Chapter 24: Remain chaste for that beast?

Lu Zhenyi thought she was seeing things.

Is the glint in this man's eyes a tear?

She didn't understand why Shen Jingsi suddenly seemed so resigned and distressed; it was all so inexplicable.

He simply looked away. "Mr. Shen, perhaps you have a bad memory. You said this yourself a few days ago."

Shen Jingsi turned her face back to him, her eyes seemingly filled with tears, and she swallowed hard several times to suppress her emotions.

“You know perfectly well that I was provoked by you. You were the one who said you loved Zheng Yaozong first. You said you loved Zheng Yaozong and Lu Zhenyu to my face.”

Lu Zhenyu laughed. "Is Mr. Shen trying to shift the blame?"

Shen Jingsi hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth and admitted defeat, "Yes, it was me. I was just being verbally aggressive. I told you you had no right to speak first."

"That settles it."

Lu Zhenyu was as calm as a stagnant pool of water, devoid of any luster, a completely lifeless stillness.

"You've accepted Duan Xi'er as your fiancée, and now you're standing here with me, so affectionately that it seems like you still love me. May I ask, what is your stance on this?"

"I... I think I still love you?"

The word "seems" was emphasized very heavily.

Shen Jingsi was so angry he laughed, but as he laughed, tears streamed down his face. He struggled to breathe, his mouth agape as he laughed, but he couldn't bring himself to utter the words.

"Have I ever fucking stopped loving you for even a moment?"

In the blink of an eye, he turned back into the same idiot he was five years ago, who lost all temper and couldn't argue when facing this girl from the Lu family.

Licking his dry lips, Shen Jingsi released Lu Zhenyu, turned his back, wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye with his fingertips, and looked up helplessly.

"Lu Zhenyu, you're the one who knows how to hit the nail on the head the most in this life."

She even knows where to poke him and how to poke him to make him hurt the most, the kind of pain that gets more and more intense the more you think about it.

Lu Zhenyu didn't think she had such an ability, and a bitter smile appeared on her lips.

"You flatter me too much. I don't deserve that."

She stood up, straightened her wrinkled shirt, and walked past the figure standing there, saying, "I'm tired and need to rest. Mr. Chen, please..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was stopped again.

Without warning, Shen Jingsi grabbed her from behind, holding her tightly around the waist and pressing her down on her lower abdomen, preventing her from escaping again.

His chin rested on the crook of her neck, his voice trembling slightly, "I was wrong."

The sound wasn't loud; Lu Zhenyu even thought she had misheard.

Where was Shen Jingsi's pride and arrogance? Behind the girl's back, the backbone that hadn't broken when his entire family was about to be destroyed finally bent down for her once again.

"Please don't die. You can hit me, curse me, or kill me, just don't think about dying."

Did he think she was about to jump off the building, which is why he suddenly rushed in?

Lu Zhenyu's throat tightened for no apparent reason, and she stammered, "I... I didn't want to die."

Shen Jingsi was already convinced that she had just tried to commit suicide.

He saw it all!

They sent people to search every place she could go for half a month, and tonight they made her run all over the capital like a fool, only to find out that she was hiding right under their noses.

God knows, Shen Jingsi used to come here in the middle of the night, eight hundred times a week, but he hasn't come for the past few days, and now he's been hiding here.

He had just gotten out of the car when he saw her sitting dangling outside the window. Terrified, he ran towards her like a madman, not caring about anything else.

"Still lying!"

That tone was like that of a stubborn child.

"When did you start lying to me all the time?"

That was true five years ago, and it is true now.

"We agreed that you wouldn't leave, so why did you sneak away while I was sleeping!"

"Didn't you say you loved that beast? Then why were you depressed and why did you commit suicide?"

"If you were doing so well abroad, why did you suddenly come back? And coming back wasn't enough, you keep coming back to pierce my heart."

Why, why, why!

So many "whys" were like huge boulders, hitting Lu Zhenyu until she was dizzy and numb, and turning her usually restrained and patient eyes red.

She held her breath, silently battling the intense emotions surging within her. "Is my existence an eyesore to you?"

Shen Jingsi let out a sigh of relief; the agonizing helplessness was driving him crazy.

Why can't you explain it clearly?

"You know perfectly well that's not what I'm trying to say."

Lu Zhenyu forcibly pried open the hands in front of her lower abdomen, turned around, and widened the distance between the two.

"Whatever you want to say, Shen Jingsi, I'm tired. Please, just leave me alone. If you still have any feelings for me from the past, please leave."

Shen Jingsi gasped, "You hate me that much?"

Unable to bear looking at that face, so badly injured because of her, Lu Zhenyu closed her eyes. "Yes! I hate you, I hate you so much, I don't even want to see you for a second! Are you satisfied now? Can you leave now?"

Harsh words, when spoken by Lu Zhenyu, are like poisonous swords that can kill anyone in the capital.

The hand on his waist loosened little by little. He took two steps back and stood there looking at the man. The more he looked, the more desolate the smile on his lips became.

The next second, he walked past Lu Zhenyu without looking back.

As the sound of her angry footsteps pounding the floor grew fainter and fainter, she collapsed to the ground, unable to contain her emotions.

Tears streamed down her face, but she bit her hand to keep herself from crying out loud.

How did things come to this? How did we end up exchanging such harsh words?

This completely contradicts Lu Zhenyu's original intention of enduring five years of hardship and painstaking efforts to escape back.

But she really couldn't control her emotions.

It seems that ever since she left the Shen family, she has been unable to distinguish whether her feelings for Shen Jingsi are love or resentment.

What is there to complain about?

Is it because he said so many resolute things in public, or because he declared that Duan Xi'er was his fiancée?

But wasn't all of this your choice, Lu Zhenyu? In the end, what are you being so dramatic about?

The most painful time for a person is not when everyone misunderstands them, but when they can't even understand themselves.

She lay there crying for a long time until the suffocating feeling in her heart returned, her vision gradually blurred, and everything around her seemed to be spinning and twisting, squeezing her into a curled-up position on the empty floor, struggling in agony.

Having finally regained some consciousness, Lu Zhenyu pushed herself up from the floor and stumbled out.

As soon as she pushed open the study door, a figure suddenly rushed over, aggressively grabbing her waist with bulging veins, forcing her back to her desk.

Shen Jingsi returned, bringing with him the chill of the cold night. He pinned Lu Zhenyu between his legs, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her fiercely with a punitive air.

Lu Zhenyu's strength was like an egg hitting a rock in front of him.

He pounded his fists again and again until he finally ran out of strength.

Instead, she was captivated by those burning lips, and without hesitation, she wrapped her arms around his neck, turning the kiss from forced to proactive.

Their kiss was intense; it wasn't enough for their lips to touch; their tongues battled, their teeth bit each other as if punishing one another, and there was a wet sound between their lips and teeth.

In the end, he fell completely in love, and in his dazed state, he swept everything off the table.

A large, burning hot hand gripped her slender waist, lifting her up onto it. Their lips, which had been separated for a second, eagerly pressed together again.

Five years have passed. After five years of restraint and forbearance, Lu Zhenyu finally indulged herself once again on this night when no one was around.

Once the floodgates of desire were opened, he went into a frenzy, relentlessly demanding more from her, like water spilled on the shore.

She indulged him and enjoyed it.

Holding his head, she leaned back limply, letting him bite and suck hard on her neck, collarbone, and ears, his large hands almost ravaging her limp body that had turned into a puddle of water.

The study, bathed in soft light and shadow, was filled with the passion that flowed from between their lips.

But at the very last step, Lu Zhenyu grabbed the hand under the shirt, which went up from the waist to the lower abdomen, almost reaching the ribs.

She opened her eyes, now fully awake, and looked firmly into Shen Jingsi's drunken gaze, saying, "No."

The man's aura was restless, and his swollen lips were no better than the woman's.

Forehead to forehead, his hot breath brushed against Lu Zhenyu's long eyelashes, his fiery voice hoarse, "Why?"

Lu Zhenyu didn't have a strong sense of morality, and besides, she never considered herself Zheng Yaozong's person for a single moment.

No, it's within his reach.

Many secrets are hidden there, and at least for now, they cannot be revealed.

However, Shen Jingsi interpreted it as something else entirely.

"You've remained chaste for that beast, and you love him that much?"