Chapter 10
Chapter 10
The meeting between romantic rivals, thick with the smoke of battle, came to a hasty end because the tyrannical CEO had “fallen ill” and could no longer speak.
On the way home, Shen Dongjun was too busy glaring furiously at Zhu Yin to spare any anger for his rival. His rage had gone straight to the maximum.
Zhu Yin bit down on her milk-tea straw, completely unconcerned. Zombies had stared her down, and cursed spirits had marked her. The tyrannical CEO’s little glare barely even registered.
Han Qingzi did not know what was going on. She was still angry with her husband, but when Shen Dongjun suddenly lost his voice, her concern ultimately outweighed her temper.
She had suggested going straight to the hospital, but both Shen Dongjun and Zhu Yin shook their heads.
Shen Dongjun naturally knew that Zhu Yin was behind all of this. There was nothing wrong with him!
Zhu Yin reassured Han Qingzi, “The Young Master only caught a slight chill. It’s nothing serious. As for losing his voice, he probably damaged his throat from all the shouting he usually does, so he can’t speak for the moment.”
She lied with a perfectly straight face. Perhaps her expression was too sincere, her tone too confident, or some other unscientific reason was at work. Whatever the cause, Han Qingzi actually believed her.
With the person most prone to exploding unable to speak, the atmosphere remained remarkably peaceful all the way home.
Back at the Shen residence.
Shen Dongjun gave Han Qingzi a reassuring look, then angrily took Zhu Yin into the study.
Han Qingzi, left behind: “…”
Come to think of it, something was rather strange. Ever since Butler Zhu Yin arrived, she and Shen Dongjun often met alone in the study.
Yet despite such a young and beautiful woman constantly spending time alone with her husband, Han Qingzi felt no sense of danger whatsoever.
For some inexplicable reason, she simply felt that nothing could ever develop between Zhu Yin and Dongjun.
In the study.
Shen Dongjun glared at Zhu Yin.
Zhu Yin coughed. “Young Master, I did it for your own good.”
Shen Dongjun suddenly discovered that he could speak again. So it really had been her doing.
He said coldly, “In that case, should I thank you for turning me mute?”
He meant it as sarcasm, but Zhu Yin nodded in complete agreement. “Sometimes, if you truly don’t know how to speak properly, it’s better to be mute.”
Shen Dongjun: ??
Zhu Yin was baffled. “Young Master, you already knew you had misunderstood the Young Madam. Why did you still lose your temper and prepare to say all those hurtful things?”
She had no doubt that if Shen Dongjun had voiced those heart-piercing remarks, the young couple’s recently thawed relationship would have plunged into another ice age.
Shen Dongjun was no fool. He knew himself well and had noticed that something about him was wrong.
Whenever he faced Han Qingzi, the calm and self-control he had always prided himself on collapsed completely.
So at this moment, his displeasure with Zhu Yin came only from her forcibly “muting” him without his consent.
He fell silent.
Sitting across from him with her chin propped in one hand, Zhu Yin watched him. Suddenly, inspiration struck. “Young Master, I have a brilliant plan!”
Shen Dongjun did not dare trust her in the slightest. He immediately grew wary. “What kind of trouble are you planning now?”
Zhu Yin pretended not to hear. She only asked, “Young Master, just tell me this: do you like the Young Madam? Do you want to clear up the misunderstandings between you and live together sweetly and lovingly?”
Shen Dongjun’s eyes widened slightly. With Zhu Yin’s extraordinary powers of observation, she naturally did not miss the flash of hope that appeared in them.
But he quickly concealed it. His face tightened, and he said coldly, “She has someone else in her heart.”
Had Zhu Yin not been watching him all along, she might truly have missed the thread of grievance in his voice.
A question mark practically appeared above Zhu Yin’s head. Back in the private room, even she could see that the Young Madam clearly cared more about the Young Master.
Her gaze had kept drifting toward him. Once she heard that he was ill, she forgot everything else entirely.
Had he not seen how dejected the idealized love looked?
But Zhu Yin could not be bothered to say any of that, mainly because the tyrannical CEO would not listen even if she did.
She merely smiled at Shen Dongjun. “Young Master, forget everything else. Just tell me: do you trust me?”
Shen Dongjun shook his head without hesitation. Not in the slightest.
The next second, a glass appeared before him.
More precisely, it was a glass of some unidentified substance.
The transparent cup was filled with deep-purple liquid. Most terrifying of all, the liquid seemed alive and continued to bubble and gurgle.
Shen Dongjun: “…”
Never mind that he did not trust Zhu Yin to begin with. Even if he trusted her completely, drinking something like this would require considerable courage, wouldn’t it?
He gave Zhu Yin a long, brooding look and silently refused.
Zhu Yin scorned his failure to appreciate a good thing. “Other people could beg me for a potion and still never get one. I’m offering it to you for free, and you don’t even want it.”
She did not force him. “Anyway, it’s yours. Drink it or don’t–it’s up to you. It will remain effective if you take it within a month.”
For the entire following week, she did not meet the tyrannical CEO alone again.
Shen Dongjun and Han Qingzi did not seem to reconcile either. The very night Shen Dongjun’s voice recovered, Han Qingzi moved out of the master bedroom, and the young couple entered a cold war.
They did not argue again this time, but both masters of the house wore grim expressions every day, chilling even the air around them.
Meanwhile, Shen Xin remained unwilling to give up after failing with Zhu Yin. From somewhere, he found another young beauty and sent her over.
The moment Zhu Yin saw the Shen family’s new private doctor, she lost her composure and looked toward Han Qingzi.
Good grief. This time, Shen Xin had found Shen Dongjun a miniature Han Qingzi.
She truly wanted to pry open Shen Xin’s skull and see how his brain was constructed.
In any case, the new doctor was dismissed and sent home that same day. Shen Dongjun, who already had a bellyful of pent-up rage, drove to Shen Xin’s place that very night.
When the tyrannical CEO returned the next day, two new bruises marked his face.
Han Qingzi said nothing about it. She merely packed her luggage that very day.
“Shen Dongjun.” Weariness filled her voice. “I’m tired. I think we both need time to calm down properly.”
Shen Dongjun stared fixedly at her. “Calm down? And after that?”
Han Qingzi froze. She bit her lip and said softly, “We should think everything through. Our marriage was never born from mutual love. You were unwilling from the beginning. Perhaps the marriage itself was a mistake.”
Zhu Yin tilted her head and watched the scene curiously. Barbara had shown her a tyrannical-CEO novel last night.
After Han Qingzi left, a long time passed before Shen Dongjun finally turned around.
Now Zhu Yin saw clearly that his expression remained cold and detached. His eyes were fine, with none of the bloodshot redness she had read about, and his fingernails had not dug bloody marks into his palms either.
“Butler,” Shen Dongjun suddenly called.
Zhu Yin followed him into the study.
There, Shen Dongjun opened the safe and took out a familiar glass of potion.
He stared at the unidentified liquid. His Adam’s apple bobbed several times before he finally made up his mind. “You said before that this could help me?”