Chapter 9
Chapter 9
The remarkably nimble eldest young master of the Shen family sat in the study, glaring coldly at the culprit.
Zhu Yin spread her hands, looking utterly innocent. “You can’t blame me. You were the one who told me not to touch you.”
I told you not to touch me, so you conjured some freakish wind and blew me straight in here? The accusation was written plainly in Shen Dongjun’s eyes.
Zhu Yin pretended not to see it.
She sat down to discuss serious business with him.
“Young Master, didn’t you send someone to follow the Young Madam?”
Shen Dongjun’s expression darkened. His gaze swept over Zhu Yin’s face. “That’s none of your concern.”
“So you didn’t.” Zhu Yin understood, but found it even more puzzling. “You hire a private investigator to follow me when I leave the house, but when your wife goes out to meet her idealized love, you can restrain yourself?”
She made no attempt to avoid mentioning that Shen Dongjun had sent someone to follow her, which left him faintly guilty.
But that tiny emotion was soon buried beneath a much greater fury.
“…Give me a glass of that drink,” he said, suppressing his anger and taking the initiative to ask.
Zhu Yin looked at him in surprise, and a specially prepared potion appeared on the desk. “Not afraid I’ll poison you this time?”
Shen Dongjun laughed coldly. “I might as well die!” With that, he drained it in one gulp.
He truly did seem insane with rage.
Half a minute later, his expression appeared much calmer.
Zhu Yin asked again, “Why did you deliberately say something to upset the Young Madam? Can’t you just talk properly?”
Shen Dongjun glared at her. “She’s going out to meet another man! Am I supposed to smile about it?”
Zhu Yin said, “Hmm. Who told you she was going to meet another man?”
“She admitted it herself!”
Zhu Yin found it hard to know what to say.
“Then let me tell you: I happened to overhear the Young Madam’s phone call this morning. Someone named Xiaoxiao invited her out to eat and shop.”
Shen Dongjun froze.
Zhu Yin watched him silently.
After quite some time, Shen Dongjun’s expression shifted uncertainly. “You aren’t lying to me?”
Zhu Yin said, “…Here. Look at me.”
Shen Dongjun frowned and moved his gaze to her face.
Zhu Yin slowly rolled her eyes, giving him a flawless demonstration right to his face.
Shen Dongjun: “…”
He even forgot to get angry. He merely murmured, “Then why didn’t she explain it to me?”
Even Barbara could no longer bear watching. “This male lead really doesn’t seem very bright, does he?”
Zhu Yin refused to answer such an idiotic question. She only asked, “Are you going to apologize to the Young Madam?”
She watched Shen Dongjun’s expression fluctuate. In the end, he turned his head coldly aside, presenting a stubborn profile.
Zhu Yin marveled with heartfelt sincerity, “Even someone like you managed to get a wife?”
Half an hour later.
Wearing a baseball cap and black face mask, Zhu Yin stared speechlessly at the identically dressed man beside her.
“Young Master, don’t you think these outfits make us look ridiculously conspicuous?”
They were both striking to begin with. Concealing themselves like this on a street where everyone else showed their faces openly only drew more attention.
Several passersby were already stealing glances at them and wondering whether they were celebrities out in public.
“Shut up!” Shen Dongjun snapped, tugging the brim of his cap lower at the same time.
He had realized that his outfit might be somewhat inappropriate too, but the tyrannical CEO’s pride would never let him admit it.
Zhu Yin looked at the passersby who believed they were observing the pair discreetly and sighed.
Invisible ripples spread outward from her in layer after layer. The curious passersby felt their minds blur. When they came to their senses, they scratched their heads in confusion, glanced around, and went back to their own affairs.
The two reached their destination without incident.
“Young Master, look.” Zhu Yin pointed nearby. “There’s no idealized love here at all. The Young Madam came out with one of her girlfriends.”
Shen Dongjun silently watched the woman drinking coffee with her close friend.
Zhu Yin asked, “Would you like to say hello?”
“No.”
After some thought, Zhu Yin asked, “Then what do we do now?”
Shen Dongjun did not answer. He continued staring at his wife without a word.
Zhu Yin: “…” If she had not used a special concealment technique, the male lead’s outfit and the way he stared fixedly at a young woman would have gotten him thrown out by security without question.
“Then take your time watching her.” Zhu Yin briskly declared, “I’m going to find somewhere to sit. And I want milk tea.”
Two cups! Hehe.
“Miss, are you alone?”
Zhu Yin looked up in confusion, her straw between her teeth.
A man. She did not know him.
Seeing her face at such close range only deepened the amazement in his eyes. “May I sit here?”
Zhu Yin shook her head and gestured around them. “There are plenty of empty seats. You can choose any of them.”
Unembarrassed, the man took out a business card. “Would you be interested in entering the entertainment industry?”
Zhu Yin blinked at him.
The man smiled with polished charm and handed her the card. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Qi Ming, and I’m a talent scout.”
Barbara sat on her shoulder. The pink ball’s two tiny hands were wrapped around a milk tea of its own, which it was noisily gulping down.
It grew excited at once. “I told you, with your qualifications, Host, you’re wasted in our Supporting Role Division! Look at this. You’re working as a butler and still getting approached by a talent scout!”
Qi Ming was plainly thrilled. He told her outright that with her beauty, a little promotion was all she would need to become famous.
Zhu Yin shook her head. “I have a job. I don’t want to be a celebrity.”
The man did not understand. “What job could compare to being a celebrity? If you’re worried about your current work, I can help resolve that for you. You won’t need to worry about a thing.”
He truly believed in Zhu Yin’s potential. The young woman before him did not appear very old, and her features were exquisite beyond compare. Yet her appearance was not the most striking thing about her. Though she smiled now, a faint air of detachment lingered around her, as if a thin veil separated her from everything in the world.
Fans had always loved placing their idols high above them on an altar. Was this woman not a born star?
Unfortunately, the born female star coldly rejected his proposal and hurried away.
The reason was simple.
That idealized love had actually shown up!
It was absurd!
When Zhu Yin arrived at the scene carrying the remaining half of her milk tea, the quiet corner of the café that had originally held two people now contained four.
There was the heroine, lips pressed together in cool displeasure, and her bewildered, helpless friend.
There was the gentle, refined idealized love, and the male lead, bristling like a fighting cock.
“So you did come to see him!” Zhu Yin heard the words the moment she arrived.
Fortunately, the tyrannical CEO remembered that they were in public. Though furious, he kept his voice down, which only made him sound as though he were speaking through gritted teeth.
“How did they even run into each other?” Zhu Yin could not understand it. “This city is huge!”
She knew perfectly well that the heroine had arranged to meet her friend. The idealized love had nothing to do with it.
Barbara said excitedly, “This is the lingering, tumultuous, unfathomable pull of fate!”
To complete its missions more effectively, Barbara had stayed up late reading a great many tyrannical-CEO novels.
Zhu Yin privately thought this particular fate brought nothing but trouble.
She walked over and greeted them with a smile. “What a lively gathering. Hello, everyone.”
Four pairs of eyes snapped toward her in unison.
Several nearby customers who had been secretly enjoying the drama also turned excited gazes on her. Another one!
For some reason, the sight of Zhu Yin made Han Qingzi suddenly relax. They had not known each other for long, but she always felt especially safe beside Zhu Yin.
Shen Dongjun looked at her as though he wanted to say something, then pressed his lips tightly together.
Zhu Yin suggested, “Why don’t we go somewhere else and talk this through?”
Half an hour later, in a secluded private room.
Han Qingzi and her friend sat together. The two men stood on opposite sides, drawing a clear line between their camps.
Zhu Yin had moved a chair across from them and sat alone, chin propped on one hand, looking ready to feast on the spectacle.
Her expression extinguished half the anger in Shen Dongjun’s chest. He felt like a monkey in a circus, performing for her amusement.
He glared resentfully at the idealized love, turned away, and said nothing.
The close friend knew something of the entanglement among the three of them. She tentatively raised her hand and whispered, “I have the day off, so I asked Qingzi to come shopping with me. We didn’t invite anyone else!”
The idealized love also spoke earnestly. “I happened to be nearby handling some business and ran into Qingzi and Xiaoxiao by chance, so I came over to say hello. Please don’t misunderstand, Mr. Shen.”
Shen Dongjun replied, “Oh? City A is so large. You two really must be fated to meet.”
Han Qingzi was equally cold. “Even if it wasn’t a chance meeting, what would be wrong with old friends meeting for coffee?”
The moment Shen Dongjun heard that, he said, “See? I knew you two–mmph, cough, cough!”
He suddenly bent over and began coughing violently.
Zhu Yin poured him a glass of water and forced it down his throat without allowing him to object. “Young Master, if you’re sick and your throat hurts, you should speak less!”
Shen Dongjun: !
Han Qingzi froze. In the end, concern overcame her anger. “What happened to him?”
Zhu Yin looked perfectly calm. “It’s nothing. The Young Master didn’t sleep well last night and caught a chill.”
Shen Dongjun: Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!