"I'm your own niece!" Yu He tried to keep her expression neutral.
"No, you're not. You are the Ye family's daughter."
Qin Beiting denied it, holding her tighter.
Yu He's damp eyelashes fluttered. "You watched me grow up, like my own niece. You wouldn't be this beastly, would you?"
Qin Beiting looked at the girl in his arms, her posture tense, wanting to resist yet afraid to move. She was more alive than her usual aloof, unapproachable demeanor.
He placed Yu He on the sofa, his long hands on either side of her on the backrest and seat cushion, trapping her between his arms.
"You didn't before, but now that you've grown up, and we don't actually have any blood relation, my feelings are different..."
His eyes softened, his lips curved upwards, and he slowly leaned close to Yu He's ear, "Especially since you're my savior..."
The man's gentle, magnetic voice was so pleasant it could make one's ears swoon.
The warm breath he exhaled on her ear caused Yu He's heart to skip a beat, and her body involuntarily trembled.
This feeling of nervousness was subtle. She seemed to be anticipating something in her heart, yet fearing something might happen.
"Coincidentally, I can't stay in the Qin family anymore. How about I become a live-in son-in-law to the Ye family?" Qin Beiting stared at her intently.
If anyone else were present, hearing Qin Beiting, who held shares second only to the Qin family patriarch, utter such audacious words would likely leave them dumbfounded.
Yu He immediately pushed him away.
She didn't understand why Qin Beiting was provoking her like this, when their identities and relationship made it impossible.
But the disparity in male and female strength meant her hands, pressed against Qin Beiting's chest, couldn't push him away completely.
Qin Beiting lowered his head, their foreheads touching. "Agree to it, or kiss me. Choose one, and I'll let you go."
"This is clearly not a choice!" Yu He said, slightly annoyed.
"So clever!" Qin Beiting, seeing she was about to get angry, stopped teasing her. He chuckled softly and then said, "In the future, don't do things like that, which harm yourself as much as the enemy."
Yu He: "..."
So, he actually knew what happened tonight and waited for her at the door on purpose?
Qin Beiting handed her a clean set of clothes and then, like a gentleman, turned and left.
Yu He inexplicably felt like she'd been teased and then discarded.
It was rather irritating...
As she changed and dried her hair, she vaguely heard Qin Beiting's voice on the phone outside the suite.
He deliberately lowered his voice, "Take over the Ye family..."
...
When Qin Beiting returned, his expression was unchanged, holding a cup of brown sugar ginger tea.
After drinking the tea, Yu He's complexion finally regained some color.
"You don't need to worry about the Ye family's affairs," Yu He said.
Qin Beiting subtly glanced at her, surprised that she had overheard what he said outside the suite.
"I would like to, but I'm just a powerless illegitimate son of the Qin family," he chuckled, not admitting anything.
Yu He: "..."
After washing up, Yu He used the excuse of going to sleep to ask Qin Beiting to leave.
Qin Beiting tucked her in, and as he left, his hand reached for the light switch. With a "click," he turned off the light.
Yu He, who had just lain down, sat up immediately. "Don't turn off the light!"
Her voice trembled uncontrollably.
Qin Beiting turned the light back on and saw the girl on the bed, her face pale, her hands clutching the blanket tightly.
When did she start being afraid of the dark?
"Are you alright?"
He stepped forward, but before he could touch her, he was stopped. "Don't touch me!"
Yu He looked up, her peach blossom eyes red, a lingering fear in her gaze.
After she clearly saw the man's face, she came to her senses, covered her face with her hands, and took a deep breath.
"...I'm fine. You can go now."
Qin Beiting looked at her fragile state, his heart aching faintly. What had you gone through all these years?
"Alright, I'll be in the living room. Call me if you need anything."
He let his hand, which was hanging in mid-air, drop. The moment he turned away, the gentle light in his phoenix eyes vanished, replaced by a cold gaze.
The room door closed, separating the room from the living room.
Inside the room.
After taking a deep breath, Yu He regained her composure. Her exquisite face regained its usual cool, distant demeanor.
Tonight's ordeal was all Ye Zisu's doing.
She could overlook being the Ye family's daughter, ignore the Ye family's double standards, and disregard Ye Zisu's repeated provocations.
But this time, Ye Zisu had crossed her bottom line.
Want to play?
Then she would play with her and see if she could afford it!
Yu He got out of bed, opened her laptop, and took out a mini USB drive from her phone case, plugging it into the computer.
Her slender fingers flew across the keyboard, lines of code flashing on the screen.
In the living room.
Qin Beiting sat on the sofa, a laptop on his lap, his long, well-defined fingers typing rapidly on the keyboard.
His face was cold, his narrow phoenix eyes fixed on the code flashing on the screen, his gaze so icy it lowered the surrounding temperature by two degrees.
—
The next day.
The first thing Ye Zisu did upon waking was check the news from last night.
She was shocked by what she saw.
The top trending news: Gu Ze won second place in the Chopin International Piano Competition.
Second: Gu Ze's fiancée is cheating.
The scandal exposed last night had not only not been removed but had been amplified by the media in conjunction with Gu Ze's award.
After a night of fermentation, netizens had already dug up her past scandals from the school forum.
Now, it would be difficult for the Gu family not to know about last night's events!
"Xiao Chen, why hasn't last night's news been removed yet?"
Ye Zisu immediately called Ye Jianming's assistant, Xiao Chen.
"Miss, I had people try to delete it last night, but they couldn't! I even specifically found the top-ranked hacker in Beishi to delete it, but they wouldn't take the job."
Xiao Chen hesitated and then cautiously asked, "Miss, have you offended someone? People in the hacking community say they dare not take your task, for fear of offending 'Crow'."
"What is 'Crow'?" Ye Zisu asked.
"'Crow' is a hacker alias, an apprentice of the international top hacker leader 'S'. They are recognized as a big shot in the domestic hacking world. But we don't know who 'Crow' is," Xiao Chen explained.
Xiao Chen didn't know, and Ye Zisu knew even less.
She didn't even know who 'Crow' was, so how could she have offended someone?
But last night, the person who most wanted to see her humiliated must have been Yu He!
So it had to be Yu He who hired someone to prank her!
She had really underestimated that little slut.
"I've already had the lawyer issue a clarification announcement. This kind of entertainment gossip updates very quickly, so you don't need to worry about it anymore. Once the next news comes out, the hot search will be replaced," Xiao Chen advised.
As the person involved in the scandal, Ye Zisu was naturally not as optimistic as Xiao Chen.
Even if a clarification announcement was issued, it would be useless. The longer this hot search stayed up, the more the Gu family would believe it!
She couldn't just wait for death! She had to quickly find new gossip to replace it!
And the best candidate for this gossip was Yu He.
She had used the strongest drug in that glass of juice, precisely to prevent Yu He from escaping.
Even if she managed to escape, Yu He would definitely need a man to counteract the effects of the antidote!
Thinking this, Ye Zisu immediately headed to the Di Sheng Hotel to check the surveillance footage.