Page 112 of He Is My Bride

Hanjun snapped out of it. “I… Are you okay?”

Hanjun was ashamed of his reaction: he was angry that his pride as a man had been insulted, someone laying their hands onhispartner, but this wasn’t about him. It was Li Ying who had been the victim of an assault, and he needed Hanjun to comfort him right now, not to nurture revenge fantasies.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Li Ying assured. “He just touched my… legs. Thighs. He pinched, that’s all. I was afraid he would go further, but he said… It doesn’t matter what he said, he was just trying to make me feel cheap.”

Hanjun hesitated, but stood up and walked around the table to kneel before Li Ying, putting his hands on his knees. Li Ying blinked, confused as to what the man intended, but Hanjun only asked in a gentle voice:

“Can I touch you here?”

“Please,pleasetouch me!” Li Ying opened his legs and pulled up his hem.I want you to erase his touch with yours!

Hanjun brushed his hands carefully over the skin of Li Ying’s thighs. Such a light touch made Li Ying shiver.

“I’m sorry.” Hanjun startled, but Li Ying hushed him:

“Shh, love, it’s okay, it just tickled. Here…” Li Ying opened his legs more and touched the bruise Hanjun had left last night. “Your mark, it protected me.” Li Ying smiled, but Hanjun was glaring at him there.

Li Ying looked again and saw there was a faint foreign bruise where Wang Guosheng had pinched him, below Hanjun’s mark. Li Ying hated it.

Suddenly Hanjun’s head was between Li Ying’s thighs and his teeth were on his skin, biting, sucking.

“Ah! Ha-Hanjun—Ow!” Li Ying buried his fingers into Hanjun’s hair but didn’t try to push him away. He felt like with every painful bite Hanjun was exorcising the evil Wang Guosheng had left on his skin. He wanted it,neededit.

He let Hanjun strip him, helping him by untucking himself, and finally Hanjun carried him to the bed.

The bruise Wang Guosheng had left was now covered by a larger, darker one, one that Li Ying cherished. Hanjun laid Li Ying down and came over him, kissing him and touching him. Li Ying felt good being touched, but something was still bothering him.

“Hanjun…” Li Ying said when he managed to tear their lips apart.

“Hm?” Hanjun hummed against his temple and kissed it. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, but there was something else. Hanjun, Wang Guosheng said something that made me fear he might know about me, but I’m not sure.”

Hanjun paused his kisses, but remained close. “What did he say?” he asked.

“That he ‘knows what I’m hiding there’ while feeling me up. But how could he know? He didn’t touch my crotch and he couldn’t have seen anything. I think his words and actions were only meant to humiliate me, as a woman. I just get thisfeelingwhenever he looks at me, like he sees right through me, but I probably panicked for nothingbecause of the words he used.” Now that Li Ying had said it out loud, he was truly starting to believe he had just overreacted.

“Are you sure?” Hanjun was still worried.

“I really don’t believe he knows, he just got into my head. He also said that because of me, you are basically handing Wu Pharma over to him.” That’s the other thing Wang Guosheng had said that bothered Li Ying.

Hanjun said nothing, his frown frozen upon his brow.

“It sounds so stupid,” Li Ying said. “As if the company would fall into his hands just because you married a bit unconventionally! It can’t be that simple, right?”

“Even if it were a social outrage,” Hanjun said, “our marriage should not be so singularly game-changing as to lead to acquisitions or other power exchanges.”

“That’s what I thought. You would have to have a pretty scandalous spouse if they were to actually have such an impact on the company’s fate.”

“…Like a man,” Hanjun spoke in a grave tone. “Are yousureWang Guosheng doesn’t know about you? Suspect? His confidence must spring from him knowingsomething,or thinking he knows.”

Li Ying forced himself to think back on the incident, trying to figure out if there was any hidden clue in Wang Guosheng’s words that might have indicated he knew the truth.

“He must have just tried to apply some kind of reverse psychology on me.” Li Ying finally deduced. “Maybe he’s afraid of you finally marrying and producing an heir. After all, if there’s a new Wu to inherit the executive seat, the Wang offspring will continue to be kept from getting more votes on the board. Maybe he wanted to scare me away, scareyouinto sending me away, by pretending that you marrying me would be a great victory for him somehow.”

“Wang Guosheng is cunning, it’s not impossible he might try to play such mind games, but we can’t be sure what he’s thinking.”

Li Ying shrugged. “Well, that was all of it, all that he said.”