So well-behaved

Xu Shi was very light. His bottom settled on the Alpha's thighs, and through the thin fabric of his suit trousers, the searing heat of their bodies was impossible to ignore.

Xie Yanci held his slender waist with one arm, his warm fingertips gently stroking it.

He let Xu Shi sit in his lap openly like this, showing no intention of letting go.

"I want to play too," Xu Shi said coaxingly, leaning against his chest.

His alluring eyes, curved at the inner corners and lifted at the outer corners, swept lazily over the three people opposite them before his provocative, smug gaze finally settled on Shen Che.

Shen Che: "..."

As the young master of the Shen family, there was absolutely no way he would play along with a Beta!

"Go ahead." Xie Yanci agreed without hesitation.

He also signaled Shen Che with a look. "Shuffle the tiles."

Shen Che: "..."

A besotted tyrant!

If anyone ever called Xie Yanci aloof and restrained again, he would fight them!

Xu Shi felt great.

He secretly flipped off Shen Che, who had bad-mouthed him.

His husband was President Xie, whose word was law in the business world. So what if he had a nasty personality?

Xu Shi did not actually know how to play mahjong. He did not even know how to draw tiles.

Xie Yanci became his tile-drawing attendant beside him, presenting him with a tile that would complete a self-drawn win. "Do you want this one?"

"No."

"All right."

Without expression, Xie Yanci discarded the winning tile.

"I won!" Song Zhixing finally won his first round of the evening.

He placed his winnings in front of Xie Yanci and showed them off at length.

Xie Yanci gave a cold laugh.

It was just a little money. He did not care.

His long fingers gently squeezed the Beta's slender waist in his arms, and his high nose kept brushing inadvertently against the Beta's hair.

Xu Shi smelled so good.

An hour passed, and Xu Shi had lost every chip Xie Yanci had won, along with his original stake.

Unhappy, Xu Shi burrowed deeper into the Alpha's arms. "I lost it all. I still want to play."

Xie Yanci nodded slowly and signaled the attendant outside the door with a look. "Bring another three boxes."

Song Zhixing: "?"

Shen Che: "?"

How much?

They played for high stakes: one million per chip, over ten million per box.

They knew President Xie was rich, but they had not expected him to be rich enough to spend thirty million playing mahjong with his wife.

Shen Che said, "My dad only gives me ten million a month in pocket money."

Song Zhixing said, "If I dared lose thirty million making a movie, my dad would kill me."

At that, Xu Shi pretended to be frightened and leaned closer into Xie Yanci's arms, deliberately asking, "Daddy, if I lose it all, will you be angry?"

Xie Yanci lowered his eyes, a few quiet chuckles slipping past his thin lips. "You can lose as much as you want."

Song Zhixing: "..."

Shen Che: "..."

The two exchanged a glance, at a complete loss for words.

Song Zhixing shook his head. Xie Yanci really was beyond saving, utterly bewitched by this little lover of his.

Luckily, he was the one winning money today.

They played for another few hours, and once Xu Shi had lost all the money, he began to grow sleepy.

"I want to go home." He reached up and tugged Xie Yanci's tie, yawning as tears welled in his eyes.

"All right." Xie Yanci rose unhurriedly. "We'll head out first. Let's get together again next time."

With that, he signaled Secretary Zhou to settle the bill and left with Xu Shi in his arms.

The corridor was brightly lit, and a slightly chilly autumn breeze blew in through the windows.

As soon as the private room's door closed, Xu Shi jumped out of Xie Yanci's arms and instantly put distance between them.

It was as though he had not been the one flirting and acting coy in front of everyone just now.

Xie Yanci watched Xu Shi's haste to distance himself from him coldly, a chilly laugh escaping his thin lips.

His wife was such a good actor.

All that vulnerability and coyness just now had actually been an act.

The elevator was quiet. Xie Yanci spoke coldly. "Why did you suddenly come looking for me?"

Xu Shi rubbed his waist, sore from being squeezed, his voice languid. "You're allowed to catch me cheating, but I'm not allowed to make a surprise check on you?"

As he spoke, Xu Shi yawned. "You got lucky. I really acted so well-behaved today."

He had acted coy and vulnerable, and even let someone hold him for so long for nothing.

Xie Yanci lowered his eyes and chuckled, nodding slowly. "Mm. Very well-behaved."

He made no mention at all of the forty million that had been lost.

His wife had taken the initiative to come looking for him. That alone was already doing him a great favor.

Heavy rain fell that night, and the car moved slowly through downtown Hong Kong City.

Xu Shi took off his suit jacket, exposing a slender, fair wrist, and held his right hand out to Xie Yanci.

"You have my bracelet, right? Put it on for me."

Xie Yanci's Adam's apple bobbed, and he slowly murmured, "Mm."

He fished the delicate silver bracelet out of his pocket. His warm fingertips rested on the Beta's fair wrist as he carefully fastened the toggle clasp.

"Let me ask you something."

Xu Shi suddenly leaned close to Xie Yanci, blinking eyes full of anticipation. "If someone deliberately lost to you while playing mahjong, would you have a good impression of him?"

Xie Yanci raised an eyebrow.

He had wondered how Xu Shi could fail to recognize even the most basic tile combinations. So he had been losing on purpose.

Losing to Song Zhixing on purpose.

He reached out and pushed the Beta's alluring face a little farther away, saying evenly, "Rather than putting in all this wasted effort, you might as well tell Song Zhixing outright that you're my wife."

"Being Mrs. Xie works better than any amount of flattery."

Xu Shi frowned.

He knew Xie Yanci was telling the truth, but he simply could not stand that insufferably arrogant look of his.

"I won't!"

Don't even think about getting me to acknowledge you.

You can spend your whole life being a scumbag in your friends' eyes!

Xie Yanci raised an eyebrow.

His scheme had been exposed. It seemed Xu Shi was not as stupid as he had imagined.

The car was very quiet. The driver was so skilled that they could not feel a single bump.

Xu Shi sprawled against Xie Yanci to sleep, restlessly rubbing wrinkles into the Alpha's meticulously arranged shirt.

"Ding-"

A phone suddenly rang.

Xu Shi reached for it but could not reach, so he elbowed Xie Yanci. "Hubby~"

Xie Yanci did not want to spoil him like this, but that "hubby" was simply far too sweet and petulant.

Xie Yanci sighed and reached for the phone lying beside them.

He answered and put it on speaker.

"Bro, we really got cursed onto the trending list!" Xiao Chi's miserable voice came through.

"I turned on one-click protection for your Weibo. The company said bad publicity is still publicity and told us to bear with it."

"Boohoo..."

Xu Shi: "?"

Who dares bully President Xie's wife!

Hubby, kill every last one of them for me!

Xie Yanci: "?"

Xu Shi's inner voice surged with passion, but in reality, he was already panicking so badly he could barely hold his phone steady.

"I-I'll take a look..." His voice trembled a little.

It was probably about walking the red carpet with Wen Yu.

He had known that a vicious cannon-fodder character like him could never try to ride the protagonist's coattails.

Xie Yanci paid no attention to these trending topics. Lowering his eyes, he glanced at the lengthy denunciations flashing across Xu Shi's phone, his dark eyes narrowing slightly.

He took the initiative to extend an olive branch to Xu Shi. "I can help you."