Chapter 3

My heart lurched down hard.

“Do you think she kept those wounds of yours a secret?”

“Sorry, but when she was coaxing me to sleep, she told me everything.”

“She said you were trapped when you were fifteen, so you never slept well whenever it rained.”

“She said you look calm on the outside, but deep down you’re still that weak little boy who’s afraid of the dark and afraid of water.”

My ears rang.

Those words were even colder than the storm.

Three years with Shen Mingtang.

I had blocked boardroom coups for her, won overseas financing for her, and stayed up until four in the morning revising merger plans for her.

The night she had a stomach bleed, I stayed at the hospital with her all night.

When several of the Shen family’s uncles framed her for moving assets, I found the gap in the accounts and pulled her out of the swamp.

She once held me and said gently, “Yanzhou, without you, there would be no me today. When I take back the Shen family, I’ll marry you.”

I thought that was a promise.

Turns out, to her, I was just a useful tool.

A man who would work his life away for her with just a little tenderness.

Lu Wenchuan tapped on the glass. “Brother Yanzhou, don’t blame me. I just want to make you see where you stand.”

He looked up at Shen Mingtang, and his voice suddenly softened.

“Mingtang, you won’t blame me, will you?”

Shen Mingtang put down her teacup and said lightly, “Don’t go too far.”

Lu Wenchuan immediately pouted in grievance. “How is that too far? You clearly promised me you’d make me happy tonight.”

“You also said the engagement was just a stopgap!”

I stared in shock at Shen Mingtang.

“Is that true?”

Shen Mingtang frowned.

She probably hadn’t expected Lu Wenchuan to slip up like that in front of everyone.

But very quickly, she resumed that lofty calm again.

“Since you heard it, I don’t need to hide it from you.”

I was soaked through from head to toe, standing in the freezing water as I looked at her.

“So tomorrow’s engagement banquet is fake too?”

She said flatly, “It isn’t fake. It’s only an engagement, not a marriage license.”

“Jiang Yanzhou, you should know that marriage in the Shen family can’t be based on feelings alone.”

“Wenchuan has the Lu family behind him. He’s the one most suited to stand beside me.”

My nails dug into my palm. “Then what am I?”

At last, a hint of impatience surfaced in Shen Mingtang’s eyes. “Do you really have to ask it so ugly?”

“For these past three years, I haven’t treated you badly! You wanted a position, so I gave you the vice president seat. You wanted respect, and who in the Shen Group dared not call you President Jiang?”

“As for marriage, I can’t give that to you, and I don’t need to lie to you for the rest of your life.”

She spoke calmly, as if everything I had given her over three years was only worth a vice president title.

Lu Wenchuan smiled and leaned against her.

“Brother Yanzhou, you should learn to be content.”

“You have no background, no family, and your parents are both gone. Getting this far with Mingtang is already like your ancestors’ graves are smoking.”

Someone nearby chimed in.

“Exactly.”

“If President Shen really married him, where would the Shen family put its face?”

“What good is ability when rich-family marriages are about where you come from?”

“Jiang Yanzhou should wake up too. At most, he’s the hero who helped President Shen rise to power. How can a hero become the empress?”

I looked at those people who had once bowed and scraped to me in the conference room.

When they respected me, they called me President Jiang.

Now that they saw Shen Mingtang wasn’t protecting me, they immediately changed their faces.

A man in a white suit smiled and raised his phone.

“President Jiang, want me to take a photo for you to remember this by?”

“After all, by tomorrow, the person standing next to President Shen might be Young Master Lu.”

“Tonight’s look of yours also counts as your last time being the main character.”

I didn’t say anything else.

When people hurt this much, they actually become clear-headed.

I lifted my hand to my left wrist, and the watch was still there.

It wasn’t an ordinary watch.

Three months ago, I noticed something was wrong with the Shen Group’s internal accounts, so I had my security team build me an emergency device.

As long as I pressed the crown three times in a row, it would automatically locate me and send alerts to my lawyer, my assistant, and my private security team.

Shen Mingtang didn’t know that.

She had always thought I had given all my cards to her.

But she forgot that a person who crawled out of ruins would never truly hand over his life to anyone.

I lowered my head and pretended the rain had choked me, then raised a hand to cover my wrist.

One time.

Two times.

Three times.

The watch vibrated faintly.

The signal had been sent.