Rattlesnake paused visibly, the processed voice crackling with static, inexplicably eerie.
He said with some guilt, "I took a job abroad a while back, so I was held up a bit."
"Hmm," Yu Zhi replied indifferently.
She sat on the toilet lid, absent-mindedly gazing at the frosted glass. "Did you find it?"
"Of course, I sent it to your inbox." Seeing her lack of follow-up, Rattlesnake inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.
If the other party found out that his time abroad was spent in black market racing, he’d likely face a complete fallout.
"No omissions?" Yu Zhi swiped her phone open.
As she clicked into the email, an extremely eye-catching photo immediately caught her eye.
"How could there be? Don’t you trust me to handle things?" Rattlesnake clicked his tongue lightly and rolled his eyes internally.
He spoke with detachment, "I really didn’t expect that the famous Master Shi had such a miserable childhood."
Yu Zhi tightened her grip on the phone, a trace of cold fury flashing in her clean and clear almond-shaped eyes.
Her heart clenched painfully as her gaze lingered on the photo of Shi Wei covered in scars. Her voice was icy, like snowflakes falling on a bone-chilling winter’s day: "You’d better take this secret to your grave."
Rattlesnake hadn’t expected to be threatened over a man. After a moment of shock, a particular possibility surfaced in his mind.
He was utterly stunned: "You can’t possibly like him?!"
"Is there a problem?"
"No... Does he know? Can he accept it?"
Yu Zhi exited her email, unwilling to look at its contents any longer. She was oddly perplexed. "Why wouldn’t he accept it?"
Rattlesnake: "..."
As a stereotypical straight guy, he simply couldn’t process intimacy between two men. Ultimately, he muttered, "Noted."
Rattlesnake rubbed at the goosebumps on his arms, his laughter suddenly turning awkward: "Bro, make sure to take care of yourself. Eat more foods for kidney health."
"Beep beep beep—"
A busy tone sounded.
Rattlesnake called out several times before realizing he’d been hung! Up! On!
Fuming with frustration, he dialed her number again.
In the quiet bathroom, the soft "beep" sounds from the smartwatch echoed as though amplified a thousand times over.
For the first time, Yu Zhi found that noise extremely unpleasant.
She frowned and tapped the watch twice before scrolling through her contact list and hesitantly calling Ruan Yuan on video.
"Little Zhi, good evening." Ruan Yuan, affectionately nestled in Shi Yin’s arms, winked playfully at the camera.
Yu Zhi immediately noticed the ambiguous mark on the exposed collarbone of the woman—Little Strawberry.
Her lashes trembled slightly. "Put your clothes back on."
Ruan Yuan burst into laughter, deliberately zooming in the camera to make it clearer: "Do you like it? Should Shi Wei give you one too?"
"..." Yu Zhi’s ears turned red involuntarily.
She turned her head away, quickly changing the subject: "The stuff we ordered last time has arrived."
Ruan Yuan raised her eyebrow, the teasing glint in her gaze replaced by a solemn intensity.
She shot a subtle look at the man beside her, leaning over to kiss his cheek: "Yinyin, I need to use the restroom."
Minutes later, Ruan Yuan was also seated on a toilet lid, mimicking the young woman’s posture exactly.
She adjusted her jacket and sneaked a quick peek outside, then minimized the video interface and opened her emails. Thɪs chapter is updated by NoveI[F]ire.net
After reading everything, she exhaled a harsh curse, her expression dark. "Little Zhi, I feel like punching someone right now!"
Shi Beiming, that bastard, doesn’t deserve to be called a father.
The misunderstandings between the brothers and Shi Yin’s guilt had all been his manipulations.
"I feel the same." Although Yu Zhi hadn’t read it all, she had a good idea of the situation and felt no less hatred towards Shi Beiming.
She pressed her lips tightly together, her expression momentarily deflating like a punctured balloon. "But if we do anything, Shi Wei will get mad."
Ruan Yuan was momentarily struck speechless.
She too had promised Shi Yin to refrain from resorting to violence.
"How about we sneak out tomorrow night?" Ruan Yuan suggested tentatively, unable to swallow her rage without beating Shi Beiming to a pulp.
Yu Zhi shook her head, her voice deflated as well: "Tomorrow’s the weekend; Shi Wei will stick to me like glue."
Monday through Friday was no better. If she was even slightly slow to respond to his messages, the man would call her, afraid of losing her.
"Then let’s wait until they’re asleep, and we can sneak out," Ruan Yuan’s eyes sparkled with hopeful mischief.
The plan seemed more and more feasible.
"Alright, I’ll call you when he falls asleep."
"Don’t call me. Send a text instead."
"..."
The two of them spent ages in the bathroom plotting their escape—planning routes and timing for their bag-over-the-head attack.
Neither expected that their entire conversation had already been overheard by Shi Wei, who gifted Shi Yin a recording of their clandestine plan.
"Zhizhi, done with your call?" Shi Wei feigned ignorance, pulling the young lady onto the bed.
He kissed her lips. "Who were you talking to for so long?"
"Ruan Yuan." Yu Zhi nestled into the man’s neck and, before he could probe further, ’honestly’ confessed: "She wants me to design a dress for her."
"I see," Shi Wei drawled.
He embraced the shifty little girl, hiding the smile at the corner of his lips. "Ruan Yuan’s attending an event?"
"Hmm, probably." Yu Zhi avoided his gaze, her tone guilty.
Her fingers curled as though afflicted by a nervous tic, wriggling ceaselessly in his arms.
"Wife, stop moving." Shi Wei’s voice was hoarse, his large hand firmly pressing down her restless thigh.
At the moment, he was in a state of absolute nothingness.
The soft body of the young lady wriggling back and forth like this—any normal man would find it hard to bear.
Yu Zhi felt the change and froze rigidly, retreating into the blanket like a quail.
She looked up, blinking her clear almond eyes, cheeks flushed pink like seductive peaches. "Shi Wei, shall we keep watching our drama?"
Shi Wei exhaled deeply. "Wait a bit."
Her impact on him was simply too overwhelming.
Yet he couldn’t bear to torment her once more, so he silently waited for the heat coursing through his body to subside.
"Should I scoot aside?" Yu Zhi, aware of his discomfort, offered sweetly and considerately.
Just as she tentatively started inching away like a timid kitten, her little feet pawing at the bed sheet—
Shi Wei grasped her hand. "Don’t move. Good girl."
Unperturbed, he opened the video player, holding his young lady in his arms as they watched the scenes on the screen, suppressing the stirrings in his heart with all his might.
Soft waves of Korean dialogue echoed from the speakers.
Gentle moonlight seeped through the window, wrapping them in a shimmering halo.