Proofread by Zhou Zhijie

"But I don't think you wanted to release his hand. Did you long for a man so much?" Zhong Shaoting reaches out his hand to lift her jaw and says jeeringly to humiliate her.

"I didn't!" Ding Manman, who didn't dare to speak aloud in front of him before, suddenly shouts out.

Zhong's slander makes her feel inexplicable shame and indignation. She just roars back at him even if she doesn't know where she's got the courage.

Zhong Shaoting is stunned for a second because he didn't expect that she would get irritated, not to mention that she would speak so loudly to him. Ding Manman, like a delicate soulless doll, turns dazzling after being suddenly pumped into vitality.

That's how Ding Manman looks like at the moment. With anger, her pale and bloodless face blushes a little. Ignoring the flames of fury, her once lifeless eyes now brim with radiating vigour.

The Ding Manman like this is so attractive. Even her angry look is viewed by Zhong Shaoting as being so lovely. He is lost in admiring her beauty for a moment.

Ding Manman is too furious to notice his blurred eyes. When she turns to see him again, he has already recovered from distraction.

"Why didn't you stay by my side at the party? If I didn't save you...have you predicated the consequences?"

Ding Manman is perfect except for her innocent nature and she tends to trust others easily. For instance, last time she believed his lie immediately that Fang Hao had got engaged to another woman.

If that man had said some more sweet words to tempt her, she would have left with him.

He is blaming her but with a trace of concern conveyed in his tone, which is not noticed by himself, but discovered by Ding who is very sensitive.

"Are you worried about me?" Ding Manman asks with a little bit of uncertainty. Just now, she seems to have detected some concern from his tone, but...can a devil care about others?

It is obviously impossible. What Zhong Shaoting says next makes Ding realize the ridiculousness of her own thoughts.

"Huh, worried? Do you think you deserve my concern? If something happens to my female companion at the party, my reputation will be damaged. I don't want my reputation to be ruined by a shameless woman."

Worried? Ridiculous. Zhong Shaoting feels very funny of Ding's words. How comes she deserve his care and concern? He is thinking so with a faint feeling of strangeness in his heart, which is such a feeling that neither can influence him nor can be neglected.

What Zhong says makes Ding Manman, who is seldom energetic, become silent again. Is she shameless? It is Zhong Shaoting who set her in such a predicament. Now it is rather ridiculous for him to blame her for being "shameless".

"I am sleepy." She feels so tired that to cast a glance at him is so strenuous. Then, regardless of whether Zhong Shaoting will get angry or not, she lies down in bed and puts her arm over her eyes in an attempt to isolate herself from the outside world.

Zhong Shaoting is so annoyed by Ding's ignoring his presence that he wants to pull her up from bed. However, when he notices the bruises on her wrist, which remind him of what happened at the party, his eyes turn dangerous abruptly .

"Stay by my side whenever we go out. Don't disgrace me any more." Zhong Shaoting says without much expression. No matter she hears it or not, he leaves the room. Taking his mobile phone out of his pocket, he dials a number.

"Make a thorough investigation into the man's background who touched Ding Manman today at the party."

"No problem, sir. What shall I do after that?" A man on the other end of the phone replies mildly.

"Destroy him, including the family behind him." Fearsome words come out from his mouth with thin sexy lips. It is the power of Zhong Shaoting that a few words from him can determine the fate of a family, destruction or survival.

"Yes, Sir. I'll deal with it right now."

Next day, Ding Manman wakes up without seeing Zhong Shaoting, which is the best thing for her.

After dressing herself, Ding Manman sets her eyes on the door of the room. She can't help walking towards the door and trying turning the door handle with a ray of hope and expectation, only to find that the door is locked.

It seems that even being here she still cannot escape from her fate of house confinement. Her eyes turn dim gradually. Although she has expected such a result, she still can't help feeling disappointed.

For a moment, an idea occurs to her, "Will she be imprisoned by Zhong Shaoting all her life?"

Merely thinking of this makes her hair stand on end and goose bumps creep all over her body.

She shakes her head with the hope to get rid of this terrible speculation out of her mind, but it doesn't work. Finally, she has to turn on the TV in the hotel room to distract her attention.

She is just browsing casually when a piece of news catches her attention.

"News Report: Last night, a well-known group in City H got under suspicion of a variety of illegal acts, such as drug trafficking, tax evasion, oppressing labor, etc. and now all the police departments have been involved in investigation. Owing to this incident, the stocks of this well-known large group which was established 40 years ago plummeted overnight and the group is facing a bankruptcy crisis now. The founder of the group and his son who are suspected of breaking the law have been detained by the police..."

This kind of news is neither rare, nor surprising, but when the lens of the TV camera turns to the son of the founder of the illegal group, Ding Manman is suddenly stunned.