Engagement Annulled? Now The Husbands Kneel and Beg for Her Favor

Jiang Qingli paused and glanced back toward the restrooms. "I came with someone..."

"So?" Ye Linyuan said, lifting his gaze to the attacker who was still unconscious nearby. "Don’t you want to know who he is?"

Without a second thought, Jiang Qingli nodded. "I do. Can you find out who he is?"

"This is my turf," Ye Linyuan huffed. His long, slender fingers gently pinched her cheeks, turning her to face him. "Come with me."

After mulling it over for a couple of seconds, Jiang Qingli started walking, heading for the elevators first.

She even had the nerve to find him too slow, grabbing his arm, hugging it to her chest, and pulling him along like a giant doll.

From Ye Linyuan’s point of view, he only had to lower his gaze slightly to see her fair profile and the faintly upturned corners of her lips.

She was clearly in a good mood.

’He’d thought she would have been frightened by the encounter with the rampaging beast, but this made sense, too.’

Ye Linyuan had seen Jiang Qingli’s physical education reports and the video of her final exam. When she encountered beasts in the virtual testing grounds, she fought more ferociously than anyone.

The arm she was hugging tightened, her warmth seeping into his own cold, snake-like body, a long-forgotten sensation that wasn’t his.

Ye Linyuan’s lips curved. He followed her lead, stooping slightly.

As they reached the elevators, Jiang Qingli felt the man beside her was being unusually quiet. She snuck a furtive glance at him.

But the moment she looked up, her eyes met his. She’d been caught red-handed.

Jiang Qingli froze. "..."

Ye Linyuan raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Nothing." It felt just like being caught sneaking a look at someone. The tips of her ears grew a little hot. She pointed randomly at the elevator. "What floor do you live on?"

Ye Linyuan said, "The hundredth."

Jiang Qingli was puzzled. "The hundredth floor? But isn’t there a height limit? This building only has ninety-nine floors..."

She trailed off, realization dawning.

’Oh, right. For a major villain like Ye Linyuan, an illegal structure is hardly a big deal.’

’But the elevators only go up to the ninety-ninth floor.’

’How are we supposed to get up there?’

Ye Linyuan soon provided the answer.

Ye Linyuan walked straight to the wall on the right and pressed a spot on its surface.

BEEP—

As the mechanical tone sounded, a red light flickered and scanned down over Ye Linyuan’s iris.

A few seconds later, a seam appeared in the wall and parted, revealing an elevator car wide enough for four people.

Jiang Qingli was still hugging Ye Linyuan’s right arm.

He didn’t struggle. Instead, he slid his arm through the gap in hers, wrapped it around her waist, and lifted her into the elevator.

The elevator’s interior was clean and minimalist. The back wall was likely made of some one-way material; from the outside, it was indistinguishable from a normal wall, but the view from within was wide and clear, offering a panorama of the entire Twelve Cities.

"Is this your private elevator?" Jiang Qingli asked, gazing out at the nightscape that expanded as they ascended. "You really know how to live."

"Do you like it?" Ye Linyuan asked.

"Of course I do."

Jiang Qingli answered offhandedly.

She hadn’t forgotten that she’d come out with Lü Xin. "How’s the security here?" she asked Ye Linyuan. "I have a colleague in the restroom. She’ll be heading back to our private room soon, and I’m worried she might be in danger."

The hand on her waist tightened.

"It’s being handled." He paused, his voice deepening. "Just now... I was chasing his accomplice."

"It won’t happen again."

As if unaccustomed to saying such things, Ye Linyuan pressed his lips together and looked away.

Jiang Qingli blinked.

’Is Ye Linyuan trying to explain why he was late?’

Touched, Jiang Qingli tilted her face up and gave him a radiant smile. "It’s fine. You were right on time. You saved his life."

Ye Linyuan denied it. "His life has no value to me."

"Oh, so it was for me?" Jiang Qingli leaned in, putting on a deliberately surprised expression. "Professor Ye, am I that valuable to you?"

Ye Linyuan: "..."

Realizing she’d been setting a trap for him, Ye Linyuan narrowed his eyes and gave her waist a little squeeze.

The sudden pinch was ticklish, and Jiang Qingli squirmed closer to him, forgetting all about her attempt to tease him.

Just then, the elevator arrived at their floor.

The elevator doors slid open slowly.

Jiang Qingli was about to step out, but he held her by the waist and turned her to face the other way.

Before she could react, a red light flashed and scanned her iris. The red light beside the button turned green.

Jiang Qingli tilted her head at him, puzzled. "What are you doing? You’re not going to use my iris scan for something evil, are you?"

"You guessed it," Ye Linyuan said, stepping out of the elevator. "In ten minutes, your information will be uploaded to the Empire’s criminal database. You’ll be the greatest financial fraudster in the history of the Empire, a name for the ages."

He said it as if he were stating a simple fact.

Jiang Qingli chased after him. "Hey! I was just teasing you! Why are you taking it so seriously?"

But Ye Linyuan kept walking as if he hadn’t heard her.

Outside the elevator was a narrow corridor, walled on both sides.

Ye Linyuan tapped the right-hand wall twice, and a translucent screen materialized on the pristine white surface.

He tapped it a few times, then pulled Jiang Qingli by the shoulder and positioned her in front of the screen.

The scene was an exact repeat of a moment ago.

Jiang Qingli covered her face and said irritably, "No way. Tell me what you’re doing first."

Ye Linyuan pulled her hands down, his tone still perfectly level. "Adding another criminal charge to your record."

Jiang Qingli: ???

With a BEEP.

The wall in front of them split down the middle, the two halves retracting to reveal another door.

Ye Linyuan walked over and opened a sequence of five doors, finally revealing a spacious and luxurious suite.

He started toward the sofa, only to be tackled from behind.

"Ye! Lin! Yuan!"

Jiang Qingli straddled his waist and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, genuinely annoyed now. "Why wouldn’t you say anything?!"

As she leaned in close, she felt Ye Linyuan’s body tense up. He turned his face away as if trying to avoid her gaze.

’Something’s not right. Not right at all.’

Jiang Qingli rolled him over, and when she saw his face, she was both speechless and amused—

Ye Linyuan was laughing.

It wasn’t a huge expression, of course.

But the curve of his lips was the widest she had ever seen since they’d met.

It was clearly the smile of a successful prankster, one he was trying and failing to suppress. He tried to rein it in when he saw her feigned anger, but the corners of his eyes still crinkled.

Jiang Qingli had never seen him smile so happily before. The pressure from her hands slackened, and her gaze fixed on his face.

’I have to admit,’ she thought, ’even though he’s always appearing and disappearing like a ghost, loves being sarcastic, and has a mediocre temper... this face of his is practically perfect.’

After a few dozen seconds, the smile faded from Ye Linyuan’s face.

He lifted a hand and tapped the empty air beside him, and a translucent screen appeared before them.

Jiang Qingli focused her eyes and saw that it was an internal permissions interface.

It covered not just the hundredth floor, but the entire building.

In the field for Highest Authority, two names were listed: Jiang Qingli (Primary Authority Holder), Ye Linyuan

Below that was a line of fine print—

[Note: The Primary Authority Holder possesses the highest level of clearance by default.]

Scrolling further down, she saw her name was also listed as the building’s owner.

Jiang Qingli had thought he was just giving her access, but she never expected he’d not only give her the highest authority, but also gift her the most profitable building in all of the Twelve Cities.

Ye Linyuan seemed to adore the expression on her face. He reached out and pinched her cheek.

"Didn’t you say you liked it?"

"Now it’s yours."