Page 56 of He Is My Bride

Had Wang Hao told her to do it, Li Ying wondered. And did she honestly believe he could protect her from the consequences?

Li Ying’s thoughts were paused when the captain wished the revelers a happy New Year and a good party night.

The music was tuned back up, and everyone cheered while the yacht left the dock to cruise along the Huangpu River.

Li Ying allowed his thoughts to drown under the clamor for now. He should enjoy the party .

Back on the aft deck beyond the lounge, there was a full bar and a dining area with a buffet dinner laid out, and Li Ying demanded they eat before doing anything else. The canapés hadn’t been exactly filling, and apparently there was nothing like a good fight to work up his appetite.

Li Ying loaded his plate with fried dishes while Hanjun took some salad, and the two of them and Huang Xiang went back up to sit on the balcony. There was a quiet corner available on the couch.

The models had wandered off as soon as Huang Xiang had gotten them on board, not that he seemed to care. This also suited Hanjun, who had wanted to ask Huang Xiang something away from listening ears:

“How did you know?”

“Know?” Huang Xiang blinked in confusion. “I didn’t know Xiuxiu would do something like that!”

“But you knew something was off. How?”

“Besides the fact that she had no business being there in the first place and was acting weird? I started keeping an eye on her and realized she was shadowing Li Ying.”

Li Ying shuddered to think what worse could have happened if the woman had been any more unhinged, but was grateful he had also had an angel named Huang Xiang.

“I just can’t fathom what she thought she had to gain from that,” Li Ying said.

“I don’t think we need to look far for the reasons why she did this,” Huang Xiang said. “It was obviously revenge.”

“For a broken toe and some lost face?” Li Ying doubted it. “But this will ruin her entire reputation. What’s the trade-off here? Is she stupid? ”

Huang Xiang went on, “Miss Li might not have heard the latest gossip, but Wang Hao completely cut ties to Tang Xiuxiu after the club incident, and she fell right back down the social ladder she’d worked so hard to climb.

She had little reputation to lose anymore, to be honest. But now that I started thinking about it,” Huang Xiang delicately rubbed his chin, as if pondering, “whatever, whoever gave her the means to even attempt her revenge? Wang Hao? I don’t think he had the influence to get her into the party, if not as his plus one, which she clearly wasn’t.

Who else may have had a reason to use her to bully Miss Li? ”

Hanjun’s face darkened. Huang Xiang noticed, and he couldn’t help the wry smirk spreading on his lips.

“I’m friends with the promoter. I recall her telling me that Wang Guosheng had requested an extra ticket only yesterday. How peculiar of his character, I thought. Oh, but what am I thinking! Why would he have invited someone like Tang Xiuxiu?”

Li Ying spat down his noodles. “ Motherfucker! ” Spoken in thick American English.

“You really think he did it?” Huang Xiang asked, suddenly surprised—or pretending, Li Ying realized: this underdog knew more than he let on. Li Ying realized he had been wise to make a friend of him.

Huang Xiang glanced back at Hanjun, whose face was a brewing storm cloud not unlike his uncle’s.

“Sir Hanjun, you seem to know more than I do. Why keep us in the shade?”

“Hanjun?” Li Ying looked at the man as well, but Hanjun still said nothing.

“Oh!” Huang Xiang’s face was overcome by realization. “Could it have been…” he pressed a finger across his lips, obviously relishing in his own dramatics, “a counter threat?”

Li Ying’s gaze was now darting frantically between the two.

“Miss Li of course remembers the Huang’s field of business?” Huang Xiang asked.

Li Ying blinked. “Your family owns a meat-packing company?”

“Correct.” Huang Xiang was still looking at Hanjun.

“Head of a hog and two sucklings? On New Year’s Day?

” He smiled knowingly. “ I know you traditionalists don’t eat meat on the first day, and I doubt a decadent craving for pork was the reason you requested these of me so discreetly, Sir Hanjun.

And right after the family event of the year, too, where the Wus and the Wangs had reunited, surely in perfect harmony?

Whatever may have been your need? Surely nothing that would have irked Wang Guosheng and his two sons? ”

“Hanjun, what the fuck?! What have you done?” Li Ying stared at Hanjun, whose face was eerily expressionless now.

“Now I just wonder what the Wangs had to do to provoke the ‘impassioned’ young Mister Wu into threatening them in such a way?” Huang Xiang led on.

“Sir Xiang is very intelligent,” Hanjun spoke, deadly calm. “He understands how mine and Li Ying’s marriage is a perceived threat to the Wangs’ future stakes in the company.”

“I see.” Huang Xiang tapped his chin thoughtfully.

“They threatened you and Miss Li first. That would explain this whole scenario. Wang Guosheng recruited Tang Xiuxiu to exact revenge on his behalf. I suspect a sum of money or other carrot has been offered to make Tang Xiuxiu think it was worth her reputation.”

“I told you not to escalate!” Li Ying scolded Hanjun.

Hanjun hung his head in shame. “I’m sorry you were put in danger as a result of my actions.”

“I wasn’t in any danger, you idiot, I keep telling you it was just some blood.

But why are you so stupid!” Li Ying weakly hit Hanjun’s shoulder with his fist. “Idiot husband! Head of a hog and—Aiya, was it because I said Wang Guosheng is a swine?! Oh, Hanjun, I didn’t know you were so wicked!

I love it!” Li Ying threw himself around Hanjun’s neck, climbing halfway onto his lap.

He turned to look at Huang Xiang. “And thank you for looking out for me, Big Brother Huang, you’re my hero. ”

Huang Xiang paled before Hanjun’s cold stare. “Please, Miss Li, don’t call me that, or I fear Sir Hanjun will send my head to my family next! ”

“You will do no such thing to my friend, Junjun!” Li Ying pouted at Hanjun and pinched his cheek. “Naughty man!”

“Um, I will leave you to it and rejoin the party, see you there?” Huang Xiang scooted away and stood up to leave.

“See you!”

After Huang Xiang had left, Li Ying said, “I can’t believe you’d pull such a stunt. Should we expect more trouble from the Wangs?”

“Not for now. It’s our move, so let’s call it even, if this was all Wang Guosheng had to say.”

“Very well. His plan was foiled anyway, by none other than Lin Yong. I should thank him later, I guess. Oh, about Lin Yong!” Li Ying looked at Hanjun. “Promise me not to get mad at him, seeing as he saved Huang Xiang’s and Anne’s dress from getting ruined back there?”

Hanjun’s eyes narrowed.

“Promise me!”

“Mm.”

“You’re not convincing. Anyway, he almost confessed his, uh, feelings for me, I guess, back at the party just now.

But I stopped him before he could say anything stupid.

I told him I can’t return his feelings, whatever they were, and that I’m marrying you for love.

Even if he still seemed to think otherwise. ”

Hanjun was eerily quiet again, and Li Ying could swear there were a thousand terrible things going on behind those cold eyes.

“Hanjun?”

“Can’t let you out of the house.”

“Huh?”

Hanjun leaned over him, staring firmly into his eyes. “You’re too beautiful. You keep making people fall in love with you.”

Li Ying squirmed under that possessive gaze.

“Would you tie me to your bed, then, hm? To keep me all to yourself?” Li Ying gingerly grabbed Hanjun’s lapels and fumbled with them, biting his lip.

Such flirting earned him a hungry kiss on the lips.

Hanjun wrapped his arms around him and held him tight while biting down on Li Ying’s lip.

“Ah…! M-ma liphtick…”

But Hanjun didn’t hear him, only kissed him harder, his hand holding Li Ying’s neck, a thumb massaging him behind the ear. Li Ying saw stars. But more people entered the balcony, whistling at them, so they separated.

“Don’t let us stop you! Hey, aren’t you that girl who fought that other one at the party just now?” asked a random young man from the group, drunk as most of them were, more or less.

“It is her! Hey, are you okay?”

“But didn’t she start it?” someone muttered to her friend.

“No, someone said that the other one threw blood at her first.”

“That wasn’t on the video.”

…What video? Li Ying had a bad feeling.