“Bitch! Whore! I’m going to kill you!”
Lu Zhili was smashing things frantically at home, leaving the entire house in an absolute wreck.
He panted heavily with rage, his eyes overflowing with venomous malice.
Lu Zhili clenched his back molars hard. Fu Qianyu had actually gone ahead and informed both sets of parents that the engagement would be postponed!
Postponed? It was nothing but an excuse!
The mole he had planted within the Fu Group reported that Fu Qianyu had already prepared a prenuptial agreement!
How could Fu Qianyu be getting serious with someone from the bottom of society?!
Lu Zhili clenched his fists ruthlessly. “Qianyu, I am definitely going to marry you!”
Three days later, the original date set for the engagement arrived.
At the Grand Pavilion Manor, the Fu and Lu families jointly hosted a banquet, gathering the entire upper-class society of the Imperial Capital.
The original intent was to announce the engagement at this banquet, so the format remained highly formal.
Now that the engagement had been canceled, the banquet served instead as a venue for the various families to exchange resources and information.
Some well-informed individuals had already caught wind of a hitch in the alliance between the heir of the Fu family and the Lu family, and the glances directed at both families carried an inquiring scrutiny.
Countless people vied for the heir of the Fu Group.
With the Lu family seemingly out of the running, many began calculating the marriageable youth in their own households, hoping their child might have the fortune of marrying the CEO of the Fu Group.
Lu Zhili made his appearance dressed in a white engagement suit, a gentle smile on his face as he courteously received the guests.
No one could tell that just three days prior, he had gone mad and hacked every single piece of furniture in his villa to splinters.
Fu Qianyu had no intention of attending. He was handling official business at the company as usual when a phone call came from the hospital.
He shot up to his feet abruptly. “How long has Jing Jiaxi been missing?”
He rushed out of his office and straight for the parking lot. Starting the car, he pondered inside the vehicle over who could have taken Jing Jiaxi away.
The figures in his mind flashed past one by one, ultimately freezing on the face of a young man.
“Investigate Lu Zhili!”
Fu Qianyu drove like mad toward the banquet.
Meanwhile, Lu Zhili swirled his red wine glass, his smile deepening as he looked at the person curled up into a ball in the corner.
“Hey, stop pretending to be asleep.”
The man’s voice sounded like a serpent flicking its tongue, causing goosebumps to erupt all over Jing Jiaxi’s body.
“Cough… kidnapping is against the law…”
Jing Jiaxi’s throat was dry and painful, his hands were tied behind his back, and his entire body felt drained of strength.
He had been taking a stroll in the garden below the hospital building when a man dressed in black claimed to be one of Fu Qianyu’s people and invited him out for a moment.
Jing Jiaxi grew suspicious, but the moment he opened his mouth to ask why they had to leave, the man in black suddenly struck, covering his mouth with a towel in broad daylight.
When he woke up, he found Fu Qianyu’s fiancé staring down at him with a chilling gaze.
“Today is the engagement between Qianyu and me. Inviting you out of the goodness of my heart to participate can hardly be called kidnapping, can it?” Lu Zhili smiled sinisterly, wishing nothing more than to take a knife and slash this bitch’s face to ribbons.
“Congratulations on your engagement, but this has nothing to do with me. Can you let me go?”
“Heh, keep dreaming! You are going to sit right there and watch me get engaged to Qianyu! You little bitch!”
Lu Zhili suddenly erupted, delivering a resounding slap across his face with a sharp crack. His head was thrown to the side, a bright red mark blooming on his fair, tender cheek.
Dazed, Jing Jiaxi felt a burning pain on his face. The humiliation and pain caused tears to well up in his eyes. “I never thought about sabotaging you two.”
“Shut up! A nobody like you thinks they can sabotage over twenty years of feelings between us?!” Lu Zhili splashed the red wine right into his face.
Jing Jiaxi flinched and curled himself inward. He shielded his abdomen and stopped speaking, acutely realizing that anything he said right now would only provoke the person before him.
“Mr. Lu, President Fu has arrived.”
“So fast!”
The mere thought of Fu Qianyu tearing over in a panic for this little bitch drove Lu Zhili mad with jealousy.
He delivered a sharp kick to Jing Jiaxi’s shin. Hearing the little bitch let out a muffled groan without daring to make a sound made him feel a fraction better.
Lu Zhili walked quickly out of the lounge. “Qianyu, you’re here.”
He tried to loop his arm through Fu Qianyu’s, deliberately softening his voice to project an aura of romance between himself and Fu Qianyu to the onlookers.
But Fu Qianyu was in no mood to play along. He grabbed Lu Zhili’s extended arm. “Where is Jing Jiaxi!”
Lu Zhili bit his lip and lowered his eyes. “You… didn’t you say you had nothing to do with him…”
“Don’t make me ask you a second time!” Fu Qianyu tightened his grip on his wrist. Lu Zhili looked at him with an expression of hurt and grievance.
“What is going on here?” Lang Youyuan noticed the tense, explosive atmosphere between her son and Lu Zhili and hurried over to smooth things over.
Fu Qianyu let go of him, and Lu Zhili spoke tremulously, “I don’t know where he is. Qianyu, why must you interrogate me like this for the sake of an outsider…”
As he spoke, a few tears spilled over, making him look thoroughly pitiable.
Lang Youyuan quietly reprimanded her son to comfort Lu Zhili. “Look at you. Whatever it is, can’t you speak properly? Why must you lay hands on him? He is your fiancé.”
The moment Fu Qianyu arrived, countless ears had perked up to catch the movements over here.
Several nearby guests heard Fu Qianyu’s mother personally validate Lu Zhili as Fu Qianyu’s fiancé, causing a tremor of shock in their hearts.
Had the alliance between the Fu and Lu families already been finalized?!
Right then, Fu Qianyu spoke calmly, “No, he is not my fiancé!”
He did not lower his volume; his voice was louder than Lang Youyuan’s, ensuring that everyone paying attention to this area could hear him clearly.
Lu Zhili was so startled he nearly jumped. He never expected Fu Qianyu to call off the engagement in public! The parents of both families hadn’t even discussed it yet, how could he do this!
Lang Youyuan’s arm was gripped so hard by Lu Zhili that it began to ache, causing her to frown secretly.
In an instant, the banquet fell so silent that a pin drop could be heard.
“President Fu, we found young Mr. Jing.”
Leaving behind that bombshell of a statement, Fu Qianyu strode rapidly in the direction of Jing Jiaxi.
The moment he departed, the banquet instantly erupted into a clamor as the crowd began whispering furiously among themselves.
Listening to the voices around him, Lu Zhili felt his face burning like fire, as if he had been slapped a thousand times over.
His head throbbed and his heart beat so hard it felt ready to explode. He stared at Fu Qianyu’s unyielding back, his heart aching past the point of endurance.
No! This couldn’t happen! He had loved Fu Qianyu for over a decade! How long had this little bitch even been around?!
When Fu Qianyu saw the boy curled into a soaking wet ball, his heart constricted for a fraction of a second.
He took off his suit jacket and draped it over the boy, brushing away his damp bangs. “I’m here. Don’t be afraid.” He helped the boy up to walk out.
Lu Zhili suddenly charged over, shrieking in a furious, helpless roar, “This is all because of you!”
Caught off guard, Jing Jiaxi was pushed to the ground. Just as Lu Zhili was about to slap him, Fu Qianyu grabbed Lu Zhili, wrenched him away, and threw him to the floor. “Get lost!”
“Qianyu… you’re yelling at me because of this bitch…” Lu Zhili lay on the cold floor, his heart breaking to pieces.
Fu Qianyu scooped Jing Jiaxi up into a bridal carry. The boy’s swollen red cheeks looked incredibly pitiful.
He used his suit jacket to shield the boy’s head, entirely ignoring the scrutinizing gazes of the banquet guests as he strode away from this farce.
In an instant, the entire upper-class echelon of the Imperial Capital was in an absolute uproar.
Everyone wanted to know: who on earth was the boy Fu Qianyu had carried away in his arms?