Chapter 198: Second-Hand Goods

Zhu Yuan rolled her eyes at him silently. "You're overthinking it. I'm afraid you won't keep your word and will bully my grandfather."

Sheng Yu wrapped an arm around her waist and led her upstairs. "Although he's a bit green when it comes to playing chess with me, he is old after all. I hadn't even started bullying him yet, and he was already sleepy."

Zhu Yuan stopped in her tracks and looked at him quietly.

Her expression was helpless and somewhat amused.

She touched her forehead and sighed, "You really are something."

"Where is your room?" Sheng Yu stood in the hallway with her.

She pointed to the second room down the hall. "There."

"Who lives in this one?" Sheng Yu pointed to the first room, which was right next to hers.

Zhu Yuan said, "That's my brother's."

Sheng Yu narrowed his eyes, but he quickly suppressed the fire in his heart.

Zhu Jingyao had watched Zhu Yuan grow up, and they had called each other brother and sister since they were small. They just lived in adjacent rooms, and even when Zhu Yuan took a bath...

The fire Sheng Yu had just suppressed rose up again.

Feeling the pressure on her waist tighten, Zhu Yuan frowned in pain. Seeing the man clenching his back teeth, she asked in confusion, "What's wrong with you?"

Why was he suddenly angry for no reason?

Could it be...

She looked at the two doors side-by-side and suddenly realized.

He was jealous again.

She hurriedly explained, "He is my brother. Although we aren't related by blood, I've treated him like my own brother since I was a child. Can you stop being jealous for no reason?"

"I'm being jealous for no reason?" Sheng Yu looked down at her; she really didn't know anything.

He gave a soft huff, scooped her up into his arms, walked over, and kicked open her bedroom door. "He'll be out of prison in less than twenty days. Are you happy?"

Zhu Yuan's joy, which was about to spill out, was cut short when she met Sheng Yu's warning gaze. She curved her eyes and said with a smile, "Happy to death!"

Sheng Yu gritted his teeth, amused by his own anger.

He knew it would be like this!

He tossed her directly onto the pink, girlish bed, his tall frame looming over her. One hand braced against the bed, the other pressing down on her waist. "If I don't discipline you for a day, you get itchy, don't you?"

"This is my house, don't..." Zhu Yuan was pinned down and couldn't sit up; she blushed with embarrassment and anger. "My grandfather is still sleeping downstairs."

"He sleeps his sleep, we sleep ours. We won't interfere with each other."

What a line—not interfering with each other.

But Sheng Yu was only scaring her; he didn't actually do anything to her the first time he stayed the night at her house.

Though that didn't stop him from enjoying himself.

Sheng Yu carried Zhu Yuan to the bathroom to wash her hands, then pressed her against the vanity and kissed her for a while. "Don't you dare use that kind of talk to provoke me again in the future."

The woman in his arms had long since been "disciplined" into submission.

Watching her nod, Sheng Yu gently ruffled her hair. "Good girl."

The night was more than half over.

Sheng Yu lay in the room filled with Zhu Yuan's scent, holding the soft person in his arms who had already fallen fast asleep, and before long, he fell asleep too.

The next day, before the sky was fully bright.

Sheng Yu rolled up his sleeves and walked downstairs, intending to make soybean paste noodles for Zhu Yuan. Just as he reached the bottom floor, he saw that the lights were already on in the kitchen.

By the time he walked over, Zhu Qi had just taken vegetables out of the refrigerator.

Hearing footsteps, Zhu Qi turned his head to look.

Their eyes met, and he gave a cold huff: "Where did you sleep last night?"

"Grandfather knows the answer, yet he asks." Sheng Yu deliberately emphasized the title to highlight the level of intimacy between him and Zhu Yuan.

Zhu Qi drew a breath, his face flushing red. "What did you call me?"

Sheng Yu calmly took a carrot from his hand, picked up a kitchen knife, and peeled it with a few swift, practiced, and natural motions before rinsing it under the faucet.

He placed the carrot on the cutting board, turned his head to look at Zhu Qi—who was either angered or stunned by him—and asked in a nonchalant tone, "If I call you Grandfather, do you dare to answer?"

Hmph.

A challenge.

"Call it if you want; Enzo calls me Grandfather too." Zhu Qi muttered under his breath, snatched the carrot back from his hand, and said in a deep voice, "You've been flying back and forth, aren't you tired? Go get some more sleep; you don't need to help here."

"No need," Sheng Yu said indifferently. "I don't need much sleep every day."

"I know. Smart people don't need much sleep. My grandson only needs three hours a day."

"Is Grandfather complimenting me?"

"I..." Zhu Qi was momentarily speechless, his muttered curses turning into internal ones.

After Zhu Yuan got up and finished breakfast, she and Sheng Yu set off to return to Kyoto City.

Today she had taken a day off from the troupe to attend the shareholders' meeting at Sheng Group.

Director Hao had called the Pei Family Bank yesterday. After all, the Second Master had previously given orders that any movements Zhu Yuan made were to be reported to him—except for anything related to Sheng Yu, which he didn't want to hear a single word about.

Pei Ling crouched in front of a cage, feeding raw meat to a wolf cub.

The wolf cub grew fast. When he found it in the wild, it was only as tall as his ankle, on the verge of death.

He was not a man of mercy. He listened to the Qingxin Mantra only because, in his childhood, he had fought wolf after wolf to survive; he had been soaked in the stench of blood, covered in gore.

The first time Pei Ling saw it, he was reminded of his younger self—clearly on the verge of death, yet still clinging to life, fighting desperately to survive.

Now, this wolf cub had grown almost to his knee.

He gently stroked the wolf cub's head.

It struggled desperately to live, simply because it wanted to live.

Yet he struggled desperately to live, only because he wanted to destroy the Pei Family with his own hands, to destroy this so-called "home" that had destroyed him.

Pei Li entered from outside, stood by the door, and said in a low voice, "Second Master, Miss Zhu has already returned to Kyoto City."

The man's hand holding the meat tongs paused, "Just got off the plane?"

"Yes, she returned with Sheng Yu."

Pei Ling gave a cold snort, "You could have left out that last part."

He tossed aside the iron tongs and wiped his hands with a warm towel, "What time is the shareholders' meeting?"

"Three o'clock in the afternoon."

Pei Li hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Second Master, do you need me to send some men to secretly protect Miss Zhu?"

"Why should I care about her? She is determined to marry no one but Sheng Yu, and she has loved Sheng Yu to death her entire life; if I send people to protect her, what would that make me?" Pei Ling's expression was as cold as frost.

Listening to these insincere words, Pei Li did not know how to respond; it seemed that after the scandal between Sheng Yu and Ning Huaiqing broke that day, the Second Master had gone to see Miss Zhu and had an unpleasant encounter.

"Have you found out why that Ning Huaiqing went abroad three years ago?"

He changed the subject, and Pei Li replied, "I have found some information; although it is not very clear, the general outline has emerged. Three years ago, Sheng Yu had a sexual encounter with Ning Huaiqing in Yucheng, which is why Sheng Yu sent her abroad."

Pei Ling sat in his chair and leaned back against the backrest.

He sneered coldly, "A second-hand one, and she still loves him to death."

Pei Li was about to withdraw when the man sitting in the chair crossed his legs, "Come back!"

"Second Master?"

"Send some people out."

Zhu Yuan looked at him, her eyes calm and without a single ripple; she said softly, "Sheng Yu, between us, it ended long ago."