The cool beauty forcibly bids for top A: Chapter 59

For two whole days, Shen Yanzhou’s phone was unusually quiet.

Ever since that night when Fu Sizhou sent him that absurd video of Fu Sihan, the chat box with the nickname [Dog Thief] had not sent a single word.

Perhaps that merciless knee strike in the fitting room that day, combined with his resolute attitude, finally made this mad dog see reality and back down.

Or maybe the mad dog finally got tired of it and went looking for someone else, just like Fu Sihan.

“Purr… purr…”

A heavy warmth came from his chest. The calico cat miss lay just below his collarbone, her two fluffy paws rhythmically kneading his pajamas, while her pink nose coaxingly rubbed against his chin.

Shen Yanzhou frowned slightly, letting out a very soft groan, and weakly stretched out a fair and slender arm from under the covers, habitually scratching Milk Tea’s chin before casually reaching for the phone on the bedside table.

[Dog Thief]: This evening, can you accompany me somewhere to see someone?

The message was sent at five in the morning.

See someone? See who?

Doubt flashed in Shen Yanzhou’s cool eyes, and he immediately tapped the phone keyboard.

[Shen Yanzhou]: I have plans.

The reply was sent at seven in the morning.

From seven in the morning to seven in the evening, that man never replied to him.

This actually made Shen Yanzhou, who was used to that mad dog pressing him step by step, lose his focus twice during the all-day multinational financial report meeting, which was a rare occurrence.

At seven in the evening, at the Peak, inside a private French restaurant open only to old money families, a brass gramophone played lazy old Hong Kong style jazz, the husky voice of a female singer lingering through the restaurant.

Outside the window was the dazzling, glamorous night view of Victoria Harbour like a river of stars, while in the dim interior, Shen Yanzhou had his silver hair coiled up, his slender, cold white fingertips gently swirling a wine glass.

The man sitting opposite him was wearing a black Savile Row suit, with broad shoulders and long legs. Even with a high-intensity suppressor patch applied, he still could not hide the gunpowder-scented pheromones of a top Alpha.

“Yanzhou, you seem to be in a bad mood today?” Huo Ting elegantly sliced the steak on his plate, his deep, hawk-like eyes locked onto Shen Yanzhou without blinking. “Or is it because you are about to get engaged to the eldest grandson of the Fu family, and you are having pre-wedding anxiety?”

“Mr. Huo is overthinking it.” Shen Yanzhou lifted his thin eyelids. “I was just recently reviewing the throughput financial reports of the Kwai Tsing container terminal and found that Huo’s draft line at berth number four overstepped its bounds, cutting into the profits of two of our Shen family’s high seas shipping routes. I was wondering how to make Mr. Huo spit out everything you swallowed, without a single piece missing.”

Far from being angered by this merciless warning, Huo Ting instead flashed a hint of a smile in his eyes.

“Yanzhou, we aren’t in the board meeting, you don’t need to be so formal.” Huo Ting put down his knife and fork, leaning forward slightly. “If you want berth number four, just say the word and give it to the Shen family as your wedding gift. What would be wrong with that?”

“If Huo’s shareholders heard that, they would vote you out tonight.” Shen Yanzhou took a sip of red wine indifferently, the crimson liquid staining his lips, adding a touch of gorgeous glamour.

He put down the glass, put away his sharpness from the business world, and his gaze sank slightly.

“Huo Ting, inviting you to dinner tonight, aside from catching up, is actually to offer a belated word of thanks.”

Huo Ting’s hand cutting the steak paused slightly, and he raised his eyes to look at him.

“Half a year ago, the night my scandal broke out, media all over Hong Kong were hounding me, and the Shen family’s stock price plummeted for several consecutive days. Those old fellows on the board of directors even made a mountain out of a molehill, jointly forcing me to step down and take responsibility.”

“Right at that time, you suddenly bypassed the Huo family’s public relations department and unilaterally held a press conference to announce the cancellation of your engagement to Zhao Wan’er, the daughter of the Zhao family.”

“The crown prince of the Huo family calling off an engagement in public, turning two major families against each other. The explosive nature of this news instantly swept all newspaper headlines, completely burying my negative news and shielding me from the biggest wave of the storm.”

Shen Yanzhou paused and looked at Huo Ting: “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

Huo Ting was silent for a moment, picked up the club soda at his side, took a sip, and smiled feignedly: “You’re thinking too much. That woman Zhao Wan’er is a lunatic. Privately she likes to play underhanded tricks and even has a fetish for abusing Alphas. I found out her background long ago, and breaking off the engagement was just a matter of time.”

“I know she’s that kind of person,” Shen Yanzhou interrupted him.

“However, your engagement cancellation statement wasn’t issued sooner or later, but right at the time when I was cornered by the media and the board of directors’ coup was at its tightest.”

Shen Yanzhou looked at him, his tone growing softer: “Huo Ting, you actually did that to help me suppress the news, didn’t you?”

Huo Ting did not speak.

“Why do that?” Shen Yanzhou tilted his head slightly. “From our school days until now, we’ve clearly always been bitter rivals, competitors in the business world who would practically tear each other apart.”

Huo Ting raised his head and looked at Shen Yanzhou, dark waves of the past churning in his deep eyes.

This arrogant demeanor, high and mighty, wanting to trample everyone underfoot, was practically identical to that young master from over a decade ago in the back garden of the Huo family old residence, looking down at him with aloof disdain.

That year, the power struggle of the Huo family had just come to an end, and his father had stepped over several brothers to finally secure his position as the heir of the Huo family. At the celebration banquet held in the old residence, the adults clinked glasses in the resplendent front hall, while he, not yet ten years old and lagging behind peers in physical development, was cornered in the dim back garden by several resentful cousins and relatives because he was a head shorter.

Fists and leather shoes slammed mercilessly into his frail body amid malicious curses. Back then, he was beaten into crying with his head in his arms, curled up in the muddy water.

Just when he thought he would be beaten to death by this pack of mad dogs, the iron gate of the back garden was pushed open impatiently.

“So noisy.” An immature yet arrogant voice rang out.

The beating boys were startled and stopped their hands abruptly.

Huo Ting, collapsed in the muddy water, struggled to open his swollen eyes, looked in the direction of the voice, and saw a little boy who looked too pretty to be real.

He wore an extremely exquisite, pure white custom British-style little suit, with a dark red velvet bow tie tied at the collar, and a rare tuft of silver shattered hair glowing with soft luster under the moonlight. Pale skin, big eyes, he looked just like the most expensive doll displayed in a storefront window.

Yet, this overly pretty little doll had an arrogant look in his eyes.

A young Shen Yanzhou frowned with exquisite brows, impatiently sweeping his gaze over those hostility-filled Huo family descendants.

“Does the Huo family rule teach you to bite around in flowerbeds like stray dogs? Get lost, you’re blocking my way.”

The Shen family’s position in Hong Kong was unshakeable to begin with, and Shen Yanzhou had been a notoriously spoiled little demon king since childhood. Those collateral cousins looked at each other, and although unwilling, they didn’t dare provoke this ancestor, so they could only leave a timid “consider yourself lucky” and scatter away.

Only the two of them were left in the dim garden.

Huo Ting lay on the ground covered in injuries, watching those immaculate custom little leather shoes walk step by step in front of him. He had originally thought this angel-like little young master would reach out a hand, like someone in a fairy tale, and gently ask him: “Are you okay?”

Instead, Shen Yanzhou stopped half a step away from him, looking down at him from above. There was not a shred of sympathy in his big silver eyes, but rather undisguised disgust.

The pretty boy gave a cold snort: “Useless.”

“Your dad is the heir, and you’ll be the heir in the future. Yet an heir is still so spineless, beaten to the ground by a few dregs and not even daring to fight back. If the Huo family is handed over to you, it’s going to ruin sooner or later.”

With that, Shen Yanzhou didn’t even give him an extra glance, turned around, and walked away without looking back.

Only he was left on the ground, staring at his retreating figure, his heart beating violently in his chest. At that moment, he made up his mind that he would climb to the top of power and become a top Alpha.

“Huo Ting?” Shen Yanzhou’s cool voice rudely yanked Huo Ting back from distant memories.

Huo Ting snapped back to his senses, looking at the person in front of him who had fully blossomed and was even more gorgeously stunning and cold than in his youth. He took a deep breath, picked up the iced club soda at his side, and took a sip as a cover.

When he put down the water cup, his deep gaze crossed the swaying candlelight and uncontrollably landed on Shen Yanzhou’s slightly open collar, where two or three red marks that had not fully faded remained conspicuously.

He calmly looked away, his voice a bit huskier than before:

“Your rival is right. But last time, you casually saved my good-for-nothing brother, so consider that I owe you a favor. I, Huo Ting, have never liked owing others favors, especially in the business world.”

Shen Yanzhou did not expect him to give such an answer, and a trace of surprise flashed across his cool eyes.

However, before Shen Yanzhou could speak, Huo Ting changed the subject abruptly: “However, I’ve always been curious about one thing.”

“Half a year ago, the man the Hong Kong media went wild exposing… the one kissing you at the villa entrance, that wasn’t Fu Sihan at all, right?”

Shen Yanzhou’s long eyelashes fluttered gently, and then he lifted his thin eyelids, meeting Huo Ting’s gaze with calm waves in his eyes: “How do you know it wasn’t?”

Huo Ting smiled faintly: “I figured your taste hasn’t sunk to the point of being desperate.”

That hypocrite Fu Sihan, in terms of capability and boldness, couldn’t even compare to me. How could you possibly let him touch you willingly?

“I figured if someone dared to force a kiss on you like that at the villa entrance, given your temper, you probably would have crippled him on the spot, absolutely not looking like you did in the photo.”

“Indeed, it wasn’t him,” Shen Yanzhou replied indifferently.

“Then do you like that person? Does he know you’re getting engaged to someone else tomorrow?!” Huo Ting asked casually as if by chance.

Shen Yanzhou quietly lowered his head. His silver-gray hair broke free from the hair tie, sliding down his slender shoulders and covering most of his stunning face. He shook his head slightly.

“Whether I like it or not, what does it matter?”

“I deleted that person long ago, so it doesn’t matter anymore whether he knows about my engagement.”

He had long since blocked and deleted the number saved as “Three Million”.

Yet he had not deleted Jiang Xu’s contact information.

If he really wanted to know where that man was and how he was doing lately, he could easily contact him through Jiang Xu, but for half a year, he had never done so.

Even without himself, that man could live very well; why ruin someone else’s life because of his own selfish desires? Staying out of contact like this was actually better for everyone.

Huo Ting quietly watched the person in front of him.

“Yanzhou,” Huo Ting’s voice was deep and mellow. “We’ve known each other for so long. No matter what decision you finally make, I believe there’s a reason why you have to do it.”

“Though I clearly know that marrying Fu Sihan means you are destined not to be happy…”

Huo Ting paused, picked up the deep red Burgundy wine glass beside him, and raised it toward Shen Yanzhou: “Still, I hope you can be happy.”

Shen Yanzhou raised his eyes, quietly looking at the man opposite him. The originally tense corners of his mouth slowly relaxed, and he hooked them into a genuine, very light and faint smile.

He picked up the tall glass in front of him and gently tapped it against Huo Ting’s glass.

“Clink—” the sound of glasses colliding.

Shen Yanzhou looked at Huo Ting and said softly, “Thank you.”

When they came out of the private French restaurant at the Peak, thick dark clouds had gathered over Victoria Harbour, and by the time Shen Yanzhou returned to Repulse Bay, it was pouring rain.

Holding an umbrella, as he stood under the street lamp at the entrance of the villa, he saw a black figure crouching beside the marble steps at his doorstep.

The rain poured down on that person without shelter, soaking him entirely through, and even his aggressive top Alpha pheromones were filled with a suffocating bitterness.

Hearing footsteps, Fu Sizhou slowly raised his head. Rainwater slid down his sharp, deep brow bone, trickled over his high nose bridge, and finally dripped from his pale jaw.

Shen Yanzhou’s fingers holding the umbrella handle tightened slightly, and he looked at the man before him: “Why are you here?”

“The plans you mentioned…” Fu Sizhou’s voice was hoarse, “was it going to the Peak to have dinner with Huo Ting?”

Shen Yanzhou frowned slightly: “You’re following me again?”

“I’m not following you.” Fu Sizhou twitched the corner of his mouth, showing a self-deprecating smile. “I was just waiting downstairs at your company, saw you get into a car, and followed you all the way to the Peak. I didn’t get close; I just parked the car by the road and watched you two through the restaurant’s glass window.”

The rain poured torrentially, yet Fu Sizhou’s gaze refused to move away from Shen Yanzhou’s face for even an inch.

He sat in the cold car cabin, watching Shen Yanzhou sit opposite Huo Ting. They looked so well-matched, one the head of the Huo family and the other the CEO of the Shen corporation, both coming from prestigious backgrounds and both standing high and mighty.

He saw Shen Yanzhou pick up his wine glass, saw Shen Yanzhou tilt his head slightly, and even saw Shen Yanzhou show a deeply genuine smile toward Huo Ting.

“Today is actually my mother’s death anniversary.”

Shen Yanzhou’s hand holding the umbrella handle trembled slightly, and a trace of astonishment flashed across his silver-gray eyes.

“When I messaged you at five in the morning, I was standing right in front of her gravestone,” Fu Sizhou’s voice was very soft. “It was raining heavily. I brought her favorite lisianthus flowers, stood at her grave for a long time, and talked to her for ages.”

Rainwater dripped frantically down his strands of hair, and he stared unblinkingly at Shen Yanzhou: “She had a very hard life. To marry that old bastard, she endured all kinds of cold stares, never received a shred of recognition from the Lin family, and was later ruthlessly abandoned by that old bastard of the Fu family.”

Others called her a “slut”, a “whore”, a “bitch”.

But I knew she loved me.

She was the only person in this world who gave me unconditional, unreserved love.

“So, I really, really wanted to take you to see her.”

“When I received your reply saying ‘I have plans’, I actually wasn’t angry,” Fu Sizhou smiled self-deprecatingly. “I figured you were getting engaged soon, the Shen corporation’s financial report meetings must be very busy, you had to deal with those old foxes on the board and handle the high seas shipping route issues. You were so tired, it was only right that you didn’t have time.”

“But Yanzhou…” Fu Sizhou’s voice suddenly choked. “I saw you smiling at Huo Ting.”

“You were so tired, yet you were willing to accompany him for dinner. You always show me nothing but impatience and cold stares, yet you could smile so prettily at him.”

Why? Why do they always find it so easy to get everything?

“That hypocrite Fu Sihan, no matter how dirty and rotten he plays outside, as long as he holds the title of the Fu family’s eldest grandson, he can easily win the old man’s favoritism, logically become your engagement partner, and stand by your side legitimately.”

“Huo Ting too. He was born the heir of the Huo family; he can sit in a high-end restaurant at the Peak and win a smile from you so effortlessly!”

And yet me, growing up, whatever I wanted, I had to work endlessly and fight for it with my life.

“But I’ve already tried so hard…” Fu Sizhou’s eyes reddened. “Why won’t you even look at me?”

“Without my love, you’re still the high-and-mighty CEO of the Shen corporation. You’ll still have Huo Ting, and countless people better and more respectable than me to love you.”

But as for me, I really only have you.

“I don’t expect you to love me the way I love you,” Fu Sizhou’s lips trembled. “I only ask, if you could like me just a little bit more than others… even if it’s just a tiny bit, please?”

“Can’t you spare me a sliver of love?”

Holding the umbrella, Shen Yanzhou stood quietly in place, and once again recalled the look on that man’s face when he left.

He couldn’t say a thing.

Seeing Shen Yanzhou’s silence, the light in Fu Sizhou’s eyes dimmed bit by bit. His fingers gripping the corner of his trench coat loosened powerlessly, and he smiled bitterly, slowly standing up.

“Tomorrow… you’re getting engaged.”

“Shen Yanzhou, you clearly already know what kind of trash my brother is, you clearly know the disgusting underhanded tricks he plays behind people’s backs. Why… why must you marry him?!”

“Why does it have to be him?!”

Shen Yanzhou looked coldly at Fu Sizhou, his thin lips pressed tightly together.

The scandal from half a year ago not only caused the Shen corporation’s stock price to plummet, but also gave those long-dormant old foxes on the board of directors an excellent excuse to make trouble. For him, whose controlling stake was only 30% at the time, replacing the chairman of the Shen corporation was entirely possible.

Under those circumstances, he had no choice but to compromise with the old man—

As long as he married Fu Sihan, the old man would help him settle the board of directors; as long as he married Fu Sihan, on the day of the wedding, the 30% shares in the old man’s hands would be entirely transferred to him.

When his father was alive, although he wanted to reform the Shen corporation, because the old man was still around, his controlling stake was only 20%. Coupled with the fact that he had already touched the reverse scales of many powerful figures in the underworld, without the old man’s reminder, Shen Yanzhou was well aware that the Shen corporation was going downhill.

A 30% equity stake.

Added to the shares he originally held himself, he would possess absolute veto power within the Shen Group.

To completely transform the Shen family, to root out the pests who persecuted his parents and those trying to drag him down, he had to have this 30% share, he had to have absolute speaking power!

For this, he could sell his marriage, tolerate a disgusting piece of garbage like Fu Sihan becoming his fiancé, and even… personally push away the person who had given him scorching sincerity.

He had no way out.

“Shen Yanzhou, you’re not like your father; you were watched and raised by grandfather himself. Don’t let unseen emotions cloud your judgment. Things like emotions sour; once you can rule the roost in Hong Kong, what kind of person can’t you have in the future?”

“Didn’t you buy that man for thirty million anyway? You bought him, you bought his feelings. So deep down, don’t you also feel that people and feelings can be bought with money?”

He didn’t like the old man, but sometimes, he felt the old man’s words weren’t entirely wrong.

Unlike his father, he had his own ambitions.

His sights were set far beyond just the Shen corporation.

“I will only enter a marriage alliance with your brother, not you.” Shen Yanzhou slowly spoke.

“I really feel awful today.”

Fu Sizhou slowly lowered his head, like a stray dog drenched in rain all night, soaking wet, exposing its most vulnerable neck to its cruel master.

“Can you… touch me?”

“Can you… hug me?”

Shen Yanzhou felt a stifling ache in his chest. Before he could react himself, that cold, pale, slender hand had already stretched out uncontrollably from his warm trench coat pocket.

His fingertips trembled slightly, crossing the shadow beneath the umbrella, reaching toward Fu Sizhou’s face.

However, just when his fingertips were mere inches from Fu Sizhou’s cheek, his movement abruptly stopped.

Then, bit by bit, it painfully curled into a fist, and finally, he resolutely pulled it back.

Shen Yanzhou forced himself to look away, refusing to meet his eyes again.

He shoved the umbrella in his hand into Fu Sizhou’s grasp.

Losing the protection of the umbrella, the violent rain lashed ruthlessly against Shen Yanzhou’s slender shoulders and back.

“It’s raining hard outside, head back early.”