she had set a rule with Tan Linyuan early on: be passionate in bed and don't interfere with each other out of it.
Nan Yu closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the anger from before was gone.
She drooped her eyelashes. When she looked up again, the smile on her face was as sweet as ever. "It's not too late to know now. If Uncle Tan has an interest in me, it's definitely not too late to propose to the Nan family through the Shen family."
She was the apple of the Nan family's eye. Her parents were deeply in love, and their daughter was naturally beautiful. She was charming when she smiled.
Like a sweet flower just blooming in early spring, still with glistening dewdrops on it, bright and vibrant.
But this smile of hers was not from the heart. It was more like a false smile on the surface, a smile of disdain for flattering but having to humble herself.
She wasn't hinting at him.
She was being explicit.
Tan Linyuan gave a cold laugh. There seemed to be a thin mist in his eyes, making it hard to see clearly. "Miss Nan may be overestimating her own value."
What he meant was that she wasn't worth Tan Linyuan risking a falling - out with the Shen family to snatch such an insignificant person.
Nan Yu let out a silent scoff, as if she had already known the result. Her tone suddenly dropped, and she retorted sharply, "Since Uncle Tan has no such intention, you'd better get rid of any wrong ideas and take me back right away."
The car fell silent instantly. Tan Linyuan pushed the Buddhist beads to the base of his thumb, and the beads rolled one by one between his fingertips.
He rested one hand on the steering wheel. The hand holding the Buddhist beads suddenly stopped. He said word by word, "What makes you think I'd marry a woman who's already engaged to another man?"