Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Most young ladies raised in truly prestigious families are well-educated and respected, rather than women who hide behind a glamorous exterior only to stir up jealousy and gossip.

The stars of this birthday banquet were the family of four-Rong Yu and Jiang Yourong-but Xia Wanzhi saw several other happy families as well.

In her heart, they were protagonists too.

Once the luncheon concluded, the birthday banquet came to an end. Yun Li had something to attend to and left early, and since Jiang Baichuan was busy looking after his two nieces, the task of escorting the distinguished guest Xia Wanzhi home fell to Xie Qiyan.

The driver was Yu Fei. When Xia Wanzhi bent down to sit inside, half of her skirt was still trailing outside. Just as she lowered her head to gather it in, Xie Qiyan also leaned down to help her lift the hem.

Their foreheads collided unexpectedly.

Xia Wanzhi let out a muffled groan and shot a glare at Xie Qiyan.

“If you want to assassinate me, just say so,” Xie Qiyan said, getting the first word in.

Xia Wanzhi’s eyes widened. “You need to get that persecution complex treated as soon as possible!”

Xie Qiyan grabbed the skirt, tossed it inside, and then walked around to the other side to get in.

After Xia Wanzhi settled in, she looked up and caught a glimpse of Yu Fei’s pleasantly surprised gaze. She thought she might have misread his expression, but before she could think too much about it, she gave him a polite nod.

In the next second, the button for the Rolls-Royce’s privacy partition was pressed.

Xie Qiyan was the one who pressed it.

Xia Wanzhi looked at him sideways, find his behavior utterly bizarre.

His flashy antics were truly becoming more frequent.

Meanwhile, in Yu Fei’s mind-

How exciting!

The birthday banquet had only ended at noon, but by the afternoon, media videos had already leaked. Various videos and photos taken from different angles were spreading like wildfire across the internet.

One had to remember that the Lu Family had produced a Movie Queen, and the Qu Family had a Movie King who had retired behind the scenes. Coupled with the news that the Four Great Families of Beicheng would all appear at this hotel, the media had rushed in for the scoop, staking out the vicinity early on.

However, they hadn’t expected to miss the Lu and Qu families, only to accidentally capture a pair of noble-looking individuals who seemed like a match made in heaven.

A man wearing gold-rimmed glasses gentlemanly lifted the skirt for a beauty dressed in an ice-blue gown; the moment the beauty gave him a shy, rebuking glance was perfectly captured by the media’s cameras.

Subsequently, it went viral worldwide.

[Talent scouts! Hurry up and get these two into the entertainment industry! I swear I’ll be their first CP fan!]

[Does anyone have any info on which prince and princess these two are?]

[Saving a spot. The beauty’s name is Xia Wanzhi, the Eldest Miss of the Xia Family whose bankruptcy caused a sensation a while ago!]

[I don’t recognize the man. No one has leaked anything yet, but he’s so handsome! Could he be a young master from some wealthy family?]

[A resilient little white flower from a bankrupt family vs. a devoted noble scion from a wealthy house! I’ve already imagined a perfect love story!]

[Someone, quick, go find out what this man’s name is. He’s exactly my type!]

…

Xie Qiyan had never accepted any interviews since returning to the country, nor had he ever shown his face in front of the media.

It was normal that no one recognized him.

But Xia Wanzhi was recognized, and as the public opinion shifted with the wind, someone soon dug up the news of Xia Wanzhi’s engagement to the eldest young master of the Zhou Family three months ago.

[This guy isn’t Zhou Yu, is he? If it’s not Zhou Yu, then who is it? Could it be a boy toy Xia Wanzhi is keeping?]

[Camping in the front row! Tag me if there’s news!]

[It’s here, it’s here! Another juicy bit of drama from the prestigious families!]

[Breaking news! Xia Wanzhi and Zhou Yu broke off their engagement more than two weeks ago. A friend of mine in the illustrious family circle told me. It’s the real deal!]

[She just broke off the engagement and already has a boy toy?]

[Waaaah, you can’t blame Xia Wanzhi. Who told this boy toy to be so good-looking? She just made a mistake that any woman would make…]

[Wait, I heard it was because the young master of the Zhou Family saw that the Xia Family went bankrupt and wanted to terminate the engagement.]

[I have evidence! Before the engagement was called off, Zhou Yu was seen passionately kissing another woman in a bar. Zhou Yu was the one who cheated!]

The evidence was, naturally, a video. The video was so high-definition that one could recognize Zhou Yu and that scantily-clad woman at a glance.

…

The power of online media was beyond imagination. The news spread from ten to a hundred, and Zhou Yu’s reputation plummeted. At this moment, inside the Zhou Family’s living room, Zhou Yu smashed his phone in a fit of rage while Zhou’s Mother comforted him from the side, trying every possible way to use her connections to suppress the video’s popularity.
Xia Wanzhi was just sitting at home when a trending topic dropped out of the sky and hit her.

Was this really something a commoner like her should have?

“What do I do?” Xia Wanzhi stared blankly, terrified that if the netizens kept digging, her home address, Studio address, and everything else would be exposed.

She was asking Yun Li and Zhuzi, but the two of them were clearly possessed. One was rewatching the video and photos on a loop, while the other was frantically scrolling through the comments section.

“What a handsome couple, a match made in heaven! Even God couldn’t stand it and decided to play matchmaker!” Yun Li couldn’t hide her excitement.

Zhuzi, on the other hand, was so immersed in the comments that she didn’t hear a word Xia Wanzhi said.

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

Just as she was drowning in worry, her savior arrived.

Xie Qiyan called to say he was already having the trending topic removed. However, for her safety, he was sending Yu Fei to pick her up and take her home tonight.

He said Yu Fei would pick her up.

Yet, sitting in the back of the prestigious Rolls-Royce Phantom was the man himself, Xie Qiyan!

Xie Qiyan-currently her ‘toy boy’ and the other half of her dating scandal.

Xia Wanzhi braced herself and got into the car. She stole several glances at Xie Qiyan, unable to hold back a smile.

Never in her life did she think she’d be involved in a scandal, let alone one where she was supposedly keeping a toy boy.

Was that even reasonable?

She was practically broke; how could she afford to keep a toy boy?

Besides, someone like Xie Qiyan didn’t exactly fit the ‘toy boy’ mold.

Xie Qiyan glanced at her sideways. “Is your mouth cramping?”

Xia Wanzhi didn’t expect anything nice to come out of his mouth anyway. She hummed softly. “You’ve done a pretty good job keeping your identity a secret.”

Xie Qiyan raised an eyebrow slightly and remained silent, taking it as a compliment.

“Aren’t you angry?” In Xia Wanzhi’s eyes, he was a volatile man who couldn’t tolerate even a grain of sand in his eye.

Xie Qiyan remained calm and composed. “Angry? What for?”

“They’re all saying you’re my kept toy boy.” Xia Wanzhi discussed it with him with great interest. After all, in this rumor, she was the one in the superior position.

Truth be told, she felt a strange sense of superiority.

Xie Qiyan gave a light scoff. “Can you afford me?”

No one likes to be looked down upon. Xia Wanzhi huffed, “Why wouldn’t I be able to afford you?”

Xie Qiyan shifted into a lazy, relaxed posture. His tone rose slightly, carrying a hint of playful teasing. “I see. So Little Sister Xia wants to keep me after all.”

Xia Wanzhi was KO’d. “…”

“I’m very expensive,” Xie Qiyan continued with relish.

“Worth tens of billions.”

“Not just anyone can afford to keep me.”

“Little Sister Xia, you should give up on that idea while you’re ahead.”

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

Enough! Enough, seriously!

Talking to someone from the underworld was exhausting for the mind, brain, heart, and lungs!

For safety reasons, Yu Fei was ordered to personally escort Xia Wanzhi upstairs. However, Xia Wanzhi assumed he was just heading to his own home since they were on the way.

In her mind, Yu Fei was her neighbor across the hall.

“You work for Xie Qiyan as an Executive Assistant, bodyguard, and driver. The benefits must be amazing, right?” Xia Wanzhi asked tentatively.

Yu Fei replied, “When President Xie is happy, I can get a hundred thousand in bonuses a month. When he’s unhappy, he can deduct bonuses for the next ten years. I’m not sure if you’d call those benefits ‘good’ or not.”

Xia Wanzhi choked. “…”

A true King of Hell.

He destroys people’s spirits with total confidence, and it isn’t even illegal.

“Then is this luxury flat you’re living in an employee benefit?” Xia Wanzhi had reached her door and pointed toward the unit across from hers.

Yu Fei looked confused for a split second before explaining, “Miss Xia, please don’t joke. This is President Xie’s apartment. He’s moving in next week.”

His words were like a bolt from the blue, shattering Xia Wanzhi’s world into pieces.

The apartment didn’t belong to Yu Fei.

The new neighbor wasn’t Yu Fei either.

It was Xie Qiyan.

This was ridiculous.

If this continued, and they were caught entering and leaving the same complex again, wouldn’t the rumor of her keeping Xie Qiyan as a toy boy be set in stone?