Chapter 44 - Going Home ("If I ever find you visiting these kinds of places with another man, I will make sure you won't be able to get out of bed.")

After she had gotten what she had come for, Chen Jin left Chen Yi behind and took off on her own.

Xu WanZhi tightened her fist when she saw the villain-holding-sway look on Chen Jin. She walked over, sat down by the bar, and ordered a glass of honey lemon water.

Chen Yi came back out of the bathroom before long. He reeked of alcohol. Stumbling back to his seat, he reached for more alcohol.

Nevertheless, a pale and feminine hand took the glass away from him before he was able to touch it and handed him a different glass.

"Chen Yi, you are drunk." A clear voice woke him up. He looked up and saw that it was Xu WanZhi, instead of his sister, sitting next to him.

"Big sister, I think I am really drunk. I am hallucination." He mocked himself and rubbed his eyes. "Even you look like Xu WanZhi to me now."

"Open up your eyes and look carefully. I am Xu WanZhi." Xu WanZhi tightened her lips in anger. "Your sister had already gotten a bunch of my dirt from your phone and left to have someone expose them."

"WanZhi?" Chen Ji forced himself to sit up. "What dirt?"

Xu WanZhi sneered. "Don't you know? When you were busy embarrassing yourself in the bathroom, your sister took your phone and transferred a bunch of stuff to herself before she left you here and took off on her own. Here you still think that she's a great sister to you and listening to your problems. She didn't care about you at all."

"What did she transfer? What could she possibly have…" Chen Yi picked up his cellphone randomly then unlock it after multiple tries. He regained his mental clarity all of a sudden. "WanZhi, your pictures…"

He had a grave look on him. He tried with all his might to keep his eyes opened and stared at the screen on his phone.

Xu WanZhi looked over and saw unspeakable pictures of the original owner that was taken at some point in time.

In the picture, the original owner was sitting on a luxurious European style couch and she was wearing so little that she was practically naked. The man sitting on her left had the camera in one hand and other one on her thigh. On her right hand side sat another man who was climbing over her in an even more unspeakable posture.

The original owner's eyes were opened but unfocused, like a soulless doll.

Xu WanZhi's heart dropped. So that's what it was.

A vicious look crept onto her face. "What was this. You've these pictures taken the day that Xu Tian sent me over to you?"

"WanZhi, let me explain. That day that monster Xu Tian sent you over he did not let me know ahead of time," said Chen Yi as he put his hands over Xu WanZhi's shoulders. "I was hosting a party at home. He dropped you off and left. I happened to have something else to take care of that night and left for a short while. By the time I got back, those animals had already given you drugs… Don't worry, this picture was all there was. I didn't let them have their ways with you and I have taken care of all of them afterward."

Xu WanZhi tapped the screen on his phone. "Then why did you keep this picture?"

"I can't explain it." Chen Yi's lips curved. "These pictures were on the bottom of my hard drive originally. I was going to get rid of them. But, recently… ever since the day of Bai FeiChen's birthday and I ran into you, I had been enchanted. When I saw these on my hard drive, I made a copy onto my cellphone and I look at them whenever I think of you."

"You tried to put the blame onto everybody else but, Chen Yi, that was your house. If you had not done such a thing to others before, why would these people do this to me? This seems to be the norm." Xu WanZhi grabbed his phone from him, threw it down on the ground, and stepped down on it with her heels and destroyed the phone.

Chen Yi lowered his head and looked at what was left of his phone. He laughed softly, "You are right, WanZhi. It was all my fault."

Seeing him that way, Xu WanZhi, too smiled. Then, she brought her arm all the way back and slapped him hard across his face.

And that was the scene that Mu ZhenYu witnessed when he arrived at the bar.

There were quite a few customers in the bar and the music was very loud. But her slap was so hard that many have heard and looked over at them.

Mu ZhenYu walked up, stood next to her, and asked, "Xu WanZhi, what are you doing here?"

"Nothing." Xu WanZhi gave Chen Yi a look before she turned toward Mu ZhenYu and put her arm on his naturally. Then she said loudly, as though purposefully so Chen Yi could hear, "Let's head home, dear."

Mu ZhenYu's fierce look scraped over Chen Yi like knives before he removed her hand from his arm.

Xu WanZhi paused and looked at him dubiously. She could see a smile in his eyes. Then, he pulled her arms back and pinned her on the bar table.

And, immediately after that, his kiss landed on her.

Xu WanZhi was pinned between his arms and the bar table. The only thing she could smell was his scent. All of her anger earlier was gone and all there was left was her heartbeats that sounded like thunders.

After a long while, Mu ZhenYu, almost having her lips between this teeth, said, "WanWan, if I ever seen you coming to these kinds of places with another man, I'll make sure you can't get out of bed."

Xu WanZhi knew that he only said that because of Chen Yi, but she blushed nonetheless.

She nodded slightly, freed her arms and wrapped them around his waist.

And the two left just like that after dishing out the dog food.

Chen Yi gripped tightly onto the wine glass and there was almost fire in his eyes. That girl was strong. He could taste blood in his mouth from her slap. His cheek was burning. He splashed the glass of iced-cold lemon water onto his face and looked at her through the water.

She looked enchanting and arrogant from behind and she was standing so close to Mu ZhenYu.

Inside the car that was travelling in high speed, Xu WanZhi sat silently in the passenger seat.

Mu ZhenYu glanced over at her and cut in front of another car. "That was one hell of a slap earlier. Why are you so quiet now?"

Xu WanZhi looked down, obviously not very high spirited. She remained silent for a while longer before she said softly, "I didn't go there with Chen Yi. I followed Chen Jin there. I'm sorry, Mr. Mu."

Her sudden apology surprised Mu ZhenYu. He let out a long sigh. He was going to wait until she wanted to come clean to him on her own – even he could tell how much he had changed lately. His patience and accommodation to her surprised even himself.

It was the end of summer and this was the last of the stuffy heat.

He raised the window and turned on the air-conditioning. "The old madam summoned me this afternoon and wanted to talk about the engagement. We've set a date already. It is going to be next Friday. She had also contacted a few media companies and planned to announce it on a broad scale."

"Next Friday?" Xu WanZhi sat up. "No. We can't get engaged on that day."

Mu ZhenYu paused for a second and brought the car to an abrupt stop as he pulled over. "Xu WanZhi, what did you just say?" He released his seat belt and narrowed his eyes. His look suggested danger. "Are you turning me down?"

"Mr. Mu, I…" She recalled the unspeakable pictures of her that Chen Jin had. Xu WanZhi lowered her eyes and said, "It won't befit you to be engaged to me."

"Ho?" Mu ZhenYu snickered. "How so?"

Having said that, he lifted his hand wiped the side of his mouth – as though he could still feel her kiss form earlier.

Xu WanZhi's heart was beating faster. She tried to calm herself before saying to him in her most serious tone, "Chen Jin had some very damaging information on me. I've already reached out to Fang-jie, but… the chance of this being resolved amicably is slim to nil."

Mu ZhenYu, too, was solemn, "So?"

"So… if you are engaged to me, your reputation and the Mu's reputation will all be affected. Perhaps it will also affect your relationship with your grandmother." She bit her lip and added, "And then there's your business and Project Falcon…"

Looking at the guilt on her face, Mu ZhenYu was dazed for a split second.

Mu ZhenYu was well aware of what had transpired between her and Chen Yi and what Xu Tian had done – nothing was a surprise to him.

Later on, when she admitted that she was not the same Xu WanZhi anymore, he had never brought it up again.

From her words along with the meeting between Chen Yi and Chen Jin, he had a pretty good idea what was going on: this incident was about to be exposed soon. He thought she was turning him down for her own agenda. To his surprise, all of her reasons had his best interest in mind.

Mu ZhenYu's lips suddenly curled upward. "Xu WanZhi, so what you are saying is you are insisting on being engaged to me."

"Huh?" Xu WanZhi looked up at him.

"You had spent so much time worrying about how this would negatively impact me. Doesn't that more than suggested that you wanted o be engaged to me?" Mu ZhenYu might be teasing her but his look was sincere. "Do you know how you've blushed when I kissed you earlier. At that location, with so many people around, but you didn't try to dodge."

Xu WanZhi avoided his look. She just wished there was a hole that she could crawl into right now.

"I'll take care of Chen Yi for you. I have caught wind a few days ago that Qin Sheng had reached out to Chen Jin wanting to join force with her and brought the two of us down once and for all. For a poor little kid from the country side, he kept on overestimating himself." Mu ZhenYu reached out his hand and brushed aside the few stray hair over her forehead. "You just be my fiancée and don't worry about anything else."

"Qin Sheng…" She hadn't thought about that name in a long time. She hasn't had anything to do with him or Liang ZhiQuan for a long time and she had almost forgotten about the male lead proper – it'd seem that she had underestimated the entanglement between the male lead and the villain.

That being said, the moment that Qin Shen was brought up, an idea suddenly crossed her mind. She had figured out how to resolve this issue.

She looked up and suddenly her eyes were filled with the spirit to fight. "Mr. Mu, the main focus of the Qin's Corporation overlaps that of Huanyu's right? Retinal scan, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence?"

Mu ZhenYu nodded slightly.

"Then, I think I Have an idea." Xu WanZhi relaxed. She had an idea.

Mu ZhenYu looked over at her and quickly figured out her idea.

"It's just that…" Xu WanZhi bit her lip. "This is the last resort. I'm afraid this will get very ugly."

"So what if it gets ugly?" Mu ZhenYu snickered. "It's alright. You can always come hide and sleep in my bedroom like during the thunderstorms. I'll save a nice spot for you."

Xu WanZhi was a bit annoyed. "I am being serious right now, Mr. Mu ZhenYu. You shouldn't keep making fun of my weakness."

The smile on Mu ZhenYu deepens. "I am being serious as well. After Thursday, it'd be very reasonable for you to hide in my bedroom."

Xu WanZhi covered her face with her hands. "Start driving already. There's no rain today and I want to go home!"

***

Xu WanZhi received the call from Fang Lin that night.

On the call, Fang Lin was hesistant.

Xu WanZhi knew what was in Chen Jin's cellphone and that Fang Lin had a difficult time bringing that up. She said softly, "Fang-jie, I know what she has on her phone. I've seen them myself as well. That's fine, just tell me what you were going to say."

Hearing her words, Fang Lin let out a deep breath. "Dear, this is going to be tricky. I had a hacker looked into Chen Jin's phone but it's already too late. She had already posted the pictures on a forum before she was hacked. That wasn't a good place. It was a forum where people exchange dirt. She wanted to fetch a handsome amount from the pictures."

Xu WanZhi acknowledged and asked, "And then?"

"Then, she got herself a buyer almost immediately. The two had even exchanged a call. The hacker that I hired said the buy is Qin Sheng."