Chapter 194: She Also Has Secrets She Doesn't Want Anyone to Know

The car door opened, and Zhu Yuan covered her neck as she hurried out of the car, taking angry little steps as she trotted inside.

She didn't need to look in a mirror to know that Sheng Yu, that big wolf-dog, had definitely left a mark on her neck.

But angry as she was, when she was about to enter the departure hall, she still couldn't help but look back.

The man was still sitting in the car, watching her through the window the whole time, a smug smile tugging at the corners of his mouth; his lips were redder than usual, the result of him kissing her forcefully just moments ago.

Zhu Yuan sighed in her heart.

Admit it.

She just had a thing for his face.

The plane arrived in Yucheng, and the car went directly to the Yucheng theater, with accommodations arranged at the hotel next to the theater.

Everyone else was sharing a room.

Zhu Yuan had a room to herself.

If asked, it was an arrangement by the troupe to let her get better rest.

Troupe Leader Hao didn't say that this was the intention of Sheng Yu and Pei Ling.

Of course, it wasn't something the two of them had discussed together.

Rather, they had called him one after the other to make the arrangements.

Troupe Leader Hao hadn't expected that he could receive calls from two big shots on the same day.

After getting settled, Zhu Yuan heard a knock on the door, and at the same time, her phone received a message—

I'm here, open the door.

She walked over to open the door and, sure enough, saw Song Ci outside.

Song Ci had returned to Yucheng two days earlier than her to take care of some business.

"How did you get here so fast?" Zhu Yuan let go of the door and turned to walk into the room.

Song Ci walked in and casually closed the door behind her, "I just happened to be in the area for business."

She walked inside, her gaze sweeping over the presidential suite where Zhu Yuan was staying, "The treatment for the star performer?"

"Can a star performer get treatment like this?" Zhu Yuan retorted.

She was clear-headed about it; she just didn't want to call Hao Liang out.

Since he said it was arranged by the troupe and didn't explicitly say it was arranged by Sheng Yu, there was likely a share of Pei Ling's influence in it too.

She didn't tell Song Ci explicitly, but Song Ci could probably guess a bit, and couldn't help but laugh, "You femme fatale."

"The official performance doesn't start until tomorrow. I'll tidy up, and we'll go back to have dinner with Grandpa before coming back."

"Sure." Song Ci had no objections.

The two went downstairs and got into Song Ci's car.

Seeing the car she was driving, Zhu Yuan was stunned for a moment, "This car..."

"I'm Mrs. Yuan now and I have money; I went to the dealership to buy this car back as soon as I returned to Yucheng." Song Ci patted the steering wheel.

This was Song Ci's eighteenth birthday gift from her father, which held extraordinary significance.

Previously, when the Song Family was drowning in debt, Song Ci had sold it to a second-hand dealer.

Now, she had bought the car back.

In this instant, Zhu Yuan suddenly understood what Song Ci meant when she said that marrying Yuan Fengye was an excellent deal.

"By the way, I saw the rumors about Sheng Yu and Ning Huaiqing from two days ago. What do you think?"

Zhu Yuan tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, "I don't think anything of it. If Sheng Yu really liked Ning Huaiqing, would there even be a place for me?"

"I'm relieved that you can be so clear-headed; I was just afraid you'd be rattled by a few words online." Song Ci gripped the steering wheel tightly.

Zhu Yuan grew even calmer, "I've read the comments online too. Some of them shouldn't be baseless; Ning Huaiqing is quite special. There was a woman in their circle named Dong Shu who had to pretend to be a tomboy just to get along in that circle, while Ning Huaiqing only needs to be herself. That alone beats ninety-nine percent of women."

"Then you..."

"Sheng Yu said I'm the first woman he's ever liked, and I believe that. So, I don't want to dwell on his history with Ning Huaiqing; everyone has their own past."

Just like how she also had a secret hidden deep in the bottom of her heart.

That secret she was unwilling to let anyone pry into.

Song Ci hummed in acknowledgment and looked casually out the car window.

Her mind flashed back to the scene from the night before last, when a drunk Yuan Fengye returned home, and she had taken advantage of his weakened defenses to probe and learn a bit about what happened three years ago.

At the time, Yuan Fengye was heavily intoxicated and only said one sentence: three years ago, Sheng Yu slept with Ning Huaiqing.

After that, Sheng Yu sent Ning Huaiqing abroad.

Song Ci thought to herself that the night three years ago must have been very sordid.

It was indeed hard to talk about such things, and fortunately, Zhu Yuan was a free-spirited girl who wouldn't get hung up on things that happened in the past.

Otherwise, this knot in her heart would likely be very difficult to untie.

After returning to have dinner with Grandpa, Zhu Yuan rushed back to the hotel for the next session, where the theater troupe and the organizers were having dinner together.

After dinner, it was already quite late.

Zhu Yuan returned to her room, kicked off her shoes, and collapsed onto the sofa; after a tiring day, she could finally rest.

She stared at the ceiling in the dead of night, and her eyes turned red without warning.

She remembered this hotel.

Three years ago, she had come here for a dinner gathering with her high school classmates.

A classmate had gotten drunk, and she helped them to a room to rest. After ensuring the classmate was safe, she left the room, only to realize when she stepped into the elevator that she had mindlessly boarded the elevator going up.

There were other people in the elevator at the time, but she hadn't noticed who they were, only thinking that she would go back downstairs once the elevator reached the upper floors.

The elevator stopped at a certain floor.

She hurried out of the elevator, but the elevator continued to go up, while the other elevator had temporarily malfunctioned and stopped running.

She had no choice but to wait in place for the elevator to come down.

However, she waited for a long time, and the elevator did not appear to be coming down.

The entire floor was empty, without a single shadow of a person; she felt inexplicably afraid and decided to take the stairs down.

But before she could even reach the stairwell, a woman's scream came from one of the rooms.

She was terrified and instinctively backed away, but accidentally bumped open a half-ajar door nearby; her body tumbled into the darkness, and the thick scent of alcohol and tobacco in the room nearly drowned her.

Before she could even scramble up to run out of the room, she was forcefully grabbed by the arm in the dim light; as her body hit the wall, a tall figure loomed over her and tore at her clothes.

She dared not even recall the scenes that followed...

She only remembered it being very painful, very frightening, and very helpless.

It was also because of this incident that she gave up working at the Yucheng Theater, because the theater was too close to this hotel.

She was afraid that passing by here any day would make her think of that nightmare.

She had not expected that three years later, she would return to this place; though she thought she had already let go of the matter, the memories came crashing into her mind.

Zhu Yuan climbed up from the sofa, stumbled to the bathroom, and took a shower, only then calming down.

When she walked out of the bathroom, she discovered a missed call from Sheng Yu.

It was a video call.

She lay down on the bed and called back; the call was connected quickly.

On the other side of the screen was the man's incredibly striking, handsome face.

The gloom in Zhu Yuan's heart instantly dissipated without a trace.

"I just went to take a shower, so I didn't hear it," she explained.

Her voice was languid, the corners of her eyes slightly red, and her lazy, charming appearance was exceptionally moving.

Sheng Yu's Adam's apple bobbed, and he said hoarsely, "Have you been drinking?"