Zuo Cheng didn’t tell him that He Xu not only said such a rebellious thing but also did something incredibly daring. After finding out that his boss had been meeting his lover at Yuelong Bay, He Xu, with nothing to do during the New Year holiday, decided to go to Yuelong Bay to “catch the adulterer.”

Ye Zhen immediately raised her hand in agreement: “I want to go too!”

He Xu: “What’s a young lady like you doing butting in?”

Ye Zhen sneered twice: “I’m going in my capacity as the CFO of Jiu’an Group to see what kind of beauty could so captivate that fool of a king, making him forget his duties and lose himself in indulgence.”

This reason was impossible to refute, and He Xu silently nodded in agreement. Then, the two of them turned to look at Zuo Cheng, the final piece of the iron triangle alliance.

Zuo Cheng had been incredibly curious about the little temptress who appeared every now and then at the small villa in Yuelong Bay, but when it came to making a big fuss and heading over to catch the boss in the act, he felt a bit chicken.

“Umm… Do you think the boss will kill us if he finds out?”

He Xu and Ye Zhen both replied in unison: “Just don’t let him find out, and we’ll be fine.”

Zuo Cheng, feeling a strong sense of loyalty, hesitated for three seconds before resolutely joining the “catch the adulterer” team.

The three of them reached a consensus and turned to leave, but as soon as they opened the door, they found Meng Jianyu grinning and leaning against the doorway: “Take me along.”

He Xu raised an eyebrow: “What do you want to come for?”

“Xiao Xu Xu, stop pretending. I overheard everything outside just now. You can leave me out if you want, but if one day, by accident, I let something slip in front of the boss…”

And so, the original iron triangle was transformed into a four-sided shape, leaving Zuo Cheng with the nagging feeling that this “organization” wasn’t as solid as it should be.

The four of them arrived at Yuelong Bay, and Zuo Cheng, in his usual clueless manner, tried to rush straight to the villa. He Xu grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back, scolding him for being “muscle-brained and simple-minded,” all while dragging him toward the security office.

He Xu’s position at Jiu’an Group, officially as the “legal advisor,” was just a front. Behind the scenes, he was actually Bian Yiqiu’s most trusted right-hand man, handling countless shady dealings. The security personnel at Yuelong Bay were all pulled from his own circle of brothers, so they were all familiar with each other. When He Xu mentioned inspecting the maintenance of the security equipment, no one questioned him. Without hesitation, they immediately took him to the monitoring room.

Ye Zhen and Meng Jianyu were in charge of chatting and passing the time with the security guards, while Zuo Cheng’s task was to block their line of sight to He Xu, casually asking questions like, “Have there been any unusual occurrences at the hotel recently?” Meanwhile, He Xu skillfully pulled up all the surveillance footage around the villa from the past couple of days, quickly copied it onto his phone, then clapped his hands, stood up, and said, “Not bad, not bad. The equipment is all well-maintained. During the New Year, make sure Director Ye gives you all a bonus.”

Director Ye, grinning, replied, “Of course, of course, that’s a must. This year, Yuelong Bay’s revenue has quadrupled, and you’ve all played an indispensable role. Originally, I was planning to allocate the bonus share for Hongyuan, but I’m thinking of giving it all to Huayue instead…”

Meng Jianyu, who had just been assigned to Hongyuan, nearly stumbled when he heard this, almost tripping and falling to the ground.

He Xu shot him a look of pure disdain, as if to say “You’re hopeless,” before walking past him with his head held high, moving with confident grace.

Back in the car, Ye Zhen quickly grabbed He Xu’s phone, and the four of them crowded together, soon letting out a series of puzzled exclamations.

Ye Zhen: “Huh?”

He Xu: “Eh?”

Meng Jianyu: “Hmm?”

Zuo Cheng: “??”

Ye Zhen: “Why’s the quality on this phone so bad? Can’t you zoom in more?”

He Xu: “It’s not the phone’s problem, it’s the camera’s. The more you zoom in, the blurrier it gets.”

Meng Jianyu: “Hey, hey, hey, this person looks kinda familiar. Rewind, rewind, pause it, let me take a good look.”

Zuo Cheng: “No need to look any further, that’s Young Master Ke.”

The three of them echoed in unison: “Who?”

Zuo Cheng: “Ke Mingxuan.”

Ye Zhen: “The CEO of He Sheng Media?”

Meng Jianyu nearly pressed his eyes against the phone screen, carefully studying it for a while before furrowing his brow tightly: “Isn’t this the second-generation official who brought the police to Celebrity Club last time to cause trouble?”

He Xu looked up at him: “Are you sure?”

Meng Jianyu nodded firmly: “I’m sure. I happened to be there that day, standing right next to the boss.”

He Xu appeared deep in thought: “From the Ke family, huh…”

Ye Zhen looked at Zuo Cheng: “When did they get involved?”

Zuo Cheng was just as clueless: “I don’t know.”

Ye Zhen: “You’re always with the boss, and you don’t know?”

Zuo Cheng freaked out: “Every time we come to Yuelong Bay, the boss never lets me follow him to the villa!”

He Xu: “Are you still watching or not?”

The car immediately fell silent. He Xu pressed play again, watching the video as Ke Mingxuan raised his hand and reached through the car door to stretch into the driver’s seat. Due to the angle, it wasn’t clear what happened once his hand went inside, but it was obvious that it was likely an action like touching his face or ruffling his hair.

Then it seemed like they exchanged a few words, and Young Master Ke’s expression suddenly changed. He opened the car door, dragged Boss Bian out, and as Boss Bian opened his mouth to yell in anger, Ke Mingxuan instantly grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the car door.

“Eh, what the hell? It was all sweet and tender just now, how did it suddenly take such a sharp turn?”

“Are they about to fight, or…?”

“Are you sure this is a date, not a revenge meeting?”

Zuo Cheng silently said, “It should be… a date… right?”

The three of them turned to look at him, six eyes staring in unison.

Zuo Cheng continued, “A couple of days ago, these two were on the phone. The boss asked him if he was jealous, and Young Master Ke said something back… He laughed for the entire evening without stopping.”

The revelation… was so surprising that the other three’s brains almost short-circuited. By the time they regained their senses, the figures of the two men were no longer on the phone screen, and despite staring at the surveillance footage for a long time, they never saw any lights turn on inside the villa.

The four of them exchanged glances. Did they really just go in and get it on?

“You guys think, between them, who’s doing who?” He Xu suddenly asked the question everyone was curious about but no one dared to ask.

Meng Jianyu: “Of course, it’s the boss doing that Ke guy. He’s just better looking than the other guys.”

Ye Zhen: “From the vibe just now, President Ke probably isn’t the one on the bottom.”

He Xu: “Let’s place a bet.”

Meng Jianyu: “What are we betting on?”

He Xu: “This year’s year-end bonus.”

Meng Jianyu: “That’s a pretty big bet.”

He Xu: “Are you in or not?”

Meng Jianyu: “I bet the boss is on top.”

Ye Zhen: “I bet President Ke is on top.”

He Xu: “I bet they’re doing each other.”

Zuo Cheng: “I didn’t hear anything.”

The boss, who had overindulged and was sleeping so deeply that he didn’t know whether it was day or night, of course had no idea that his subordinates had already “seen through everything.” After tidying up, he went downstairs. Under the “intense” gaze of the three, he fumbled for his phone from the gap in the couch. After pressing it for a while, the screen still didn’t light up.

He sighed with misfortune, wondering if it had broken again.

“Boss, it might be out of battery,” Zuo Cheng reminded him.

So, the boss, without any shame, handed over his phone, which was out of battery, to Zuo Cheng. “Give me yours.”

Great. After requisitioning He Xu’s phone, now he was requisitioning his. Zuo Cheng almost wanted to slap himself for speaking out of turn.

After switching to the card and unlocking the phone, the missed calls and text message alerts kept ringing for a solid twenty minutes. It was only when Bian Yiqiu saw the constant stream of “Ruan Chengjie” in the notifications that he remembered he had an appointment with President Ruan yesterday. But after spending the whole night with Ke Mingxuan, he had passed out completely and had totally forgotten about it. It was hard for Bian Yiqiu not to harbor the greatest ill will, suspecting that Ke Mingxuan had intentionally sabotaged his meeting with Ruan Chengjie by exhausting him to the point of collapse.

He didn’t care about him sleeping with anyone, but Ruan Chengjie was a problem, huh? Fine, great. How much must he like someone with the last name Ruan to say such cold and heartless words to a man who just got out of his bed?

Ke Mingxuan, you’re ruthless. I’ll treat the last two months as if I was bitten by a dog. I can’t bite you, but I sure as hell can bite Ruan Chengjie. You’d better wait for me!

So, driven by a rebellious mindset that even he couldn’t quite understand, the warning from Young Master Ke had a strong countereffect. That very night, Bian Yiqiu called Ruan Chengjie, shamelessly sweet-talking him, saying he drank too much on New Year’s Eve and slept for an entire day and night. He was still feeling dizzy and didn’t notice that his phone had run out of battery and turned off. He assured Ruan Chengjie that it wasn’t intentional to stand him up.

Aside from slightly exaggerating, Bian Yiqiu didn’t tell a single lie. First, he did indeed drink too much. Second, he did sleep for a whole day and night. Even if Ruan Chengjie found out later what he had been up to that night, it wouldn’t be considered deception.

“It’s okay. I was worried something happened to you yesterday, so I called you a few extra times. I hope I didn’t cause you any trouble,” Ruan Chengjie’s voice was as warm and gentle as ever, with no hint of displeasure.

Bian Yiqiu heard that his voice sounded just as usual, and he immediately relaxed his legs, which had been stretched out on the footrest. He smiled and said into the phone, “How could it cause trouble? I’d actually prefer if you called me every day. Where are you now?”

“In Macau. I wasn’t in a good mood yesterday, so my friends dragged me here to play a few rounds.”

Bian Yiqiu obviously knew what had caused his bad mood, and immediately responded, “I’ll make sure to spend quality time with you when you come back. When will you be back?”

Ruan Chengjie asked in return, “When do you want me to come back?”

Bian Yiqiu had always been skilled at coaxing his lover, sweet words flowing effortlessly from his lips: “I’d love for you to come back right now, but since you’re already there, stay a few more days and enjoy yourself. Come back when you’ve had your fill of gambling. I’ll pick you up at the airport then.”

Look at that—such a gentle, considerate, and understanding perfect man. He could almost rival the legendary romantic King of Wuyue, who once told his wife, ‘The flowers are blooming along the path; you may take your time coming home.’

Sitting at the poker table, Ruan Chengjie held two cards in his hand, casually flicking them open and glancing at them briefly. He pushed most of his chips forward, a subtle, meaningful smile curling at the corner of his lips. He then whispered into the phone that the assistant had placed by his ear, saying softly, “Alright.”