537: [Bonus chapter] Everyone is equally below me

[Bonus chapter] Everyone is equally below me

"Don't worry, Miss Wei. I didn't ask him to leave so I could have a solo date with you. I'm not the type. It's just that I didn't appreciate his attitude toward the lady. Women are precious beings — they should be handled with care, like how we carry fragile things. They shouldn't be humiliated like that."0

"..."

Ivy stared at the driver's seat and frowned. "I'm not fragile."

"You're a woman." Tiger glanced at the rearview mirror. "Believe what you want, but you can't change my mind."

"..."

Another wave of silence befell the vehicle as neither of them talked after his remarks. Ivy kept her eyes on the driver's seat while Tiger focused on the road. Her lips parted to speak but found her voice stuck in her throat at the moment. 

'I don't know if he's trying to be a gentleman or something else,'she thought, letting out a shallow breath as she relaxed her back on the backseat. She turned her head in the window, thinking of Dane, who was left alone in the middle of the highway. 

"You'll be in trouble," she said, breaking the prolonged silence between them. "Mr. Zhang might look like an easy person, but he's not. If he really wanted to, he could fire you out even without Dominic's permission."

"That's my problem, Miss Wei," Tiger replied with a cool and offhanded voice. "Don't worry about that."

"How can you say I shouldn't worry when I was the one that compelled you to do what you did?"

"To set the record straight, my action is not about you." This time, Tiger glanced at the mirror to give her a quick look. "Even if it's some other woman who is sitting there, I'd still do the same."

He set his focus back on the road ahead as he continued, "My actions stem from my principles as a man. As I said, women should be handled with care. Even if they were crazy most of the time, us men should know better."

"I don't care whatever goddamn affair you two have or what's the real history between you two. I stepped in because I'm annoyed," he added in a knowing tone. "And that you seem to be at the point of breaking and he's the last straw. Don't die. There's nothing good in hell."

"What makes you think I'd go to hell?"

"Duh?" Tiger rolled his eyes. 

"Duh?" Ivy repeated in a questioning tone, frowning as she looked at Tiger's side profile. "Do you always speak like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like everyone is equal to you?"

"Haha." A long wave of laughter escaped his mouth as if he heard the funniest joke he heard in the entire year. 

"What?" she asked, intrigued. "Why are you laughing like that? Did I say something strange?"

"Yeah." Tiger shook his head, slowing down at the red light. When the vehicle halted, he looked back at the backseat and said, "You're wrong, Miss Wei. I don't think everyone is equal to me. Everyone is equal. Equally below me."

Her lips curved down, assessing the confident man looking back at her from the driver's seat. "What an arrogant man."

"The only person who I think is equal to me — or maybe above me, is already dead, Miss Wei." Tiger smacked his lips, grinning mischievously as he settled in his seat once again. "If anyone talks to her the same way Mr. Zhang talked to you, I would've cut off his tongue right then and there."

Ivy pressed her lips once more, finding herself intrigued by this man's remarks. She was not someone who found regular conversation interesting, let alone engaging. However, this man intrigued him. Tiger was definitely an arrogant lad who wouldn't care about the ranks in his job. But then, he would leave some hints that were enough to make the person engaged in the conversation curious. 

"This person..." she trailed off, observing his reaction to see if she should ask this question or not. "This person you just mentioned. Is she your lover?"

Tiger laughed again, licking his lips before biting it. "If she's alive and heard that, she'd slap your mouth a hundred times."

"I see. So she's not, huh?"

"That person is my sister, my best friend." The corner of his lips curled up, smiling subtly as his eyes softened. "She's the only good thing in this goddamn world, you know? But now she's gone. So, there's that. Life's fucking boring."

Ivy studied Tiger's side profile, seeing the green light shine on him. He then continued driving to her destination.

"She's lucky," she blurted out under her breath, making his brows elevate. "To have someone like you care for her as if she's the most important person in the world."

"Lucky, huh?" Tiger hummed, knowing that if his sister heard that, she would laugh at it in ridicule. 

Ivy cast her eyes down, smiling almost bitterly. "You're an arrogant man and yet, for an arrogant man to care for someone is truly amazing in its own way."

"Well, I don't know about that, Miss Wei. But what I do know is that you have a bad taste in men."

"How can you say that?"

"You are beautiful, smart, and rich. Lots of wealthy men are surely lining up just to take a woman with such high status as you to dinner. And yet, you're letting that damn Zhang guy humiliate you even in the presence of a stranger." He shrugged indifferently. "Although I'm not a stranger to him, it's still not nice."

"I know, right? He can be a jerk." Ivy chuckled and shook her head, looking back at him as he continued. 

"He's abnormal too!" Tiger exclaimed. "If I'm a woman, I will never like him! Unless we're the only last people in the world, then I might fuck him just for the sake of saving humanity."

"Haha." She covered her lips with the back of her fist, a bit weirded out by his reckless use of words. But overall, she found it funny. "Mr. Captain, you're silly and funny."

"I'm not trying to."

"Which makes it even better." Ivy leaned back comfortably, loosening up with his company. She looked at the window again, her eyelids drooping at the thought. "Mr. Captain, Mr. Zhang might be annoying sometimes. But he isn't a bad person. If anything, the reason he's like that to me is because he didn't want to give me false hope. And that I give up on him."

Tiger glanced at the rearview mirror to check on her. He didn't say anything anymore, driving the rest of the journey in silence. 

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