The cool beauty forcibly bids for top A: Chapter 39

A few days ago, when he first stepped into this godforsaken place where the sun never shone, Shen Yanzhou only knew two people: the man he had bought for thirty million, and an informant who would do anything for money.

He never expected that when it was time to leave, there would be four extra little dumplings outside the car door, crying their eyes out with snot and tears all over their faces.

“Pretty boy gege, are you really leaving?” Little Watermelon hiccupped from crying so hard, clutching the Transformer toy Shen Yanzhou had asked Jiang Xu to buy before leaving. “Will you come back to visit us?”

The little girl with the pigtails was practically hanging onto the car door, her big eyes brimming with golden teardrops.

“If there’s a chance, I will. Study hard.”

After Shen Yanzhou finished speaking, the four little dumplings took turns planting a “mwah” on his cheek one by one.

Only when the car window slowly rolled up did the little ones reluctantly wave goodbye.

The stretch Maybach drove out of Sham Shui Po, a chaotic mix of dragons and snakes, and wound its way along the mountain road toward the Mid-Levels, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold.

Shen Yanzhou turned his head to look out the window at the scenery flying by, and suddenly remembered something his father had said when he brought him here to talk business as a child.

“All roads in this world, whether paved with gold bricks or caked with mud, have the same dark foundation underneath. In this life, you have to be able to swallow bird’s nest soup on the Mid-Levels, and also choke down beef tripe in the Walled City.”

“What are you thinking about?” asked the man in the driver’s seat.

Shen Yanzhou withdrew his gaze and pulled out the sachet from inside his clothes, his silver phoenix eyes narrowing slightly.

“You knew all along what the ‘Dragon Breath Grass’ and ‘Phoenix Cry Seeds’ in this sachet were for. Why didn’t you tell me its purpose from the start?”

If he had known earlier that this thing was a fertility folk remedy used in the Walled City to “aid conception and boost desire,” he never would have carried this hot potato on his person.

Just thinking about how Nine-Finger Qiang had stared at this sachet with that sleazy, knowing smirk when he went to the clinic to find Shen Xici, he still felt embarrassed now.

That old geezer was probably imagining all sorts of things about how the two of them had been fooling around day and night, without a moment’s rest, these past few days in the Walled City!

And yet this dog who was the real culprit had hidden it from him too.

The red light at the intersection ahead happened to turn on, and the Maybach stopped at the crosswalk.

The man in the driver’s seat rested one hand on the steering wheel, his gaze sliding over Shen Yanzhou’s slightly reddened eye corners and tightly pressed thin lips, then leaned in close to whisper in his ear.

“At the time, how could I bring myself to say it?”

“Besides, the folk remedies in this Walled City… apparently they really do work.”

Shen Yanzhou gave him a cold sideways glance.

The man continued leaning against him, whispering in his ear, his gaze deliberately darting toward Shen Xici in the back seat from time to time: “I heard that if you smell this sachet for too long, it can completely unleash the instincts buried deep in an Omega’s bones, bringing on their heat early, making them desperately want to entangle and be filled… doing it continuously for days and nights, and by then getting pregnant wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Shut up!” Shen Yanzhou raised his hand and threw the sachet at the man’s handsome face.

The sachet hit the man’s high nose bridge with perfect accuracy. He didn’t dodge, but smoothly caught it and stuffed it into his own pocket.

“Ahem — ahem ahem!”

Shen Xici, who had been trying to be invisible in the back seat, let out a coughing fit. His already pale face turned iron blue from holding it in, and he glared death at that thirty-million-yuan man, his face screaming “you shameless dead dog, stay away from my brother.”

That dead dog was not to be outdone, his cold face reading “dream on. Dare to eye your brother again and I’ll end you.”

Shen Xici avoided him and looked at Shen Yanzhou: “Brother, when are we going back to the company?”

“Go back and change clothes. We’ll go this afternoon.” Shen Yanzhou replied.

***

At two thirty in the afternoon, Central, Shen Group headquarters building. It was afternoon tea time, and several young employees wearing ID badges had gathered in the lounge area next to the front desk, slacking off and chatting.

“What nonsense are those gossip magazines writing outside? They actually wrote that the one who had the accident wasn’t Lawyer Shen, but Mr. Shen.”

“How is that possible?! I joined the company for Mr. Shen! When I was interning and saw him step out of the elevator, his phoenix eyes swept lightly over… I fell in love on the spot! I’d be letting myself down if I didn’t come to Shen Group!”

“Same here… I worked myself to the bone to get an offer from Shen Group. I don’t even want to leave after work every day. I’d be willing to do unpaid OT every single day.”

Just as they were muttering, Shen Yanzhou walked in. His silver long hair was loosely tied back with a ribbon, and beside him was Shen Xici carrying a briefcase.

Then all the employees’ eyes lit up. They straightened their bodies and bowed respectfully yet excitedly:

“Good afternoon, President Shen!”

“Good afternoon, Lawyer Shen!”

Shen Yanzhou nodded lightly at the employees, the corners of his lips curving into an extremely shallow, extremely beautiful arc.

Only after Shen Yanzhou and Shen Xici entered the elevator did the employees who had been holding their breath start talking again.

“Oh my god… did Mr. Shen just smile?! He smiled at me!”

“Stop dreaming, he was clearly smiling at everyone! But… didn’t you guys notice?” The female employee cupped her flushed, excited cheeks. “Mr. Shen doesn’t look like someone who was sick or had an accident at all?”

“Yes yes yes! I was about to say the same thing! It feels like he’s gained a little weight, just a tiny bit! His complexion is so much better, there’s even a bit of red beneath the white.”

“He seems even more beautiful… do I still have a chance?”

“You don’t stand a chance in hell.” A male employee next to her lowered his voice and muttered. “These days when President Shen wasn’t here, wasn’t his fiance sending people to deliver things every day?”

The Shen Group hadn’t changed much, but when Shen Yanzhou pushed open the president’s office, he saw that his office had completely transformed. Someone who didn’t know better would think he had opened a flower shop here.

Red roses air-freighted from Ecuador, blue enchantresses, white roses… glaringly piled on his desk, his sofa… and some that couldn’t fit, so they were placed on the floor.

The strong, sickly-sweet floral scents mixed together, making people want to throw up.

Shen Yanzhou shook his head in disgust, reached out and pinched his nose, and asked Secretary Xiao Chen: “These were sent by Fu Sihan?”

Xiao Chen nodded. “President Shen, while you were away these past few days, your fiance sent people to deliver these every day, insisting they be placed in your office. We didn’t dare move them casually.”

Shen Yanzhou walked to the desk with a cold face and picked up a greeting card sprinkled with gold dust that was tucked into one of the bouquets.

On it, in extremely refined calligraphy, was handwritten an elegant, deep golden quote:

“Pride pushed me away from you, prejudice prevented you from loving me. Pride and Prejudice”

Looking at this line that was meant to display deep affection, Shen Yanzhou instantly pictured that image of Fu Sihan in a crisp suit, wearing Buddhist prayer beads, looking refined and cultured. Then he thought of that man who was currently feeding the little Tang dog at home.

Sometimes, corny pickup lines sounded much better than these seemingly elegant words.

However, Fu Sihan was willing to put on this teeth-achingly cheesy act for the huge dividends behind a business marriage alliance.

“Hmph…” Shen Yanzhou let out a cold laugh and casually tossed that greeting card into the wastebasket. “To be able to go this far for his own interests, I believe he can succeed at anything he does.”

“Xiao Chen, throw all this messy stuff away.”

“From now on, don’t accept his things anymore.”

“Yes, President Shen, I’ll have someone clean it up right away.” Xiao Chen nodded in agreement.

Shen Yanzhou stepped around the rose petals scattered on the floor, pulled out a chair and sat down, his tone normal: “Xiao Chen, while I wasn’t at the company recently, did some news spread from the board of directors? When I entered the building just now, I saw the employees downstairs were constantly talking.”

Xiao Chen looked somewhat nervous, lowered his voice and nodded: “Yes, President Shen, it’s been spreading fiercely in the board. Some people said you had a serious accident and wouldn’t be coming back. Several old directors said the company couldn’t go a day without a leader, and they might… prepare to have someone else take over.”

Hearing this, Shen Yanzhou raised his eyes and exchanged a glance with Shen Xici, who was standing beside the desk.

The two understood each other without needing words just as they expected.

During these few days when they were cut off in Kowloon Walled City, the ghosts hiding in the dark at home had finally lost their patience and jumped out.

“Mainly who is pushing for someone else to take over Shen Group?” Shen Yanzhou leaned back in his chair. “Is it my second uncle?”

However, Xiao Chen shook his head: “No, President Shen. Although Second Master is also fanning the flames, the one who initially proposed holding an emergency board meeting and has been privately lobbying other shareholders… is Minister Su.”

Shen Yanzhou’s narrow phoenix eyes narrowed: “My third aunt?”

“Yes.” Xiao Chen continued nodding.

Hearing this name, not only Shen Yanzhou, but even Shen Xici beside him was stunned.

This was too abnormal.

Ever since Third Uncle passed away in that accident back then, Third Aunt had gradually faded from the Shen family’s power center. She rarely attended family gatherings and had long been a transparent figure in the board of directors who only collected dividends and never spoke up.

A widow who normally never involved herself in company affairs and frequently missed year-end shareholder meetings how could she suddenly act so out of character and aggressively jump out to have someone take the lead during the short few days he was “missing”?

Even more suspicious was that Third Aunt had no children at all.

In these wealthy families that devour people without spitting out bones, fighting for power is mostly about paving the way for one’s descendants. Even if she exhausted all her schemes and successfully pulled him Shen Yanzhou down from the family head position, she had no legitimate offspring to push onto the throne.

What was she after?

Before Shen Yanzhou had time to think through all the twists and turns behind this, the president’s office was violently pushed open. Several security guards were sweating profusely, their faces panicked, completely unable to stop the intruder’s footsteps.

“President Shen, sorry, we really couldn’t stop him…”

Accompanied by chaotic footsteps, a tall, stern-faced man strode in. His face was cold, his gloomy, intimidating eyes sweeping over the room full of bouquets and fixing on Shen Yanzhou. He demanded in a deep voice:

“Shen Yanzhou, where did you hide my brother?”

Looking at Huo Ting who had barged in aggressively, Shen Yanzhou casually waved his hand, signaling the sweating security guards to step out first.

“Huo Ting, your brother is missing, so why are you running to my place to throw a tantrum? If you’re looking for someone, you should report it to the Hong Kong Police Force. What’s the point of barging into my office?”

“On the contrary, I haven’t had the chance to settle the score with that good brother of yours for hiring people to kidnap my brother a few days ago. And here you are, delivering yourself to my door today.”

Hearing about Shen Xici’s kidnapping, something unnatural flickered in Huo Ting’s eyes. No matter how stupid or rotten Huo Tian was, he was still Huo Ting’s blood brother. Now he had vanished into thin air in a place like Kowloon Walled City that devours people without spitting out bones, his life or death unknown. How could Huo Ting sit still?

Huo Ting gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping over Shen Xici and Secretary Xiao Chen, and said coldly: “Find a place. Let’s talk alone.”

Shen Yanzhou looked at him quietly for a few seconds, then stood up and said flatly: “Downstairs in the lounge. Come with me.”

In the VIP lounge downstairs, the two sat across from each other with a marble coffee table between them.

One was the current head of Shen Group, the other was the crown prince of Huo Group Shipping.

One had long topped the list of most desirable husbands in all of Hong Kong, the other held high popularity on the list of most desirable wives across Hong Kong.

As two of the top shipping families in Hong Kong, Shen Yanzhou and Huo Ting had been secretly competing since their student days.

From GPA in business school, to scores on the golf course, to later competing in the business world for overseas shipping routes and port berths — these two had practically carved the words “working themselves to death” into their bones. Any project Shen Yanzhou set his eyes on, Huo Ting would definitely stick his foot in; and any territory Huo Ting wanted to capture, Shen Yanzhou could always precisely cut off his funding.

After fighting for so many years, neither had ever truly gained a decisive advantage over the other.

Huo Tian was just scraps on the side who couldn’t beat Huo Ting and always tried to trip up Shen Yanzhou. Huo Ting was his true nemesis.

“Speak.” Shen Yanzhou was the first to break the deadlock, his tone cold: “Why are you so certain the person is with me?”

Huo Ting pressed both hands on the edge of the coffee table, leaning in to stare at him, his eyes bloodshot from several days without sleep: “That idiot Huo Tian, four days ago, to get back at you, took people to Kowloon Walled City, and after that he never came back!”

“And just yesterday, the people who kidnapped him finally sent word. According to the rules of the underworld, Huo Tian violated their taboo, so he must suffer ‘three knives, six holes.'”

Three knives, six holes? Three blades piercing through the body leaving six bloody holes. Even someone with a tough life would lose more than half their life after taking that.

“Oh?” Shen Yanzhou let out a light laugh. “I really didn’t expect that President Huo cares quite a bit about that good-for-nothing younger brother of yours who can’t accomplish anything but ruins everything.”

“But since you know it was people from the underworld who did it, just bring money and people to find him in the Walled City. What’s the point of running to Central and my office to look for me?”

“You think I haven’t looked?!” Huo Ting straightened up and said coldly: “Because the people who kidnapped him said in their original message that if I want to save his life, I have to come find you, and let you, Shen Yanzhou, name your terms!”

Huo Ting stared death at that still calm and composed face of Shen Yanzhou, so furious he laughed: “Shen Yanzhou, what are you still pretending for? Doesn’t everyone say that your Shen family, starting from your father’s generation, stopped having any dealings with people from the underworld long ago? How do you know the new boss of Kowloon Walled City?!”

“New boss?” Shen Yanzhou asked.

“You’re getting better and better at acting. It’s a shame you didn’t go win an Oscar.” Looking at Shen Yanzhou’s reaction, Huo Ting only felt he was deliberately mocking him. “That newly risen boss is the true owner behind Kowloon Walled City’s black market.”

“It’s said that now half the lifeline of Hong Kong’s underground industry is entirely in his hands. He dared to stomp our Huo family’s face into the dirt for your sake, and you dare say you don’t know him?!”

Shen Yanzhou quietly processed the information in Huo Ting’s words. Half the underground industry, black market boss, new boss… and, demanding that Huo Ting come to him to name terms.

Shen Yanzhou shook his head. “Huo Ting, our Shen family truly stopped having any dealings with people from the underworld starting from my father’s generation. As a proper businessman, I naturally couldn’t have any dealings with that kind of person either.”

“But… I am rather curious. What does that new boss look like?”