Chapter 80: What, are you hiding a man at home?

The night was already deep, and the cruise ship was about to dock.

In the brightly lit hall, a group of men and women were all looking down at their phones, whispering to each other, with low laughter breaking out from time to time.

"What are they looking at?" Yuan Fengye asked, turning his head back; he was leaning lazily against the railing, exhausted after a day of playing.

Qi Jing lifted his chin and said cryptically, "You'll know if you look at the group chat."

Before Yuan Fengye could take out his phone, Dong Shu laughed first.

"Ning Er is heartless and often takes her frustrations out on her makeup artist. The makeup artist betrayed her by sending the video of her being humiliated by Second Master Pei in the theater dressing room today to a friend, but accidentally sent it to the group chat; by the time she realized she'd sent it to the wrong place, it was too late to recall it."

"That's pretty wicked," Yuan Fengye said with a smile.

He leaned over to Qi Jing and snatched Qi Jing's phone to look.

Sheng Yu leaned against the back of his chair and flicked open his lighter cover with his thumb; only a cold, deep voice belonging to a man could be heard from the video, carrying a hint of intimacy: "Someone bullied you, why didn't you tell me?"

His gaze paused slightly; Sheng Yu lit a cigarette, his eyes narrowing a little.

"My god, could the rumors be true?" Yuan Fengye suddenly realized, "Weren't there rumors before about... Zhu Yuan and Pei Ling? When have you ever seen Pei Ling be this good to a woman?"

Compared to Sheng Yu, Pei Ling's level of indifference toward women bordered on hating them.

"Don't say that, the way Pei Ling protects Zhu Yuan is actually quite reassuring."

Yuan Fengye didn't like hearing that, "No matter what, the Lu Family and the Pei Family aren't on good terms; how could Zhu Yuan betray Zhan Ge and be with Pei Ling?"

"Did you see them together?" Dong Shu rolled her eyes at him.

"Even if they aren't together, isn't Pei Ling's intention obvious? He must be pursuing Zhu Yuan," Yuan Fengye said, as if he had hit the nail on the head.

The surroundings went quiet.

Whether it was because the temperature had dropped again or not, Yuan Fengye felt a chill running down the back of his neck.

The ship finally docked, and Yuan Fengye saw Sheng Yu stand up and walk out, calling out, "Yu Ge, why are you walking so fast?"

"Going back to sleep," the man said without looking back.

Yuan Fengye's heart skipped a beat; he felt the atmosphere was strange. Could it be that Yu Ge was going to settle the score with Pei Ling to vent for Ning Chu?

After the night performance ended, Zhu Yuan came down from the stage and ran into Du Chenming.

As soon as Du Chenming saw her, he looked as if he had been given a huge fright and immediately took a detour.

Zhu Yuan had to lower the hand she had just raised to greet him; Du Chenming had been like this for the past two days—whenever he saw her after getting off stage, he would avoid her like the plague and would never spend time with her in private.

But just as she had walked two steps, a thought flashed through her mind like lightning.

That night, Sheng Yu had bitten her shoulder and said he would cut off Du Chenming's hands.

Had he warned Du Chenming?

Other than that, she really couldn't think of why Du Chenming would run away the moment he saw her.

Zhu Yuan slowly clenched her fingers and returned to the dressing room to remove her makeup and change her clothes.

The phone on the table rang; she took off her earrings and flipped the screen over to look, but her whole body stiffened when she saw that phone number with no contact name.

The ringtone kept going, and Zhu Yuan had no choice but to swipe the screen to answer.

She held the phone to her ear and whispered, "Hello."

A soft, delicate voice reached the other side, and the man said emotionlessly, "Back door."

He hung up the phone after saying those two words.

Zhu Yuan sat in the bustling dressing room, surrounded by the laughter and chatter of her colleagues, yet she felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar; her whole person felt like it was floating in mid-air, without a shred of stability.

Her mind recalled Ning Chu pointing at her nose and viciously saying before she left: "I'm going to tell Yu Ge about this, you just wait and see!"

Was Sheng Yu going to vent for Ning Chu?

But her grandfather and brother were both held in his grasp; she couldn't refuse to go.

How could she, with her own strength, contend with him?

Quickly packing her things, Zhu Yuan took her bag and walked toward the back door.

Her expression was somewhat dazed; it had been several days since they last met.

She didn't know what she had said that night to annoy him, but she could guess it must have been that sentence praising him for being brave when he was young.

He seemed to be extremely averse to being pitied or praised.

He had a very strong sense of defensiveness toward those around him.

She decided to speak less when she saw him later; that would reduce the probability of touching his minefield, and if she accidentally displeased him, it might implicate her grandfather and brother.

Walking to the back door, she saw a car under the shade of the trees with its hazard lights on, but it wasn't the car Sheng Yu usually rode in; she guessed it was to prevent anyone from following him.

She hesitated for a few seconds before walking over to pull open the car door.

As if a gust of cold air had rushed toward her, Zhu Yuan instinctively pulled her hand back, her eyes meeting those of the man inside the car.

He was wearing black casual clothes, his whole person exuding a stern coldness; his brows and eyes were clear and chilly, and the crisscrossing, fragmented light and shadow made his facial contours appear even more three-dimensional and distinct.

She immediately looked away, pursed her lips, and sat in.

She waited for the man to lose his temper at her and stand up for Ning Chu. But she waited for quite a while and nothing happened.

Until the car left the theater troupe.

Zhu Yuan clenched her fingers and heard the man's cold voice beside her: "Where is my lighter?"

She was stunned, thinking she had misheard.

She glanced at him quickly and immediately withdrew her gaze.

"It's at my place," Zhu Yuan answered, and then remembering something, she said, "I'm going to the hospital to stay with my grandfather later; I'll send the lighter to you via same-city courier tomorrow morning."

She hadn't been home these past few days and had forgotten about his lighter.

Besides, she hadn't expected that lighter to be so important to him that he would specifically ask her for it back.

Sheng Yu said with displeasure, "Are you addicted to sending couriers?"

Sending bank cards, sending notes!

Now you even want to send a lighter!

"Sending express packages is quite convenient," Zhu Yuan explained.

A cold sneer curled the man's lips, "Convenient for drawing a clear line between us, so you can be with other men, is that it?"

This sarcastic fury left Zhu Yuan feeling bewildered; she dared not vent her anger, so she clenched her fists and turned to look out the car window.

Not until the car stopped downstairs at her apartment complex did Zhu Yuan open the door and get out, without sparing Sheng Yu a single glance.

"Young Master Yu, wait a few minutes for me; I'm going upstairs to get it."

She closed the car door, and just as she turned around, the door on the other side opened.

The man's tall, upright figure blocked the motion-sensor light in the stairwell as he walked toward her.

His silhouette against the light was exceptionally deep, pressing down so hard it made one unable to breathe.

"'Young Master Yu'?" the man sneered.

Zhu Yuan was suddenly grabbed by the wrist; unable to break free and knowing what he wanted to hear, she went against her own heart and changed her words, "Yu Ge."

Sheng Yu looked at her unwilling expression; this "Yu Ge" was even worse than "Young Master Yu."

He still held her wrist tightly, leading her toward the stairwell.

"I can just go upstairs and get it, you wait for me in the car," Zhu Yuan was terrified of him going upstairs.

The man stood before the elevator with a cold face, pulling her into his arms and staring at the face that refused to give him a smile, "Not letting me into the house, what is it, are you hiding a man inside?"