"Heh."
Pei Shaoze suddenly let out a faint laugh. "I don't really remember her..."
He turned his gaze toward Su Banxia, his eyes dark and low. "Su Banxia, remember this: you're my woman. In this world, only I can bully you—no one else, not even in their dreams."
Su Banxia didn't know how much truth was in those words, but at that moment, she didn't want to remember them. She lowered her head slightly and said, "Mm."
Since it was all an act, why not play along?
"So, can you recall what she looks like now?"
Pei Shaoze spoke again, reaching out to pull Su Banxia into his arms.
Su Banxia frowned, leaning close to his ear, and whispered, "President Pei, you..."
"Don't you think she looks a lot like Miss Ye?"
Pei Shaoze cut her off, raising his voice deliberately.
At once, Ye Lan scrambled up from the floor in fright, looking at Pei Shaoze and Su Banxia. "I didn't hit her! She... she hit me! Really, she did!"
After saying that, she lifted her eyes to meet Pei Shaoze's dark, brooding gaze. Terrified and flustered, she ran over to Ye Hengtian, tugging at his sleeve with red-rimmed eyes. "Brother, help me! I didn't hit her—she hit me! It's true!"
At first, Ye Hengtian didn't understand why Pei Shaoze had brought up such irrelevant topics. But then it clicked. He looked at Ye Lan, frowning. "You hit Miss Su?"
Though it was phrased as a question, his tone was certain.
Ye Lan shook her head, tears spilling out. "I didn't! I didn't hit her! She hit me!"
Gu Feifei, always quick to seize any chance to see Su Banxia humiliated, watched Ye Lan cry so pitifully and turned to Su Banxia. "Miss Su, as someone who studied abroad, don't you think it's too much to treat a girl like this?"
"Bang!"
Pei Shaoze suddenly hurled his wine glass to the floor. The sound of shattering glass echoed through the private room, stunning everyone into silence—especially Gu Feifei.
She looked at Pei Shaoze, meeting the man's cold, brutal black eyes. Her heart skipped a beat, and the words she was about to say got stuck in her throat.
But Pei Shaoze just smiled, turning to Gu Feifei. "Who are you?"
"I-I'm Gu Feifei, President Pei. We've... met before."
She had no idea why Pei Shaoze had suddenly become so furious, and her voice trembled as she spoke.
"Heh..."
Pei Shaoze let out a cold laugh. "She didn't bully anyone. I did. I'm the president of a company—bullying a woman doesn't seem excessive to me at all."
Su Banxia: "..."
This man had no class, not just with her, but with everyone else. Well, she was grateful he was at least being kind to her.
Gu Feifei didn't dare say another word. She just sat on the sofa, shaking. "I... I didn't mean it that way."
Pei Shaoze had no interest in wasting time on a woman like her. He turned directly to Su Banxia. "However she hit you, hit her back. However deep the slap mark she left, use that much force."
Su Banxia didn't know if this was Pei Shaoze acting on a whim or if he genuinely wanted to help her vent. But she hadn't planned on hitting Ye Lan. With Ye Hengtian present, once Pei Shaoze abandoned her completely, the Ye family wouldn't let her off easily. So she looked at Pei Shaoze and said, "President Pei, that's all in the past. I'm fine. It was just a little squabble between girls."
Pei Shaoze looked at her, the depth in his eyes growing. "Didn't you just say you didn't remember what she looked like?"
Su Banxia: "..."
Did he have to keep pressing this?
Ye Lan, seeing him defend Su Banxia at every turn, felt jealousy slowly consume her reason. She tugged at Ye Hengtian's sleeve. "Brother, she hit me, and it hurt! That day I went to Dingsheng to find Brother Shaoze, it was this woman who hit me!"
Su Banxia: "..."
Was this woman brain-dead? Couldn't she see that Pei Shaoze was utterly disgusted with her right now? Saying things like that—truly idiotic.
Unable to shake her off, Ye Hengtian looked at Pei Shaoze. "President Pei, about Miss Su being hit at Dingsheng, could I hear the full story?"
Regardless of right or wrong, calming things down was the best outcome.
Pei Shaoze glanced at Su Banxia, then raised a finger to point at Ye Lan beside Ye Hengtian, smirking. "You tell the story."
No one knew what he was up to, so they all stayed quiet.
Ye Lan had never planned to tell the truth anyway. She pointed at Su Banxia. "That day I went to Dingsheng to find Brother Shaoze, she wouldn't let me in and hit me!"
Su Banxia: "..."
Sometimes, people's intelligence was truly... touching.
Pei Shaoze nodded. "Can you be more specific?"
Ye Lan continued, "We argued. I cursed at her, so she slapped me. I never hit her."
Pei Shaoze narrowed his eyes and nodded, lost in thought. After a long pause, he looked at Su Banxia. "Don't you have something to say to me?"
Su Banxia frowned. What was she supposed to say now?
After thinking it over, she turned to Ye Hengtian. "President Ye, if there were two stories with roughly the same content, but two different people got hurt, and those two people told different versions—and those two people were me and your sister—who would you believe?"
Ye Hengtian knew Ye Lan well. She'd been spoiled since childhood, so he mostly just listened to her stories without comment. Being asked by Su Banxia, he smiled faintly. "Can I hear your version?"
Su Banxia nodded, glancing at Ye Lan's pale face. "On June 7th, President Pei and I went to the Ladenburg Hotel for an industry exchange. Miss Gu and Mr. Ren were both there. I'm sure you two still remember vividly what happened at the hotel."
As she spoke, she looked at them with a faint smile. But Gu Feifei and Ren Yuan weren't smiling—they couldn't.
Ye Hengtian swept his gaze over them, chuckled, and gestured for Su Banxia to continue.
She nodded. "On the 8th, I'm sure you saw the headlines in the papers and on major media sites—the scandal between Pei Shaoze and me. Because of that, Miss Ye tracked me down, cornered me in the company, and slapped me when I wasn't expecting it. That slap left a mark on my face, which President Pei noticed."
"You're lying! I didn't!" Ye Lan argued. In her mind, as long as she denied it, no one but her and Su Banxia had witnessed it.
Ye Hengtian shot her a cold glare. "Haven't you caused enough trouble?"
Then he looked at Su Banxia with a slight smile. "Miss Su, anything else?"
Su Banxia realized Ye Hengtian was a smiling tiger—always grinning, and the more he smiled, the more dangerous he was. She nodded and continued, "Later, we argued. She said some unpleasant things and tried to hit me again, but I got to her first and hit her back."
She looked around at everyone and smiled. "This kind of thing between girls isn't worth wasting your valuable time on."
It wasn't worth mentioning at all. Pei Shaoze had brought it up only because the slap mark on Su Banxia's face that day had been so clear. But he hadn't expected the story to turn out like this. So he just raised an eyebrow at Ye Hengtian.
Ye Hengtian didn't care much about it. Ye Lan had been spoiled since she was young, and this wasn't her first time. So he smiled and raised his glass to Su Banxia. "Miss Su, I apologize for Lan'er's rudeness to you. I hope you won't take it to heart."
What else could Su Banxia say? She just nodded slightly.
But Ye Lan's face was twisted with humiliation. "That's not how it happened! She hit me!"