The girl hurried into the restroom. At this moment, everyone was in the main hall, making the corridor, where a pin drop could be heard, eerily quiet.
She had barely been in the restroom for a few seconds when a tall figure followed her in, closed the door behind him, and slowly approached with the soft clink of boots against the floor...
An Ruo touched up her makeup in front of the mirror, making sure nothing was out of place on her face. She let out a breath, turned to the door, and found it locked!
Her mind went blank. A whistle sounded beside her.
Shen Tingfeng leaned against the wall, a trademark wicked grin on his face, his gaze burning as he looked at her, his eyes full of ill intent.
"Sister-in-law, that speech you just made defending big brother really got my blood pumping."
He walked over slowly with his hands in his pockets. An Ruo startled and stepped back, forcing calm onto her face: "He's my husband. Isn't it only right for me to defend him?"
"He's your husband, but are you really his true wife, An Qing?"
An Ruo shuddered violently, a flicker of surprise flashing through her eyes before she maintained her indifference: "Of course I'm An Qing!"
She refused to admit it, but Shen Tingfeng wasn't angry. He smiled and nodded, pulling out his phone to show her a video.
An Ruo glanced over and froze. In the video, An Qing lay on the bed covered in injuries, her face pale, with none of her usual arrogance.
She almost didn't recognize her...
"Who is she?"
"Her name is An Qing, the heiress of Shen City's An Group. She was the one betrothed to my big brother."
An Ruo smirked lightly: "Second Young Master Shen, don't tell me you believe such a clumsy lie?"
The man chuckled, pinched her chin, and leaned his handsome face close, startling An Ruo into instinctively shrinking back, but he only gripped her tighter.
"I trust beautiful women the most. I'll believe whatever you say. But I'm very interested in you, so I looked into the An family, and what I found shocked me."
"..."
"Your name is An Ruo, an adopted daughter the An family took from an orphanage. An Deyu couldn't bear to marry his own daughter to my crippled big brother, so he had you take her place, with a bride price of five hundred thousand."
An Ruo's face remained impassive, but her mind raced for a strategy, thinking frantically about how to fool him.
But Shen Tingfeng had thoroughly investigated her background. Now, anything she said seemed weak and pointless. How could she spin such an ironclad fact?
"Your little brother has great grades. He got first place in this month's exams again."
An Ruo froze, her blood boiling. She suddenly grabbed Shen Tingfeng's collar and threatened coldly: "If you dare touch a single hair on his head, I'll fight you to the death!"
Shen Tingfeng didn't get angry but smiled instead. He looked down at the delicate white hand on his chest, covered it with his large palm, and the heat made An Ruo yank her hand back.
He smirked wickedly: "An Qing doesn't have a little brother."
He had even found out her identity and the reason she agreed to the substitute marriage. Clearly, he came prepared. An Ruo stopped playing games with him.
"Fine, what do you really want?"
Since he knew she was a fake An Qing standing in for the marriage, why hadn't he immediately spread the news to have the old man summon her back to the Shen family for punishment? Instead, he chose to corner her secretly. He must have other plans, right?
"Not only is this face beautiful, but the brain's sharp too. An Qing can't match that intelligence." Shen Tingfeng tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, his movements gentle as he flashed a charming, sinister smile: "I don't want anything, just for you to work for me in the future."
An Ruo stared at him blankly.
"A smart woman like you must have understood what those people were saying, right? Shen Xiaoxing is nothing but a bastard of unknown origin, unworthy of living in this world, let alone competing with me for the Shen family heir position. So I want him dead!"
Finally, his true colors showed.
An Ruo glanced at him: "If I'm guessing right, his plane crash two years ago wasn't an accident. The mastermind behind it was you?"
"Heh, mastermind? That was me. Too bad he's got a tough life—lost his legs and eyes, yet he's still alive!"
So her guess was right.
Wait.
If an outsider could guess who the culprit was that turned him into this, Shen Xiaoxing was no less intelligent than her. Smart as he was, how could he not know who the real culprit was?
No wonder he said on their wedding night that marrying him, this unloved cripple, would make her life hard. He always knew others were harming him, taking the open attacks and hidden arrows silently.
"Aren't you afraid I'll tell him all this?"
Shen Tingfeng raised an eyebrow with a smile: "That depends on how much your little brother means to you."
An Ruo clenched her teeth. An Che was her untouchable trigger, the line she could never cross.
"Shen Xiaoxing isn't stupid. How could he not guess who's harming him?" Shen Tingfeng laughed like a victor. "But he's a coward. Even if he threw the truth in front of the old man, the old man wouldn't side with him."
"..."
"A bastard is a bastard. Letting him live this long is already the Shen family's extraordinary mercy."
Shen Tingfeng half-leaned against the wall, looking at her: "But I still can't tolerate him. I want him gone completely. Every second he's alive is a threat to me."
"So you want me to help you kill him?"
"No choice. The old man has some pity for him. If he dies without a clear reason, it'll raise suspicion. You, as his bedmate, have plenty of opportunities. It's just a matter of whether you want to cooperate."