After Breaking Up, I Married A Top Alpha Movie Star And Fell In Love - Chapter 15

After hanging up the phone, He Yuchen waited patiently for a few minutes before calling again, only to receive the same busy tone.

He felt that something was slightly off, but since he had an important meeting starting immediately, he had no choice but to set the matter aside for the moment.

During the meeting, He Yuchen glanced at his phone from time to time, appearing completely distracted. If it had been before, Qiu Ye would have certainly returned his call within the same day.

Seeing this, Xu Zilang leaned in curiously, only to be glared at by He Yuchen, causing him to settle back down.

For some reason, today was filled with one fragmentary task after another, leaving He Yuchen with no time to dwell on that unanswered call.

“Since Qiu Ye resigned, has he contacted you?”

He Yuchen sat at his desk, having no heart to look through the documents in front of him. His gaze involuntarily fell upon that silver-white fountain pen.

Xu Zilang reached out and touched the Norfolk Island pine, which was half-yellowed, and muttered under his breath, “Some ‘evergreen’ pine. Looks like a short-lived pine to me.”

“Xu Zilang, I am talking to you.” He Yuchen gripped the silver-white pen in his palm and lifted his eyes to look at him.

Xu Zilang walked over. “No, why? He’s a grown man; what is there to worry about?”

He Yuchen took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling slightly as he subconsciously turned the pen in his hand. The silver-white body felt ergonomic and substantial in his grip, not light or flimsy.

“Wasn’t this pen broken when Qiu Ye resigned?” Xu Zilang leaned closer.

“Mhm. I found someone to repair the internal mechanism.” He Yuchen looked up coldly, scribbling randomly on a piece of paper with the pen.

The nib, engraved with a rose pattern, produced ink smoothly and effortlessly. It felt no different than it had before.

“Do you want to go find Qiu Ye?” Xu Zilang saw right through him.

A silent agitation permeated the air.

Xu Zilang stepped forward, took the pen from He Yuchen’s hand, placed it in the pen holder, and said, “If you want to go, then go. I won’t laugh at you. My brother said that only those who treat their wives well will prosper.”

He Yuchen didn’t respond to Xu Zilang’s words. He slowly stood up, took his car keys, and brought the other man along to the residential complex where Qiu Ye lived.

“When you see him, keep your mouth shut.”

He Yuchen’s expression was somewhat awkward as he said this. He seemed to anticipate that he would have to say some soft words to his former secretary, and his entire being radiated a sense of unease.

Xu Zilang nodded and made a zipping motion over his mouth. “You aren’t going to give Qiu Ye another soulful confession, are you?”

“Shut up.”

Seeing the signs in the complex, Xu Zilang turned his head and asked, “Have you actually ever been to Qiu Ye’s house? It doesn’t look like you can park here.”

He Yuchen pressed his lips into a thin line and replied, “If you don’t want to sit in my car, get out.”

Winter was deepening. The plants in the complex’s green belts had long since withered, leaving only a few withered branches stubbornly piercing toward the grey-white sky.

“What year was this complex built? It’s really old.” He Yuchen noted that there wasn’t even a surveillance camera at the unit entrance to scan for access cards. He pushed the door open and walked right in.

The security guard nearby didn’t even ask them to register, propping up his head as he dozed off.

He Yuchen felt that this complex had no redeeming qualities other than being close to Huanhe. How had Qiu Ye managed to live here for several years?

The numbers on the elevator display began to increase, and the two of them soon arrived at Qiu Ye’s front door.

He Yuchen reached out and pressed the doorbell, but there was no response.

“Maybe the doorbell is broken and he can’t hear it inside.” Xu Zilang called out Qiu Ye’s name twice and raised his hand to knock on the security door three times in succession.

“Yuchen, why don’t you give Qiu Ye a call? What if he’s gone out for something?”

He Yuchen’s expression was not good. If Qiu Ye were answering his calls, he wouldn’t have needed to come here to corner him.

“President He? President Xu?”

“Are you looking for Secretary Qiu?”

The newcomer was an accountant from Huanhe’s finance department.

He Yuchen glanced at the female colleague and called out her name, lying without changing his expression, “There is a document with Qiu Ye. President Xu and I came over to collect it.”

Xu Zilang glanced at He Yuchen beside him and awkwardly chimed in, “Right, right, we came to get a document. Um… a very important document.”

The female colleague found it a bit strange and said, “He hasn’t been here these past few days. He went out.”

He Yuchen frowned and asked, “How would you know? Where did Qiu Ye go?”

Suppressing her confusion, the female colleague replied, “On the day he left, I happened to run into him and we chatted for a bit. I originally thought he was moving, but I didn’t expect he was going on a honeymoon.”

He Yuchen’s face turned pale instantly. He raised his voice at the person in front of him, “What did you say? Say that again.”

Xu Zilang’s heart skipped a beat. He looked at the female colleague and followed up, “How could Qiu Ye be going on a honeymoon?”

Realizing she had said the wrong thing, the female colleague felt somewhat at a loss.

“Make it clear to me,” He Yuchen’s voice suddenly turned cold, as if he were about to explode.

The female colleague hid behind President Xu’s side and continued with trepidation, “Secretary Qiu left with a man, dragging suitcases. He said… he said…”

He Yuchen clenched his teeth, his eyes becoming somewhat terrifying.

“Secretary Qiu said that man is his marriage partner, and he said they were going on a honeymoon trip together.”

He Yuchen’s expression changed completely. Looking at the female colleague who was a head shorter than him, he asked loudly, “Did he tell you where they were going?”

The female colleague was so frightened she took half a step back and shook her head.

Xu Zilang didn’t speak. Thinking of Qiu Ye’s WeChat Moment, an ominous suspicion rose in his heart.

He Yuchen obviously thought of it too. He lowered his head and sneered, “Who would go to Yunchuan for a honeymoon? There must be a mistake. Who is that person?!”

The female colleague took another half-step back and shook her head again. “He was wearing a hat and a mask, I couldn’t see his face clearly. He was very tall with good proportions, and he had a faint woody scent of perfume on him.”

Xu Zilang reached out and grabbed He Yuchen’s arm, stepping between the two of them and signaling for the female colleague to leave first.

“Did Qiu Ye tell you to say that?” He Yuchen’s eyes were icy as he stared past Xu Zilang at the female colleague.

“President He, everything I said is true. Secretary Qiu didn’t want the colleagues to know; he even asked me to keep it a secret. I thought since he resigned, you two knew everything.”

Xu Zilang gripped He Yuchen’s shoulder and said, “Yuchen, she has no reason to lie to you.”

He Yuchen looked up, his eyes instantly turning bloodshot. His narcissus pheromones began to permeate the air overwhelmingly.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it!”

He Yuchen turned around and began knocking frantically on the thin iron door, his voice trembling. “He’s doing it on purpose. He wants to see me regret it; he just wants me to feel pain.”

Xu Zilang’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at He Yuchen with concern. He Yuchen was hovering on the edge of madness, only one straw away from a total loss of control.

“I’ll find someone to pick the lock. He must be inside.”

“He Yuchen, you’re f***ing crazy!”

The cigarette between He Yuchen’s fingers had burned halfway, and the grey-white ash fell in flurries. The air was filled with a heavy smell of tobacco.

Xu Zilang’s brow was furrowed as he advised, “This is illegal entry! Can’t we just wait until he comes back?”

“No, I can’t wait.” He Yuchen took a deep drag of the cigarette, the firelight illuminating a patch of obsessive red in his eyes. “I can’t wait for even a second.”

The locksmith squatted before the door, trembling. The tools made subtle metallic clinking sounds that seemed exceptionally piercing in the silent corridor.

With a soft click, the lock popped open.

He Yuchen immediately crushed his cigarette and pushed the door open. A stale, cold air carrying fine dust rushed toward them. The house was deathly silent, clearly vacant for several days.

Worried about He Yuchen and fearing he would go mad again, Xu Zilang accompanied him inside.

In the center of the living room sat several cardboard boxes. One of them had not been sealed with clear tape, and He Yuchen’s name was clearly written on it in black marker. The box wasn’t large; it just sat there lonely in the corner, silently announcing its owner’s decisiveness and indifference.

“That’s…”

Though it was only a few steps away, He Yuchen seemed to use all his strength, each step becoming exceptionally difficult.

Inside the box were all the things he had given to Qiu Ye. The valuable ones, the worthless ones—every single item was there. There were small gifts he had his assistant pick up for Qiu Ye while on business trips, and there were also men’s wallets and mechanical watches he had bought on a whim at airport duty-free shops.

“Good.” He Yuchen’s face was livid as he murmured, “Good, good.”

He opened one of the most familiar boxes. Inside was the glittering iris diamond brooch.

Qiu Ye was drawing a clear line between them.

“Isn’t this the brooch you bid on for him on the cruise ship?” Xu Zilang didn’t recognize much else, but he knew this item.

He Yuchen dumped all the items out of the box at once and gritted his teeth. “He’s doing it on purpose… He’s purposely doing this for me to see, wanting me to beg him humbly.”

Xu Zilang was nearly suffocated by the high concentration of narcissus pheromones and roared, “Stop releasing your f***ing pheromones!”

He Yuchen paced the narrow living room like a trapped beast. The rich narcissus scent signaled just how furious the young Alpha was.

This was the first time Xu Zilang had been this panicked; he deeply regretted coming along. “We won’t find Qiu Ye here.”

He Yuchen reached out and gripped Xu Zilang’s shoulders. “No one has ever been able to make me this pathetic. Qiu Ye… he succeeded. Tell him right now. He succeeded.”

Xu Zilang felt that they couldn’t go on like this and sent Qiu Ye a message asking about the marriage. If it was to get back at He Yuchen, then he had certainly learned his lesson. He hoped it was fake. But Xu Zilang had a lingering feeling that it might be true.

“Yuchen, let’s go back first.”

Just as Xu Zilang was pulling him toward the entryway, the phone in his hand vibrated. It was a WeChat message. The image loaded for half a second; it seemed to be some kind of certificate.

He looked down, and the moment his eyes fell upon it, they widened in shock. He froze for two seconds.

He Yuchen keenly sensed something. He shoved Xu Zilang aside and snatched the phone. He looked at it intently, his head buzzing, and suddenly he couldn’t hear a single sound.

“Impossible! How could he marry someone else!”

He Yuchen’s hands froze as he held the phone, his blood seemingly turning to ice in that instant.

“You’re lying to me! You’re all teaming up to lie to me, aren’t you!”

It was a marriage certificate.

He stared in disbelief at the photo of Qiu Ye on the red booklet. The last trace of color drained from his face, and a suffocating resentment swept through his entire body.

With trembling fingers, He Yuchen pulled out his own phone and typed questions, commands, and pleas into the chat box with Qiu Ye.

Every single message failed to send.

One by one, piercing red exclamation marks popped up, standing alongside those words of surging emotion.

He Yuchen’s vision suddenly went dark, and he nearly stumbled to the ground.

On the marriage certificate, Qiu Ye was wearing a white suit with a faint smile on his face, looking very gentle.