Ji Qingtang, dressed in a bathrobe, leaned back on the sofa, calmly looking at the messages on her phone, along with the netizens frantically tagging her in the comments on Weibo. She ignored them all.
Calls and WeChat messages were bombarding her nonstop.
Those who wanted to watch the drama, those who were there for the gossip, and those who were jealous—all of them came probing under the guise of concern.
Ji Qingtang picked through them and only replied to Shi Qi and Qin Ruo.
“I’m fine, don’t worry.”
Then her phone rang again. It was a call from Lu Xingye.
Ji Qingtang watched the screen without answering, only picking up when it was about to disconnect automatically.
“Hello. That photo is fake, don’t overthink it.” Lu Xingye’s voice sounded a bit tired. He didn’t know how he’d been photographed, or how it had spread online.
The engagement banquet was tomorrow, and with something like this blowing up now, it would be bad for Lu Corporation’s image—especially since he had a bid coming up recently.
If this had been before, Ji Qingtang would have been more than satisfied just to have him call her proactively like this.
And for him to actually explain himself—she probably would have been overjoyed to the point of going crazy.
But now, a bitter smile crossed Ji Qingtang’s face. Only after thinking things through did she realize just how perfunctory he had always been.
A single, simple sentence, and he thought that would be enough to brush her off?
“Lu Xingye, let’s break up.” she said wearily.
Lu Xingye frowned, his tone unconsciously gaining a note of impatience. “Ji Qingtang, I already told you, it’s fake. We’re getting engaged tomorrow—what do you mean by breaking up now? Do you want the whole city to watch us become a laughingstock?”
His last sentence carried a hint of severity.
“Stop making a scene.”
A bitter smile tugged at the corner of Ji Qingtang’s mouth. She wanted to say that this time she truly wasn’t making a scene, but the moment a syllable left her lips, she heard a woman’s voice come through from the other end of the line.
“Xingye, my head hurts so much.”
Sweet and coquettish, the kind of voice that made men want to dote on her.
Ji Qingtang hung up with a snap.
Hearing the dial tone, Lu Xingye frowned, stood up, grabbed the suit jacket on the sofa, and walked into the bedroom. Looking at the woman lying on the bed, he rubbed the space between his brows. “Get some good rest. I’m leaving.”
“Xingye, are you really going to marry that woman? But you don’t love her.”
Li Shu got off the bed and hugged Lu Xingye from behind, pressing her face against his back.
Lu Xingye’s body stiffened for an instant, then he quickly recovered, pulling her hands away from his waist.
The motion was so swift it even surprised himself, but he attributed it to his guilt toward Ji Qingtang.
His tone was somewhat cold. “That’s not something you need to worry about.”
Li Shu, in disbelief, rushed around to face Lu Xingye. He had never spoken to her in that tone before. Her eyes reddened slightly. “Don’t marry her, okay… I regret it, Xingye.”
She was wearing a deep V-neck blouse, and her large movements faintly revealed her ample cleavage, making her words seem all the more weightless under the moonlight.
Lu Xingye’s gaze gradually darkened. Just as Li Shu thought he had softened, that he still had feelings for her, he walked straight past her, leaving only one sentence behind.
“I never go back to old pastures.”
Then he paused. “I’ll take care of getting you into the entertainment industry, but from now on, let’s have nothing more to do with each other.”
Consider it repayment of the debt his mother owed her back then.
Li Shu watched Lu Xingye’s retreating back, utterly without hesitation. Her hands clenched, nails digging into her palms, her eyes full of unwillingness. Then, thinking of something, a smug smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
She refused to believe that Ji Qingtang would still go through with the engagement after seeing those photos.
After returning from the hotel, Lu Xingye went straight back to his private villa. Irritably, he yanked off his tie, then picked up his phone only to find that the matter still hadn’t been suppressed—and was continuing to escalate. His irritation grew.
He called his assistant. “What’s going on? It still hasn’t been taken down?”
Ren Ran wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said nervously, “President Lu, I’ve already had people work on suppressing it, but the Xie Family has stepped in, so…”
Hearing this, Lu Xingye understood just how thorny the situation was. Fair enough—with a scandal this big, there was no way the Xie Family would stay silent.
He closed his eyes briefly. “I see.”
Just after hanging up, the phone rang again. Suppressing the irritation between his brows, Lu Xingye answered. “Hello. What is it?”
His father, Lu Zhi, roared from the other end of the line. “The engagement is tomorrow night, and you pull a stunt this huge?!”
It was clear how badly things had blown up—even at this late hour, Old Man Lu had heard about it too.
Lu Xingye pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it with his lighter, took a drag, and blew out thick, rolling smoke rings. “I’ll handle it. The engagement tomorrow night will proceed as planned.”
Lu Xingye logged into his Weibo account and posted. It was the first time he had ever posted anything about his personal life—all his previous posts had been reposts of corporate news.
“The engagement ceremony will proceed as scheduled tomorrow night.”
This post pushed the whole affair to its climax. Countless netizens flooded his comments demanding an explanation for the photos, but Lu Xingye ignored them all.
When Ji Qingtang saw Lu Xingye’s post, she was so angry she laughed. She knew exactly what he was thinking—that she was just throwing a tantrum, that there was no way she’d give up marrying him, since this was the thing she’d supposedly dreamed of.
Fine, then. She was truly looking forward to the look on Lu Xingye’s face tomorrow night.
The engagement banquet the whole city had been anticipating finally began.
Lu Xingye’s expression grew colder and colder. “She still hasn’t arrived?”
Ren Ran’s face didn’t look good either. “Miss Ji’s side says Miss Ji isn’t at her apartment. And also…”
Lu Xingye’s voice was edged with ice. “Speak. What else?”
Ren Ran steeled himself and forced the words out. “In Miss Ji’s apartment, her gown was soaked in red wine.” More precisely, it had been deliberately splashed on, Ren Ran silently added in his heart.
“You’re saying she’s run away from the engagement?” Lu Xingye laughed in fury. The banquet was about to begin and the bride-to-be had vanished—and the guest list included the entire upper crust. This was a slap in the face to him, Lu Xingye.
Ren Ran stood there, not daring to say much, silently grumbling inwardly: Wasn’t this your own doing yesterday? You drove Miss Ji away, and you still have the nerve to lose your temper here? You just take it all out on me.
But such words could only be said in his heart.
Lu Xingye waved a hand, signaling him to leave, then took out his phone and called Ji Qingtang. The call went straight to a message: the phone was powered off.
He tried again. Same result.
He was dressed in a bespoke suit, impeccably tailored, his tie white to match Ji Qingtang’s gown. Slipping one hand into his trouser pocket, his fingers brushed against a square velvet box.
Lu Xingye pressed his tongue against the back of his teeth. Ji Qingtang, you’ve got some nerve.