Shen Nanyue’s heart skipped a beat, and her footsteps halted.
“What did you say?”
She turned slightly toward Meng Yan, but her peripheral vision was suddenly drawn to a familiar figure.
A tall, noble-looking man, accompanied by a woman in a white suit-style gown, was being led by a waiter to a window-side table on the other side of the restaurant.
Seeing Shen Nanyue stop in place, the expression on her face became unreadable.
A trace of smugness flashed through Meng Yan’s eyes.
Just then, the waiter brought the dishes to the table.
After thinking silently for two seconds, Shen Nanyue sat back down.
Meng Yan poured two glasses of wine, placing one in front of her.
“How did Miss Shen and Mr. Zhou meet?”
Shen Nanyue cast him a faint glance and pushed the wineglass farther away.
“You investigated Zhou Yushen?”
“One should know both oneself and one’s enemy. If someone’s trying to steal my woman, how could I not investigate him first?”
A trace of contempt unconsciously slipped into Meng Yan’s tone.
“Though honestly, he’s just a small investment manager at Huansheng Group. Crushing him would be easier than crushing an ant.”
Shen Nanyue let out a cold laugh.
“Murder is against the law. Young Master Meng, do you already have a criminal record?”
“Of course I’m a law-abiding citizen. But I also said that if you continue seeing him, then within legal boundaries, I’ll make sure he’s completely ruined.”
A sharp chill flashed through Shen Nanyue’s eyes.
“Do you believe I can ruin you first?”
Her obvious protectiveness toward Zhou Yushen caused Meng Yan’s expression to darken for a moment before he quickly recovered.
“You like Zhou Yushen that much? Enough to oppose me for his sake?”
Shen Nanyue glanced at him coldly.
“Whether there’s a Zhou Yushen or not, with your disgusting habit of clinging to people, I’d still oppose you.”
After speaking, she picked up her bag and stood again, lowering her gaze to look down at Meng Yan.
“If you dare touch him, then I won’t mind exposing what you did at Lingtian Bar, Young Master Meng.”
The moment he heard “Lingtian Bar,” Meng Yan’s expression changed drastically.
He lifted his eyes toward Shen Nanyue.
Beneath those deep blue eyes, dark currents surged violently like storm waves crashing across the sea.
“What do you know?”
“You almost became my fiancé. Did you really think I never investigated you?”
Back when Zhou Yu had wanted her to get engaged to Meng Yan, she had already asked Xiao Qi to investigate him.
Meng Yan was a complete playboy—debauched, arrogant, and with a chaotic private life.
During his sophomore year in college, he had toyed with a female university student’s feelings.
After sleeping with her, he heartlessly dumped her.
Unwilling to accept it, the girl eventually learned that Meng Yan was at Lingtian Bar and went there demanding an explanation.
But bars were places filled with all kinds of people.
Seeing that Meng Yan had no intention of protecting the girl, several men attempted to assault her.
While desperately resisting, the girl accidentally struck the back of her head against the corner of a table and died on the spot.
Meng Yan hadn’t directly participated in what happened afterward, so even the police had been unable to convict him.
After leaving the police station, he used money to silence the girl’s parents and forced them to leave Fengcheng.
He then bribed the media, completely suppressing the scandal and hastily burying the matter.
Shen Nanyue looked at him the same way one would look at trash.
And after what happened at the club last time—when he drugged her—
Meng Yan was clearly nothing more than a lust-driven monster devoid of humanity.
She no longer wanted to say another word to him and simply turned to leave.
Meng Yan remained seated in place, veins bulging on his forehead while his tightly clenched fists trembled slightly.
He hadn’t expected Shen Nanyue to uncover that incident.
The competition for the position of heir within the Meng family was fierce now.
If this matter became public, his father would beat him to death.
Shen Nanyue… she really had some methods.
Several frightening flashes of calculation crossed his eyes.
The next second, he also stood and left.
Shen Nanyue, however, did not leave the restaurant.
Outside the entrance, a white Porsche sat beneath the streetlights, glowing softly under the night.
In the driver’s seat, Shen Nanyue leaned back while holding her phone in front of her face, her eyes lowered toward the flashing incoming call notification on the screen.
It was a call from Zhou Yu.
Shen Nanyue watched the screen light up and go dark again, over and over several times, before it finally returned to silence.
The last time the screen lit up, it was a message from Zhou Yu.
“What exactly did you do to make Meng Yan say he’s not rushing the engagement for now? Shen Nanyue, are you trying to anger me to death? Come back immediately, or don’t expect me to leave you a single cent!”
Shen Nanyue put down her phone and sat there blankly.
A long time passed, yet she still showed no intention of driving away.
Money?
She didn’t care about that at all.
The things she truly cared about were things Zhou Yu had never once given her.
Her gaze passed through the windshield and landed on the restaurant entrance.
When she saw Meng Yan hurriedly leaving, she immediately looked away in disgust, feeling thoroughly unlucky.
About half an hour later, she saw Zhou Yushen come out together with that woman.
The two chatted and smiled for a while before the woman finally left.
Shen Nanyue raised a hand and lightly pressed the horn.
Zhou Yushen turned his head and met her smiling eyes.
A trace of surprise flashed through his gaze.
Then he turned and walked toward her car.
After sitting in the passenger seat, Zhou Yushen spoke first.
“You came here for dinner too?”
Shen Nanyue thought for a moment and nodded slightly.
“More or less. What about you? Meeting a client?”
“If not meeting a client, then what—dating?”
Shen Nanyue laughed softly and turned to look at him.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Zhou Yushen lowered his head toward his phone.
The nonstop vibration in the quiet car was especially obvious.
He looked very busy.
The warm yellow glow of the streetlights filtered through the front windshield.
The hazy light was cut apart by the line between the glass and the car roof, dividing the passenger seat diagonally into light and shadow.
Zhou Yushen’s upper body was hidden in darkness, while the cold glow of the phone screen illuminated his face.
The sharp lines created by the collision of light and shadow outlined his breathtaking profile—his long, dense eyelashes, tall nose bridge, and those slightly pursed thin lips gleaming faintly.
Every time she looked at Zhou Yushen’s face, it gave her a different kind of fluttering feeling.
“Are you that busy?” she asked.
“Sorry. There’ve been changes to some company projects recently, so things are a little hectic. Wait for me a moment while I reply to a few important messages.”
There truly were many messages.
A layer of impatience had already settled between Zhou Yushen’s brows.
Shen Nanyue, however, wasn’t in a hurry at all.
Resting against the steering wheel, she stared unblinkingly at Zhou Yushen’s face with her obsidian-like eyes.
About five minutes later, Zhou Yushen finally put away his phone.
After thinking for a moment, he switched it to silent mode as well.
“You set it to silent? Aren’t you afraid of missing something important and getting scolded for it?”
“I’ve already delegated the tasks. Even managers deserve to slack off a little, don’t they?”
He leaned back against the seat.
Even in the dim light, Shen Nanyue could still see the exhaustion between his brows.
“Did something happen at your company recently? The kind that’s giving you trouble?”
Zhou Yushen rested one hand against his chin and thought for a few seconds before answering.
“Not exactly trouble. It’s just that Huansheng Group canceled its cooperation with the Meng Group and decided to invest instead in the fashion show Fengcheng will be hosting a month from now. The project changes increased the workload, so things have been a bit busy.”
“They canceled the cooperation with the Meng Group?”
Zhou Yushen nodded.
“Orders from above.”
Looking at the tiredness on Zhou Yushen’s face, Shen Nanyue thought for a moment before speaking.
“If anything at work doesn’t go smoothly, remember to tell me.”
— The end of the Chapter–
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