As soon as the words fell, Nan Yu's heart skipped a beat.
There was simply no place to hide in this room. One could see everything clearly as soon as the door opened.
Wouldn't that mean he would find out there was another strange man in their wedding room?
"Now?" Nan Yu tried to keep her voice calm. "How about we talk after I get out? The guests are all waiting for us outside."
"Yu Yu, don't be angry, okay?" Shen Yanchen's voice softened. "That lipstick was accidentally left in the car by a business partner. I really only have a working relationship with that woman."
Tan Linyuan raised his eyebrows. Realizing he was eavesdropping on the gossip, he glanced at her. "It seems you're not the one who had an affair first."
"Mind your own business." Nan Yu mouthed at him to be quiet, then turned and said vaguely, "I didn't take that matter to heart. Don't think too much about it."
Shen Yanchen said, "Then why won't you let me in? You must still be blaming me."
Nan Yu replied, "… I really don't."
Shen Yanchen continued to coax her in a humble tone. "Since yesterday, you've been unwilling to be alone with me. What else could it be if it's not blaming me? We're getting married soon. I'm serious about you."
"Please open the door. I want to apologize to you in person."
… Nan Yu thought that if she opened the door, she didn't know who should apologize to whom.
There came the sound of someone getting dressed behind her. Nan Yu didn't pay attention. All she could think about was how to get rid of Shen Yanchen quickly so that Tan Linyuan could slip out.
Unexpectedly, before one wave subsided, another rose. Shen Yanchen's father, Shen Suhai, also came over, and Shen Yanchen fell silent.
"What are you doing standing here?" Shen Suhai's voice boomed with the authority of an elder. "Don't you know you should accompany the guests? Leaving everyone waiting in the main hall. What's this all about?"
Shen Yanchen answered, "I'm here to find Yu Yu."
"Nan Yu?" Shen Suhai was clearly more surprised than his son. He couldn't help raising his voice and asking, "You mean Nan Yu is inside?"
"She's changing clothes inside."
"There's an honored guest in this room. How could you let her change clothes in here?" Shen Suhai's voice suddenly turned cold and his tone was commanding. "Nan Yu, open the door, or I'll have someone break it down!"
Seeing that the people outside were about to come in, Nan Yu thought of Tan Linyuan behind her. She didn't hear what Shen Suhai said. She closed her eyes in despair.
It was all over.
"Open the door!" Shen Suhai repeated, this time even more sternly.
Nan Yu took a deep breath and quickly thought of a way to save the situation.
Anyway, the Shen family cared about their reputation. There were so many guests downstairs in the villa. They wouldn't make a scene on the spot if they saw her in the same room as a strange man.
As for the rest, she could only figure it out later.
She slowly and heavily opened the door. Her long eyelashes drooped as she waited for the shock and scolding from outside the door —
"Uncle Shen, it's not appropriate to be so rude and impulsive on this happy day."
A soft voice came from behind her, like the sound of footsteps in an empty valley. "On such a joyous occasion today, breaking down the door will bring bad luck."
Before Nan Yu could figure out how to explain, Tan Linyuan actually spoke up before her.
She was shocked and turned to look at this audacious man.
Tan Linyuan had somehow put on a plain long robe. His short hair in front was neatly arranged. He looked rather frail. The cuffs of his robe were slightly rolled up, and there were Buddhist beads wrapped around his wrist.
He stood there, his eyebrows tinged with frost, his eyes cold and still, as cold and thin as the moonlight in winter.
At this moment, he was like a completely different person from the man who had pushed up her cheongsam inch by inch just now.
It seemed that all the ambiguous things that had happened just now were just a dream of hers in the middle of the night.
One in red and the other in white, they looked quite well-matched.
When Shen Yanchen saw Tan Linyuan in the room, his eyes then fell on Nan Yu's un-changed cheongsam. He was just about to frown and ask coldly why he was with Nan Yu.
Shen Suhai, who was standing on his right rear side, spoke respectfully in a kind tone. "Linyuan, there are too many guests today. I didn't have time to take care of you. I'm sorry for my poor hospitality."
Tan Linyuan replied with natural grace. "It's Uncle Shen who's being polite. I'm used to being alone on weekdays. I was just chanting scriptures and praying for the two newlyweds in the wedding room. I also taught Miss Nan a mantra to turn bad luck into good."
Tan Linyuan's answer was very comprehensive. He casually explained what he had been doing with Nan Yu just now, dispelling the doubts of the people present and also explaining why Nan Yu hadn't changed her clothes.
As the person in power of the Tan family, he was extremely powerful, but he chose to call Shen Suhai Uncle Shen at this moment, obviously giving the other person enough face.
Shen Suhai immediately beamed with joy and kept thanking him.
Nan Yu couldn't help but look at him in confusion. Shen Yanchen explained to her, "This is Tan Linyuan, the head of the Tan family. Dad specially invited him to chant scriptures and pray for our wedding."
From Shen Yanchen's words, Nan Yu only then learned that Tan Linyuan had been sent to a temple by his grandfather Tan Wenli to cultivate himself since he was five years old.
For ten years, he had devoted himself to chanting scriptures and meditating without distraction, only to pray for the city of Jiangcheng to overcome disasters.
For this reason, he had long shed the worldly coat and become a person free from worldly desires.
It was not until he was eighteen that he was taken back to the Tan family to be a lay Buddhist.
At that time, Tan Wenli, who was in charge of the Tan family, suddenly fell seriously ill and died. The whole Tan family was in chaos. It was Tan Linyuan who stepped forward to take control of the situation. With his fierce and decisive means, he directly silenced the gossips. Now he had firmly sat on the position of the head of the Tan family.
But he still remained pure in heart and had few desires.
When people in Jiangcheng talked about him, they didn't say he was the head of the Tan family, but that he had a Buddha-like heart and a moral nature, and was a living Buddha that ordinary people didn't dare to look at.
But all this was only what outsiders saw.
People like Shen Suhai, who had been in the business world for a long time, knew very well about Tan Linyuan's real ruthlessness.
That was why, even though he was over fifty years old, he still had to smile at this junior.
All these were things Nan Yu didn't know at all before.
It was no wonder she was unaware. Before, she had been studying abroad and was not familiar with the upper-class people in the circle; later, the Nan family's company went bankrupt, and her parents both committed suicide by jumping off a building. She was under the pressure of huge debts alone and had no time to believe in any ghosts and gods.
Of course, she would never inquire about the identity and background of a man who was only her bed partner.
Thinking of this, Nan Yu couldn't help but find it a bit funny.
It turned out that the man who had been intimate with her countless times was actually the head of the Tan family and the sacred jade-faced Buddha that the whole city of Jiangcheng believed in.
At this moment, a sense of absurdity like a storm rose in her heart.
But precisely because of his special identity, it perfectly resolved the crisis she had just faced, so that the Shen family wouldn't think that she was fooling around with a dubious man in the same room on the day of her engagement.
The housekeeper of the Shen family, Wei Lin, stepped forward to remind Shen Suhai. "Sir, all the meals are ready. The guests are all seated and ready to start the banquet."
Shen Suhai nodded slightly and then ordered, "Have you arranged special vegetarian meals for Linyuan?"
Wei Lin was a steady person. He quickly reported in succession, "Don't worry, everything has been prepared in advance. Everyone can go to the dining room."
The Shen family's villa was very big. Except for the main hall where the guests gathered for dinner, the Shen family members, Nan Yu, and honored guests like Tan Linyuan who were specially invited were all arranged in a smaller inner hall.
At the dinner table, Shen Suhai rarely showed a kind smile and took the initiative to chat with Tan Linyuan. "Linyuan, you've taken a lot of trouble when my wife passed away a few years ago; now it's Yanchen's wedding, and I still have to trouble you to come and help. You've really worked hard."
Shen Yanchen's mother passed away early. At that time, they invited Tan Linyuan to hold a requiem service. He dutifully kept vigil for a whole day and night and carefully instructed them on the matters needing attention. Everything was done properly and thoughtfully, which made Shen Suhai feel especially at ease.
At this point, Shen Suhai glanced at Nan Yu sitting beside him. His tone became a bit colder as he assumed the posture of an elder. "Nan Yu, since you've decided to marry into the Shen family, you'll inevitably have to deal with Linyuan in the future. You should follow him to chant scriptures and copy Buddhist scriptures. It's for the good of you and Yanchen to accumulate good deeds and blessings. It won't do you any harm."
When the topic turned to herself, Nan Yu, who had been keeping her head down, finally looked up at the opposite side.
It seemed that this was the first time she had carefully looked at Tan Linyuan's face.
Before, every time they were intimate, it was in the dark at night. She couldn't see clearly. She only knew that the man had good-looking features, at an excellent level.
Looking at him today, he really had a Buddha-like bone structure, looking indifferent and lonely, with a sense of aloofness that kept people at a distance.
She remembered those nights. There was always a faint smell of incense on him, elegant and clean; now thinking about it, it was probably caused by the incense ash he got in the temple before.
As if sensing something, Tan Linyuan also looked up. Their eyes met.
Nan Yu was just about to shift her gaze when she heard Tan Linyuan say, "Speaking of which, Miss Nan and I once had a certain fateful encounter."
Her heart tightened suddenly —