Chen Yan reacted instantly, his brows furrowing tightly.
“What are you trying to do? You just got back—how many reporters and media outlets are watching you right now? Don’t you dare stir up trouble at a critical moment like this. Besides, that investor is a difficult character, and his reputation in the industry has never been good. Going head-to-head with a scumbag like him is hardly a wise move…”
Shang Chi let out a derisive snort, his tone cold and mocking: “What, you think I’m afraid of going head-to-head with anyone?”
“Besides, if someone’s capable of doing something like this, isn’t he the one who should be worried? Right, Chen Dongdong?”
Recalling this ancestor’s notoriously fearless temperament and his background, Chen Yan choked on his words.
True enough—it seemed the one who needed to worry was that investor who’d just walked into the line of fire…
Wait…
No, hold on…
What had Shang Chi just called him?
Chen Yan’s temple twitched violently.
“Shang Chi! How many times have I told you—don’t call me that name!!”
“Got it, Chen Dongdong.”
With that, he ignored Chen Yan and strode off on his own. Relying on his long legs, he instantly widened the distance between them.
Chen Yan fumed, struggling to keep pace with him, trying the whole way to defend his name.
It wasn’t until they’d walked a good stretch that he finally snapped back to reality. “Wait… wasn’t that your room back there? Where are you going?”
Remembering Jiang Li’s state earlier, Chen Yan had a rare surge of sympathy. “No, wait—you’re just going to leave her in the room and not bother with her?”
“And what else?” Shang Chi shot him a glance, seeming somewhat irritated. “You expect me to stay in the same room as her?”
Chen Yan: “…”
Right—he’d almost forgotten how terrible the relationship between him and Jiang Li was.
Shang Chi had always despised this kind of sleazy business in the industry. Lending a hand when he couldn’t stand to watch was already going above and beyond. Expecting him to stay in the same space as Jiang Li was simply asking too much.
No wonder he’d been in such a hurry to leave before Jiang Li’s manager even showed up.
Thinking back to the dirty thoughts that had been running through his head while waiting in the hallway, Chen Yan suddenly felt a pang of guilt.
But then…
Chen Yan glanced at Shang Chi striding quickly ahead, his brow furrowing.
Huh, now that was strange.
This ancestor’s retreating figure… why did it look like he was fleeing in a panic?
Jiang Li woke up thirsty in the early morning of the next day.
The moment she opened her eyes, those hazy memories came flooding back all at once. She thought, oh no, and sat up abruptly.
Because of the sudden movement, her head spun with dizziness.
“You’re awake? You nearly scared us to death!”
Jiang Li squinted, only then noticing her manager Yang Yi and assistant Zhao Xiaoqing sitting before her with anxious expressions.
She furrowed her brow. “What happened?”
“Halfway through the reception last night, I noticed the air conditioning in there was too strong and worried you were dressed too lightly. Xiaoqing had eaten something wrong and ended up stuck in the bathroom almost the entire night, so I went to grab a shawl for you. But in that brief moment, you’d disappeared! You weren’t answering your phone either! We were this close to calling the police!”
A few disjointed images flashed through Jiang Li’s mind, and her expression suddenly turned strange.
“This room…”
Seeing Xiaoqing hand her a cup of water, she instinctively took a sip. Before she could even swallow—
Yang Yi: “Oh, it’s Shang Chi’s.”
“Pfft!!!” Jiang Li sprayed out a mouthful of water, her eyes going wide as saucers. “Who did you say?”
Yang Yi closed her eyes and calmly reached up to wipe the water off her face.
Word by word, she smiled and said: “Shang Chi.”
Seeing Jiang Li look as if she’d been struck by lightning, with a face like she’d just seen a ghost, Yang Yi sighed. “We couldn’t find you last night and were about to pull the hotel surveillance footage and file a police report, when suddenly we got a call from Shang Chi’s manager saying you looked completely wasted and I should come over right away.”
“Shang Chi and his group apparently had somewhere to be and left first, but later his assistant personally delivered the room card to me.”
Jiang Li was first dumbfounded: “Wasn’t he still abroad? When did he get back?”
Then shocked: “Wait, with that dog of a personality Shang Chi has, I could still go in—”
Before she could finish, several images once again flashed through her mind at the most inopportune moment.
Jiang Li: “…”
It’s over.
Over, over, over!
The man she’d run into last night was actually Shang Chi?
What on earth had she done?!
Yang Yi looked puzzled. “But… aren’t you two always at each other’s throats, wishing you could live on separate planets and never cross paths again? How did you end up with him…”
Based solely on those few images flashing through her mind, Jiang Li felt like stabbing herself to death. She was practically crying without tears.
“How was I supposed to know it was him then!”
Of all the people she could have run into, why did it have to be Shang Chi?!
Fine, so she ran into him—but why did it have to be in that kind of state…
Fine, so it was that kind of state—but why did she have to go and…
Jiang Li closed her eyes in despair. Just kill her now!
Yang Yi, on the other hand, sounded a bit shaken: “But it’s a good thing you ran into Shang Chi. If it had been a reporter or someone with ill intentions, the consequences would have been unthinkable… Shang Chi, for all his arrogance, is still an upright man. He wouldn’t stoop to sneaky, underhanded tricks.”
Jiang Li listened and let out a cold laugh inwardly.
Upright, her ass. In that situation last night, he’d had plenty of opportunities to identify himself, yet he deliberately chose not to.
The name Shang Chi was just a matter of opening and closing his mouth—would saying it have killed him?
Jiang Li’s mind involuntarily flashed again to the image of the man gripping her calf and waist…
Somehow, everywhere he’d touched seemed to tingle with a dense, prickling itch. She felt like something was off all over.
Thinking of a certain firm yet springy, clearly defined texture, she instinctively looked down at her own hands.
Skin fair as white jade, fingers slender and delicate.
Not a trace of evidence that they’d ever done something so… ahem… wicked.
Jiang Li began to harbor a deep suspicion of herself.
Could it be that being a lecher was her hidden trait?!
She was clearly spacing out—Yang Yi said a whole bunch of things that she didn’t catch, until—
“I checked the surveillance footage afterward. The situation was indeed just as Chen Yan described, but…”
Yang Yi shot a suspicious glance at Jiang Li, whose face was alternating between red and pale.
“What were you two doing for those ten minutes or so after you went into the room together?”