Sister, Please Have Mercy on Me - Chapter 1

Wen Lichu would not stop crying.

I lowered my gaze to my watch. She had been at it for almost half an hour.

Feeling a little sorry for her, I took out a handkerchief and offered it across the table.

Wen Lichu accepted it with both hands, looking flattered and alarmed, then dabbed at her tears.

“Miss Wen, please stop crying. If you keep this up, people are going to think I’m bullying you.”

“Oh… no…”

She looked completely at a loss.

I smiled and gestured for her to relax.

Then I studied her face.

Wen Lichu had beautiful eyes, their inner corners curved down and their outer corners sweeping up. The slight lift at the ends seemed made to steal souls. Her skin was pale and so tender it looked as though a pinch would draw water.

No wonder my husband liked her.

If I were him, I would have liked her too.

Unfortunately, I had come here today to break up with her on my husband’s behalf.

“You can rest assured. Mr. Xu and I never…”

She bit her lip, apparently finding the words too mortifying to say.

After a deep breath, she seemed to make up her mind.

“Mr. Xu never slept with me.”

Her face flushed bright red, like a ripe peach.

My mouth went inexplicably dry. I swallowed without thinking.

“Please believe me.”

Wen Lichu looked at me with wet, pleading eyes. She was almost unbearably well behaved.

I nodded. “I believe you.”

As if I didn’t know perfectly well what my husband was capable of in bed.

“You may ask for whatever you want. The only condition is that you stop pursuing my husband.”

She shook her head in panic. “No, I don’t need anything. Mr. Xu has already given me a lot of money. I can’t be that greedy.”

Pretty and not greedy.

Good Lord, how had such a sweet girl ended up with a bastard like my husband?

Why hadn’t she ended up with me instead?

I took out a business card and handed it to her. “If you ever run into trouble, call me.”

Delight flashed through Wen Lichu’s eyes as she accepted it.

“You took care of it?”

The moment I got home, Xu Tingshen demanded an answer.

I didn’t tell him the truth. I merely nodded.

He curved his lips in satisfaction, his smile suggestive and teasing.

“Thanks, honey. You’re the best.”

He deliberately drew out the word *honey* until it sounded scandalously intimate. Anyone who didn’t know us might have thought he loved me.

I said nothing and went straight into the bathroom.

Xu Tingshen rose and followed me. Leaning against the doorframe, he watched me scoop out a dab of cleansing balm and work it between my palms.

His gaze was measuring, almost suspicious.

“Song Shiyi, do you know what people say about you?”

The balm melted against my skin, turning tacky. I kept removing my makeup and answered calmly, “I know.”

“They call me a doormat.”

My easy admission seemed to surprise him.

“And that doesn’t make you angry?”

I met his eyes in the mirror. My voice remained level. “Why would it?”

People said it because I was always stepping in to deal with Xu Tingshen’s lovers.

Someone had even asked me to my face whether I was afraid he might knock one of them up.

I had only smiled and said nothing.

I truly wasn’t worried.

Xu Tingshen had a condition. He couldn’t get it up at all.

As the thought crossed my mind, my gaze drifted lower and settled on his crotch.

He noticed. His expression darkened instantly.

The door slammed behind him.

I would never understand why men cared so much about their performance in bed, or why they tied every ounce of confidence they possessed to the thing between their legs.

Xu Tingshen certainly did. He was perpetually insecure.

He cycled through women just to stop the world from discovering that his looks were the only impressive thing about him.

He probably wasn’t coming home tonight.

I lay down and fell asleep quickly.

What I did not expect was the outrageously erotic dream that followed.

Wen Lichu’s face was perfectly clear. She wore a white dress, and the skin it left bare seemed to glow.

I found myself wondering whether she was that pale everywhere.

To find out, I reached for the hem of her dress.

She did not stop me. She simply watched me, meek and willing…

I woke drenched in sweat, my heartbeat thundering in my ears, my body responding in a way that was impossible to ignore.

Fuck.

I had just had an erotic dream about my husband’s mistress.

I needed a psychiatrist.