Chapter 51: Out of Line

After Shuangxu finished her meal, Yue Zifeng called the twins over.

Almost everyone gathered, unsure of what was happening, but they could tell something was wrong from Yue Zifeng’s expression.

He was naturally a cheerful person, but suddenly his face was serious, indicating something was amiss.

The twins, feeling guilty about the previous night’s events, pretended to be nonchalant when they were called over: “We have a date tonight. If you want to play a bit longer, we’ll head out first.”

“What’s the rush?” Yue Zifeng said, “We haven’t finished our business. Where are you two going?”

“What business?”

“What business? Don’t you two know?” Yue Zifeng’s tone was not good. “I’m asking you, how did your sister’s bag fall?”

The two clearly looked nervous, instinctively glancing at Shen Yu.

He held a cigarette between his fingers, the crimson light flickering, his emotionless gaze intimidating.

Shuangxu sat beside him, her expression quiet and calm, giving no indication of her thoughts.

“We accidentally bumped into it,” the two insisted. “Miss Song, we know you were lost in the cave all night and are unhappy. Didn’t we apologize to you yesterday? Why are you still holding onto it?”

“We were truly unintentional. We were so excited to give Manman a special ceremony, we might not have paid much attention.”

Shuangxu said, “Whether you were unintentional or deliberate, we all know the truth.”

“You just don’t like us, right? You slapped me for no reason last time, and I didn’t even argue with you. You can’t just accuse us without any evidence.”

Shen Yu looked at Shuangxu: “Last time?”

To explain the slap, she would have to explain the reason, but the filthy words they used to slander Shen Yu at that time…

Everyone present was a friend of Shen Yu and Lu Manman. Shuangxu didn’t want to say it, and she couldn’t.

She frowned and remained silent.

Seeing this, the twins gained confidence and became more aggressive: “Yes, you have your brother backing you up. Your family is powerful and influential, so we deserve to be bullied by you?”

The younger sister pulled her elder sister, trying to swallow her anger: “Forget it.”

Look, the blame was shifted to her again.

Now, on top of already hitting them for no reason, she was also slandering them, solidifying her image as a domineering and arrogant person.

If Shen Yu were to stand up for her now, it would truly solidify the image of them abusing their power.

These twins were incredibly skilled at this, their ability to twist the truth was honed through years of real-life battles.

Bai Qingmei, who had been drowsy, suddenly became alert. She pulled out a handful of sunflower seeds from somewhere, munching on them while watching, even sharing half with Zhou Shengan next to her. Zhou Shengan peeled them and gave her the seeds.

Seeing that Shuangxu was temporarily suppressed, her director’s soul flared up: “Shuangxu, it’s your turn to turn the tide. Go!”

Shuangxu: “…”

Go where?

As she looked up, she saw He Tingzhou walking towards them from the opposite corridor.

He was wearing a black hoodie, making his shoulders appear broad and straight. His face still showed some weakness from his illness. He pushed his IV stand, which had half a bottle of medicine hanging on it, the tube connected to the back of his hand.

Someone immediately ran over to take it: “Why are you out, Zhou Ye?”

“To watch the show,” He Tingzhou sat down comfortably and leaned back. “Where did it get to?”

“…”

Even a fever couldn’t stop him from watching the drama.

Shuangxu didn’t want to waste her breath and turned to Yue Zifeng: “Brother Zifeng, can you stop beating around the bush?”

She didn’t know what happened, but Yue Zifeng suddenly called them over, there must be a reason.

“Haha, didn’t you expect it?” Yue Zifeng sneered, inserted the DV memory card into a computer, operated it a few times, and turned the screen towards the twins. “Take a look.”

He Tingzhou: “Huh? Isn’t this the video I shot?”

Yue Zifeng said, “I was checking the DV just now and accidentally clicked on it, and I found something interesting.”

He Tingzhou’s filming skills were questionable, the video was shot very casually, with no camerawork to speak of.

The night on the mountain had poor lighting, and the video was very dark. It captured the distant mountains, the undulating mountain ranges blurred and distant in the night.

The background sound was quiet, with the rustling of footsteps on the grass. After a while, voices appeared in the video, two female voices speaking.

“That forest is like a maze. I’ve been here so many times, and sometimes I get lost. She won’t be able to find her way back for a while…”

“The meteor shower will be here soon, and Shen Yu is still proposing. Who has time to care about her? We’ll find her after the proposal is over. Let her stay there…”

“If she can’t find her way back, it’s her own fault for having a bad sense of direction…”

The faces of the identical twins changed simultaneously, both seeing uncontrollable panic in each other’s eyes.

They never imagined that their private conversation would be recorded by He Tingzhou!

Shuangxu was also surprised.

He Tingzhou raised his eyebrows slightly: “Oh.”

The group of older brothers, having watched Shuangxu grow up, couldn’t sit still.

“Are you two crazy? You actually did this? You messed with Shuangxu under Shen Yu’s nose, I think you’re tired of living!”

“I’m speechless. You sound so innocent, I thought you two were really innocent!”

“Your mouths are so good at twisting the truth, it’s a shame you didn’t become lawyers. You could have argued an innocent person into a death sentence.”

“Are you two crazy?” Lu Manman looked incredulous. “If something happened to Xiao Jiu, could you bear the responsibility?”

After she finished speaking, she noticed that Yue Zifeng’s expression was somewhat strange, and he pointed to the video that hadn’t finished playing yet.

They could be heard chatting and laughing, and then the sound–>>

“Manman has been disliking her for a long time, but she was too embarrassed to say anything. This was a good opportunity to vent her frustration,” said one of the twins.

“She’s always clinging onto Shen Yu, it’s so annoying,” added the other.

The scene fell silent. Everyone who had been furious just moments ago fell silent.

It turned out that the friends were brought by Manman, and she was the one who orchestrated the whole thing.

The fiancée was jealous of her step-sister and deliberately left her in the mountains late at night…

The looks they exchanged spoke volumes. Land Manman was stunned for a few seconds and instinctively tried to defend herself: “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t tell them to do it.”

No one spoke.

One was her sister, raised by her own hands, and the other was her soon-to-be fiancée. They couldn’t decide who to side with, leaving Shen Yu to handle it himself.

Besides, her cousin, He Tingzhou, was sitting right there. Who dared to say a word against her?

Yue Zifeng was also at a loss. His impression of Land Manman was that of a cheerful and lovely girl. He didn’t think, or at least didn’t seem to think, she was capable of such malice.

Land Manman looked at Shen Yu: “Do you believe me?”

He took a slow drag of his cigarette and remained silent.

The twins, realizing they were caught red-handed, were afraid of Shen Yu’s wrath and desperately tried to cling to Land Manman as a lifeline: “Manman, you can’t just leave us like this. We were just helping you vent your anger.”

Land Manman was speechless.

The silence was heavy and awkward.

He Tingzhou remained unfazed, neither defending his cousin nor taking the righteous path of punishing her.

He lazily propped his chin on his hand, seemingly unconcerned.

But his mere presence was already the biggest support Land Manman could have.

Shuangxu understood this. She thought that the reason he came out was to back Land Manman up.

Regardless of whether Land Manman had ordered it or not, they had to consider the face of the Land family and the He family.

In the midst of the stifling silence, Shuangxu spoke up: “This has nothing to do with Miss Land.”

“She knows the ring is with me. If I got lost and couldn’t find my way back, who would deliver the ring to her? She’s so looking forward to the proposal, she wouldn’t do something so stupid.”

Yue Zifeng glanced at her and nodded in agreement: “Right. I told Manman that.”

The atmosphere finally eased.

“I told you, Manman isn’t like that.”

Shen Yu remained silent, extinguishing his cigarette and saying, “Let’s go back.”

Everyone packed their belongings, loaded them into the cars, and prepared to return to the city.

Land Manman walked to Shen Yu’s side and said to him: “I really didn’t know about what happened last night. I didn’t know they…”

Throughout the entire ordeal, Shen Yu hadn’t expressed his opinion. He neither said he didn’t believe her nor said he did. His calm and indifferent tone made him seem distant.

“Control your friends. There won’t be a next time.”

Land Manman could tell from his attitude that he didn’t care whether she knew or not. What he cared about was that someone had bullied his sister under his very nose.

She couldn’t help but feel wronged.

She refused to get in Shen Yu’s car and stubbornly turned to get in the car behind.

When Shuangxu came out, Shen Yu was talking to Yue Zifeng. Seeing her, he said, “Go back with Tingzhou.”

Shuangxu wanted to ask something, but Shen Yu touched her hair, a gesture of comfort and a sign to not ask any further.