Chapter 675: The wife catches the mistress?
As the sound of high heels landed, an exquisite mature woman appeared before them.
The crisp, rhythmic click-clack of her heels on the polished marble floor echoed through the suddenly quiet luxury boutique, each step a hammer blow against the tense silence. She was dressed in a striking red evening gown, the fabric clinging to a figure that spoke of both power and grace. The dress was a bold statement, a banner of war in a room that had just been filled with casual shopping. Her feet were clad in simple, elegant black high heels, with no stockings to conceal the flawless, glowing skin of her calves. Her dark, lustrous hair was swept up in a sophisticated chignon, a style that left no strand out of place and served only to accentuate the perfect, delicate lines of her beautiful face and the graceful curve of her neck.
But at this moment, that pretty face was a mask of glacial fury. A pair of sharp phoenix eyes, framed by perfectly sculpted brows, gleamed with an icy, penetrating light. That gaze wasn't merely a look; it was a physical force, a spear of frigid energy that shot across the boutique and slammed directly into Shen Anyu, pinning him in place.
It was none other than Zhang Yaqian's best friend, the formidable General Manager of the Ling Group, Ling Qingcheng.
Right now, Ling Qingcheng's phoenix eyes were as cold and sharp as shards of obsidian. She stared at Shen Anyu, the man who belonged to her best friend, Zhang Yaqian, watching him not just shopping, but doing so with a dazzlingly intimate and joyful air alongside another beautiful woman. He was laughing, spending money without a care, and treating this other woman with a tenderness that should have been reserved for Yaqian alone. A raw, protective anger surged through her veins. When Yaqian had called her, her voice trembling with a mixture of confusion and hurt, Ling Qingcheng had promised she would handle it. For her, that promise was sacred. Justice for Zhang Yaqian had to be served.
Having spotted Shen Anyu and He Yiyi earlier, Ling Qingcheng had shadowed them with the silent patience of a predator. From a distance, she observed every shared glance, every soft smile, every seemingly casual touch between them. Her phone became her weapon, its lens capturing photo after photo, video after video, documenting this blatant betrayal. The evidence was damning. The way he had leaned in to whisper in the other woman's ear, the way her face had lit up—it all painted a picture of casual infidelity that made Ling Qingcheng's blood run cold.
Now, standing before them, she could no longer restrain the storm brewing within her. The banquet at the Hilton Hotel, an event of critical importance to the Ling Group, suddenly seemed trivial. Ling Qingcheng, a woman known in the business world for her sharp, ruthless pragmatism, was at her core a person of deep, unyielding loyalty. In her heart, the pain of her best friend, Zhang Yaqian, was a matter of equal, if not greater, importance than any billion-dollar deal. She stepped forward, her presence sucking the air out of the room.
"Spending a fortune to win a beauty's smile?" Ling Qingcheng's voice was low, laced with a venomous sweetness that was far more terrifying than a shout.
Shen Anyu, however, seemed utterly immune to the oppressive atmosphere. He simply looked at the furious woman before him, a slow, infuriatingly charming smile spreading across his face. "So what?"
His nonchalant reply was like a spark hitting gunpowder. Ling Qingcheng's phoenix eyes flared, the coldness within them intensifying into a murderous frost.
Beside Shen Anyu, He Yiyi was already on the verge of collapsing. A violent tremor ran through her entire body, and the blood drained from her face, leaving it a sickly, pale white. She recognized her. Oh God, she recognized the exquisite, terrifying woman in front of her. This was her boss's boss's boss's boss—the absolute apex of her corporate food chain, the General Manager of the entire Ling Group. She was Ling Qingcheng, the only female billionaire among Hangzhou's top ten wealthiest individuals, a legendary figure who controlled a trillion-dollar listed company with an iron fist.
'How could this be? Why is General Manager Ling here?' He Yiyi's mind screamed, a chaotic tempest of panic and disbelief. 'Why is she speaking to Mr. Shen with that tone? That possessiveness... that fury... It's like a legitimate wife catching her husband with a mistress! Don't tell me... could General Manager Ling be Mr. Shen's actual wife?'
The thought struck her with the force of a physical blow, and her vision swam, the brightly lit boutique blurring into a dizzying vortex of black spots. 'No... please, no. Not General Manager Ling. If she's his wife, I don't have a chance. Not even a sliver of one. It's over.' But a far more terrifying realization quickly followed, eclipsing her romantic fantasies. 'If General Manager Ling noticed me... if she sends someone to investigate me... they'll find it. They'll find the embezzlement. They'll uncover everything. I'll be sent to prison. I'll be ruined. Absolutely ruined.'
She didn't want to become a jailed He!
The female sales assistants nearby were practically vibrating with suppressed excitement. Their professional masks were slipping, revealing expressions of undisguised, eager gossip. They exchanged frantic, wide-eyed glances, their movements sharp and twitchy, like a colony of marmots stumbling upon a massive melon patch, just barely restraining themselves from chattering out loud.
Ling Qingcheng! The legendary female General Manager of the Ling Group!
In Hangzhou, her name and face were as recognizable as any A-list celebrity. In this modern era, powerful entrepreneurs and billionaires often lived their lives in the public eye, their fame sometimes eclipsing that of movie stars. Ling Qingcheng was the cream of the crop—a titan of industry, a strong woman commanding a trillion-dollar empire, and the sole female billionaire on Hangzhou's top-ten list. Her breathtaking beauty only amplified her fame, making her a household name, perhaps even more well-known than the city's richest man.
And now, here she was, storming into their store with a face like thunder and eyes that could kill. The scene was ripped straight from the script of a primetime drama: the powerful, legitimate wife catching the cheating husband red-handed. They were about to witness the annual gossip spectacle of the century. Ling Qingcheng's man had actually cheated, and he was caught in the act! If this story leaked, it would be more than just headline news; it would be an earthquake that would shake the foundations of Hangzhou's elite society.
He Yiyi trembled uncontrollably, feeling as though she might shatter under the weight of Ling Qingcheng's astonishing aura. The pressure was unbearable. Desperate, she rushed to explain, her voice a reedy, quivering mess. "General Manager Ling, you, you misunderstood! Mr. Shen and I… we're not in that kind of relationship you're imagining! It's… it's very pure! It's just that when I got off work earlier, I accidentally got into a car accident, and I… I couldn't afford to pay, so Mr. Shen asked me to be his female companion for an event, and then he bought me these clothes so I wouldn't be embarrassed…"
She was so nervous, so utterly terrified, that her explanation devolved into a panicked, incoherent ramble.
"You recognize me?" Ling Qingcheng's voice cut through her babbling, cold and sharp as a scalpel.
"Yes! I recognize you, of course I recognize you! I… I am an employee of the Ling Group!" He Yiyi's face was ashen. Before Ling Qingcheng's overwhelming presence, her mind went completely blank, and she confessed everything like a prisoner under interrogation.
"An employee of the Ling Group?" Ling Qingcheng's delicate eyebrows arched. A flicker of surprise, followed by disgust, crossed her face. To think that one of her own employees had managed to hook her claws into her best friend's man.
Ling Qingcheng's gaze on He Yiyi grew even colder, turning from frost to glacial ice. "I wasn't aware that my Ling Group employees were permitted to hook up with other people's men."
"General Manager Ling! General Manager Ling, you misunderstood, you really, really misunderstood!" He Yiyi waved her hands frantically, her eyes welling up with tears of sheer terror.
"Yiyi, don't be afraid of her."
At that moment, a large, warm hand enveloped her own cold, trembling one. A gentle, steady voice sounded right beside her ear, a calm anchor in her raging storm of panic.
Looking at the smiling Shen Anyu, He Yiyi let out a small, whimpering sound. A part of her thrilled at his touch, at his protective gesture, but how could she possibly explain this now? In front of General Manager Ling? It was over. Completely and utterly over. Barbie was docked. He Yiyi just wanted to give up, to shrink into a ball on the floor and become a tiny, insignificant quail that no one would ever notice again.
General Manager Ling would definitely send her to prison! It was over. She was going to become a jailed He!
Shen Anyu, however, showed not a single trace of panic. His handsome face was relaxed, his lips curved into that same easy smile as he leisurely looked Ling Qingcheng up and down, his gaze appreciative and bold. Just as Ling Qingcheng's face, tight with rage, was about to contort to unleash a torrent of abuse, Shen Anyu's expression shifted into one of sudden, dawning realization.
"I don't quite remember," he said, his tone thoughtful. "You're so angry… are you one of my ex-girlfriends too?"
The words Ling Qingcheng was about to scream lodged themselves in her throat. Her phoenix eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock as she stared at Shen Anyu, momentarily speechless.
He Yiyi's expression went completely blank. She was dumbfounded.
The surrounding female sales assistants were no different, their jaws hanging open as they gazed at Shen Anyu in utter disbelief. This handsome guy didn't even recognize the great General Manager Ling? And he acted as if he had so many ex-girlfriends that he couldn't keep them straight? This was… this was on another level of scandalous. This wasn't just flirting; it was a god-tier power move.
And that wasn't all.
The next moment, Shen Anyu made a move so astonishing it defied belief.
He took a single step forward, closing the distance between them in an instant. Before Ling Qingcheng could even process his proximity, his arm snaked around her waist, pulling her flush against him. He lowered his head, and in one smooth, impossibly audacious motion, he captured her ruby-red lips.
Amidst Ling Qingcheng's shocked and utterly stunned expression, with her mind still reeling from his question, Shen Anyu kissed her. Then, he lifted his head just enough to look into her wide, disbelieving eyes and said, his voice gentle and impossibly affectionate:
"In the past, I was an irresponsible bad man, but now, I have turned over a new leaf."
His thumb gently caressed her cheek as he continued, his tone filled with a sincerity that was both breathtaking and infuriating. "From now on, I will definitely take good care of you. Don't be jealous, okay?" He paused, a look of concentration on his face. "By the way, what was your name again? I promise, I'll definitely remember it from now on."
Ling Qingcheng was dumbfounded. She was completely and utterly stunned, her brain short-circuiting. For a long, silent moment, she couldn't react at all.
What was happening? What in the world was this situation?
In a single, bewildering instant, her first kiss—the one she had guarded for so long—was gone. Stolen. Looking at the man who held her in his arms, his expression one of gentle, loving remorse, Ling Qingcheng's mind finally rebooted. And when it did, a cataclysmic explosion of pure, unbridled rage erupted from the depths of her soul.
"You're dead," she hissed, her voice a low, murderous growl. "You are so dead. I will absolutely not let you off!"
A chilling, terrifying light surged within her beautiful phoenix eyes. The gaze she fixed on Shen Anyu was no longer just angry; it was a promise of annihilation.
She had never been this angry before!
Never
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