Chapter 25: The Signature
Chris also noticed the two walking hand in hand toward him.
He looked surprised. “You guys know each other?”
Wen Qiusheng maintained that gentle demeanor, smiling as he explained briefly.
After listening, Chris looked surprised. “That really is a coincidence!”
“I didn’t expect that after going around in circles, everyone knows each other!”
“By the way, where is your partner? He didn’t come with you?”
Chris had a deep impression of Shen Zhouyue’s partner.
After all, it was the first time he had been targeted so heavily by someone.
Shen Zhouyue looked a bit flustered. He glanced at Wen Qiusheng out of the corner of his eye, confirming he hadn’t noticed anything unusual, before saying, “He had something to do, so he didn’t accompany me.”
“I didn’t expect Mr. Chris and Mr. Wen to actually know each other. When I saw you just now, I thought I was seeing things.”
From the moment Wen Qiusheng heard Shen Zhouyue had a partner, his expression became a bit strange, as if he had thought of something terrible.
He frowned, his gaze landing on Shen Zhouyue occasionally before silently withdrawing.
“Who is your partner? Maybe I know him too!”
Of course you know him…
You were just whispering things about him in my ear…
Shen Zhouyue was speechless, not knowing what to say, so he simply smiled.
Chris also vaguely sensed the atmosphere between the two was strange. Just as he was about to reveal the identity of Shen Zhouyue’s partner, he suddenly shut his mouth.
The atmosphere among the three of them became weird for a moment, attracting the attention of others around them.
Chris became the sole icebreaker at this moment.
He looked at Wen Qiusheng and smiled. “Qiusheng, didn’t you say you had a painting for me? Why don’t we go get it now?”
“I have something to do later, so I might have to leave first.”
Chris’s words surprised Wen Qiusheng, but they also gave Shen Zhouyue a suitable excuse to leave.
“Since you guys have an appointment, I’ll go look at the paintings first!”
Dropping this sentence, Shen Zhouyue gently pulled his hand out of Wen Qiusheng’s grasp and walked toward the nearest painting.
Shen Zhouyue soon forgot those unpleasant things and immersed himself in the beautiful artworks.
After browsing for half the morning, Shen Zhouyue noticed something wrong with the paintings.
He leaned in close to the bottom right corner of a painting and found a name written there, but it wasn’t Wen Qiusheng’s name.
He frowned, intending to look closer, when he received a call from the driver.
“Mr. Shen, I am waiting for you outside the estate.”
Shen Zhouyue checked the time and realized it was almost noon.
He rubbed his brow with a headache. Taking out his phone while no one was paying attention, he snapped a photo of the area he found strange. Then he walked up to Wen Qiusheng. “My spouse sent a driver to pick me up. I’m leaving first.”
Wen Qiusheng naturally didn’t refuse, smiling as he said, “Safe travels!”
“Let’s discuss paintings together again when we have the chance!”
Shen Zhouyue didn’t say much more, just smiled.
Back home, he zoomed in on that corner repeatedly. Sure enough, he saw a signature completely unrelated to Wen Qiusheng in the corner.
The character “Ning” (宁) hung in the bottom right corner of the painting, blending in with the surrounding scenery.
If one didn’t look carefully, one wouldn’t realize there was a character there at all.
When Yu Tingzhou came back in the evening, he saw Shen Zhouyue clutching his phone, looking at something unknown.
“Didn’t you go to the art exhibition? Why do you look like this? Was the exhibition not to your liking?”
Shen Zhouyue raised his head, realizing Yu Tingzhou had returned.
He rubbed his eyes. “Do you know anyone with ‘Ning’ in their name?”
Shen Zhouyue’s question was abrupt. Yu Tingzhou paused. “Why are you asking this?”
“I meet a lot of people every day; I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head.”
“What’s wrong?”
Shen Zhouyue didn’t speak. He just handed the photo he took today to Yu Tingzhou and pointed to a spot in the corner. “This is the painting I saw today. I found that basically every painting has a symbol very similar to ‘Ning’ in the corner.”
“This situation is usually the artist’s signature, so I was a bit curious!”
Yu Tingzhou looked carefully and found the pattern in the corner did indeed look like “Ning”.
“I remember the exhibition was Wen Qiusheng’s. Could the works not be his?”
Yu Tingzhou hadn’t looked closely at the information on the ticket. He frowned, his expression conflicted.
“The ticket says ‘This exhibition features paintings entirely by Wen Qiusheng’!”
Afraid Yu Tingzhou wouldn’t believe him, Shen Zhouyue specially took out the other ticket he had kept with him and handed it to Yu Tingzhou.
He pointed to the small print in the upper right corner of the ticket. “Here, right here.”
“Does this mean it’s possible none of these paintings are by Wen Qiusheng, but are someone else’s works that Wen Qiusheng took and claimed as his own?”
Shen Zhouyue didn’t know either. He pursed his lips and said, “It’s possible the works are Wen Qiusheng’s and the ‘Ning’ doesn’t have any special meaning. Or it’s the possibility you mentioned. That’s why I was curious if there was anyone around Wen Qiusheng who likes to paint and has the character ‘Ning’ in their name.”
Yu Tingzhou suddenly realized something was wrong. “I’m not that close with Wen Qiusheng. Why did you think to ask me?”
“Eh?” Shen Zhouyue’s eyes went round, looking bewildered. “But when Wen Qiusheng mentioned you, his attitude was very special. It didn’t seem like you weren’t close.”
“We are just in a contract marriage, essentially mutual assistance. You don’t need to lie to me about this kind of thing.”
Yu Tingzhou’s face turned cold. He pinched Shen Zhouyue’s chin. “I’m really curious, what kind of person am I in your heart?”
“If I really had something going on with him, why would I have a contract marriage with someone else?”
Shen Zhouyue froze for a moment, quickly realizing Yu Tingzhou had a point.
“Then why… when Wen Qiusheng… mentions you… is his tone ambiguous…”
Because his chin was pinched, Shen Zhouyue’s speech was a bit slurred, successfully amusing Yu Tingzhou.
He let go of Shen Zhouyue and smiled. “How would I know?”
“Just because someone likes me, I have to know about it? My mom gave me the tickets; why don’t you go ask her?”
“But let me put the ugly words upfront: we are only in a contract marriage. Don’t get any ideas you shouldn’t have!”
Shen Zhouyue ignored the displeasure in his heart, looked up at Yu Tingzhou, and said very seriously, “Don’t worry, I will leave when the time comes!”
Yu Tingzhou originally thought he would feel happy seeing Shen Zhouyue so obedient, but he just felt inexplicably irritated.
He didn’t seem to want to hear Shen Zhouyue’s such definite answer.
Unable to sort out the messy emotions in his heart, Yu Tingzhou simply picked Shen Zhouyue up and walked toward the bedroom on the second floor.
Shen Zhouyue was stunned at first, but soon relaxed.
He wished he could achieve his goal immediately and return to his beloved An’an.
Everything happening now was just a necessary step to achieve that goal.
Speaking of which, he had maintained a physical relationship with Yu Tingzhou for almost a month now. He wondered if the child had arrived…
When Shen Zhouyue was placed on the bed, he couldn’t help reaching out to touch his abdomen, his expression holding a mix of anticipation and nervousness.
“Are you hungry?”
Yu Tingzhou noticed Shen Zhouyue’s movement but didn’t think much of it. Instead, thinking he was hungry, he put back on the clothes he had half-removed.
“Get ready, I’ll take you out to eat?”
Shen Zhouyue didn’t refuse.
Every morning these past few days, he woke up with backaches. Taking a break occasionally was also a good choice.
Maybe the baby was already here.
He could go out and buy some testing kits.
Fang Garden was located in a remote area, and Shen Zhouyue didn’t like having strangers in the house, so usually he cooked for himself. But today, he had been obsessing over the painting matter and hadn’t had time to cook.
They drove toward a rather famous private kitchen restaurant.
When they arrived, before Shen Zhouyue could react, he saw Wen Qiusheng and Chris.
Wen Qiusheng noticed Shen Zhouyue and waved, gesturing for him to join them.
Shen Zhouyue was incredibly thankful that Yu Tingzhou had gone to park the car and wasn’t by his side; otherwise, Wen Qiusheng would definitely have sensed something.
He walked over to Wen Qiusheng, exchanged a few perfunctory words, and wanted to leave.
But Yu Tingzhou appeared at the restaurant entrance at this moment.
Wen Qiusheng seemed to have a radar; his gaze shifted to the entrance immediately. Seeing Yu Tingzhou, he stood up directly from his seat and walked quickly toward the door.
Yu Tingzhou hadn’t noticed Wen Qiusheng’s existence. Seeing Shen Zhouyue standing near a certain table, he felt strange and was walking in that direction.
“Tingzhou, I…”
Wen Qiusheng saw Yu Tingzhou walking toward him and thought he was coming for him. His face was plastered with a brilliant smile, quite different from the polite, gentle smile Shen Zhouyue saw during the day.
Yu Tingzhou hadn’t noticed Wen Qiusheng appearing in front of him, but when Wen Qiusheng spoke, his gaze naturally withdrew from Shen Zhouyue and landed on the person blocking his way.
The person in front of him looked somewhat familiar, but Yu Tingzhou wasn’t clear on his identity.
He asked with some confusion, “You are?”
Wen Qiusheng froze. “Tingzhou, don’t you remember me? I’m Wen Qiusheng. We always played together when we were little. Back then, you even said you wanted to marry me as your bride when you grew up…”
Wen Qiusheng put on a wronged expression.
Chris, watching this, felt his teeth ache from the sourness.
Wen Qiusheng was never like this in front of him.
Chris remembered Yu Tingzhou; in his understanding, Yu Tingzhou was Shen Zhouyue’s partner.
So he suddenly leaned close to Shen Zhouyue and whispered in his ear, “Shen, aren’t you going over to assert your sovereignty?”
“He’s seducing your partner! Are you planning to do nothing and just stand here watching?”
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