“Pfft! Cough, cough…”
Shen Nanyue hadn’t expected Zhou Yushen to be so direct.
She choked on a mouthful of rice, coughing so hard that her face turned bright red.
“Eat slower. It’s not like anyone’s trying to steal your food.”
As Zhou Yushen spoke, he gently patted her back and handed her a glass of water.
After quite a while, the tightness in Shen Nanyue’s chest finally eased, and she managed to recover.
She lifted her eyes and glared fiercely at Zhou Yushen.
If he hadn’t said something so outrageous, she wouldn’t have choked in the first place.
Zhou Yushen blinked innocently.
Only then did Meng Zhishuo finally process what Zhou Yushen had said.
He shot to his feet and pointed at him in disbelief.
“You dare steal my cousin’s woman?!”
Zhou Yushen didn’t even spare him a glance.
He simply took out a tissue and gently wiped the corner of Shen Nanyue’s mouth.
Shen Nanyue jolted, quickly snatching the tissue from his hand and wiping her mouth carelessly herself.
“How is it stealing your cousin’s woman when Nanyue and I are mutually in love?”
“Mutually in love?” Meng Zhishuo looked even more shocked.
Shen Nanyue pressed a hand to her forehead, unsure whether she should deny it or admit it.
After all, Zhou Yushen had stepped in as her shield on his own accord.
She couldn’t exactly repay kindness with ingratitude.
Slightly annoyed, she looked up at Meng Zhishuo. “If there’s nothing else, you should leave. We still have things to do, so we won’t be keeping you company.”
She pulled Zhou Yushen to his feet and pushed the door open to leave.
Even abandoning the office behind.
Meng Zhishuo was left standing there alone, still stunned.
As they headed downstairs, Shen Nanyue shot Zhou Yushen another fierce glare.
“Stop talking nonsense in the future. You’re ruining my reputation.”
“Your innocence was already taken by me. Shouldn’t your reputation belong to me too?”
Zhou Yushen corrected her calmly, his expression utterly unchanged.
Shen Nanyue’s face stiffened, her lips pressed into a straight line.
When she first met Zhou Yushen, she had thought he was like a god descended from heaven—noble and untouchable.
Now, though, she realized that was nothing more than a filter created by appearances.
Beneath the surface, he was utterly scheming.
Outside, the sun hung high in the sky.
Waves of heat shimmered in the air, enough to make anyone dread the scorching temperature.
The two stopped outside the studio when Shen Nanyue suddenly turned around.
Zhou Yushen couldn’t stop in time, and they collided straight into each other.
Covering her aching forehead, Shen Nanyue grumbled inwardly.
His chest was seriously hard!
“Are you okay?”
Zhou Yushen lifted his hand over hers and gently rubbed her forehead.
A strange tingling sensation spread from the top of her head through her entire body.
Shen Nanyue paused for half a second before stepping back two paces.
Looking up at him seriously, she said, “Zhou Yushen, you don’t have to go this far just for marriage. I—”
Zhou Yushen pressed a finger against her lips, stopping her words.
“If not marrying me, then are you going to marry Meng Yan instead?”
He bent down slightly, his dark eyes—deep as the ocean—locking tightly onto hers.
In that instant, it felt as though monstrous waves had surged into the sky, crashing down toward her with overwhelming force.
Shen Nanyue frowned faintly, all the words in her stomach suddenly lodging in her throat.
Very quickly, Zhou Yushen curled his lips into a smile, withdrew his hand, and straightened up.
“I believe that whether in appearance or character, I’m far superior to that Young Master Meng. Nanyue, you should give yourself more time to think about it.”
Shen Nanyue: “…”
In terms of looks, he surpassed Meng Yan by miles.
But his character? That still required evaluation.
Suppressing the strange lingering fear in her heart, Shen Nanyue glanced at Zhou Yushen without saying a word and turned toward the roadside.
On the steps nearby, two little children were laughing and playing with water guns.
Streams of water curved gracefully through the air, droplets sparkling brilliantly under the sunlight.
Just as Shen Nanyue stepped down one stair, a child who wasn’t watching where he was going crashed into her.
Wearing high heels, Shen Nanyue instinctively caught the child.
The momentum forced her backward.
As she stepped back, her ankle twisted, and her body uncontrollably tumbled down the stairs.
Instinctively, she held the child tightly in her arms, turning herself upward as her back slammed heavily against the ground.
“Shen Nanyue!”
Pain!
Her ankle hurt, her back hurt, her arm hurt!
Yet under the stimulation of the pain, Shen Nanyue actually let out a long breath of relief, thankful that she hadn’t worn a skirt today.
Otherwise, if her skirt had flipped up during the fall, she would never dare show her face in public again for the rest of her life!
“Big sister, are you okay?”
“I’m fi—”
She forced a smile and tried to prop herself up.
Before she could answer the child completely, a strong force lifted her, helping her finally sit upright.
“Where are you hurt?”
The worry in Zhou Yushen’s eyes instantly stripped away his usual composed maturity.
For some reason, a feeling that could only be called grievance welled up inside Shen Nanyue, and her nose began to sting with unshed tears.
“My ankle hurts… and my arm hurts.”
Zhou Yushen checked her ankle and arm.
Her ankle was red and swollen, and the skin on her arm had been scraped open, faint traces of blood seeping out.
Fortunately, there had only been three steps, so the injuries weren’t too serious.
“Big sister, I’m sorry.”
The child lowered his head and apologized guiltily.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Go play now. Big brother here will take me to the hospital.”
She patted the child’s head gently and comforted him softly.
Zhou Yushen said nothing.
He simply lifted her into his arms bridal-style and carried her toward the car.
…..
At the hospital.
After examining Shen Nanyue, the doctor instructed, “It’s nothing too serious. The arm only has minor abrasions—just apply some medicine and it’ll be fine. But the injury to your foot needs proper rest for a few days. I’ll prescribe you some medication.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
Zhou Yushen carried Shen Nanyue over to a seat in the hospital corridor.
“I’ll go get the medicine. Sit here and wait for me.”
Shen Nanyue nodded.
She watched Zhou Yushen’s departing figure, unconsciously rubbing her fingers together.
The worry he had shown earlier hadn’t been fake.
Could it be that he truly had feelings for her?
“Miss Shen?”
A familiar male voice came from beside her, and Shen Nanyue’s expression immediately darkened.
She turned her head coldly toward Meng Yan.
The man was dressed in a custom-made white suit.
His eyes burned with surprise and intensity as he looked at her, while an extremely irritating smile spread across his handsome face.
“Are you sick, Miss Shen?”
Acting overly familiar, he sat down beside her.
Shen Nanyue moved away in disgust and placed her handbag between them to create distance.
“What the hell does it have to do with you?”
She showed no courtesy at all, the hostility in her tone unmistakable.
Meng Yan didn’t seem to mind.
“That night… how did Miss Shen resolve it?”
The moment he mentioned that night, anger began rising in Shen Nanyue’s chest.
His methods had been despicable.
Treating a girl he had just met that way made him nothing more than human trash.
Thinking back to her earlier conversation with Zhou Yushen, she deeply reflected on herself.
Zhou Yushen’s character was indeed a thousand times better than Meng Yan’s!
Suddenly, she curled her lips into a smile and tilted her head toward Meng Yan.
“What do you think? Under the effects of that kind of drug, how else was I supposed to deal with it?”
Meng Yan’s expression darkened.
“You slept with another man?”
“Young Master Meng, the fact that I haven’t come after you for trouble should already satisfy you. I believe I made it very clear that I refuse the marriage alliance with the Meng family. If you keep harassing me, or use more dirty tricks against me, then I can’t guarantee what I might do.”
The smile faded from Shen Nanyue’s face.
The Wild Rose of Fengcheng wasn’t infamous merely because she had a bad reputation and many enemies.
When it came to scum like this, she had her own ways of dealing with them.
— The end of the Chapter–
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