Chapter 189 Liu Ruyan: You are slandering me!
"What?!"
As Shen Anyu's words fell, dropping like a bomb into the quiet garden, Liu Ruyan's face lost all color. Her pupils constricted to pinpricks, and she completely panicked.
This was her deepest secret. A secret she had guarded for years, burying it under layers of nonchalance and "sisterhood." A secret that no one else knew, not even An Zhiyue herself.
How could Shen Anyu possibly know? Did Zhiyue tell him? No, Zhiyue was oblivious. Did he see her diary? Impossible.
"You... you, you, you're spouting nonsense!"
Liu Ruyan stammered, her usually smooth voice cracking. She pointed a trembling finger at him.
"How could I harbor ill intentions towards your Little Aunt? Wanting to be intimate with her? Disgusting! Impossible! You're slandering me! I will sue you for defamation!"
Liu Ruyan forced herself to calm down, though her chest heaved violently. Her beautiful eyes, usually lazy and seductive, were now like sharp swords as she glared at Shen Anyu, trying to intimidate him into silence.
Shen Anyu chuckled internally. 'Of course I know. I read the book.'
In the original web novel, "Master Descends the Mountain, My Beautiful Sister-in-Law", the Yanxia Shen Family was the major antagonist faction throughout the Early and Middle Stages, acting as the stepping stone for the protagonist, Ye Yan (The War God).
Liu Ruyan was a significant tragic character—a minor antagonist with a hidden depth.
In the original timeline, after An Zhiyue was killed by Ye Yan while trying to save the useless original Shen Anyu... Liu Ruyan went mad.
Seeking revenge for her beloved An Zhiyue, Liu Ruyan dragged the entire Liu Family into a suicidal war against Ye Yan and his protagonist halo.
It led to the Liu Family being annihilated.
In the end, Liu Ruyan died alone in the ruins of her family estate, clutching a piece of An Zhiyue's bloody uniform, her beauty fading as she breathed her last in extreme unwillingness and sorrow.
It had to be said that Ye Yan, the Child of Destiny who descended from the mountain with his "righteous" aura, was actually decisive and ruthless to the point of cruelty. Aside from his designated harem members (like the beautiful sister-in-law Lin Keqing), he was indifferent to other beautiful women, killing them without hesitation if they stood in his way.
Thinking of these plot points, Shen Anyu's gaze towards Liu Ruyan softened a bit. It was filled with a strange mix of pity and a touch of melancholy.
'In another life, you were a martyr for love,' he thought. 'But in this life... you will be my toy.'
In this life, these endings would naturally change. Even Lin Keqing, the beautiful sister-in-law Ye Yan constantly thought about and protected, had already become Shen Anyu's woman (in secret).
By the end of this month, on the fifth anniversary of the Magic City Ye Family's demise... Ye Yan was highly likely to descend the mountain to start his revenge arc.
At that time, what awaited Ye Yan would not be a glorious return, but a hellish nightmare orchestrated by the Villain.
"You… what's with that expression?"
Liu Ruyan stopped her denial, looking at Shen Anyu with a strange expression.
She initially thought Shen Anyu was threatening her with ill intentions, looking at her with lust. But then she noticed Shen Anyu's expression changing rapidly.
First, he looked at her with pity and sympathy, like one looks at a doomed person.
And then, his eyes turned cold. Chillingly cold.
A terrifying, condensed Killing Intent swept out from him like the bone-chilling wind of the Arctic ice fields. It wasn't directed at her, but it surrounded him, suffocating the air in the garden.
The surrounding temperature instantly dropped, causing goosebumps to rise on Liu Ruyan's bare arms. Even her heart trembled in fear!
She was even more puzzled!
Liu Ruyan and An Zhiyue had known each other since childhood, playing in the mud together. So she naturally knew Shen Anyu, the Young Master of the Yanxia Shen Family and An Zhiyue's nephew, since he was in diapers.
In her past impression, Shen Anyu was merely a dissolute playboy. A useless fop who relied on his family's money. Aside from his incomparably handsome appearance (which she admitted was top-tier), he was neither skilled in literature nor martial arts. A typical pampered scion, a complete waste of space.
Yet now?
He was actually displaying terrifying strength capable of instantly suppressing her—a Grandmaster Peak expert! And this Killing Intent... it was thicker than blood. It was the aura of someone who had slaughtered armies.
'Could it be... that Shen Anyu, the Young Master of the Yanxia Shen Family, has been faking his past image as a pampered scion all along?'
'Is he a sleeping dragon?'
This realization made Liu Ruyan look at Shen Anyu with a hint of awe and wariness. Someone who could hide so deeply under the nose of the entire capital elite must have great schemes and terrifying ambitions.
However, Liu Ruyan was not too afraid of Shen Anyu personally. She knew his bottom line.
She and Shen Anyu's Aunt An Zhiyue had a life-and-death friendship, a twenty-year bond as best friends, as close as sisters. The Liu Family, An Family, and Shen Family were also old acquaintances with harmonious relations. Shen Anyu had no reason to harm her physically.
She regained her composure, flipping her hair back.
"Good nephew, don't try to slander your Little Aunt to change the subject. How could I have malicious intentions towards your Little Aunt? I don't like women! I like men! Big, strong men!"
She lied through her teeth, her face flushing slightly.
"Don't talk nonsense. Quickly let me go. Or I will tell Zhiyue you bullied me."
At this point, Liu Ruyan blinked her beautiful eyes and looked at Shen Anyu with a teasing smile, trying to regain the upper hand:
"Good nephew, on the contrary, it seems you have ill intentions towards your Little Aunt (me)? Always staring at me like this? Unblinking? Are you mesmerized by my legs?"
Shen Anyu raised an eyebrow. He released his Killing Intent, returning to his usual lazy demeanor.
He said lightly, "What's there to see in an old lesbian? I have plenty of young beauties."
Liu Ruyan chuckled. She was confident enough in her own charm and was not offended by the "old" comment. She knew she was in her prime.
However, the next moment...
Shen Anyu took out his phone. He tapped the screen a few times.
"Little Aunt, since you deny it... maybe you can explain this video?"
He turned the screen towards her.
Liu Ruyan glanced at it casually.
Pfft!
She directly spat out the saliva in her mouth, her eyes widening until they almost popped out of her sockets. Her red lips formed a perfect 'O' shape of horror.
She stared at Shen Anyu in shock, stammering:
"You... you... you… I…"
Shen Anyu easily dodged the spray with a slight tilt of his head. He said with a smile:
"Little Aunt, why are you so surprised? Is this video very interesting? The resolution is 4K, very clear."
On the phone Shen Anyu held out, a video was playing.
It was footage from inside the Riverside Luxury Mansion, taken just an hour ago.
With Shen Anyu's shrewdness, he had naturally placed [Nanometer Monitoring Robots] in every corner of his home for security. Anyway, there were quite a few of them, and they could also be bought in the System store for cheap. Even a Martial Dao Grandmaster couldn't detect them; they were invisible to the naked eye and emitted no energy fluctuations.
Then, he had activated the playback function earlier when he sensed her presence.
The video showed Liu Ruyan alone in the living room.
She wasn't just sitting.
She was holding a jacket—a military jacket that An Zhiyue had left behind on the coat rack.
In the video, the usually elegant and haughty Liu Ruyan was burying her face in the jacket, inhaling deeply with an expression of intoxicated bliss. She was hugging it, rubbing her cheek against it, murmuring An Zhiyue's name.
It was the behavior of a lovesick infatuate. A fetishist.
"Don't look! Delete it quickly!"
Liu Ruyan's pupils dilated in shock. Her soul almost left her body. She was in a complete panic.
If this got out... if Zhiyue saw this... she would die of shame! Her friendship would be ruined!
In her urgency, she burst forth with all her Grandmaster strength.
She lunged like a leopard.
Thud!
She directly tackled Shen Anyu onto the broad Italian leather sofa. Her momentum carried them both down.
She straddled him, pinning his arms (or trying to), and snatched at his phone with desperate hands.
"Delete it! Delete it now!"
Shen Anyu, tackled by Liu Ruyan, did not resist. He lay back on the soft cushions, holding the phone out of her reach with one hand, watching the flustered Liu Ruyan with interest.
The position was incredibly ambiguous.
Liu Ruyan was sitting on his waist, her short athletic skirt riding up dangerously high. Her chest heaved as she struggled, the zipper of her tracksuit slipping down slightly to reveal a hint of lace.
Her scent—a mix of expensive perfume and nervous sweat—enveloped him.
At this moment, Liu Ruyan's elegant and charming face was flushed crimson with tension and exertion. Fine beads of sweat permeated her fair forehead, making her look even more alluring.
She finally grabbed the phone. Her fingers flew across the screen. Delete. Empty Trash.
"Haa... haa..."
Liu Ruyan deleted the video and let out a long sigh of relief, collapsing on top of him for a moment.
"You brat... scaring me like that..."
Just as she thought she was safe, Shen Anyu's voice drifted up from beneath her, calm and devilish.
"I've already uploaded this video to the cloud, Little Aunt."
"You can't delete it from the server, you know! It's backed up in three different countries."
He emphasized the words "Little Aunt," making it sound particularly mischievous and playful.
Liu Ruyan froze. Her body stiffened on top of him.
She slowly lifted her head. Her beautiful face was blank, staring at Shen Anyu, who smiled back with the eyes of a winner.
"Little Aunt, you wouldn't want my Little Aunt Zhiyue to know about this, would you? Or the elders in the capital?"
Suddenly, Liu Ruyan's blank, charming face came alive. The fear transformed into a weaponized vulnerability.
She realized force wouldn't work. He was stronger than her. And he had the leverage.
She bit her pink lower lip with her pearly teeth, making it glisten. Her eyes became hazy with charm, misty and pitiful.
She looked at Shen Anyu, softening her body against his, and timidly said:
"An'yu... my good An'yu..."
"Little Aunt is begging you. I watched you grow up. Please... please delete it."
"As long as you delete it, Little Aunt will agree to anything you want, okay? Anything."
She traced a finger down his chest, her voice husky.
But Shen Anyu didn't believe Liu Ruyan's nonsense for a second. He knew this woman. She was a snake.
Even if he had caught her most important secret, this woman wouldn't soften up like this genuinely. Nor would she agree to any of his conditions permanently.
Shen Anyu could guarantee that as soon as he deleted the video and lost his leverage, this woman would immediately turn hostile, deny everything, and probably try to break his neck.
"An'yu, Little Aunt will do anything, okay? Delete the video... please?"
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