Chapter 306: Sobering Up

When Kuang Dao woke up, he felt as though his head was splitting apart.

As a seasoned drinker, he immediately recognized the symptoms of a hangover and didn’t think much of it at first.

Suddenly, he heard another person’s breathing beside him. In an instant, his martial artist instincts kicked in, and he shot up, fully alert.

However, what he saw left his mind momentarily blank: a completely naked Tani Akiko lying on her side next to him.

Staring dumbfounded at the bare woman for a while, he then glanced down at himself and quickly realized what had likely transpired.

Damn it, how did it end up like this? At this moment, Kuang Dao was so frustrated that he wanted to hit something.

After a while, he tried to recall the events of the previous night. He remembered that Lei Yin had come over to drink with him. They had downed a lot of alcohol and eventually gotten drunk, but how had this woman ended up here?

Due to his hangover, Kuang Dao’s mind was a blank, especially regarding what had happened after they got drunk. He couldn’t recall a single detail.

Looking around the room, he noticed pieces of torn clothing and skirts scattered everywhere. Glancing back at Tani Akiko, he saw bruises on her fair, smooth skin—marks that clearly suggested she had been assaulted.

But there were only the two of them in the room, and he bore unmistakable signs of intimacy on his own body. Even he couldn’t deny that he was most likely involved.

Still, he had often gotten drunk in the past. At worst, he’d caused trouble or gotten into fights. The most serious incident had been breaking a few ribs of some troublemakers. But he had never done something like this. Could he really have lost control this time because he drank too much? The more Kuang Dao thought about it, the colder he felt inside.

As he spiraled deeper into his thoughts, the sunlight streaming through the window hit Tani Akiko, causing her to stir. She let out a soft groan and moved her eyelids slightly.

Seeing that she was about to wake up, Kuang Dao wanted nothing more than to vanish on the spot.

Acting on this impulse, he jumped out of bed, opened the wardrobe, and grabbed a pair of pants. Unable to find any underwear in the moment, he simply pulled the pants on.

A martial arts master reduced to sneaking away—Lei Yin would laugh at me for years if he saw this. Cursing inwardly, Kuang Dao carefully untangled his belt from his torn pants on the floor and looped it through the pants he had just put on.

Just as he was about to grab a shirt, he froze. Through the wardrobe mirror, he saw Tani Akiko slowly propping herself up on the bed.

Kuang Dao felt his scalp tingle. He had no idea how to face the woman he might have wronged. He certainly couldn’t tell her, “Sorry, I was drunk last night and may have…”

Looking pale and weak, Tani Akiko soon noticed Kuang Dao standing stiffly by the wardrobe.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. The air between them grew heavy with silence and awkwardness.

Seeing that Kuang Dao refused to face her, a flicker of sadness appeared in Tani Akiko’s eyes.

Wrapping herself in the bedsheet, she said softly, “Mr. Kuang Dao, could you please give me some clothes?”

Without daring to say a word, Kuang Dao quickly grabbed a pair of pants and a T-shirt from the wardrobe and handed them to her.

When she took the clothes, she didn’t look at him. Instead, she simply said, “Could you step out for a moment?”

Relieved, Kuang Dao hurriedly left the room without a word and closed the door behind him.

With a quiet sigh, Tani Akiko slowly got out of bed and began dressing.

Once she was dressed, she opened the door and walked out.

Seeing her emerge, Kuang Dao, who had been pacing nervously, immediately approached her but found himself at a loss for words.

After a long pause, he finally stammered out, “I…”

Tani Akiko glanced at him briefly, then lowered her head and said, “I know you didn’t mean to. I’m not blaming you. I’ll be going now. Goodbye.”

With that, she walked toward the door.

“I’ll walk you back,” Kuang Dao said, feeling even more guilty seeing that Tani Akiko bore no resentment toward him.

“There’s no need,” she replied softly, then walked out without looking back.

Listening to her footsteps fade into the distance, Kuang Dao ran his hand through his hair in frustration before sitting down heavily on the floor.

※※※

“Are all the documents that need to be signed here?” Lei Yin asked, looking at the stack of papers on his desk.

“Yes, the top two were just brought over by Miss Huang. She said they’re urgent and need your immediate response. Also, Manager Zhang would like to—”

Before the secretary could finish, a loud crash came from behind. Startled, she turned to see Kuang Dao kick the office door open and storm in, looking ready to start a fight.

Seeing Kuang Dao’s murderous expression, the secretary turned pale, completely clueless about what was happening.

“Miss Guo, please step out for now. I’ll sign the documents after I’ve reviewed them,” Lei Yin said calmly, glancing briefly at Kuang Dao.

“Ah—yes! I’ll leave now,” the secretary stammered, finally coming to her senses. She quickly nodded to Kuang Dao and scurried out.

Once the door closed, Lei Yin looked at Kuang Dao with a faint smile. “Menopause already?”

Kuang Dao’s fury surged. Taking one step at a time, he closed in and glared at him. “You bastard, how dare you drug me!”

Hearing this, Lei Yin seemed momentarily stunned before a look of realization crossed his face.

“Let me guess—you got drunk last night and took advantage of Tani Akiko, didn’t you?” Lei Yin said with a smirk.

“You damn liar!” Kuang Dao roared and threw a punch at him.

With lightning speed, Lei Yin caught his fist and grabbed his collar with his other hand. “Bullshit! You’ve got some nerve blaming your shameless behavior on me. According to your logic, every rapist out there must just be some poor, drugged victim, huh?”

Kuang Dao glared at him. “Are you seriously saying you didn’t spike the drinks? I’ve been drinking for years and never done anything like this. But after drinking with you last night, I wake up with a woman in my bed. If it wasn’t you, then who else could it be?”

“Bullshit! Use your pig brain for once and think. Why would I do that? Would it improve my business somehow? Go home and take a good look at yourself in the mirror before acting like the victim here.”

“Then explain why that woman ended up in my house!” Kuang Dao began to falter, unable to think of a reason Lei Yin would do such a thing.

“Naoko called her over. She thought she couldn’t handle looking after the two of us alone, so she asked Tani Akiko to help. Who would’ve guessed you’d treat her like an appetizer and devour her?” Lei Yin burst into laughter as he finished.

“Laugh all you want! I’m losing my mind over this, and if you keep provoking me, I’ll fight you to the death!” Kuang Dao growled, though he was slowly beginning to believe Lei Yin had nothing to do with it.

Lei Yin thought for a moment and said, “This is a bit tricky. She’s a decent woman who only came to help out of kindness, and you ended up… well, forcing yourself on her. How did she react afterward?”

Kuang Dao rubbed his head in frustration and recounted what had happened that morning.

“She said she doesn’t blame you? Sounds like she has feelings for you. No woman would take something like this so calmly otherwise. Who would’ve thought someone like you could win over a woman? Truly, the world is full of surprises,” Lei Yin chuckled.

“What good does it do to say that? I’m at my wit’s end!” Kuang Dao shot him a glare.

“What’s there to stress about? She doesn’t blame you, so just let it go.”

“Easy for you to say! I still took advantage of her. Even if she doesn’t blame me, I can’t help but feel guilty. And it’s all your fault! If you hadn’t dragged me into drinking last night, none of this would’ve happened!” The more Kuang Dao thought about it, the angrier he became, launching into another round of scolding.

Lei Yin, unwilling to back down, pointed at Kuang Dao and cursed, “Damn it! Last night, you complained the two bottles of wine I brought weren’t enough. Now that something happened, you blame me for inviting you to drink? Do you even hear yourself?”

Kuang Dao, overwhelmed with frustration, didn’t have the energy to argue. Without sparing Lei Yin another glance, he turned and walked out of the office.

Not long after he left, Naoko spoke hesitantly, “I was really worried you two might start fighting.”

Lei Yin pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her soft and delicate body. “That guy was just suspicious and trying to test me. If he were completely certain, he would’ve come in swinging right away. His aggressive act was meant to gauge my reaction. If I’d shown the slightest sign of guilt, he would’ve known it was my doing. But that kind of trick doesn’t work on me.”

Naoko picked up a cup of tea from the office table and handed it to him.

Lei Yin took a slow sip and then smiled. “Your tea-making skills are improving.”

Naoko beamed with happiness, then looked at him and asked, “Are you trying to set them up?”

Lei Yin’s lips twitched slightly before he smiled and said, “That’s the idea.”

“So yesterday, when we were at the water park, you deliberately told me to ask Miss Tani if she liked Mr. Kuang Dao? Then later, when I went to pick you up from Mr. Kuang Dao’s house, you told me to invite Miss Tani to come along too?” Naoko rested her head against his chest and asked softly.

“Exactly.”

“But will this really work?”

Lei Yin chuckled and replied, “It might not work with other men, but for someone as stubborn and old-fashioned as Kuang Dao, it’s perfect. Besides, the show’s just getting started.”

Naoko didn’t press further. Instead, she nestled back against his chest, listening to the familiar rhythm of his heartbeat.

What Naoko didn’t know was that Lei Yin wasn’t doing this out of any sense of goodwill—it was purely for his own amusement.

Two days ago, Bibi had asked Lei Yin how he could get Kuang Dao to accept him as her father. At the time, Lei Yin considered the difficulty of the task, but instead of discouragement, he felt a strange excitement welling up within him.

He knew full well that Kuang Dao had always harbored resentment over being expelled from his sect. As a result, he held little affection for women. Even though he was no longer a monk, he still carried himself as one. While he had no qualms about drinking or eating meat, he steadfastly avoided any entanglements with women.

For someone as rigid as Kuang Dao, orchestrating a situation where he could end up with a woman for the long term felt like a significant achievement. And for someone like Lei Yin, there was nothing more satisfying than outmaneuvering a seasoned veteran like Kuang Dao and making him fall step by step into a carefully laid plan.

That’s when the idea began to take shape, and Lei Yin’s blood started boiling with excitement.

Last night, while drinking, Lei Yin had secretly slipped a drug into one of the bottles of alcohol while Kuang Dao was already halfway drunk. There was, however, a critical detail—Kuang Dao needed to be completely intoxicated for the plan to work. If he had retained even a shred of sobriety, he might have realized something was off.

Using a potent aphrodisiac to push Kuang Dao into sleeping with Tani Akiko wasn’t meant to force him into marriage. In today’s world, things weren’t as simple as getting married after a single night together.

Lei Yin’s goal with this initial step was to instill a sense of guilt in Kuang Dao. When a man feels he has wronged a woman, he’ll be much more likely to go along with whatever she does, without resistance.

“Do you have Tani Akiko’s phone number?” Lei Yin suddenly asked the beauty in his arms.

Naoko nodded and handed him her phone.

Lei Yin scrolled through her contacts, found Tani Akiko’s number, and dialed it.

“Hello, is this Miss Tani? This is Gennai Masashi.”

“I’d like to talk to you about something, but it’s not convenient over the phone. Can we meet this afternoon?”

“I know the place. Let’s agree on that, and we’ll talk then.”

“Alright. See you.”

After hanging up, Lei Yin’s face showed a peculiar smile.

Seeing his expression, Naoko softly asked, “What mischief are you plotting this time?”

Lei Yin gave a mysterious smile and said, “Even the best script needs actors to bring it to life.”

“Sometimes I think you’re really bad,” Naoko murmured coquettishly.

Hearing her soft, silky tone, Lei Yin felt a stir in his heart. Unable to resist, he slipped his hand under her short dress, slowly caressing her smooth, delicate skin.

Naoko’s face immediately flushed red. Placing her hands on his chest, she shyly murmured, “You… didn’t have enough of me last night?”

Thinking of the previous night, Lei Yin felt a surge of tenderness.

Because he didn’t want Kuang Dao to suspect anything, Lei Yin had drunk a significant amount of the spiked wine himself. Although he used his inner strength to expel most of the alcohol while in the car, some of the drug’s effects remained in his body. When the drug finally took full effect, he regretted using such a high dose.

By the time he barely managed to make it back to the villa, the residual effects overwhelmed him completely.

What followed blurred into a haze—he had lost count of how many times he had taken her. Even though Naoko was utterly exhausted, she did her best to accommodate him, wanting to ease his discomfort. Her unspoken devotion and tenderness transformed the night into an unforgettable, passionate embrace.

Not wanting to tease her any further, Lei Yin withdrew his hand from under her dress and gently held her close, savoring the moment.

Feeling his tenderness, Naoko was moved. Leaning close to his ear, she whispered, “Lei, if you want, I’m okay with it.”

“Silly girl, this is enough,” Lei Yin said softly, burying his face in her neck and breathing in her unique fragrance.

Naoko gazed at him with a dreamy expression, then closed her eyes and pressed her face against his chest.

For a while, the office was enveloped in quiet stillness.

※※※

When Lei Yin entered the café, he spotted Tani Akiko waiting in the distance.

“Sorry, there was traffic. I’m late,” he said as he approached her.

“It’s fine. Please, have a seat.”

After ordering coffee, Tani Akiko asked, “Mr. Gennai, what did you want to discuss?”

Lei Yin looked up at her and asked directly, “Do you like Kuang Dao?”

Tani Akiko was stunned by the unexpected question but soon smiled bitterly. “What if I do? And what if I don’t?”

“To be honest, if you are interested in that stubborn brute, I’m willing to help you.”

“Why would you do that?” Tani Akiko looked at him in confusion.

Lei Yin smiled and said, “I’m the only person in the world who truly understands him. I don’t want him to spend his life alone. Let me tell you something: the reason he dislikes women is that, when he was young, he was deceived by a woman—a very cruel betrayal. Since then, he’s had no affection for women.”

Hearing this for the first time, Tani Akiko was surprised. She hadn’t imagined such a story behind that man and felt as if she were listening to a play.

Not wanting to waste time, Lei Yin continued, “Think about it. If you’re serious about him, I can teach you what to do. But there’s one condition: you must never let him know I’m helping you behind the scenes. Can you promise me that?”

Tani Akiko thought for a moment and then looked at him with a peculiar expression. “Mr. Gennai, I have a question for you.”

“What is it?”

“Did Kuang Dao’s behavior last night have anything to do with you?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand,” Lei Yin replied with an innocent expression.

Tani Akiko suddenly smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll agree.”

“Good. Let’s stay in touch by phone. I’ll leave now.” With that, Lei Yin stood up and walked away.

Tani Akiko watched him leave, her expression complex.