Volume One, Chapter 91: Ye Sheng Loses His Temper

She had thought the matter of the flowers was over.

But the next day, when Ye Sheng received yet another bouquet of yellow roses, the chorus of jeers rising and falling throughout the office, along with the sound of Qin Minshu slamming the door on her way out, nearly made Ye Sheng’s scalp explode.

At last she could not bear it any longer and called the troublemaker. “Huo Mingtin, have you lost your mind?”

“So you prefer yellow roses.”

Huo Mingtin was delighted to receive the call. “Then tomorrow I’ll have the florist send another bouquet.”

Ye Sheng closed her eyes. It was truly exhausting to speak with an arrogant fool who could not understand a human being’s words.

“What exactly do you want?” Her voice was already icy with displeasure.

Huo Mingtin paused.

He did not have much experience pursuing women, but he knew a little of Ye Sheng’s temperament. She was not the sort to play hard to get or say one thing and mean another.

If she was unhappy, then she truly was unhappy.

Huo Mingtin grew serious. “Isn’t my meaning obvious to you?”

She could see it, but she did not dare believe it.

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to court me?”

“...”

Huo Mingtin’s face grew a little hot. He did not feel ashamed saying such a thing himself, but for some reason, hearing it from Ye Sheng made his heart race and his cheeks warm, as though he had suddenly gone back to his youth, to the restless stirrings of being barely over twenty.

“Ye Sheng, I...”

“Huo Mingtin.” Ye Sheng cut him off and said coldly, “Is marriage merely a game to you?”

At those words, the flush on Huo Mingtin’s face vanished, leaving him pale.

“Of course not.”

His voice lowered slightly, and he finally regained some composure.

Ye Sheng faced the wall, her fair, translucent face devoid of even the slightest warmth. “You like playing games with love, you like standing above others and toying with them, but not everyone is Qin Minshu. I have no obligation to cooperate with your performance.”

Her words were already far from polite, and Huo Mingtin had never before been insulted like this.

“Ye Sheng.” Huo Mingtin’s voice turned fully cold. “That is going too far.”

Too far?

Ye Sheng lifted her fine, arched brows.

She and Huo Mingtin had been married for three years. In those three years, had there ever been good times?

There had been.

When their first anniversary came, Huo Cong was just over a year old. Though he had already been weaned, he was still a healthy little bundle of milk-scented warmth who could not be separated from his mother.

Ye Sheng held the child and fed him all day long, and even she was always faintly scented with milk.

On the anniversary day, after finally getting Cong’er to sleep, she kept checking her phone. That morning she had sent Huo Mingtin a message wishing him a happy anniversary, but her husband had never replied.

Huo Mingtin came home quite late. Ye Sheng had just finished bathing and was wearing a nightgown in the bathroom, washing her undergarments by hand, as she was accustomed to doing.

When the door was pushed open, Ye Sheng startled.

“You’re back? Working overtime this late again? You’ve worked hard.”

At that time, Ye Sheng truly was considerate of Huo Mingtin’s fatigue.

Huo Mingtin stood at the bathroom door and looked at her for a long while, until Ye Sheng’s cheeks grew warm under his gaze and she realized that the way he was looking at her had changed.

As the atmosphere turned tender, Huo Mingtin suddenly said, “The child is asleep. Let’s go out to eat.”

What?

Ye Sheng froze. Hearing Huo Mingtin call to reserve a table, she understood what he meant and hurriedly tidied herself up, changing into a long dress and putting on makeup, ready to accompany him.

Huo Mingtin took her to an upscale restaurant. The candlelight dinner was accompanied by beautiful, romantic music, but regrettably... halfway through, it all came to an abrupt end.

In the middle of the meal, Huo Mingtin received a phone call and went outside to talk for a long time.

Ye Sheng sat quietly in her seat, watching Huo Mingtin stand beneath the corridor lamp, smoking a cigarette and holding the phone, his side profile occasionally furrowing as he discussed matters. She thought he looked extraordinarily handsome.

She felt that they had finally begun to have the kind of communication normal married couples should have, and everything seemed to be moving in a better direction.

Until her phone rang.

A college roommate had sent her a screenshot from Qin Minshu’s social media. “Ye Sheng, I don’t know watches. Can you help me look? Is the watch on Qin Minshu’s wrist the same brand as the one on her boyfriend’s wrist?”

“I just looked it up on a whim, and it’s actually a vintage luxury watch. One piece costs over a million! I’m so jealous I could die!”

“Could Qin Minshu really be marrying into some royal family in the Kingdom of William? Then what would she be afterward, a princess or some baron’s lady? Oh my god, I can’t even imagine...”

Ye Sheng did not finish reading the rest. She only saw, in the screenshot, a faintly exposed section of wrist.

A sapphire-blue quartz watch. The wrist was sensual and strong.

Ye Sheng looked out the window. That glittering diamond watch had made her eyes sting red.

She was utterly humiliated.

On their first anniversary, while she was moved beyond words by the candlelit dinner Huo Mingtin had arranged on the spur of the moment, Huo Mingtin had gone to the Country of Y to keep his heartbroken ex-girlfriend company for three days, and had given Qin Minshu the very same watch.

A man’s heart was like a storage box: one shelf here, another shelf there, where women’s love could be tossed aside and arranged at will.

One at home, one across the ocean—eating from the bowl while eyeing the pot.

How vile.

“Within ten minutes, have someone move the flowers out of here.”

Ye Sheng spoke to the person on the other end of the line, her voice cold. “Otherwise, the next time we meet, I’ll smash this bouquet right in your face. If you don’t believe me, let’s try it.”