The cool beauty forcibly bids for top A: Chapter 63

“Do you still know how to come back?!”

As soon as Shen Yanzhou received the call from the old master, he rushed straight back to the Shen Corporation president’s office.

The moment he stepped inside, he saw the old master sitting on the sofa. There was not a trace of worry in the old man’s eyes regarding the safety of his junior, nor a single question of “where have you been these past four days” or “are you injured.” His very first words were to pin the blame on him.

“Fu Sihan was taken away by the police during the engagement banquet, and the Shen family has become the laughingstock of all Hong Kong. As the president of the Shen Corporation, you choose to play hide and seek at a critical juncture like this? Do you have any idea that in the first conference room downstairs, those old geezers on the board of directors have already joined forces and are waiting to impeach you!”

“Are you finished?” Shen Yanzhou sat in his office chair, raising his eyes to gaze coolly at his own grandfather.

“Grandfather, you seem to have gotten one thing wrong. The person who ruined this marriage is Fu Sihan, who was thrown in prison for suspected contraband drug smuggling, not me.”

“You!” The old master was infuriated by his ice-cold attitude. “If you hadn’t gone missing and if the Shen family had stepped up immediately for public relations, how could the situation have deteriorated to this point? You’ve dragged the Shen family’s reputation through the mud!”

“Reputation? You are talking to me about reputation right now?” Shen Yanzhou sneered. “If you hadn’t been blinded by greed and insisted on using my marriage to expand the Shen family’s territory, would the family have been dragged into the muddy waters of this smuggling case today?”

“Insolent!”

The old master slammed up abruptly, pointing his walking stick straight at Shen Yanzhou, trembling all over with rage. “Shen Yanzhou! Is this how you talk to your elders? Don’t forget who gave you the position you’re sitting in right now! Half a year ago, if I hadn’t gone against the majority in the boardroom to protect you, do you really think you could have sat so securely as the president of the Shen Corporation?!”

“Oh? Is that so?” Shen Yanzhou rested his chin on one hand, blinking at him with a cold smile.

“Protect me? Grandfather, are you getting old and losing your memory?”

Shen Yanzhou’s gaze grew colder and colder. “Back then, when the Shen Corporation’s capital chain snapped and the offshore cargo ships were detained, the entire Shen family was rocking in the wind and rain. Which of those collateral uncles and cousins didn’t turtle up and play dead? If I had simply resigned right then and dumped this mess on the ground, what then?”

“You know better than anyone else that you didn’t want to protect me; you simply couldn’t find anyone else willing to risk their lives for the Shen family.”

“You looked down on me from the very beginning,” Shen Yanzhou said flatly. “Just because I am an Omega. In your old-money mindset, an Omega is only fit to be a tool for marriage, to bear children for an Alpha and consolidate the family’s status.”

“If Shen Xiuming no, let’s forget that piece of trash if even a single Alpha in this generation of the Shen family had half of my brain and half of my ability to stabilize the big picture, you would have kicked me out of this seat long ago. Would it ever have been my turn to run the boardroom?”

The old master’s face flushed a deep, mottled purple. “You… you unfilial scoundrel. The Shen family gave birth to you and raised you, so what’s wrong with making a little sacrifice for the family?!”

“Sacrifice?” Shen Yanzhou let out a cold scoff.

He walked around the wide desk and stopped right in front of Old Master Shen.

“You’re quite right, the Shen family gave birth to me and raised me.” Shen Yanzhou lowered his gaze to look at this old man who shared his bloodline yet was thoroughly devoid of warmth.

“My father, your eldest son, took this debt of birth and raising far too seriously. He respected you, feared you, and put family interests above his own life. And what was the result?”

Shen Yanzhou’s voice dropped to freezing temperatures. “Do you even remember the anniversary of his death?”

The old master’s hand trembled so violently he could barely hold his cane. “What… what are you trying to say?”

“I want to say that, Grandfather, I am just like my father a dutiful son. I will be just like him, showing you all due respect and awe.” As he spoke, Shen Yanzhou reached out to straighten the old man’s collar.

“Grandfather, let’s go to the boardroom together.”

—

Shen Maritime Shipping, First Conference Room.

The conference table was packed with the Shen family’s collateral uncles, aunts, and core directors holding heavy power. The air was thick with the scent of restlessness, greed, and schadenfreude. The plummeting stock prices of the Shen family were a disaster for retail investors, but for these old foxes trying to unseat Shen Yanzhou, it was an opportunity of a lifetime.

“What kind of mess is this! Four days, and tens of millions have been wiped from our market value.”

“As an Omega, he shouldn’t have been in the president’s chair to begin with. He goes to make a marriage alliance and manages to send his fiancé straight to the police station.”

“Clatter”

As the double doors of the conference hall were pushed open, every pair of eyes shifted toward Shen Yanzhou and the old master walking ahead of him.

Shen Yanzhou took his seat at the dead center, nodding slightly to Shen Xici, who looked worriedly at his side.

“President Shen, you’ve finally decided to show your face!” Second Uncle fired the first shot, spitting as he spoke. “Four days, and the market value of the Shen Corporation has crashed through the floor. As the president of the group, you mysteriously vanished during the peak of the Fu family scandal without giving a single explanation. Because of your personal problems, the company’s interests have suffered severely. The board of directors is now formally proposing to impeach you from the presidency.”

Shen Yanzhou cast a casual glance at him. They had never gotten along anyway, and ever since Shen Xiuming had been shipped off to Africa until he looked like a lump of charcoal, Second Uncle had never stopped trying to trip him up.

“President Shen, you’ve disappointed us far too much. You simply don’t have the capacity to steer the Shen family!”

When a wall is about to collapse, everyone gives it a push.

Yet, Shen Yanzhou casually twirled a Montblanc fountain pen with one hand, his silver-gray eyes sweeping across the entire room.

“Smack.” The pen dropped onto the desktop.

“Impeach me? Make me take the fall for this crisis?” Shen Yanzhou let out a light laugh. He leaned forward slightly, resting his chin on his crossed hands.

“Second Uncle, esteemed directors. Before you rush to carve me up, shouldn’t you first figure out who actually drove this ship into the iceberg?”

Shen Yanzhou snapped his head around, fixing a piercing glare on the old master sitting beside him. “Who was it back then, without letting the risk management department do any due diligence, ignoring my strong opposition, coveting the Fu family’s prestige, and using family interests as an excuse to forcefully ram a resolution through the supreme board of directors, coercing me into a marriage alliance with that drug addict Fu Sihan?”

“You… you insolent wretch!” Old Master Shen was so enraged his eyes split wide open, and his cane hammered frantically against the floor. “Shen Yanzhou, don’t you dare try to shift the blame here! The marriage alliance was a joint decision of the board!”

“A joint decision?”

Smiling, Shen Yanzhou pulled his personal phone out of his suit pocket.

“Since we’re assigning accountability, let’s settle the Shen family’s shady accounts today, ledger by ledger!”

“Grandfather, you keep preaching about family interests, but last year, where did that extra one hundred million in promotional funds for the Shen Properties bid in West Kowloon mysteriously vanish to? If I remember correctly, this sum was laundered through five offshore accounts and ended up in a shell company belonging to the illegitimate child you keep in Singapore, am I right?”

“Do you need me to cast the cash flow logs onto the big screen right now so everyone here can enjoy them?”

Hearing this, Old Master Shen’s previously flushed old face turned instantly ashen. The finger he pointed at Shen Yanzhou shook violently. “You… nonsense.”

“How would I know?” Shen Yanzhou’s eyes were filled with mockery. “Because the tax loopholes on that account were so massive that it took me two full months, dipping into the Shen Corporation’s reserve funds, just to barely patch the hole for you and keep the Commercial Crime Bureau from knocking on your door.”

The conference room instantly erupted in chaos. One hundred million, an illegitimate child, embezzlement of public funds! The directors looked at the old master in disbelief. Who could have imagined that this self-righteous old patriarch, who constantly preached about family values, secretly kept an illegitimate child behind their backs?

Second Uncle wore an expression of even greater shock as he stared at the old master. “Dad…”

“Shen Yanzhou, stop talking nonsense.”

“Second Uncle, do you still have the face to stand up and point fingers at me?”

Shen Yanzhou sneered as he looked at him. “You should know very well what kind of person the old man is.”

He had always wondered why the old master stubbornly refused to cede power to his father, Second Uncle, or himself. It wasn’t until a few months ago that he found out this old monster had an illegitimate child around his own age, and in places he didn’t even know about, there were likely more.

Second Uncle’s face cycled between shades of green and white as he stared in disbelief at the old master.

But it didn’t end there.

Shen Yanzhou’s gaze swept over every single face along the long table.

“Third Aunt, your overseas procurement department that batch of medical equipment last year that was overreported by forty percent in price, was the kickback filling enough? Do you want me to hand the audit report directly to the Independent Commission Against Corruption this afternoon without changing a single word?”

Third Aunt, who had been called out, trembled all over, and the pen in her hand dropped to the floor.

“Fourth Aunt, when you smuggled tax-free red wine through the outer seas, you used the transit passes of Shen cargo containers. Did you really think your work was seamless? If my risk management team hadn’t wiped your tracks clean, you’d already be inside sewing clothes alongside Fu Sihan!”

“Heh… should I keep going?”

Shen Yanzhou leaned back gracefully against his chair. Even though his body was exhausted to the absolute limit, his spine remained straight as a ramrod.

“You parasites sit every day in spacious, bright offices, styling yourselves as aristocrats of an old-money family. But what are you really?”

“The one who actually fights tooth and nail in the business world day and night, covers your backs, cleans up your messes, and keeps the Shen Corporation running is me!”

“The food you eat, the clothes you wear, the mountainside mansions you live in, the limited-edition sports cars you drive—every single cent of it was earned for you by me! And now you’re teaming up to impeach me? It’s an absolute joke!”

“Esteemed directors, wash out the brains blinded by greed and wake up.”

Shen Yanzhou raised his chin slightly, his slender fingers pointing toward the window.

“Do you have any idea how many media outlets and paparazzi are swarming outside this building right now? The entire city of Hong Kong, from political and business circles down to ordinary citizens, is staring straight at the Shen family!”

“With our marriage alliance partner in trouble, the Shen family is already standing in the crosshairs. If you announce my impeachment as president inside this conference room today, how do you think the media of all of Hong Kong will spin it?”

“They will write that the interior of the Shen Corporation has completely fractured! They will write that the Shen family has broken apart into scattered sand! Once negative news of this internal power struggle leaks out, capital has a sense of smell sharper than any hound!”

“When the Hong Kong stock market opens tomorrow morning, the Shen Corporation’s stock won’t just hit a simple limit-down. Several major banks will immediately apply for asset preservation, and banks will go crazy calling in loans! By then, the Shen Corporation’s capital chain will snap instantly, and the shares you hold in your hands will all turn into waste paper too tough to even use as toilet paper.”

“I am putting my words right here today.”

Shen Yanzhou casually pushed the corporate seal representing presidential authority forward across the table.

“Who wants to sit in this seat? Who has the capability to take over this mess and stabilize the stock price? Step forward!”

“I don’t want to sit in this seat anymore either.”

In the massive conference room, Second Uncle lowered his head to stare at the tips of his shoes, Third Aunt averted her gaze, and the old master said nothing more.

Watching this pack of turtles hiding in their shells, Shen Yanzhou withdrew his hand and closed his palm back over the seal.

“Since you are all a bunch of blood-sucking good-for-nothings, you can all just shut your mouths and listen obediently!”

“I am a results-driven businessman. As long as you remain seated at my negotiating table, I can bring you actual profits.”

“As I said before, the marriage alliance was a disaster brought about by the old master. If you want to continue relying on me to stabilize the situation, then starting from right now, there can only be one voice in this building.”

“Grandfather is getting old, poor at judging character, and nearly brought about a catastrophe. To give the outside world an explanation, and even more so to soothe the hearts of our shareholders, I formally propose in my capacity as group president please immediately resign in disgrace from your position as chairman, and unconditionally transfer the thirty percent absolute controlling stake under your name to me.”

“You… you wicked wretch…” Old Master Shen slumped limply into his chair, shaking uncontrollably all over.

“Wicked wretch? I told you, I’m showing you filial piety.”

“To be honest, sometimes I almost envy Alphas. They can casually mark an Omega and push all the blame onto pheromones,” Shen Yanzhou remarked with sarcasm.

Not a single director, out of all those who had previously followed the old master’s lead, stepped up to speak for him. After all, everyone had dirty secrets on the line, and even if the old master had the ability, how many years did he have left to live anyway?

Shen Yanzhou stood up with a cold expression. “Everyone present.”

“Either shut your mouths right now and give me your full backing to take over the entire Shen family. Every single cent the Shen Corporation earns from now on will be distributed to you according to the rules.”

“Or else, take your dividends for this year, grab your retail shares, and get the hell out of my company right this second, immediately!”

Leaving the boardroom, Shen Yanzhou proceeded straight into a meeting with the company’s core executives, focusing primarily on clarifying their stance to the media: that the Shen Corporation knew nothing whatsoever about the contraband drug incident and maintained a zero-tolerance policy toward any illegal activities.

Next came bribing Hong Kong’s top headlines and trending topics to redirect all blame and public fury entirely onto Fu Sihan as an individual, while painting himself as the victim.

Following that was mobilizing the reserve capital pool to prepare for potential sell-off waves at any moment.

From then on until evening, Shen Yanzhou’s desk was piled high with urgent documents awaiting signatures. The ringing of his office desk phone and personal phone practically never stopped. On one hand, he had to calmly handle the political and business elites testing the waters, while on the other, he had to use thoroughly official, watertight rhetoric to peel the Shen family away from this whirlpool bit by bit.

Working busily right into the evening, Shen Yanzhou’s tightly wound nerves finally relaxed slightly due to sheer fatigue, and he slumped into his chair as if drained of all strength.

Seeing that Shen Yanzhou had finally freed up some time, Shen Xici handed him a cup of hot Hong Kong-style milk tea. “Brother, are you feeling better?”

Shen Yanzhou shook his head, his voice hoarse. “Not really.”

Shen Xici walked around the desk, stepped behind Shen Yanzhou, and reached out to massage his shoulders. “Brother, are you having any regrets about not marrying Fu Sihan?”

Shen Yanzhou tilted his head, smoothly dodging Shen Xici’s touch without making a sound. Flipping open a financial report at his elbow, he said flatly, “I didn’t like him, so there’s no room for regret. But this whole matter completely ruined my original plan, so it’s very bad.”

Shen Xici’s hands froze in midair before slowly retracting. His gaze dropped to the side of Shen Yanzhou’s neck, and when he caught sight of the several red marks there, his eyes darkened gradually.

He had guessed correctly. During the days his brother had been away, he had been with someone else. The first thing that popped into Shen Zichen’s mind was the thirty million. He even caught himself wondering if, deep down, his brother might secretly feel a sense of relief over this incident since escaping such a disgusting marriage meant he might just head right back to Kowloon Walled City to track that man down again.

“Brother,” Shen Xici said in a low voice, “where did you go these past few days? Your phone was unreachable, you didn’t reply on WeChat, and when I went to your place, nobody was there.”

The fingertips of Shen Yanzhou, which were flipping through the documents, paused for a fraction of a second.

“I met someone.”

Shen Xici leaned forward, pressing his nose close to Shen Yanzhou’s ear and sniffing lightly.

“Brother, you have a very strong scent of mint on you. Did you go somewhere to drink your sorrows away late at night?”

Drink sorrows away late at night?

Shen Yanzhou closed his eyes as the wild scenes of those four days and four nights flashed uncontrollably through his mind. There was no way he could tell his younger brother that he had been held in bed like a beast by a madman, tangled together in endless intimacy day and night.

And that madman had locked him inside that mountainside villa, cutting off all contact with the outside world, with the sole purpose of marrying him.

Opening his eyes, Shen Yanzhou replied in a neutral tone, “Is the scent that heavy?”

“It’s very pungent.” Shen Xici suppressed the jealousy burning in the depths of his eyes. “That’s why today, I heard several employees whispering about it behind the scenes.”

Straightening up, Shen Xici forced himself not to look at those marks and spoke gently. “Brother, it’s fine. It’s actually a good thing this marriage fell through. You’ll meet someone better, someone much, much better than that trash Fu Sihan.”

Shen Yanzhou gave a perfunctory acknowledgement. “Mm. How is the public opinion right now?”

Seeing that his brother was unwilling to talk further on personal matters, Shen Xici switched back to a strictly professional attitude. “Public opinion is currently moving in the expected direction. The firepower of the media and netizens is entirely concentrated on the Fu family.”

“Our Shen Corporation’s official statement has received a pretty good response, and quite a few people have expressed sympathy for you.”

“However…” Shen Xici looked at the main board data with a heavy frown. “After all, many institutions and retail investors bought in previously because they valued the maritime shipping resources resulting from our marriage alliance with the Fu family. So even though we’ve quickly cut ties and washed our hands of it, while the stock’s downward slide has stopped, it still hasn’t managed to rebound. Everyone is sitting on the fence, waiting to see what the Shen family will use to fill this blank space in projected returns.”

Shen Yanzhou nodded. It was just as he had anticipated.

Merely cutting ties and guiding public opinion was far from enough. At the end of the day, people worshiped profits, and an incident this massive could not have its impact erased overnight.

Yet he couldn’t afford to wait that long. Today’s board meeting had been his ultimate trump card. If this crisis hadn’t erupted, he wouldn’t have needed to confront them head-on; he could have quietly undermined their foundations and completely sidelined them instead.

Now that his trump card was spent, if the stock market continued hitting limit-down and the economy showed no signs of recovery, those people might genuinely cash out their dividends and walk away, leaving the Shen Corporation truly hollowed out.

“Is there any new news from the Fu family?”

At this mention, Shen Xici nodded, looking at Shen Yanzhou with a complex expression.

“Brother, speaking of the Fu family, a major event happened this afternoon too. Knowing you were busy, I didn’t want to disturb you.”

The fingers gripping Shen Yanzhou’s fountain pen tightened slightly, though his exterior remained utterly calm. “What happened?”

Shen Xici said, “Because Fu Sihan got into trouble, Fu Sizhou seized the opportunity to swallow up multiple factions.”

“He has officially taken over the Fu family.”

Hearing this, Shen Yanzhou laid down his pen, his pale, slender fingers moving to the mouse to click open the web browser on his desktop.

There was no need for deliberate searching; the front-page headlines of every major financial portal website were already dominated by bold red text screaming 《The Fu Family Changes Hands》 and 《Fu Sizhou Elected as New Chairman》*.

Shen Yanzhou clicked on the video with the highest view counts.

In the footage, Fu Sizhou was wearing an exquisitely tailored haute couture black suit, standing before a sea of flashing lights and telephoto lenses. Facing the rapid-fire, tricky questions from the media regarding Fu Sihan’s scandal, he answered with total ease, radiating arrogance and casual indifference deep from his bones.

Shen Yanzhou casually switched tabs to the Hong Kong stock market main board. Following a wave of panic selling during the morning session, the Fu family’s stock had actually begun a slow, steady climb upward as Fu Sizhou completed his takeover.

Locking his gaze unwaveringly onto the screen, Shen Yanzhou watched the new financial reports and strategic deployments published by Fu Sizhou reflect in his silver-gray eyes. Calmly and methodically, he dissected this “mad dog’s” business logic in his mind, evaluating how much projected value a partnership with him could bring to the Shen Corporation.

In Shen Yanzhou’s eyes, Fu Sizhou’s strategic deployments and financial tactics were just like the man himself: completely unhinged.

Aside from acquisitions, it was nothing but more acquisitions.

What he understood even less was whether those supporting families like the Zhao family and the Su family had lost their minds right along with him. Or did these people have some kind of dirt held over them by Fu Sizhou?

He felt that if the Fu family stayed in Fu Sihan’s hands, it was finished; but if it fell into Fu Sizhou’s hands… it was equally finished.

However, this scene, viewed from Shen Zichen’s perspective standing nearby, took on an entirely different flavor.

From where Shen Xici stood, Shen Yanzhou’s profile was cold, white, and flawless. A strand of ultra-soft silver hair slipped quietly down his cheek, brushing right across his slightly lowered, dense, and long eyelashes.

He didn’t brush the strand away, merely letting it quiver gently with his tired, shallow breathing. The high, refined bridge of his nose and his lips parted slightly in intense focus exerted a quiet, hypnotic pull.

Yet this concentrated gaze was fixed entirely on the man inside the screen.

The face of that man looked almost identical to the “thirty-million” man.

“Brother,” Shen Zichen said, his voice turning somewhat husky as he probed, “you’ve been staring at him this whole time. Is it because he looks almost identical to that ‘thirty million’ guy from back then, so you’ve developed a soft spot for him?”

“No,” Shen Yanzhou shook his head.

The man he had bought for thirty million was restrained, gentle, and obedient to his core.

As for Fu Sizhou, how could anyone’s personality be as completely insane as his?

“Even if they look alike, their personalities are completely opposite,” Shen Yanzhou said flatly.

One was a gentle lover who worked for money, while the other was a mad dog without a single moral boundary who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals.

Shen Yanzhou cast his gaze back onto the computer screen, looking at the miserable patch of green on the Shen Corporation board that still showed no signs of warming up, and then back at the aggressive red line of the Fu family.

If they relied on the Shen family alone, there was simply no way to plug that financial gap.

Shen Yanzhou weighed the situation calmly in his mind.

Could it be… that he really had to go make a deal with him?

To agree to that absurd marriage alliance using his body and his marriage as chips?

Over the next three days, whenever Shen Yanzhou returned home to decompress, he would find himself wondering whether he should accept Fu Sizhou’s proposal.

He opened the laptop on his desk, which displayed the past few days’ trend charts for the Hong Kong stock market.

Although he had managed to stabilize the interior of the Shen Corporation and successfully divert the disaster elsewhere, stock market reactions were completely honest. Without the endorsement of the Fu family, the Shen Corporation’s stock was like a boat that had lost its engine though it stopped sinking further, it sat lifelessly dead in the water.

He could afford to ponder slowly, but the Shen Corporation’s stock market wouldn’t wait for him. Those predatory capitalists and the board members he had forcefully suppressed were all waiting for his next move.

Shen Yanzhou pulled a blank sheet of paper from a folder and picked up the fountain pen sitting nearby by habit.

He had a habit: whenever he faced a major choice, he liked to list out the pros and cons in black and white.

Furthermore, whenever he sank into deep thought, he would unconsciously start twirling his pen.

The Montblanc fountain pen spun and flipped with exquisite agility between his fingers, handled by his pretty hands with practiced ease. Because he was thinking with such intense concentration, a small, soft pouch of flesh puffed out unconsciously on his cheek, making him look like a pretty cat encountering a difficult problem and secretly hiding a small dried fish in its cheek.

Furrowing the tip of his nose slightly in a bit of annoyance, he bit down gently on his lower lip.

Shen Yanzhou’s pen tip paused on the paper, leaving behind a name: Fu Sizhou.

Next, he drew a horizontal line and began listing.

Cons:

Mad dog. Zero sense of personal boundaries. Extremely dangerous.

After finishing these words, Shen Yanzhou furrowed his brow slightly, tapped the pen tip irritably twice against the paper, and shifted to the other side.

Pros:

1. Can instantly rescue the Shen Corporation’s current stock market crisis.
2. Can perfectly resolve his heat cycles.

Shen Yanzhou touched the gland at the back of his neck. If he formed a marriage alliance with him, he would never have to inject those high-concentration inhibitors that severely damaged his body ever again.

3. Can use his clothes for nesting.

Writing this down, the tips of Shen Yanzhou’s ears turned faintly pink for no apparent reason. An Omega’s instincts created a visceral yearning for the scent of a high-compatibility Alpha. Being wrapped in his scent… actually felt pretty great.

As for whether that mad dog might still try to force himself on him after marriage? At worst, he could just treat him as a fully automatic, body-temperature-equipped massage wand.

4. Cooked meals exceptionally well.
5. Could give Pudding a home.
6. Looked very much like him.

When he reached this point, Shen Yanzhou’s pen tip stopped.

Looking at the words on the paper, Fu Sizhou’s handsome, wild face flashed through his mind.

Since he was destined never to be with the person he actually wanted, finding a substitute with a roughly similar look would have to do.

Stopping his pen-twirling motion, Shen Yanzhou slapped the signature pen down onto the desk.

The pros outweighed the cons.

Deal concluded.

Once he made a decision, he refused to let himself engage in any more internal friction.

Standing up, he walked over to floor-to-ceiling windows and pulled the curtains apart with a sharp *swoosh*.

Fu Sizhou was leaning lazily against the balcony railing opposite, holding a lit cigarette between his knuckles, its crimson tip glowing and fading rhythmically in the night breeze.

As if sensing something the moment Shen Yanzhou pulled the curtains open, Fu Sizhou raised his head.

Across the hazy night scenery, their gazes collided silently in midair.

Gazing at Shen Yanzhou behind the floor-to-ceiling glass dressed in sleepwear with his silver hair draped loosely down Fu Sizhou raised the finger holding the cigarette to his lips and took a deep drag.

Then, across the night sky, he smiled at him.

After that, he turned and stepped back into the darkness within his room, disappearing from view.

Shen Yanzhou’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. Slipping into his soft house slippers, he walked swiftly out of his bedroom and descended the spiral staircase down to the ground floor.

When he unlocked and opened the door, the cool breeze of an early summer midnight rushed in, carrying the scent of mint pheromones mixed with a faint trace of tobacco.

Fu Sizhou was standing right on the steps outside the door.

He didn’t know how fast he had run over from next door; his chest was still heaving slightly.

Lifting his chin, Shen Yanzhou looked at him with an icy expression. “Why did you come?”

Without any pretense of evasion, Fu Sizhou looked right into that extraordinarily pretty face of his. “I figured you had something you wanted to say to me, so I came.”

Standing quietly inside the doorframe, Shen Yanzhou raised his chin slightly, locked eyes with Fu Sizhou, and issued his command:

“Fu Sizhou, let’s get married.”

With astonishment and wild joy intertwining in his eyes, Fu Sizhou gave a soft smile.

“Can you say that again?”