Chapter 36: The Bombing Attack

Yu Zhi did not care who escorted her back to her quarters, as long as she did not get lost. She had always focused on the outcome rather than the process, and the outcome of Ning Qi'er’s handling of this matter was that he had kept her in the dark.

After a day and a night of turmoil, she was exhausted. More importantly, conversing with someone whose schemes were as porous as foam required an immense amount of mental energy, and she had no desire to study his internal thought process for the time being.

...

Although the room was not lived in, it was cleaned daily according to custom. After a quick shower, Yu Zhi fell into a deep sleep.

Ning Qi'er felt frustrated. He had finally made some progress with Yu Zhi, having temporarily dissuaded her from the idea of divorce, yet now he had created a rift between them. When would he ever truly win her over?

Watching the relaxed expression of the man opposite him, a flicker of displeasure crossed his brown pupils. It was difficult to maintain a pleasant demeanor toward someone who disrupted his relationship with Yu Zhi.

"Li Ze, you had better explain what kind of relationship you have with Ning Qihe!"

Li Ze casually unbuttoned his tight shirt cuff. "Perhaps I might end up being your brother-in-law, who knows..."

Ning Qi'er narrowed his eyes. The information the other man had so easily dropped was enough for him to grasp the situation. He relaxed his body and leaned back. Things had reached a breaking point, and these people were desperate enough to jump over a wall like cornered dogs...

"And what about you and Yu Zhi..."

Li Ze interrupted, "That should have nothing to do with President Ning."

Ning Qi'er laughed. Nothing to do with him? He rested his elbows on the empty tabletop, looking even more confident than Li Ze. "Perhaps my stepmother failed to mention that I am already married? But then again, Professor Li is clever and witty; surely you can guess who my wife is."

These people wanted to use marriage as a tool as quickly as possible, simply to extract more assets from the old man so they could secure a larger share in the future inheritance battle. However, all these plans could only be implemented under the premise that he was unmarried. When the old man and his mother signed their divorce agreement, there was a supplementary clause: if he were to get married, eighty percent of the assets under the old man’s control would belong to him. The others would get at most twenty percent.

"What need is there for a title? Isn't having the person enough? Being the third party is my principle."

Ning Qi'er’s fist tightened sharply. This damn bastard actually made a point; he had no chance to refute it. Their conversation ended on a sour note, with Li Ze having gained the upper hand.

After Ning Qi'er left, Li Ze finally let his inner emotions drift out. She was actually married to Yu Zhi! Why was she unwilling to marry him back then, yet willing to marry Ning Qi'er now? Could it be that she really felt something for him...? His face darkened as he pondered this, though it returned to normal after a while. Impossible. If the matter were truly settled, Yu Zhi would never have participated in a dating variety show. Not even her manager’s persistent pleading would have swayed her.

Determined that his plan was foolproof, Li Ze took a piece of paper from under the desk, which had a string of numbers written in black ink. He rubbed his thumb over them twice before finally picking up his phone to dial.

The air after the rain was exceptionally fresh. Ning Qi'er took a breath of cold wind, which gradually cleared his head. What kind of wild savage was Li Ze, anyway? He was the one who was Yu Zhi's legal husband. Until Yu Zhi made a decision, none of them had the right to bind her with external conditions. Since she was willing to marry him, it must be love; the others were merely venting their impotent rage.

On his way, he happened to run into Ning Qihe. After sternly warning her to stay away from Li Ze, he left with peace of mind. He left Ning Qihe speechless and trembling. She stroked her chest and caught her breath. "Scared me to death. I thought he was going to talk about my hair... but what kind of relationship could I have with Professor Li? Isn't it just a teacher-student relationship?"

The honest, obedient girl naturally could not imagine that Professor Li had ulterior motives for this visit. Unable to grasp the situation, she assumed Ning Qi'er was just frazzled over matters regarding his young wife. She curled her lip and headed toward the main hall.

At noon, in the ancestral home, both men and women were required to kneel and kowtow in the ancestral hall. A lot had happened the last time she was here; she wondered if her eldest brother would allow the young sister-in-law to go this time.

Yu Zhi was unaware of her concerns. The vibration of her phone woke her up; before she could regain her senses, the person standing before her startled her again.

"Do you have nothing better to do than stand there like a door god?" Her voice was hazy with sleep.

"Perhaps, like committing murder against my own wife."

Yu Zhi propped up her upper body, the soft silk duvet sliding off her to reveal her delicate neck and fair arms. She tilted her head and chuckled. "Why don't you do it now?"

Ning Qi'er raised an eyebrow, kneeling on one knee beside the bed. He stroked her face with one hand, slowly moving closer, his fingertips grazing her neck. "It would be rude to refuse..."

Sensing the increasingly intimate atmosphere, Yu Zhi leaned against the headboard, waiting for his next move.

Suddenly, her phone began to vibrate violently again.

Yu Zhi snapped back to reality, remembering why she had been awakened. She pushed Ning Qi'er away with one hand, and he rose with the momentum. "You go ahead and be busy. Don't forget we have to go to the ancestral hall later."

The dull thud of her heels on the floor faded into the distance. Only then did Yu Zhi pick up the phone; she knew he wouldn't have proceeded any further regardless.

Kneeling in the ancestral hall was the Ning family's most important affair; not the slightest mistake was tolerated. Previously, when she had been framed and was a few minutes late, those self-righteous elders had nearly invoked the family law as if it were a joke. If not for Ning Qi'er, she might have become the first new bride in modern society to be hospitalized by her husband's family on her first day of marriage—a story still widely circulated by those people. One could only imagine what kind of fossils they were. It was a wonder Ning Qi'er had managed to grow up in such a suffocating environment without turning into a saint.

The call on the phone was from Jiang Weicheng.

"Yu Zhi, your whereabouts after the show ended were captured by someone. Why were you following Assistant Fang? It’s been trending for half a day, and it won't go down. How are we going to resolve this?"

Jiang Weicheng had finally gotten through and hurriedly fired off a series of questions.

"I'm in the bed of the Xingyue president..."

Yu Zhi's few simple words left Jiang Weicheng stunned.

"Wait, didn't you say he was old and hard to crack???"

"Wait, this isn't the time for that. So, how did you two discuss... um... handling the aftermath of your situation?" Jiang Weicheng struggled to rephrase his words, being tactful as he waited for Yu Zhi to give him a solution so he could decide how to handle the PR. Even though the team was gone, they still had some connections. Or rather, at least they could still play the victim...

Sleeping with a man was no big deal, right? It fit Yu Zhi's persona well enough—wasn't that why she took the dating show in the first place? Jiang Weicheng kept hypnotizing himself, suppressing his impending outburst.

But one bomb wasn't enough; Yu Zhi nonchalantly dropped another.

"I’m married."