“How was your meeting with President Shen?” Sun Feiyan asked as she poured an alcoholic drink for herself and her visitor who was sitting at the couch within her office.
Li Qiao lifted her head and looked back at the other woman. She was busy checking the changes within the city for the past seven years of her absence.
“Boring,” she laughed with a hint of amusement in her voice.
Li Qiao was beautiful in a classical way. Her beautiful curls framed her heart-shaped face, and her ivory smooth skin glistened as the light bounced on it. She was taller than average and certainly slimmer than a catwalk model, but with her smile, she was stunningly beautiful.
Something radiated from within that rendered her irresistible to both genders. Men desired her, and women couldn’t help but admire her.
As Sun Feiyan looked at her, she couldn’t help but compare Li Qiao to her cousin, Lu Xinyi. Lu Xinyi was a few inches short for her age; she could still pass as a girl in her late teenage years.
She had a kind of understated beauty; perhaps it was because she was unaware of it. Her alabaster skin was completely flawless. Sun Feiyan doubted that Lu Xinyi was an avid fan of skincare or expensive products—that really wasn’t her image.
Lu Xinyi was all about simplicity, helping those around her with all her might, and being happy with it. Perhaps that was why her skin glowed. When she smiles, it was her inner beauty that lit her eyes and softened her features.
When she smiled and laughed, it seemed the atmosphere became warm. To be in her company was to feel that one mattered, that one had been warmed in summer rays regardless of the season.
To be in Li Qiao’s presence was too endure an intellectual battle. She was smart and witty. She easily found fault in others but appreciated the beauty of it.
“Feiyan, I still don’t understand why you want them to break up? Are you doing this so Lu Xinyi will lose her footing? If so, it’s so easy for you to break her in public without using Shen Yi.” Li Qiao asked as she nodded her thanks for the drink Sun Feiyan passed on her.
Sun Feiyan sat across her visitor and quirked a brow.
“Do you think President Shen will allow it to happen? Judging by how he easily crushed my Aunt Ruying’s business, it wouldn’t be easy to break Lu Xinyi.
“That’s why we can’t let our guard down. President Shen will hit us back at any given chance.” Sun Feiyan paused as a thought crossed her mind. “Are you sure you want to get on board? Your family wouldn’t be pleased with this.”
Li Qiao’s red lips curled into a smirk.
“No need to worry about that, Feiyan. Yuren is the one who handles anything about Li business, and I like to see my brother riled up so let’s just see how they would react to it.”
Shen Yi wouldn’t be able to easily defeat Li Yuren anyway so Li Qiao was assured that the Shen family wouldn’t easily go after her.
—
Friday night.
Days had passed without a drama, something that Lu Xinyi found odd for she was anticipating to see Wen Shufen with Han Yixin with her.
Did this mean that she found some sense and refused to get even with her? Somehow, Lu Xinyi thought she wouldn’t fall for that. A raven couldn’t change its color into white overnight.
Pushing these unwanted thoughts away from her mind, she spent the days grueling over her bookwork and trying to practice her skills in her private kitchen. At the end of the week, Ye Xieren and Yan Chen surpassed her for weekly rankings—with her taking the third spot.
The sudden change in ranking didn’t bother Lu Xinyi at all. She had anticipated it to happen anyway, and with Ye Xieren taking the lead now, the pressure on her shoulder was lessened with others’ expectations of her.
She didn’t even care that some students had started to ridicule her for falling down the ranks.
Now, as she read her textbooks to prepare for the next week’s lessons, Lu Xinyi relaxed a bit and mentally planned her schedule. She was so engrossed in her book that she didn’t realize her phone was ringing.
On the other site within the city, Shen Yi’s frown deepened when his wife didn’t pick up his call. He brought down his phone at the table and stared blankly at the graphs in front of him. He was stuck in another meeting with his brother.
“Can we go home now? I want to sleep,” Shen Xue complained beside him.
“Wait until it’s done,” Shen Yi responded—when in truth, he also wanted to call it a day and visit his wife. He was also suffering from another migraine, but his face had refused to show his discomfort. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
The other people within the conference room started to sweat profusely. Somehow, they could tell that the demon wasn’t pleased with how the project progressed. Since President Shen came back from his month-long vacation, they never had a single day of peace at work.
They assumed that his foul mood was because of the rumors between him and Lu Xinyi, but no one had the guts to ask for the reasons. One of them looked outside the window and saw the dense gray sky looming over the night sky. His heart instantly filled with gloom and uncertainty. It was like waiting for another violent storm to hit them.
Another hour was spent trying to please the demon with suggestions and proposals.
“So President Shen—”
DING.
At this moment, everyone ceased to move and remained frozen in their seats. They all looked at Shen Yi’s way expectantly as the screen of his phone lit up. Shen Yi subconsciously picked up his phone and took a glimpse of it.
His finger opened the unread message and paused for a moment as an image of a plate with familiar pasta on it. Wasn’t this one of his favorites that his wife cooks for him? Lu Xinyi called it ‘Brown Butter Parmesan Pasta’.
He scrolled down just in time to see another SMS from his wife.
[Hubby, look! I made your favorite tonight! Do you think it’s good? ~mwuah~ Missing you.]
Shen Yi blinked twice before the corners of his lips slightly lifted up. The other board members and presenters’ jaws dropped and had to pinch themselves to see if they’d been hallucinating.
Did President Shen just smile? Wahh? The demon king smiled? They started to shiver and looked at each other, not understanding what caused Shen Yi to smile at the middle of their serious meeting.
Shen Xue decided to peek over his brother’s shoulder to see what made his mood improved. He stared at the SMS his sister-in-law sent, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
This… how was this possible?
Why was the world so unfair to him that his elder brother got a chance to taste that delicious and mouthwatering dish that his sister-in-law cooked?
“Bro, do you think I can join you for dinner?” Shen Xue tested the waters to see if he’d be deemed lucky enough to get a taste of that parmesan pasta.
“No,” Shen Yi declined him on the spot, his slender fingers composing a message to reply to his wife. “No pets allowed.”
Ruthless! Too evil!
Shen Xue wanted to hit his brother’s head right then, but his rage turned into shock when his eyes saw what Shen Yi had written back to his Big Sis. His dog eyes almost popped out from its socket. He nearly went blind.
He expected Lu Xinyi to be sweet to his brother but not the other way around!
Shen Yi had flirted back to his wife in such a way that made Shen Xue’s face turned green.
[Not as good and delicious as you, dear.] Followed by kissing and in-love emoticons.
Staring at those emoticons, Shen Xue was deeply horrified with their lovey-dovey messages. It was simply unimaginable for him to see his own brother flirting with a woman. He couldn’t imagine a stoic and sometimes a ‘bastard’ of a brother would do such a thing.
[The food is waiting for you!]
This Lu Xinyi’s next message took Shen Xue’s attention back on the screen.
[Then the food should wait for me so I can ravish and take my fill.]
Shen Xue jolted up and covered his eyes from sudden torture.
Ahhh, this was too much! He needed to find some holy water to wash his eyes! He didn’t need to see that! He didn’t need to know that his brother would get some yin tonight to supplement his yang!
