No matter what had happened, it wouldn’t have been appropriate for the guests to intervene.
Jiang Shuhe continued chatting with Jiang Xuewei with a smile, while Jiang Yunzheng was too distracted to look toward the commotion outside.
Only the Luo family, along with Lu Zhixing, witnessed the confrontation at the entrance.
Though calling it a confrontation wasn’t quite accurate. It was more like Luo Cheng’an pushing someone away single-handedly.
By the time Xiyu reached the doorway, Luo Cheng’an was shoving Shen Tan toward the exit, his face as cold as ice.
Luo Yuan looked surprised. “Isn’t that the guy from those leaked behind-the-scenes shots…?”
Xiyu recognized him, too.
It really was Shen Tan.
He was the man in Luo Cheng’an’s most popular leaked scene, kneeling at his feet while Luo Cheng’an gripped his throat, his eyes filled with sinister menace.
Lu Zhixing blinked and edged closer to Xiyu.
“Big Brother, Luo Cheng’an is really scary.”
He truly was. The malice in Luo Cheng’an’s eyes was practically spilling over.
Yet Shen Tan, a rising young celebrity who had only recently begun making a name for himself, seemed completely oblivious to Luo Cheng’an’s disgust. When he saw the others appear, he opened his mouth, his voice trembling with tears.
“Senior Luo, I know you didn’t mean to that night. I won’t ask you to take responsibility, but please, I’m begging you, don’t blacklist me. I really need this job!”
Shen Qing stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Luo Yuan, whose expression had stiffened just as much as hers.
Xiyu narrowed his eyes, silently turning Shen Tan’s words over in his mind.
Those few brief sentences were enough to conjure an elaborate tale of passion, resentment, and tangled romantic affairs.
The veins on Luo Cheng’an’s forehead throbbed.
“What the fuck are you talking about?!”
He reached for Shen Tan’s collar, intending to throw him out. But Shen Tan seemed to have anticipated this. He dodged Luo Cheng’an’s hand and hurried toward Xiyu and the others instead.
He stopped beside Luo Yuan and Shen Qing, tears welling up before he could even speak. His youthful, handsome face was full of helplessness.
“Mr. Luo, Mrs. Luo, please help me! I had no other choice but to come here. I’m begging you to ask Senior Luo not to blacklist me!”
Shen Tan sniffled, his gaze briefly sweeping over Xiyu and Lu Zhixing.
It was only a fleeting glance.
Xiyu was too busy restraining the furious Luo Cheng’an to notice it, but Lu Zhixing saw it clearly. He met Shen Tan’s gaze.
In almost an instant, the unmistakable aura of two people cut from the same cloth spread between them.
The corners of Lu Zhixing’s lips curved into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
“It’s too late to stop him now,” Xiyu said, grabbing hold of the enraged Luo Cheng’an. He lowered his voice and asked in his ear, “What’s going on?”
Shen Tan’s words were far too suggestive. Anyone who heard them would assume that something intimate and scandalous had happened between the two men.
Luo Cheng’an ground his teeth.
“He’s nothing but a filthy animal.”
“There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?” Xiyu glanced at Shen Tan out of the corner of his eye. “He’s a deity?”
Xiyu couldn’t see Shen Tan’s true form. He had no magical powers left and couldn’t sense the other man’s nature directly, but he could be certain that Shen Tan wasn’t mortal.
If he were, Luo Cheng’an could simply have used a spell to make someone he despised disappear. There would have been no need for things to escalate to this point.
Luo Cheng’an’s expression darkened. After a brief pause, he spat out four words.
“The Demon King, Ming Ye.”
Xiyu’s pupils widened slightly.
“How did you manage to provoke him?”
Back when Xiyu had still been in the Ninth Heaven, he had dealt with this Demon King before.
Ming Ye’s reputation was appalling. His notoriety extended throughout the Four Seas and Eight Desolations.
Unlike demons, who were born from resentment, most members of the demon race were animals and plants that had cultivated themselves into sentient beings. Most harbored no particular malice. They simply worked hard at their cultivation, hoping to ascend and become immortals.
But this Demon King was different. He had seized power by killing his own uncle. He was ruthless and cruel.
Xiyu had met Ming Ye several times. In his memories, the Demon King had always been gloomy and sinister, a complete contradiction to the tearful young celebrity standing before them now.
Xiyu found it difficult to reconcile the two images. He failed to notice the fleeting guilt in Luo Cheng’an’s eyes and simply turned to look at Shen Tan with renewed curiosity.
Xiyu and Luo Cheng’an couldn’t let others overhear their conversation, so their heads were almost touching, their postures unusually intimate.
A flash of sinister malice crossed Lu Zhixing’s eyes.
Covering his mouth as though shocked, he said, “You mean Brother Cheng’an forced himself on you…? That’s terrible.”
Luo Cheng’an had been trying to figure out how to explain the situation to Xiyu. Hearing Lu Zhixing’s words, he immediately roared,
“Lu Zhixing! What the fuck are you talking about? Nothing happened between us!”
Shen Tan shrank back, as though utterly terrified. He hurriedly nodded.
“Right, nothing happened between Senior Luo and me. He’d had too much to drink and simply went into the wrong room. Nothing happened between us…”
His voice grew softer and softer as he spoke. His face was pale, making him look exactly like an orchid trembling in the rain.
“I’ve had enough of this.”
Luo Cheng’an said the words expressionlessly, then seized Shen Tan by the collar and punched him squarely in the face.
The blow was hard and swift.
Shen Tan fell to the ground. The snow in the courtyard hadn’t been cleared because Xiyu had wanted to look at it, leaving a thin white layer over the ground.
The blood from the corner of Shen Tan’s mouth fell onto the snow like a vivid red rose blooming against white.
“Luo Cheng’an!” Shen Qing cried out. “Stop this right now!”
But Luo Cheng’an couldn’t hear a word she said.
He crouched down, grabbed Shen Tan by the collar, and glared at him with eyes so furious they seemed ready to burst from their sockets. His entire body radiated murderous hostility.
“Was I not clear enough the last time I spoke to you? Didn’t I tell you that if you dared to keep pestering me, I would fucking kill you?”
Shen Tan caught hold of Luo Cheng’an’s hand. A malicious smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Lowering his voice so that only Luo Cheng’an could hear him, he whispered,
“You were the one who made the first move, Huaixi.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Tan’s expression suddenly changed.
The provocative, sinister, malicious look vanished, replaced in an instant by abject terror, as though he had just been subjected to some terrible threat.
“You’re asking for death,” Luo Cheng’an snarled, raising his fist high.
But this time, he didn’t get the chance to bring it down.
Xiyu caught Luo Cheng’an’s descending wrist. His voice was gentle, yet carried a clear warning.
“That’s enough, Cheng’an.”
……………………
Luo Cheng’an’s punch had been powerful. Xiyu had no magical abilities left, and stopping the blow had sent a tremor through his hand. His face had even turned pale.
“Are you all right?”
Luo Cheng’an immediately released Shen Tan’s collar and hurriedly took Xiyu’s hand, supporting it carefully.
He scolded him, his voice full of concern.
“You know perfectly well what condition you’re in right now! All you had to do was call out to me. Why did you have to step in and stop me yourself? What if you’d gotten hurt?”
The anger on Luo Cheng’an’s face melted away. When he looked at Xiyu, all that remained was worry and self-reproach.
The tears in Shen Tan’s eyes gradually disappeared. His expression stiffened, as though he could no longer maintain the act.
He watched helplessly as the fist that had just struck his face was transformed into a hand that now gently cradled Xiyu’s.
All that tenderness was reserved for Xiyu.
Shen Tan got up from the ground and grabbed Luo Cheng’an by the wrist. It seemed he had finally given up pretending. His voice turned icy.
“Come with me.”
Luo Cheng’an glanced at his father, Luo Yuan, whose eyes were wide with anger, and at his worried mother, Shen Qing. He gritted his teeth.
“Mom, Dad, there’s a misunderstanding here. I’ll explain everything when I get back.”
As he spoke, Luo Cheng’an shook off Shen Tan’s hand. Then he turned to Xiyu.
“I’m leaving. Message me if anything happens.”
Xiyu nodded.
It wasn’t that he wanted to stop Luo Cheng’an. It would simply have been ugly if they started fighting in front of everyone.
For Luo Cheng’an to lose his composure to this extent, there had to be some history between them.
And it was probably a very serious grudge.
Without sparing Shen Tan so much as a glance, Luo Cheng’an strode out.
Shen Tan straightened the collar of his shirt, which Luo Cheng’an had crumpled, and smiled at Luo Yuan and Shen Qing.
“Mr. Luo, Mrs. Luo, I’ll be going now. I hope to visit again when you have time.”
Luo Yuan gave a brief acknowledgment.
Shen Tan turned to leave, but his gaze fell on Xiyu. Suddenly, he asked,
“Mr. Xi, do you like entwined-branch honey dew?”
Xiyu stared at him without answering.
Entwined-branch honey dew was his favorite.
Shen Tan waited for two seconds but received no answer. He already had his answer anyway, so he didn’t linger and quickly left.
Xiyu watched his retreating figure, lost in thought.
The next second, a cool hand slipped into his palm. Xiyu clasped it in return, then took Lu Zhixing’s hand and walked over to Luo Yuan.
“Don’t worry. He can handle it.”
The Demon King was indeed powerful, but Huaixi was no pushover either.
If they actually fought, it was far from certain who would win.
Hearing Xiyu say this, Shen Qing felt much of her anxiety ease, though she was still concerned.
“Cheng’an has never been this impulsive. They wouldn’t have…?”
Luo Yuan was also uncertain.
Everything Shen Tan had said had implied that something unusual had happened between the two of them.
And from the way he had described it, it sounded as though Luo Cheng’an had forced himself on him.
But Shen Qing and Luo Yuan simply couldn’t believe their son was that kind of person.
Even if they took the most extreme possibility—that Luo Cheng’an had done something with Shen Tan while drunk—his personality made it impossible to imagine him shirking responsibility. He would have been deeply remorseful. He certainly wouldn’t have behaved the way he had just now.
Besides, Luo Cheng’an had explicitly said that nothing had happened between them.
Shen Qing and Luo Yuan were already beginning to suspect that Shen Tan was one of those young celebrities who would resort to any means necessary to climb the ladder of success.
Xiyu couldn’t give them a definitive answer, because he didn’t know what had actually happened either.
“Let’s go back inside. We still have guests waiting,” Xiyu said.
Shen Qing nodded, but she still couldn’t quite put her mind at ease.
“Cheng’an is always clinging to you. Ask him about it when you get the chance. If that Shen Tan really is one of those scheming types, I can deal with him.”
Xiyu nodded. “I will, Mom.”
With that, he led Lu Zhixing back into the living room.
Shen Qing, however, remained frozen in place. Her eyes widened slightly before she excitedly slapped Luo Yuan’s arm.
“Old Luo! Old Luo! I didn’t mishear that, did I? What did Xiaoyu just call me?!”
Luo Yuan replied sourly, “I didn’t hear anything.”
“What do you mean, you didn’t hear it?” Shen Qing’s face flushed with happiness. “Xiaoyu just called me Mom! That’s the first time he’s ever called me Mom!”
“All right, all right, I know!” Luo Yuan said, ushering her back toward the living room. “It’s cold outside. Stop standing here.”
When they returned to the dining room, the others tactfully avoided mentioning Luo Cheng’an.
Xiyu coaxed Lu Zhixing into eating a few more bites.
Shen Qing was so delighted that she was in high spirits. She kept gazing at Xiyu with such tender affection that he eventually began to feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up.