Joining A Dating Show With Five Exes - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Have You Seen My Wife?

Wang Shu stood in the only brightly lit spot in the center of the garden.

Her nearly 1.9-meter height cast a long, narrow shadow, enough to startle any guest who passed by inadvertently.

Combined with her usually indifferent light-colored eyes when she was expressionless, staring at anyone would mysteriously make them shrink in presence, turn their heads, or hurry away from the area within seconds.

No one even wondered why she was standing there, acting as a door god and feeding mosquitoes in this remote, dimly lit corner late at night at the Cheng family’s banquet, instead of staying in the resplendent hall.

Wang Shu kept her eyes lowered, her attention fixed on a certain alley ahead—

She was still too late.

Earlier in the banquet hall, she was one of the first people to notice Cheng Shiyuan’s abnormality.

But when she tried to approach, Ji Sheng blocked her path, asking with interest if she would like to dance with her after her speech.

Having lived in the same villa for the past few days, Wang Shu was already extremely annoyed by Ji Sheng’s constant pestering.

Fortunately, she had prepared well for this banquet.

“The person who should be dancing with Miss Ji tonight is probably not me, right?”

Ji Sheng stared at her: “What do you mean?”

Wang Shu looked as if she had just remembered something: “I just overheard some of the Cheng family elders saying that your fiancé specifically rushed back from abroad to celebrate your birthday tonight.”

“Even though he hasn’t arrived yet, reasonably speaking, the person who should dance the first dance with you should be him, shouldn’t it?”

The smile on Ji Sheng’s face didn’t fade away.

She looked at Wang Shu brazenly: “Since you know, I won’t hide it from you. But at least I’m more sincere than Cheng Shiyuan, right?”

She counted on the fingers wearing large jewels: “One, two, three. Just in the show, she has three exes. You don’t even rank in her top three—”

“It’s different if you’re with me. My fiancé and I are just a family alliance. Since you’re not an ordinary college student, you should be able to understand me better, right?”

“I like you. You are my priority. I am the star tonight. I want to dance the first dance with you. No one can object.”

Having the point she cared about most hit squarely, Wang Shu was no longer interested in pretending to be friendly and polite with her. She put on her usual cold expression.

As Wang Shu took a step forward, closing the distance, the height difference between the two became apparent in the unparalleled confidence in Ji Sheng’s heart.

Wang Shu’s gaze, along with her shadow under the light, looked down imperiously:

“Like the person I love, I like to strive for the best in everything.”

“Forget three exes. Even if there were four, five, six, or seven, making me the eighth, ninth, or tenth mistress, I would only be the lover of the most formidable one. Clearly, you don’t seem to be the most formidable person in the Cheng family, do you?”

Ji Sheng’s exasperated expression, burning with fury, was still etched in Wang Shu’s mind.

However, she knew very well that she was far from as nonchalant as her words suggested.

What three exes, even if it were the tenth, she’d be willing…

The light reflecting in her eyes was twisted by her emotions.

Wang Shu wished a meteor shower would fall from the sky right now and crush all of Cheng Shiyuan’s exes to death.

The faint, suppressed whimpering that had drifted from the alley earlier still lingered in her ears.

Just as she was ready to intervene righteously, the sounds vanished, turning into the low murmurs of lovers.

They didn’t even leave her an excuse for a noble intervention.

It wasn’t until her feet felt rooted to the ground that she saw the two people round the corner of the wall. Xie Zhiqing’s hand was clutching a large pile of used tissues.

Cheng Shiyuan was startled when she saw her: “Wang Shu… what are you doing here?”

Honestly.

Cheng Shiyuan least wanted the commotion from just now to reach Wang Shu’s ears.

Although the kid had used the excuse of applying medicine to corner her in the bathroom last time and did something excessive.

In all fairness, was that clueless pastie, which had arbitrarily left its post, completely innocent?

The superstar, who was overly self-aware of her own charm, still unilaterally classified Wang Shu as having a youthful mentality, just a child who couldn’t handle too much stimulation.

“I saw Cheng Cheng look uncomfortable and walk out, so I thought I’d come to ask what was wrong.”

The mask she had worn for so long was not as easy to remove as Wang Shu had thought. She clearly wanted to expose the commotion from just now, but for some reason, the words that came out were the kind of consideration she herself loathed:

“But I got lost in the garden for a long time. Fortunately, I see you now. Are you feeling better?”

Cheng Shiyuan finally noticed.

Several red bumps from mosquito bites had already appeared on her arms outside of her off-shoulder, goose-yellow evening gown.

Even though her legs were still slightly weak and unsteady, she was more worried about this child who could get lost in the garden: “I’m much better. But you are exaggerating too much. I’ll get someone to fetch you some medicine.”

Xie Zhiqing, who had finished disposing of the trash and walked back, didn’t hesitate to expose her excuse:

“There’s only one path from the hall. Just go back the way you came. How could you get lost here?”

Wang Shu stared at this hypocritical person who chose such an awful location, just about to speak.

In the distance, however, she saw Ji Sheng, the protagonist who should have been in the banquet hall mingling with guests, holding up her skirt and looking around on the steps at the end of the path, as if she were looking for someone.

Seeing that gaze sweep over, Wang Shu suddenly hid behind Cheng Shiyuan, even deliberately bending down and lowering her body.

Cheng Shiyuan pinched her brow.

The suspicion that had arisen from Xie Zhiqing’s words quickly dissipated with this scene.

She shielded Wang Shu, almost forgetting that her cousin was still unscrupulously harassing the child.

“I’ll take you to a room to rest,” she said, not forgetting to smile at Xie Zhiqing:

“When you came out just now, I remember several people looking for you. I’m much better. You should go take care of your business.”

Xie Zhiqing did not want to leave Cheng Shiyuan in this state to anyone else.

She was completely uninterested in this kind of superfluous socializing.

However, a little wolf cub who was very good at pretending to be frail held onto Cheng Shiyuan and refused to let go, brazenly following her back to the main hall.

The identity of the Xie family heir was too prominent. Xie Zhiqing couldn’t stay in the same area as the two of them for too long in public and was quickly surrounded by entrepreneurs who wanted to strike up a conversation.

Cheng Shiyuan casually found someone, asked for a guest room, and as she took Wang Shu there, she didn’t forget to grab a servant and ask them to bring some herbal cream or other anti-itch medicine.

After opening the door, she remembered something and looked back at Wang Shu’s makeup:

“Do you have lipstick?”

As she spoke, she pointed to the perfectly intact lip glaze on her own lips: “I want to switch to a different color.”

Wang Shu’s gaze followed her fingertip to her plump, pink, jelly-like lip makeup.

So pink.

She really wanted to take a bite.

Bang.

As the room door abruptly closed, Cheng Shiyuan was already pressed against the back of the door, her waist grasped tightly.

She could only instinctively, and with great foresight, cover Wang Shu’s lips, while alertly avoiding her approach:

“Little one, what are you trying to do now?”

Blocked like that, Wang Shu didn’t forcibly continue.

She just buried her head downwards in frustration, pressing it near Cheng Shiyuan’s collarbone, and mumbled: “Does Cheng Cheng hate me?”

The lights in the room hadn’t been turned on yet. Only a small lamp was lit in the living room at the end of the spacious suite, which was not enough for Cheng Shiyuan to clearly see the expression of the person in front of her.

But she was already resistant to Wang Shu’s pitiful act: “Stop it.”

However, she flexed her toes but still couldn’t reach the floor.

All her weight was supported by Wang Shu’s knee, which was wedged between her thighs.

Cheng Shiyuan was in an odd posture, seemingly forced to be lifted and seated on her leg.

Where they touched, a painful sensation emerged, as if overwhelmed.

Not only her body, which still remembered Xie Zhiqing’s touch, but some indescribable parts of her body were still feeling discomfort.

The pressure point was precisely on the spot she couldn’t handle. She didn’t even know if this child was doing it on purpose. She instinctively gasped, vaguely smelling a pungent aroma, like Wang Shu’s perfume.

Why did she choose such a particularly mature scent?

The sense of aggression was too strong.

Lost in thought about this, she patted the child’s head helplessly: “Let go. Put me down.”

“No.”

Wang Shu uncharacteristically refused to listen, but quickly looked up: “Unless Cheng Cheng kisses me.”

But even while making such a request, she knew she was overstepping her bounds. Her expression became more dejected, and her tone was humble.

“Anywhere is fine. Please, just kiss me, okay?”

Thinking about the perfume scent she just smelled, seeing the child trying hard to act mature, wanting to compete with others, yet not even daring to show a hint of jealousy or pique, pleading pitifully for her sympathy.

Cheng Shiyuan’s heart softened, “Then you can’t move.”

She raised her hands to cup this beautiful, mixed-race face, her gaze inspecting for a suitable place to land a kiss.

The captivating, long lower eyelashes made her already deep eye sockets look more defined. The height of her brow bone was just right, and her slender eyebrows curved gracefully above.

She only looked at first, but then Cheng Shiyuan couldn’t help but trace them with her fingers.

When she saw something swirling in those glazed, amber eyes in the dim light.

Cheng Shiyuan suddenly became alert. She lowered her head perfunctorily and gave a very light kiss to the bridge of her nose, a place she definitely couldn’t reach with her lips.

Hmm…

Such a high nose bridge. The bone is quite hard.

The inappropriate rumor about high nose bridges flashed through her mind—that this type of person supposedly had a strong libido.

Her body instantly reacted.

Cheng Shiyuan’s breathing hitched. Secretly cursing the damn drug, she turned her head away in a state of some distress: “Now you can let go—”

The rest of her words were completely blocked.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise. It wasn’t until she felt the intensity of the nibbling action on her lips increase that she suddenly raised her hand to stop it.

“No…” Don’t eat randomly!

What the hell is this brat eating randomly every day!

Wang Shu felt the increasingly hot and damp traces rubbing against her knee. She only cared about pressing the person harder against the door panel.

Their lips and tongues tangled, completely stealing Cheng Shiyuan’s taste. She didn’t forget to deceive herself into thinking that Cheng Cheng was going to change her lipstick color anyway, so what was wrong with her helping to wipe off the unwanted color?

Having tasted the desired closeness and scent, heat surged through Wang Shu’s body. Amidst Cheng Shiyuan’s increasingly vigorous resistance, she reluctantly paused, her voice faltering:

“I can do it too…”

“Cheng Cheng wants it too, right?”

Anything Xie Zhiqing can do, she can do too!

However, her answer was the sudden illumination of a spotlight above her head, near the entrance.

The sudden brightness made Wang Shu freeze. From where Cheng Shiyuan’s gaze landed, she seemed to realize something.

She put Cheng Shiyuan down so she could stand and turned her head—

A swift, cutting sound sliced through the air near her ear.

Wang Shu vaguely sensed something. Her eyelid twitched, but she stood rooted to the spot, not dodging.

“Slap!”

A loud slap landed on her face.

…

Xia Zhiran, who had found a random room to rest in, uninterested in the boring banquet, watched this scene with an expressionless face.

But she didn’t feel the surge of rage she had expected.

Perhaps it was because, from the day Cheng Shiyuan chose Wang Shu to make a cake with, the suspiciously changed clothes on her body, and her reaction when hearing Xia Zhiran’s casual teasing, the path had subtly led to this day.

Or perhaps.

Even earlier, long before.

Long before she learned about her brother’s car accident, made the inexplicable decision to transfer schools, and wanted to demand a debt from the girl who changed the trajectory of her life, yet felt an irresistible stirring in her heart the moment she first saw Cheng Shiyuan.

Her fate today was sealed.

Since she, the unconventional one, decided to inherit her brother’s fiancée along with that engagement.

How reasonable was it that she would raise a child of the same nature, one who would try to snatch her aunt’s beloved?

Xia Zhiran, who had always been competitive and possessive, even let out an absurd laugh at this moment where she was guarding against outsiders but couldn’t defend against a thief within her own house.

But Wang Shu, who knew her temperament well, knew she was genuinely angry.

Having witnessed Xia Zhiran’s moments of madness directed at Cheng Shiyuan a few times, she didn’t hesitate to kneel down and take all the blame:

“It’s my fault, Auntie.”

“I was the one who seduced Cheng Cheng. She was forced by me. She was drunk. I had evil intentions and took advantage of her—”

Drunk?

Xia Zhiran remembered calmly.

At the middle school graduation party, because Xie Zhiqing had to leave early, Cheng Shiyuan immediately led a group of followers to secretly order alcohol, managing to drink half the class under the table while remaining completely unfazed herself.

Now, in the glamorous entertainment industry, if anyone was drunk at this banquet, it wouldn’t be Cheng Shiyuan.

What a pathetic excuse.

What “evil intentions” or “taking advantage”? If the Great Miss Cheng wasn’t willing, who could take advantage of her?

The emerging answer almost gave Xia Zhiran a heart attack.

She chuckled lightly, glancing at the woman standing by the door, clutching her head, apparently not having decided on an excuse to explain, then looked at the child in front of her, whose cheek was almost completely marked with five fingerprints.

She raised her hand, her fingertip touching the raised red mark, and spoke in a very soft tone:

“Back then, none of those relatives wanted you. They all coveted the inheritance your mother left you, kicking you around like a ball, and finally dumping you on the other side of the ocean to be an undocumented minor, a child laborer who was enslaved, running errands on sets by day and washing dishes on the street at night.”

“Who specifically got a visa to bring you home? Who raised you until you were eighteen? Hmm?”

“Wang Shu, is this how you repay me for raising you, huh?”

Wang Shu’s throat bobbed.

Her most shameful past, the person she felt most sorry for, and the happiness she most desired, were all in this room.

She had imagined countless times the scene of holding Cheng Shiyuan’s hand and bravely facing Xia Zhiran.

But absolutely not in this place, at this time, when she hadn’t even secured her own status—

“Speak!”

A sudden, thunderous burst of rage exploded in her ear.

Wang Shu trembled slightly, not out of fear, but from a feeling of being helplessly toyed with by fate. She had also wondered countless times why the person she loved just happened to be her aunt’s beloved.

“I’m sorry…” Facing the impending storm, her eyes were filled with guilt.

Within that guilt, there was the stubbornness of one who refused to change: “But I really like her. I’m sorry, Auntie. I’m sorry.”

Xia Zhiran laughed in exasperation.

As her palm rose again, Wang Shu willingly closed her eyes.

But the blow did not fall.

Cheng Shiyuan had approached the enraged Xia Zhiran at some point, placing a hand on her wrist.

She didn’t use much force, but it was just enough to stop her movement: “That’s enough. I don’t think she’s the one you want to lecture.”

She turned to the child kneeling on the ground and said, “Go out. Go to the hospital and register yourself for a check-up now. Be obedient.”

Wang Shu looked at her defending her, incredulous.

A ray of hope seemed to ignite in her eyes.

Until Cheng Shiyuan’s wrist was grabbed by Xia Zhiran, who pulled her into the room, while Xia Zhiran’s unique fury was directed at Wang Shu: “Aren’t you going to get out?!”

Wang Shu stared blankly at the empty hallway in front of her, where the warm light of the orange spotlight shone on the tiled floor.

Hope was extinguished like a bubble, replaced by a feeling of near-powerless despair.

…

Inside the bedroom.

Cheng Shiyuan sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing the red scratch unintentionally caused by Xia Zhiran’s fingernail on her wrist, and the broken necklace from when the other person angrily pulled her hand away.

Perhaps the necklace’s quality was poor or for some other reason, the pearls scattered and rolled across the bed.

Noticing Xia Zhiran’s gloomy expression, Cheng Shiyuan suddenly spoke:

“What are you trying to do? Start domestic violence?”

Hearing her words, Xia Zhiran’s blood pressure soared. For a moment, her vision went black, and she had to stand still to regain her composure.

If she really wanted to engage in domestic violence, she might not even be able to do anything to Cheng Shiyuan. Back then, when someone was doing competition problems, she was so frustrated by the huge gap between them that she insisted on evening the score, childishly challenging her to an arm wrestling match.

For the entire afternoon, Xia Zhiran’s hand was pressed and rubbed against the classroom desk by Cheng Shiyuan.

Between the two of them, who was the victim of domestic violence?!

Wait, who said she was family with her?

Xia Zhiran’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot. She mocked her with full force: “Want to marry into the Xia family? Want to marry Wang Shu? Dream on! Cheng Shiyuan, as long as I live, you will never be with her!”

Fearing that she wouldn’t give up, she spoke even more harshly: “From the day my brother died, no one from your Cheng family will ever step foot into our Xia family’s door again!”

Cheng Shiyuan: “?”

Which word did she mention marriage? Which word did she mention Wang Shu?

Unable to keep up with the genius’s thought process, she was perplexed for two seconds, gave up thinking, and calmly said, “Oh.”

She even repeated calmly, “Okay. I will never marry anyone with the surname Xia in this lifetime—”

“Are you relieved? Satisfied? Do you want me to swear an oath?”

When Xia Zhiran heard this, she suddenly thought of another possibility.

Just as Cheng Shiyuan was raising three fingers in a solemn oath, Xia Zhiran suddenly lunged forward, grabbing her hand.

“This matter is not without room for change.”

Her phoenix eyes stared intensely at this disaster who always used her beauty to hook people.

Xia Zhiran thought that it must be because the former Cheng Shiyuan was too free, which was why she would inadvertently attract people she shouldn’t.

If this little bird could belong to her, the outcome would definitely be different from before.

“You also know that the Xia family is currently under my control. If the matter between you and Wang Shu gets out, those elders will definitely disagree.”

“But, if the future Madam Xia plays around a bit and chooses the wrong ambiguous partner before marriage, it’s not some huge disaster that can’t be fixed. I can forgive it, and naturally, others won’t have the right to gossip.”

Xia Zhiran’s breath was so close it fell onto Cheng Shiyuan’s lips.

Remembering the drug that Wang Shu had randomly kissed into her mouth just now, Cheng Shiyuan had to turn her head away.

However, this movement seemed to have caused a misunderstanding for Xia Zhiran.

The woman raised her hand to cup her chin and spoke again: “The betrothal gift will be the amount originally agreed upon by our two families, and I will personally double it. The wedding banquet and cars will all be arranged according to your preferences. What else do you want?”

She was too close, as if she were about to kiss her at any moment.

Cheng Shiyuan had to swat her hand away, her gaze falling on the bed beside her: “Compensate me with a pearl necklace.”

Xia Zhiran had prepared to be refused or to hear Cheng Shiyuan demand something impossible, like the stars or the moon.

When she heard “pearl necklace,” she couldn’t help but frown, instinctively wanting to see what priceless jewelry it was.

She found that the pearls were ordinary in luster, size, and plumpness. She could only ask with some uncertainty:

“Compensate for what?”

Cheng Shiyuan casually picked up a scattered pearl and held it to her lips: “This is a brand necklace I endorse. Now that it’s damaged, I definitely can’t wear it out. It would damage the brand’s image.”

“So many people saw me wearing it walking around just now. If it suddenly disappears, they’ll be suspicious. Compensate me with an identical one now. Hurry up.”

Xia Zhiran was expressionless, but also somewhat helpless, “I’ll have someone buy one now.”

“This style hasn’t even been released in stores yet. It’s a specialty from a pearl-producing island abroad, manually selected one by one.”

Cheng Shiyuan slowly said words to deliberately make things difficult for her, but because she was tired of sitting, she leisurely lay down on the bed.

Just as Xia Zhiran was grinding her teeth, feeling that Cheng Shiyuan was intentionally creating trouble.

Cheng Shiyuan looked around the room, lazily stretched out her legs, and lightly kicked her in a rhythmic way.

“You can compensate me for the necklace next time. But you have to help me find a place to hide these pearls. You’re not allowed to let anyone know I secretly damaged an endorsed product.”

“Ji Sheng is definitely watching me. If she buys a press release about this, and the opposing side’s trolls join in and exaggerate the story…”

Xia Zhiran was no longer listening to her words.

Her gaze fell on the long, straight, fair legs beneath her skirt.

Her toes, painted with bright red nail polish to match the skirt’s color, emitted a tempting attraction, creating a sharp color contrast with her jade-white, delicate skin.

Perhaps Wang Shu’s earlier movement had pressed against the skirt, or perhaps Cheng Shiyuan had rubbed the edge of the skirt while sitting on the bed. In any case, the side of the skirt was exposed almost up to her upper thigh.

Xia Zhiran clearly saw a vague, light red mark on the side of her leg, like a dissipating finger mark.

She suddenly took a step forward, picking up a scattered pearl on the bed.

Her eyes gradually darkened, but her tone was nonchalant:

“Hide them?”

“I definitely know a good place where they can be hidden very well, but I need your cooperation.”

…

At the same time.

Outside the room, the entire Cheng family’s old house, where the banquet should have been lively, fell into a profound, pin-drop silence.

The Cheng family’s Old Master, upon hearing that a distinguished guest had arrived, had just taken his medicine and prepared to rest, attended to by his nanny. He hurriedly changed his clothes and got up, with all the younger generations being led by their parents to stand obediently on both sides.

The clinking of the guests’ wine glasses also stopped, only to be replaced by glances and silent inquiries among themselves.

A sleek, black, extended Rolls-Royce stopped at the entrance.

The first thing to emerge was a dark-colored metal cane. A large piece of black jade was inlaid into the handle, like a black hole that could suck in all matter.

A pair of leather boots then stepped out.

Despite the approaching summer weather, the owner of the cane was extremely afraid of the cold, draped in a long trench coat.

As she walked, the trench coat only dared to sway very slightly.

She hadn’t even approached, yet she seemed to have brought a heavy, oppressive aura to the entire house, causing a Cheng family child who was carrying a toy to inadvertently drop it.

“Bang, bang, bang, bang…”

A soccer ball rolled all the way to the side of the cane.

The Cheng family’s Old Master turned to glare angrily at the junior, and a sharp reprimand instantly escaped his lips!

Everyone knew that the head of the Shen family in Hong Kong lost a leg when he was still an illegitimate son fighting with his siblings for business. He was later alienated and disliked by his family because of this.

No one dared to mention anything about legs in front of her, let alone send a soccer ball rolling toward her.

Just as the child was being held and whisked away by her mother, tears streaming, Shen Lingxi, who was always impassive, curled her lip.

She proactively bent down, picked up the ball, and offered it to the child:

“Your ball? Want it?”

She displayed a very standard, friendly smile.

However, the child who was still crying suddenly shivered violently the moment her gaze met Shen Lingxi’s frighteningly vacant eyes. Forgetting to cry, she scrambled onto her mother, and her diaper instantly became wet and warm.

“Chairman Shen, your visit late at night truly brings honor to our humble home. If we had known you were interested in Sheng’er’s birthday banquet, we would have sent an invitation immediately. Please, come in, come in.”

The Cheng Old Master, still unsteady on his feet, trembled as he tried to welcome her in.

Shen Lingxi handed the ball in her hand to her secretary and naturally looked at him:

“It is I who am intruding and disturbing you.”

She suddenly sighed with great difficulty, showing a distressed expression:

“I can’t help it. I just suddenly received news that my young and playful wife is throwing a tantrum at me tonight and refuses to come home. I had no choice but to come here personally to pick her up—”

“By the way, have you seen my wife?”

The Cheng Old Master was stunned when he heard this.

All the guests in the banquet hall, who were eagerly straining their ears to catch the conversation, were also stunned.

A huge question mark appeared in everyone’s eyes:

Shen Lingxi of Hong Kong is married?

And she married a wife? And this wife came to attend the Cheng family’s new heir’s birthday banquet tonight?

Who is it???