Dumped For His Heiress, I Became The Billionaire's Secret Game

The Smell of Smoke

Song Anxin stepped onto the balcony of the villa, the cool marble chilling her bare feet, and stopped.

Lu Jingyan stood at the far railing, his broad back to her, one elbow resting on the balustrade. A thin ribbon of smoke curled from his lips, twisting upward before the breeze carried it away. The sharp, acrid scent hit her immediately.

She hated the smell of smoke.

He knew that. He had known it from the very first time he had leaned in close to her, five years ago, cigarette still glowing between his fingers. She had tried to hide the small frown that tugged at her mouth, but Lu Jingyan never missed anything. Not with her. After that night, he had never smoked inside the villa again. Not once in five years.

Until now.

The sight of him exhaling slowly, deliberately, as though the act itself was a message, sent a quiet chill through her. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Her soft footsteps whispered across the stone. He paused mid-drag, the ember glowing brighter for a moment, but he did not turn around.

“You should go,” he said, voice low and even, as if he were commenting on the weather.

Anxin felt her heart stumble in her chest. She had prepared for this moment in the darkest corners of her mind for years, yet hearing the words still carved a hollow space inside her.

She forced her lips into a small, steady smile he would never see. “Okay,” she answered, calm and clear. “I will.”

She was his mistress. She had always known this day would come. From the very first morning she woke in his bed, tangled in sheets that cost more than her entire childhood wardrobe, she had understood the rules. There was no future written for a woman like her beside a man like Lu Jingyan.

And yesterday the news had broken: Bai Weiwei was back.

The heiress who had vanished abroad years ago had returned, beautiful and polished as ever. The woman the world—and his family—had always expected him to marry.

Anxin had not imagined he would move so quickly. That he would end it so soon.

In her head, she had always known the fire between them was only a game to him. A beautiful, dangerous diversion. But her heart had never listened. With a man like Lu Jingyan—sharp, magnetic, impossibly attentive—it was far too easy to dream of more.

Still, she turned away without another word. Obedience had always been her greatest strength. It was how she had survived five years in his orbit without breaking.

Inside, the villa was quiet. His assistant had already packed her belongings with ruthless efficiency. Designer bags, jewellery boxes, dresses still bearing tags—everything he had ever given her was neatly arranged, ready to be taken. The accounts he had opened in her name were flush with more money than she could spend in a lifetime. And on the table lay the deed to a sprawling hillside property, transferred quietly into her name as a final, generous farewell.

She could leave with everything she had come for.

Yet as she walked through the silent halls one last time, a piece of her heart felt irreparably empty.

Anxin paused at the threshold of the balcony door. Against every instinct, she glanced back.

Lu Jingyan had not moved. His silhouette remained framed against the glittering city, smoke still rising like a thin, deliberate veil between them. He had not turned to watch her go.

She stepped inside, pulled the glass door closed with a soft click, and let the darkness swallow the last curl of smoke.