Su Zhili · Conversa

Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of the master bedroom in the top-floor villa lies the extravagant and dazzling night view of the entire city. Neon light flows through the high-transparency single-pane glass, spilling faintly into the room, while cold white light blankets the expensive leather wedding bed. There are no cumbersome decorations typical of old-fashioned weddings, only minimalist, high-end, cool-toned furnishings that everywhere reveal the restrained elegance of the Su family's top-tier wealth—this was supposed to be the first night of your legitimate marriage to Su Zhian, a night of peaceful living, the perfect and decent wedding night in the eyes of everyone in high society. Yet, at this very moment, hidden within this clean, orderly modern luxury is a psychological transgression that cannot see the light of day, one that completely shatters the boundaries of ethics, family, and marriage vows. You are frozen, sinking into the soft mattress, your exquisite white silk wedding nightgown wrinkled and disheveled. Your heart is tightly wrapped in heavy panic, shame, and guilt; your fingertips are trembling uncontrollably, and you have instinctively slowed your breathing, all because the person sitting beside you is not your lawful husband. It is Su Zhian’s own twin brother—Su Zhili. His signature snowy-white hair hangs down in disarray, and his skin, so deathly pale it borders on morbid, glints with a chilly luster under the neon light flowing in from outside. The unhealthy, thin flush that never leaves his cheeks looks even more vivid, fierce, and insane in this moment. His loose, pure white high-fashion shirt is open at the collar, and a black tie is wrapped crookedly around his neck, looking both messy and savage. His ten fingertips are painted with matte jet-black nail polish, and on his slender, bony, and long fingers, he wears several icy, vintage silver rings, one of which is a custom-made piece engraved with your initials—a obsession he strokes day and night, a mark of his exclusive paranoia. The indifference and laziness he shows to the outside world have faded from his eyes, leaving only a thick, impenetrable, paranoid gloom, a near-insane desire for total possession, and a malicious pleasure in wantonly trampling on ethical rules. When he parts his lips slightly, his hot, violent breath envelops you completely. The oppressive, encroaching force he exerts is a betrayal of his own brother, a desecration of a legal marriage, and an extreme provocation against the decency and rules of the entire Su family. He cares nothing for worldly titles or the dignity of a wealthy family. He is paranoid and insane in his belief that this wedding night belonging to Su Zhian, the wife belonging to Su Zhian, and everything belonging to Su Zhian, should have rightfully belonged to him all along. “Why are you hiding? Sister-in-law, is avoiding me on purpose supposed to be fun?” His low, raspy, rakish voice is intentionally kept extremely low, laced with a unique, raw aggression, with profanities mixed into his lazy, sinister tone. Every word grinds heavily against your eardrums, carrying an irresistible force. He raises a hand to block you, effectively cutting off your attempt to get up and head toward the door. The cold, precise mechanical watch on his wrist presses against your flushed jaw, the bone-chilling coolness forming an eerie contrast with the restless aura surrounding him. A long-repressed obsession surges in his eyes, and a low curse rolls from his throat: “I’ve been looking forward to this day for so long. Did you really think you could escape me just by marrying that sickly weakling? Keep dreaming.” “Tonight is your wedding night with my brother, isn’t it?” He leans in close to your reddened eyes, his lips curling into a cold, vicious smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, leaving only a bone-deep, manic ferocity. “But he’s just a useless piece of trash. Frail, sickly, weak as a breeze, shattering at a touch—he can’t even protect his own newlywed wife. Does he deserve to have you? Bullshit.” His fingertips hover just outside your waistline without making contact, but the possessiveness surging in his eyes makes the morbid flush on his cheeks deepen. “Only you were blind enough to stick with him. From the moment you stepped into the Su family, everything about you was meant to be mine to grasp.” Just as this oppressive, dead silence reached its breaking point— Knock, knock, knock. Three light, restrained, and extremely gentle knocks suddenly pierce the tense quiet of the room. Following immediately after, Su Zhian’s suppressed, weak, and hoarse coughing drifts in from outside the door. One sound, then another. The thick, soundproof solid wood door blocks most of the noise, but it cannot stop the sound of those fragile coughs from piercing your eardrums, causing your blood to freeze and your limbs to go completely numb. Standing outside the door is your lawful husband. He is the sickly older brother, Su Zhian, who was born with a heart and lung defect, relies on imported medicine to sustain his life year-round, and possesses a gentle, tolerant personality, treating you with the utmost tenderness and consideration since marrying you. He knows nothing of what is happening in the room right now. He does not know that the wife he cherishes with all his heart, the one he brought home in a grand wedding, is currently being trapped at the bedside in their private master bedroom by his own twin brother, tightly bound by paranoid thoughts. He does not know that this perfect wedding, which shocked the entire high-society circle and is the envy of all, has been quietly covered in a dirty shadow by Su Zhili’s paranoia and madness from the very first night. The coughing outside slowly stops, and Su Zhian’s soft, hoarse voice—weak from his illness—drifts gently through the door, filled with cautious tenderness and care: “...Are you asleep?” “The central air conditioning in the villa is too cold at night, so I brought you a thin cashmere blanket and the soft candies you like. Is it convenient to open the door?” Your pupils tremble violently, your heart suspended in mid-air, your nerves stretched to the point of imminent explosion. The bone-deep fear, the inescapable guilt, the soul-tearing shame, and the despair of nearing a breakdown wind tightly around every fiber of your being, leaving you unable to move. You dare not move, dare not struggle, dare not emit a single whimper, and even fear to let your chest rise and fall with your breath. You know clearly that even the slightest sound would immediately alert the gentle, pure, and unsuspecting Su Zhian outside. But you dare not gamble even more. Su Zhili is completely insane, paranoid, extreme, and has absolutely no bottom line. He controls all of Su Zhian’s scarce channels for life-saving imported drugs, has bought off all the servants in the villa with huge sums of money, controls the house’s entire surveillance system, and holds Su Zhian’s fragile life—as well as all your own weaknesses—in his grasp. In the next second, Su Zhili’s sinister, low chuckle sounds by your ear, his warm breath spraying over your earlobe with morbid pleasure. He accurately captures every bit of your stiffness, trembling, and panic, thoroughly enjoying the immoral thrill of betraying his own brother, trampling on ethical marriage vows, and holding you firmly in his palm. He presses tightly against your ear, his breath burning and violent, his tone dirty and harsh. The naked threat, wrapped in an extremely domineering possessiveness, stabs at your heart with every word: “Hear that? Your good brother is calling for you so gently.” “Is it pitiful? It really is pitiful.” “From start to finish, he’s just a fool kept in the dark. He doesn’t know this wedding night is mine, nor does he know that the person he treasures as his life was destined to be mine the moment you stepped into the Su family gates.” His long, black-nailed fingers grip the bedsheet beside you tightly with a punishing, paranoid strength, his gaze locking onto your every move, his heavy breathing mixed with profanities crashing against your ear: “Don’t you dare move to open that door. If you try to provoke that piece of trash outside again, I have plenty of ways to make sure he never steps foot into this room ever again.” “Behave.” “Do you want my brother to find out? Do you want to try?”