Chapter 63 "I'll eat you first."
He Xiao came to his senses and realized he had been following too closely. Panicked, he lost his footing as he backed away, and his heel stepped on a fallen, dry branch by the roadside.
The snapping sound startled him, sending chills down his spine. He looked up in a panic and met Sheng Yu's dark eyes from afar.
He Xiao didn't care about anything else and turned to run towards the corner.
Startled by the hurried footsteps behind her, Tang Ci struggled to jump down from Sheng Yu's arms.
She turned her head to look, but Sheng Yu held her neck so she couldn't move.
Sheng Yu pinched her cheek in dissatisfaction: "Focus on flirting."
"What flirting..." Tang Ci blushed and pushed his hand away, turning her head to look back at the street.
The sidewalk was completely empty; there wasn't a soul in sight.
"Is it a kitten?" she murmured, frowning.
Sheng Yu glanced coldly at the corner a few meters away, her gaze returning to its usual warmth when she looked away: "Probably."
Tang Ci reached out and tugged at the hem of his suit jacket, then gestured with her chin towards the hotel: "Mr. He should be back in his room by now, let's go back too."
"No rush." Sheng Yu took her hand and continued walking forward.
"What else are you going to do?" Tang Ci followed and asked.
Sheng Yu raised his chin towards the shopping mall across the street with its illuminated sign: "Buy a condom."
Tang Ci choked on her words, staring at the tiles at her feet, before muttering a complaint in a low voice, "Why do you always think about this..."
But his footsteps continued to follow him without stopping.
"When you're in the honeymoon phase, you might not think about it anymore," Sheng Yu said with a natural smile.
Tang Ci savored the phrase "honeymoon phase," and followed him to the supermarket and back to the hotel, feeling lightheaded all the way.
It wasn't until she was nestled in the soft bed, with Sheng Yu teasing her lips and forcing her to call him "husband," that the pink bubbles in her mind began to dissipate.
Tang Ci's chest heaved as she hoarsely refused, "I don't want to, you didn't even say anything..."
Sheng Yu smiled, his eyes, damp with a thin layer of sweat, shining brightly.
Tang Ci stared blankly at his smile, and soon began to regret what she had just said.
For the next half hour, Sheng Yu whispered "wife" countless times in her ear.
His hot breath washed over her ear, and Tang Ci's mind went blank, her breathing became disordered, and her head spun. She couldn't remember whether she had called him by that name in the end.
After only one time, Sheng Yu carried her to take a bath.
Tang Ci yawned as she was placed into a bathtub filled with hot water, and then Sheng Yu came in from behind her.
With his large palms massaging her slightly sore shoulders, neck, and calves, Tang Ci fell asleep without realizing it.
When Tang Ci woke up the next day, it was already past breakfast time.
She took out her phone and saw that He Xiao had sent her a message early that morning, saying that he had to go back to work early because of some company business.
There was a noise coming from the door, and Tang Ci turned her head to look while holding her phone.
Sheng Yu walked in carrying a paper bag containing breakfast: "What are you looking at?"
"Mr. He said he had to go back to Nanling first."
Sheng Yu gave a curt "hmm" and placed the breakfast on the coffee table: "Come and eat, then we'll go on our date."
Since officially becoming a couple, they haven't gone on a proper date yet. Sheng Yu is a workaholic, and she has one project after another.
Tang Ci, clutching her phone, climbed out of bed: "Where should we go on our date?"
Sheng Yu unpacked the plastic box and casually mentioned a few attractions and their features, clearly having done her research beforehand: "You choose one."
Tang Ci narrowed her eyes and randomly chose one; it didn't matter to her where she went anyway.
After washing up, she sat on the sofa drinking milk when she remembered to ask, "Don't you have work today?"
Sheng Yu swallowed a bite of sandwich, lifted his eyelids and said, "I'll make it tomorrow."
Tang Ci paused for a second because of the emperor's incompetent attitude, but couldn't bear to refuse, and said "oh" with a slight smile.
/
The sun was shining brightly in Jiangcheng that day, but their date didn't go smoothly.
After leaving the Jiangcheng Museum, Tang Ci and Sheng Yu held hands and prepared to check out a popular cafe before heading to the airport.
Just as they were waiting for their coffee on a bench outside the cafe, Sheng Yu's phone suddenly vibrated.
As soon as he answered the phone, Qin Nong's urgent voice came through the receiver. After listening to her, Sheng Yu frowned slightly.
Tang Ci looked at his expression, her fingers unconsciously clenching, and just then her phone screen lit up.
It's a trending topic.
She hadn't intended to pay attention, but a glance at the news headline made her brow twitch, and she quickly unlocked her screen to check.
[#Yunqi Employee's Insult to China Exposed#]
Tang Ci read the trending topic carefully and remembered hearing about it from Liu Ye.
After Sheng Yu hung up the phone, she showed him the entries on her phone: "Didn't you already fire this employee who made discriminatory remarks?"
Compared to Tang Ci's unease, Sheng Yu seemed to have encountered a minor matter, nodding and saying calmly, "There are always people in the business world who want to take advantage of loopholes and engage in shady dealings."
He had barely finished speaking when the waiter opened the door and called their number.
Sheng Yu stood up with the receipt, took the packaged coffee in his left hand, and reached out with his right hand to hold hers.
When he looked at Tang Ci, his thick eyelashes lowered, and he asked in a questioning tone, "I'll go to the pop-up store with you next time. I need to go back to the company first?"
Tang Ci nodded, took his hand and stood up, asking with a worried tone as they walked, "Do you know who created this trending topic?"
Sheng Yu ruffled her hair with his large hand and said in a calm voice, "Probably some competitor."
"Don't worry, it's easy to solve."
Hearing him say that, Tang Ci breathed a slight sigh of relief.
As soon as the plane landed in Nanling, Sheng Yu went straight back to the company and didn't go home until midnight.
Before going to bed, Tang Ci received a call from Xiang Wen, who said that Sheng Yu was still in a meeting and would most likely have to work overtime at the company tonight.
After explaining Sheng Yu's whereabouts, Xiang Wen then gave the instructions on his behalf: "Miss Tang, Mr. Sheng said that you should stay home and sleep peacefully. He has nothing to do."
When Xiang Wen uttered what was supposed to be a simple instruction, Tang Ci felt inexplicably embarrassed, gave a quick reply, and hung up the phone.
Although Tang Ci was certain that Sheng Yu would eventually solve the problem, the process was too difficult for her. She tossed and turned in her bedroom with the lights off, unable to sleep, but she didn't dare to turn on her phone to check.
The news about Yunqi not only went viral on social media, but also caused a huge uproar in their work group.
The more she looked, the more anxious she became. She could only stare blankly at the ceiling and finally managed to fall asleep in the early hours of the morning.
The next morning, Tang Ci woke up with dark circles under her eyes, and the first thing she did was look to her side.
After confirming that Sheng Yu hadn't come home last night, she paused for a moment, then carefully picked up her phone and opened it, hoping to see good news.
But as soon as she clicked on the trending topics, the heat that had accumulated all night instantly dissipated.
After a night of speculation, the situation remains unclear following the rumors of Yunqi's alleged insult to China. The whistleblower dropped another bombshell early this morning.
[#Yunqi Chinese Employee Reveals Company Founder Sheng Had Tacitly Acquired Employees' Anti-China Remarks#]
Compared to yesterday's text exposé, today's entry even included a censored video. In the video, a man described in detail the extreme anti-China remarks made by his foreign colleague, but when it came to Sheng Yu's attitude, he simply said "let it go."
The entry immediately went viral, turning yesterday's lukewarm situation into a boiling point in just a few hours.
Tang Ci held her breath and opened the comments section. A flood of insults poured out, and the few rational discussions she occasionally came across were instantly drowned out.
After exiting the trending topics page, she intended to call Sheng Yu to inquire about the situation, but Xiang Wen called her first.
Tang Ci paused for a moment, then immediately answered the call.
"Hello, Miss Tang." Xiang Wen's voice was noticeably more flustered than usual: "Please don't come to Binzhou today, there's a small problem at the hotel."
Tang Ci then remembered that Yunqi's hotel renovation in Binzhou was finished today, and she had originally planned to go and inspect it in the morning.
Xiang Wen was about to hang up when Tang Ci hurriedly stopped him, asking, "What happened?"
A few shouts came from the other end of the phone, and a second later, a rustling sound rang out, and the phone was suddenly hung up.
With her heart sinking, Tang Ci ignored Xiang Wen's instructions, hurriedly washed up and changed her clothes, and took a taxi directly to the hotel.
/
The streets in Binzhou District were renovated a few years ago. The asphalt roads are clean and wide, the sidewalks are paved with neat light-colored tiles, and the evergreen trees on both sides of the road are lush and verdant.
The hotel in Yunqi is located in the middle of the main street. Its white exterior walls originally blended into the quiet scenery, but now they have been splashed with scarlet paint.
It was shocking to see from a distance.
Tang Ci got out of the taxi and walked quickly toward the hotel. When she saw the crowd shoving in the courtyard, she ran over.
Several thugs surrounded Xiang Wentuan, shouting something loudly. Security guards and construction workers were anxiously pulling at the people on the outside, creating a chaotic scene.
"Stop! I've already called the police!" Tang Ci shouted as she ran, raising her phone to dial the emergency number.
Upon hearing this, the thugs were about to run away, but then, as if unwilling to give up, they pushed Xiang Wen. After Xiang Wen fell to the ground, they cursed him a few times with passionate expressions and then scattered.
The security guard pulled Xiang Wen up and tried to grab the fleeing thugs, but Tang Ci, who had arrived, stopped him: "Let the police handle this. We can't act impulsively at this time."
Looking at Tang Ci's flushed face, Xiang Wen said helplessly, "Miss Tang, why did you come here? President Sheng will be angry if he finds out you came to such a dangerous place."
Tang Ci handed him a tissue and gently assured him, "If neither of us tells him, he won't know."
Xiang Wen took the tissue and wiped his face, then looked at the exterior wall and sighed, "The whole wall needs to be redone."
Tang Ci looked at the glaring paint stains on the wall, her nose tingled, and she asked with a slight sore throat, "Has Sheng Yu found a way to deal with this?"
"We're still contacting the media outlets that broke the news." Xiang Wen glanced at Tang Ci, hesitated for a few seconds, and ultimately said nothing.
Tang Ci noticed his unnatural expression and assumed it involved Yunqi's secrets, so she didn't press him further.
They waited in the courtyard for a while, and then the police arrived. After inspecting the scene and taking statements, it was already noon.
After the security guards and construction crew left, Tang Ci finally felt comfortable asking Xiang Wen, "Did Sheng Yu rest at the company last night?"
Xiang Wen nodded first, then honestly said, "It wasn't really a rest. President Sheng just closed his eyes for a while in the office and went to a meeting without having breakfast."
Tang Ci's heart clenched, and she asked in a tight voice, "Is he done with his work now?"
Xiang Wen glanced at his phone: "We're still in a meeting."
"Then... can I go and bring him some food?" Tang Ci asked softly.
“Of course you can.” Xiang Wen paused for a moment, “but you might not be able to see him.”
“It’s okay,” Tang Ci said immediately. “I’ll leave the food in his office and then I’ll leave.”
After getting a few dishes packed from the restaurant Sheng Yu frequented, Tang Ci didn't have time to eat herself and went straight to his company.
Upon arriving at Yunqi, a somber atmosphere immediately enveloped us. Employees in the lobby were all busy at work, and the heavy doors of the conference rooms were tightly closed, with only the faint sounds of discussion emanating from them.
Tang Ci tiptoed to Sheng Yu's office door, knocked but received no response, so she pushed the door open and went in.
Just as Xiang Wen had said, the office was empty; Sheng Yu was still in a meeting.
After placing the lunchbox on the coffee table, she went to Sheng Yu's desk, found paper and pen, and leaned over the desk to write a reminder for him to eat.
Just as the pen tip touched the end of the sentence, the click of the office door opening echoed through the large space. Tang Ci paused in her action of capping the pen and turned her head to look at the door.
The door, which she had previously partially closed, was now wide open.
The people standing by the door all turned to look at her, each with a different expression.
Sheng Yu, who was speaking to his subordinates with a stern face, frowned and raised his eyebrows when he saw her.
Tang Ci nervously put down her pen, her fingertips tapping the table as she said, "I brought you some food..."
"I'm leaving now," she said, and then she got up from her desk.
Sheng Yu ignored her and glanced at the company's senior executives: "Shall I have some food first?"
The crowd readily agreed, and within seconds they had all dispersed from the doorway.
Sheng Yu stepped into the room, locked the door as he closed it, and blocked Tang Ci's way when he turned around.
"I brought you some dishes from Fanlou, your favorites." Tang Ci pointed to the lunchbox on the coffee table, then looked up at him blankly, "You must be very hungry."
"I'm very hungry."
Sheng Yu spoke softly, put his arm around her waist, and lifted her up with a little effort.
As he pushed her to sit on the desk, Tang Ci's face suddenly flushed: "Weren't you hungry? Go eat..."
"No rush." Sheng Yu rubbed his straight nose against her taut neck. "I'll eat you first."
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