Yan Chong placed the photographs taken by the private investigator in front of Wei Zhenning and Shang Yuehe, one by one. His movements were unhurried, showing no trace of haste, nor did his expression reveal much anger.
“This one shows your esteemed son taking advantage of his position to wrap his arm around my fiancée’s waist…”
“This one was taken when they went to discuss a business partnership together. Your son had my fiancée block drinks for him at the dinner table, afterward, when my fiancée was intoxicated, your son took the opportunity to pull her into his arms… Taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable state is hardly the behavior of a gentleman.”
With every photograph Yan Chong laid down, he provided a vivid, descriptive commentary. And with every narrative he delivered, Su Xingyan’s face turned a shade paler. Wei Zhenning and Shang Yuehe, meanwhile, shifted from initial shock to growing anger and embarrassment, the cold, hard facts were right before their eyes. Their son had indeed committed such a disgraceful act as abducting another man’s fiancée!
Yan Chong withdrew the photos, letting out a slow, deliberate sigh. “At this point, dwelling on who is right or wrong is meaningless. As President Wei said, today is supposed to be my big day. I simply want to take my fiancée back, and nothing more. I hope President Wei will not make things difficult for me.”
As Yan Chong’s words fell, a sinister silence settled over the living room.
Wei Zhenning exhaled sharply in immense disappointment at his son’s failure. He turned back and glared meaningfully at Shang Yuehe. Shang Yuehe, however, merely raised a slender eyebrow with composure. She had been away from Ronggang for nearly twenty years, the blades of the new dynasty did not strike down the officials of the old.
Shang Yuehe looked toward Yan Chong. Although she had been away from Ronggang for many years, the prestige and power of the Yan family remained deeply ingrained in her memory. “President Yan wants us to hand over the person, but we are also looking for them. To be entirely honest with you, Wei Chengran has been out of contact for almost a week. If President Yan happens to find Wei Chengran while looking for your fiancée, we would appreciate it if you could help bring him home as well.”
Wei Zhenning’s brows furrowed deeply as he heard this. He reached out, wanting to pull Shang Yuehe back so she wouldn’t act like a wild horse off its reins, but she brushed his hand aside and spilled everything, both what should and shouldn’t be said, like beans from a poured sack. Wei Zhenning felt a headache coming on.
Hearing her words, Yan Chong’s eyes narrowed dangerously. His gaze swept over Wei Zhenning and Shang Yuehe, a trace of mockery lacing his voice. “What a clever move to turn the tables on me… Your son ran off with my fiancée, and now I’m expected to find him personally and return him to you?”
“President Wei, is that what you mean?”
Yan Chong’s gaze bore down heavily on Wei Zhenning.
Wiping cold sweat from his forehead, Wei Zhenning pulled Shang Yuehe behind him and offered an apologetic smile. “Of course that’s not what we mean… She has lived overseas for a long time and only returned a few days ago, so she isn’t clear on many family matters. Please don’t take offense, President Yan.” Wei Zhenning paused, his tone shifting into a sigh. “However, the truth is indeed as my wife said. We haven’t been able to contact Chengran recently either.”
Yan Chong’s gaze lowered even further, projecting intense pressure. Though truth be told, he was not surprised.
Wei Zhenning continued, “…But I, Wei Zhenning, can guarantee that the moment I find that little rascal, I will bring him to the Yan residence personally to apologize! As for the cooperation between the Yan and Wei families…”
“I was out front fighting the battles with Hongye, while your son was in the back abducting my fiancée. President Wei, how is this partnership supposed to continue?” Yan Chong looked at Wei Zhenning with a humorless smile. Although he maintained a smirk, the underlying aura of dominance was palpable, not waning in the slightest even before an industry veteran like Wei Zhenning. “President Wei, if the Wei family cannot give me a proper explanation for what happened today, then… the Yan family may have no choice but to divest.”
The project had already begun, and the Wei family had already invested nearly three hundred million yuan just in relocation compensation for the original residents! If Yan Chong pulled his capital out now, wouldn’t that be driving Hongye straight to its death?!
Su Xingyan’s heart leaped into his throat. His lowered hand clenched tightly in secret as he stared unblinkingly at Yan Chong, listening as they continued.
“Over the years, the Yan, Wei, and Zheng families have always stood as equal rivals. Even without business dealings, we have always minded our own business and coexisted in peace as prominent families. Yan Chong, must you really make things this ugly?” Wei Zhenning had navigated the business world for most of his life. Though usually refined and genial, he was by no means a soft push-over. A flicker of subtle anger now showed on his face as he stared fixedly at Yan Chong. “Yan Chong, what exactly do you want?”
“I don’t want to do anything extreme. I just want the Wei family to give me an explanation.”
Yan Chong showed no sign of fear, maintaining his composed, relaxed demeanor. He narrowed his eyes leisurely. “President Wei just gave me a guarantee… But President Wei, what do you have to guarantee it with?”
Silence fell upon the living room, and a tense, hostile atmosphere crackled through the air. Su Xingyan tightened his grip, preparing to step out, when Yan Chong’s eagle like eyes suddenly swept toward him.
“How about this. Madam will come back with me.” Yan Chong narrowed his dark eyes, uttering each word like an ultimatum. “Whenever you find Wei Chengran, that is when I will return your honorable wife sound and whole.”
Wei Zhenning and Shang Yuehe turned around simultaneously, looking toward Su Xingyan in the shadows. Su Xingyan raised his head, staring at Yan Chong with a complex expression. Yan Chong was curling his lips into a meaningful, knowing smile directed straight at him.
He saw me from the very beginning, Su Xingyan thought.
The weather in Ronggang was notoriously unpredictable, changing on a whim. The weather observatory had predicted clear, sunny skies, yet the moment Yan Chong’s words landed, a light rain began to pitter-patter outside.
Wei Zhenning had never expected Yan Chong to single out Su Xingyan. His shrewd, experienced eyes narrowed in confusion. He took a deep look at Su Xingyan, then turned back to look at Yan Chong. “President Yan, what is the meaning of this?”
“Literally what I said.” Yan Chong’s smile remained thoroughly composed, though to Su Xingyan, it looked entirely rogue. “As long as my fiancée does not return for a day, Madam will not return to the Wei family for a day. Until your son brings my fiancée back, Madam will be my hostage.”
Yan Chong set the decision in stone. Su Xingyan narrowed his attractive eyes, glaring resentfully at Yan Chong. He felt that Yan Chong was utterly out of his mind, then again, the man had always been a lunatic.
“Besides…” Sensing Su Xingyan’s resentful gaze, the upward curve of Yan Chong’s lips widened further. “Madam and I are business partners. Whether we work together at the Wei house or the Yan house, what difference does it make? Madam and I are grasshoppers bound on the same string now.”
“Only if Madam wins do I win.”
The vast living room sank into dead silence once more. It was unclear what thought crossed Wei Zhenning’s mind, but he turned back to look deeply at Su Xingyan again. Shang Yuehe’s slender eyebrows arched slightly, her gaze following Wei Zhenning’s toward Su Xingyan.
Amid the heavy silence, Su Xingyan took a soft breath, then stepped out of the shadows, step by step, walking toward Yan Chong. Standing beneath the warm light of the living room, Su Xingyan looked at Yan Chong with a vigilant gaze. “I’ll go with you.”
Su Xingyan extended his hand toward him. “President Yan, I look forward to a successful partnership.”
A flicker of pleasure glinted across Yan Chong’s inscrutable black eyes. Raising an eyebrow slightly, he took Su Xingyan’s hand under the watchful eyes of Wei Zhenning and Shang Yuehe. “A successful partnership, President Su.”
The spring rain continued to tap lightly against the car window. Sitting in the rear seat of the Rolls Royce, Su Xingyan turned his face away, quietly watching the Wei family’s ancestral manor shrouded in the misty rain outside. If he remembered correctly, he had lived here for nearly seven years.
Seven years… Neither long nor short, passing in the blink of an eye. Su Xingyan felt an unexpected trace of desolate loneliness.
Yan Chong opened the car door and sat down from the other side. Catching the sorrow on Su Xingyan’s face out of the corner of his eye, Yan Chong narrowed his eyes and spoke with a half-smile. “What, reluctant to leave?” As Su Xingyan turned back to look at him, Yan Chong met his gaze and continued, “Madam, once a chess piece is played, there are no redos.”
Su Xingyan: Truth be told, this man’s literary skills weren’t even that great, yet today he was spouting one refined phrase after another. Su Xingyan couldn’t help but raise his eyelids, sizing him up from top to bottom. “I imagine after Hongye ran into trouble, quite a few people approached you to discuss partnerships.”
“I didn’t agree to any of them,” Yan Chong said, raising an eyebrow.
“Why?”
“Indeed, why?”
“Because you want to dominate the entire market yourself.”
Su Xingyan stared straight into Yan Chong’s eyes, enunciating every word. “Hongye’s crisis is your best opportunity to put pressure on the Wei family. You certainly wouldn’t be stupid enough to let others come in and take a slice of the pie.”
Right now he was using divestment as a threat; what about the next step? What else did he want to do next? Su Xingyan didn’t dare to think about it.
Yan Chong’s narrow, phoenix like eyes narrowed further. As Su Xingyan was assessing him, he was also quietly observing Su Xingyan. Resting one hand on the seat back, Yan Chong suddenly leaned in, slowly closing the distance between them.
The warmth radiating from Yan Chong’s body, mixed with the damp chill of the spring rain, rushed over Su Xingyan. Su Xingyan’s heart skipped a beat. Just as he was about to lean back to dodge away, a soft thud sounded as his back hit the door and the door was already locked.
“You are very smart. Su Xingyan, I like smart people the most.”
Unhurriedly, Yan Chong pulled the seatbelt from beside Su Xingyan, drawing it out inch by inch. He fastened it securely across Su Xingyan’s pure white suit, anchoring him to the seat. Yan Chong raised his eyes, meeting Su Xingyan’s embarrassed and furious gaze head-on.
Su Xingyan had a pair of very beautiful eyes. Yan Chong liked them very, very much.
“Since you’re so smart… have you guessed what I want to do next?” Yan Chong’s voice was low and husky as he leaned close to Su Xingyan, his words sounding almost like a whisper.
The tips of Su Xingyan’s ears turned completely red, and for some reason, his heart began to beat wildly. The outer corners of his eyes flushed a faint red as he glared at Yan Chong with resentment. If he could turn back time, he probably wouldn’t have taken on this project from the very beginning, nor would he have wanted to meet this man.
Grit-toothed, Su Xingyan warned him: “Yan Chong, I advise you not to mess around.”
Yan Chong curled his thin lips, looking at him with amused amusement. “And if I do mess around, what are you going to do about it?” Yan Chong leaned even closer, his warm breath trickling into Su Xingyan’s ear canal like a lover’s whisper. Su Xingyan closed his eyes in humiliation. “I think you still haven’t grasped the situation… Madam, right now, others are the meat on the chopping block, and I am the blade.”
Su Xingyan was currently the fish on the cutting board.
Yan Chong was the blade that could fall at any moment.
Yan Chong’s gaze swept over Su Xingyan’s blood red earlobes, his Adam’s apple bobbing involuntarily. Then, with a sharp click, Yan Chong stepped back slightly, letting him off the hook for the time being. He clicked the seatbelt into the buckle and ordered the driver in a deep voice. “Drive.”
“Where are you taking me?”
Su Xingyan’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, a bad premonition rising in his heart.
“To get married.” Yan Chong quietly rolled his Buddhist prayer beads, his voice carrying a hint of a sigh. “Madam, I warned you before. If my fiancée fails to show up as agreed on the day of the wedding feast, then I’ll just have to…”
Yan Chong’s eyes swept over Su Xingyan’s deep red earlobes.
“…use you as a substitute.”
“Yan Chong, you’ve gone mad!”
Su Xingyan snapped his eyes open, looking at Yan Chong in utter disbelief. Yan Chong, however, was smiling at him with unhurried composure, looking every bit like a man who fully intended to carry out his plan. The car had long since started, speeding through the spring rain toward the banquet hall.
The Wei family’s ancestral manor was left far behind in the rearview mirror, until it vanished entirely.