Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Whenever Lu Yuzhi went to work, I stayed in my own apartment with my two little pig-cats.

My phone rang. It was Lu Yuzhi.

“There’s a reception tonight. Come with me. I’ll pick you up at home after work.”

“Okay.”

I answered absently, too busy petting Big Orange. I scratched under his chin, and his eyes narrowed in bliss.

“Meow.”

Little Orange grew jealous and gave a pitiful cry from beside me.

I stroked his forehead too.

“Are you at your apartment?” Lu Yuzhi suddenly asked.

Of course he had figured it out. He was Lu Yuzhi.

“…Yes.”

I had become so absorbed in my cats that I had forgotten I was still on the phone.

Why did I feel like an adulterer caught in the act?

How embarrassing.

By the time Lu Yuzhi arrived home, I was ready.

I wore a simple fitted white satin gown with a strapless neckline. My makeup was light, and I had pinned up my hair to show off the jasmine diamond earrings he gave me.

Lu Yuzhi came home and changed out of one black suit.

Then he put on another… black suit. I could not see much difference between them.

A jasmine-shaped brooch adorned his lapel.

I touched one earring without thinking.

Were they a matching set, or was it a coincidence?

The unusually shaped jasmine brooch suited him perfectly, lending his elegant appearance an air of understated nobility.

When we stepped out of the car at the venue, Lu Yuzhi offered me his hand like a gentleman. I slipped my arm naturally through his.

Suddenly, I remembered the two figures sliding past my car window that summer after my second year of high school. My heart tightened, and my attention drifted.

“What’s wrong?”

Lu Yuzhi noticed that fleeting distraction and asked with a gentle expression.

“Nothing. Let’s go inside.”

I gathered myself and raised a smile.

I disliked these false social occasions, but I could not deny their purpose or value.

I stayed beside Lu Yuzhi for most of the evening, staring into space until someone addressed me, at which point I supplied a practiced answer.

While my mind wandered, Lu Yuzhi suddenly wrapped an arm around my waist.

I looked up at him in confusion and found him staring at the man opposite us through narrowed eyes.

His gaze was wary, almost hostile.

Puzzled, I followed it to a young man in formal wear. He looked vaguely familiar.

The young man watched me with an amused half smile, as though he knew me.

“Shen Qingmo. It’s been a long time.”

His greeting came with the careless grin of a rich playboy and mockery in his eyes.

“Huh?”

I did not recognize him. My mind raced through the sons of every company president I knew.

I had been out of society for so long that I almost fried my brain’s CPU, yet I still could not place him.

“It seems Young Mr. Fu has met my wife before,” Lu Yuzhi said at the right moment, sensing the man’s unfriendly intent.

“More than once, wouldn’t you say, Little Jasmine?”

The overly intimate nickname was an open, brazen provocation.

Lu Yuzhi’s hand tightened at my waist, pulling me closer against him.

I could feel the pressure rolling off him. The man across from us ignored it completely and continued smiling like spring sunshine.

The air grew taut, as if swords had been drawn.

Then realization struck me.

The Young Mr. Fu Lu Yuzhi had mentioned was probably “8/12-Six-Pack, Great Dresser, Terrible Drinker.”

I remembered him as a flashy playboy buried in designer labels. Every color but black had appeared in his hair at some point, and he had been rather entertaining.

Now he wore formal clothes and had combed his hair into a proper adult style. He looked almost respectable. No wonder I had not recognized him.

Before I could celebrate remembering, I realized I was still trapped in the nightmare scenario of an “ex-boyfriend” challenging my lawful husband.

“Honey, he was a classmate of mine when I studied in Britain.”

I no longer remember his name.

I wisely kept that second sentence to myself.

My “honey” pleased Lu Yuzhi enormously. His rigid body relaxed.

The hand at my waist loosened, though he deliberately drew me even closer until I was almost entirely in his arms.

“I hope Young Mr. Fu and I have an opportunity to work together,” Lu Yuzhi said with a smile.

The chill in his voice was impossible to miss. It sounded less like an invitation to collaborate than an order to leave.

Having lost his amusement, Young Mr. Fu said a brief goodbye and walked away.