Chapter 46
Mornings on Juqing Road were a vibrant affair, filled with the high-pitched songs of birds and the rustle of wings beating against leaves. And, for Shu Ci, the frantic ringing and vibrating of the phone on his nightstand. He buried his head deep into his pillow, rolled over twice, and finally threw back the covers with a thoroughly annoyed expression.
Leaning against the kitchen island with a slice of bread hanging from his mouth, he rubbed his sleepy eyes and unlocked his phone.
One glance at the screen and he was wide awake.
“Councilman Shen Attends A University Opening Ceremony, Engages in Fervent Conversation with Student After Event.”
“Councilman Shen Meets with Omega Student Representative; Sources Say Council to Discuss Schooling and Advancement Policies for Betas and Omegas with Education Department.”
Shu Ci scrolled down to the photo accompanying the article and, sure enough, saw himself almost completely obscured by Shen Lin. He stared at it, then, feeling uneasy, found the video version. The camera had followed Shen Lin out of the grand auditorium in what was practically a single, continuous shot. It had never stopped, rounding a corner just in time to capture his own approach up the steps.
He wasn’t really visible in the video either, just a sliver of his cheek.
Ding— The milk in the microwave was ready.
Shu Ci set his phone down and turned to get it. Before he could even put the cup down, Shen Ti was calling.
“Hey, what did… what did my brother say to you?” Shen Ti had woken up, seen the news, and immediately thought of the meaningful words Shen Lin had spoken at the Shen residence. He called Shu Ci at once to confirm.
Shu Ci took a sip of milk and raised an eyebrow. “To hear you say it, you knew he was going to find me?”
The dynamic between the Shen brothers had long deviated from the original novel. He had no idea what they were up to these days.
“It was just a guess. They’re all trying to win the Omega vote, so I knew he’d have to do something. He needed an opportunity to showcase his pro-Omega policies,” Shen Ti analyzed with a frown. “I thought he might approach you privately to discuss it. I never expected him to just…”
Shen Ti knew Shu Ci’s schedule. He had gone to the base just a few days after returning from the island, so Shen Lin obviously couldn’t have met him then. This meant it was their first meeting, and it had happened in public.
“Don’t be so nervous,” Shu Ci said, leisurely finishing his breakfast and wiping his hands as he listened to Shen Ti’s analysis. “Your brother didn’t say anything. He just asked me for directions, and the kid next to me was the one who answered him.”
The moment the well-mannered man with blond hair and gold-rimmed glasses had stopped in front of him, the novel’s physical description of Shen Lin had immediately flashed in Shu Ci’s mind. His first instinct was to turn and run, wanting nothing to do with some dramatic showdown between the male lead and the second male lead. But Yu Xingxing, that oblivious kid, had blocked his path, glaring daggers at Shen Lin and answering the question for him in a rush of words.
Shen Lin had shot a brief glance at Yu Xingxing before his gaze quickly returned to Shu Ci.
He had curved his eyes into a warm and polite smile. “Thank you. My apologies for bothering you.”
Shu Ci shook his head. “No bother.”
After Shen Lin left, Yu Xingxing had fumed beside him, complaining that he was the one who answered the question, yet the man hadn’t even thanked him. He even threatened to tattle to Lu Wanqing when he got back.
Shen Lin had come and gone so quickly, almost as if he was just checking a box. At the time, neither of them had realized the man asking for directions was the Councilman Shen who was a regular in the news.
“Oh, wow. I didn’t see that coming.”
Shen Ti was surprised. He double-checked, still worried. “So he didn’t tell you in advance he was coming, and he didn’t say anything of substance, he just asked for directions?”
“That’s right. He asked for the principal’s office building.”
It was Shu Ci’s first time on the A University campus; he didn’t even know where the building was.
“‘Fervent conversation,’ ‘student representative’… I have no idea where they came up with that. I woke up completely baffled.”
Shen Ti mulled it over for a moment, his tone slightly embarrassed. “His itinerary is always arranged by his assistant. There’s no way he didn’t know where the principal’s office was. So… so it was probably a deliberate photo-op. Or maybe there just wasn’t anything newsworthy at the freshman opening ceremony yesterday, so…”
Shen Ti knew his brother was the type to plan four or five steps ahead, but he never thought Shen Lin would use his friend so blatantly, without even giving him a heads-up.
Could it be a test for future cooperation?
It wasn’t something Shen Lin hadn’t done before.
Back when Shen Lin was just starting his political career and the Shen family had yet to be fully restored to its former glory, he would feign civility with certain people who sought to use him or latch onto his coattails.
If the person was an opportunist merely fishing for fame, they would seize the news and run with it. Some would go even further, making suggestive, fabricated claims to fuel media speculation. In those cases, Shen Lin would decisively exclude them from any potential partnership, his methods swift and ruthless.
In the past, Shen Ti had just been a spectator, watching from the sidelines as these self-proclaimed geniuses played their little games in front of his brother. But now that the target of the test was Shu Ci, he couldn’t help but feel guilty and deeply apologetic toward his best friend.
“I get it, I get it.” Shu Ci breathed a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, he was just being used as a pawn by Shen Lin. That was far more reassuring than the idea that “Shen Lin is the second male lead and might fall for him.” If Shen Lin could use him so unscrupulously, he probably wasn’t in love with him yet.
Besides, Shen Lin was a political rival of Gu Lanzhu’s uncle. The enemy of his enemy was his friend. As long as it made life difficult for Gu Lanzhu and the rest of the Gu family, he didn’t mind being used one bit.
“And I have to say, your brother’s photographer is pretty skilled. I even got some benefits out of it.”
Shu Ci opened his social media, which was flooded with unread notifications, and his eyes went wide.
“How did all these people find my account? My followers jumped by several thousand overnight… Whoa, would you believe it? Even Shu Changhai contacted me. He said they’re already starting the process to return my father’s assets to me!”
While the various netizens on social media might wonder about the authenticity of his picture with Shen Lin, the Shu family didn’t dare to question it.
First, there was Gu Lanzhu acting high and mighty, defending Shu Ci right in front of them. Now, there was a photo suggesting a friendly exchange between Shu Ci and a councilman. Both incidents highlighted his extraordinary connections.
Shu Changhai could afford to offend neither the Shen family nor the Gu family. Rather than wait for them to back Shu Ci and dismantle everything they had built over the years, it was better to do Shu Ci a favor now and let him sever ties with the family on good terms.
If possible, they even hoped Shu Ci would take back his words about disowning them. Times had changed. They no longer cared how many Alphas he provoked; they only hoped to use his influence to stage a comeback.
As Shu Ci ranted to Shen Ti, he decisively rejected Shu Changhai’s proposal.
“Thank you, I will accept all the inheritance dividends, but I’ll pass on returning to the Shu family,” he typed out, word by word.
His tone was already quite restrained.
His old, hot-tempered self would have definitely replied with: In your fcking dreams.*
When he thought of how Shu Changze had to bow and scrape before the family just to raise and care for him—only for the child to not even be his own flesh and blood—Shu Ci couldn’t help but feel for the poor, thankless man.
Especially now that he had inherited Shu Changze’s entire island, along with several hidden assets, he found it even more impossible to say he would ever return to the Shu family.
Seeing that he wasn’t bothered by the incident with Shen Lin, Shen Ti also breathed a sigh of relief. But then another thought occurred to him. “Why don’t you have the young master Yu explain things for you?”
Shu Ci: “Explain what?”
Shen Ti: “If your husband sees the news, he’s bound to get the wrong idea if he doesn’t know the whole story.”
“…What time does he have to think about things like this?”
For the past two days, Shu Ci had pinned the news from Outer Region, District Three to the top of his feed. He checked the latest disaster relief progress every morning.
The seabed tremors were constant, and successive tsunamis of varying sizes threatened the coastline. More and more victims needed to be evacuated.
Secondary disasters followed one after another, and the front-line personnel in Districts Seven and Eight were becoming severely stretched.
Even Yu Xingxing’s leave had been cut short. After spending the day with him yesterday, he had been recalled to the general headquarters by Marshal He in the evening to help coordinate reinforcements and supply preparations.
At the same time, a number of independent media outlets had entered the demarcated high-risk zones on their own. Not only did they fail to provide any assistance, but they actually increased the burden and difficulty of Lu Wanqing’s rescue missions—
To save them meant further exhausting their already limited manpower.
But if they didn’t, these malicious people could use the faintest signal in the forest to upload videos of their “survival” ordeal, crying about their tragic circumstances and inciting public discontent against the rescue teams in Districts Seven and Eight.
“They’re already struggling to operate within the golden window for rescue. They have to save people, manage the victims’ emotional stability, and still divert energy to deal with this endless stream of public opinion. If I had Yu Xingxing pass on such trivial nonsense at a time like this, wouldn’t I just be causing trouble?”
“You say that like I have no sense of the bigger picture.”
Shen Ti pouted, aggrieved. “I understand everything you’re saying, but we’re in the same boat, aren’t we? There are some things I can only say to you.”
If Cui You saw him in the news with another Alpha, he would definitely come home consumed by jealousy.
“Alright, alright, I understand your good intentions,” Shu Ci said, drawing out his words to soothe him. “I have to go. I’m going to change and head to class.”
He went upstairs and slipped on a crisp shirt. Lowering his gaze, his eyes fell on the empty other half of the closet.
He had noticed it ever since he transmigrated. Although this house was supposedly the marital home Lu Wanqing had prepared, there were very few things here that belonged to Lu Wanqing.
He probably had more belongings in his dormitory at the base.
Besides, Lu Wanqing and I aren’t like them, newlyweds in the throes of passion. How are we the same?
The matter with Shen Lin was thus pushed to the back of his mind. However, when he got to the university, Shu Ci realized that the mountain of unread messages on his phone was nothing. For the first time, he experienced the suffocating feeling of being completely surrounded in a classroom.
“Shu Ci, can you be my scene partner in acting class today?”
“Excuse me, I was here first, right? He hasn’t even answered me yet.”
“I heard you’re good friends with Councilman Shen’s younger brother! The Shen family’s branch clan just started a film company. Can you get us an audition?”
Shu Ci offered a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, remaining completely impervious as he waited for the class bell to ring.
Through the crowd, he saw the white moonlight walking toward him, step by step, with a look in his eyes that he thought he was hiding well but was intense enough to swallow him whole.
Hiss—
He felt a headache coming on.
Damn it. He had wanted to thank Shen Lin. By leveraging his influence, Shu Ci had gotten the Shu family to return his inheritance without firing a single shot or even going to court. He just hadn’t expected that he would also max out his negative reputation with the white moonlight ahead of schedule.
See? The white moonlight already hated him for stealing the spotlight, his fighting spirit ignited far too soon.
Author’s Note:
Mr. Shu, a famous director of cliché dramas, has decided to rewrite his own script overnight.
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