Chapter 192: Don't You Really Doubt Me At All?

The first public performance of the new play finally came to an end.

The applause from the audience was like a tidal wave.

Zhu Yuan led the entire cast to the front of the stage for the curtain call; the audience's reaction was the greatest affirmation of the hard work she had put in during this time.

Amidst the rolling waves of applause, a tall, upright man with a cold and noble air walked onto the stage with steady steps.

The stage lights seemed to favor the man, casting a faint halo of light upon him.

"It's Sheng Yu!"

The applause from the audience came to an abrupt halt.

Zhu Yuan's feet were rooted to the stage, and she looked at him with a stunned expression.

As for the other actors standing beside her, they had long since tacitly understood the situation and smiled as they stepped aside.

They cleared a space.

After Sheng Yu stepped up onto the stage with his long legs, his gaze remained fixed on Zhu Yuan.

Even though the two of them were already together, being stared at by him like this, in front of so many people, on the stage she loved most...

Zhu Yuan blushed.

When he walked closer, her voice, which sounded like a warning, carried a hint of a woman's coquettishness, "Didn't I tell you to wait?"

"Couldn't wait a bit," Sheng Yu said somewhat nonchalantly, the corners of his mouth curling up, "so I came to find you myself."

He took a royal blue velvet box out of his coat pocket.

Ji Xiang, who had sensed the change in the atmosphere, had long been hiding behind the curtain, peeking out; she hadn't expected to see Sheng Yu walk onto the stage.

When she saw Sheng Yu take out the box, she covered her mouth in surprise.

Is he going to propose!

She couldn't help but feel nervous for Zhu Yuan!

Zhu Yuan was stunned for a moment, "You..."

The box clicked open.

Zhu Yuan's frantic heartbeat also stopped abruptly.

"What are you thinking?" Sheng Yu took a sapphire necklace out of the box, lowered his head to put it on her neck, and brought his thin lips close to her ear, his breath warm, "A gift to celebrate the successful conclusion of your performance. Why does your expression look a bit disappointed?"

Zhu Yuan's face turned beet red from embarrassment, and she hurriedly explained, "What do you mean? I was just surprised that you would prepare a gift for me."

Sheng Yu chuckled softly, "Are you implying I'm a 'straight man'?"

"You said it yourself." Zhu Yuan pushed him; in front of such a large crowd, what was he trying to do by getting so close?

However, Sheng Yu did not let her push him away as she had wished; he even wrapped his arms around her slender waist, pulling her into his embrace, and turned his head to glance at the people in the audience who were preparing to take photos with their phones.

"Wait until the day I propose to take pictures."

Those people holding their phones froze with shocked expressions on their faces.

By the time they reacted, Sheng Yu had already taken Zhu Yuan off the stage.

The image of their backs with their fingers interlaced was still captured by someone.

It was beautiful and heartwarming.

Soon, someone realized that this was Sheng Yu clarifying the situation!

"I told you, Sheng Yu doesn't look like that kind of person at all. If he wanted to play around with women, he would have done it long ago. He must truly love Zhu Yuan."

"But didn't Ning Huaiqing get into his car?"

"She got into his car because she fainted, okay? And it was Sheng Yu's assistant who got out of the car to carry her in. Think about it carefully: if Sheng Yu had feelings for her, would he not have carried her himself if he were anxious and heartbroken?"

"After all, they are friends who have known each other for so many years; could he just stand by and watch when someone faints?"

"Couldn't he have arranged another car to send Ning Huaiqing? I still think Sheng Yu has some feelings for Ning Huaiqing."

"People like you are just being contrarian for the sake of it!"

"Hey... don't you guys know? The Sheng Group is going to hold a shareholders' meeting in a few days. I heard that Zhu Yuan is now a major shareholder of the Sheng Group, holding as many shares as Sheng Hongyao! How could she, a stage actress, possibly have so much money and so many shares? It must be an astronomical price, right?"

"Yes, yes, and there is no Sheng Yu on the list for this shareholders' meeting. Do you know what this means?"

"Could it be that Sheng Yu gave all his shares to Zhu Yuan?"

"You might have hit the nail on the head."

"Damn, if this isn't true love, then what is?"

Zhu Yuan did not return to the dressing room to remove her makeup, nor did she go to change her clothes.

Wearing the qipao from her performance, she was taken into the car by Sheng Yu.

Her face was still a bit red because of Sheng Yu's words—"Wait until the day I propose to take pictures."

Sheng Yu pulled her to sit on his lap, lifted her small face, and began to admire her without restraint, "You can start now."

Zhu Yuan didn't react for a moment, "Start what?"

"Didn't you tell me to wait so you could settle scores with me?" When he said this, he had no sense of having done anything wrong, and a smile curled at the corners of his lips.

He looked like he was waiting to be scolded yet remained unruly. Zhu Yuan wanted to laugh inside, but she put on a serious expression and criticized him, "In the future, you are not allowed to let other women into your car."

The corners of Sheng Yu's mouth slowly curled into a deeper arc.

"You are not allowed to have private contact with Ning Huaiqing."

The corners of Sheng Yu's mouth curled even deeper.

"And, you are not allowed to..."

As she said "not allowed" one after another, the corners of Sheng Yu's mouth finally released completely and turned upward. He used a little force with the hand pinching her chin to lift her face, lowered his head, and kissed her red lips.

While kissing her, his fingers kneaded the back of her neck, his voice extremely hoarse, "You want me to be crazily infatuated with you that much, huh?"

"Then do you like it?" Zhu Yuan laughed while panting.

"Mm."

Sheng Yu sighed, unable to control himself as he captured her lips and tongue, "You really are a temptress."

Zhu Yuan was kissed until she couldn't catch her breath; she pressed her hands against his chest to push him away, and looking into Sheng Yu's deep, mesmerizing eyes as he sank into a sea of desire, she couldn't help but curse in her heart—

Who is the real temptress here?

"You really don't doubt me at all?" Sheng Yu tried to fasten the frog buttons on her cheongsam, only to find they wouldn't close; he had pulled them open with brute force earlier, impatient to get inside.

But it didn't matter, they would have to be undone again once they got back anyway.

Zhu Yuan shook her head, cupped his face, and looked at him with a firm gaze, "I remember what you said, and I believe you."

She admitted that when she first saw the news, she felt a bitter taste in her heart.

But she calmed down very quickly.

Sheng Yu's warm fingertips threaded into the hair at the back of her head and rubbed gently, his eyes dark and heavy, "Yuanyuan, why are you so good?"

Late at night, after Zhu Yuan had fallen asleep, Sheng Yu got up and went to the study.

Situ was already waiting for him in the study, sitting in front of the desk with a laptop placed before him.

"Young Master Yu, all the data from Miss Ning's phone has been exported." Situ showed the laptop screen to Sheng Yu.

After he had carried Ning Huaiqing into the car, he had planted a virus on her phone.

It was capable of retrieving the data on her phone.

The man glanced at it, "Is there anything suspicious?"

After dinner last night, the things Ning Huaiqing said to him in the private room, along with her extreme behavior, were all abnormal manifestations.

Before that, she had always kept her distance from him, just as she had in the past.

During dinner, he had been picking food for Zhu Yuan and hadn't noticed Ning Huaiqing at all; it wasn't until after the meal that Yuan Fengye mentioned that Ning Huaiqing had gone to take a call and had been gone for a long time.

Therefore, the thing that caused such a huge change in Ning Huaiqing's emotions must have been that phone call.

If his guess was correct, that phone call should have been related to him.

Nowadays, the people in the shadows who could be linked to him, besides Sheng Hongyao, were Shen Yijing.