Shen Nanyue nodded. “Yes, she’s your loyal fan.”
Bai Youwei let out an almost imperceptible sigh, a trace of disappointment surfacing in her heart.
“So that’s how it is.”
Shen Nanyue smiled and said, “I’m sorry you had to witness all that just now, Madam Bai. But please rest assured—even though I’m young, I strive for perfection in my work. I’ll make the adjustments based on the suggestions you raised. Please feel confident working with me.”
Her eyes were exceptionally sincere.
Bai Youwei smiled at her and extended her hand.
“Then, here’s to a pleasant collaboration.”
Smiling, Shen Nanyue reached out and shook her hand in return.
…
Zhou Yushen found Xu Ping and immediately questioned him about what exactly had happened the previous night.
Xu Ping rubbed his nose and told him everything that had happened.
Of course, he deliberately left out the part where Gu Linlang provoked Shen Nanyue.
After all, he had treated Gu Linlang like a younger sister for years and didn’t want Zhou Yushen to develop unnecessary misunderstandings toward her because of last night’s incident.
“Did Shen Nanyue misunderstand you and Linlang? Is that why she got angry at you?”
Zhou Yushen fell silent for a long moment before asking again,
“Are you sure Gu Linlang didn’t do anything excessive?”
“No!”
Xu Ping answered instinctively.
Zhou Yushen stared fixedly at his face for several seconds before finally looking away.
Perhaps he was overthinking things.
Seeing that Zhou Yushen stopped pursuing the matter, Xu Ping secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The two sat inside Xu Ping’s hotel room.
Zhou Yushen sank deep into the sofa, lost in thought, looking utterly idle, which made Xu Ping somewhat helpless.
“Even if you don’t care about the Zhou family business anymore, are you also going to ignore your own businesses?”
“Zhao Xuan is handling them.”
“Can’t you think about Zhao Xuan for once? He’s only one person, and you’re forcing him to split himself in half to work for you. Even beasts of burden aren’t driven as hard as you drive him.”
“Isn’t Li Che around too? Why are you so anxious?”
Xu Ping: …
Served him right for talking too much.
He should focus on dealing with his own problems instead.
One Shen Nanyue and one Zhou Yushen— If the Chen family matter couldn’t be resolved, those two demons would probably skin him alive!
Looking at the files prepared on his laptop, Xu Ping stopped speaking.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yushen remained trapped inside his own thoughts, completely unreachable by the outside world.
A long time later— Zhou Yushen finally reached a conclusion.
Shen Nanyue was jealous!
Although nothing in her outward behavior suggested she liked him at all— Judging from her subconscious reactions, she did care about him.
The thought brought him a surge of happiness.
But that happiness vanished almost immediately.
Because Shen Nanyue still refused to have a child with him!
That night, she had clearly been awake.
She heard his request yet didn’t respond, and the next morning she secretly took medicine.
That alone proved she didn’t care about his feelings.
Zhou Yushen’s expression alternated between relaxing and tightening.
Like someone suffering from split personalities.
Xu Ping sat nearby trying to focus on work, but Zhou Yushen’s presence was simply too overwhelming.
One moment he radiated gloom, the next he appeared relaxed, making Xu Ping’s nerves rise and fall right along with him.
Staring at the dense text on his laptop screen, Xu Ping finally decided he absolutely had to give Zhou Yushen something else to focus on!
“Yushen, the Chen family matter won’t be easy to solve. I need to investigate and collect evidence, which means Shen Nanyue needs to meet with Chen Mu.”
The moment Chen Mu’s name was mentioned, Zhou Yushen’s face instantly darkened.
“What does she need to see him for?”
His tone was far from pleasant—cold and merciless, even.
Xu Ping sighed helplessly.
“Back then, your mother died saving Chen Mu, but the Chen family’s attitude toward your mother has always been extremely strange.”
“Chen Tianming never showed gratitude for your mother saving his son. He didn’t even attend your mother’s funeral. And the kidnappers who abducted Chen Mu were never punished by law—instead, they all died violent deaths one after another.”
“Chen Tianming completely removed himself from the situation, acting like nothing more than a bystander.”
“To be honest, I suspect Chen Tianming actually knew those kidnappers.”
Listening to Xu Ping’s words, Zhou Yushen no longer had any thoughts about Shen Nanyue in his mind.
When his mother saved the young Chen Mu, Zhou Yushen himself had only been nine years old.
At the time, his mother had been forced into becoming his father’s mistress and was locked away on the outskirts of the city, spending her days drowning in tears.
Chen Mu had been kidnapped and taken to an abandoned building outside the city.
That abandoned building just happened to be less than a hundred meters from where his mother was being confined.
While out for a walk, his mother discovered the situation and secretly followed the kidnappers to rescue Chen Mu.
But she herself died beneath the kidnappers’ knives.
The bodyguards who rushed over failed to save his mother in time, but they did manage to bring Chen Mu back safely.
By the time little Zhou Yushen heard about the incident at the Zhou family home, his mother’s body had already been cremated by his father and scattered into the sea.
From that day on, he distanced himself from the Zhou family and went abroad to live.
Back then, because the kidnappers all died sudden violent deaths, the police hastily closed the case surrounding his mother’s death.
But Zhou Yushen had never forgotten it.
After growing up and returning to the country to investigate the matter, the Chen family became his first target of suspicion.
He couldn’t deny that he hated Chen Mu.
If not for Chen Mu, his mother would never have died.
But according to Xu Ping’s theory, perhaps the people who kidnapped Chen Mu were not enemies of the Chen family at all— Instead, they might have been accomplices of Chen Tianming!
A conflict among accomplices.
Using the child as leverage to force Chen Tianming into doing something.
Chen Tianming then used his own child as bait to eliminate those troublesome accomplices, but Zhou Yushen’s mother accidentally interfered and nearly exposed him as well.
Which explained why Chen Tianming had never been grateful to her.
With that, everything finally made sense.
Zhou Yushen looked toward Xu Ping, the coldness in his eyes once again filling with the deep, unfathomable sharpness that belonged to Zhou Yushen alone.
“You want Shen Nanyue and me to meet Chen Mu. What exactly are we supposed to find out?”
Xu Ping answered seriously, “About the place where Shen An’an was imprisoned for three years, as well as the Chen family’s business dealings and revenue streams.”
“And you think Chen Mu will actually tell us any of that?”
“I don’t. But I only need to tell what I want. As for the rest—that’s something President Zhou will have to figure out himself.”
Xu Ping grinned as he kicked the problem back to Zhou Yushen.
Zhou Yushen stared at him darkly before finally shifting his gaze away.
He stood up, his tall figure stretched long beneath the glow of the overhead lights.
“Where are you going?”
“To find Shen Nanyue.”
After saying that, he turned and walked away.
Xu Ping watched him leave without the slightest hesitation.
A trace of disdain rose in his heart.
Now it was “Shen Nanyue this” and “Shen Nanyue that,” completely lacking the former grandeur Zhou Yushen once had.
Beauty truly ruined men!
…
After Shen An’an dragged Li Che out of the restaurant, the two casually found another place to eat.
Li Che’s gaze swept across Shen An’an’s face before quietly shifting away again.
Beneath the table, his hand clenched tightly into a fist, veins bulging along the back of his hand as though he were suppressing immense anger.
Shen An’an pushed the menu toward him and casually pointed at a few dishes, asking him to help order for her.
Then she picked up her tablet and typed out a line.
‘Thanks for helping my sister out earlier. Order whatever you want—I’ll treat you to this meal.’
Li Che glared at her irritably.
“All day long it’s ‘my sister this’ and ‘my sister that.’ Yet I don’t see her protecting you very well!”
Shen An’an frowned and typed rapidly on the tablet.
‘My sister knew nothing about me investigating those people, so why are you blaming her? If I hear you speak badly about my sister again, then hurry up and get lost back where you came from!’
— The end of the Chapter–
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