Wild Crazy Male Lead's Forced Love, You Don't Want, I Want!

85: Forced Love Boss 10In her previous life, every piece of jewelry Li Jin gave her was incredibly valuable, uniquely designed, and a true work of art.

She once found those things heavy, a restraint, a label showcasing his ownership, and even defiantly smashed an expensive diamond necklace.

Li Jin merely watched the mess on the floor with a cold gaze, saying nothing, and the next day, new, more exquisite jewelry would be delivered to her.

But now… she couldn’t even afford the most ordinary silver bracelet.

Today at the supermarket, she saw a cheap alloy necklace on a shelf next to the checkout counter, priced at 39.9 yuan.

She hesitated for a long time, but ultimately couldn’t bring herself to buy it, because that would mean she might have one less meal tomorrow.

“Hah…” Su Wanqing let out a broken, tearful sneer from her throat.

Freedom? Was this the “freedom” she had exchanged all her courage from this life and the last for? Freedom to be poor, freedom to be humble, freedom to be trampled underfoot, freedom to… lose all the supreme glory and comfort that was once within her reach!

The confinement she detested was the top-tier life security countless people dreamed of!

The power she resisted was an absolute force capable of making anyone look up to it, capable of protecting her for a lifetime of worry-free existence!

The money she disdained was the confidence that would allow her to never worry about her livelihood, to always be glamorous and bright!

And Chen Ming… Su Wanqing recalled his face just now, remembered how he only drank and complained after losing his job, how he bossed her around, how he couldn’t even afford a decent birthday gift and still accused her of being materialistic… A strong wave of nausea surged up again.

What was he? A failure who couldn’t even manage his own life! A coward who only vented his anger on women!

He couldn’t even compare to one of Li Jin’s fingers! No, not even a speck of dirt in Li Jin’s fingernail! Li Jin’s coldness was a towering glacier, while Chen Ming’s harshness was sludge in a gutter!

“I was wrong… I was truly wrong…” Su Wanqing could no longer control herself, and hot tears streamed out, instantly blurring her vision.

Regret corroded her internal organs like sulfuric acid.

“Li Jin… Li Jin…”

She finally realized clearly that the man she had discarded like a worn-out shoe, the controller she had regarded as a monstrous flood, everything he had given her, those “restraints” she had once so intensely disliked, were in fact the most luxurious items in this world, the supreme power that allowed her to stand on the clouds and look down upon all living beings!

It was her, Su Wanqing, who was unworthy of that paradise!

She was like a foolish moth, chasing the illusory flame of “freedom,” crashing out of a golden cage, only to fall into a dirty, greasy spiderweb, struggling harder, being bound tighter, and getting closer to destruction.

Outside the window, the rain had begun to fall at some point, pattering against the rusty tin window sill, like countless cold taunts.

The chill intensified. Su Wanqing hugged herself tightly, her nails almost digging into her flesh, her body trembling like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind.

She was so cold.

So hungry.

So scared.

So… regretful.

She seemed to see again the warm, spring-like study in the mountain-top manor.

Li Jin sat in a large leather chair, his profile stern, a cigarette between his fingers, perhaps… in some moment, he too would think of her, this ungrateful, self-destructive canary?

This thought pained her to the point of suffocation, yet it also carried a masochistic, twisted hope.

She had escaped the isolated island named “Li Jin,” believing she had found a new continent, only to despairingly discover that she had merely sunk into a colder, more desperate deep sea.

And that isolated island she had abandoned, everything on it, everything she once possessed, had now become an unattainable, distant illusion that she could only painfully lick in her dreams at midnight.

Cold tears mixed with the rainwater seeping through the window crack, tracing paths down her face.

Su Wanqing curled up in the dark corner, like a completely abandoned, soaked cat, with nothing left but endless regret and bone-deep cold.

In the darkness, she seemed to see Li Jin’s deep, cold eyes, with a hint of imperceptible, all-knowing mockery, quietly looking down at her current disarray and wretchedness.

She finally understood that she hadn’t escaped hell; what she was rushing towards was the truly hopeless abyss.

And the world she had personally pushed away, the world that held Li Jin, the world filled with “restraint” and supreme wealth and power, was the paradise she could never return to.

No, she still had a chance, she could still go back, back to Li Jin’s side.

As long as she apologized properly.

He would definitely forgive her, definitely.

Su Wanqing immediately got up and started to put on makeup with her cheap cosmetics.

*

The first thing Li Jin did after finishing work each day was to go find Wen Ci.

When he saw her tranquil and peaceful profile, his restless heart immediately found solace.

See, she is here.

Right by my side.

In my garden, within my sight.

A strange warm current, accompanied by unprecedented peace, slowly washed over his perennially tense and guarded nerves.

The hideous phantoms of betrayal, escape, and loss of control that had haunted the depths of his mind strangely receded at this moment.

His chest was filled with a peculiar, bloated sense of satisfaction and security.

So safe…

No one could harm her.

No one could take her from here.

She was here… so secure.

He didn’t even realize that his usually tightly pressed, chiseled-like cold lips had, very subtly and uncontrollably, curved upwards into an almost invisible arc.

That arc was extremely brief, but it was real.

The sunlight falling on his deep-set eyes seemed to melt some of the perpetual coldness.

At this moment, in his eyes, the “cage” where Wen Ci resided, which he had personally demarcated, closely monitored, and reinforced layer by layer, shed its cold shell and was gilded with a warm edge, transforming into a “haven” that belonged only to him, protected only her, and required him to devote all his strength to guarding.

Her focused and serene profile became the most perfect scenery in this “haven,” soothing his restless soul.