Chapter 26: She Had Been a Joke All Along

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She walked toward the private KTV room with Shen Zhou, but halfway there, Shen Zhou received a phone call, so she went ahead and waited outside the room.

Before she could push the door open, Xie Mo’s voice drifted out from inside.

“Guess which little lover Shen Zhou is bringing tonight? Song Qianqian, or that female CEO he spent a night with before?”

Xie Mo was the heir to the Xie family, Shen Zhou’s friend, and someone who loved nothing more than watching a good show.

Gu Xun leaned back and laughed. “A bottle of Golden Legend. I bet he’s bringing Tang Yuan tonight.”

“Oh? Why? He hasn’t taken Tang Yuan out in ages.”

“Her brother Tang Shangxu is coming tonight. There’s no way Shen Zhou would bring his lover in front of his brother-in-law.”

Tang Yuan’s fingertips rested against the door. So all of them already knew that Shen Zhou was cheating on her.

So she had been a laughingstock all along.

Xie Mo took a sip of wine, swirling the stemmed glass in his hand. “Tang Shangxu really is something. He even managed to secure that plot of land. I heard the holdout family didn’t want money or a house. I wonder how Tang Shangxu managed to win them over.”

“Then you don’t know the story. The old man refused to move because his wife had been missing for ten years, and he was afraid she would return one day and be unable to find her home. When Tang Shangxu first entered the bidding for the land six months ago, he sent people to look for the old man’s missing wife. He was lucky enough to find her. Now the old man is willing to sell the land only to him. He won’t sell it to anyone else.”

The plot lay within the government’s future prime development zone. The old man had been lucky enough to inherit it from his ancestors and had guarded it without selling. He built a several-story house and a farm there. Only six months ago had the area been slated for development, but he refused to move.

Countless people in the capital had their eyes on that land. Yet because of the holdout, there was nothing anyone could do. They could not agree on a price, and the other party was stubborn beyond reason.

No one had expected Tang Shangxu to acquire it so quickly.

When it came to achieving his goals, Tang Shangxu truly knew how to endure humiliation and bear burdens.

Now that Shen Zhou needed to cooperate with him over the land, he naturally had to bring Tang Yuan along.

Tang Yuan heard every word clearly outside the room, then pushed the door open.

When Xie Mo saw her, he exchanged a glance with Gu Xun. Gu Xun had actually guessed correctly.

Gu Xun raised an eyebrow and immediately called the manager, asking him to send over a bottle of Golden Legend.

Tang Yuan pretended not to know they had been betting. Just as she always did, she obediently sat to one side and waited for Shen Zhou.

Xie Mo rubbed the glass in his hand, thinking that it was no wonder Shen Zhou did not like her despite her beauty. She was simply too well-behaved.

Men in the prime of their reckless youth did not like obedient girls like her.

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Gu Xun opened the bottle of Golden Legend and poured Tang Yuan a glass. “Well, this is rare. Our little sister is finally willing to come out and have fun. Did you come alone? Not clinging to Shen Zhou today?”

“Shen Zhou will be here soon.”

After saying that, she pushed the glass away. “I don’t drink.”

Gu Xun leaned closer and could not resist saying, “Little Yuan, you’re so well-behaved. It’s a good thing you married Shen Zhou. If you acted this obediently after marrying another man, who knows how badly you might have been bullied.”

There was not a single truthful sentence in these men’s mouths. No wonder they were Shen Zhou’s friends.

She tugged faintly at the corner of her lips. “Now that I’m married, of course I have to cling to my husband.”

Gu Xun sighed inwardly. That was precisely why she was so boring.

The door to the private room opened, and Shen Zhou entered together with Tang Shangxu.

Tang Shangxu had joined this circle last, and there had always been a measure of distance between him and the others.

Back then, these men had looked down on him. Everyone in their circle knew that the Tang family had built its fortune through women. After finally producing a single male heir, they had assumed he was probably nothing more than a kept man.

Yet Tang Shangxu had developed far too successfully over the years. Before anyone realized it, he had already become one of the capital’s rising magnates.

He still wore the same stern expression, never revealing the slightest smile.

Tang Yuan quickly stood and called out, “Brother.”

She had seen him once when she returned to the Tang residence, but at the time she had been kneeling in punishment.

Tang Shangxu nodded and handed her a hair clip.

Tang Yuan froze when he heard him say, “I saw it at a shopping mall on the way here.”

The hair clip glittered brightly, its decoration made entirely of genuine diamonds. It was undeniably girlish.

Tang Yuan lowered her lashes, accepted it, and fastened it in her hair. “Thank you, Brother.”

“Mm.”

Tang Shangxu sat down. The moment he arrived, the atmosphere became noticeably less relaxed.

Shen Zhou said nothing. His gaze fell on the top of Tang Yuan’s head, and the curve of his lips diminished slightly.

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Tang Yuan had been adopted by the Tang family and was not related to Tang Shangxu by blood.

Although Shen Zhou knew perfectly well that there was nothing improper between them, men naturally liked to mark their territory. They did not like other men leaving traces in what they considered their domain.

He wrapped an arm around Tang Yuan’s waist, leaned over, and kissed her cheek.

“If you like things like this, I’ll take you shopping when we get home.”

Tang Shangxu held the glass Gu Xun had just poured for Tang Yuan. She had not taken a sip, but Tang Shangxu drank it instead before asking, “She’s been married to you for two years. Have you never bought her anything before?”

The smile at the corners of Shen Zhou’s mouth stiffened, and his eyes turned cold.

Hearing that, Tang Yuan was delighted. She was afraid of Tang Shangxu, but his greatest virtue was that he was never particularly courteous to anyone. He was the same in the business world—sharp, decisive, and utterly ruthless.

She was more than happy to watch Shen Zhou suffer, and only then did she obediently step in to smooth things over. “Brother, he’s given me plenty of gifts. I just don’t like wearing them.”

Tang Shangxu looked at her with the sternness of a parent. “A girl should look like a girl. The Shen family isn’t short of money. How is it that you don’t have a single piece of jewelry?”

Shen Zhou set down his glass. “Has my brother-in-law come here to put me on trial? In the two years since I married Yuan Yuan, I can honestly say I’ve never mistreated her. Besides, aren’t you familiar with the temperament of the women your Tang family raises? Simplicity and cleanliness—that’s what I’ve always required of her.”

Tang Yuan felt a sharp sting in her chest and lowered her lashes. In truth, she rather liked those things.

But the Tang family’s rules did indeed forbid her from wearing such showy jewelry.

Xie Mo hurriedly tried to defuse the tension. “All right, all right. Shangxu, we’ve all seen how well Shen Zhou treats little Yuan. You can rest assured—he doesn’t care for any of the women outside.”

Tang Shangxu did not usually pay attention to gossip and was an exceedingly rigid man, so he truly had no idea that Shen Zhou had someone else outside the marriage.

Even if he had known, he would not have said anything for the sake of the larger picture.

His kindness toward Tang Yuan had its limits.

Once the atmosphere had eased somewhat, Xie Mo brought up the matter of the land.

From then on, they discussed business. Tang Yuan had no interest in listening, but she understood the general situation: with Tang Shangxu securing that plot of land, his position among the capital’s rising elite had become even more firmly established.

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