CHAPTER 121: CHAPTER 121; GETTING REVENGE FOR HER (B)

"Miss Shuyin, did you know about this?"

Lu Zeyan stood frozen at the podium, his mind racing to find some explanation, some way to salvage this, but there was nothing. The evidence was right there on the screen, undeniable and damning.

Beside him, Shuyin had gone very still, her hand slipping from his, her jade eyes fixed on the image of her pregnant sister with an expression that was impossible to read. This person seemed to be trying to ruin her plans.

Who was this? Who was this trailing on her back?

Wang Jing’s voice came through his earpiece, frantic and sharp: "Abort! Get off that stage now! We need to regroup!"

But before Lu Zeyan could move, before he could even process what was happening, Shuyin turned to look at him. And the expression on her face wasn’t shock or betrayal or hurt, it was something else entirely. Something that looked almost like satisfaction, like a chess player watching their opponent finally realize they’d been in checkmate for the last five moves.

"Well," she said softly, her voice somehow carrying despite not using the microphone, "I suppose the truth has a way of coming out after all. Things just got out of hand.."

And in that moment, Lu Zeyan understood with crystalline clarity that he’d been played from the very beginning.

That every concession, every agreement, every moment of believing he was controlling the narrative had been exactly what Shuyin wanted.

The press conference hadn’t been about salvaging his reputation, it had been about building him up just high enough that the fall would be absolutely devastating when this bomb finally dropped.

She’d known. She’d known about the photo, about the timing, about everything. And she’d walked him right into this trap with his eyes wide open.

Across the city, in the living room of his mansion with floor-to-ceiling windows, Lu Yuze sat on his couch watching the livestream on his tablet while his daughter Yuyan lay there closely watching TV.

He’d been following the press conference with increasing irritation after knowing Lu Zeyan was engaged to Shuyin, watching Lu Zeyan and Shuyin stand together at that podium, their hands intertwined, talking about rebuilding their relationship and moving forward together irritated him.

The sight had made something cold and possessive tighten in his chest. They looked happy. Hopeful. Like two people who’d weathered a terrible storm and were ready to build something new from the wreckage.

Lu Zeyan was looking at Shuyin the way a man looks at a woman he loves, and Shuyin was responding with what appeared to be genuine warmth and affection, her jade eyes soft when they met his.

Lu Yuze’s hands had clenched around the tablet hard enough that the case creaked under the pressure.

They were planning to get back together. To remarry, probably, given enough time.

To resume the life they’d planned before everything had fallen apart.

He couldn’t allow it.

Shuyin was his legally lawful wife, bound to him by a marriage certificate that she had willingly signed, which was valid and binding under the law.

She belonged to him, whether she acknowledged it yet or not. Whether she even knew it yet or not. And he’d be damned if he’d let his useless younger nephew reclaim what Lu Yuze had secured for himself.

Then the photograph had appeared on the screen, and Lu Yuze had felt a savage satisfaction bloom in his chest as he watched the press conference descend into chaos.

Was he thriving in this? He didn’t care! So long as they didn’t have a chance to get back together.

The image of Lin Yueling’s pregnant belly, accompanied by Lu Zeyan, was perfect, incontrovertible proof that Lu Zeyan had been lying about everything, that his supposed investigation and noble attempt to right wrongs were built on a foundation of ongoing betrayal and deception.

"Daddy, what’s wrong?" Yuyan asked, looking up to his face with concern, her small face scrunched in confusion at whatever expression she’d seen on his face.

Lu Yuze forced his features into something resembling calm, though inside he felt like a predator that had just spotted wounded prey. "Nothing, darling. Daddy just remembered something important he needs to do."

On the screen, Shuyin had turned to face Lu Zeyan with an expression that Lu Yuze recognized because he’d seen it, the look of someone who’d been planning something and was finally watching it come to fruition.

She’d orchestrated this, he realized with a mixture of admiration and concern. And probably him posting the evidence and pictures was a way of assisting.

Wang Jing’s voice came through his earpiece, sharp and trembling in a way that erased every trace of her usual control. "Zeyan, do not speak. Do NOT speak. Step back. Step away from the mic. NOW."

But it was already too late.

The room had transformed into something feral and hungry, and he stood at the center of it completely exposed.

Shuyin’s fingers slid from his hand without resistance, just a smooth withdrawal that left his palm empty and cold.

She didn’t move beyond that initial separation, didn’t gasp or cry out or lash at him with words. She simply stared at the massive screen behind them, those jade eyes fixed on the image of her pregnant sister.

For the first time since stepping onto the stage, she looked genuinely shocked. Not the calculated vulnerability she’d been performing, not the carefully crafted pain designed for maximum sympathy.

Just raw surprise, as though she’d expected almost anything except this particular revelation at this particular moment and hour when she was thinking of using her relationship to milk him dry.

’Who was this sabotaging her? Couldn’t these paparazzi wait?’

The crowd surged forward, reporters no longer maintaining even the pretense of professional distance.

"Mr. Lu, is the child yours?" someone shouted, and the question opened the floodgates.

"Was the entire press conference a lie?"

"Did you use Shuyin’s wrongful conviction to hide the affair?"

"Miss Shuyin, were you manipulated into forgiving him?"

"Does this mean you’re no longer engaged?"