Chapter 1: You tried to make a move on me, I am acting in self-defense

Less than three months after the engagement, Zhu Yuan's fiancé died.

A dim corner of the Lu Family Old Residence.

Figures were entangled and swaying, with a faint fragrance drifting in the air.

"Can't stand the loneliness anymore?"

The man hidden in the darkness leaned against a corridor pillar, slowly gripping the small hand Zhu Yuan was using to wreak havoc on his chest, his tone revealing a sense of nonchalance.

Yet the force in his hand felt as if it were about to crush her fingers.

"It hurts..."

Zhu Yuan frowned and cried out in pain.

The man threw her hand away without a shred of tenderness.

Zhu Yuan stumbled a step and nearly fell.

"You've got some nerve, daring to provoke me?"

Sheng Yu flicked out a cigarette and lit it, sweeping a glance at her with coldness hooked into the corners of his eyes.

Just then, the headlights of a car flashed by in the distance, illuminating Zhu Yuan's face, which was flushed with an unnatural redness.

"Who's there?"

Tree shadows swayed, and a shout came from the half-lowered car window; the person arriving seemed to want to poke their head out for a closer look.

Zhu Yuan's collar was messily open, revealing a bewitching, faint fragrance.

Sheng Yu cursed under his breath, bit down on his cigarette, and pulled her into his arms, his tall frame blocking all the light.

The person couldn't see clearly, so they drove the car away while grumbling.

Sheng Yu looked with deep, dark eyes at the woman in his arms who was delirious and taking the opportunity to climb onto his chest, her boneless, soft hand even burrowing into his black collar.

As the man's body tensed, Zhu Yuan let out a satisfied sigh, her hand stroking the man's face, her head tilted back, her red lips brushing against his chin as if by chance.

"Help me, I'll give you money after it's done."

"Help you?"

Sheng Yu sneered coldly.

His dark, heavy eyes stared at Zhu Yuan's face like a hawk, and he smashed the cigarette in his hand onto the ground.

"Don't you regret this."

A strong sense of suffocation made Zhu Yuan struggle to open her eyes.

"Cough..."

But before she could see her surroundings clearly, a sputtering stream of water poured down from above, nearly choking her; she had to close her eyes again, hold her breath, and retreat backward.

The next second, her waist was tightened by a powerful force.

"Awake now?"

The man's cold, crisp voice came from above her head.

Zhu Yuan was so startled her whole body tensed; she jerked her head up, blinking her eyes to see the man's sharp, well-defined jawline vaguely through the water.

And a small brown mole on the man's earlobe.

The man's face became clearer and clearer...

It was Sheng Yu!

And at this moment, she was pressed entirely against him; one of his hands was around her waist, and the other was holding the showerhead.

The suffocation she felt just now was caused by the water spraying from the showerhead.

While she was still shaken, Sheng Yu raised the showerhead, making a move to spray water on her face again.

"What are you doing!"

Zhu Yuan came to her senses and instinctively reached to grab the showerhead.

Sheng Yu, however, relied on his height advantage to hold the showerhead high, pinching her waist to easily control her.

"What am I doing? You were the one trying to make a move on me just now; I'm acting in self-defense."

Looking down from above at the woman drenched in water in his arms, a mocking arc appeared at the corners of his lips.

"What nonsense are you..."

In an instant, fragmented images of her entangling herself with Sheng Yu surfaced in her mind.

The words on the tip of Zhu Yuan's tongue stopped abruptly, and her face turned pale in a flash.

There were many people who came to the Lu Family to pay their respects today, and it wasn't until dusk, when the sky was about to darken, that she followed the Old Madam's instructions to return to her room to rest for a while.

She had only drunk a glass of water handed to her by a servant, and on the way back to her room, she felt an unbearable heat throughout her body.

On the way, she seemed to have been hugged by a man; in her desperation, she kicked that man, stumbled away, and didn't even know where she had run to.

The drug took effect too quickly, and having lost her reason, she didn't know she had encountered a bigger problem than being drugged.

She never expected that she would have provoked Sheng Yu.

The young master of the Kyoto Sheng Family, her fiancé's good brother.

A chill immediately spread through her entire body, and Zhu Yuan was completely sober.

She trembled and clenched her fingers, saying in a low voice, "I'm sorry."

A lingering fear also surged into her heart at this moment.

Fortunately, nothing had happened between them.

Otherwise, she would be beyond redemption.

After finishing this apology, Zhu Yuan wanted to leave this place immediately.

Someone had drugged her, so there must be something else waiting for her; she could not remain passive.

Just as she was preparing to push Sheng Yu away, Sheng Yu released her waist a step ahead of her, leaning lazily against the wall with his whole body; the showerhead swayed between his fingers, and his gaze swept across her upper body, which was visible through her damp clothes.

Zhu Yuan subconsciously looked down.

After being soaked by the water, her black shirt faintly revealed the pale pink skin underneath.

She hurriedly grabbed a bath towel to wrap around herself, covering up her state of disarray.

Since things had already reached this point, she could not afford to dwell on how much Sheng Yu had seen.

However, when she looked up, she saw that he was also soaked.

It must have been because she had been out of control earlier, and to help her sober up, Sheng Yu had been forced to hold her and pour water over her, causing himself to get wet as well.

At this moment, that black shirt was plastered to his body, the contours of his muscles from his chest to his abdomen wild and bulging; just a glance was enough to make one blush and feel flustered.

Not to mention that Zhu Yuan's drug effects had only just passed, and her meager willpower was simply not enough to allow her to resist such temptation.

"Thank you."

Sheng Yu's gaze lazily flicked toward her earlobes, which were so red they looked like they were about to bleed, yet the expression on his face was surprisingly cold.

He gave a light scoff.

"I didn't help you, so what are you thanking me for?"

Zhu Yuan looked up, gazing at him in confusion.

The mockery on Sheng Yu's lips deepened, and those pitch-black eyes revealed a chill, "Didn't you touch my face, ask me to help you, and promise to give me money afterward?"

Zhu Yuan's brows trembled violently.

What kind of outrageous words were those?

She bit the bullet, her voice growing quieter and quieter, "I meant for you to help me call a doctor or take me to the hospital."

Sheng Yu seemed too lazy to listen to her explanation and withdrew his gaze, "Your mouth is your own; whatever you say goes."

Zhu Yuan, who had walked to the bathroom door, suddenly stopped; she turned back to look at the soaked Sheng Yu, not daring to let her gaze wander downward, yet not daring to look directly at his face either, so she could only look at his Adam's apple.

She weighed her words, "I hope you won't speak of what happened tonight."

Sheng Yu didn't even look at her, slowly turning around with a cold and indifferent tone, "You were drugged, and you're just going to let it go like this?"

Zhu Yuan's fingertips almost dug into her palms until they bled, but she only said calmly, "I want to wait until after Lu Huaizhan's funeral to talk about it."

Sheng Yu said nothing.

But Zhu Yuan's intuition told her that he would not speak of it.

Zhu Yuan walked to the room wrapped in the bath towel, just as Sheng Yu's Bodyguard, Situ, pushed the door open and entered.

Seeing Zhu Yuan wrapped in a bath towel startled Situ, who blurted out, "Miss Zhu, is Young Master Yu alright?"

Zhu Yuan walked over and looked at the bag in Situ's hand, which contained men's clothing.

Dry clothes.

"Your Young Master Yu is still innocent."

Taking advantage of Situ's daze, Zhu Yuan reached out and took a black shirt from the bag, her movements graceful and swift, "Help me thank him."

With that, she took the clothes and left.