Lu Xinyi ran her hands on her face. The two men in her life were starting a cold war, and she was stuck in the middle. They were in the lounge area, with her husband teaching her how to play chess when her idiot brother and his friend decided to join them, ruining their fun.
“Ah, Xinxin. I thought you didn’t like this kind of games?” Tian Lingyu barged into the room and sat beside her. “Why don’t we check some local stores? We can also find some arcade shops.”
Shen Yi frowned. Tian Lingyu was starting to piss him off again.
“Ahh… I don’t know. I’m a little tired, Yu Gege. Can we just go tomorrow?” Lu Xinyi wasn’t lying anyway. Her body was still aching, and she wanted to rest for a while.
“Fine.” Tian Lingyu could not force her anyway. His attention shifted to the demon king who was staring menacingly back at him. “Want to play?”
Shen Yi eyed his wife, and she gave him a worried look. He knew she was reminding him to be civil with her brother.
“Sure. I’ll take the black.”
“Ahh, black. It’s alright. I’ll take the white. We can’t blame the demon king to choose his favorite color when darkness is embedded down to his core.” Shen Yi didn’t miss the mischievous glint on Tian Lingyu’s eyes.
“Yu Gege!” Lu Xinyi exclaimed.
“Sorry, Baby Girl. It’s just a slip of the tongue.”
“Wait until my knuckle slip right straight to your face.” Shen Yi narrowed his eyes.
“Can you please stop this already? This is ridiculous.” Lu Xinyi slapped her hand in the table.
“Calm down, Sis. Let us play for a while. Why don’t you get us something to drink?” Tian Lingyu patted her head affectionately while throwing a taunting smile Shen Yi’s way. “You might get bored with our match so I promised to finish this as soon as I can.”
His little sister pouted but didn’t say anything. She stood up to get what her brother requested.
“I guess I have to make the first move.” Tian Lingyu picked up his fourth pawn from the right and place it two boxes forward. “I have some questions for you, President Shen. I want you to answer me honestly, or else…”
“Go ahead.” The demon king wasn’t bothered with his empty threat. He copied Tian Lingyu’s move and took his fourth pawn moving forward.
“How long have you known my sister when you two decided to get married?”
“One week,” Shen Yi answered him truthfully. If Tian Lingyu wanted truthful answers, he better accept whatever he would hear today.
Tian Lingyu looked up to him in shock. “One week?!”
Shen Yi nodded and moved to another chess piece.
“Then did you know then that she was from the Sun family?”
Again, Shen Yi didn’t deny this. “I know, and she’d told me before we get married. What surprised me is that haven’t shown yourself earlier than I expected.”
Tian Lingyu couldn’t stop the frown on his face. It wasn’t like he could stop his sister if she really wanted to marry Shen Yi.
“I’m surprised that you still married her knowing her mother’s identity. Did it bother you one bit?” Tian Lingyu asked. He was starting to get nervous with Shen Yi’s movements. He’d expected him to be good at chess but not as good as this. He suddenly felt that he was up against a chess master.
“No,” Shen Yi answered truthfully. “Xinxin has nothing to do with what happened in the past, and I wouldn’t hold it against her. I understand that you are worried about her, but I hoped you would have confronted me instead of taking her away from me like that.”
The Silver Leaf Prince didn’t respond. He was silent as he stared down at their gameplay. Shen Yi every movement corresponded with an attack he couldn’t stop.
“I’m still her older brother. You do understand that it is me that should protect her.”
“You weren’t anywhere when I found her on that cruise, brokenhearted and alone. She looked like a lost kitten in the rain.” The demon king frowned slightly. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Tian Lingyu was caught off-guard. Was he really missing that long that he didn’t know what was happening to his sister?
“I regret that.” He made another moved on his chess piece, hoping to break Shen Yi’s formation; but the latter easily countered.
“Not that it will change anything,” Shen Yi added, “Checkmate.”
“I see you pretty much intent to fight for her.” The other man crossed his arms.
“Because I know she will do the same if it was me. I’ve decided to fight for her—no. Fight for us when I married her, and that includes you.”
The seriousness in his voice and the fiery glint in his eyes convinced Tian Lingyu not to question him for now. However, he had yet to accept this marriage.
—
When Lu Xinyi came back with a tray of food, the two had already completed three matches with Shen Yi leading the game.
“You started working at that young age?” Shen Yi’s brow lifted as Tian Lingyu told him how he ended up joining the Lu family.
“I was an unfortunate kid before. Didn’t you and your brother do the same?”
“We did. Xue and I started working in the Shen Group once we reached eighteen. Though my brother complained that he wasn’t ready to give up his freedom yet.” Shen Yi chuckled, “Well, up until now, he’s still the same.”
“Are you done?” Lu Xinyi placed the tray on the other table and started pouring some drink on the cups.
“We just finished.” Shen Yi smiled a little at her.
“And the result?” She served the drinks on their table before moving behind her husband to wrap her arms around his shoulder.
“Utterly defeated,” Tian Lingyu huffed. “But I’ll not let you win next time.” He growled at the man sitting across him.
Tian Lingyu was forced to watch the lovely interaction between the two. He observed the couple across him.
His sister’s smile was bright and radiant as if she found her most precious dessert in the world. She leaned against Shen Yi’s form as the latter adjusted her position so he could wrap an arm around her waist.
Tian Lingyu’s grip on his cup tightened as he watched Shen Yi’s expression that he knew very well. He couldn’t believe it at first when Huang Shenghao told him about it, but as he witnessed it with his own eyes. He now believed that his friend wasn’t lying.
Shen Yi got those eyes… eyes that revere his woman above the rest.
He looked away, refusing to accept what he was seeing. He made up his mind to help his sister know President Shen better.
—
“Do you think that your brother will accept it soon?” Shen Yi asked as they strolled around the local shops to find something that she might like. He felt her tugging his hand to follow.
The two entered a tea shop where there were nice tea sets on display.
“Yu Gege doesn’t have a choice, dear,” Lu Xinyi assured him, “but he will bitch about it for a while before admitting it.” She passed him five tin containers while checking one of the tea sets. “This is cute. Do you think we could buy this one?”
She lifted one of the teacups to show it to her husband. Shen Yi gave it a good look and nodded.
“Not bad, but make sure you wouldn’t break this, unlike the others.” He chuckled as she pouted at him.
