Chapter 32

Zhou Jingcheng felt the world spin, his reputation in ruins.

He raised his hand slightly to reveal a corner of the tablet, peeking at it cautiously as he tried to confirm whether his eyes had deceived him.

With a slap, the tablet was flipped facedown again.

Zhou Jingcheng looked utterly dead inside.

His eyes had not deceived him. It was the fun he and Shi Jihan had made at the amusement park yesterday.

When was Earth going to explode? He could not stay here for another minute.

Secretary Sun had had his tablet confiscated and was now watching the video on his phone, grinning so hard his teeth showed as he secretly laughed.

Haha, the boss getting walked all over by Beagle.

Fun.

The instant Zhou Jingcheng looked over, he immediately put on a professional expression and offered a professional perspective. "Boss, I don't think this video needs to be deleted. The comments below are all supporting you."

Hearing that, Zhou Jingcheng gathered his courage and flipped the tablet over again, starting to read the comments.

[I knew they looked familiar! The people I ran into at the amusement park yesterday really were Shi Jihan and Zhou Jingcheng!]

[The two of them went to an amusement park together? If they don't come out and deny it, then I'm getting ready to make up rumors.]

[Come back to life! My Wu Bai CP!]

[HAHAHAHAHAHA! This video can keep me laughing until retirement.]

[I saw today's trending topics. I believe President Zhou. His mental state is just beautiful; he isn't a bad person.]

[Wait, so that missing-dad announcement yesterday...?]

[A little lovers' pastime? They really know how to have fun [face turns yellow]]

[@Zhou Jingcheng, kiddo, hurry up and get Shi Jihan to come out and say something for you.]

Zhou Jingcheng's temple throbbed. "Supporting me?"

He said, "Suppress this one too!"

Netizens quickly discovered that the video's uploader had deleted the post. Not only that, they were having it deleted across the entire internet.

[Tsk tsk, did someone get embarrassed and angry? Delicious.]

[President Zhou, stop trying to maintain that precarious persona of yours [shrug].]

After dealing with one thing after another, Zhou Jingcheng was exhausted. It was the kind of exhaustion comparable to the moment Shi Jihan had sat on him during yesterday's water rafting ride.

He downed an entire glass of water before looking at Shi Zhongye, who had seemed like he wanted to say something for a while. "Were you going to ask about Xiao Yuan? I didn't tell you I signed him because you were still directing in the middle of nowhere back then."

Shi Zhongye reacted like someone had stepped on his tail, instantly bristling. "Who asked? I didn't ask!"

Zhou Jingcheng said, "Oh."

If he did not care, then Zhou Jingcheng had only asked casually.

Zhou Jingcheng picked up his phone and saw that Shi Jihan had sent him a message more than half an hour ago. He tapped it open.

It was a photo of the two of them together.

Rainbow candy versus black coffee.

It was his first time seeing a scene of himself and Shi Jihan together from a third-person perspective. He froze for a moment, then zoomed in on the picture with two fingers.

His gaze inadvertently landed on the bit of Shi Jihan's waist showing in the photo.

It was very pale, very slim, small enough to fit in one hand.

Wait, what was he thinking?!

Zhou Jingcheng suddenly came back to himself. He had just implied yesterday that Shi Jihan should think of him as a younger brother. How could he think like this today?

But... had Shi Jihan found this photo online?

Had he looked for it deliberately? Then... he must have gone through quite a bit of trouble, searching for a long time.

What did sending it to him mean? How was he supposed to respond?

Zhou Jingcheng's fingertip hovered over the screen. For the first time, he had no idea how to reply to someone's message. He could only stare deeply at the screen, as though contemplating the truths of the universe.

Until an explosive "Holy shit!" went off beside his ear and startled him.

Zhou Jingcheng looked toward the source. "Shi Zhongye, why are you still here?"

"I haven't gotten the investment for my next project, so why would I leave?" Shi Zhongye said. "Forget that. Let me show you a huge secret!"

As he spoke, he shoved the photos sent by an anonymous helpful person right in front of Zhou Jingcheng.

"Look, intimate photos of Shen Qinghuai on a date with a mysterious woman! He really did have ulterior motives and tricked Shi Bochuan into marriage." Shi Zhongye sounded completely certain.

Zhou Jingcheng thought that was impossible. Even if it really had been a sham marriage before, Shen Qinghuai and Shi Bochuan had now built a precious, revolutionary bond through sharing hardships.

He lowered his gaze and looked at Shi Zhongye's phone screen.

Shi Zhongye had just been about to ask his brother how to solve the issue of "Shen Qinghuai's marriage scam" when he saw his brother's eyes slowly widen, filled with shock, like an absurd comedy was silently playing out in them.

Zhou Jingcheng first looked at Shi Zhongye's phone, then lowered his head to look at the photo on his own phone, raised his head to look at Shi Zhongye's phone again, then lowered it again.

Shi Zhongye thought Secretary Sun must have infected him. He tapped the table to get Zhou Jingcheng's attention. "Hey, you're done looking at the photos, right? Tell me what you think."

You were your brother's external brain. He was counting on you to help solve this family problem.

Zhou Jingcheng voiced his thoughts, loudly.

"What about me?!"

Chapter 32

[Ding, task "Fabricate intimate photos to smear Shen Qinghuai for tricking someone into marriage" completed. Reward: Malice Points +15]

Listening to the task completion notification that had taken so long to refresh, Shi Jihan clicked his tongue. "Great. Second Brother's internet speed is 0.5 times faster than a sloth's."

Then he looked at his chat window with Zhou Jingcheng. The other side still had not replied. "Why is Dianjia Bro still using a Little Tyrant Learning Console to dial up to the internet?"

[Ding, Malice Points +12]

Oh my god, another high score!

He and Zero-Zero-Zero looked at each other and sighed in unison, [As expected of Second Brother!]

Just a few photos could actually have such a huge impact on Shi Zhongye?

Shi Jihan's eyes sparkled as he designated Shi Zhongye as the new generous benefactor, kicking Zhou Jingcheng down into second place.

Watching their savings grow larger and larger, Zero-Zero-Zero began whispering like a devil. [Host, besides exchanging for items, I have other good things too. Do you want to see them?]

Shi Jihan had learned nothing from his previous setback and had completely forgotten Zero-Zero-Zero's shady one-stop red wine dissolving solution scheme last time. He was immediately interested. [What?]

Zero-Zero-Zero said, [Holographic movies! They're on a limited-time sale right now. Ten movies for 9.9 Malice Points, practically dirt cheap.]

A sale!

Shi Jihan was instantly interested. [Okay, let's spend some!]

One person and one egg put on virtual glasses, lay on the bed, and started enjoying themselves. Neither noticed that the number after "Randomly Ruin Zhou Jingcheng: 0/1" in the daily tasks flickered and became "1/1 Completed."

And the reason Zhou Jingcheng had not replied was because he was completely immersed in a game of spot the difference.

He carefully compared the roller coaster photo. Staring at that expression of someone throwing back his head, opening his mouth, and screaming without restraint, he felt something was off. This could not be possible, right?

That mouth, those tonsils—he would recognize them even if they turned to ash.

What had Shi Zhongye said just now? That this was Shen Qinghuai?

What kind of joke was that? Could Shen Qinghuai's mouth open like a shoehorn?

But should he not be standing beside him? Who was this beautiful woman with long, wavy hair? She looked so unfamiliar, yet somehow familiarly unfamiliar.

Zhou Jingcheng was drowning in an ocean of question marks, unable to swim ashore no matter how hard he tried.

Seeing him stare at it for so long that he seemed to shut down, Shi Zhongye snatched the phone and looked at it himself. "No, what does this have to do with you?"

Zhou Jingcheng's eyes were full of confusion. "I want to know too."

Shi Zhongye was speechless. At that moment, the thought suddenly arose that his brother's intelligence did not seem all that impressive either.

He simply downloaded all the photo files at once. When he opened the gallery, he was stunned. "So Shen Qinghuai likes this type? A cold, delicate little wife and his tall, mighty girlfriend?"

Zhou Jingcheng looked over at his words.

Through the shop window, he saw a man leaning against another woman's, uh, abdomen like a little bird. The wavy-haired woman was a full two heads taller than the man, standing high above him as the two pressed closely together.

It was an incredibly beautiful, hazy scene.

The only thing in focus was a mosquito in front of the camera.

Shi Zhongye said, "Come on, tell me—which protagonist are you in this?"

The confusion in Zhou Jingcheng's eyes deepened. He recognized the shop window; there had even been lion headgear displayed outside. But this girlfriend over two meters tall...?

He carefully recalled last night, but no matter how hard he thought, he could not remember the presence of an Attack on Titan like that.

Could it be... that he had really been mistaken?

He fell into deep self-doubt.

[Ding, Malice Points +2]

[Ding, Malice Points +2.1]

[Ding, Malice Points +2.2]

Shi Jihan, who was watching an exciting chase scene in the movie, slapped the notifications off.

So noisy.

Second Brother, he would forgive him this time. Next time, he was not allowed to squeeze them out bit by bit.

In the office, Shi Zhongye sneezed for no reason. He felt like the number of times he had been sneezing lately had shot up.

He rubbed his nose, convinced he had caught Shen Qinghuai's major weakness. "He really did approach Shi Bochuan with another purpose. I'm going home right now to throw these photos in Shi Bochuan's face and make him see the true nature of the person beside his pillow!"

After passionately talking for so long, he realized Zhou Jingcheng had not reacted. He shoved him. "Hey, what do you think?"

Zhou Jingcheng looked at the photo of rainbow candy and black coffee on his phone, his tone deep and filled with strong self-assurance. "I think that is absolutely not the case."

Shi Zhongye:?

What the hell?

Zhou Jingcheng was completely immersed in his own thoughts. Shi Jihan had invited him to the amusement park, smiled at him so beautifully, taken the initiative to buy him ice cream, and even thrown himself into his arms in front of other people.

Shi Jihan had expressed his feelings for him so actively. How could he possibly edit him out of the pictures?

Look, he had even found a photo of the two of them and specially sent it to him.

Zhou Jingcheng nodded as he affirmed this to himself, adding that photo to his favorites album.

There, he had already cheered himself up.

Zhou Jingcheng looked back at Shi Zhongye and asked with a smile, "What did you say just now? I didn't hear a single word."

"..."