Must a Villainess Be Punished? - Chapter 4

That bastard Chu Ruoqing.

He was the mysterious black-market dealer.

The thought that he had known my plan from the beginning and spent the entire day laughing at me made me want to drag him down with me.

“You should be grateful you contacted me. The black market is full of criminals. A brainless young lady like you would probably count the money for someone after they sold you.”

I glared at him.

Who was he calling brainless?

Chu Ruoqing gave a faint laugh. He crouched in front of me and wiped away the tears I had shed from sheer rage.

“Why are you crying? You’re the one who tried to do something bad. How did you end up feeling wronged?”

Of course I felt wronged.

He had played me for a fool from start to finish. I had never suffered such a crushing loss in my life.

Chu Ruoqing was still trying to lecture me.

“If you don’t have the brains to be wicked, make less trouble in the future. Understood?”

That only made me angrier. Without thinking, I slapped him across the face.

He hadn’t expected it. His head snapped to the side.

“You bitch! How dare you play me!”

No one who had clawed his way out of the slums could have a gentle disposition.

The instant my palm struck him, I regretted it a little.

Not because I was sorry for humiliating him. I was simply afraid he would hit me back.

Perhaps he feared the power behind me. Chu Ruoqing pressed his lips together, but he didn’t retaliate.

He only said, “Wash your face with cold water. You’ll feel better.”

Then he stood and turned toward his bedroom.

Unfortunately, my greatest talent was taking a mile whenever someone gave me an inch.

He might have decided to let the matter go. I hadn’t.

“You tell me to wash my face, so I’m supposed to obey? I won’t.”

“You’re finished, Chu Ruoqing! If anything happens to me tonight, my brother will destroy you!”

Chu Ruoqing glanced at me kicking and thrashing on the floor, then pinched the bridge of his nose with a headache.

“Nothing will happen. I only gave you an ordinary aphrodisiac. Sleep it off, and you’ll be fine by morning.”

So he had sold me fake drugs too!

I opened my mouth to make another scene, but Chu Ruoqing held up his spare terminal.

“And stop threatening me with the Jiang family. You wouldn’t want President Jiang to learn that you’ve been dealing with the black market, would you?”

I fell silent.

He had found my fatal weakness. Every scream and curse died in my throat.

Satisfied, Chu Ruoqing pocketed the terminal, grabbed me by the back of my collar, and tossed me onto the living-room sofa.

“Reflect on your behavior, young lady.”

Reflect, my ass.

I curled up on the sofa and grew angrier the longer I brooded.

Since I couldn’t calm down, the fire in my body burned hotter and hotter, until I could no longer tell rage from anything else.

When I finally overcame the weakness in my legs and managed to stand, I marched straight to Chu Ruoqing’s door and began pounding on it.

Why should I suffer while he slept soundly?

Absolutely not. If I had to be miserable, so did he.

Bang, bang, bang.

“Chu Ruoqing, open the door! I feel awful! Open up!”

The racket could have woken the dead. Chu Ruoqing couldn’t possibly be asleep.

Yet he ignored me. No matter how I ranted, the door remained shut.

Driven out of my mind, I kicked it.

I had forgotten I was wearing slippers.

Agony exploded through my big toe, and I burst into tears with a howl.

The door opened the next second.

Chu Ruoqing stood there with his clothes disordered and the skin beneath his open collar flushed.

He glowered at me, pressure rolling off him. His voice was hoarse.

“Will you only be satisfied after you’ve tortured me to death?”

Instinct told me he was dangerous right now. Before I could process that warning, I caught the faint scent of cedar drifting out of his room.

His pheromones.

I didn’t stop to wonder what he had been doing to let them leak.

The instant I smelled them, my mind went blank. I shoved him aside and barged in.

Before I could follow the scent and throw myself onto his bed, Chu Ruoqing caught me with lightning speed and hoisted me into the air one-handed.

Rage, humiliation, drug-fueled heat, and my hunger for secondary differentiation all tangled together. I thrashed in his grip.

“Let go! I feel terrible. Put me down!”

My slippers had flown off while I struggled. Barefoot, I kicked him in the stomach again and again.

Chu Ruoqing grunted as if I had actually hurt him.

“What do you want?”

I ordered him around with perfect righteousness.

“You gave me the drug. You made me feel like this, so you have to fix it!”

His grip tightened. His voice grew rougher.

“How?”

I heard the wavering in his tone and seized my chance.

“Pheromones. Give me your pheromones!”

Chu Ruoqing ground his teeth.

He seized my face and forced me to look at him—to look directly into the terrifying desire he no longer bothered to hide.

“You climbed into an Alpha’s bed in the middle of the night and demanded his pheromones. Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”