After a moment, the chatter outside stopped, leaving Shen Wanci puzzled.
When she walked out, she saw Bo Jingzhou standing at the sink, smoking, and froze completely. It was a good while before she asked, "Why are you here?"
The man's face was hard and severe, his gaze settling on her, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly in an indescribable mockery and derision. "Disappointed to see me? Then who were you hoping would come?"
Shen Wanci rolled her eyes. "This is the women's restroom. Who could I possibly be hoping for? Is there something wrong with you?"
She walked over to wash her hands. Though her mood had eased somewhat, her face was still very pale.
Bo Jingzhou abruptly gripped her chin and forcibly turned her face toward him. "It's just a watch—and you can't even hold it together?"
That one sentence said it all: it had all been deliberate on his part.
Shen Wanci glared at him. "You did it on purpose?"
Bo Jingzhou wore an ambiguous half-smile. "It's just a watch. If you haven't assigned it some special, unforgettable meaning in your heart, then it's nothing but an ornament. Rather than demanding to know whether I did it on purpose, you'd do better to ask yourself whether you still haven't gotten over him."
As if to remind her, he slowly and deliberately called out a form of address: "Mrs. Bo."
Shen Wanci frowned. These days, just hearing those two words irritated her—it was like a shackle, at times binding her so tightly she couldn't breathe.
She tried to push his hand away, but the man's overbearing strength left her nowhere to escape to.
"Shen Wanci, right now, do you especially regret getting into my bed back then?"
Back then…
She shot back, "If it hadn't been for that watch, I never would have gotten into your bed at all."
This was something he understood better than anyone!
Bo Jingzhou gave a cold laugh, and the next second he locked the woman into his embrace, the rich, masculine scent of his hormones enveloping her completely.
"That seems true enough. Back then, the moment you saw my face clearly you were so repulsed. If the man in bed had been Nie Yucheng as you'd wished, then your first time wouldn't have been painful but joyful, hm?"
"Bo Jingzhou, do you have to make me revolt at you this much?"
Revolt?
Bo Jingzhou's smile was thin and cold. "Swallowing your pride and going along with it all this time—and now that he's back, you can't wait to divorce me and throw yourself into his arms. Do you really think he'd want a divorced woman?"
Shen Wanci had thought she could no longer be swayed emotionally by this man, but she'd still underestimated how vile Bo Jingzhou could be!
In that moment, it was as though her heart were being densely wound up in a tangle of thread, until she could barely breathe!
She blinked, struggling to mask the sour mist welling in her eyes.
"Think whatever you like. Either way, I'll be waiting for you at the Civil Affairs Bureau tomorrow. We have to get divor—"
She never got the chance to say that last word—it was swallowed by the kiss Bo Jingzhou suddenly brought down on her—
In that ferocious kiss Shen Wanci could scarcely breathe, tasting between his lips and tongue the crisp coolness of the menthol cigarettes he habitually smoked. Her mind went blank, and by the time she came to and tried to struggle, he'd already lifted her onto the washstand behind her.
Blocked by the hem of her skirt, her parted legs were forced to wrap around his waist, forming a scene so erotic it set the blood racing.
Footsteps sounded outside, and someone hurriedly pushed open the restroom door.
This disturbance lent the man's already far-from-gentle features an even more dangerous air, his whole bearing cold and fearsome. At some point two or three buttons of his shirt had come undone, baring the sharp, sculpted lines of his muscles.
He looked at the two women in the doorway, his voice sinister: "Get out!"
The two of them had never expected to walk in on a scene like this. How could they still dare to use the toilet? They flustered out a 'sorry' and slammed the door as they fled. On their way out they couldn't help glancing at Shen Wanci, but she was completely shielded by Bo Jingzhou—all they could see was her black evening gown…
With the mood so thoroughly spoiled by the interruption, Bo Jingzhou didn't resume his assault from a moment ago.
He looked down at the woman before him and saw her eyes were red—though he couldn't tell whether it was from grievance or from being bullied to tears by him.
He released Shen Wanci. "A man who rejected you even when you were desperate and begging for help—just how much of a glutton for punishment do you have to be to keep pining after him for three years?"
The contempt between his brows was so thick it nearly spilled over.
Shen Wanci, however, lifted her chin and retorted word by word, "It's precisely because I'm a glutton for punishment that I kept enduring a painful marriage for three whole years!"
In an instant, the restroom fell deathly silent.
After a long while, the corner of Bo Jingzhou's mouth curved into a faint, barely-there arc. "A painful marriage? Then what a pity—I'm quite satisfied with this marriage, so I have no intention of divorcing."
Shen Wanci's head jerked up. If her paleness a moment ago could still be hidden by blush, now it was a pallor that even blush couldn't cover.
"Bo Jingzhou, just to make my life miserable, you're willing to saddle the woman you love with the foul name of a mistress?"
Bo Jingzhou didn't answer this, as if it were utterly inconsequential.
He straightened the creases in his clothes, turned, and walked out of the restroom.
By the time Shen Wanci had pulled herself together and gone out, there was no sign of Bo Jingzhou anymore.
Afterward she stood in a corner, trying her best to minimize her presence.
No one at the entire banquet would come over to talk to her. That attitude of avoiding her like the plague, as if even brushing against her would be a defilement—at this, Shen Wanci only gave a cold smile. Just as well; she had no wish to deal with these people either.
But although they ignored her, they did plenty of talking behind her back.
Shen Wanci had no sooner sat down in the lounge area with a plate of dessert than she heard people murmuring behind a partition: "People born to nouveau-riche really do have no breeding—doing that kind of thing even in a restroom. You have no idea, when I opened the door that woman's clothes were already half off…"
"No wonder—rejected by Nie Yucheng one moment, and able to latch onto Bo Jingzhou the next. Men really do all love that kind—coquettish and wanton!"
"Oh, please. Young Master Bo is only toying with her. Who in the circle doesn't know that what Young Master Bo likes is the pure, demure type like Jian Weining? Shen Wanci just got the timing right—delivering herself to his door these two years while Jian Weining was away."
Hearing this, Shen Wanci couldn't help wanting to laugh. She poked her head over and said with a smile, "If you want to know what Young Master Bo is thinking, you'll have to ask the man himself. Maybe he's a born glutton for punishment and just happens to like the coquettish and wanton type?"
The few of them looked up, and seeing that the one speaking was actually Shen Wanci, their expressions all changed!
One even frowned in disgust. "We're having a conversation—who asked you to butt in? You really have no breeding!"
"Oh, so gossiping about people behind their backs is a display of breeding? Sorry, I'm not part of your circle, so I don't know the rules. How about I go ask Bo Jingzhou in a bit?"
The instant the several women heard Bo Jingzhou's name, they immediately lost their nerve and finally walked off cursing under their breath.
Even a single circle had its hierarchy of classes, and they and Bo Jingzhou were clearly not of the same class.
Watching their panicked, departing backs, Shen Wanci gave a cold snort: It seemed that to deal with wicked people, you really did have to set a dog on them!
After this episode, she'd lost her appetite for food too, so she got up and went out to the little terrace.
Later, Shen Wanci would think to herself that she must not have burned enough incense before leaving home tonight—she was just dogged by bad luck.
She had only wanted to have a quiet moment alone, but who would have thought she'd run into him here again… Nie Yucheng, who'd come out to sober up.
By comparison, she'd rather go back and listen to the gossip about herself.
Shen Wanci turned to head back to the banquet hall, but Nie Yucheng called out to stop her: "Wanci…"