The CEO’s Substitute Wife Is A Genius
Chapter 143: Shall We Make Our Relationship Public?

Chapter 143: Chapter 143: Shall We Make Our Relationship Public?

At that moment,

in a Tube Building in the old city district,

Jiang Yueping was sitting on a new couch watching a 100-inch big-screen TV, with a large fruit bowl on the coffee table filled with lavish fruits: 3J cherries, Sunshine Rose grapes, durian, and milk strawberries.

These were fruits that the family previously could not afford, yet now they could enjoy them freely.

Jiang Yueping was lounging with a big belly, rounder and greasier than it was two months ago.

Hu Fangqin was squatting in front of the washing machine on the balcony, figuring out how to use it.

Jiang Rou was leisurely scrolling through her phone on the massage chair, with a facial mask on her face.

The family of three got along harmoniously, exuding a sense of peaceful and tranquil times.

"Rourou, this TV is really great!"

Jiang Yueping couldn’t stop praising, smiling from ear to ear.

Without moving, Jiang Rou opened her mouth, "Of course, who’s the most filial? Me, right? Not like sister, who really has no conscience at all."

"Don’t get me started on that ingrate! Just thinking about her gets me angry! And your uncle is no better!"

"Don’t be mad, I’ll take care of you in the future."

"Rourou, when do you and Xiaoliu plan to get married?" Hu Fangqin stopped messing with the washing machine and walked into the living room, approaching her foster daughter.

As soon as marriage was mentioned, Jiang Yueping immediately perked up his ears.

When it came to discussing marriage, the dowry was what concerned Jiang Yueping the most.

"Long Brother says he has no plans to get married just yet, oh come on, stop pressuring me about it."

Jiang Rou was immediately annoyed.

She was different now, having found a new boyfriend, quite different from her previous one, Zhao Peng.

This time he was genuinely wealthy. With this solid backer, she had become much more assertive within the Jiang Family.

Previously, everyone in the family had to watch Jiang Yueping’s mood, but now they all had to consider hers.

"Pressuring you to marry is for your own good. Men, they can only be tied down with marriage; the longer you date, the more danger you’re in," Hu Fangqin advised earnestly.

But Jiang Rou didn’t want to listen, tearing off the facial mask from her face, "Mom, Long Brother and I have only been dating for two months, what’s the rush? Relax, I know what I’m doing."

"Exactly, the daughter knows what she’s doing, stop being fidgety!" Jiang Yueping glared at his wife, unable to help himself from retorting sharply.

Hu Fangqin chuckled without arguing.

Anyway, they were a couple who took turns playing the good cop and the bad cop.

"Dad, Mom, I know what I’m doing. Shouldn’t things progress step by step, gradually? Long Brother said he will get us a bigger apartment later."

At the mention of an apartment, Jiang Yueping’s eyes lit up.

Hu Fangqin also revealed her delight, grinning from ear to ear, "Next time Xiaoliu has time, invite him over. We should have a nice meal together as a family."

"Sure," Jiang Rou felt a surge of triumphant relief.

Jiang Man had married an old man before and immediately cut ties with the family.

Hah, she could only marry an old man anyway.

Unlike herself, who had latched onto a strong, young man.

And not just any young man, but one who was freaking loaded!

She really was incredible, so charismatic!

Jiang Rou was basking in self-satisfaction and self-admiration.

She opened WeChat and sent a message to the account labeled "husband" at the top:

[Long Brother, I’ve got my eye on a Hermès bag...]

After sending the text, she started to brag to her colleagues through messages.

She was a junior in college, majoring in financial management with not many classes; she only needed to go to school once a week and could intern outside the rest of the time.

Though she had found a powerful backer, she had no plans to quit her internship at Lu Corporation.

Her goal had never changed. The CEO of Lu Corporation, Lu Xingzhou, had always been her target.

But that target was far away, and she knew she had to pay a price for it, so she was not in a hurry.

[I’ve got my eye on a bag, but I’m not sure if my dad will buy it for me.]

In front of her colleagues, she had established herself as the persona of a wealthy heiress, claiming that her internship at Lu Corporation was purely for life experience.

Soon, the man labeled as ’husband’ in her phone replied to her message:

[How much? Buy! Is 50,000 enough?]

Below was the transfer red packet.

Jiang Rou was thrilled and sent a kiss emoji.

[Love you, hubby, muah.]

She opened the transfer, screenshotted the amount, and forwarded it to the work group chat.

[My dad agreed.]

Immediately, people in the work group chimed in:

[Wow! Rourou, your dad really spoils you!]

[Jealous. What would the world be like with one more rich person like me? Miss, does your family need any servants? Do you think I fit the bill?]

[Volunteer to be oxen and horses +1]

As Jiang Rou read her colleagues’ replies, her vanity was thoroughly satisfied.

She wanted to continue showing off when suddenly a colleague, lacking any sense of timing, butted in.

[Have you guys seen the drama with Jiang Man?]

Seeing that a colleague actually knew Jiang Man, Jiang Rou sat bolt upright from the massage chair in disbelief.

She typed quickly, ready to hit send.

Before she could send it, a link was thrown into the group chat.

Then, the colleagues began to discuss fervently.

Quite a few who regularly lurked suddenly came back to life, joining the conversation.

[Netizens are so darn idle, no class, why dig into someone’s private life?]

[I think it’s justified to do so, Jiang Man’s personal life is a mess, and being friends with JOJO might affect her reputation.]

[Affect what? JOJO isn’t even in showbiz, she doesn’t care.]

[Hey, what do you mean? JOJO is friends with scum like Jiang Man, and we shouldn’t boycott? What’s with your attitude? Why do you seem to support Jiang Man?]

[Support Jiang Man? What, have I got a screw loose? I’m just annoyed with you guys. It’s JOJO’s freedom to choose her friends. How would her friend being trash matter to her?]

[Birds of a feather flock together, right? I hear this JOJO isn’t exactly clean herself. She could probably field a whole soccer team of boyfriends! Isn’t she afraid of catching something dirty?]

[M*therf*cker, are you slandering my idol?]

Suddenly, the group was in an uproar.

Jiang Rou couldn’t care less about their quarrel, she clicked on the link to catch up on the gossip.

When she saw the photo of Jiang Man together with JOJO, she was so shocked she couldn’t believe it.

She even doubted whether this JOJO’s verified Weibo account was real.

It wasn’t until she saw the yellow V beside the account name that she was forced to accept the fact.

What the heck, how did Jiang Man get to know someone like JOJO, what on earth did she do to deserve this?

It was only when she saw the exposé about Jiang Man being kept by men, and not just one at that, did she seem to relax a little, gnashing her teeth.

Could it be that she got to know JOJO through some old sugar daddy?

She was really curious as to who this old man could be.

Someone who has a supreme VIP card at Lan Ting might be considered among the top rank people in the North City, right?

But she was rational and didn’t get swayed by netizens.

In her opinion, Jiang Man definitely wasn’t kept by anyone. The man behind her was her old man husband.

As for other men, they were probably just uncles.

If this wasn’t clarified to the public, it could indeed be easily misunderstood.

"Mom, Dad, Sister is trending on social media, tsk tsk, so much trouble, they’ve even dragged our family into it."

Jiang Rou, never one to shy away from drama, immediately shared the news with her parents.

Jiang Yueping and Hu Fangqin huddled close to look.

The couple were not very educated and felt that being exposed online was a very serious matter.

"How come we’ve ended up on it, too? If the neighbors and everyone around see this, where can we put our faces?"

"This Jiang Man!" Jiang Yueping said angrily with his hands clenched into fists, "She never includes us in the good stuff, but drags us down with her when there’s trouble, unbelievable!"

"I’m going to her school tomorrow to find her! She might not have any shame, but I still do!"

"Dad, I’ll go with you, I can drive you there, it’s more convenient." Jiang Rou’s tone brightened a bit with the prospect of achieving her goal.

This time she was only responsible for watching the drama unfold and adding fuel to the fire.

Just thinking about how miserable Jiang Man would be made her feel exhilarated.

...

The situation fermented and escalated quickly, soon reaching Lu Xingzhou’s ears.

He had a business trip in a few days to Las Vegas.

Zhao Huai was busy organizing the documents that needed to be signed for him.

Lu Xingzhou browsed through the documents, signing as he went.

At that moment, Zhang Neng knocked and entered.

"BOSS, the Madam has been cyberbullied. I’ve already taken down the posts immediately, hacked Weibo and temporarily paralyzed it. How we proceed further awaits your instruction."

Zhang Neng, the prestigious Technical Director of the Lu Corporation, had somehow become Jiang Man’s personal ’monitor.’

Whenever something concerned her, he had to discover it at once.

Even if he didn’t find out immediately, Zhao Huai would still come searching for him to handle the situation.

Thus, he took it upon himself to constantly monitor every move of Jiang Man.

"Cyberbullying?" Zhao Huai recognized the term, "Wasn’t she just cyberbullied on the school forum a while ago? Again?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Xingzhou’s already dark eyes turned sharp in an instant.

He put down his signing pen and pushed the urgent documents to one side.

Leaning back into the chair, his face darkened, and he pressed his thin lips tightly together, emitting an incredibly menacing aura.

He reached out his hand.

Zhang Neng immediately handed over the pad to him.

Because Weibo had been hacked, the pad only displayed screenshots.

Lu Xingzhou looked at the content of the screenshots, his dark eyes growing darker and colder, his gaze as if ready to kill.

"Find out who posted them, and this time, don’t consult Jiang Man. As soon as you find out who it is, bring them to me immediately."

The low voice carried shards of ice.

"Understood!" Zhang Neng nodded, turning deftly to leave.

The Lu Corporation was in an uproar over Lu Xingzhou, and not long after, Nan Juefeng of the Nan family also received news.

Han Shuo lounged on the sofa, eyes unblinkingly fixed on the man standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

He had been standing motionless for several minutes.

"Feng, Lu Xingzhou will definitely handle this matter. I think you should stay out of it, seeing as your position isn’t exactly legitimate," he said.

Nan Juefeng remained silent, his hands clenched into fists, and he suddenly punched the tempered glass hard.

His hand hurt, but he felt nothing.

At that moment, his heart was in more pain than his hand.

...

At Rong Mansion, JOJO hadn’t left, planning to stay the night at her friend’s place.

The three gathered around a stove brewing tea, with JOJO in a state of anxiety.

She didn’t speak much Chinese, so she had to rely on Wu Yingfan and Jiang Man to translate the online situation for her.

Without showing impatience, Wu Yingfan relayed all the noise from the internet to her.

After hearing everything, JOJO became agitated, "These keyboard warriors! Man, we can sue them for defamation!"

"It’s not under real-name system, so you can’t report it," Jiang Man said calmly, her laptop resting on her knees as her hands rapidly tapped on the keyboard.

She wondered, who had posted this time?

Yu Qing?

The enemy is out in the open, but I lurk in the shadows.

With a prime suspect in mind, the investigation became much easier.

Jiang Man clicked on V-Bo and found that it had crashed.

She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Crashed? Could it be?" Could it be that Lu Xingzhou had already beaten her to it and taken care of things first?

Sure enough, as soon as she hacked into V-Bo’s official website, she immediately located the other party’s IP address.

The red exclamation point on the satellite map was right over the Lu Corporation.

"Wow, my brother-in-law took care of it without making a sound?" Wu Yingfan leaned over to glance at the map on the computer and couldn’t help but comment.

"His company has a Mr. Z."

"What? The world’s second-ranked hacking bigshot is at Lu Corporation?"

Jiang Man didn’t respond, but she easily cracked the poster’s IP account.

She noticed that the poster had counter-surveillance awareness, constantly changing IPs.

Unfortunately, in her eyes, it was like a primary school student competing against a university student.

Jiang Man was not in a hurry, she leisurely created a virus package and sent it to the other party.

At this moment, in the men’s dormitory at the North Music Academy.

The dorm room was dark, the glow from a laptop illuminating the boy’s face, making him look ghostly.

He stared unabashedly at the computer screen, fiercely typing code to respond.

But he hadn’t expected his computer to be counter-infiltrated, the mouse unresponsive, even the keyboard was unresponsive when pressed.

The other party quickly sent him a virus package.

The virus package was an image of feces, initially just one.

Suddenly, the feces multiplied like they were fast-forwarded, increasing in number, one on top of another, quickly filling his computer’s desktop.

A screen full of shit, even if it was just images, was enough to make one feel physically ill.

The boy pounded the mouse, but the computer still didn’t react.

He tried to shut down the computer, but it was useless as well.

He began to panic, sweat forming on his forehead, worried that his real IP might be captured by the other party.

He knew there was a formidable hacker at the Lu Corporation; the hacking of the library’s LED screen was a warning to him.

Yet he still recklessly took a risk, gambling with his future!

Recently, Wen Jingya had been absent from school, leaving him tossing and turning.

He had taken the initiative to hack into her computer, read her diary, and that’s how he learned everything.

It turned out that Jiang Man and Lu Xingzhou had long been married, as a result of which Jingya attempted suicide by slitting her wrists and nearly died.

In his heart, Wen Jingya was like a goddess, skillful in playing the pipa, beautiful, with an exceptional temperament, and a very nice personality.

Why couldn’t such a perfect girl get what she wanted?

If it hadn’t been for Jiang Man’s interference, his goddess wouldn’t be so pitiable!

Not only Jiang Man, but Lu Xingzhou was also a betrayer.

After serving as a child bride in his family for over twenty years, Jingya ended up with such a fate?

He wanted to disgrace Jiang Man and make Lu Xingzhou fall from grace, to utterly ruin his reputation!

With these thoughts, the boy touched his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and his eyes suddenly became sharp.

Until his computer screen was filled with images of feces, and then stopped abruptly, with a line of white text appearing on it. That sharp look in his eyes instantly turned to one of horror, his pupils dilated, his body stiffened.

—I know who you are, Fang Yuheng!

The other party called him out by name, and Fang Yuheng immediately panicked.

Different from the fearlessness when he initially was filled with righteous indignation and wanted to be a knight in shining armor, when he found out he had been exposed, his entire demeanor changed as if he were a different person altogether, his body starting to tremble.

Fear swept through him, spreading to every part of his body as his convulsions intensified.

Once the invader had exited his computer, he frantically held down the shutdown key as if he had gone mad.

Inside Rong Mansion, Jiang Man closed her laptop and raised an eyebrow, "Found out who did it, quite unexpected."

"Who is it?" Wu Yingfan was full of curiosity.

Jiang Man smiled, "A pathetic pawn."

If she could find out, so could Zhang Neng.

There was no need for her to take action; Lu Xingzhou would probably bring the person directly to her.

"No rush, no need for me to make a move yet. News from your brother-in-law will come soon." Jiang Man was brimming with confidence, as if she had everything under control.

...

Sure enough, half an hour later.

Jiang Man received a call from Lu Xingzhou.

"Hello?" Though they had just seen each other in the morning, for some reason, the atmosphere over the phone was ambiguously intimate.

Simply listening to each other’s breathing seemed to create a bewildering sensation.

After a long pause.

"Some people are spouting nonsense online and exposing you, are you aware of this?" Lu Xingzhou asked tentatively.

In the era of the internet, especially for an internet addict like Jiang Man, who was always holding her phone, she would know about hot topics online immediately.

He speculated that Jiang Man was likely informed but still wanted to confirm seriously.

"I’m aware." Jiang Man responded calmly, her eyebrows lifted, "So, found the real culprit behind the scenes?"

If not, she wouldn’t have received this call.

"Found him." Lu Xingzhou’s voice was deep, yet offered a full sense of security, "A senior named Fang Yuheng from your school. I’m asking about his motive, do you want to come over and listen?"

"Listen." Jiang Man had been waiting for this, "Can I bring Fangqin and JOJO along?"

"Sure, I’ll send you the address."

The two hung up the phone in perfect sync.

Jiang Man’s phone soon received a location.

Address: North City abandoned cement factory.

What a place!

Jiang Man felt an unexplainable thrill upon seeing the address.

Ever since Lu Xingzhou had brought Liu Pei and He Xiuyan bound to the underground fighting ring, allowing vicious dogs to fight Liu Pei, she knew she and Lu Xingzhou were cut from the same cloth.

Normally upright and righteous, their hands unstained by a speck of blood or a hint of evil.

But if someone offended them, they wouldn’t hold back or hesitate to use despicable means.

Defining them, even herself, was never about being purely black or white.

She felt she resided in a gray area, and so did Lu Xingzhou.

"Let’s go watch the show." She stood up, patted the shoulders of Wu Yingfan and JOJO, her face wearing a cool expression.

An hour later.

A red Mercedes-Benz G-Class roared up to the abandoned cement factory.

All around was decay, with old cement bags piled up into mounds.

Aside from Lu Xingzhou’s Maybach, several other cars were parked at the entrance.

Jiang Man jumped out of the G-Class and led the way.

Wu Yingfan and JOJO walked behind her, one to the left, one to the right.

The trio, all high in attractiveness, carried an air of coolness, the wind seemingly following their steps.

As soon as they stepped inside the factory, Jiang Man was struck by the sight before her.

Inside, more than a dozen men in black suits stood as bodyguards, with Lu Xingzhou sitting on a wooden chair with his legs crossed, looking down from his elevated position at the kneeling figure below.

A male college student in his twenties was on his knees, hands bound behind his back.

His head was covered with a black hood, and his whole body was shaking incessantly.

Looking over to the side, there was also a wooden chair placed there.

Wen Jingya sat on the chair, and although she wasn’t bound, she was trembling with fear, constantly looking down, like a startled bird.

The footsteps of Jiang Man and the others were very loud.

"Boss, the lady has arrived," Zhao Huai whispered into Lu Xingzhou’s ear.

Lu Xingzhou put down his superior long leg and stood up from his chair.

Soon, several bodyguards brought over some chairs and invited Jiang Man and her party to sit down.

They also handed them hot tea, asking them to drink while watching the show.

Jiang Man sat down.

Lu Xingzhou turned to look at her.

Their eyes met, and Jiang Man smiled faintly, making a welcoming gesture with a cool and arrogant demeanor.

"Take off his hood," Lu Xingzhou said as he formally entered the topic.

A bodyguard, without any courtesy, took off Fang Yuheng’s hood, revealing his face filled with terror.

His glasses were askew on the bridge of his nose, his eyes filled with fear.

"Why did you spread rumors and post about Jiang Man?" With an air of nonchalance, Lu Xingzhou stretched out his hand and a slender hand took over a horsewhip.

The whip seemed very sturdy as he weighed it in his palm.

But the look he gave Fang Yuheng was chilling to the bone.

Before Fang Yuheng could respond, Wen Jingya jumped in, "Brother Zhou, it’s not my fault, it really has nothing to do with me this time!"

"Fang Yuheng, why did you spread rumors about my little sister-in-law?" she said as she agitatedly rose from her chair, rushed in front of Fang Yuheng, and yelled furiously at him.

Fang Yuheng lifted his head, looking at his goddess, and seeing her crying, his personality seemed to change completely.

No longer trembling, his eyes became sharp and mad: "I didn’t spread rumors, I told the truth! Didn’t you bump into Jiang Man eating hotpot with an old man at the mall?"

"Mr. Lu, I know Jiang Man is your wife, but she has cuckolded you, don’t you really know? I’m ridding the people of a scourge, Mr. Lu, you should thank me, hahaha..."

"Madman! Are you sick?" Wen Jingya lifted her hand, and with a fierce slap, the glasses on Fang Yuheng’s nose went flying.

Fang Yuheng was still laughing.

Lu Xingzhou had no patience to watch him go crazy and handed Wen Jingya the whip, "You do it."

His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an intimidating authority that made people dare not disobey.

"I want to know why he spread rumors about Jiang Man."

"Alright..." Wen Jingya took the whip, not daring to disobey.

In her eyes, Fang Yuheng was just a lapdog, his death wouldn’t be regretted.

She raised the whip and lashed it heavily onto his body, "Tell Brother Zhou the reason quickly!"

Fang Yuheng was beaten until his skin split and broke but clenched his teeth, refusing to open his mouth.

Wen Jingya was infuriated, and this time, she raised the whip high with even greater force.

With a lash, Fang Yuheng’s school uniform was torn open, revealing the raw, bloodied flesh beneath.

He cried out in pain, emitting only a low moan.

"Tsks," Jiang Man shook her head and stood up from her chair.

In a few strides, she stood in front of Fang Yuheng, hooked his chin with her foot, forcing him to look up at her: "It was Wen Jingya who instructed you to do this, wasn’t it? If you don’t speak up, then I’ll take it as a yes."

"Wen Jingya being the mastermind? Good," Jiang Man laughed softly, mischievously and arrogantly.

She snatched the whip from Wen Jingya’s hand and swung it towards her.

Before the whip could land, Wen Jingya let out a scream of "Ahh."

Startled, Fang Yuheng confessed without being prompted, "It has nothing to do with her! I hacked into her computer and read her diary, learning about her plight."

"Lu Xingzhou, Jingya has been your child bride, from a young age, the whole family gave her such hints, and she also came to believe it subtly, but what about you? What have you considered her to be when you married another? Are you fair to her? What did she do wrong?"

"And what did I do wrong? Jiang Man is rotten to the core!"

"Tsk tsk," Jiang Man sneered, "Such devoted love, so touching indeed."

"Jingya, my dear, he said he did it for you."

Jiang Man’s gaze swept sideways, landing on Wen Jingya beside her.

She played with the riding crop, her smile mocking.

Wen Jingya was terrified and instinctively stepped back, glaring at Fang Yuheng, "Who asked you to get sentimental on your own! You say it’s for me, but you’ve brought me such trouble! If I can’t be Xingzhou’s wife, I can still be his sister, can’t I? What, you can’t stand to see me do well? Don’t you want me to become the second young miss of the Lu Family?"

"I didn’t mean to..." Fang Yuheng was bewildered, his large eyes brimming with panic.

"Who do you think you are! Do I need you to stand up for me? Do you think you’re so great because you know how to hack? What gives you the right to hack into my computer and spy on my privacy?" Wen Jingya shouted.

Right now, all she wanted was to prove her loyalty to Jiang Man and Lu Xingzhou.

Fang Yuheng’s lips trembled, and he shook uncontrollably, like chaff in the sun.

He had never expected thanks from Wen Jingya but never imagined she would detest him this much either.

"Jingya, I like you, I’m willing to do everything for you, and I know you also want Jiang Man to face misfortune, right?"

"Shut up!" Wen Jingya kicked Fang Yuheng hard, "You damn bootlicker, what right do you have to decide what I think!"

"Jingya, my dear, he’s done so much for you, don’t you feel touched at all?" Jiang Man watched the drama unfold, her eyes gleaming with icy mockery.

She looked malicious and mischievous, like a complete problem child.

Next to her, Wen Jingya, by contrast, seemed like an innocent victim, shaking with emotion, she screamed, "I’m not touched at all, I’m so annoyed by people like this, presuming and self-congratulatory!"

"Fang Yuheng, did you hear that? Bootlicker, bootlicker, your bootlicking has left you with nothing in the end," Jiang Man taunted.

Her words acted like a catalyst, driving Fang Yuheng into madness.

He struggled to jump up, attempting to charge at Wen Jingya.

Wen Jingya retreated frantically.

Jiang Man, fearless, raised her foot and knocked him down, "What now? Throwing a tantrum? You chose to bootlick, and now you explode because the girl doesn’t accept you?"

She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You’re like the pile of manure I texted you, no different from those turds."

Fang Yuheng, who was already in a frenzy, suddenly widened his eyes in shock.

"You are... you are..." he stammered.

Jiang Man smiled slightly and made a silencing gesture to him, "When you were cleaning up the mess for Yu Qing, we had already crossed paths."

Her voice was light, intended only for them to hear.

Fang Yuheng was thunderstruck, unable to believe it.

"Also, I haven’t been kept or supported by any old man; the old men they ran into that day were my uncles."

Jiang Man straightened up, her tone casual.

"So boring." She tossed her riding crop onto the ground, hands in her pockets, and looked at Lu Xingzhou, "You deal with it."

With that, she walked over to Wu Yingfan and JOJO, "Let’s go, time for mahjong."

"Sure thing!" Wu Yingfan’s eyes lit up at the mention of mahjong.

JOJO was a bit confused and asked in broken Chinese, "It’s over?"

"It’s over, someone who thought they were smart is actually stupid to death," Jiang Man said disdainfully.

Such a minion wasn’t worth her time and effort to deal with.

JOJO frowned, not quite understanding how everything ended so abruptly, but she knew it all seemed to have started because of her.

She took out her phone, scrolling and typing as she went, and posted a clarifying message in English on her Vblog.

...

The abandoned factory returned to its original atmosphere.

Wen Jingya was desperate to distance herself from Fang Yuheng.

"Xingzhou, I’ve really changed, it was all his doing, it really has nothing to do with me," she pleaded.

Lu Xingzhou gave a cold glance to the fussing person, his eyes growing ever chillier.

This was probably the most important reason he looked down on Wen Jingya—she had no heart.

Fang Yuheng did all this for her, even committed wrongdoing, but instead of distancing herself, she should have urged him to be good.

For a moment, he too felt a lack of enthusiasm.

Wen Jingya suddenly felt a chill all over her body and dared not meet his gaze any longer.

"Zhao Huai."

"BOSS."

"Proceed with legal action, sue him for defamation."

"Yes."

After speaking, Lu Xingzhou left with long strides.

No sooner had he left than Wen Jingya, without any reluctance, hurried out following him.

Zhao Huai ordered his men to release Fang Yuheng.

But he collapsed to the ground, his spirit as if drained from him.

"Jiang Man."

Just as Jiang Man was about to start the car, Lu Xingzhou called out to her.

She rolled down the window, "Care to join for a game of mahjong?"

"The person who posted on the school forum wasn’t Fang Yuheng," said Lu Xingzhou seriously, indicating he wasn’t planning to let it go and also wanted to handle it together.

Jiang Man raised her eyebrows, "I know it wasn’t him."

Lu Xingzhou looked at her, surprised, "You know?"

"Leave her be for now, there’s no rush." Her smile at the tip of her brows made it impossible to guess what she was truly thinking.

"Jiang Man," he called her name again as she started the car, preparing to leave.

"Hmm?" she inquired, interested.

"Shall we make our relationship public?" Lu Xingzhou was very serious, very earnest, "To let the rumors collapse on their own."

Hearing his proposal to go public, Wu Yingfan inside the car widened his eyes, too excited to even breathe.

JOJO blinked her innocent large eyes, sitting in the passenger seat, tilting her head to look at the handsome guy standing outside the car window.

Although she couldn’t understand what the handsome guy was saying, she could tell from the tone and see from his look.

She guessed he was probably speaking sweet nothings.

"Go public with our relationship?" Jiang Man was caught off guard.

Had Lu Xingzhou really meant it when he said he would tear up their marriage contract? Wasn’t he just teasing her?

"Let people on the internet curse however they want, I don’t care," Jiang Man shrugged, hinting subtly that there was no need to go public.

She hadn’t yet decided whether to turn their act into reality with Lu Xingzhou.

If they truly went public with their relationship, wouldn’t she be forced into a corner?

Sashaying around with the title of Mrs. President of Lu Corporation, it wouldn’t be easy to extricate herself then.

Moreover, as a global influencer, Lu Xingzhou’s public move would bring her father over in a rage along the internet cables, and she wouldn’t know how to explain it to her father.

Thinking about all the potential troubles that going public could bring, she resisted with all her heart.

"Not every rumor needs clarification, the last thing rubberneckers lack is gossip, once there’s another piece of juicy news, my little story won’t be anything at all, don’t you think?"

She wasn’t a celebrity, with limited influence, and the onlookers were just here for the excitement.

She was convinced the hubbub wouldn’t last long.

"Coming aboard?"

"I still have things to do."

"Alright then, I’m off." Jiang Man floored the accelerator, driving away her big G with great panache.

Lu Xingzhou was left with a face full of exhaust fumes, his expression a bit forlorn.

But soon, he pulled himself together.

No matter, they had a long future ahead of them.

Ten months, there were so many things that could be done...

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