Chapter 89: Your Call

His words left her bowed head in silence for a long while.

Long enough for him to think she had fallen asleep. He reached out and lightly scratched her under the chin, as one might tease a dog.

She lifted her head. Her expression was no better than before. With a crooked smile, she changed the subject. “Your values are terrifying. So your girlfriend is a person, and everyone else isn’t? I’d like to see who would dare be friends with the two of you.”

He looked at her and said coolly, “You don’t have many friends to begin with.”

Who said she was his girlfriend?!

Having been given a verbal slight, she was just about to lose her temper when someone suddenly knocked on the car window. Looking through the tinted glass, she saw her mother.

“Shang Yucheng, I’m going home.”

The doors and windows were locked from the inside, and from the look on his face, he had no intention of unlocking them.

“Come with me tonight,” Shang Yucheng said in a tone of finality. “If you go back, that cripple won’t stay quiet.”

She knew better than he did what kind of Liang Xizhou she would face if she returned—but she still did not want to go home with him.

“Stop calling him a cripple,” Liang Jinshang warned.

Her mother was right outside the car, yet this man showed not the slightest awareness of lowering his voice. Liang Jinshang rubbed her temples. “Open the door. Can you show a little respect for my family?”

That kind of family, who neither cherished brother nor loved mother, was something only she would still treat like treasure.

Shang Yucheng did not open the door; he only rolled down the window.

“Godmother,” Liang Jinshang said.

“Jinjin, how could you push Xizhou out there too?” She had finished the housework and found Liang Xizhou missing, so she hurried out to look for him.

Instead, she had seen a luxury car.

Liang Jinshang had climbed into it herself, leaving Liang Xizhou alone by the roadside.

All this time, she had not cared about him at all.

Liang’s mother was furious, but in front of Shang Yucheng she could not flare up. She could only frown and say, “Hurry home.”

Liang Jinshang glanced at Shang Yucheng, signaling for him to let her out.

Shang Yucheng then called out, “Auntie.”

To Liang Jinshang, the word sounded grudging, likely because of what he was about to say.

“Jinjin isn’t going back. She isn’t feeling well. I’m taking her back with me to rest for a few days.”

As for whether he would send her back after those few days, or simply let her stay, a woman of experience like Liang’s mother naturally understood.

In Liang’s mother’s eyes, Shang Yucheng was Liang Jinshang’s proper boyfriend, openly acknowledged by all. Especially after his last visit, he had frankly admitted just how far the relationship had progressed.

If Liang Jinshang were her own daughter, she would never approve of her being with such an arrogant man. But she was not.

Then, from a practical standpoint, someone like Shang Yucheng could bring far more benefit to the Liang family than a son-in-law who only knew how to flatter and fawn.

Liang’s mother tacitly accepted Shang Yucheng’s decision, but she still felt sorry for her son, and could not help complaining to Liang Jinshang, “If you’re not going home, you should at least have taken Xizhou back first. It’s so cold at night—how could you leave him out in the wind for so long?”

The way she spoke of Liang Xizhou, that restless and clingy shadow, made him sound like the victim. Shang Yucheng’s face turned cold. He was just about to speak when Liang Jinshang quickly covered his mouth.

“I’m sorry, Godmother. I’ll push Brother Xizhou back for you.”

“No need!” Liang’s mother was not so dense that she could not read Shang Yucheng’s expression. With a long face, she went to push Liang Xizhou herself and left.

Liang Jinshang’s palm was still brushed by the man’s warm breath when he left; as soon as he was gone, she withdrew her hand quickly. “Shang Yucheng, could you not—”

“Be kinder to your family,” he finished for her, neither cold nor warm.

Starting the car, he arched a brow at her. “Liang Jinshang, could you not be kinder to yourself?”

“No.” Her face was wooden. “Let me out.”

“Your adoptive mother knows you’ve gone with me. If you get out now and something happens, I’ll be held jointly responsible.”

Could he not hope a little better for her?

Liang Jinshang knew that once Shang Yucheng made up his mind, it was rare to change it.

She decided not to speak to him anymore. If he planned to do anything to her later, she would at least save some strength to resist.

They drove the whole way in silence, all the way back to Cloudwater Residence.

As soon as the door opened, the lights were bright, everything was spotless, and the temperature and humidity were perfectly controlled.

The hourly cleaner had come early to tidy up. Every corner was far more comfortable than the tiny room in Mianan Alley.

Liang Jinshang remained silent, making her stance clear as she walked toward the guest room.

But Shang Yucheng stopped her with an arm and lifted his chin toward the master bedroom. “That way.”

Liang Jinshang looked at him quietly, too weary even to denounce his obvious intentions.

But his expression of “just as I expected” was infuriatingly smug, and however one looked at it, it was far from pleasant.

Of course, since Liang Jinshang was already deeply disappointed and displeased herself, there was no need to spare a thought for his feelings.

Shang Yucheng pretended not to see her expression. “Your clothes are all in the wardrobe room over there. Go get them now, so you don’t disturb my sleep later.”

Her sarcasm turned into disbelief.

He gave a derisive laugh and lifted her chin. “I said I was going to take you to bed, not marry you.”

His gaze swept around the bandage on her forehead. “And Miss Liang, please have some self-awareness about your own appearance. Don’t indulge in any unnecessary fantasies about me.”

“…”

If her phone had not happened to ring at that very moment, Liang Jinshang could not have guaranteed what she might have said.

The caller was Chao Jingyu.

Liang Xizhou had sneered that Chao Jingyu, once he saw what kind of person Liang Jinshang really was, had run away. In truth, Liang Jinshang knew he was not that kind of person. But if he wanted to distance himself from her, she would understand.

Seeing him call so soon, something stirred in her heart, and she was just about to answer when Shang Yucheng, taking advantage of his longer reach, snatched the phone away.

“What are you doing?”

He leaned in very close. At such a distance, that handsome, sharply defined face was all the more overwhelming.

“Liang Jinshang, during this period, I can keep a distance that makes you comfortable,” Shang Yucheng said, shaking her phone slightly. “But you’d better be sensible too.”

She stretched out her arm to take it back, but failed.

“What right do you have to interfere in who I befriend?”

“On the basis of our current relationship.”

“What relationship do I have with you?” Liang Jinshang would not back down. “Is this something you alone get to decide?”

“It isn’t for me alone to decide.” He stepped closer, so close they were nearly touching face to face, his expression wickedly, excessively provocative. “It’s for you to decide, as you say.”

His hand rested on the pocket where Liang Jinshang had put the letter. Her top had no pockets, so she had tucked it into the back pocket of her jeans.

And he pressed there with utter naturalness, applying more force.

“What kind of relationship is it, exactly, that would allow you, in broad daylight, to divide up my assets as though they were your own inheritance? Do I really need to spell it out for you?”

His words, his actions, his expression, and the distance between them were all far too aggressive.

To hell with the “comfortable distance” he had promised.

Her pulse was driven into frantic acceleration by his domineering, rampant heat. Just as she was about to turn her face away, there was no escape; he sealed her lips in a hard kiss.