Chapter 3: The Other Man

The moment I got into the car, I called Shen An’an. “An’an, I’m flying back to Hong Kong tonight around nine. Pick me up from the airport.”

She was utterly baffled. “Why the sudden return? Are you… ditching Xia Linzhou?”

“Yep. Throwing him away. He’s damaged goods now—why keep him around to waste space?”

I didn’t take a single thing Xia Linzhou had ever bought me. Over the past two years, every time I spent a dime of his money, I’d meticulously logged it on my phone. Rough estimate… came out to over two hundred million yuan. The day after landing in Hong Kong, I wired five hundred million straight into his bank account. Clean break, with interest—we were officially square.

Then, under my brother’s arrangement, I met up with Song Qingli again. That was when I learned the truth: their engagement had been nothing more than a temporary business alliance all along. Whether I’d intervened or not, the second the contract expired, they were calling it off anyway.

Hearing that made me want to slap myself in the face.

Two whole years of Oscar-worthy performances… turns out my side-character drama was completely unnecessary.

—

By my second week back home, I had finally scouted a stunning male model. But before I could even lay a finger on his killer six-pack, a pair of arms scooped me right off my feet. I blinked, coming face-to-face with a terrifyingly familiar, dark expression—Xia Linzhou.

“Xia Linzhou, what the hell are you doing?! Put me down!”

His dark eyes narrowed onto mine. “Cheng Yunwu, you’d better behave. Otherwise, I’ll actually drop you.”

Startled, I reflexively wrapped my arms tightly around his neck. Realizing he was carrying me straight out the door, I panicked. “An’an! Save me!”

Shen An’an casually averted her eyes, playing stone-cold blind and deaf. “Sister… you’re on your own for this one.”

Xia Linzhou tossed me onto the bed and unbuckled his belt in one fluid motion. The second I tried to bolt, he pinned me down, raining down a barrage of kisses mixed with desperate, bruising bites.

“Hmm? Not desperate?” he growled, his voice laced with dark fury. “Then who was that begging me to love her before? You were the one who seduced me first, Cheng Yunwu. Don’t even dream of walking away.”

I thrashed against him, landing a sharp slap right across his face. “Xia Linzhou, don’t you find yourself utterly disgusting?!”

“*I’m* disgusting?” His face turned thunderous.

“Cheating on me right before our breakup and sneaking into bed with your little childhood sweetie! Stop playing dumb—Meng Zhiyue already sent me the video!”

He froze mid-motion. As if a lightbulb suddenly flickered on, he reached out, trying to pull me into his arms. “Sweetheart, it’s not what you think… She drugged me that night. I didn’t touch her! When you called, I was at the hospital!”

“I don’t buy it,” I ducked away from his touch, my tone dripping with ice. “Xia Linzhou, we’re done.”

“Done?! Like hell we are!” he snapped, his temper flaring. “Cheng Yunwu, dumping me without even getting the facts straight… did you find someone else already?!”

“Yeah. I did.”

His eyes flared with violent jealousy. “You just wait. Just let me find out who the bastard is—I’ll tear him apart.”

“Talk after you actually find him.” Leaving him with that, I spun on my heel and walked out.

—

The next afternoon, I was jarred awake by my phone ringing off the hook. My brother’s secretary was on the line, her voice frantic.

“First Miss, please come to the office right away! Boss Xie is in a fistfight with someone!”

“With who?”

“Mr. Xia from the Xia Corporation!”

The moment I stepped out of the car, I ran straight into Xia Linzhou walking out. Bruises marred his sharp face, and dried blood was smeared at the corner of his lip. He curled his mouth into a harsh, sarcastic smirk.

“Right on time. Scared I’d beat your little side piece to death?”

“What side piece?”

“Xie Jinchao. Isn’t he the new guy you’ve been seeing behind my back?”

I let out a soft cough, trying to maintain a straight face. “He and I aren’t what you think… He’s just a sworn brother I recently took on.”

“Sworn brother?” His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, the temperature dropping a few degrees. “This ‘sworn brother’ of yours is awfully generous, throwing hundreds of millions at you for pocket change. Meanwhile, your biological, rotten-fish-selling brother is a total cheapskate down to the last penny.”

I tilted my head, looking up at him. “I earned that money through my own investments. Besides, my real brother treats me amazingly well. He’s not a cheapskate at all.”

He let out a cold laugh. “You think I’d still believe a word coming out of a smooth liar like you?”

“Believe it or not, up to you.”

I pushed open the office door, only to realize I’d worried for nothing the second I laid eyes on my brother. He only had a tiny scrape on his lip; Xia Linzhou was clearly the one who’d taken the brunt of the beating.

My brother’s voice was deep and heavy. “Every time I think about how that guy used to be Qingli’s nominal fiancé, I just want to break his face all over again.”

Me: “…”

After a moment of silence, he continued, “Jinchen, once I wrap things up here, come with me to Shanghai to visit the Song family. Judging by Xia Linzhou’s state today, he’s clearly fallen for Qingli. If I don’t step up my game, someone’s going to snatch your future sister-in-law away.”

I pulled a conflicted face. “Brother… is there any chance he took the wrong medicine today and didn’t actually mean it that way?”

He shot me a sharp look. “Jinchen, how come you seem to understand Xia Linzhou so well?”

I let out a forced laugh. “I don’t! Just a wild guess!”

*(Yeah, a guess backed by two years of hands-on, ‘combat experience’ in his bed!)*

—

At seven in the evening, I was lounging on the sofa watching a variety show when a barrage of aggressive knocking shattered the quiet.

I opened the door to find Qi Kuo hauling a dead-drunk Xia Linzhou.

“Sister-in-law, don’t shut the door! You’ve completely misunderstood Brother Zhou! The guy in that video with Meng Zhiyue wasn’t him!”

He thrust a stack of evidence into my hands: medical records, hospital admission forms, and surveillance footage. It turned out Xia Linzhou had indeed been drugged that night and rushed straight to the ER. The guy in the clip was a body double Meng Zhiyue had hired—someone who had meticulously mimicked his side profile and voice.

Qi Kuo let out a heavy sigh. “Sister-in-law, Brother Zhou’s heart for you is purer than gold. You have no idea… on the night of his birthday, he was planning to propose to you.”

Hearing that, I froze dead in my tracks.

*I am so screwed.* Leaving him cleanly was not going to be easy now.

Taking advantage of my brain short-circuiting, Qi Kuo dumped Xia Linzhou onto the sofa and vanished faster than the wind.

I stood there, staring down at the fast-asleep man, my mind an absolute chaotic mess.

When I first approached him, it was all a lie—a calculated plot to wreck his marriage with my future sister-in-law. But falling for him…

That had been real all along.

It seemed I didn’t have the heart to keep deceiving him anymore.