SPMW 05 - An Interesting Person

Standing before a French window with a panoramic view, was a tall, stalwart built man. His long, upright body was wrapped perfectly under his tailored-made suit; the suit couldn’t bind those well-defined, firm muscles under its material, giving out a feeling of handsomeness and asceticism.

The man cast his deep gaze over the architecture of the distant buildings. There was no focus in his eyes as he seemed to be deep in his thoughts.

Right on his extended, broad desk was an eye-catching, thick file of information. On top of the file was a piece of paper – a photograph of a graceful, pleasant-looking man.

The man paced back to his seat behind his desk and causally picked up the photograph. In his deep, sexy voice he commented, “Not bad looking.”

Next, he flipped through the stack of information, carefully studying every piece of it. When he was almost done, he pressed on the internal line, “Xiaowu, come in.”

A moment later, a towering, muscular man walked in. Without any facial expression, he greeted respectfully, “Young master, you’ve called me.”

Finishing the last page of information, he picked up the photograph again. Without much change to his tone, he asked, “Is that all?”

Xiaowu understood what his young master was asking, so he replied respectfully, “Yes, young master. It’s the outcome that we received after Dazhou personally investigated; there shouldn’t be any oversight.”

“Hm.” With Dazhou personally undertaking the task, there shouldn’t be any mistakes, he thought. Then, he recalled a piece of information he’d seen earlier, “Inform Dazhou to investigate on the MuYi Clan. Make it fast.”

Xiaowu bowed, “Yes sir.” Then, after a few minutes wait, assured that his young master had no other orders, he retreated quietly to find Dazhou. His young master had never showed any interest towards anyone before. It was said that the daughter-in-law candidate that Elder Shang personally selected was a rich young master who was not favored on the surface, but after Dazhou submitted his investigation report, it brought a faint smile on his young master’s face. He even commented, “He’s an interesting person,” which made Dazhou’s jaw drop with shock. Because the person they were investigating had a double identity, they could see their young master showing a bit of a smile. After following their young master since he was a young man, they had never seen him smile before, much less reveal an obvious smiling expression.

Inside the huge office, the man remained seated with no expression, holding the photograph in his hand. His thoughts recalled the information about the man who was his soon-to-be wife.

He Changning: aged twenty, height 1.80 meters, weight 68 kilograms. Yin family’s third child, mothered by Yin Zhinian’s first wife. His mother committed suicide when He Changning was two years old. Shortly after, the mistress took over his mother’s position. He Changning, who was less than three years old at that point, had since been taken care of by the helper, Aunt Qin. His presence in the Yin family was not prominent at all.

During his academic years, due to his exquisite looks, people could only describe him as being as gorgeous as Pan An, the number one male beauty during the ancient times¹. His good looks had once caused a large group of men and women to fight over him. However, due to his exceptional academic skills that allowed him to skip levels at a jaw-dropping speed, he had already graduated from university before those people could come up with a plan to confess to him.

In front of the Yin family members, He Changning had always been an obedient child. He didn’t have a strong presence, and he was even neglected at times, but he had never cared about any of that. Or perhaps it could be that the current situation, where he seemed like an invisible person, was his plan all along. His occasional appearance in front of the family was probably for no other reason than to provoke those people on purpose.

However, those were just what He Changning was on the surface; he still had another identity that was unimaginable and hard to figured out.

In the recent years, there had been a popular online writer named ‘QingShuiZhuNian’², his novel [That Year in Those Years] gained instant popularity overnight with millions of views. His few other novels subsequently also gained many positive reviews along with a huge number of hardcore fans.

His latest detective novel, [My World – Volume One] had been released not long ago. The first published release had already hit a hundred thousand copies. In less than two months, it went out of stock. The second published release was set to be twenty thousand copies and it was said to be fully subscribed already. As one could well imagine, the dividends that ‘QingShuiZhuNian’ was to receive were going to be an impressive amount. Yet for a person of such capabilities, not many had seen him in real life. His conduct was just like his style of work – extremely low-profile.

This low-profile identity however, was not something he could hide from his soon-to-be husband, Shang Yushang.

According to the information gathered, He Changning had an exceptional capability to learn and comprehend when it came to writing and languages. Which was why his works could gather so much attention. Tons of websites hoped to sign contracts with him, and several publishing companies also wanted to publish his works. Even those large-scaled cultural media companies also hoped to invite him to join them. But, he rejected them all. The reason, to everyone’s surprise, was that he was too lazy, and that he couldn’t cope with a nine-to-five job, hence he’s not interested in creating a hassle for others.

The thought of this stupid excuse made Shang Yushang want to laugh, “Such a childish personality.” Then, when he realized he was laughing, Yushang paused for a moment, and his lips curled upwards again. Perhaps his future life would become interesting.

He Changning, the person in question, was still unaware of the predator’s thinking. He was now lazing on the recliner on his balcony with a book covering his face, enjoying the good times while falling asleep. As to the matter about him marrying someone – he was not hung up about it anymore. His personal motto had always been – Everything will turn out for the best.

When Aunt Qin walked in to deliver his glass of milk, she shook her head when she saw a relaxed He Changning and mumbled, “This child, how could he be so relaxed.”

He Changning removed the book covering his face and replied lazily, “There’s nothing to be anxious about. It’s not like if I’m anxious about it, then that Shang family’s young master would suddenly raise a revolt against his family, eliminate those minions, defeat his granny and then divorce me before I could marry him.”

Aunt Qin quickly covered He Changning’s mouth, “You, stupid child, watch what you say.”

He Changning chuckled, “I’m just joking.”

Aunt Qin then passed him the glass of milk, “Elder madam just told me earlier to inform you that there’ll be a meeting with the Shang family parents two days from now. The Shang family’s young master will be there too. She asked you to be prepared, and don’t embarrass her.” Aunt Qin complained unhappily, “Our Changning looks so gorgeous, what is there to pick on? Who knows who’s the one that’ll be embarrassing later.”

He Changning drank his glass of milk as he listened to Aunt Qin’s nagging. He thought to himself; So, it’s time to meet huh? Will he be like how he’s rumored? What kind of attitude will he show me? Hate? Disgust? Disdain? As a person who’s going to be married into that family as a male wife, I think I better stop hoping that they’ll show me any positive attitude. How naïve I am. But then again, no matter what, I just need to endure for a year, and then I’ll be freed. At that time, I’ll bring Aunt Qin along with me and leave this place. With my capabilities, I won’t have any issues sustaining the both of us.

Ever since he found out that he had been sold to the Shang family, Changning had entrusted someone to find out more about Shang Yushang.

It was said that Shang Yushang was a person that was very hard to get along with. With minimal facial expression, he was a man of few words; he had a mild obsession with cleanliness; his character was unpredictable, and he was known to be a moody person.

Taking over the Shang Establishment Group at the age of twenty-two, within eight years he had evolved Shang Establishment Group from a middle-leveled enterprise to the multinational corporation it was today. The group involved hotels, food and beverage businesses, entertainment businesses, construction companies, and many other industries. The large-scaled shopping malls under the group’s name were scattered over various major cities in chains.

A person who had a decisive way of dealing with things in the toughest way in the business community – was he a person that could be easily swayed by others? Otherwise, why would he promise to marry another man as his wife? Even if he did prefer men, he should marry a person that he likes, shouldn’t he? There was no reason why he should accept his family’s arrangement and marry a man that he had never seen before.

Also, he was the Shang family’s first young master, the successor to the Shang Establishment Group, a highly eligible bachelor. A person like him was highly sought after by those well-bred young ladies from prestigious families. Even if they were rushing this matter urgently, it still didn’t make sense to have an arranged marriage like that.

Even from the photos that his friend got for him, this person had exceptional good looks. With a height of 1.90 meters, broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs – a body figure that’s comparable to those renowned models. Sharp facial features and eyes with a deep gaze, a sharp nose, thin lips, healthy, bronze toned skin color and maroon colored hair with slight curls – such a man could easily make any woman scream in excitement and cause men to feel jealous.

It was also reported that countless women from aristocratic families had attempted to crawl onto his bed naked, just for a single night of passion. Many men, for example, famous celebrities and international models, had also tried to sneak into bed with him; not for any status but just for one night of love.

The thought of it gave He Changning chills down his spine; he really couldn’t understand the thoughts of those men and women, and the sexual part – he just couldn’t accept it.

Thinking about the meeting two days later made He Changning a little frustrated. Although all those were just rumors from the media, it still took to hands to clap. What if he was bisexual, then what would he do?

Among the countless candidates, the Shang family chose him – there must be a reason behind it. If there was really some reasoning behind it, then maybe he would be able to fight for some rights for himself.

If it was just a business dealing, he wouldn’t mind fighting to gain something for himself.

He could only hope that the day they all met, he would have a chance to speak individually with Shang Yushang.

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[1] 潘安 (Pan An) – his other name is 潘岳 (Pan Yue), the number one male beauty in AD 247-300. His good looks were so popular that there’s a Chinese descriptive phrase that uses his name – “颜如宋玉，貌比潘安”, which means ‘Face that resembles Song Yu (another handsome fellow), beauty that’s comparable to Pan An’.

[2] 清水逐年 (Qing Shui Zhu Nian) – Changning’s online nickname; it literally means ‘Freshwater years after years’. It’s too lengthy to type it that way, hence I left the translation in hanyupinyin form.

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