Liang Zhen looked at Shen Yueran and felt the veins in his forehead throb.
He did not need to think too hard to understand what had just happened.
She clearly just wanted to laze around without doing any work. The moment an opportunity appeared, she had thrown all this mess onto his head and escaped cleanly.
What plotting for the young leader position?
What future head?
That old man had once again fallen into her trap.
Liang Zhen lowered his eyes and sighed inwardly.
On the other side, completely unaware that he had been fooled like a child, Shen Mingshan was currently enjoying a hot bath in the hot spring of his vacation villa.
The old man leaned back against the stone edge, steam rising around him, and snorted to himself.
Though his granddaughter was somewhat unruly from time to time, he believed that with his discipline now and then, she would definitely become a capable leader after him and lead Mingxiao well.
At the same time, in a corner unnoticed by the others, one person had witnessed everything that had happened.
From the beginning of the fight until now, the entire scene had unfolded like a roller coaster—starting serious and bloody, then somehow ending in a completely absurd way.
In the man's hand, a cellphone camera was still recording.
Everything happening here was being watched by someone on the other side.
Huo Chengye sat quietly, watching the live feed.
His cold face did not change much, but the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Interesting," he said.
Nearby, Xu Chen was also watching the scene.
When he heard that word, his expression became strange.
In his heart, he could only think, Absolute lunacy. Only you would find this interesting.
Meanwhile, Shen Yueran swept her gaze across the people lying around and finally stopped at the uninjured frail youth and his two bodyguards.
The three of them were still down on the ground, clearly not wanting to attract attention.
Shen Yueran lifted her chin and called out loudly, "You three shitheads playing dead over there, wake up now and come here for a talk."
The two bodyguards stiffened instantly and turned to look at their young master, waiting for his order.
If not for their young master's quick thinking earlier, who knew what would have happened to them by now?
The frail youth slowly raised his head.
It was Huo Yunshen.
His pale face still looked weak, but his eyes were calm. After a brief pause, he signaled to his two bodyguards to follow him.
The three of them got up and carefully walked toward Shen Yueran.
By now, Shen Yueran had returned to where she had been sitting earlier. The glass table there was already shattered, its remains scattered across the floor. She stood there casually, one foot in leather boots grinding the broken glass beneath it into even smaller pieces.
Crunch. Crunch.
The sound made the two bodyguards' scalps tighten.
Shen Yueran glanced at them, then signaled with her hand.
"Sit."
Huo Yunshen sat down in the seat nearest to her without hesitation. His two bodyguards remained just a little behind him.
Huo Yunshen looked at Shen Yueran quietly and waited for her to speak.
Shen Yueran leaned back slightly and looked at him.
"So," she said, "you're also from the Huo Family, right?"
Huo Yunshen looked at her and answered honestly, "Yes."
Then that's good. Those people who were bullying you earlier were also from your family, right?
Huo Yunshen remained silent for a moment, then said, "Yes."
Shen Yueran immediately smiled.
"Good. Then listen carefully. From now on, this is your story."
Huo Yunshen looked at her.
His two bodyguards also stared at her, not daring to interrupt.
Shen Yueran pointed at him and spoke with complete seriousness, "When someone asks what happened here—no, even if no one asks—you should still say that those people from your family were bullying you. You kept enduring it, but then they started harassing a beautiful older sister nearby."
As she spoke, she even raised a hand and pointed toward herself shamelessly.
"That older sister, of course, is me."
Liang Zhen, who was standing not far away, closed his eyes for one second.
Huo Yunshen's two bodyguards nearly choked.
But Shen Yueran continued as if she were telling the most reasonable story in the world.
"Then, seeing that I was a weak and defenseless older sister being harassed, you and your men bravely stood up to defend me."
"In that fight, you three beat all of them and protected this older sister."
Her tone was smooth and shameless to the extreme.
Not only was she trying to hand the blame over to them, she was also portraying herself as a helpless, bullied beauty.
Huo Yunshen and his two bodyguards were speechless.
Before they could even recover from the absurdity of that story, Shen Yueran's expression suddenly changed.
As she retold her own made-up version, her eyes unexpectedly reddened.
Then, as if on cue, tears even gathered in them.
Her voice softened dramatically.
"You three should be proud of yourselves," she said, looking at them with watery eyes. "Being able to defend me even in this story is already a great honor for all of you."
The three of them looked at Shen Yueran speechlessly.
Seeing their silence, the tears in Shen Yueran's eyes disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Her face suddenly turned cold again.
The bloodstains on her face had still not been cleaned off. Under the dim lights, with that icy expression, she looked even more frightening.
"You don't want to accept the honor I, Shen Yueran, gave you?" she asked softly.
Her voice was not loud, but it made the three of them break out in goosebumps.
"Are you all insulting me?"
The two bodyguards immediately lowered their heads.
Huo Yunshen's fingers tightened slightly.
He had originally wanted to explain that he had no influence in the Huo Family. Even if he took the blame for this, it might not change anything. But after hearing Shen Yueran's last sentence and seeing the blood still on her face, he wisely swallowed those words back down.
Silence lasted for a brief moment.
Then Huo Yunshen suddenly smiled.
He rose slightly from his seat, bowed toward Shen Yueran, and said in a calm voice, "Older Sister, we gratefully accept the honor."
The two bodyguards were stunned.
Even Liang Zhen glanced at him once.
For a second, the area went quiet.
Then Shen Yueran's cold face bloomed into a bright smile.
"Hahaha!"
She laughed happily, all trace of coldness gone as if it had never existed.
"Boy, I don't know why, but I suddenly took a liking to you."
Her mood turned good instantly.
She leaned forward slightly and said with a grin, "If you really face trouble in the future, come to Big Sister. I'll solve it for you once."
Huo Yunshen lowered his head slightly. "Then I'll thank Older Sister in advance."
Shen Yueran became even more pleased.
On the other side, Huo Chengye was still watching this entire scene through the phone.
When he saw Huo Yunshen bowing and smoothly accepting Shen Yueran's shameless arrangement, the corner of his mouth, which had already lifted earlier, rose slightly again.
Xu Chen had been watching Shen Yueran's absolute shamelessness with a complicated expression. Then he turned and carefully observed Huo Chengye's reaction.
He was actually smiling
Xu Chen could not help thinking, So you do know how to smile.
On the screen, Shen Yueran was still sitting there with blood on her face, shattered glass under her boots, and a bright smile on her lips. She looked lawless, unreasonable, ridiculous, and dangerous all at once.
Xu Chen truly could not understand what exactly there was to find interesting in such a person.
But Huo Chengye's eyes remained on the screen the entire time.
His gaze was deep and calm, fixed on that shameless, drunken woman who had overturned the whole situation by herself and then, without the slightest embarrassment, started handing blame and "honor" to others.
At that moment, in the middle of the bloody chaos of the club, Shen Yueran was still laughing with Huo Yunshen.
The two bodyguards beside him remained stiff and cautious, not daring to relax for even a second.
Liang Zhen stood at the side with a cold face, watching everything while silently taking over the trouble she had once again thrown onto him.
And far away, Shen Mingshan, who believed he had disciplined his adopted granddaughter quite well, was likely still sitting proudly in his hot spring, completely unaware that the person he trusted most had once again escaped responsibility in the most shameless way possible.
The whole scene had started like a disaster
Now, somehow, it had ended like a joke.
But only the people present knew how terrifying that joke had truly been.