The pressure coming from Mu ZhenYu made Xu WanZhi very much want to do whatever was within her power to survive. She snickered into the phone and said, "You didn't do that for me. You only did all that because you want my fox. Stop trying to earn yourself brownie points. I won't fall for it."
The other end quieted down awkwardly.
A little while later, Jiang YueXian found his courage again and asked in a quiet voice, "I have tried so hard already, WanZhi. Just lend your little foxy to me for a few days, please?"
Before Xu WanZhi could answer him, her phone was taken away by Mu ZhenYu.
He looked down on her from above before he said into the phone, "No."
His slender finger cleanly hung up the phone, and he casually put her phone into his own pocket. His shorts, already loose, fell even lower from the weight of the phone.
His two mermaid lines looked even hotter.
The males of the species… could be so possessive.
Xu WanZhi understood that he wanted to make the point that he didn't want her to walk away, so she stood there and waited for his lecture.
After a while, to her surprise, he asked her, "Xu WanZhi, are you afraid of me?"
Unlike his usual teasing tone, he was very sincere.
Before she could respond, he added, "It has nothing to do with what had happened at the Bai's last time. You have been afraid of me from the very beginning. Why is that?"*
He was much taller than her. With her head bowed, her sight landed perfectly at the ugly scars on his waist.
Truth be told, she was a little afraid of him. Not only because of his pure yang property that would render all of her magic useless, but more because he had tortured and killed her in the original novel.
As that was her intended fate, as much as things were going quite differently than the book for the time being, thinking about what had happened to the original owner still made her frantic.
She would not let her guard down around him.
He reached out his calloused hand and ran it over the back of her hand before he brought her jade-white hand over to his waist. He then guided her soft fingertips over each of his scars one by one.
The dark red scars contrasted greatly with his wheat-colored skin, making them seem even more ghastly.
Her fingertips moved a little before they were stretched out, and she touched his scars with the tip of her finger.
"When I was young, the Mu's was run by my grandfather. His words were the absolute commands. His draconian way of running things was what solidified the Mu's status as the head family. When I was 14 years old, my grandfather was very ill and was hospitalized. I was kidnapped, and the Mu's received a random request for an ungodly amount." Keeping her hand on his waist with his, he nonchalantly told her the story of how these scars came about.
The sensation of the tensed muscle turned into some indescribable feeling that spread out of her heart and her guard came down a little.
"My grandfather had always looked down on my dad and always had control of the family treasure. But the night before he was hospitalized, my dad somehow scammed all the money from him and went overseas. All of the Mu's combined were not able to come up with the ransom. The ransom payment was delayed time and again. The group of kidnappers, seeing that their well thought out plan had tanked, decided to take it out on me. They locked me up in an abandoned factory and beat me up. That's how I got these scars."
Now Xu WanZhi got it – so these weren't scars from some crazy fight that he was engaged in in the past.
And that was probably also the beginning of his hatred toward his father.
Looking at her eyesight that was softening, he casually pointed at where she had stroked and asked, "Xu WanZhi, did you overthink about this?"
Xu WanZhi's lips tightened up a bit awkwardly after he saw through her. She was finally able to look up into his eyes and asked, "What happened after that? How did you escape?"
"I was able to struggle free when they weren't paying attention." His mouth curved upward, and he lifted up his arms and gestured. "The factory was very remote. There was nothing around it and no transportation. I hid in a garbage dump for over ten days before I was discovered by a farmer and was able to escape."
Having heard that, a sad look flashed passed Xu WanZhi's eyes.
Mu ZhenYu knew that he had told her as much as she needed to know for now.
The kidnappers didn't know the skinny him back then had chosen to not run away. It wasn't because he couldn't, it was that he wanted to wait for an opportunity to get revenge.
He was only able to cut through the ropes that had bound him because he stole a knife from one of the kidnappers. He had the knife with him the entire time. He waited for the day that the group split up and took care of them one by one.
But he didn't want to scare the little girl with the bloody story.
He curved his lips and gave her a wicked smile, "Well? Are you still scared?"
"I…" Xu WanZhi paused for a little, then shook her head.
His smile deepened, and he moved closer to her and pinned her on the wall. Placing one of his hands on the wall, he said, "You didn't want to talk to me at all when you come home, but you have the time to listen to that Jiang guy. Is that appropriate, Xu WanZhi? Whatever happened to your excellent customer service?"
His words made Xu WanZhi speechless. After a little while, she said quietly, "Tomorrow… Shen Yi, the male lead of 'Blossoming Us' will be joining the filming crew tomorrow. The director said there will be an opening ceremony afterward, so I won't be home for dinner."
"Shen Yi?" Mu ZhenYu repeated the name and it took him a while to put the name with a face. "The one standing next to you on Bai Fei's birthday?"
Baffled, Xu WanZhi quickly clarified. "There is nothing going on between the two of us."
But Mu ZhenYu only squinted again and said, "Your director is sure good at brown nosing. Alright, you go. Don't drink too much and don't come home too late."
***
Shen Yi joined the filming crew the next day and the crew focused madly on the scenes between the male and female leads. After the entire day, all the filming took a toll on Xu WanZhi's body. Thinking about the opening ceremony dinner gave her a headache.
Xu WanZhi returned to her nanny van after she was done for the day, then she proceeded immediately to change her clothes and reapply her makeup. As the female lead, she was a little privileged – at least she could arrive after the female support character, Chang XiaoYa.
She picked a black tube top nightgown with sequins on the hem. Its built-in bustle made her look light and graceful. The short skirt covered up the important parts of her, and her white collarbone and long and slender legs were exposed for all to see. She was both cute and sexy.
The makeup artist put a decorative diamond at the corner of her eyes. It looked like a drop of mermaid tear and made her look both mysterious and seductive.
When Xu WanZhi arrived, most of the dishes had already been served and everyone had already had two rounds of drinks. Even the normally scholarly Shen Yi had drank a little too much.
Xu WanZhi stood under the grand crystal chandelier. The light, reflecting on her body, made her look like she was covered in crystals. Shen Yi's lazy look changed a little. He waved at her slightly and had her go and sit next to him.
Normally speaking, the male and female leads should be sitting on both sides of the director and vice director. But all the seats had been taken, so she had no other options but to sit next to Shen Yi.
Chang XiaoYa sat by the entrance area. Xu WanZhi barely looked over at her before she quickly took her seat.
The director looked first at Xu WanZhi, then over at Shen Yi. Probably thinking that her being late was disrespectful to Shen Yi, their guest, he said to her, "Why are you so late, WanZhi? You should have a 3-drink penalty."
Nobody expected Shen Yi to pick up the bottle of red wine, pour some out for Xu WanZhi, and say, "Penalty, yes. But I will make the call that WanZhi only needs to have three sips."
And that's when the director realized that Shen Yi was helping her out.
His eyes were beaming when he looked at her.