Chapter 69
“Ci’er, are you alright? What are you spacing out for?”
Dressed in a white shirt and beige trousers, Shen Ti stood at the harbor, watching the person come down in a daze. He reached out and pulled Shu Ci to his side.
After Shen Lin’s live broadcast, the Moon Shadow seemed to have sped up, racing through the night to return to the harbor at dawn.
The rising sun cast a golden glow, elongating the shadows of the passengers.
The police were on standby at the harbor. Relevant personnel were escorted away separately, and those needed for statements were also “invited” away together. Under high pressure from the media, the two Councilors left first, and the crowd dispersed.
By the time Shu Ci came down, there were hardly any people left at the harbor.
Shen Ti looked Shu Ci up and down, checking him over.
He had watched the live broadcast and heard about the possible connection between the trading market and the Omega selection. While handling the affairs Shen Lin left behind in the car, he rushed over to confirm Shu Ci’s safety.
“You look okay, your complexion is good, and your condition seems fine. Have you been working out recently? Why do I feel like your features are becoming more defined?”
Shen Ti looked at the massive Moon Shadow and then around the harbor, his emotions complex. It seemed both he and Shu Ci had coincidentally been dragged into the contest and tug-of-war of the Shen-Gu election.
“Hmm?” Shu Ci came back to his senses. “I’m fine.”
He raised his hand to touch his nose, his fingertips brushing past his lips.
Last night, Lu Wanqing had held him and planted a kiss, lingering between his lips as if suppressing some heavy emotion.
As a first-kiss novice, Shu Ci had instinctively closed his eyes.
The inexperienced Alpha explored territory that didn’t belong to him, a slight tremor detectable in the fingertips supporting behind his ear.
Then, Shu Ci also sensed his own strangeness.
It was the instinctive repulsion from their bodies that they felt when they first interacted, spreading from their touching lips to every limb and bone.
Shu Ci frowned.
But just as the feeling of repulsion surged, Lu Wanqing deepened the kiss against the discomfort and pain.
Like two drowning people, they took a deep breath while sinking, falling violently together at the same time.
In just an instant, that sense of repulsion slipped away from the top of Shu Ci’s head.
The discomfort and pain vanished into thin air.
After a long, crushing kiss, Lu Wanqing’s kiss revealed a cautious reluctance to let go.
He bit gently, his breath puffing slowly onto the tip of Shu Ci’s nose.
Shu Ci’s eyelashes trembled, and he couldn’t help but stand on his tiptoes to get closer to the warmth that was about to leave.
As a result, before he could react, the man suddenly snapped awake, pressed his shoulders, and decisively withdrew, leaving behind a sentence: “Forget it after going ashore.”
And then… the whole person disappeared.
Lu Wanqing fled in panic.
Leaving Shu Ci alone on the deck to feel the wind, doubting life all night: Good lord, did he just get used by Lu Wanqing for free?
After the cruise ship docked, everyone from the Seventh District moved like the wind, in a hurry. He finally managed to grab Yu Xingxing, who was directing the evacuation, only to find out that Lu Wanqing had been recalled by the Marshal last night and had already left first in his repaired personal ship back to the fleet.
Shu Ci wrapped himself in the jacket Lu Wanqing left behind and thought all the way.
Having witnessed Lu Wanqing’s rut and seen with his own eyes the tears and sweat mixed in the rain that he forcefully held back, Shu Ci felt as if he had personally torn open the shell of a powerful Alpha, revealing the broken decay within.
He wouldn’t turn a blind eye to the surging emotions hidden deep in this man’s heart like a naive fool.
His empathy, which he took pride in, not only allowed him to recognize his own feelings but also made him perceive Lu Wanqing’s deeply hidden thoughts.
It was just that compared to him, Lu Wanqing’s thoughts were more hesitant.
—Because of the compatibility, because of the 1% unknown possibility, there were many concerns and constraints.
It was evident from how he just sat dryly at the door of his room.
Shu Ci knew very well now that his liking was not unrequited, but clearly, Lu Wanqing didn’t know yet.
What did he mean by “forget it after going ashore”? Did he think that once off the ship, he could forget that taste-testing but damnably delicious kiss?
Lu Wanqing wanted to bury such romantic memories at sea, treating them as a fleeting dream upon departure.
His rebellious soul would not grant Lu Wanqing’s wish.
“Let me ask you.” Shu Ci pulled Shen Ti and lowered his voice. “Lu Wanqing and I have no problems with intimate contact now. Is this reasonable?”
Shen Ti paused in his steps. “There aren’t many cases of 1% compatibility in the whole world. I don’t know either. Just because zero distance is fine doesn’t mean negative distance is fine, right?”
“You’re right.” Shu Ci fell silent for a moment.
Lu Wanqing wasn’t him.
He had survived with difficulty in his previous life and was naturally unable to learn submission.
But Lu Wanqing had been bullied by the plot for a lifetime, treated like a marionette to be summoned and dismissed at will. In everything he did, he guarded the position of everyone’s security. How could he dare to risk both their lives?
Thinking this through, he felt even more deeply the weight of Lu Wanqing’s love.
Shu Ci’s heart sank.
He wanted to complain a bit more to Shen Ti, but found him looking wearily at the sea horizon. Thinking of Yu Xingxing saying he and Cui You were getting a divorce, Shu Ci was afraid of poking at someone else’s heartbreak and quickly suppressed the topic.
“After the live broadcast last night, didn’t Gu Yan and his supporters make any moves?”
“They did, of course they did.”
Speaking of business, Shen Ti’s spirit rallied a bit. “Gu Yan’s side is suppressing and deleting information about the Omega selection on a large scale.”
“Is he preparing to cut off the tail to save the body?”
“Most likely. As long as they find a scapegoat to take the blame for the dark filth of the trading forum, they can avoid implicating Gu Lanzhu and the Gu Corporation.”
Shu Ci clenched his fist at his side.
Not enough. Relying on Shen Lin wasn’t enough.
Once the Gu family, possessing the protagonist’s halo, found a breakthrough to avoid investigation, the power of the plot could help them cover it up and escape smoothly.
“However, they don’t dare to easily turn things upside down for now. They are trying every means to counterattack through public opinion. Smearing Jin Li has already begun.”
Shu Ci narrowed his eyes. He was all too familiar with the style of minimizing major issues and ignoring minor ones. The entertainment industry always had this virtue.
“Once the public considers this an isolated case and Jin Li’s encounter a private conflict, everything will turn into scrutiny and condemnation of Jin Li herself. In that case, it will be even more impossible to shake them.”
“But the Gu family keeps too many media outlets.”
Shen Ti raised his chin, pointing to the long guns and short cannons [cameras and microphones] in the parking lot.
“Thanks to this live broadcast, I found out that besides those media outlets overtly invested in by the Gu Corporation, there are many enterprises secretly working for the Gu family. Look, even the Morning Evening Agency belongs to the Gu family.”
Gu Yan’s communication at sea had been blocked, so in his desperation, he mobilized a lot of power.
All night long, Shen Ti buried himself in the rhetoric and stances of the media, uncovering quite a few clues.
“Morning Evening Agency? Isn’t that the one that interviewed you when Cui You took office?” Shu Ci frowned, falling into thought.
Before he could finish thinking, a fierce commotion came from ahead.
A group of media personnel ran toward them carrying cameras. The leader, holding a microphone with the Morning Evening Agency logo, thrust it in front of Shu Ci.
“Hello, Mr. Shu. We just learned from Young Master Bai Yue that he was framed and slandered as a murderer on the cruise ship. According to him, you are the only person on the ship with a conflict of interest with him.”
“May I ask, as a fellow student in the acting department of A University, do you admit to speaking rudely to Mr. Bai Yue on the cruise ship due to competition or jealousy?”
“Insiders on the cruise ship said you visited and talked with the victim on the day of her death. Do you fully agree with the content disclosed by Councilor Shen?”
Shu Ci glanced sideways at Shen Ti, the same light flashing in both their eyes.
The first two questions could tentatively count as coming from Bai Yue, or rather, instructions from the Chen family as a tit-for-tat measure.
The subsequent questions clearly conveyed a signal—
This group had shifted from smearing Jin Li to attacking Shen Lin.
Shen Lin and Yu Xingxing’s sincere considerations during the public live broadcast had turned into a prophecy. Gu Yan was determined to define Shen Lin’s action this time as a frame-up where political enemies tore off all pretense.
Then next…
“Both of you have special identities. One is a clansman of Councilor Shen, and the other is General Lu’s partner. Does this mean General Lu has long stood on Councilor Shen’s side?”
“Was there any procedural violation in the Seventh District’s participation in the investigation of this accident?”
“Why was Councilor Gu unable to connect to communications for so long, while Councilor Shen’s live broadcast signal was unimpeded?”
“How can the Seventh District guarantee the neutrality of the investigation results?”
Sure enough, Shu Ci’s brow relaxed.
The earlier parts were all buildup; this was the ultimate goal.
Questioning the significance of Shen Lin’s actions, questioning Lu Wanqing’s stance, and finally questioning the neutrality and rationality of the entire investigation result.
Shu Ci remembered being sent away that day while Shen Lin and Lu Wanqing communicated alone for a long time. Lu Wanqing had stood by Shen Lin’s side from that moment.
But for the voters, the Golden Shield should be neutral.
Once Shen Lin’s words became untrustworthy, his credibility in front of the voters would return to zero, and Lu Wanqing’s prestige would also be greatly discounted.
Shu Ci sighed, found the nearest microphone, and raised a shallow smile. “Is this live?”
He took out his phone, tapped a few times, and tossed it to Shen Ti. “It doesn’t matter if it isn’t. Start a live stream for me too.”
Shen Ti tacitly opened the platform responsible by the Shen family.
“Let me repeat your questions just now.”
Shu Ci glanced at the lens Shen Ti had set up, looked at each reporter one by one, repeated their questions clearly and accurately, and paused.
“Logically, these questions shouldn’t be answered by us. But it doesn’t matter. The fact that you couldn’t interview Councilors Shen and Gu or the military personnel is due to your incompetence. I sympathize with everyone’s incompetence, so I’ll reluctantly answer.”
The reporters and cameramen surrounding them had never seen anyone other than nobles or councilors remain so calm and turn the tables in front of so many microphones and cameras. A small commotion arose in the crowd.
“My account is… Look at Your Uncle.”
Shu Ci said his wild nickname without blushing or skipping a beat. “I just posted a long image text. It’s been sitting in my draft box for a long time.”
“General Lu has always been the pride of the Golden Shield. His help to Councilor Shen in this matter was not due to the military stance he represents, but personal grievances.”
“Like Jin Li, I am one of the victims of the Omega selection. The long image text clearly states the process, as well as the pheromone traces Mr. Gu Lanzhu left on me.”
“If you were my husband, could you still calmly maintain neutrality?”
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