Taken hostage

"It's not cold. Plenty of people outside are still wearing short sleeves." Shi Yuan didn't dare fidget anymore, but having Wei Zelin's arm around him made him a little uncomfortable.

Wei Zelin noticed and slowly lowered his arm. His warm palm brushed down Shi Yuan's back, making him jolt and straighten up. By the time he recovered, his ears were red.

It wasn't that he had any feelings for the man. He had simply never dated anyone, so close contact with a handsome man made him instinctively shy.

"President Shen, it's about time. Let's head back to the Wei Corporation."

Wei Zelin stepped forward, rescuing three people from their awkwardness with a single sentence.

"Rose, I..."

You Gui turned her head away as Shen Duo spoke.

"I'll... come see you another time."

Even Shi Yuan could hear the helplessness and dejection in Shen Duo's voice.

The atmosphere in the underground parking garage was nowhere near as harmonious as it had been in the hospital room.

"Things don't seem to be going your way in love, President Shen. Need a hand?"

Wei Zelin and Shen Duo each headed toward their cars in the hospital parking garage.

Shen Duo's gaze instantly sharpened at Wei Zelin's words. "Don't get any ideas about Rose. You wouldn't want me telling the Wei Family what you're plotting, either."

Wei Zelin chuckled. "Tell them whenever you like, President Shen. Announce it to the whole world, if you want. See whether anyone believes you-the Wei Family's useless bastard son..."

Neither man was a fool. Shen Duo's words had been a warning to Wei Zelin, making clear just how much You Gui mattered to him.

Wei Zelin understood Shen Duo’s meaning, too. Though their personalities clashed, neither would lightly make an enemy of the other. They acted overbearing on the surface, but in reality, each had taken a step back.

Wei Zelin had told Shi Yuan that he had business with President Shen, but after exchanging a few barbed remarks, the two men drove off separately.

Wei Zelin's car had just passed an intersection outside the hospital when the phone in his center console rang. It was a pure black phone that looked expensive, nothing like the one he normally used.

He answered and listened briefly before saying calmly, "I know he's at the hospital. What else?"

"Wei Zexuan went there too?"

Wei Zelin was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected Wei Zexuan to move so quickly. Still, Shen Duo hadn't made the slightest attempt to conceal his feelings for You Gui. Anyone could see them. Even without a push from him, Wei Zexuan would have acted sooner or later. It was only a matter of time.

"Mm. No need to notify him."

"Yes, that's right. Let Wei Zexuan know he's helping You Gui."

He hung up, his expression icy, as though he were a completely different person from the man who had draped an arm around Shi Yuan at the hospital.

Once Shi Yuan was sure Wei Zelin and Shen Duo had disappeared down the corridor, he closed the door and approached the dispirited You Gui. Time was short. He had already been there a while, and it was now five in the afternoon. If he delayed much longer, it would be dark.

He had no time to tiptoe around You Gui's feelings. Sitting on the stool beside her bed, he said gravely, "You Gui, you're being discharged tomorrow afternoon. There are some things on my mind that I think I should tell you face-to-face."

You Gui already had plenty of suspicions about Shi Yuan. At his words, she asked nervously, "What do you want to tell me?"

"Quit your job," Shi Yuan said. "Don't spend another day working at the Wei Corporation."

"Why? It wasn't easy getting hired by the Wei Corporation after graduation. My coworkers are difficult to get along with, but the pay and benefits are excellent." You Gui didn't understand.

Shi Yuan got straight to the point. "Wei Zexuan is pursuing President Shen."

"What?" You Gui exclaimed in shock.

Most of the people around her were heterosexual, and Wei Zexuan rarely came to their department to assign work in person. Usually, his assistant or a supervisor passed on his instructions. You Gui had only seen Wei Zexuan a handful of times, and even her gossip-loving coworkers didn't dare spread rumors about their boss, so she genuinely knew nothing about it. In the original novel, she hadn't even known that the growing hostility and schemes against her at the Wei Corporation were because she stood in the way of Wei Zexuan's pursuit. Later, when she finally learned that all her suffering had stemmed from her entanglement with Shen Duo, she became even more unwilling to accept his love. The harder Shen Duo pursued her, the more she suffered.

Although You Gui currently had few friends at the Wei Corporation, she was getting by well enough. She also still harbored a trace of affection for Shen Duo, whom she had liked in college. Learning that Wei Zexuan liked him left her heart sour and aching.

"Their family backgrounds match. They'd make a good couple."

Shi Yuan really wanted to tell her, But you're the one Shen Duo likes! He's waited for you all these years. Does he care about your family background? He's so capable-do you think he needs a wife to make his fortune? But he knew he couldn't say that to You Gui. She was like a snail's feelers: touch them even lightly, and she would immediately withdraw.

"I heard from Brother Lin that President Shen seems to have a pretty clean love life. Wei Zexuan has been pursuing him, but he's already turned him down outright."

Shi Yuan began making things up. Wei Zelin was one of the few people at the company who had shown You Gui kindness, and he was also Wei Zexuan's older brother. Invoking his name worked remarkably well. At least, You Gui believed him.

"Really?" she murmured. "Someone as wonderful as him..."

"Exactly," Shi Yuan hurriedly said. "President Shen is handsome, young, and rich. He must have plenty of admirers. The socialites and young gentlemen in Capital City have no shortage of looks or family connections, but none of them interest him. If you ask me, he must already have someone in his heart."

You Gui blushed. She had dated Shen Duo before, and she wasn't oblivious. She could tell that he still liked her. But their breakup had been ugly, and she didn't want to get entangled with him again. If she didn't love, she wouldn't get hurt. At that thought, the heart that had thawed just a little froze over again.

Shi Yuan sighed. Sure enough, the bottom protagonist had retreated into her shell again. He could only abandon his attempts at persuasion and return to the real issue.

"You Gui, you know who Wei Zexuan is. He's a son of the Wei Family, a young master of Capital City. There's nothing he wants that he can't get. He likes President Shen, but President Shen won't reciprocate, so he'll try anything. President Shen stood up for you last time, and you're so... handsome!"

Shi Yuan swallowed the word "beautiful" before it could slip out. He knew You Gui didn't like people commenting on her appearance. He could have kept the truth from her and made up some excuse to get her to guard against Wei Zexuan. That way, she wouldn't take it out on Shen Duo. But even if he deceived her now, a lie was still a lie. One day, You Gui would find out, and perhaps it would be even more humiliating then.

You Gui touched her face. She knew how much trouble it had brought her. Good-looking people were always favored, but when someone was excessively beautiful and came from an utterly awful family, that face became an original sin.

As a child, she had been molested by her aunt's husband. When she told her parents, the entire family condemned her for speaking out and ruining her aunt's happy home. That was when she learned that some things were simply hers to endure.

You Gui wasn't stupid. She immediately understood what Shi Yuan meant, especially since the incident a few days earlier had happened at the Wei Family's reception, following Wei Zexuan's inexplicable invitation.

"Just because Shen Duo likes me, and because I have this face?" she asked sorrowfully. "I barely ever interact with that young master. I've never had any conflict with him. Is that enough for him to send people to ruin me?"

"No."

Shi Yuan had bottled up far too much in the Wei Family. He had already wanted to explode at the dining table in the Flower House last time. "It has nothing to do with you, or with President Shen. Wei Zexuan is just sick in the head, and so is his mother. Insanity runs in their family!"

Bang!

Someone kicked the hospital room door open. Wei Zexuan strode in, his face livid, with a flippant-looking Blondie and seven or eight burly bodyguards in black behind him.

"Shi Yuan, I was going to let you run around for a few more days. I didn't expect you to go looking for death!"

At heart, Shi Yuan was only a sheltered flower raised in a greenhouse. The sinister undercurrents and unpredictable corporate battles in those novels were beyond his understanding-and perhaps even their authors understood them only vaguely. After transmigrating, he had gone from an obedient lackey who attacked wherever he was pointed to a disobedient homebody. Wei Zexuan had been somewhat angry, but because the Shi Family was still of some use, he hadn't dealt with Shi Yuan.

As a result, in Shi Yuan's mind, the novel's arrogant, vicious villain was merely a rude, nasty person who bullied Wei Zelin and You Gui. Throughout his life, he had encountered ill-intentioned relatives and despicable roommates. They were all bad people, but they weren't like Wei Zexuan.

For the first time, Shi Yuan felt afraid. Surrounded by bodyguards, he tried to rise from his chair, but Blondie shoved him back down.

"What are you trying to do?" Shi Yuan's heart pounded wildly. He was panicking.

Wei Zexuan slowly approached him.

"What am I trying to do?"

He kicked Shi Yuan in the chest. His gleaming black leather shoe struck with the brutal force of a grown man, knocking Shi Yuan from his chair to the floor. Shi Yuan clutched his chest and cried out in pain.

"Ugh..."

"Shi Yuan, are you okay?" You Gui asked anxiously.

The words had barely left her mouth when two bodyguards seized her arms, one on either side. Wei Zexuan planted his left foot on the hospital bed, leaving a footprint on the snow-white sheet, and extended his right hand toward Blondie beside him.

Blondie ingratiatingly produced a pair of white gloves and respectfully put them on Wei Zexuan's hands.

With his gloved right hand, Wei Zexuan idly slapped You Gui's cheek.

"You Gui? Don't worry. I won't do anything to you. If anything happened to you, our President Shen would come after me.

"But people ought to know their place. You're trash from the slums. You think you're worthy of competing with me for him?"

Wei Zexuan's slaps weren't hard enough to leave even a red mark, but the humiliation was unmistakable. For someone as proud as You Gui, it was even harder to bear than a beating!

You Gui glared at Wei Zexuan, frightened and furious. "President Wei, what is the meaning of this?"

Her body was weak. Even in her shock and fury, her words were all bluster, with no strength behind them.

Wei Zexuan gave a contemptuous sneer. "So this is all you amount to."

He lowered his hands behind his back, casually stripped off the gloves, and tossed them to the floor.

"Take him away."

He hadn't specified whom he meant, but at his order, the bodyguards immediately hauled Shi Yuan up from the floor.

With reddened eyes, You Gui shifted her gaze from the snow-white gloves on the floor to the restrained Shi Yuan. She struggled to get up, but the bodyguards immediately pinned her frail body down. "Don't take him! This has nothing to do with him!"

Wei Zexuan scoffed. Without so much as another glance at her, he left with the bodyguards holding Shi Yuan captive. Only when their footsteps had faded into the distance did the two bodyguards restraining You Gui release her and walk out.

You Gui hurried out of bed and chased them barefoot to the doorway, but Wei Zexuan and his men were already nowhere to be seen.