Chapter 38: The Dust Settles

Lu Shi didn’t sleep well that night. He kept dreaming of the past until past two or three in the morning, when exhaustion finally pulled him into a deeper sleep.

The next morning, the phone he had been sent earlier kept vibrating in the living room.

Ding Wei and Yu Xi had called Lu Shi as soon as they saw the news the night before. They each dialed twenty or thirty times with no answer. When the call finally connected, a vaguely familiar female voice answered, told them not to worry, and hung up.

They tossed and turned all night, still anxious. So early in the morning, they bought a bunch of stuff from the supermarket downstairs and came knocking on Lu Shi’s apartment door, bags in hand.

When the call went through,

Ding Wei: “Brother Lu, you finally picked up! Yu Xi and I brought you a lot of good food, but no one answered the door. Are you not home?”

Yu Xi squeezed over and put the phone on speaker: “Brother Lu, are you, uh, okay? We happened to have nothing to do today, so we came to hang out.”

The line was silent for two seconds.

Then Shen Zheming’s cold voice came through, slightly hoarse from just waking up: “He’s still asleep. If you want to see him, come to my place.”

Yu Xi and Ding Wei both froze. They exchanged a look.

It was just past six in the morning. Given Lu Shi’s biological clock, there was no way he’d go to Shen Zheming’s house for a nap at this hour. So he’d stayed the whole night at Brother Shen’s?!

Ding Wei let out a breath and patted his chest: “That’s good, that’s good.”

Yu Xi, also an Omega who knew from the group chat that Shen Zheming was in his susceptible period, looked at Ding Wei, who always had a one-track mind, and twitched: “What’s good about it?”

Ding Wei: “The good thing is that Brother Lu is with Brother Shen. With Brother Shen around, nothing bad could happen.”

Yu Xi’s expression was complicated. He wanted to say something but stopped.

Since when could Ding Wei, that thick-skulled alpha with no sense of danger, understand that during a susceptible period, the alpha was the biggest danger when there was no other threat?

The two followed the navigation to Shen Zheming’s house.

When Lu Shi groggily got out of bed and squinted his way to the kitchen for water, Yu Xi was using over a dozen alternate accounts to report all the online posts about Lu Shi.

“You guys are here?”

Lu Shi was stunned. His gaze swept over the various fruits and snacks on the table, and he gave a faint smile.

“Afraid I’d do something stupid?”

A piece of gauze was stuck to the back of his neck. He reached up and pulled his collar up to cover it.

Ding Wei nodded, then quickly shook his head after Yu Xi elbowed him hard.

Seeing them being so careful, afraid to say the wrong thing, Lu Shi sat down and raised the corner of his mouth: “Relax. I’m not that fragile.”

Just like Shen Zheming said, not a single word about what happened at Bihai Chenwan got out. The Shen family had suppressed everything airtight.

Even the news about him from yesterday had been completely blocked by this morning. Now you couldn’t find it with a search, as if last night’s events had all been an illusion.

The investigators pulled all the surveillance footage from Bihai Chenwan. They found a man disguised as a restaurant waiter who injected the alpha with a catalyst when he wasn’t looking, then moved him to the break room.

The fake waiter had also participated in the celebration party’s lottery draw. He was the one who handed out the slips, rigging it so that Lu Shi would draw the winning ticket, then luring him to the break room and locking him in.

The investigation bureau checked the man’s file. He wasn’t from the capital and had no connection to Lu Shi. It was obvious someone was behind him.

At the same time, the person who leaked Lu Shi’s real rank was found out. He had prepared a scapegoat but forgot to erase the evidence of his purchase of the news story.

Shen Zheming sent the person’s name to the group chat.

Ding Wei pointed at the screen: “It’s him! The guy you grabbed by the head and smashed into the wall at the bar! He’s the son of the deputy director of the Pheromone Administration Bureau. No wonder he knew so much about you!”

Yu Xi frowned in disgust: “So it really was the Pheromone Administration Bureau’s problem.”

Lu Shi wasn’t surprised. He had suspected this guy last night. After all, when he was forced to apologize to Lu Shi before, his face was full of resentment and unwillingness. He might as well have written ‘Just you wait’ on his forehead.

Meanwhile, in the study of the Chen family villa.

Chen Qiming massaged his temples with a headache.

The incident at Bihai Chenwan last night was hushed up under pressure from the Shen family, so no one dared speak of it. That should have been exactly what he wanted, the outcome he was hoping for. But he couldn’t sleep all night.

His calls to Lu Shi went unanswered, and he couldn’t figure out what Shen Zheming was thinking.

To make matters worse, Chen Youxuan had been implicated.

“Dad, you wanted to see me?”

The study door opened, and Chen Youxuan poked his head in, wearing a sweet, obedient smile.

Chen Qiming’s brow stayed furrowed: “Mm, come in.”

The son of the Chen family should be as obedient and sensible as Chen Youxuan. Lu Shi was practically Chen Youxuan’s opposite.

In the past, Chen Qiming wouldn’t have had a cold face seeing Chen Youxuan. But now, he felt his son was somewhat unfamiliar.

After what happened last night, Chen Youxuan was still ‘obedient’ as always. He was only eighteen, yet he showed no panic and didn’t pester for an explanation. His composure seemed excessive, making the ‘obedience’ seem fake.

Chen Qiming: “Someone says you bribed a man to pose as a waiter and deliberately led Lu Shi into that break room.”

Hearing this, Chen Youxuan’s smile froze, and shock flashed across his face.

His eyelashes fluttered rapidly. He said, “Wh-what waiter? Dad, what are you talking about? I don’t understand. You mean Brother was set up last night?”

Chen Qiming didn’t answer.

Shen Zheming’s methods were indeed formidable. In one night, a young man like him could investigate the whole matter in detail, blocking any external interference, making even the old-timers nervous.

Chen Youxuan’s eyes quickly reddened, filled with shock and disbelief.

“How could I do something like that? Someone must be slandering me. If Brother’s troubles affect the Chen family, what good would that do me?”

Once Chen Youxuan started crying, Chen Qiming grew soft-hearted.

After all, he and Zhu Wanqing had raised him. Deep down, he didn’t believe Chen Youxuan would do such a thing.

“That’s all just the deputy director’s son’s one-sided story. He has no evidence to back it up. We’ll have to wait and see what the captured fake waiter says.”

As soon as he finished, Chen Qiming’s phone rang.

It was a call from his subordinate who was assisting at the investigation bureau and gathering intelligence.

“Chairman, you can rest easy. The fake waiter confessed. The person who hired him was the deputy director’s son. He didn’t recognize the young master.”

Chen Qiming took a deep breath and nodded: “Good. I understand.”

In a corner no one noticed, Chen Youxuan’s clenched fist relaxed. His palms were sweaty.

Luckily, he had a backup plan. He’d guessed he might be betrayed, so he had always contacted the fake waiter using the deputy director’s son’s name.

Now this turn of events proved he was being framed.

Ha, they wanted to drag him down? No way.

For some reason, Shen Zheming handled everything quietly.

Those who weren’t present or in the know found the gossip cut short. They went around asking for inside information but got wind of nothing. They could only speculate privately, each with a different theory.

Some said the leaker probably had it in for Lu Shi and made up fake news.

Some said the deputy director of the Pheromone Administration Bureau had recently been removed from office, which seemed connected to this incident.

Chen Youxuan was nervous for three or four days. When the investigation bureau went quiet and he was sure they had no evidence to implicate him, he finally relaxed.

That weekend, to ease his anxiety, he invited some college classmates over.

They chattered and gossiped while eating snacks brought by the servants.

“Youxuan, your family has had so much going on lately. That guy surnamed Lu, was he trying to get attention by staging a whole show?”

“Is your brother really an F-rank Omega? Tell us secretly. We promise not to tell.”

Chen Youxuan put on a displeased expression, but his eyes showed no sincerity: “That’s a family matter. What if he’s low-ranked? Don’t ask.”

The group immediately understood.

Someone snorted: “He was hanging around Shen Zheming before. He was obviously trying to get in good with the Shen family. A country bumpkin with no experience but big ambitions.”

“Haha, I thought it was ridiculous when the school was spreading rumors about those two.”

“Don’t say that. As if Shen Zheming is any saint. I’m not just being bitter, but doesn’t he always act aloof and cold, while actually wanting everyone to suck up to him?”

“Alright, alright, don’t mention them in front of Youxuan, or he’ll get upset.”

Suddenly, they all fell silent.

Because they realized someone was standing behind them.

Lu Shi’s foot had been healing for a few days. Now he could stand and move freely.

The ones who had been badmouthing him were startled. They didn’t know how much Lu Shi had heard.

Chen Youxuan stood up: “What are you doing here?”

Lu Shi retorted: “Is this your house? Can’t I come?”

Chen Youxuan was stuck. The guests today were all classmates, and he was used to acting like the master of the house.

Lu Shi raised his hand. He was holding an elegantly packaged cake that smelled fragrant, ordered from the same place as the celebration party cake.

“I felt it was a shame we missed the celebration cake, so I bought another one.”

Lu Shi looked at Chen Youxuan and said slowly: “Steward Liu, please help serve it.”

Chen Youxuan watched him warily, not understanding what Lu Shi was up to.

The steward cut the cake into eight slices and placed one in front of each of Chen Youxuan’s classmates.

Two or three of them who had been gossiping felt guilty and couldn’t meet Lu Shi’s eyes. Seeing the girls next to them eating, they also picked up their forks and lifted the cake, trying to cover up.

But just as their hands rose with the plates, before the forks touched the cake,

Lu Shi lifted the plates and smashed the cake right into their faces.

Every single one of them who had spoken ill within earshot.

Chen Youxuan shrieked: “Lu Shi, are you crazy!”

Lu Shi grabbed the largest slice of cake. With cream-smeared hands, he seized Chen Youxuan’s collar and yanked him forward.

“Don’t worry. You get one too.”

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