Xu Xiaoxiao’s name flashed frantically on the phone screen.
Nan Chu swiped to answer, and a shriek came through the speaker.
“Ahhhh, Nan Nan, my idol actually got married!”
“Wuwuwu, my heart is breaking!”
Xu Xiaoxiao’s grief was deafening, and Nan Chu asked very seriously.
“Which idol?”
Xu Xiaoxiao coughed once. “Although I spread my affection around, there’s only one true empress.”
“Empress Shang—Shang Lin!”
Nan Chu’s heart skipped a beat. She stole a glance at the man beside her and lowered her voice.
“How do you know he got married?”
“Their company’s official blog already announced it—’a match made for a hundred years, a union of two great houses.'”
“What?”
Nan Chu’s heart jumped again. She looked at Shang Lin, whose expression remained composed, and uttered six words.
“The company’s official Weibo announcement?”
Xu Xiaoxiao heard her voice trembling and assumed she was also in shock, so she kept sniffling and whining.
“Rongchuang Technology even put out a ‘rejoice with the world’ Weibo red envelope. As long as you reply with the passphrase ‘a match made in heaven, a perfect pair,’ you can grab some.”
“A hundred million—a hundred million! I didn’t even get any. My heart is so broken!”
“Ahhhh, they sent another one! Another hundred million! This time the passphrase is ‘may you have a son soon, a hundred years of harmony.’ I have to grab it this time!”
Beep beep beep beep.
Before Nan Chu could react, Xu Xiaoxiao had already hung up.
Her mind was still echoing with Xu Xiaoxiao’s words about the official Weibo announcement. She tilted her neck stiffly, craning it upward to look at Shang Lin.
“Mr. Shang, the marriage news on Weibo…”
“Mm. That way, the Shang family will know. As for the Nan family, you can decide for yourself how you want them to find out.”
Shang Lin’s expression was too calm—as if what had just been announced was the weather, not a marriage.
Nan Chu swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue. She opened her phone, and the headlines were all pushing the news.
The red envelopes kept coming.
But it was only the marriage announcement, with a photo of the marriage certificate cover.
Even so, seeing the endless stream of comments wishing them “a hundred years of harmony” and “a son soon,” Nan Chu still felt a little uncomfortable.
“Drop you off at work?”
Shang Lin’s voice came from above her head. Nan Chu let out a breath, steadying herself.
“Okay.”
Nan Chu got into the car, but suddenly a string of message notification sounds rang from her phone.
The sender was an unfamiliar number, but the person sending it was someone she knew very well.
“Nan Chu, don’t be unreasonable. It was just playing along for show, and you blocked me over that?”
Playing along for show?
It was clearly cheating, yet Lu Si could say it so self-righteously.
Nan Chu’s knuckles turned white as she gripped her phone.
She suppressed the nausea churning in her stomach and blocked the number again.
Nan Chu took a deep breath.
Thinking that she might very well run into Lu Si at the company later, she closed her eyes, calmed her emotions, and looked at Shang Lin.
“Mr. Shang, I won’t be going to the company. If it’s convenient, could you drop me off at my apartment instead?”
“Sure.”
Shang Lin nodded in agreement.
A moment later, Nan Chu called the company to request leave.
She got along well with her colleagues. Hearing that her voice sounded congested and a little hoarse, they asked if she was feeling unwell.
Nan Chu didn’t say anything else—only that she had some matters to handle—then hung up.
When they arrived at Emerald Bay Apartments, Nan Chu thanked Shang Lin and went upstairs.
The first thing she did upon opening her door was to clear out everything related to Lu Si.
It was her rented apartment, yet things connected to Lu Si occupied the vast majority of her life.
The herbal ointment she’d carefully prepared for him because she worried about his fight scenes.
She had prepared hand warmers for him, worried he might get cold filming night scenes.
One box, two boxes, three boxes…
Nan Chu kept packing them away, reminding herself as she went.
Don’t cry. There’s nothing worth crying over.
Trash belongs in the trash can, and once thrown away, it should never be picked up again.
Nan Chu didn’t know how long she spent cleaning up until her phone rang.
She glanced at the caller ID—an unfamiliar number.
Her mind immediately jumped to Lu Si. How dare he still call her?
Nan Chu wanted to hold back, but she couldn’t.
She answered the call, and before the other end could speak, she said coldly, “Lu Si, stop calling me. It only makes me feel sick.”
There was two seconds of silence on the other end, followed by a voice as cold as a mountain spring.
“Mrs. Shang, it’s me.”
Nan Chu froze for a moment, then immediately apologized.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Shang. I saw an unfamiliar number and thought it was someone else. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”
“It’s fine. I’m at your door. Open it first.”
“Okay, okay.”
Nan Chu was mortified. She quickly stood up, but because she had been squatting for too long while packing, her legs had gone numb, and she twisted her ankle.
Hiss.
She sucked in a sharp breath of pain, but afraid of keeping Shang Lin waiting, she steadied herself against the wall for a moment, then hobbled over to open the door for him.
As soon as the door opened, a gentle breeze swept by.
The pleasant scent of agarwood on Shang Lin eased Nan Chu’s mood a little.
Thinking of her careless words just now, she felt even more ashamed.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Shang. Is there something you need?”
Shang Lin noticed the beads of sweat on her forehead and her left foot slightly raised off the ground. He furrowed his brows.
“What happened to your foot?”
Nan Chu hadn’t expected him to notice her foot. After a brief pause, she replied, “It’s nothing. I just twisted it a little by accident.”
Before she could finish speaking, Nan Chu felt a sudden tightness around her waist, and the next moment, she was lifted into Shang Lin’s arms.