Chapter 93: Something Even More Excessive

Sadly, Shang Yucheng’s quota for intimate confession had already been used up for the day.

Chao Jingyu knew there was no more to pry out of him, no matter how much he asked.

More importantly, he realized that Liang Jinshang seemed never to have returned to the private room. Had she been gone too long?

“...Yucheng, how long have Zheng San and the others been out?” Chao Jingyu was already rising to his feet, his expression grave.

When the two of them finally found Liang Jinshang, it was just as they had feared: she was with Zheng San and Gong Xueyuan.

Yet the scene was nothing like what they had imagined.

Zheng San and Gong Xueyuan were arguing furiously, waving their hands and shouting over one another, while Liang Jinshang leaned lazily against a side cabinet, a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.

Drinking and watching the spectacle, utterly at ease.

Chao Jingyu’s tension eased, then he looked back worriedly toward the quarrel.

Whatever the case, Gong Xueyuan was a woman. How could Zheng San lay hands on her so recklessly?

Shang Yucheng, however, walked over without a glance to either side and took the bottle from Liang Jinshang.

Liang Jinshang pursed her lips. She should have just focused on drinking from the start.

Zheng San was still raging and had not noticed that two tall men had arrived.

“I gave the Gong family thirty million in funding, and only then did you agree to let me sleep with you once. I even thought I’d gotten some great bargain! Only today did I learn that a woman who’s been screwed by some deadbeat thug can still be worth this much. So your Gong family was just ripping me off all along, huh?!”

They were at the far end of the corridor, but people still passed by now and then.

The filth in his speech was shocking; even ordinary hooligans did not speak like that anymore.

It was plain to see what a man of such low breeding he was. He and Gong Xueyuan were truly made for each other.

Gong Xueyuan had never been willing to be with him in the first place, and after hearing this, she seemed ready to explode.

She shrieked in venomous mockery, “What’s wrong with a thug? Hu Zhinan is better in bed than you by who knows how much! If thirty million felt like a loss to you, that’s your problem! Zheng San, Zheng San—couldn’t it really be three minutes? If it’s over in three minutes and you think that’s a loss, then I’m the one who got cheated!”

Liang Jinshang burst out laughing. She really had been amused.

Dog eat dog—and eloquent dogs at that.

Shang Yucheng withdrew his gaze coolly and asked her, “What role did you play in this?”

Liang Jinshang let the faintness of her smile settle and said languidly, “I just gave him a little crash course on Gong Xueyuan and Hu Zhinan’s eight-year ‘love marathon.’ Years of prison bars in between, and even after you personally stepped in, they still kept on carrying on.”

“I really didn’t expect this Mr. Zheng to have missed his girlfriend’s spectacular performance. Seems the official account for South Heaven isn’t influential enough!”

It hardly needed South Heaven’s official account to be influential; that video had swept across the entire internet.

It was only later, after the Gong family’s cleanup, that it was erased so thoroughly.

And Zheng San had just happened to return to the country recently, only to win the goddess’s favor.

Though the Gong family had fallen, the Zheng family had money to spare, and he even thought he had lucked into a goddess through a bargain.

He had not expected that he really had picked up “a leak.”

Liang Jinshang had said it on purpose, originally intending to use the matter to mock Shang Yucheng as well, but Shang Yucheng looked utterly unmoved.

How dull.

She had had enough of the dogs tearing at each other and turned to leave.

Unexpectedly, the conflict escalated. For some reason Gong Xueyuan said something else that wounded a man’s pride, and Zheng San immediately began ripping at her clothes in the corridor.

Gong Xueyuan screamed hysterically, heedless of everything.

Zheng San’s hand shoved straight inside Gong Xueyuan’s neckline; even through the fabric, one could see how rough his movements were.

He was clearly intent on brutalizing and humiliating her.

Liang Jinshang did not want to watch it unfold and turned to go, asking Shang Yucheng, “Are you coming?”

“Mm.”

As soon as Shang Yucheng moved, Gong Xueyuan finally noticed his towering figure.

Like a drowning woman seeing her savior, she cried, “Yucheng! Yucheng, save me! I really don’t want to be with this bloated scum! I was wrong, I really was! For Nian Nian’s sake, don’t let him do this to me!”

Liang Jinshang stopped. “Oh? Your ex-girlfriend is begging you for help. Aren’t you going to help her?”

Shang Yucheng saw through her feigned ignorance at once. “If I go help her, would you be happy?”

“Of course not,” Liang Jinshang said. “But I also look down on men who lack grace. Your ex is in trouble, and you just stand by and do nothing? Shang Yucheng, keep acting like that and you’ll end up alone for life.”

He knew she was only trying to muddy the waters further, and to take revenge for the many times he had sided with Gong Xueyuan before.

So he did not take the bait and instead asked, “Only a current girlfriend has the right to mind how I treat my ex. Are you one?”

Liang Jinshang choked on that. Silence did not mean she was bad with words.

She had no time to keep sparring with him, because she saw Chao Jingyu stepping out from behind a row of potted plants to stop Zheng San.

Gong Xueyuan immediately clutched herself and ran behind Chao Jingyu, crying “Ayu” with a misery so profound it seemed to contain all the world’s grievances.

Her clothes had already been torn to tatters by Zheng San. Chao Jingyu took off his jacket and gave it to her, but he made no other comforting gesture or remark.

“Zheng San, enough is enough,” Chao Jingyu said coldly. “You are in an equal relationship. She is not a maid you bought to beat and insult as you please. The Gong family may be in trouble now, but they do not have to rely solely on your Zheng family.”

Gong Xueyuan seemed to have found a backer at last and threw herself on Chao Jingyu, sobbing.

Ever since Elder Bu’s birthday banquet, Chao Jingyu had never once taken the initiative to speak to her again.

Gong Xueyuan did not regret drugging Liang Jinshang, but she did regret scheming to win over Bu Qingqing and dragging Chao Jingyu into it as well.

Over the years, she had not been unaware of Chao Jingyu’s goodness, but beneath Shang Yucheng’s born superiority and commanding force, gentleness had always seemed too dim.

Only after suffering so much did she understand what a powerful ability it was to remain calm and tender from first to last.

...

Liang Jinshang saw this much, then turned and left.

She knew what kind of person Chao Jingyu was: impeccably gracious, naturally sympathetic toward the weak. Otherwise he would not have helped her again and again.

She did not blame him for stepping in to rescue Gong Xueyuan, but she did not do much more than not blame him.

In her heart, everything was already crystal clear: she and he would never be of the same road.

Shang Yucheng really was cold-blooded to the extreme, and he followed her to the parking garage without the slightest lingering attachment.

“Going home?”

Home?

Liang Jinshang felt a little dazed. What sort of home was Yunshui Manor to her?

Seeing that she did not answer for a long while, Shang Yucheng frowned impatiently. “Chao Jingyu helped her. You’re jealous?”

How could that count as jealousy?

Liang Jinshang shook her head with a faint, almost absurd smile. “Shang Yucheng, when you saw Gong Xueyuan being treated like that, did you really feel nothing at all?”

“Of course not.”

Hah. So certain.

“...Tell me what you felt?” Liang Jinshang’s tone was still light enough, but anyone who knew her would know she was angry.

Not at Chao Jingyu for still protecting Gong Xueyuan, but at Shang Yucheng for still softening toward her as well!

Suddenly Shang Yucheng leaned down. His hand did the same thing Zheng San’s had done; his breath was scorching, his face unreadable.

“My feeling is,” he said, “that I want to do even more excessive things to you.”