Chapter 40: Am I Cheated On? [Bonus Chapter, Beginning of Imprisonment]

With a questioning mind, Xu Yinsheng tapped to open the video. 

The several-hundred-MB video downloaded in just tens of seconds on the dedicated broadband, and it began to play automatically.

The first video showed a charmingly seductive woman, helped by a white-clad waiter, ascending the stairs with her long, beautiful legs. 

The video recording was a bit shaky, following closely, accompanied by Jiang Shimo’s slightly hurried breathing, allowing one to feel the nervousness of the person recording.

The second video’s shooting angle was a bit narrow, likely taken through a door crack. 

The content of the video was of a handsome man in a suit bending down to gently fasten a pearl necklace on the alluring woman from before. 

Coupled with the subtly suggestive decor around them, the entire process was extremely ambiguous.

The third video was secretly filmed from behind, the recorder’s hand shaking slightly. 

The alluring woman, carrying a small satchel, walked out of the restaurant with a triumphant expression, her long legs striding confidently.

Xu Yinsheng didn’t snap out of it for a long time.

“Cousin, Cousin!” 

On the other end of the video call, Jiang Shimo looked at the complex expression on Xu Yinsheng’s face in the video, believing Xu Yinsheng must have been greatly shocked. 

Through the screen, she tried to soothe him, afraid he might do something irrational.

“Cousin, calm down, calm down.”

“There’s a saying: ‘To get by in life, you need a little green on your head.'” 

As she said this, Jiang Shimo also felt her choice of words was inappropriate. 

What does “need a little green on your head” mean?

Isn’t that deliberately cursing him?

However, deep down, she also felt her cousin was simply a tragedy placed on a coffee table.

Not long ago, he showed off his good brother and good girlfriend, only for her to turn around and discover his good brother and good girlfriend were getting together.

Tsk… how pathetic.

“Cousin, calm down. Our teacher has a good saying: ‘In the Huayuan Federation, there are millions of people; if this one doesn’t work, just switch.’ Don’t get fixated on one crooked tree, and don’t do anything illegal or disorderly out of anger.”

“I can introduce you to a few people. They’re all my best friends, and they’re incredibly pretty.”

Saying this, Jiang Shimo quickly flipped through the photos in her album, soon finding the section with pictures of her friends.

However, Xu Yinsheng merely shook his head, showing no surprise, as if he had already expected it.

He spoke calmly, “It’s fine.”

Jiang Shimo was shocked (=°4°=).

Cousin, you’ve been cheated on, can’t you even show a little anger?

How did you achieve that look of an old monk in meditation?

On the other side, “cuckolded man” Xu Yinsheng was expressionless, his face calm, causing Jiang Shimo to inwardly vent her frustrations.

He pressed the hang-up button.

“Don’t tell anyone else. Delete the videos.”

***

Jiang Shimo wanted to say something more, but it was too late.

With the touch of a finger on the screen, that loli-like face completely vanished.

Having done all this, Xu Yinsheng picked up his phone, watched the three videos repeatedly several times, and finally pressed “download and save.”

On the surface, he was incredibly composed, but internally, he was freaking out.

“Holy cow! How did she know? Didn’t he say he booked out the whole place?!”

Xu Yinsheng endlessly complained and cursed inwardly, especially about the second video where Zhao Yicheng leaned down to personally fasten the necklace for her.

If viewed from a different angle and edited, it would look exactly like a kiss, and combined with the ambiguous setting, it was completely obvious what Zhao Yicheng’s intentions were.

“Old Zhao is unreliable. He said he booked out the place, yet there are still video leaks,” Xu Yinsheng pouted.

But whenever Zhao Yicheng was mentioned, he couldn’t help but feel a headache.

He originally thought he was a good brother he could rely on, but it turned out he was a mentally ill person who lusted after him.

Especially remembering his 20-year-old self’s feminized appearance, a chill involuntarily ran down Xu Yinsheng’s spine.

He couldn’t understand it, couldn’t accept it, and certainly couldn’t empathize with it.

Time continued to pass, day by day, amidst Xu Yinsheng’s anxiety about being “taken”—from initial fear to later acceptance, and now to his belief that history had changed.

“Eating out? Maybe next time, I’m busy lately,” Xu Yinsheng said with a chuckle, trying to brush him off.

In ten days, it would be his second transformation into a new form.

If his future self was right and not just trying to scare him, then he would be “taken” by Zhao Yicheng before that second transformation.

But Xu Yinsheng hadn’t been “taken” by Zhao Yicheng yet.

By his own estimation, if he could just hold out for another ten days or so, history could diverge from the original future and be preliminarily altered. He would likely avoid feminization.

“I still hope you come.”

The male voice on the other end of the phone remained gentle, but to Xu Yinsheng, it sounded like the prelude to being “taken.”

For the past month and a half, Zhao Yicheng had called numerous times, either Xu Yinsheng or “Xu Ying,” inviting him out to dinner to talk.

At first, he politely declined, but later he outright refused.

After repeated rejections, Zhao Yicheng realized something was off, but he maintained his hypocritical facade. 

“I’ve prepared your favorite gifts: Gundam, building blocks, and wolf-and-sheep pillows.”

“Xiao Yin, are you really not coming?” he asked, his face darkening, his voice low.

“No, I’m busy here, playing wingman again. Later, later,” Xu Yinsheng continued to prevaricate. One day at a time was his motto.

As long as he could get through this month, the future of being “taken” within two months could be changed.

The breathing on the other end of the phone stopped.

The atmosphere fell into a dead silence, as if the call had been hung up.

After an unknown amount of time, just as Xu Yinsheng was about to hang up, a male voice softly spoke.

“When did you find out? No, when did I expose myself?”

The man spoke, shaking his head, as if tired of playing house. 

He pierced the unspoken understanding between them. 

“Am I really that annoying? Or is it my feelings that disgust you?”

“Old Zhao, what are you talking about? I don’t understand,” Xu Yinsheng tried to play dumb.

“Are you rehearsing a play? Hmm, you’re really good at it.” 

He didn’t want to answer that question; after all, he didn’t have a taste for homosexuality.

Moreover, even if he truly became a woman, he wouldn’t fall for a man. 

The transformation was just skin deep; the core was still male. 

Decades of masculine thinking meant he felt no sexual interest in the same sex.

Xu Yinsheng’s self-deceiving words struck the man as somewhat laughable, and he felt a touch of sadness for his own feelings.

He pressed his hand to his chest; his heart twitched, sending a sharp pang of pain.

“Xiao Yin, are you going to keep pretending?”

His fingers tightly gripped the phone, knuckles slightly white.

“Pretend? What pretend?”

Xu Yinsheng played dumb.

As long as he didn’t admit it, he wouldn’t acknowledge Zhao Yicheng’s feelings for him, and he could continue to string him along.

“Old Zhao, you don’t have a high fever, do you? Or should I send you a few boxes of special medicine? Guaranteed to cure you. No need to thank me; it’s what brothers do.”

“Hehehe.”

A mocking male voice came from the other end of the phone, as if mocking her, or perhaps himself.