"What did you say?" Shang Jingchen roared with fury, tightly gripping her shoulders and glaring at her.

She actually called him a cheat, a man without honor.

Ye Lu looked up at him defiantly, showing no fear of his rage: "Shang Jingchen, what right do you have to question me? Yaxing collapsed, it’s your Shang family’s loss, not mine. Do you think I intended this? It’s due to your incompetence that you couldn’t save it, forcing me to use my body to ensure Yaxing’s survival. What right do you have to question me?"

"So, you admit that you slept with another man last night."

Shang Jingchen felt a rush of blood to his head, overcome by rage. This woman admitted it, she had indeed done that with another man.

His heart pounded with pain, anger driving him to madness. He wished he could tear her apart.

Ye Lu sneered: "Yes! I have nothing to deny."

A sharp, hateful slap landed on her face, throwing her against the railing. Her dishevelled hair hung over her face, her head buzzing as she almost passed out.

Shang Jingchen looked at his own hand in shock - he had hit her.

Watching her sag against the railing, blood trickling from her mouth, his heart clenched and panic set in. He didn’t mean to - he was just too enraged, beyond control.

He wanted to help her up.

"Jingchen, you don’t need to feel guilty. Hitting a woman is wrong, but this woman deserves it." Yuan

Jiayin quickly distracted him in order to prevent him from sympathizing with her pitiful state.

"She’s putting on a self-righteous act, but is she really doing this for the Shang Group? To me, she’s just doing it to protect herself, afraid of losing power and shares. She shamelessly sacrifices her body to save everything. Think about it, her motive for marrying into the Shang family was for the wealth. Perhaps she even plotted Yaxing’s downfall, and the man who helped her could possibly be her illicit lover."

The word ’lover’ severely provoked Shang Jingchen, making his heartache even worse.

He gazed at Ye Lu in rage and resentment, and in that moment he understood something - something he had always refused to accept.

He was jealous, unbearably jealous. Jealous when she danced provocatively with Gu Yan, jealous when she was with other men. Hearing the word ’lover’ filled his heart with venomous jealousy. He wished he could find the man and tear him apart.

His face turned pale. He finally realized that he had fallen for her.

He found it unbelievable, hard to accept.

Ye Lu wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, stood up and gave them a cold, indifferent glance, too bored to bother further.

"I will remember the humiliation both of you gave me. These two slaps, I will pay back a hundred times in the future."

She turned around to leave, preparing to go downstairs.

Yuan Jiayin gritted her teeth silently. This arrogant woman, thinking of paying back a hundred times? She dreamt. She would make her regret.

"Where are you going?" Shang Jingchen called out to her.

Ye Lu lifted her chin and scoffed: "Since you have your mistress, it’s only fair for me to go to my lover."

Shang Jingchen grew even angrier, rushing over to grab her hand.

"I forbid you to go."

Ye Lu mocked, looking at Yuan Jiayin: "Seems like your man has voluntarily gotten entangled with me. Looks like your position in his heart isn’t that high."

Yuan Jiayin’s face flushed and turned pale, feeling humiliated and choked on her words.

She could only pretend to look pitifully at Shang Jingchen.

However, Shang Jingchen didn’t notice Yuan Jiayin at all, his mind and heart were fully occupied by Ye Lu, staring at her intensely.

"I forbid you to see that man again, or sleep with him."

"That’s not really up to you."