Shen Du’s driving suddenly became a series of twists and turns. Fortunately, they were heading back to the Shen family home, a villa community where every inch of land was worth a fortune, so they didn’t encounter any other cars on the road. Ye Nanqi was frightened out of his wits, worried that the two of them might end up dying together on the very first day after getting their marriage certificate.
When he got out of the car, his legs were a little weak. He straightened his clothes and asked pleasantly, “President Shen, where did you buy your driver’s license?”
Shen Du glanced at Ye Nanqi. Seeing how pale his face was, he figured the man had genuinely been frightened. His mood immediately improved, and he magnanimously ignored the provocation before walking straight ahead.
Wen Chen was so furious with Ye Nanqi that he nearly spat blood. During the delay, he’d sent dozens of voice messages. Ye Nanqi trailed behind him at a leisurely pace, selectively listening to a few. He discovered that every single one consisted of nothing but pointless yelling and cursing, and each was a full sixty seconds long. So he calmly turned off the voice messages and typed back:
You’re not even going to congratulate me on marrying into a wealthy family first? At least I won’t have to worry about a sex scandal anymore.
Wen Chen was helpless. He resigned himself to the situation, thinking that marrying into a wealthy family wasn’t so bad. It was certainly better than having offended someone without having anyone powerful to back him up.
Ye Nanqi continued comforting his manager when someone suddenly grabbed him. He looked up and realized there was a stone pillar right in front of him.
If he’d walked straight into it, even a bronze head would have ended up dented.
Shen Du took out a handkerchief and wiped the hand he’d just used to pull Ye Nanqi back. He clicked his tongue. “How old are you? Don’t play with your phone while walking.”
Ye Nanqi realized he genuinely had no grounds to argue with that remark and felt rather choked up.
One of Ye Nanqi’s conditions for agreeing to the marriage was that they wouldn’t hold a wedding ceremony.
His excuse was that his career was currently on the rise. In fact, he wasn’t entirely making that up. He had only recently started becoming popular, and not many celebrities would choose to announce their marriage at such a time.
However, even without a wedding ceremony, they would certainly have to hold some kind of gathering. When they arrived at the Shen family home, Ye Nanqi received two big red envelopes: one containing an unspecified amount of RMB, and the other containing the deed to a house.
Ye Nanqi’s plan was that he couldn’t be the bad guy. For now, there was no harm in getting married temporarily. After all, they were going to divorce eventually, and Shen Du would have to be the one to initiate it.
He had no intention of asking for compensation, nor did he have any reason to accept so many things for nothing.
Ye Nanqi thought to himself that since he couldn’t refuse them now, he would accept everything first and return it all after the divorce.
After they had reunited, Shen Du had made some inquiries into Ye Nanqi’s background. Seeing him accept the red envelopes and property deed with a beaming smile, Shen Du grew even more contemptuous.
Their parents might not know about it, but he’d heard plenty of rumors. Stories about Ye Nanqi sleeping his way into roles and having a string of wealthy backers behind him had spread throughout the industry, with varying degrees of truth. Shen Du didn’t think all of them were true, but surely not all of them were false, either. How many people in the entertainment industry were truly clean?
The young master’s psychological aversion to anything he considered impure kicked in. He frowned and no longer wanted to look at Ye Nanqi, feeling that even seeing him was contaminating his eyes.
However, a few hours later, Shen Du and Ye Nanqi had their wallets and phones confiscated and were sent to a hotel, where they had no choice but to face each other.
—Their parents’ reasoning was that although there wouldn’t be a wedding ceremony, they absolutely couldn’t skip the wedding night.
The two sat awkwardly facing each other for a while.
Without their IDs or money, they couldn’t book another room. For some inexplicable reason, this damn hotel room had only one bed and no sofa. Even worse, someone had arranged thornless roses on the bed in the shape of a heart.
Ye Nanqi picked up a flower and tucked it into Shen Du’s collar. He gave him a smile devoid of even the slightest goodwill. “I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble President Shen to sleep on the floor tonight.”
Shen Du had no intention of giving his newlywed wife any special treatment. However, compared with the problem in front of him, he was more concerned about something else. “When are you planning to ask for a divorce and demand compensation?”
This marriage had been rushed and inexplicable. Ye Nanqi had guessed that Shen Du regarded him as a greedy, fame-hungry scoundrel. He had no intention of explaining anything, so he folded his arms and smiled brightly, going along with Shen Du’s words and brushing the matter aside. “President Shen, you’re certainly generous. No wonder you gave such an extravagant wedding gift when you attended Junior Brother Jiang’s wedding a few days ago.”
The moment he finished speaking, Shen Du’s gaze turned cold. Ye Nanqi wasn’t intimidated. Instead, he laughed wickedly to himself.
Jiang Yuanyu was Shen Du’s sore spot. There was no need to hesitate—just step on it as hard as possible. After speaking, Ye Nanqi adjusted his expression and continued wearing the smile that made Shen Du want to slap him across the face.
“Compensation? I don’t have particularly high demands. A few villas, a few sports cars. And if President Shen is willing to give me thirty percent of your company’s shares so I can live comfortably for the rest of my life, that would be even better.”
Upon hearing such unreasonable demands, Shen Du couldn’t be bothered to entertain him. Taking advantage of the fact that the bed was closer to him, he simply took off his jacket and lay down on it.
Ye Nanqi gritted his teeth in anger. He didn’t want any physical contact with Shen Du, either. Back when his family had been struggling, sleeping on the floor wasn’t anything new to him. He pulled down a blanket, spread it on the floor, and wrapped himself up in it. He spent half the night unable to fall asleep, staring wide-eyed into the dark room and wondering why his life had to be such a complete fucking disaster.
It wasn’t until the latter half of the night that he finally began to feel sleepy.
It was already autumn, and the weather was turning cold. Even with the heating on, Ye Nanqi had spent the entire night wrapped up like a burrito on the floor. As a result, he came down with a fever. His eyes were red, his lips pale, and he looked as though he’d suffered terribly.
Wen Chen sent him a concerned message. Upon learning that Ye Nanqi was sick, he immediately told him to take a picture and post it on Weibo to win some sympathy from his fans.
Ye Nanqi was speechless at his own manager’s suggestion. “…”
Wen Chen then earnestly reminded him of a few more things. Left with no choice, Ye Nanqi adjusted the angle, took a selfie, logged into Weibo, and added the caption:
It’s been so cold lately. Everyone, take care of yourselves and don’t catch a cold.
As soon as he posted it, a flood of comments appeared. His fans were heartbroken, showering him with messages begging him to take good care of his health.
It had to be said that the company had done a good job crafting his image. His fans were all deeply concerned about their beloved “Sunshine.”
Ye Nanqi stared at the comments for a while. Before Shen Du could make fun of him, he put his phone away.
Shen Du had his driver bring the car around. After Ye Nanqi got in, he didn’t say a word, simply closing his eyes listlessly.
Seeing how weak he looked from the side, the last remnants of Shen Du’s conscience were suddenly stirred. Halfway through the journey, he told the driver to stop and got out.
Ye Nanqi couldn’t be bothered to care where he was going. After waiting three minutes without seeing him return, he ran out of patience and instructed the driver to take him to Shen Du’s house first.
The previous day, when they’d gone to register their marriage, the moving company had already transported Ye Nanqi’s belongings to Shen Du’s house. The driver knew about their relationship. He hesitated briefly but ultimately followed Ye Nanqi’s instructions.
The young master Shen had deigned to lower himself to go buy medicine. Who could have imagined that the moment he walked out of the pharmacy, he’d see his car speeding away into the distance? He was left swallowing a mouthful of exhaust fumes, so furious that he nearly threw the medicine straight into the trash.
After arriving at Shen Du’s house, Ye Nanqi found the guest room where his belongings had been piled up, locked the door, and collapsed onto the bed.
Although locking it was pointless. This was Shen Du’s house, and he had the keys to every room.
When Shen Du returned home, he felt that showing Ye Nanqi kindness was practically like a farmer warming a snake against his chest. Fortunately, Ye Nanqi was technically a patient. Shen Du had no intention of bullying someone who was sick, so he tossed the medicine onto the table and turned to leave.
Ye Nanqi hadn’t slept for long before waking from a string of nightmares, drenched in cold sweat. Seeing the medicine on the bedside table, he guessed Shen Du had probably found it somewhere. Afraid that it might have been poisoned, he tied the bag shut and threw it into the trash. Then he took a shower, changed his clothes, and went out.
Although he’d jokingly told Wen Chen that he was taking marital leave, the announcements and engagements he’d turned down over the past two days had already cost him enough to make his heart ache. Besides, this marriage was practically no different from not being married at all. It wouldn’t affect his work.
When the two met at the company, Ye Nanqi rubbed his nose and smiled brightly. “Brother Wen, you seem to have gotten more handsome in the two days since I last saw you.”
Wen Chen, who had grown considerably more haggard in just two days, suppressed the urge to strangle him. He dragged Ye Nanqi into an unused small meeting room and closed the door. Knocking on the table, he asked, “You’re still not fully recovered, so why are you wandering around? Have you taken your medicine?”
“I have. I’m fine.” Ye Nanqi had a naturally strong constitution. After sleeping and sweating out the fever, he really was feeling much better. He brushed off the question with a couple of careless remarks.
“Explain everything to me clearly. Otherwise, you’re not leaving this room today.” Wen Chen knocked on the table even harder.
Ye Nanqi paused, then had no choice but to tell him the truth.
He had barely gotten through the opening when Wen Chen interrupted him. “Tsk. Junior Brother Jiang is a pretty good guy. Why can’t you just give up on him? You even went to his wedding.”
Ye Nanqi had originally wanted to explain, but the words stopped at the tip of his tongue. He smiled. “Who wouldn’t want to protect something beautiful?”
He had said “protect,” not “possess,” but Wen Chen didn’t pay much attention to that distinction.
Jiang Yuanyu was Ye Nanqi’s junior fellow actor. His career was smooth sailing, and he was dazzlingly popular. Not long after his debut, he’d been snatched away by one of the company’s senior agents.
However, Jiang Yuanyu came from a well-off family and apparently didn’t have many concerns. Just as his popularity began to rise, he decisively married his childhood sweetheart, who had returned from overseas. Fortunately, the marriage had been kept secret, and only a few friends in the industry knew about it.
Wen Chen earnestly advised him, “Junior Brother Jiang is already married, and so are you. Stop pining after someone you can’t have.”
Ye Nanqi poured himself a cup of hot water and took a couple of sips. “I’m not pining after anyone. Don’t remind me about this matter.”
Wen Chen’s curiosity was even greater than his worry. “What exactly happened?”
Ye Nanqi thought for a moment, omitted a few details that weren’t convenient to reveal, and gave him a general account of what had happened.
Wen Chen had never imagined the whole thing could be so bizarre. His expression became complicated as he listened.
But since it had already happened and the matter was settled, there was no point beating his chest and lamenting. They kept the discussion within their own circle and let it go. Wen Chen comforted Ye Nanqi with a few words. Seeing that his expression still wasn’t very good, he quickly brought up the matter he was most concerned about.
“There are several things lined up recently: an advertising endorsement, a few variety shows, two TV drama scripts, and a movie script I managed to get for you. Don’t get your hopes up too much about the movie, but we can try competing for either the male lead or second male lead in this TV drama. Take a look.”
Ye Nanqi nodded and accepted the scripts. There was no way he could finish reading all of them in a short time, and he had no intention of making Wen Chen stay here with him until they both grew roots. He waved his hand. “You just got married. Go home and spend some time with your wife. I’ll discuss everything with you after I’ve finished reading.”
Wen Chen asked, “You’re staying here to read them? You’re not going home?”
Ye Nanqi replied, “The moving company emptied my place. I’m currently living under someone else’s roof, and unfortunately, I’m not particularly fond of having to lower my head.”
“…” Wen Chen was married himself, so he couldn’t help becoming a little long-winded. He muttered, “You’re childhood enemies who grew up to become romantic rivals. You can’t possibly avoid each other forever.”
Ye Nanqi pretended not to hear him.
Even the most impartial judge couldn’t settle a family dispute. Wen Chen waved his hand and left first. Before leaving, he still nagged Ye Nanqi to remember to eat and be careful not to trigger his stomach problems again.
Ye Nanqi found him annoying and nodded perfunctorily before opening the scripts and slowly reading through them.
Once he started working, he completely lost track of time. By the time he had finished reading everything, it was already completely dark outside. The company was also quiet, probably because everyone had gone home.
Ye Nanqi stood up, stretched his limbs, organized the documents, and walked out of the meeting room. His gaze involuntarily drifted toward an office not far away.
The company had crafted Ye Nanqi’s public image as that of an elegant, refined, and courteous gentleman. And he did indeed live up to it, wearing a gentle smile in his interactions with others, right down to the corners of his eyes and eyebrows.
But at that moment, his gaze was ice-cold, almost carrying a deeply suppressed, bone-deep hatred.
He stared at that place for only a few seconds. Knowing that surveillance cameras were installed throughout the company, he casually looked away, pulled on his hat and mask, and left.
He didn’t want to trouble the driver by asking him to come to the company at this hour, so he drove back to Shen Du’s house himself.
Only when he reached Shen Du’s front door did Ye Nanqi realize he’d forgotten to bring his keys.
He shivered in the cold wind for several minutes. As luck would have it, Wen Chen’s ominous prediction came true. His stomach, which hadn’t received any food all day, began protesting with sharp, painful cramps. Ye Nanqi’s face immediately turned pale.
An enemy attacking from within was always the most terrifying kind. The same was true of illness—pain caused by something attacking from inside the body was even harder to endure. Cold sweat broke out all over Ye Nanqi’s body. He crouched down on the ground, barely able to move, wondering whether he was in any condition to drive safely and preparing to return to his own home instead.
Before he could make up his mind, a cool voice suddenly came from above his head.
“What are you doing?”
Ye Nanqi, crouching by the door: “…”
He should have just gone straight home.