Chapter 342: Another scandal exposed

Xu Yanfeng stayed in the study for an hour, then returned to the master bedroom. Warm yellow light bathed the large bed; Xia Xi was still asleep, her black hair spread across the pillow, long eyelashes lowered, casting a faint shadow on her face.

He walked lightly to the bedside, holding his breath, lifted the blanket and got into bed.

He had been careful enough, but when he lay down his elbow pressed against Xia Xi's hair. The scalp tugged painfully; Xia Xi frowned, her eyelids slowly opened, and she spoke in a hoarse voice: "What are you doing?"

Xu Yanfeng turned over, gently patting her through the blanket, like soothing a child who had been accidentally woken: "I went out for a drink of water; go back to sleep."

Really too sleepy, Xia Xi murmured an indistinct "uh", closed her eyes, and instinctively snuggled into his arms.

Xu Yanfeng reached back and switched off the bedside lamp; the bedroom plunged into darkness.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, Xia Xi suddenly recalled the letter her grandmother had left her, in which her grandmother said, "It would be nice to have a shoulder to lean on." She hadn't understood it deeply back then, always thinking she could face anything, but now she truly felt it.

If Xu Yanfeng weren't by her side giving her a shoulder to lean on, she would be frantic and scrambling for a solution even if she ignored the outside gossip.

Precisely because he was there, she could sleep soundly without any worries.

"Xu Yanfeng." Xia Xi called his name in the darkness, "Are you asleep?"

"No way I could fall asleep that fast." Xu Yanfeng gave a low hum, "What's wrong?"

As he spoke, his chest vibrated slightly; Xi Xi rubbed her cheek against his chest, a rare softness: "It's great having you."

Not getting a reply, Xia Xi didn't think anything of it; she just wanted to say it to him, needing no response.

Just as she was about to continue sleeping, the bedside lamp lit up, and Xia Xi stared at his face blankly: "What are you doing?"

Xu Yanfeng gazed at her and laughed: "I just wanted to see how you look."

Xia Xi was puzzled; he pinched the tip of her nose, then said, "Let me see your silly look."

Xia Xi protested: "You're the silly one."

What's with this person? She spoke so tenderly, yet he called her silly.

Xu Yanfeng: "Only now do you realize I'm good? If you're not silly, who is?"

Xia Xi thought for a moment and said: "It's not that I just realized; I've known for a long time that you're a really good person… I just suddenly wanted to tell you."

Xu Yanfeng watched her earnest explanation and found it adorable. Although Xia Xi rarely seemed cute, he had captured this rare side of hers.

Xu Yanfeng's gaze drifted down to her lightly pursed lips, pale red and moist; his Adam's apple moved as he asked softly, "Is there anything else you want to say to me?"

"Huh?" Xia Xi lifted her eyelids. "Nothing."

Xu Yanfeng lowered his head and nibbled her lower lip, then, taking advantage of her opened mouth, slipped his tongue in.

Xia Xi was caught off guard, feeling dizzy from the kiss; she barely regained her composure, pushed him at the waist, found a gap, and protested: "How can you be like this? We already… did that twice in the shower."

"Really?" Xu Yanfeng pretended not to remember.

Xia Xi: "……"

She swore she hadn't provoked him, yet she didn't know how things had escalated to this.

The next morning, after the alarm rang for the third time, Xia Xi finally got up. Opening her eyes, she saw the calm man, her gaze filled only with resentment. Xu Yanfeng lowered his eyes as he adjusted his belt, avoiding her gaze.

"Take your time washing up; I'll go make you breakfast."

Xu Yanfeng finished tidying up and left the bedroom.

While having breakfast, Xia Xi's resentment toward someone had mostly faded; she wore a light blue shirt buttoned to the top, snugly covered. Xu Yanfeng tried not to laugh, but his eyes betrayed his amusement.

"If you laugh again I'll really get angry." Xia Xi lowered her head to drink porridge, but her peripheral vision didn't miss Xu Yanfeng's movements; she knew he was laughing and what he was laughing at.

Xu Yanfeng cleared his throat and turned to the matter: "Do you still have to go record the show today? Can't you take a day off?"

Xia Xi understood his concern; the controversy hadn't fully died down, and the production crew seeing her would inevitably think of the true-or-false rumors online, possibly forming an opinion that could affect her mood.

"It's almost over; suddenly asking for leave wouldn't look good." Xia Xi said calmly, "Everyone's a decent person; even if they have thoughts, they wouldn't say them to your face. And even if they did, I wouldn't care."

Xu Yanfeng respected her decision and saw her off to the recording site.

Since the incident last night, Xia Xi hadn't touched her phone; the alarm had been set on Xu Yanfeng's phone, so she had no idea how things had progressed. After parting with Xu Yanfeng, she turned her phone on, and it buzzed like an explosion—messages, WeChat, and Weibo notifications rang nonstop.

Colleagues from work, university classmates, and close friends all sent condolences; Xia Yue and Xia Xuan even called her dozens of times, but after apparently getting in touch with Xu Yanfeng, they stopped calling.

Unable to curb her curiosity, Xia Xi logged onto Weibo. She didn't have a public account, but she had a casually registered one; glancing at the hot-search list, she was stunned—there wasn't a single entry related to her from top to bottom.

Thinking she might have misread, Xia Xi slowly scrolled the screen, searched carefully, and indeed found nothing.

Everything that happened yesterday felt like a dream.

Xia Xi soon noticed something odd: several hot-search items bore the characters "Ling Clan" and mentioned a person named Lingxunzhang. Not knowing who he was, she clicked in and after a while learned that Lingxunzhang is the current president of the Ling Clan.

The Ling Clan is suspected of tax evasion, investigated by the relevant authorities, throwing the entire group into chaos; the Ling Clan's official Weibo posted several statements warning the public not to spread rumors or slander.

One wave hadn't settled before another rose; Lingxunzhang, anxious over the company's affairs to the point of burning eyebrows, also had his private life exposed in a scandal. He was ambiguously involved with numerous beauties on overseas cruise ships and nightclubs, and various explicit private photos spread across the internet.

Just a few months ago he had announced his marriage; the century-spanning alliance with the Jiang Clan's miss dominated the headlines of every entertainment newspaper, the wedding was grand and splendid, and everyone in the circle knew about it.

Now, releasing such photos is tantamount to trampling the Jiang family's face into the mud. The Jiang Clan's miss, beloved by many, could hardly tolerate a speck of sand in her eye; once the scandal broke, the Jiang family sent someone to propose divorce, and the Jiang miss didn't even show her face, refusing to see Lingxunzhang again.

With the two families allied through marriage, their interests are bound together; it's easy to see that Lingxunzhang, as the party at fault, will surely suffer heavy losses.

Netizens always love a spectacle and don't mind the scale; they ignore the twists and turns, just looking for fun.

"I have the full set of President Ling's private photos—come get them fast, first come first served."

"My grandpa, my grandma, my jacket, my robe—so explosive!"

"Lately, is this a rich-family team-building? There's so much gossip, I'm stuffed."

"They don't pay the taxes they should, yet they sleep with those they shouldn't—doesn't that serve them right?"

"Investigate, investigate—maybe one vine will yield seven melons, uncovering a pile of dirty deeds."

"The upstairs comment was actually right—according to a rumor, I don't know if it's true, but it seems that person from the Ling Clan might also be suspected of hl; if it's real, they'd have to go drink tea."

"What what, don't use abbreviations—what does hl mean? Come back? In the arms? Wedding? Cold? Later? I can't decode it… someone save me."

"Hahaha, it's probably bribery. If true, they're really doomed."

Lingxunzhang couldn't stay seated in his office, his lips about to blister, he paced back and forth. The news broke last night at three a. m.; the PR department didn't have time to react, and by the time anyone noticed, it was already impossible to contain.

To say no one was behind the scenes fanning the flames, Lingxunzhang doesn't believe it.

The secretary came running, sweat on his face: "President Ling, we found out… it's… the Xu Clan."

"Xu Clan?!" Lingxunzhang suddenly raised his voice, to the point of utter disbelief, "You haven't made a mistake?"

The Xu Clan and Ling Clan have always maintained a friendly cooperative relationship, the two families are closely allied; how could it possibly be the Xu Clan who did this? Now the Xu Clan is under Xu Yanfeng's leadership—what on earth does Xu Yanfeng want to do?

Lingxunzhang rubbed his brows fiercely, at a loss as to what to do, when the office door was pushed open; he lifted his eyelids and saw his female cousin walk in, her face full of guilt and remorse.

Ling Yan bit her lip hard, her face ashen; under Lingxunzhang's questioning gaze she could barely lift her head, after a long hesitation she whispered: "I know why Xu Yanfeng is targeting our family..."