drunk

While waiting for Zhou Jingxing's reply, Chen Zhou suddenly thought of Zhao Xin, his passion and his betrayal.

Chen Zhou didn't know what kind of answer he hoped to hear. He wondered if he shouldn't have been there at all, and he thought he should probably leave.

The next second, Zhou Jingxing's answer froze him in place.

"I'm not thinking about it anymore, I already have someone I like."

“I like him a lot, no, I love him, the kind of love that makes me want to spend the rest of my life with him.”

"Thank you for your kind words. Junior Sister Wu, you are a very good girl, and I believe you will find the right person in the future."

Chen Zhou felt as if his heart had been twisted hard, and his mind was in complete turmoil.

Throughout his youth, Shen Zhou was never firmly chosen. His parents saw him as a burden, and he had long been accustomed to being ignored and abandoned. When Zhao Xin pursued him, he thought that someone was finally willing to choose him, but the PowerPoint presentation made by Zhou Jingxing gave him a resounding slap in the face.

Now, Zhou Jingxing says he loves him and wants to spend the rest of his life with him.

Can I still believe?

Upon hearing the rejection, Wu Qin choked up and asked Zhou Jingxing, "Does she like you?"

Shen Zhou heard Zhou Jingxing say very naturally, "Of course he likes me, but there are still some small obstacles between us. But it doesn't matter, we'll be together soon."

Wu Qin was a carefree person after all. She wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and forced a smile. "That's good. I wish you happiness."

Zhou Jingxing said happily, "Thank you, he is a very good person, and of course we will be happy."

Shen Zhou leaned against the wall and only came out after hearing Wu Qin leave.

"You're here!" Zhou Jingxing strode towards him. "I went to the elevator to meet you, but you weren't there."

Shen Zhou pretended not to know about his conversation with Wu Qin, and said, "Let's go, is everyone here?"

When the two returned to the private room, everyone was already there. Li Weilin reserved the two seats to his right for them, while to his left were two of his former students, now art collectors, renowned figures in the industry whom Shenzhou had never met.

As expected, Li Weilin introduced the two men to Shen Zhou. Shen Zhou had mixed feelings, knowing that Li Weilin's high regard for him stemmed entirely from Zhou Jingxing. Li Weilin had once told him, "I treat Jingxing like my own child. Since he chose you, you're one of us now."

On one hand, Shen Zhou felt Zhou Jingxing's deep love; on the other hand, his reason and emotions were still locked in a fierce tug-of-war.

Would anyone really love me like that? Chen Zhou had no confidence.

His overthinking and agonizing resulted in him unknowingly drinking too much that night.

Shen Zhou looked no different from usual after drinking too much, except that he spoke less, so Zhou Jingxing didn't notice at first.

After the party, the two took the elevator back to their guest room upstairs. It wasn't until Shen Zhou mistook the room number for the third time that Zhou Jingxing realized he had drunk too much.

"Huh? Why are there stones on the ground?" Chen Zhou asked, puzzled.

Before he fell, Zhou Jingxing quickly caught him and didn't dare let go. "There's no stone. You've just drunk too much and can't stand steadily."

Shen Zhou retorted, "I didn't drink too much! It was just two glasses, nothing much."

"Yes, yes, you're not drunk." Zhou Jingxing helped Chen Zhou to the room door. "Chen Zhou, where did you put your room key?"

"Hmm? Pocket."

Zhou Jingxing reached into his shirt pocket, but Chen Zhou dodged with a laugh, "Haha, it tickles."

Zhou Jingxing's heart itched even more; the drunken Chen Zhou was as cute as a kitten, making him want to...

Zhou Jingxing's beautiful fantasies were completely dispelled by the man's loud voice.

A man was standing in the hallway in front of a room, pounding on the door and cursing loudly.

"Get out here! Wang Qian, I know you're in there!"

Wang Qian? Zhou Jingxing's heart skipped a beat. Could it be Senior Sister Wang?

The man pounded on the door loudly, yelling, "Open the door! Don't think I don't know there's someone hiding inside, huh? You shameless bastard!"

Before Zhou Jingxing could react, Chen Zhou had already staggered over. He said to the man, "Hello, you can't make a scene here. This is a public area."

Zhou Jingxing quickly followed and stood in front of Shen Zhou, saying to the man, "You're not a hotel guest, are you? It's late at night, you're disturbing the peace, please leave!"

The man looked them up and down, then scoffed, "It's none of your business."

He continued pounding on the door, hurling extremely offensive insults at the people inside.

"Don't think you're free just because you're divorced. I'm not letting you go! You think you can get back together with your old flame at the class reunion? No way! You shameless bastard..."

Remembering what Wu Qin had told him—that Senior Sister Wang was divorced—Zhou Jingxing stepped forward to stop the man from kicking the door. "Stop! Didn't you say you were divorced from her? Why are you still harassing her!"

Shen Zhou stepped forward and grabbed the man's wrist, saying, "You can't do this!"

The man raised his hand, and Shen Zhou, who was already quite drunk, was almost pushed to the ground. Zhou Jingxing quickly helped Shen Zhou up, "Are you alright? You've had too much to drink, why did you go up there?"

At that moment, the door in front of the three of them opened, and Wang Qian walked out holding a wooden clothes hanger. She looked at her ex-husband warily, "What are you doing here? We're divorced. If you keep bothering me, I'll call the police!"

She turned to look at Zhou Chen, her face full of concern, "Jingxing, Chenzhou, are you alright? Did he do anything to you?"

Zhou Jingxing put his arm around Chen Zhou and said to her, "We're fine, but Senior Sister, do you need our help?"

Her ex-husband squinted at them, then said sarcastically, "Senior sister? You two are classmates? You must be her first love and lover, right? You flirted with her right in front of me, you have no shame!"

Wang Qian's face turned extremely ugly. "Show some respect when you speak. He's just my junior brother. It's your own fault for not being kind to everyone."

Zhou Jingxing said coldly, "You've already divorced her, so what right do you have to interfere in your senior sister's love life? If you're so free, would you even give advice on when a pig has piglets?"

"What did you say?!"

Wang Qian shouted, "Get out! I told you when we got divorced that I never wanted to see you again in my life!"

Her ex-husband's face was contorted with pain and rage.

"You, you're so heartless! Don't you care about our relationship as husband and wife at all?"

Zhou Jingxing interjected, "Who said you're married? Senior Sister Wang has already divorced you. Stop being so sentimental."

Her ex-husband's face stiffened. "Our affairs are none of your business!"

Wang Qian said to her ex-husband with a stern face, "We have nothing to do with each other anymore. I just ask that you stop bothering me."

The ex-husband was resilient; he suddenly knelt down before Wang Qian, tears streaming down his face, and said, "Qianqian, I really love you. Please, let's get back together. I really can't live without you!"

Zhou Jingxing was amazed; he was truly a genius.

Wang Qian couldn't take it anymore. "You're doing this again! Does kneeling work? Can kneeling erase the harm you've done to me?" She pulled up one sleeve, revealing a light blue mark on her arm, running from her wrist to her elbow. "The injury you inflicted before the divorce hasn't fully healed yet!"

Wang Qian lowered her neckline again, revealing a seven- or eight-centimeter-long scar on the side of her snow-white neck beneath her turtleneck sweater. "This is from when you cut me with a knife last Chinese New Year. The scar will never go away!"

Her face was filled with sorrow. "Almost all the hurt I've suffered in my life has come from you. How could I possibly go back to that hellish place of yours!"

Her ex-husband crawled two steps on his knees and shamelessly said, "That's because I love you. The thought that you might be with someone else made me so angry that I lost my temper. That time during the New Year was because I had been drinking. I was too concerned about you, that's why I acted that way. I promise I'll change in the future, please forgive me?"

Shen Zhou couldn't listen anymore. "You can't change. There's no such thing as a one-time thing when it comes to domestic violence. If you were truly repentant, you shouldn't have come to harass Senior Sister Wang Qian today!"

A fierce glint flashed in Zhou Jingxing's eyes. He sneered, "If you've lost your mind, why don't you go to your workplace and beat up your boss, or go to the police station and beat up the police? You dare to hit Senior Sister Wang, but do you dare to hit a man?"

"So you hit someone because you've been drinking? If you were having dinner with your buddies, would you hit them? Would you dare?"

"If you have this habit, then I suggest that after drinking with your boss, you beat him up. When you get home and see your dad beating your mom, you join in and beat your mom up too. Since you're all family, it'll be easier to beat them up."

Her ex-husband's face turned ashen. He rushed over, a sharp glint flashing in his hand.

"What nonsense are you spewing, you adulterer? I'll chop you up!"

"careful!"

Amidst the gasps of alarm, Zhou Jingxing had no time to realize the danger he had almost faced when Chen Zhou rushed in front of him and used his arm to shield him from a knife.

"Are you crazy! You dare to lay a hand on an outsider? Aren't you afraid of going to jail?" Wang Qian held the clothes hanger in front of her chest, trembling with fear, but still walked in front of Zhou Chen and the other man in a defensive stance. "If you have any problems, come at me! This has nothing to do with them!"

Zhou Jingxing grabbed Chen Zhou's arm, anxiously checking it. "How deep is the wound? Are you stupid? Why did you shield me? I'm tough, a little injury is nothing!"

The pain had sobered him up considerably. He smiled at Zhou Jingxing with a pale face and said, "I'm fine. Luckily, I was wearing thick clothes today, so it should just be a superficial injury."

Her ex-husband was still going crazy. He pointed a bloody fruit knife at Wang Qian and said fiercely, "You still say it has nothing to do with him? You divorced me because of your first love, didn't you? Today I'm going to teach this homewrecker who destroyed someone else's marriage a lesson!"

Wang Qian took a step back, her hands trembling. "Our divorce has nothing to do with anyone else. It's because I couldn't stand your domestic violence anymore. You're not human! In the year or so of our marriage, you've beaten me so badly that I've been hospitalized three times! I've said it before! I can never live like that again in my life!"

Zhou Jingxing put down his phone with a dark face and said to Wang Qian, "Senior sister, don't waste your breath on this trash. I've already called the police."

Upon hearing that the police had been called, the ex-husband became enraged. He lunged at Wang Qian, brandishing a knife and shouting, "I'm not doing well anyway, so you shouldn't expect to do well either!"