Chapter 47
“So… you knew the truth all along, and you still scared me half to death yesterday?”
Shen Yan was fuming. Ignoring his sore waist and aching back, he swung his fist at Su Yunzhe.
Su Yunzhe caught his wrist effortlessly, tugged him into his arms, and asked in a low voice, “Were you really that scared?”
Shen Yan struggled, but he was no match for Su Yunzhe. Besides, the man had started massaging his waist in the process, and it actually felt pretty good. Shen Yan gave up resisting, deciding to let laziness take over.
Still, he was annoyed. Yesterday had been genuinely terrifying.
But he didn’t feel like talking about it now. After all, in hindsight, Su Yunzhe’s act wasn’t flawless. For instance, when Shen Yan stopped him from beating up Duan Yang, Su Yunzhe had blatantly asked if Shen Yan was reluctant to let Duan Yang get hurt.
Normally, Shen Yan would have caught on, but at the time, he’d been too nervous, convinced Su Yunzhe was out for revenge.
Thinking about it now felt a little embarrassing. Better to just drop it.
“This time was just a scare,” Su Yunzhe murmured near his ear, giving his earlobe a teasing nip. “Run away again, and I’ll make good on my threats next time.”
The ticklish sensation made Shen Yan shrink his neck, but he stayed still, too lazy to move. He muttered indignantly, “You think I’m three years old? There aren’t even wolves in the mountains.”
“Who said I’d throw you to the wolves next time?” Su Yunzhe’s voice dropped to an intimate rumble. “Next time, I’ll drag you back, lock you up, and make sure you don’t leave the bed. How about that?”
His tone was suggestive, and his hands, which had been decently massaging Shen Yan’s waist, started wandering in a way that made Shen Yan nervous.
Feeling the shift in atmosphere, Shen Yan quickly surrendered. Softly, he pleaded, “Su Yunzhe, my waist really hurts. Seriously. And I’m starving. I woke up late yesterday and skipped breakfast, didn’t eat much at lunch because I was with strangers, and then… well, nothing all night. Even if you have plans, you can’t let me starve to death first, right?”
He wasn’t faking it—he truly hadn’t eaten much the day before. While sleeping had kept his hunger at bay, now his stomach was growling loudly. He gave Su Yunzhe an almost pitiful look, his eyes practically brimming with unshed tears.
Su Yunzhe looked at Shen Yan’s soft, pleading expression and felt a strong urge to stay in bed even longer.
Still, his heart ached for Shen Yan. Reluctantly, he reached out, brushing aside Shen Yan’s bangs. His fingertips gently traced the teardrop-shaped mole at the corner of Shen Yan’s right eye, his touch unbearably tender. “Do you know how many times you’ve failed to hide this mole from me?”
“Huh? How… could that be?” Shen Yan instinctively tried to argue but quickly faltered.
He always covered the mole when he dressed up as a woman. But later…
He’d spent so much time with Su Yunzhe, especially in the evenings when they’d bathe and Su Yunzhe would even blow-dry his hair. During those times, he hadn’t been hiding anything.
No wonder…
Su Yunzhe smiled softly, lowering his head to kiss the mole at the corner of Shen Yan’s eye. “It’s so beautiful. It’d be a shame to cover it.”
The gentle touch left Shen Yan’s eye corner feeling warm and ticklish. He blinked up at Su Yunzhe, their eyes meeting. In Su Yunzhe’s gaze, Shen Yan saw nothing but tenderness and affection. His heart raced, pounding wildly with delight.
He smiled shyly. “Now that you know, who else would I hide it from?”
Su Yunzhe seemed to like that answer. He bent down to kiss Shen Yan’s lips briefly before finally getting out of bed to head downstairs and cook. But before heading to the kitchen, he made a pit stop in the bathroom—to take care of his own situation.
Shen Yan lay there for a while, his waist feeling better after the massage. Eventually, he got up, bundled himself in a coat, and wandered to the floor-to-ceiling window. To his surprise, he noticed it had started snowing.
Excited, he stared out at the scene. Northern snow was so much more dramatic than the southern kind—fluffy flakes like goose feathers blanketed the ground, perfect for building a snowman. In no time, the world outside was covered in a pristine layer of white.
Hmm…
Shen Yan wanted to go outside and enjoy the fun of building a snowman but hesitated, knowing how cold it was. As he debated with himself, his phone suddenly rang.
He walked over and picked up his phone, seeing it was a call from Ling Sicheng.
“Ling-ge?” he answered, walking back to the floor-to-ceiling window to look outside. The sky was getting darker, and the garden lights were on, all glowing festive red lanterns.
“How are things?” Ling Sicheng’s usual warm tone had a hint of teasing in it, clearly aware of everything that had happened.
Of course he knew—it was Ling Sicheng who had leaked Shen Yan’s location to Su Yunzhe.
When Su Yunzhe revealed this, Shen Yan had been utterly incredulous that Ling Sicheng would betray him.
“What do you mean, ‘how are things’? Don’t you already know?” Shen Yan feigned anger. “I trusted you, and you went and sold me out? Doesn’t your conscience hurt?”
Ling Sicheng chuckled. “Why would my conscience hurt? Helping others makes me happy. Without me giving you two a little push and starting this game of hide-and-seek, who knows when things would’ve been resolved? Now that the two of you are finally together, don’t forget to give me a matchmaker’s red envelope!”
Together? What together? It was Su Yunzhe who had feelings for him, not the other way around.
…Right?
Shen Yan found himself second-guessing and decided to change the subject. “What about you? Is Grandpa Duan still looking for you?”
Ling Sicheng sighed, clearly frustrated. “He’s too persistent. Since I refuse to see him, he’s threatening to come to my house himself. It’s almost the New Year, and he’s so old. Dragging this out is pointless. I told him I’d visit after the holiday, and that calmed him down for now. Oh, by the way, didn’t you want to spend New Year at my place? No need to hide anymore. Want to come over? Grandpa and Grandma have been asking about you, and so has Old Man Zhou next door.”
Looking at the red lanterns outside, Shen Yan suddenly remembered it was already the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month. He’d been holed up at home, barely seeing anyone, so the holiday spirit hadn’t really hit him.
But Su Yunzhe clearly planned to spend the New Year here—why else would he have gone to the trouble of decorating the house?
Leaving him alone didn’t seem right.
“B City’s snowing heavily. I bet flights will be grounded for the next couple of days. I’ll just stay put,” he said.
Ling Sicheng chuckled softly but didn’t push. “Just a casual suggestion. Since you’re snowed in, why not go online and check your own news? Talk later!”
Before Shen Yan could respond, Ling Sicheng hung up, leaving him with that cryptic remark.
What does he mean, ‘my own news’?
Perplexed, Shen Yan opened a news app. The moment it loaded, he was greeted by a headline in bold:
“Yunkong Entertainment CEO Falls for a Married Man!”
The article claimed that Shen Yan was still legally married to Duan Yang and had disguised himself as a woman to cohabit with Su Yunzhe without finalizing a divorce. It painted Duan Yang as heartbroken and desperate to reconcile while Shen Yan stubbornly insisted on a divorce. Su Yunzhe, it alleged, had gone so far as to threaten Duan Yang with ruining his acting career to force him to comply.
The report also claimed Duan Yang, initially intimidated, had decided he’d rather quit acting than stay silent. Now, he wanted to expose Su Yunzhe’s abuse of power and interference in others’ lives.
The article was accompanied by countless photos of Shen Yan dressed as a woman with Su Yunzhe.
Shen Yan scrolled through multiple pages. The narrative had spread across every platform. On social media, related hashtags were trending, and the discussion was overwhelmingly negative.
Uninformed netizens and hired trolls alike were bashing Su Yunzhe for being shameless and labeling Shen Yan a two-faced cheater. Duan Yang, meanwhile, was being hailed as a victim, gaining waves of public sympathy as though he were the only one wronged in the entire situation.
The most infuriating part was Duan Yang himself. He’d even issued a statement, declaring his undying love for Shen Yan and forgiving him no matter what he’d done. He urged the public not to blame Shen Yan, claiming the real villain was Su Yunzhe.
With that, Duan Yang not only solidified his role as the victim but also crafted a “deeply devoted lover” image for himself. In contrast, Shen Yan was painted as an irredeemable scumbag. In ancient times, he’d be the kind of person people would drown in a pigsty.
“What are you looking at?”
Engrossed in the news, Shen Yan hadn’t noticed Su Yunzhe come in. By the time he realized, Su Yunzhe was already behind him, arms naturally wrapping around his waist. Resting his chin on Shen Yan’s shoulder like it was something he’d done a thousand times, he seemed entirely at ease.
Shen Yan didn’t bother pushing him away. Instead, he raised his phone so Su Yunzhe could see. “This. You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”
Su Yunzhe glanced at the screen nonchalantly. “Yeah, Lu Xiaoqing told me.”
“And you’re not worried?” Shen Yan asked, puzzled.
As the CEO of the country’s largest entertainment company, Su Yunzhe’s PR team was top-notch. The fact that they hadn’t responded meant it was Su Yunzhe’s decision to let things escalate.
What puzzled Shen Yan more was that, knowing Su Yunzhe’s personality, he couldn’t imagine the man ignoring such blatant provocation from Duan Yang, even if it were purely out of spite.
This reaction was just too strange.
Su Yunzhe poked Shen Yan’s cheek and chuckled. “Let me show you something that’ll really burn your eyes.”
With that, he pulled out his phone, opened WeChat, and clicked on a video someone had sent him.
Shen Yan glanced at the screen, and his face immediately turned pale. It was eye-searing.
The video showed Duan Yang and Shen Jiaqi going at it passionately in bed. If Shen Yan hadn’t recognized the two, he would’ve thought he was watching a certain type of video from a specific island nation.
Feeling awkward, Shen Yan glanced at Su Yunzhe. “How do you even have this kind of thing?”
Su Yunzhe scrolled further down, revealing several similar videos. He explained, “What can’t paparazzi capture? They don’t release them, though—just sell them to whoever pays enough. Our company used to buy a bunch of this stuff for him. If you want, I can ask them to—hmm?”
As he spoke, another video arrived. He clicked it open, and his expression darkened instantly.
Holding Shen Yan close, Su Yunzhe let him see it too. This time, it wasn’t another explicit video but a series of clips of domestic violence.
The footage showed Duan Yang and Shen Yan—or rather, the original host of Shen Yan’s body.
The person filming was far away, so there was no audio, making it impossible to hear what was being said—if anything at all. The video only showed Duan Yang impatiently shoving the original host aside before delivering a hard slap across the face.
The original host stumbled into a nearby tree and hadn’t even steadied himself before Duan Yang closed in, slapping him again.
This time, the original host fell to the ground, and Duan Yang started punching and kicking him. He appeared to be saying something, though the exact words were unclear. The original host merely curled up on the ground, shielding his head, not daring to fight back.
Duan Yang continued his assault for a full five minutes before landing a particularly harsh kick and walking away.
The original host lay there for a long time before struggling to his feet, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth and forehead.
Shen Yan sighed deeply, about to speak, when he noticed the man holding him was already trembling with rage, his phone nearly crushed in his grip.
Shen Yan’s heart sank. He quickly grabbed Su Yunzhe’s hand, taking the phone away and holding his hand tightly. In a soft voice, he said, “It’s all in the past now. Don’t dwell on it. If he hadn’t been that kind of person, I wouldn’t have fought so hard to escape. And if I hadn’t escaped, I wouldn’t have met you, right?”
Though Shen Yan lacked the original host’s memories, he had read the novel and knew exactly how Duan Yang had treated the original host. He was already prepared for such things.
So, watching these clips didn’t surprise him—it only made him feel disgusted by Duan Yang.
But Su Yunzhe was different. To him, the person suffering under Duan Yang’s abuse was Shen Yan.
At this moment, Su Yunzhe likely felt an even deeper pain than Shen Yan himself and was naturally seething with anger.
Shen Yan worried about this reaction. He feared Su Yunzhe’s emotions toward Duan Yang might lead to dangerous actions, pushing the storyline back toward the original plot.
Despite Shen Yan’s attempts to comfort him, Su Yunzhe’s fury wasn’t easily extinguished.
When Su Yunzhe had first bumped into Shen Yan at the barbecue stall, suspecting his real gender, he had already started investigating him. At that time, he learned about Shen Yan’s connection with Duan Yang and how poorly Duan Yang had treated him.
But he hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
