In one of the bedrooms of the Ma family mansion, Ma Hongsheng sat upright against the headboard, flipping through a book under the warm lamplight. The quiet was broken when the door creaked open, and Cheng Rui stepped inside, dressed in a silky set of sleepwear. Her steps were soft, almost hesitant.
Ma Hongsheng raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Rui, didn’t you say we’d share a room again only after I fully recovered?”
Cheng Rui’s face looked pale, her voice trembling as she replied, “Just now… something happened…”
“What is it?” Ma Hongsheng immediately sat up straighter, concern rising in his voice as he noticed her shaken expression.
“When I was showering earlier, I think someone was… peeking at me.”
“Peeking at you?” His voice turned sharp with anger. “Who the hell dares do that in this house?”
But as soon as the words left his mouth, a realization struck. This mansion was staffed entirely by female servants. There was no reason a maid would peek on Cheng Rui. Besides, she was the lady of the house. Even if it had been a maid, she wouldn’t be this frightened, much less rush to him in a panic.
The only other men in this entire mansion were himself and Qin Fan.
“Was it my master?” he asked, his voice low, as if hoping she would say no.
Ma Hongsheng’s heart sank. In this household, if it wasn’t him, then it could only be Qin Fan.
Even then, he struggled to accept it. “My master is a man of integrity. He wouldn’t do something so low. He must’ve passed by accidentally.”
“Do decent men sneak around like that?” Cheng Rui mumbled under her breath.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly, shaking her head.
“Rui, did you find out something else? Tell me,” he urged her, his voice thick with unease.
Her face twisted in a visible struggle. “I wasn’t going to mention this. It’s private… very private.”
“Just tell me already,” Ma Hongsheng said, his patience finally giving out.
With a helpless sigh, she unlocked her phone and showed him a video.
The moment the footage began to play, Ma Hongsheng’s expression twisted in shock. He stared wide-eyed, his entire worldview crumbling with each second that passed.
“Where… where did you get this?” he asked, barely able to get the words out.
“It came from the previous owner of the mansion we gifted to Qin Fan. There were still surveillance cameras installed. The temporary housekeeper found this footage and didn’t know what to do with it, so they brought it to me.”
Cheng Rui’s explanation was calm, but her words landed like boulders.
In the video, Qin Fan was clearly enjoying himself in private, and as he reached the height of pleasure, he uncontrollably called out “Yaoyue.”
Ma Hongsheng felt a cold chill run down his spine. That name—could it be Tantai Yaoyue?
His impression of Qin Fan shifted drastically. Despite wanting to brush it off as a misunderstanding, he couldn’t deny what he saw and heard. The more he thought about it, the more his trust cracked.
“From now on, stay away from him. Keep your distance. Let me be the one to deal with him,” Ma Hongsheng said grimly. He didn’t want to turn against Qin Fan just yet, but he also didn’t want Cheng Rui near him anymore.
“I don’t want to sleep in that room anymore,” she said, her voice trembling with what sounded like fear.
“Then stay here with me,” he replied gently.
She nodded without hesitation. Deep inside, a sharp wave of disgust flickered across her heart, though she kept her face calm and harmless as always.
But she had timed this perfectly.
Only moments after she agreed to stay, Ma Hongsheng felt an overwhelming wave of fatigue crash over him. His limbs turned heavy, and a dull haze clouded his thoughts. It was the residual poison in his system flaring up again. He barely managed to lie down before everything went black.
Cheng Rui stood silently beside the bed, the soft expression on her face vanishing into a cold, unreadable stillness.
Late that night, Ma Hongsheng stirred in his sleep, his consciousness surfacing in brief, blurry waves. In that dazed state, he suddenly heard strange, stifled sounds coming from nearby. They were unmistakably from Cheng Rui, but they weren’t solitary noises.
There was someone else.
Someone was with her.
His heart surged with rage. He tried to move, to open his eyes, to speak—but nothing worked. His eyelids were impossibly heavy, his body frozen, paralyzed. He couldn’t do anything but listen, and eventually, even that awareness slipped away as darkness reclaimed him.
By the time sunlight filled the room, it was already late morning.
Ma Hongsheng opened his eyes, his breath catching in his throat as he saw Cheng Rui sitting calmly at his side.
“Rui, last night, who exactly were you—” His words faltered midway.
A memory resurfaced from before, when he once suspected her wrongly, and she nearly took her own life to prove her innocence. With that level of devotion, it was hard to believe she could be unfaithful.
Yet what he heard last night wasn’t a dream. He was sure of it.
Suppressing the knot in his chest, he changed his tone. “Did you sleep well last night?”
“I did. I slept like a baby, all the way till morning,” Cheng Rui replied naturally, her face free of any tension.
Watching her, Ma Hongsheng tried to convince himself she wasn’t lying. If she had faked her emotions before, even tried to die for him, then he truly had no way to doubt her now.
But still, the sounds from the night lingered in his mind.
“Are you feeling… uncomfortable anywhere?” he asked carefully.
“No, not at all.” She gave a soft smile, her cheeks tinged with a faint blush.
“Come on, don’t keep anything from me,” he probed gently.
Her blush deepened. “Maybe it’s because your condition’s been unstable for so long, but I had a strange dream last night. It left me feeling a little… off when I woke up. Probably just hormones or something. Nothing serious.”
Her words struck him like a thunderclap. He felt a sudden weight bear down on his chest.
That hadn’t been a dream, as he heard it clearly. Someone touched her.
It was real.
The only person in this entire mansion who could get that close and leave her unaware… was Qin Fan.
Ma Hongsheng knew full well that Qin Fan possessed strange, mind-altering techniques. He must have used one last night. He must have assumed that Ma Hongsheng would remain unconscious. What he didn’t expect was that Ma Hongsheng would awaken for a few brief minutes—just long enough to hear what happened.
“Hongsheng, are you alright?” Cheng Rui asked with a look of concern.
“I’m fine. Just a little groggy after waking up,” he replied, forcing a weak smile onto his face.
He couldn’t let her know. If she found out, she might blame herself… or worse. He remembered her suicide attempt and knew she was capable of doing something drastic if pushed too far.
He couldn’t risk losing her.
Cheng Rui picked up a card and a stack of documents from the nearby table, placing them gently in his hands.
“The five hundred million has already been deposited into this card,” she said with a smile. “The transfer documents for the Veyron are here, too. But since you said you wanted to be the one to deliver them, I’ll leave that to you.”
Ma Hongsheng took the card and documents, but his fingers trembled slightly as he held them. A storm of fury surged inside him.
He could give away money. He could gift a car.
But a man’s woman—no matter who the other man was—was never to be touched.
Not even by the one he respected most.
Out in the garden, Qin Fan was taking a morning stroll. He admired the flowers and breathed in the crisp, clean air, his demeanor relaxed and carefree.
Hearing footsteps, he turned and saw Ma Hongsheng walking toward him.
The moment Qin Fan saw the look on his face, he lost all interest in the flowers.
His mind was already filled with excitement. He couldn’t wait to drive that Veyron and flash that five hundred million yuan card around the Qingling business district, basking in the mortal world’s luxury like a true tycoon.
But just as he was drowning in that vision of wealth and indulgence, Ma Hongsheng stopped in front of him.
Unlike before, when he would always approach with a respectful smile, today his face was dark and cold.
“Little Ma, what’s wrong? You don’t look too good. Are you feeling unwell?” Qin Fan asked, feigning concern.
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