I Was the One Who Seduced Her

Xi Family Manor.

In the study.

"So that's what she is."

Xi Kun slammed the folder onto the desk. "You've really made something of yourself, letting such an utterly ordinary girl have you wrapped around her finger."

Xi Jin stood across the desk with his hands in his pockets and glanced at the photo on top.

It showed him and Nan Xingyu entering and leaving the elevator at Guanlan Shengshi.

He had expected Xi Kun to investigate. He picked up the photo and looked at the girl in it.

It was from the night she had been drinking, with her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around him.

"She's all right. I like her better than the one you picked."

He put down the photo and got straight to the point:

"Your goal is to increase the group's profits."

He pulled out a chair and sat down, lifting his eyes slightly, his gaze sharp as an eagle's.

"Rather than wasting time on my private affairs, why not hear my plan to double the Xi Group's profits?"

Xi Kun snorted and leaned back in his leather chair.

"Xi Jin, don't think a little cleverness makes you truly capable of anything."

Without another word, Xi Jin operated his phone with one hand and raised his thin eyelids slightly. "I sent the proposal to your email."

When he had decided to go head-to-head with Xi Kun, he had prepared for it and stayed up all night writing the proposal.

As long as he was of use to Xi Kun,

Xi Kun wouldn't dare lay a hand on the people around him.

At least for the next six months.

"The group's current strategy in the new energy sector is far too conservative..."

Xi Jin laid out his plan slowly.

Xi Kun listened, sliding his mouse as he read the proposal on his computer screen.

Before they knew it, the long hand of the clock on the wall had made a full revolution.

Xi Jin suggested selling the group's traditional projects that had hit a bottleneck to recover capital and concentrating resources on developing high-end wellness and elder care and urban renewal.

Then there was expanding overseas operations and bringing smart-home and new energy equipment into the European market.

And so on...

Xi Kun finally spoke, his tone appraising. "Your plan sounds good, but the risks are enormous too."

Xi Jin sneered. "Dad, don't tell me you're scared?"

"..."

Xi Kun looked at him, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"I'll follow up on the cooperation with Jiang Corporation."

Xi Jin spun his phone around his fingertip. "As for the marriage alliance, you have so much experience. Why don't you do it yourself? I'm sure Mom won't mind."

"..."

Xi Kun tossed the mouse aside. "Xi Jin, don't think that just because you've done all this, I'll agree to the two of you being together."

"Who cares what you think?"

A scoff sounded in Xi Jin's throat. "Don't think so highly of yourself."

Xi Kun said, "Just because I haven't interfered yet doesn't mean I've accepted a servant's daughter seducing you."

At the time, Liu Meili had been planning to resign and return to her hometown to look after her child.

Xi Kun had thought it better to keep someone familiar than hire a stranger.

Besides, Xi Jin's mother had been very fond of the gardener, and the manor had indeed needed a professional to look after it.

He had casually agreed to let her bring her child to live there.

To the manor, one more little girl was much like one more cat or dog.

Who could have imagined it?

The little girl, usually quiet and well-behaved, had actually dared to climb into Xi Jin's bed right under his nose.

At those words,

the phone spinning on Xi Jin's fingertip stopped. He raised his eyes, a chill in his gaze.

"I was the one who seduced her."

In the dining room.

"Xi Jin pulled it out?"

Nan Xingyu was too shocked to speak. After a long while, she finally said, "How old was he then? How could he possibly have done something like that?"

"I didn't think it was possible either."

Liu Meili shook her head and continued:

"The death of her eldest son traumatized Mrs. Xi. She became convinced that Xi Jin was the killer, said he was some demon reincarnated, and nearly burned him to death. She cursed him, saying, 'Why weren't you the one who died?'"

She sighed. "His own mother said something so heart-wrenching. Just imagine how terrible that child must have felt."

"..."

Nan Xingyu's throat felt dry. She took a sip of water. "So Xi Jin's relationship with his parents is bad entirely because of that?"

"Not entirely."

Liu Meili picked up a piece of pork rib and put it in Nan Xingyu's bowl.

"There was no evidence for it, and no one saw it happen."

"Xi Jin didn't get much love or care growing up. His father and mother married for an alliance."

"After they married, they had Xi Song. Mr. Xi acted as if he'd completed a task and never slept with Mrs. Xi again."

"Mr. Xi only cared about the group's profits. He couldn't even be bothered to pretend they got along."

"Mrs. Xi felt aggrieved, so she devoted all her attention to Xi Song."

"Who could have imagined that Xi Song would fall ill, and that the doctor would propose such a treatment?"

"At first, Mr. Xi didn't agree. Later, Mrs. Xi suggested having a test-tube baby."

"..."

Hearing this, Nan Xingyu was shocked again. She asked in a low voice, "Did Mr. Xi have a problem down there?"

"Child, don't go making wild guesses."

Liu Meili said, "Without any feelings between them, wouldn't it have been awkward?"

Nan Xingyu said, "Oh."

So Xi Jin's birth had been a calculation from the very beginning.

Not because of love, nor because he was eagerly awaited.

He had simply been a "medicinal catalyst" for someone else.

Liu Meili took a sip of water and continued:

"So Xi Jin was born entirely to save Xi Song."

"Neither of them had much affection for their younger son."

"Even after Xi Song recovered, they only had eyes for their eldest son, so naturally they neglected Xi Jin."

At that, she sighed again.

"Xi Jin has been all alone since he was born. Though he's a little cold by nature, he treats people with courtesy and politeness, and he's still managed to become so outstanding. It really hasn't been easy."

"..."

After listening, Nan Xingyu fell silent.

As far as she could remember, she really had never seen Xi Jin together with his parents.

Xi Family Manor was enormous. There were a hundred or so employees just to maintain the grounds.

In such a huge "castle," Xi Jin was usually the only young master.

Xi Kun was away from the manor year-round.

Sometimes he didn't even come back for the New Year.

Every day, following the butler's instructions, Xi Jin got up, ate, went to school, practiced shooting, and went to bed at the appointed times.

Day after day.

Perhaps his greatest pleasure was finding every possible way to play tricks on her.

He did have it pretty bad.

But she seemed to have it pretty bad too.

Boo-hoo.

She boarded at school in high school and only came back on weekends.

That day, she had just arrived at the manor when her mother told her that Mr. Xi had returned and had a fierce argument with Xi Jin in the study.

Xi Jin seemed to have been hit.

He had left the manor and hadn't come back since.

The people at the manor were looking for him everywhere.

Mr. Xi, however, said he'd be better off dying out there.

Nan Xingyu didn't dare say anything. She merely waited until the manor had quieted down, then slipped out of her room and tried to find him.

She searched many places that only the two of them knew about.

The manor's glass greenhouse, the abandoned railroad tracks, and finally beneath the bridge over the river.

Under the late-night stars,

Nan Xingyu rode her bicycle slowly against the wind, looking around.

Just as she was about to give up,

"Nan Xingyu."

A very clear voice suddenly came from above her.

It carried the chill of the night wind.

Nan Xingyu squeezed the hand brake, planted one foot on the ground, and looked up toward the voice.

Her gaze swept across the railing and finally found him.

Xi Jin sat on the Overpass railing, his hands braced at his sides and his feet dangling in the air above the river.

He was too far away.

All she could see was a small, slender figure wrapped in the darkness, as if the wind might blow him away at any moment.

But she recognized him at a glance.

To her, it looked as though he was about to jump into the river and kill himself.

Frightened, she immediately jumped off her bicycle without even stopping to set it upright. Staring fixedly at the dark figure, she ran toward the Overpass as fast as she could.

"Xi Jin, calm down! Don't jump..."