Volume One, Chapter Six: Teaching the Second Brother a Lesson

Shen Hanchuan was also enraged. He swung his fist in retaliation, aiming straight for Jin Yao’s lower abdomen!

Dare to fight back?

Jin Yao grew even more furious!

The two of them immediately scuffled together, twisting and grappling like braided rope.

Twisting and twisting, soon both ended up with bruised faces and swollen noses, looking as though they’d been stung by hornets—both ridiculous and wretched.

Jiang Yao, realizing belatedly what was happening, screamed as she tried to separate them, covering her face in helpless tears. “Jin Yao, Brother Hanchuan, please… please stop fighting…”

She stomped her feet anxiously.

Her eyes brimmed with tears.

Leaning against the doorframe, Shen Chaowu watched Jin Yao and Shen Hanchuan brawl, her eyes as clear as glass, utterly devoid of emotion.

Both of them had been indifferent to her death in her previous life.

One was her own brother, the other her fiancé.

“Sister Chao, please make them stop… If they keep fighting someone will die!” Jiang Yao pleaded through her tears, her face ashen.

Shen Chaowu lowered her gaze to the tears on the girl’s face, her slender, elegant fingers curling as she gently wiped the moisture from the corner of Jiang Yao’s eye, the corners of her lips curving in a gentle smile. “Miss Jiang, no one will die.”

This was nothing yet.

Looking at the girl’s striking, almost androgynous beauty, Jiang Yao couldn’t help but shudder.

She instinctively took a step back, her body trembling, lips quivering, “You, you—?”

But Shen Chaowu merely raised a pale forefinger, bringing it slowly to her red lips, gesturing for silence. “Let’s not wake my brother from his rest.”

She had gone to some lengths to get her eldest brother to sleep.

Unsurprisingly, the commotion downstairs disturbed Shen Yanzhou, who had been resting on the third floor.

Rubbing his temples with a headache, Shen Yanzhou sighed.

He had suffered from insomnia for years, compounded recently by migraines; a good night’s sleep was a rare luxury. At first, he could manage with sleeping pills. Now, even a whole bottle brought him no rest.

The sleepless are irritable by nature, and Shen Yanzhou was hardly a man of gentle temperament. A dark, heavy anger flickered in his eyes, his lips pressed into a thin, unyielding line.

They’re courting death.

He switched on the light and went downstairs.

The dark silk pajamas did nothing to diminish the man’s imposing presence; if anything, they lent him a chilling, unearthly menace.

Bang!

Crash!

With a kick each, he sent the two men flying to opposite ends of the room.

Shen Yanzhou hadn’t expected that one of the brawlers would be Jin Yao, usually so steady and reliable.

Weren’t Jin Yao and Shen Hanchuan sworn brothers?

What on earth was this about?

Shen Yanzhou rubbed his brow, his voice cold and deep. “What’s all this shouting?”

“Ask him!”

“Ask this bastard!”

The two spoke in unison, glaring at each other with undisguised malice, as if they would tear each other apart.

Naturally, Shen Yanzhou would not make things difficult for Jin Yao. “Hanchuan, you explain.”

Shen Hanchuan’s handsome face was a patchwork of bruises. He wiped the blood from his nose, fury simmering. “This lunatic barged in and started beating me up, like some sort of super-macho!”

He had a piano performance tomorrow!

How was he supposed to show his face now?

He was half-tempted to kill Jin Yao!

Shen Yanzhou glanced expressionlessly at Jin Yao. On one side was his own blood brother, on the other a business partner. Of course, he would side with Shen Hanchuan. “What did Hanchuan do wrong to deserve a late-night tantrum from you, President Jin?”

“Heh.” Jin the Super-Macho was livid. For the first time, he found the Shen family utterly detestable. His voice was cold as he spat out, “Domestic abuser.”

Shen Hanchuan, the so-called abuser: “…”

Jin Yao had been provoked by Shen Chaowu’s pitiful demeanor.

Now, with reason returning, he said impassively, “Chaowu may be a member of your family, but she is also the future matriarch of mine—my fiancée. If someone lays a hand on Jin Yao, shouldn’t they ask my opinion first?”

Shen Chaowu’s face remained indifferent.

Jiang Yao, however, looked stricken, tears streaming from her eyes as she whimpered, “Jin Yao…”

She resembled a frostbitten little flower.

Shen Hanchuan’s expression was frosty, his gaze drifting indifferently past Shen Chaowu. “It was wrong for me to hit Chaowu, and I have reflected on it in my heart. Isn’t that enough? Do you want your second brother to kneel and beg her forgiveness?”

“That’s enough!” Shen Yanzhou’s presence was fierce and biting. Already irritated by being woken, now he had to deal with this domestic chaos. “Jin Yao, Chaowu is my sister. Do you think I’d let her suffer with me here?”

A soft laugh escaped the girl’s lips, drawing the attention of all three men.

Shen Chaowu blinked. “Jin Yao stands up for me, but would big brother let me be wronged?”

“Of course not,” Shen Yanzhou replied calmly. He just wanted to sleep.

He added, “Hanchuan, transfer five percent of your shares in the Shen Corporation to Chaowu as compensation.”

Shen Hanchuan’s expression twisted in pain.

Given Shen Corporation’s current valuation, five percent amounted to half a billion. He only owned ten percent in total!

With one slap, he’d just lost half his fortune!

It was more than just heartache—this was like cutting out a piece of his own flesh.

Jin Yao was well aware of the weight of five percent of shares and was surprised, though he considered it a windfall. After all, in the end Shen Chaowu would marry into the Jin family.

In other words, that five hundred million would belong to them.

Businessmen valued profit above all; Jin Yao had no further objections. “Alright.”

Shen Chaowu raised her brows, entirely unprepared for this outcome. Ignoring Shen Hanchuan’s dark expression, she said cheerfully, “Thank you, big brother. You’re always good to me, unlike second brother.”

Ouch!

Shen Hanchuan’s heart took another blow. He ground out, “…That five hundred million is from me.”

Why thank big brother?

She should be thanking him!

He was the one bleeding money—

If he’d known that a single slap would cost him a beating and five hundred million, he wouldn’t have so much as touched Shen Chaowu for anything in the world!

Shen Chaowu blinked innocently. “Big brother doesn’t hit me, so I like big brother.”

Her voice was sweet, as if dipped in honey, warming the hearts of those who heard it.

Those words were music to Shen Yanzhou’s ears. The irritation in his brow faded imperceptibly, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

Shen Hanchuan suffered another arrow to the heart.

This hurt more than losing five hundred million.

Wasn’t he, the second brother, supposed to be the closest to his sister?

What was so special about big brother and his frosty face?

Jiang Yao, not understanding how valuable five percent of the company was, could only fixate on the words—five hundred million, just handed over to an outsider like Shen Chaowu?

In the end, Shen Chaowu was still a woman, destined to be married off. As the old saying went, a married woman is like water poured out—wouldn’t that five hundred million ultimately belong to someone else?

How could Brother Yanzhou be so muddle-headed?

Jiang Yao was so anxious she was on the verge of tears. Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought that money was hers.