The cool beauty forcibly bids for top A: Chapter 62

“Smack!”

With all his might, Shen Yanzhou delivered a harsh slap to the man’s cheek, desperate to escape toward the door no matter what it took.

But it was useless.

Over the past four days, the exact same scene had played out countless times. The moment his fingers brushed the cold doorknob, his waist was grabbed and pulled tight. Fu Sizhou, like a tireless beast, effortlessly scooped him up with one arm and carried him back to the bedside in a few strides, plunging him deep into the soft mattress.

“Still running?” The man’s rough thumb pinched his chin tightly, forcing him to look up. “Have you still not figured out the current situation?”

“Get lost, you lunatic…” Shen Yanzhou struggled, his voice hoarse.

Fu Sizhou chuckled as he held him, whispering softly, “Call me husband.”

Shen Yanzhou’s eyelashes fluttered. He turned his head away, his long silver hair sliding down to cover half of his flushed cheek.

He refused to look at Fu Sizhou and refused to speak, simply pressing his lips together tightly. The tip of his nose was slightly red from the recent struggle, making him look like a cat cornered against a wall yet stubbornly refusing to back down.

“Not calling me that?” Fu Sizhou lowered his head, biting down on the side of Shen Yanzhou’s neck, which was slick with fragrant sweat. “Then I will keep going until you call me husband.”

For four straight days, he had been completely consumed by the heat of his rut and heat cycle, losing all reason. From the lounge of the engagement banquet to Fu Sizhou’s private villa, aside from the moments when Fu Sizhou pinched his chin to forcefully feed him some warm water and intravenous nutrient solutions to keep him alive, the rest of their time was spent frantically entangled with one another.

When Shen Yanzhou finally woke up from the man’s bed, his heat cycle had just ended.

“Lunatic… Fu Sizhou is a complete mad dog…” Shen Yanzhou bit his lower lip. Even a gentle bite sent a sharp sting through his swollen, red corners of the mouth.

A supreme sense of moral decay churned violently in his chest.

He had been forced by a man.

The man who forced him was his brother-in-law.

The place where he was forced was his own engagement banquet.

What shattered his worldview even more was that during those four days of sinking into depravity, his Omega body which had been suppressed for a full half year by high-concentration inhibitors—had actually shamefully and actively clung to the other person.

The mere thought of those four days, of being held in Fu Sizhou’s arms and forced to cry out and call him “husband” over and over again, made him roll over in shame and bury his face deep into the pillow.

“Truly, insane.”

The pillow still retained the scent of Fu Sizhou’s mint fragrance. The moment the tip of Shen Yanzhou’s nose brushed against that scent, he immediately yanked the pillow away from his face and hurled it fiercely onto the carpet, watching it roll twice.

Yet, he could not fool himself.

Over the past half year, due to internal family turmoil and heavy workloads, he simply had no time to deal with his extremely troublesome Omega heat cycles. Every time, he relied on injecting high-concentration inhibitors that caused severe damage to his body to stubbornly push through. His gland, due to the long-term lack of soothing from a synchronized Alpha pheromone, had become stretched and fragile to the extreme.

Therefore, when he felt Fu Sizhou’s intense pheromones, he had to admit that when he was held and soothed by that person, it felt warm and brought a strange sense of reliance.

Even… this reliance made him feel somewhat panicked.

Shen Yanzhou’s eyelashes trembled violently as he slowly closed his eyes.

He had never been promiscuous; he had only ever been with two men one was a man he bought for thirty million, and the other was his brother-in-law.

Although the physical experience down there felt somewhat similar, the two men were entirely different between the sheets.

The man he bought for thirty million, even at the height of passion, was somewhat restrained, gentle, and considerate of his feelings.

However, Fu Sizhou was completely unreasonable in bed. He was rough and savage, yet he controlled his body with an extremely rhythmic precision.

The moment he thought of this, Shen Yanzhou bit his lip even harder. Compared to the gentle, skin-deep scratch of the thirty-million-dollar man, his body seemed to prefer the way Fu Sizhou was rough to the bone, sending shivers straight down his scalp.

His pale fingers clutched the bedsheets as he recalled an extremely private detail.

On several occasions, right when he thought he would be split wide open to his reproductive tract, Fu Sizhou managed to fiercely exercise self-control.

Despite his whole body’s muscles being tense, the veins on his forehead bulging, and cold sweat dripping in large beads onto Shen Yanzhou’s collarbone, he still buried his face in the crook of Shen Yanzhou’s neck which exuded a rich rose fragrance and pulled himself back from the edge of danger with a clenched-teeth endurance that bordered on gritting them.

With a soft click, the bedroom door was pushed open.

Shen Yanzhou squeezed his eyes shut, lightening even his breathing. He pretended to be fast asleep to prevent the person from finding out he was awake and picking him up to go another few rounds.

Along with the footsteps, the pleasant aroma of century egg and lean pork porridge drifted into the room, mixed with the aggressive mint-scented pheromones of the Alpha.

Fu Sizhou casually placed the tray on the bedside table.

The unbridled indulgence of the past four days not only failed to fatigue him; instead, it left him radiating the satisfaction and laziness of someone who had tasted the forbidden fruit and wanted more. Fu Sizhou’s black shirt was open at the top, revealing his explosive chest and abdominal muscles, all covered in red scratches left by Shen Yanzhou, several of which had already scabbed over.

He knelt on one knee at the edge of the bed, gazing at the motionless lump wrapped in blankets on the bed.

Then, he turned Shen Yanzhou’s face toward him, looking at his tightly closed eyes and the tear tracks at the corners of his eyes that had not yet fully dried, carrying an extreme sense of grievance. His gaze darkened, and his large, knuckle-defined hand reached out, gently brushing the strands of silver hair scattered across Shen Yanzhou’s cheek behind his ear, bit by bit.

“It seems I really was a bit too rough,” he murmured.

His rough thumb grazed over Shen Yanzhou’s cool skin, finally resting on his cute cheek. With a mischievous glint in his eye, he gave it a gentle poke—poke on the left, poke on the right, just like a marshmallow.

“Mm…” The sensation on his cheek was truly too ticklish. Shen Yanzhou, already feeling thoroughly miserable all over, furrowed his brows and shifted impatiently, trying to dodge the man’s hand.

However, this rolling motion caused the thin quilt covering him to slip down by more than half.

That body which four days ago had been as cold, white, and jade-like with a tender pink glow was now exposed without reservation to Fu Sizhou’s sight.

There was not a single inch of unblemished skin; his previously flawless body was covered in varying shades of finger marks and mottled red patches.

Fu Sizhou’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down involuntarily, and the emotions he had managed to suppress with great difficulty began to bubble up again.

Sensing the scorching gaze landing on him, Shen Yanzhou reacted almost reflexively by pulling the blanket back up. He struggled to wrap himself into a cocoon and continued playing dead, even his rounded toes sticking out from the blanket curling slightly from tension.

Seeing him playing ostrich like this, Fu Sizhou suddenly let out a low laugh.

His gaze swept casually across the room, landing on the pillow Shen Yanzhou had thrown onto the carpet earlier.

He was awake, and he was even throwing a young master’s temper tantrum.

The smile in Fu Sizhou’s eyes deepened. Without ceremony, he scooped the human cocoon up from deep within the large bed, blanket and all, and propped him against the headboard.

“Get up and eat.”

“Let go…” Shen Yanzhou was forcefully peeled out of his pretending-to-be-dead cocoon state, and he finally opened his eyes.

His silver hair which had previously been neat and tidy held by an emerald hair clasp was now draped messily over his shoulders. In his cold, silver-gemstone-like eyes, the moisture had not yet cleared away, filled with the grievance and fury of being tormented for four days and four nights.

He glared at the man in front of him, but the flush at the corners of his eyes completely ruined his fierce look. Instead of carrying his usual sense of oppression, he looked like a pampered Persian cat that had been forced into a bath, accidentally had its fur ruffled, and was now standing there teary-eyed.

Shen Yanzhou swore inwardly that the moment he stepped out of this door, his first priority would be to spend a fortune hiring top-tier bodyguards from all of Hong Kong to stuff this mad dog into a sack, beat him half to death, and ideally destroy the thing he was most proud of along the way.

Right now, however, his arms felt as weak as noodles, and he didn’t even have the strength to raise his hand to slap the guy again.

Looking at him like this, Fu Sizhou wasn’t angry at all; instead, he gave a faint smile. “Angry?”

Shen Yanzhou fiercely turned his head away to dodge his hand, shooting him a glare with those red-rimmed eyes.

That was a complete waste of breath. Substitute anyone else: being inexplicably kidnapped by your fiancé’s younger brother at your own engagement banquet and tossed around for four days and four nights who wouldn’t be angry?

“Rumble…”

Shen Yanzhou’s cheeks burned bright red in an instant. He wanted to bury himself again. Why did his stomach have to make such an embarrassing sound in front of this man?

Fu Sizhou looked at him. “After you eat your fill, you can slap me however you want.”

With that, he turned, picked up the tray, and sat back down on the edge of the bed.

Shen Yanzhou looked at his face; it was indeed red. Over the past four days, he had slapped this man nearly a hundred times so much so that he even started to wonder if Fu Sizhou actually treated it like a stimulant.

Shen Yanzhou looked at the items on the tray: a bowl of extremely thick century egg and lean pork porridge, accompanied by several small, exquisite, and appetizing plates of Cantonese side dishes.

Fu Sizhou picked up a white porcelain spoon, scooped a spoonful of porridge with great patience, blew gently on it to test the temperature, and brought it to Shen Yanzhou’s tightly closed lips.

“Open your mouth.”

Shen Yanzhou was simply too hungry, and the bit of pride deep in his bones began to surrender in the face of the food’s aroma. There was truly no need to pick a fight with his own body; only with strength could he escape.

With a cold face and extreme reluctance, he parted his pale lips and swallowed that mouthful of porridge.

The moment it touched his tongue, Shen Yanzhou’s eyelashes couldn’t help fluttering slightly.

The rice grains had been boiled until they completely bloomed, soft, glutinous, and thick. The savory flavor of the broth mixed with the rich depth of the century egg and the tender smoothness of the pork, and the temperature was just right to soothe his stomach, which had been spasming from indulgence and hunger. A warmth spread outward from his abdomen to all four limbs.

It was genuinely… exceptionally delicious.

It beat out any bowl of porridge he had ever tasted at Michelin-starred restaurants in Hong Kong.

In truth, he had the least resistance to two things: furry animals and good food.

Therefore, he had no way to reject his “little dog,” nor the food his “little dog” made.

Though Shen Yanzhou kept a poker face, his chewing pace sped up unconsciously, swallowing in small bites like a cat whose fur had finally been smoothed down.

Fu Sizhou just watched him quietly, his gaze focused and exceedingly patient as he fed him spoonful by spoonful.

Until the entire bowl of porridge hit the bottom.

Feeling a trickle of strength return to his body, Shen Yanzhou opened his mouth to speak, but Fu Sizhou suddenly set the tray aside, leaned in, and pressed his thin lips gently against Shen Yanzhou’s lips, kissing away the lingering traces of rice oil.

Shen Yanzhou quickly pulled back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and the memory of his entanglement with this man over the past four days rushed back to him.

“Fu Sizhou, are you out of your mind?”

With a hoarse voice, Fu Sizhou replied, “Whether I am out of my mind or not, aren’t you the one who knows best?”

He stared coldly at Fu Sizhou, his silver-gray eyes filled with interrogation. “What I want to ask is, is there something wrong with *you* down there?”

Fu Sizhou raised an eyebrow. “Do you have something?”

Shen Yanzhou snapped, “How could I possibly?!”

Counting this mad dog in front of him, he had only ever been with two men in total.

“Then neither do I.”

Gazing at him earnestly, Fu Sizhou said, “Because I’ve only ever been with you.”

Looking at Fu Sizhou’s face, Shen Yanzhou’s initial internal reaction was: *absolute bullshit.*

Didn’t he clearly have an ex-boyfriend he couldn’t forget in his heart?

Furthermore…

Shen Yanzhou’s fingers gripped the edge of the blanket tightly as he recalled every little detail from bed over the past four days. Where on earth did Fu Sizhou show even a shred of first-time awkwardness? On the contrary, he was terrifyingly proficient.

A person like that claims it’s his first time?

Shen Yanzhou sneered internally. “Fu Sizhou, what on earth are you doing this for?”

“I am your brother’s fiancé. Do you have any idea what kind of consequences kidnapping me will bring to you, to me, to the Fu family, and to the Shen family?”

The hint of laziness and laughter on Fu Sizhou’s face vanished completely the moment he heard those five words: “brother’s fiancé.”

“My brother’s fiancé?” Fu Sizhou repeated in a low voice, then lifted the blanket, pulled Shen Yanzhou onto his lap, rested against his back, and pressed close to his ear to whisper,

“Sister-in-law, I was never a good person to begin with.”

“The underlying logic deep in my bones only tells me one thing: to get what I want, even if I have to snatch it, I will use whatever means necessary.”

“I won’t be like those characters in novels who play the affectionate second male lead, watching you put on a wedding dress to marry someone else, and then hiding in an empty corner like a coward to drink away my sorrows late at night.”

“I was never that kind of loser.” He hugged the warm, soft body in his arms tightly.

“Shen Yanzhou, the only person who gets to marry you is me.”

“But I don’t want to marry you!” Shen Yanzhou said coldly.

“So, Fu Sizhou, give me back my phone and let me go.”

“Let you go? Sister-in-law, where would you like to go?”

No sooner had the words fallen than Fu Sizhou reached out that large hand, enveloped Shen Yanzhou’s clenched, angry fist, and guided his hand step by step down onto his own lower abdomen which had previously been extremely flat, but was now slightly rounded.

“Sister-in-law, do you feel it?” Dark, thick emotions churned in the depths of Fu Sizhou’s eyes as he pressed against Shen Yanzhou’s ear, murmuring in a tone only the two of them could hear.

“Right in here, it’s completely full of my scent.”

“Are you sure you want to take my things and go see my brother?”

“Fu Sizhou, how can you be so shameless?” Shen Yanzhou’s cheeks flushed red instantly. With red-rimmed eyes, he averted his gaze in absolute humiliation.

“Fu Sizhou, do you have any idea that you’ve completely disrupted my life and my plans?”

For him, this political marriage concerned the cross-holdings of four core berths at the Shen Group’s Kwai Chung container terminals, whether he could successfully inherit the Shen family’s most core shares from his grandfather, and whether he could firmly secure his position as head of the family.

For this single day, he had been running on endless cycles for half a complete year, moving step by step with calculated precision.

Yet now, it had all been ruined by this mad dog.

“Give me back my phone first.” Shen Yanzhou’s voice trembled slightly with anger as he breathed heavily. “Right now, your brother and my grandfather must be searching the entire world for me. And the Shen family I’ve been missing for four full days. Without me there, the Shen family’s board of directors must have fallen into chaos, and Shen Corporation’s shares have probably plummeted to god knows where… All of this is because of you!”

The more Shen Yanzhou thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. The four days spent in pitch-black darkness, the weakness of having his body hollowed out, combined with his extreme panic over losing control of the external situation, caused him to finally snap.

“Mm—!” He lowered his head, opened his mouth, and bit down savagely and mercilessly onto Fu Sizhou’s solid forearm.

He bit down hard, holding nothing back, as if venting all the anger from the past four days straight through his teeth. Within moments, a warm, metallic taste of blood spread through his mouth.

Yet, the man being bitten didn’t even furrow his brow.

Fu Sizhou merely lowered his eyelids slightly, watching Shen Yanzhou chew on him in silence. He didn’t even pull his arm back; instead, he placed his other hand with utmost gentleness onto Shen Yanzhou’s messy silver hair.

“Have you bitten enough?” Fu Sizhou’s voice was eerily calm. “If you haven’t had enough, pick another spot to bite—just don’t chip your teeth.”

Love or hatred as long as Shen Yanzhou remained by his side, it was enough.

Shen Yanzhou loosened his grip and raised his head.

A deep ring of teeth marks, oozing blood, was starkly visible on Fu Sizhou’s forearm. He casually wiped the blood away from his arm with his thumb.

“Sister-in-law, do you honestly think my brother is going to bring people and rescue you from a beast like me?”

“I’m telling you, my brother isn’t coming to look for you. And your grandfather won’t be coming to look for you either.”

“What do you mean?” Shen Yanzhou turned his head to face Fu Sizhou. “Why?”

Why wouldn’t Fu Sihan come looking for him? He had mysteriously vanished for four whole days during his own engagement banquet. As an Alpha, his fiancé had been abducted by someone, and given how much he cared about his face, how could he possibly remain indifferent?

At the mention of this, Shen Yanzhou remembered that when this man had tied him up in the top-floor lounge of the Peninsula Hotel, he had said the exact same thing. Right before he had been fucked unconscious by this man, he had vaguely heard police sirens wailing outside.

What happened after that, he had no idea. Because when he woke up, he had already been locked by Fu Sizhou into the master bedroom of this mountainside villa, doing *that* day in and day out.

“You… what on earth did you do?”

Fu Sizhou hugged him with one arm, reached into the bedside table drawer to retrieve a tablet, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and handed it to Shen Yanzhou.

“Look for yourself. Just search his name directly and you’ll know.”

Shen Yanzhou took the tablet, typed in the three characters “Fu Sihan,” and pressed enter.

The entire Hong Kong media network seemed to have aimed all its firepower, every long-range camera, and every bold, crimson-highlighted terrifying headline directly at him.

《Fu Family’s Eldest Son Implicated in Massive Contraband Smuggling, Arrested Live at Peninsula Hotel Engagement Banquet!》

《The Gentle Noble Scion Falls from Grace? Hoarding High-Purity Addictive Contraband.》

《Fu Group Plummets in Pre-Market Trading, Faces Suspension; Eldest Young Master Fu Faces Up to Life Imprisonment!》

Shen Yanzhou’s breathing hitched slightly. He clicked on the exclusive video report with the highest view counts. The footage was somewhat shaky, likely captured by paparazzi staking out the perimeter of the hotel using sharp intuition and telephoto lenses.

In the video, the man wearing a Savile Row bespoke suit who had smiled gently at him on the red carpet was being escorted briskly out of the side door of the Peninsula Hotel by several grim-faced, fully armed officers.

Fu Sihan’s meticulously styled hair was now disheveled, and his old-money noble appearance was gradually torn apart under the flashing strobe of magnesium lights.

“Young Master Fu, is it true that the police seized contraband?”

“Mr. Fu, someone is accusing you of contraband smuggling. Do you have anything to explain to the public?!”

“Young Master Fu, does your fiancé, President Shen, know about this? Is this wedding of the century a smoke screen thrown out by the Fu family to cover up smuggling routes?”

Countless microphones bearing various logos were thrust almost directly into Fu Sihan’s face, and the reporters’ questions grew increasingly piercing.

In the video, Fu Sihan’s facial muscles twitched slightly from extreme anger and endurance, yet he still managed to put on a calm demeanor.

“An innocent man clears himself.”

“I believe the legal system of Hong Kong will ultimately return my innocence. The Fu Group’s legal department will handle this matter entirely; until then, no comment.”

With that, he was forcefully shoved into a police car by the officers.

The video cut off abruptly, freezing on the crimson tail lights of the departing police car.

Shen Yanzhou glanced at the timestamp of the video. At that exact time, he had been trapped in the top-floor lounge.

Half a year ago, when he found out that Fu Sihan was involved in these contraband substances, he and Shen Xichen had secretly submitted the compiled documentation to the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau of Hong Kong.

However, the Fu family’s roots in Hong Kong ran far too deep, and their network across political and business circles was so complex it could practically reach the heavens. That report which should have caused a massive uproar ultimately sank like a stone in the ocean due to “insufficient core direct evidence” and “the mysterious disappearance of a key informant.”

Ever since then, Shen Yanzhou understood that external anonymous reporting alone was useless; the Fu family had a hundred ways to sweep the matter under the rug.

Therefore, he agreed to this seemingly absurd wedding of the century, even willing to put up with his nausea to play the role of an affectionate couple in front of the media, not only to leverage the Fu family’s influence to steady the restless, scheming collateral foxes within the Shen family,

but also for a deeper reason: to infiltrate the core interior of the Fu Group under the identity of a “spouse” and “cross-shareholder” to obtain ironclad proof capable of striking Fu Sihan down with a single blow.

And then, to swallow up the Fu family under the guise of “serving justice over family ties.”

Grandfather was right; Shen Yanzhou was an ambitious strategist.

He had plotted for half a year, and aside from stabilizing the Shen family, his goal was to dig up more dirt on Fu Sihan—yet right now…

Shen Yanzhou turned his head to look behind him at Fu Sizhou, who was rubbing against his neck while gazing at him.

The feat he had exhausted all his wits and resources to achieve over the past half year had actually been beaten to the punch by this man.

Even the timing of the police raid had been calculated so perfectly that Fu Sihan was nailed permanently to the pillar of shame.

“How did you know? Did you orchestrate all of this?”

“Fu Sihan never leaves loose ends when he does things. How could someone like you, who only recently returned to Hong Kong, easily obtain core evidence that even the police station couldn’t find?”

Fu Sizhou pulled Shen Yanzhou back into his scorching embrace.

“I told you already, sister-in-law.”

“My return to Hong Kong this time was to take back what rightfully belonged to me.”

Fu’s power, the old man’s favoritism, those dirty black industry chains he was going to destroy them bit by bit, completely. Whatever Fu Sihan cared about, Fu Sizhou would destroy with his own hands.

Yet what he didn’t say aloud was this:

Among all these “things that belong to me,” the colossal business empire of the Fu Group was merely a convenient bonus.

The most important thing of all was you.

Watching Shen Yanzhou’s widened silver-gray eyes, Fu Sizhou pinched his cold, white nape, gently rubbing the gland that he had already bitten until it was red and swollen.

“So, do you understand now?”

“My dear older brother is currently eating prison food in a holding cell. With his life hanging by a thread as he scrambles to deal with cops and lawyers, where on earth would he have the spare energy or leisure to think about you?”

“Will he actually be sentenced?” Shen Yanzhou looked into Fu Sizhou’s eyes. “Once the charges stick, his life is completely over.”

“Sentenced?” Fu Sizhou shook his head. “It’ll probably just be a formality to walk through the motions.”

“He really does have a good dad, doesn’t he? That old monster guarded Fu Sihan like the apple of his eye for so many years. With a disaster this massive, the old man will likely spare no expense, pulling every trump card the Fu family has to protect Fu Sihan.”

“It’ll just amount to throwing a huge sum of money at hiring Hong Kong’s top-tier legal team to exploit legal loopholes, and then finding a fall guy among the subordinates who bleed for the Fu family to take the blame. They’ll claim the underlings smuggled goods using containers behind the president’s back, leaving Fu Sihan with nothing worse than a charge of ‘inadequate supervision.'”

Listening to these words, Shen Yanzhou felt his heart grow colder still.

His plan was essentially ruined.

“However, no matter how this case is eventually judged, Fu Sihan’s reputation is already stinking, and the Fu Group’s stock price will face unprecedented devastation.” Fu Sizhou flipped Shen Yanzhou’s body so they were facing each other eye-to-eye.

“At a time like this, you must never invite a fire onto yourself. The best approach is a swift, decisive break with that loser.”

Shen Yanzhou’s heart sank lower and lower. Logic told him Fu Sizhou was right.

Even if Fu Sihan managed to avoid prison, he would never touch the core power of the Fu Group again. If they didn’t sever ties immediately at this juncture, the entire Shen family would be dragged into the mire of contraband drug smuggling.

Yet, was severing ties as simple as a single sentence?

“What about the Shen family?” Shen Yanzhou grabbed the front of Fu Sizhou’s shirt hard, his cold, proud eyes filled with panic and defense. “Fu Sihan getting arrested at an engagement banquet watched by millions brings zero benefits and infinite harm to me and the Shen family! And on top of that, I vanished for four whole days right in the eye of this storm!”

Shen Yanzhou’s breathing grew hurried. He knew the omnipresent paparazzi and media of Hong Kong far too well.

“Without me there to preside over the big picture, without an official statement from the Shen family, how do you think those Hong Kong media outlets are going to spin this? What kind of wild nonsense will they spew? They’ll definitely write that the president of the Shen family fled in fear of crime, or claim the Shen family is the mastermind behind this smuggling ring. Once that kind of public opinion ferments, the century-old clean reputation of the Shen Group will be completely finished!”

The more he thought about it, the more suffocating it felt. His four-day absence was undeniably a fatal mistake.

Watching Shen Yanzhou turn red-rimmed and panicked for the sake of his family’s interests, Fu Sizhou reached out and stroked the corner of his eye.

“Sister-in-law, instead of scaring yourself to death here… why don’t you search your own name in the search bar?”

Shen Yanzhou picked up the tablet once more and typed in the characters “Shen Yanzhou.”

The webpage refreshed instantly.

The malicious speculations of “fleeing from justice” and “criminal mastermind” that he had expected did not appear. Instead, they were replaced by… sympathy? And gossip?

On the homepage was a high-definition short video accompanied by several animated GIFs.

The headline read bluntly: 《Century Wedding Dream Shattered! Fiancé Arrested On-Site, Shen Group President Faints From Shock Upon Hearing the Bad News!》

Shen Yanzhou tapped on the video.

In the footage, Fu Sizhou was holding him, striding out under the protection of a cluster of black-suited bodyguards.

In the video, Shen Yanzhou’s eyes were tightly shut, his complexion pale, and his long silver hair draped smoothly over the man’s arm. He was wrapped tightly from head to toe in Fu Sizhou’s black suit jacket.

In the video, he revealed only an exquisitely delicate yet fragile-looking pretty face, resting quietly in the man’s arms while his long eyelashes cast vulnerable shadows beneath his eyelids.

The comment section below was mostly filled with sympathy:

【Mr. Shen is truly tragic! Such a lovely century engagement banquet, only for the fiancé to turn out to be a smuggler dragged away by the police on the spot. Who could possibly handle that?】

【Wuwuwu, even when he fainted he looked so gorgeous! Closing his eyes makes him look like a delicate porcelain doll, the sense of fragility is off the charts. How could Fu Sihan ever deserve him?】

【Wait a second… why is it Young Master Fu carrying President Shen out instead? Where are all of Shen’s bodyguards? Also, that black suit draped over President Shen is clearly a few sizes too big isn’t that Young Master Fu’s?】

【Are you guys saying they might have had a thing going on behind the scenes for ages?】

Looking at these comments, cold sweat broke out across Shen Yanzhou’s palms. Nobody knew better than him why he had fainted.

“You…” Shen Yanzhou’s fingers gripped the tablet tight. “Fu Sizhou, did you do this on purpose to make people suspect we were tangled up in something improper?”

“Sister-in-law, do you think those netizens guessed wrong? Do you think… the two of us are still innocent at this point?”

“What about the Shen family’s stock market value?!” Shen Yanzhou forcefully dragged the topic back to reality. “What on earth happened to the Shen Group’s stocks?!”

“It crashed,” Fu Sizhou spat out two words.

“What?” Shen Yanzhou felt a wave of dizziness.

“Because of the fiancé’s scandal, the Shen family stocks took a cliff-dive drop, and those collateral board members of yours are probably scurrying around like ants on a hot pan, searching the world for you right now,” Fu Sizhou replied.

It was exactly as he had expected, but hearing this brutal reality made Shen Yanzhou go limp. The lips that had just recovered a trace of color turned ghostly pale once again.

To keep those collateral old foxes in line, and to secure the absolute thirty percent controlling stake held by his grandfather, how many sleepless, bloodshot nights had he given up, even willing to sell himself into this hypocritical political alliance?

Shen Yanzhou dropped his head in dejection, silver strands of hair veiling his eyes as his shoulders trembled slightly. It was all this man’s fault for ruining his plans.

“Fu Sizhou, why did you have to do this to me?”

“I know you care about the Shen family’s stocks, about your status in the Shen Corporation.”

“Knowing all that, you still…”

“I have a way to stabilize the Shen family’s stocks and protect your position in the Shen family,” Fu Sizhou replied.

Shen Yanzhou raised tear-filled, highly defensive eyes to look at him. “What?”

“As long as you marry me,” Fu Sizhou said.

“Ha. So you went through all this massive trouble, even destroying your own brother, just to get me to marry you?” Shen Yanzhou didn’t even know what to say anymore.

“I said it before: even if I had to ruin him, I was going to be with you,” Fu Sizhou chuckled. “It seems you were the only one who kept treating my words like a joke.”

“If you really liked me that much, then have you ever thought about this: even if the Shen family’s stocks really do go up because of your public entry, how will the people of Hong Kong look at me?”

“My fiancé just got into trouble and dragged into a detention center, and right on the heels of that, the president of the Shen Group seamlessly climbs into the bed of his fiancé’s younger brother, then high-profile announces a marriage to said younger brother?”

Stroke by stroke, Fu Sizhou petted a strand of silver hair draped over Shen Yanzhou’s shoulder and smiled. “I’ve already thought of the PR excuse.”

“A sudden dramatic twist at the engagement banquet leaves the Shen Group president grief-stricken and collapsed from illness to recuperate.”

“Meanwhile, deeply stricken with guilt on behalf of his family, Fu Sizhou personally spends days and nights by the bedside taking care of his ailing sister-in-law.”

“Through this meticulous care, Fu Sizhou is moved by President Shen’s resilience and beauty, leading to a shift from brother-in-laws to… a romance that blossomed over time.”

“It was me taking advantage of a vulnerable moment to poach my own brother’s turf.”

“After all, someone like me was never moral to begin with.”

“I told you before too… when it comes to you, I have no morals.”

“In your dreams…” Before Shen Yanzhou could finish his sentence, a jarring, abrupt phone vibration suddenly rang out.

It was his ringtone!

His phone had clearly been confiscated by Fu Sizhou on that night four days ago.

Right before his eyes, Fu Sizhou calmly pulled his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the caller ID, and said,

“It’s a call from Grandfather.”

Fu Sizhou handed the phone over to Shen Yanzhou.

“You take it.”