Chapter 82: The Scheming Green-Tea Stepsister

The room fell into utter silence, broken only by the heavy, ragged breaths echoing one after another.

Father Jiang’s sudden return had caught Jiang Li off guard. Yet as she scrutinized the girl before her, whose smile remained as sweet and composed as ever, Jiang Li found not a trace of panic on Lu Chaohuan’s face.

Even though Jiang Li was the one exposed and vulnerable now, while Lu Chaohuan’s clothes remained perfectly intact.

Even the person who had fearlessly leaned in for a kiss despite the knocking at the door behind them—it had been Lu Chaohuan.

Father Jiang’s abrupt appearance, and the questions Lu Chaohuan had just asked him…

Jiang Li’s mind raced. She narrowed her eyes sharply and lifted the girl in her arms closer to her face. “It was you.”

What should have been a question turned into a statement of certainty as Jiang Li gazed into Lu Chaohuan’s curved, smiling eyes.

One of Lu Chaohuan’s hands slipped through Jiang Li’s soft hair, stroking it gently again and again, then twining a lock around her fingers. She hooked her toes more securely and shifted her weight from the door toward Jiang Li.

Jiang Li pulled her closer as Lu Chaohuan’s fingertips waved teasingly before her eyes. She watched Lu Chaohuan smile and deny her accusation, and the tension between Jiang Li’s brows eased just a fraction—until the girl in her arms spoke again.

Jiang Li’s relief was plain as day. Even after correctly suspecting Lu Chaohuan deep down, she let a single sentence dispel her doubts entirely. The darkness in her eyes softened.

They were still in the middle of a fight, after all.

For a thorough deceiver like Lu Chaohuan, seeing her sister fall so easily for her coaxing sparked a twinge of reluctance to keep lying. Instead, she decided to lay all her scheming bare.

She had spelled it out so clearly—how could Sister keep pretending?

“I didn’t tell Uncle anything,” Lu Chaohuan murmured, clinging to Jiang Li’s body and leaning close to her ear. “I just sent him a message a little while ago saying you weren’t feeling well.”

It wasn’t that Jiang Li wasn’t feeling well—it was that Lu Chaohuan herself wasn’t, a ploy to lure Father Jiang back home right on schedule.

As for how much Father Jiang had overheard just now, or if he’d heard anything at all, Lu Chaohuan didn’t care.

All she needed was for him to show up outside the door and knock at that precise moment.

If Jiang Li refused to go public with their relationship in front of Father Jiang, what was wrong with Lu Chaohuan using a little trick to punish her? No—to force Sister to make a choice?

After all, Sister was the one who had gone on that blind date right in front of her girlfriend’s eyes.

Jiang Li’s thighs clamped down hard. Lu Chaohuan hugged her neck tightly, feeling the tension ripple through those shoulders and the nape of her neck, along with the increasingly heavy breaths hot against her ear.

Sister surely understood her intentions by now.

“Crazy girl.” Jiang Li bit out the words while nipping at Lu Chaohuan’s earlobe, her voice laced with fury and chill.

Lu Chaohuan brushed aside the strands of hair and responded to the label by sinking her teeth viciously into the soft skin just below Jiang Li’s neck.

She bit down hard and refused to let go. That delicate skin couldn’t withstand such torment for long; soon, faint traces of blood seeped out.

The metallic tang of rust touched her tongue as she licked the wound. The hands gripping Jiang Li’s wrists at the back of her neck tightened even further, but they couldn’t pull her away.

The one suppressing her emotions wasn’t just the provoked Jiang Li—Lu Chaohuan had been holding back her own fury ever since spotting Jiang Li at the banquet with that blind date.

The taste of blood punctured her pent-up emotions like a burst balloon.

Her nose twitched faintly. The flavor teasing her tongue—the most intoxicating scent to Lu Chaohuan—filled her with exhilaration and satisfaction as she savored Jiang Li’s blood.

Only one dim lamp glowed in the room now, casting long, intimate shadows of the two figures entwined together.

A few drops of Jiang Li’s blood had Lu Chaohuan utterly entranced. She returned obsessively to the same spot, nipping and biting repeatedly to vent her built-up rage and resentment.

Why couldn’t she and Jiang Li go public openly? Why should she forgive Sister so easily for breaking their promise? Why weren’t Jiang Li’s eyes filled solely with her and no one else?

She might be crazy, scheming, but all she wanted was Jiang Li.

Knock, knock, knock—the rapping at the door resumed.

“Uncle’s still out there, Sister,” Lu Chaohuan reminded her.

Even without seeing Lu Chaohuan’s face, Jiang Li could picture her smug, unruffled expression from the voice muffled against her neck.

She had dragged them into this mess without a second thought, yet Lu Chaohuan dared to think she could stay above it all.

If Lu Chaohuan wanted to play like this, then Jiang Li would play along.

Her rationality, already teetering on a knife’s edge after repeated provocations, had long lost its balance. Jiang Li’s cold gaze swept aside the hair at her neck, revealing that obedient posture.

In truth, Jiang Li’s brows furrowed deeply, the fire of anger in her heart blazing across vast wilds as Lu Chaohuan’s repeated transgressions fanned the flames.

Her brows arched sharply. With no mercy, Jiang Li wrenched the girl buried in the crook of her neck fully into view. Lu Chaohuan’s cheeks were flushed crimson, her expression lost to the spell of Jiang Li’s blood. A soft laugh escaped Jiang Li’s throat.

“Isn’t he right here with you, dear little sister?”

Lu Chaohuan’s body jolted unexpectedly as Jiang Li hugged her tight and slammed forward. The door thudded violently under the impact.

The noise was loud enough—Father Jiang would absolutely know someone was inside.

For the first time in front of Jiang Li, Lu Chaohuan lost her composure. She stared at Jiang Li in shock, only to find her smiling—irresistibly, dazzlingly so.

Watching the panic flicker across Lu Chaohuan’s face deepened Jiang Li’s amusement.

Lu Chaohuan had imagined Jiang Li erupting in argument, forcing her hand to confess their relationship to Father Jiang right then.

But now, seeing Jiang Li utterly unfazed—even deliberately making noise for Father Jiang to hear—Lu Chaohuan had no idea what her plan was.

“Right now, don’t I have to focus on pleasing it properly?”

Pinned against the door, Lu Chaohuan felt Jiang Li ease off. Now able to bear more weight on her own, her hands gained room to move.

The icy glint in Jiang Li’s eyes melted into rippling waves of desire. She leaned in close, chuckling softly.

“What if I’m not good enough and get kicked away?” Jiang Li ground out through gritted teeth, pinning Lu Chaohuan unyieldingly to the door.

Jiang Li echoed Lu Chaohuan’s words back at her word for word.

Jiang Li knew she wasn’t calm right now, but her motions to part them gently were precise all the same. When Lu Chaohuan tried to pull back, Jiang Li advanced without flinching.

She had started this—how could she quit so easily?

Lu Chaohuan’s shoulders were shoved firmly against the door, trapping her in that cramped space. The vibrations from the other side grew more insistent; with no answer for so long, Father Jiang was clearly getting anxious.

After her initial fluster faded, Lu Chaohuan gazed at the stern-faced Jiang Li stroking her cheek and let go of her fleeting worry.

If Jiang Li wasn’t afraid, neither was she.

Her goal had been achieved—in fact, feeling the delicious ache radiating through her body from this rough, anger-fueled handling utterly satisfied Lu Chaohuan. It was a side of Jiang Li worlds apart from before: cold, furious, one she’d never shown anyone else.

This Jiang Li belonged to her alone.

And just moments ago, Lu Chaohuan had marked that long, elegant neck with her own bite.

Her nostrils flared slightly, inhaling the faint, lingering aroma of blood in the air. It eased her very bones.

A fierce blush spread across her pale cheeks. Jiang Li stared intently at Lu Chaohuan, who arched her neck invitingly, lips parted as if already lost in it.

Even with the pain.

You like it like this? Confusion flickered in Jiang Li’s eyes, only for the shattered image from earlier—the one of Lu Chaohuan self-harming to command attention—to flash through her mind again. Rage surged back like bloodshot fury.

Lu Chaohuan was provoking her again and again now—the same girl who’d so decisively hurt herself to manipulate attention. They shared that ruthless core.

Hesitation and anger warred in Jiang Li’s gaze. If she pushed in now, Lu Chaohuan would hurt badly.

Jiang Li wavered: should she let her feel this pain?

In the end, softness won. She crooked her fingers gently, stroking to soothe.

After a single thud from inside the room and then nothing but silence, worry gleamed in Father Jiang’s eyes. He placed a hand on the doorknob. “Li Li, I’m coming in.”

The handle twisted down a fraction.

With a crisp click, the lock disengaged. A sliver of light spilled from the room, catching a glimpse of a dark silhouette.

Father Jiang leaned forward, palm ready to push the door open—

Thud!

Another crash slammed the door shut. As the lock snapped back into place, a clear, pained grunt echoed from behind it—Lu Chaohuan’s voice.

Staring at the closed door, his heart tightening at that cry, Father Jiang called out loudly, “What’s going on? Is everyone all right?”

“Li Li! Chaohuan!”

Father Jiang’s anxious shouts persisted at the door, but the two inside had no attention to spare for him.

The stifled cry forced down Lu Chaohuan’s throat mingled with thick, scorching breaths that swirled around them, humid heat blanketing the air in suffocating intensity.

Thoroughly enraged now, Jiang Li thrust her fingers deep inside. She took a step forward, eyes blazing scarlet. Her wrist braced against resistance, unyielding, determined to overlay their bodies completely.

Her earlier tenderness vanished in the face of Lu Chaohuan’s defiant gaze. All that remained was the burning need to teach her a lesson.

Tonight, Lu Chaohuan held Jiang Li’s every emotion in her grasp.

From the beginning until that moment, amid the knocks outside—even as Jiang Li’s fingers halted, poised at the brink of deeper peril—Lu Chaohuan showed no concern. She simply hooked her arms around Jiang Li’s neck and slowly pulled her down.

Even if Jiang Li wanted to pause, Lu Chaohuan refused.

Her fingers probed deeper bit by bit. The door shuddered under the assault. Seeing Jiang Li struggle for restraint, Lu Chaohuan said airily, “Sister’s service might really not be up to snuff. You could get kicked off.”

She offered a perfect out, and Jiang Li stepped right into it. Rage twisted into a incredulous laugh, her lips pressing into a thin line as some nameless fury consumed her heart.

“Fine then, little sister,” Jiang Li said through clenched teeth, twin flames leaping in her pupils. She enunciated each word deliberately. “I’ll need you to… point out my shortcomings from here on.”

She was set on teaching Lu Chaohuan a lesson.

She pressed forward. No gentle spreading, no proper lubrication.

“Nngh! Ah…” The sudden pain ripped a cry from her that she couldn’t hide.

The result of forcing entry: a tearing agony that shot through every limb. The smile on Lu Chaohuan’s face vanished. Her knuckles whitened from gripping so tight.

Pain beyond anything she’d imagined—worse than she’d conceived.

With Father Jiang still urging from the other side of the door and Jiang Li pressing relentlessly closer, Lu Chaohuan had maneuvered herself into a no-win trap.

Her chest heaved with labored breaths. She pushed up desperately on Jiang Li’s shoulders, brows knit in agony as she tried to buy some relief.

But Jiang Li wouldn’t have it. She effortlessly closed the gap Lu Chaohuan had created, seized her waist, and yanked hard. Another pained cry flew past her ear, immediately followed by Jiang Li’s own grunt.

Her fingers froze in place, and Lu Chaohuan clamped her teeth onto Jiang Li’s earlobe. Each passed their hurt to the other, pouring every ounce of strength into it.

Despite the throbbing pain in her ear, Jiang Li had no intention of stopping.

That fragmented image—from the broken scene earlier—of Lu Chaohuan mutilating herself for “Jiang Li’s” attention kept replaying in her mind.

And wasn’t what Lu Chaohuan did tonight the same? Using her own body, gambling on Jiang Li’s care for her?

Lu Chaohuan was a possessive lunatic when it came to her—Jiang Li knew that full well.

Jiang Li could tolerate her biting, indulging these marks all over her body as Lu Chaohuan liked. But she absolutely forbade Lu Chaohuan expressing her “love” through deliberate self-harm.

This time, jealousy from seeing her with someone else had prompted words laced with threats. What about next time? The future?

If Jiang Li didn’t address this head-on tonight, she was certain she’d witness Lu Chaohuan cross that line again before long.

So she would make it hurt. Make Lu Chaohuan understand her boundary was here: step further out of line, and Jiang Li would get truly angry—would stop caring about her feelings.

Like right now.

Father Jiang’s voice broke through intermittently with questions. Lu Chaohuan still gnawed at Jiang Li’s earlobe. Jiang Li reminded her coolly, “You’d better answer him. After all, Sister’s too unwell to speak.”

Talk about a taste of her own medicine.

Lu Chaohuan’s own words boomeranged right back at her. Hunched over Jiang Li, she bit down hard on that dangling earlobe, struggling even to control her breathing.

Even knowing from the gasps that replying was difficult, Jiang Li showed no mercy.

Instead, she coaxed her to speak.

“Good girl.” Jiang Li’s hot palm stroked her spine soothingly. She chuckled. “Listen, Dad’s knocking again. Should I slam you against the door some more? It’ll hurt, you know.”

Her palm trailed up and down, turning Lu Chaohuan’s pained pants gradually threaded with pleasure.

“To avoid getting kicked away, Sister’s putting in her best effort to satisfy you.”

Heat poured from Jiang Li’s body in waves. Lu Chaohuan blinked through glassy eyes, accepting the forceful rhythm with some discomfort. Jiang Li’s innocent whisper reached her ear: “Do you feel it?”

The room sweltered, sweat beading on their skin. Their gazes locked fiercely, neither willing to yield.

Each clinging stubbornly to their resolve.

Outside, Father Jiang kept calling out. Just as Jiang Li ground in with a twist that sent Lu Chaohuan’s thoughts scattering, she dimly heard her own name amid the haze.

“Chaohuan? Are you okay?!”

“N-No problem, Uncle. Go… rest early.” Jiang Li bore down harder, cutting off her words deliberately. Lu Chaohuan clutched at the fabric beneath her fingers and forced down a ragged exhale, barely managing the strained response to the door.

“Didn’t you tell me Li Li had too much to drink and wasn’t feeling well? How is she now?”

Heard a reply from inside, breathless and off, but Father Jiang was wholly focused on Jiang Li’s condition for the moment. He didn’t think much of it.

Too much to drink? Nice excuse, Lu Chaohuan.

Jiang Li’s lips thinned. She crushed Lu Chaohuan harder against the door and thrust even more forcefully. The arm circling her wrist went limp from exhaustion; only Lu Chaohuan’s legs clamped tighter around her.

With no support now, Lu Chaohuan had to hold on herself or collapse to the floor.

Outside, Father Jiang clearly still awaited a fuller answer.

“Sister, what do you want me to say?”

“‘Uncle, Sister’s confused from the alcohol. I’m fine.'”

With a blink, enduring the gasps bubbling from her chest, Lu Chaohuan tossed out another option.

“‘Uncle, your daughter is fucking her stepsister right now.'”

Lu Chaohuan forced Jiang Li to choose.