Chapter 96: Have You Changed It?

The two of them, one seated and one standing, seemed to shut the outside world away on their own.

Song Qingyou lowered her gaze to Fu Wenzhou’s hand.

They were beautiful hands, made for admiration: long fingers, broad knuckles, lean bones, all elegance and grace.

Yet the palm now was covered in bloody streaks.

Song Qingyou’s brow tightened, her face cold as frost. “How did this happen?”

Fu Wenzhou lifted his eyes. His pupils were very dark, like an endless first-quarter moon; one glance was enough to drag a person down into a deep whirlpool.

For the past three years, it was precisely those eyes that had made Song Qingyou yield to him again and again.

The man’s voice was rough and low. “The glass broke on its own.”

Song Qingyou: “?”

Loose strands of hair clung to her face, making her skin appear even paler, while a layer of confusion rose in those starry eyes.

Gu Bai kindly explained, with a hint of mockery: “He just saw you hugging James and lost his mind. What else could it be?”

Xu Zezhan dragged Gu Bai aside. “Can you die if you talk less?”

Gu Bai exploded, “Damn it, what the hell did I do now?”

Xu Zezhan was almost admiring this brainless friend of his. Grinding his teeth, he lowered his voice. “Song Qingyou hates other people meddling in her business. Can’t you tell? What’s the use of saying it out loud?”

Gu Bai said, “...Then I can’t just let Fu Wenzhou get hurt for nothing.”

Xu Zezhan curled his lip. “This is one of those things where one person is willing to hit and the other is willing to take it. Fu Wenzhou himself is happy to worship the ground she walks on, so why do you care so much? Come on, let’s go. You want to keep standing here and shining like a lightbulb?”

Gu Bai: “...”

Roughly hauled away by Xu Zezhan, he rubbed his nose a little aggrievedly. Xu Zezhan looked down at him, then reached out and ruffled the back of his head.

After the two left, the surroundings fell abruptly silent.

“Explain.” Song Qingyou looked down at him, her brows and eyes cool and distant.

Fu Wenzhou’s gaze swept slowly over her, inch by inch. Then he said, “Just as Gu Bai said. I don’t like you being with other men, and I like it even less when you have physical contact with them. If anyone so much as looks at you, I want to gouge their eyes out.”

His expression was dark. Just now, he had truly wanted to chop off the hand that had touched her.

Song Qingyou looked at him without speaking.

A self-mocking curve touched Fu Wenzhou’s lips. “You’re upset, Yoyo?”

Song Qingyou regarded him from above, reached out, and lifted his chin so he would meet her eyes. “Go home first. We’ll deal with the wound.”

Fu Wenzhou was still simmering with anger, his eyes shadowed and vicious, but when Song Qingyou turned and walked away, he still stood up and obediently followed behind her.

Everyone who witnessed the scene was filled with emotion.

The youngest daughter of the Song family had slapped the only daughter of the Ruan family. Their status was not far apart, but the one difference was that Ruan Yinyin had grown up pampered and cherished beyond measure, while Song Qingyou was merely an unloved daughter, one who had been publicly cut off by Song Yuan not long ago.

Yet Fu Wenzhou, the lawless mad dog of the Fu family who ran rampant through the capital, was willing to kneel at her feet. From what had just happened, the hierarchy in the relationship was obvious at a glance.

If that frail beauty had the protection of a mad dog, then Ruan Yinyin’s two slaps today might well have been for nothing.

In the crowd, someone sneered coldly, “Song Qingyou left Fu Tingshen and found herself another big tree to cling to. Tsk, she really is lucky.”

“Lucky? More like pretty,” came a laugh.

“Exactly. A woman who can seduce both an uncle and a nephew must be pretty skilled in bed. Too bad none of us will get to find out.”

At the center of the crowd, those people laughed and jeered without restraint.

Not far away, a man stood with his head slightly lowered, a half-burned cigarette pinched between his fingers. The faint ember was barely visible in the dark, and half his face was hidden in shadow.

Beside him stood a man of roughly the same height, speaking in a teasing tone. “Shaoqin, what do you think Fu Wenzhou’s really after? For a woman, he fell out with the Fu family and took on the stain of moral depravity. Nobody dares say anything to his face, but in private, there are probably plenty in the circles talking about him and Song Qingyou as a joke.”

After drawing a deep breath, Yan Shaoqin slowly exhaled a ring of smoke. “Is this the circle of Yan, Shen, Gu, and Xu, and Fu, Liang, Chu, and Jiang... or is it your circle, Chen Lie?”

He glanced sideways and patted Chen Lie on the shoulder, his tone cool and contemptuous. “Friend, there are walls between circles as well. Mind your tongue from now on. After all, trouble comes out of the mouth.”

What sounded like an offhand warning left Chen Lie shocked and frightened.

Yan Shaoqin’s meaning was clear: these families had already included Song Qingyou in their circle. Everyone in the capital knew the power and status of those nine families, and how they checked and balanced one another. They were rivals, yet also old family friends.

If the nine families joined forces, they could shake half the capital.

And now Song Qingyou...

What did that mean? It meant that offending Song Qingyou would be the same as offending the other eight families.

Chen Lie did not dare utter another word. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, and he regretted with all his heart his earlier arrogance. Fu Wenzhou was already crazy enough. They had only dared to speak behind his back before, but now that eight of the nine families stood with Song Qingyou, who would dare slander her again?

With a miserable face, Chen Lie apologized again and again.

Yan Shaoqin gave a cold snort and left with open disdain in his eyes.

Outside, the wind was bleak and cutting. Song Qingyou had originally come to see whether she could discuss some cooperation, but before any business could be talked over, she ended up bringing back a large dog that seemed determined to self-destruct at every opportunity.

Sitting in the car, she couldn’t be bothered to say a word.

Fu Wenzhou sat in the front passenger seat holding the cat. He had been angry at first, but once Song Qingyou fell silent, he became uncertain.

Minute by minute, his anger completely faded. His emotions swung wildly from “my wife is avoiding our relationship” to “my wife is cuddling up to another dog of a man” and then, all at once, to “but my wife defended me in public and cared that I was hurt; was I the one in the wrong?”

The more he thought about it, the more he felt the problem was his own.

Fu Wenzhou frowned tightly and began to reflect. By the end of it, he was convinced that everything was his fault.

After that came regret, remorse, and guilt.

By the time Song Chang drove the car to the entrance of Wutong Apartments, Fu Wenzhou was already clutching the cat in uneasy apprehension.

Before the car had even fully stopped, he got out at once and eagerly opened the door for Song Qingyou.

Song Qingyou glanced at him, her eyelid twitching, unable to tell what he was up to this time.

Song Chang watched the two of them go in, equally baffled.

What was wrong with the young master Fu? When he got into the car, he had looked like a domineering lord whom no one should provoke. How had he become a different person the moment he got out?

A draft of wind passed through the corridor, and Song Qingyou coughed a few times.

Fu Wenzhou stuffed the cat into her arms, then scooped her up around the waist and carried her straight forward.

Song Qingyou was startled. Frowning, she said, “Your hand...”

“It’s nothing.” Fu Wenzhou’s tone was casual, but his movements were gentle and careful.

Only after entering the apartment did he set her down.

Song Qingyou went to the utility room and took out the first-aid kit. “Sit still.”

Since she told him to sit still, he really did sit there obediently and not move.

“Your hand.”

Fu Wenzhou extended it again.

After disinfecting the wound with iodine, Song Qingyou used her fingertips to apply ointment lightly over the injured area.

The cool touch, transmitted through the softness of her fingertips, made Fu Wenzhou’s heartbeat quicken.

His eyes grew darker and darker, fixed tightly on Song Qingyou’s face.

“Yoyo...” he called her by her nickname, his voice hoarse.

Song Qingyou lowered her eyes and wrapped his palm with gauze, layer after layer.

The moment Fu Wenzhou saw her expression, he knew he had chosen the wrong time. He could only hold his tongue until she finished bandaging the wound, then ask in a low voice, “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Song Qingyou put the things away and said coolly, “I thought you didn’t want to talk to me.”

Fu Wenzhou: “...”

“I didn’t mean it that way.” His voice grew smaller by the end.

Song Qingyou let out a faint sigh and asked, “Do you still remember what you told me?”

Fu Wenzhou lifted his eyes but said nothing.

Song Qingyou said, “You said you were stubborn, possessive, petty, and bad-tempered, but that you would change all of it as long as I didn’t like it.”

Fu Wenzhou kept a dark face and still did not speak.

Song Qingyou said slowly, “Have you changed?”