CHAPTER 146: THIS BAD THING_1

When Wenxin slipped her hand into her trench coat pocket, she pulled out a lighter. "I forgot to give you this lighter. Do you want it?"

Shen Jing’s head instantly retracted.

Wenxin had clearly witnessed the scene. She saw a young lady hidden under the table, face pressed against Zhou Luchen’s waist, grumbling incessantly. The girl was most likely blaming Wenxin for looking back.

The fabric wasn’t breathable. It had left Shen Jing with her hair a mess, her clothes in disarray, and her lips a visibly bold, brilliant red—both delicate and pitiable. One didn’t need to think too hard to know why she had hidden under the table.

Really, who forced her to hide under there?

Wenxin looked at Zhou Luchen again. He showed no panic at being exposed, his face devoid of any emotion, utterly impassive.

It was indescribably absurd, so absurd.

The temple was locked up tight, yet he had managed to keep someone by his side without any commotion. Even the bodyguards standing guard outside hadn’t reported a thing to the Zhou Family.

Indeed. Zhou Luchen had the final say on the Zhou Family’s external affairs. No one dared to cross him and leak information.

Wenxin clutched her trench coat tighter and scoffed, "You deserved to be punished. What was I even worried about? That you’d be lonely without cigarettes at night? That you couldn’t get used to the temple’s bland food? Or that you’d have no one to keep you company?"

Zhou Luchen remained silent, gesturing for Shen Jing to straighten her clothes. This sly fox loves to play dangerous games, Wenxin thought.

"Others are concerned for you, but you? You just do as you please, idling away and sneaking around with her," Wenxin glared at Shen Jing.

Wenxin’s gaze was cold, emanating a piercing sharpness.

Shen Jing rested her chin on Zhou Luchen’s thigh, looking rather innocent. "Why are you looking at me? I haven’t even blamed you for barging into the room."

Wenxin found it laughable. You’re quite good at playing the victim, and Zhou Luchen just eats it up.

Shen Jing’s expression turned even more innocent.

Quite the performance.

Wenxin withdrew her gaze, picked up the cigarettes from the table, and turned to leave.

Shen Jing watched her go. Truly, a woman with a temper. She didn’t leave the cigarettes, nor the lighter.

Wenxin remained as calm as if she hadn’t seen the scene at all. The wind billowed her hair, revealing the faint lines of her alabaster neck. Her silhouette resembled a cool, distant swan in the daylight.

"What if she found out?" Shen Jing asked with a laugh.

Zhou Luchen was expressionless. "I didn’t ask her to come."

Shen Jing’s laughter grew more joyous. In the end, it was Zhou Luchen’s fault, she thought. His fault for being so conspicuous, his fault for still maintaining contact even after they’d broken up.

Zhou Luchen lifted her up, placing her on his lap, and pressed the back of her head closer. "Still laughing?"

"No one will bring you cigarettes anymore."

Shen Jing lay on Zhou Luchen’s chest, her tone full of feigned regret, yet she snickered with sheer delight.

His eyes narrowed as he looked down at her, and then he let out a soft snort. "What did you bring?"

"I brought myself."

I never thought about bringing him anything; he lacks nothing.

Zhou Luchen didn’t argue with her. "Fix your clothes."

He hadn’t been careful when he embraced her and had inadvertently wrinkled her clothes.

Shen Jing pulled at the jacket on her shoulder, blaming him silently.

Zhou Luchen held her, adjusting her into a more comfortable sitting position. He looked down at her for a moment, then squinted. "Are you afraid of her?"

"Not necessarily," Shen Jing replied, looking down as she fastened her buttons.

Zhou Luchen tightened his arm around her. "Really not afraid?"

"Why should I be afraid of her? I don’t owe her anything," she retorted, full of righteous indignation.

Zhou Luchen’s lips curled into a smile. "Then why hide?"

Shen Jing didn’t know why she hid herself; she just got nervous easily.

The word "ex" created an insurmountable chasm. Could she really have coffee and chat with Wenxin as if nothing had happened? It definitely wouldn’t be like Liang Yingning and Xing Fei, who genuinely managed to coexist peacefully.

The lights were dim, casting a particularly weary atmosphere. Shen Jing yawned.

"Go back and sleep," he patted her shoulder, signaling her to get up.

Shen Jing straightened her dress and smiled. "See you in the morning."

With that, she turned to leave, not forgetting to take the coffee cup. "If you’re not drinking it, fine. Zhuang Ming must be thirsty. Obolakhe beans at 98 a cup—can’t let it go to waste."

She really did give it to Zhuang Ming.

「In the middle of the night.」

Shen Jing didn’t sleep well. Since she had the day off, she kept herself busy with her phone until midnight. Eventually, she lost consciousness while in a movie room voice chat with Liang Yingning, unaware of how deeply she’d fallen asleep.

Wenxin floored the gas pedal, heading to the 82nd floor to drink and unwind. She had nowhere to vent her frustration.

Chen Yao watched as her favorite bottles of liquor were opened one after another, but she didn’t intervene. As long as Wenxin’s antics didn’t destabilize the Wei Family itself, what real trouble could she cause?

On the night she broke up with Zhou Luchen, Wenxin had also drunk like this, getting completely wasted and then calling Zhou Luchen to pick her up.

"Achen, can’t you even give in a little?"

The Second Young Master had hung up the phone and hadn’t come.

The next day, she left the country.

"You bring it all on yourself. Why didn’t you just take what you got and leave? Why did you have to go and provoke his limits? Was that something you could provoke? What business is it of yours what he does with that Xie person?" Chen Yao simply passed her a cigarette and said, "The entire Zhou Family was initially pleased with you. Look at yourself, always fixated on clashing with the Zhous."

Wenxin gave a cool smile. "I’ll find someone else."

"I can switch to any guy I want," she added, snapping the cigarette in her hand. "None of them are as scummy as he is."

"He’s scummy to you?" Chen Yao said nonchalantly. "You brought it on yourself."

Wenxin’s eyes turned cold.

Chen Yao didn’t provoke her further. "Drink up. Find someone new. Do as you please."

Wenxin looked puzzled. "How did they actually get to know each other? How could they develop feelings from that?"

Chen Yao looked up. "How would I know? Who goes around prying into other people’s private lives?"

Wenxin leaned on the table, staring at the brown liquid in her glass. "He’s serious. Can’t you all see it?"

Could that even be possible? Chen Yao’s gossip-loving ears perked up instantly, feeling as if a bombshell had just dropped. She placed a bottle of Laobai dry liquor in front of Wenxin. "Come on, tell me. How is he serious?"

"He actually had a physical reaction to Shen Jing while sitting on a stool," Wenxin slurred, looking at Chen Yao. "It’s a feeling, just a feeling."

Chen Yao didn’t understand what Wenxin was talking about.

"Men’s feelings are unreliable." Chen Yao retrieved the bottle. "Waste of good alcohol."

An unfamiliar voice chimed in, "Director Wen, your driver is here. You should go back. We don’t have time to look after you. You always come here to vent when something’s up. This isn’t an emotional dumping ground, you know. It affects my ability to chat up girls."

"For the drinks." Wenxin, unfazed, tossed a few bills onto the table.

She staggered along, leaning on the wall by herself.

Chen Yao didn’t take the money. She glanced at the bills and snorted coldly. She can’t let go because she’s unwilling to give up the position of Mrs. Zhou. If she hadn’t been so self-sabotaging back then, she might have been attending their wedding by now.

The rumor in their circle was that Wenxin of the Wei Family was the first woman the Second Young Master had openly pampered. He took her back to the ancestral home, brought her to Beijing, taught her everything himself, and painstakingly cultivated her business acumen.

Otherwise, how could she be sitting so firmly as the Chairman of the Wei Family? The Wei Family had always prioritized sons over daughters, and Wenxin was the daughter of the second wife.

A protégée personally groomed and elevated by the Second Young Master Zhou—how could Wei Sulin possibly undermine her? The first wife’s shares, her own mother’s shares—Wenxin had seized control of them all.

Put simply:

Let you use my shoulders to see a better world, become outstanding, so you can stand by my side without fear, and we can walk forward together.

That was the principle. But once he turned his back, he was cold, ruthless, and heartless.