Have you no shame?

Inside the store, a tall man watched the scene unfold from a distance.

He had only come to pick up the limited-edition tie clip from the new season that he had ordered a month ago. He had never expected to catch such an entertaining scene.

Shan Ziyu narrowed his eyes slightly, then stepped forward with easy grace and said he could take care of it.

Ji Zhian's gaze immediately changed.

Ji Mingzhu paid no attention to whatever schemes were running through Ji Zhian's head. "How about this? Since you think it's such a shame that I can't buy something I want, little brother... stay here in the store while I go back for the money. Will that do?"

Ji Zhian immediately squawked, "But Dad told me to..."

Halfway through, Ji Zhian fell silent, the rest of his sentence stuck in his throat.

What could he say? Could he reveal that he was there to keep watch over Ji Mingzhu and stop him from running away?

That amounted to house arrest. It was fine as long as the Ji Family kept that understanding to themselves, but it would sound terrible if word got out. Taken seriously, it was a crime!

Ji Zhian had no intention of sullying his reputation or getting dragged into that mess. Unlike Ji Mingzhu, whose record was riddled with disgrace, he had a bright and glorious future ahead of him. He could not afford a single misstep.

Their family could not afford that humiliation!

So Ji Zhian's face flushed red, then turned livid as he struggled to hold his words in. With a strange, unreadable expression, he muttered, "Have you no shame..."

Ji Mingzhu smiled faintly. "None at all."

Ji Zhian: "..."

An awkward silence settled over them, but Shan Ziyu smiled and explained why he was there. "All right, your fiancé actually sent me to play the hero rescuing the beauty in his place."

The moment Ji Zhian heard that Gu Shang was behind this, he was too frightened even to breathe loudly.

Ji Mingzhu, meanwhile, froze.

After all, everything he had been taught since childhood told him that he had been born to marry, to build a family with someone else, and to put his husband above all else.

Ji Mingzhu took a moment to steady himself before saying cautiously, "Hello. This... this is too expensive. I can't accept it."

For a moment, the person on the other end of the phone was speechless.

Gu Shang's expression remained impassive, but inwardly, he was dumbfounded. Something worth a few tens of thousands counted as expensive?

Even if this was only a loveless marriage alliance, was this how the Ji Family treated the person who was about to marry him?

After a long silence, a cold, firm voice finally came from the other end of the phone. "Accept it."

At first, Ji Zhian was astonished that his country-bumpkin older brother could actually say something like that. Only after a while did he work out what was going on, and he silently scoffed.

Of course he did not believe Ji Mingzhu was willing to marry Gu Shang. He had resisted so fiercely before that he had jumped from a third-floor window; there was no reason for him to change his mind overnight. Clearly, Ji Mingzhu was afraid of being tormented after the wedding. Knowing he could not escape his fate, he had grown frightened and begun humbly currying favor with Gu Shang in advance.

Besides, however nice Ji Mingzhu's words sounded, he was probably after that confidential document belonging to the Gu Family too. That was why he was so eager to present himself as a virtuous spouse and lower Gu Shang's guard.

Unfortunately, his poor older brother had no idea that only two possible endings awaited him.

Either he obtained the document and the Ji Family rose to wealth and prominence, only for the furiously enraged Gu Family to kill him, or he failed to obtain it and was discovered, ending up in the Gu Family's hands all the same. Even if everything went smoothly, the Ji Family would never keep Ji Mingzhu around as a stain on their reputation for stealing from his husband's family.

Thinking of all the things that might happen in the future, Ji Zhian narrowed his eyes in delight.

After paying, Shan Ziyu said goodbye to Ji Mingzhu and left.

Ji Mingzhu could not be bothered to change again, so he simply asked the saleswoman to cut off the tag and left wearing his new outfit. As for his old clothes... he could not bear to throw them away either. After all, they were among the original owner's few relatively normal-looking outfits. He did not have many clothes he could wear out right now, so he might as well be as frugal as possible.

Catching Ji Mingzhu's miserly, shabby behavior out of the corner of his eye, Ji Zhian curled his lips in scorn.

Sure enough, he had been right. Not even fine clothes could hide the air of poverty clinging to someone from a backwater. How could someone like that ever compare to him?