Habamoto Youko hadn't eaten her fill and wanted to end the date early. She quickly set down her utensils and elegantly wiped the corner of her mouth. "Mr. Aoyama, I'm done eating."

"Come here," Aoyama Xiu Xin beckoned.

Puzzled, Habamoto Youko stood up and walked over.

Aoyama Xiu Xin grabbed her hand and pulled her to sit on his lap, to which Habamoto Youko offered no resistance.

With the warm and soft beauty in his arms, it was a delight to his heart and soul.

"Now that you're full, it's my turn to eat," Aoyama Xiu Xin murmured seductively as he caressed her silk-clad long legs and ground his cheek against her face.

Startled, Habamoto Youko instinctively tried to break free but was held tightly around her slender waist. Dodging Aoyama Xiu Xin's advancing lips, she said flusteredly and in panic, "Mr. Aoyama, please don't, this is too fast. Give me a little more time."

She could sense Aoyama Xiu Xin's determination to possess her completely, an unprecedented panic.

"In your heart, is he still more important than I am?" Aoyama Xiu Xin's face turned cold as he grabbed Habamoto Youko's chin, forcing her to face him. "I've prepared so much for you tonight, stopping just short of plucking the moon from the sky for you! Yet, you still won't accept me, while you've been living with Zhongshan Taka every day. Do you think that's fair to me?"

"No, it was him before, but now it's you who are most important," Habamoto Youko stated without hesitation.

Aoyama Xiu Xin let out a scornful laugh, "So the less important man can share your bed, while I, the most important one in your heart, can only satisfy myself with my hands? Is there such a reason in the world? Is that acceptable?"

He paused here, and without waiting for her answer, he fixed his gaze on her and lowered his voice, "Yangzi, did you know someone told me you approached me with ulterior motives, as part of a honey trap instigated by Director Zhongshan, unwilling to have his power usurped by me?"

"How could that be possible?" Habamoto Youko felt a brief panic in her heart but quickly calmed down and defended herself. "Who would use their daughter-in-law as bait? And Mr. Aoyama, do you think you're someone who could be easily deceived?"

"I don't think so, and I also believe that you're not the kind of woman to betray my trust. That's why I vehemently rebuked the person who said that," Aoyama Xiu Xin shook his head but then continued with a complex look in his eyes, "But now, I can't help but doubt."

"Just because I won't let you sleep with me?" Habamoto Youko retorted. Seeing he remained silent, her pretty face turned frosty as she feigned anger. "I can't believe you would doubt me over this! Fine, if this is what you truly think, then I'll give myself to you right now. Do as you wish!"

After saying this, she closed her eyes in a show of resignation, but anyone with eyes could see that she was acting petulantly, intending to step back in order to advance.

Aoyama Xiu Xin wasn't fooled, though, because he didn't love this woman at all. Thus, he couldn't care less whether she was genuinely upset or not. He cleared the table with one hand, then lifted Habamoto Youko onto it.

"Yangzi, I love you. You are mine, and you can only be mine. I must have you."

He feigned an air of impassioned urgency and pounced on her, tearing off her light, fluttery slip dress and leaving her practically unclothed.

Habamoto Youko went blank. She had intended to act defiantly, to retreat as a strategy to advance, but she had never imagined Aoyama Xiu Xin would actually take action.

Now she was the one embarrassed.

At this moment, she had only two choices. The first was obviously to resist and firmly reject any further intimacy.

But by doing so, she would confirm Aoyama Xiu Xin's suspicions, rendering all her previous efforts futile and provoking his backlash.

The second option was not to resist, to give in to him. Although it would be unfair to Taka and to herself, it would dispel his doubts and gain his trust, enabling her to be in close quarters to gather evidence of his wrongdoing.

After much internal struggle, Habamoto Youko, with mixed feelings, made the second choice.

Since she had already been touched and kissed by Aoyama Xiu Xin, she thought of it as a dog bite, something to endure silently as long as Aunt Runmei and Taka never found out.

With a grandiose sense of enduring everything for justice, she suppressed her grievances and disgust and began to respond to Aoyama Xiu Xin with a seductive and eager demeanor.

The two of them engaged in a metaphorical duel of lips and tongues.

Outside the private room, Jin Yucheng shook his head, listening to Habamoto Youko's loud singing inside, and following Aoyama Xiu Xin's orders, stepped aside to call Zhongshan Taka.

"Mosi Mosi?" At this moment, Zhongshan Taka had long since returned to Habamoto Youko's residence, waiting for her to finish work.

"Mr. Zhongshan," Jin Yucheng was on the phone, "Habamoto Youko is having a secret meeting with another man, in XX Club, private room XX."

As soon as Jin Yucheng hung up the phone.

"What did you say? Hello? Hello?" Zhongshan Taka's face changed, and he stood up. Finding the call disconnected, he hurriedly redialed, but couldn't get through.

After three attempts, he gave up calling, standing still with fast breathing and an uncertain expression muttering, "Impossible, just impossible."

Then Zhongshan Taka realized that the private room belonged to Aoyama Xiu Xin, the one he had yielded. If what the caller said was true, it meant that Habamoto Youko's affair was with Aoyama Xiu Xin.

And Aoyama Xiu Xin probably didn't know she was engaged, or else he would recognize him.

"This is absurd! Slanderous nonsense defaming Yangzi and Minister Aoyama, I don't believe a word of it."

Zhongshan Taka snorted coldly and then called Habamoto Youko, but there was no answer.

Now a sense of unease began to creep into his heart.

"She must be busy working overtime tonight," Zhongshan Taka tried to sound relaxed as he muttered to himself and sat back on the couch. A moment later, he cursed, snatched his car keys, and hurried out the door.

Without seeing for himself, he was never going to be at peace.

He drove swiftly and, after more than thirty minutes, arrived outside the carefully prepared private room.

Through the door, he heard a series of obscene words and phrases. The familiar voice struck him like a thunderbolt.

Boom!

Zhongshan Taka's mind went blank, then filled with raging anger as he violently kicked the door open. Upon seeing the scene before him, his blood surged, his body staggered, and he nearly fainted on the spot.

No man could endure such a blow.

"Ah!" Hashimoto Youko exclaimed in shock, her pretty face losing color as she said, "Taka, how could you be here!"

She pushed Aoyama Xiu Xin away and, with the sound of opening red wine severing their connection, she frantically picked up her dress and put it on, covering her sweat-soaked body.

"Mr. Zhongshan?" Aoyama Xiu Xin said in astonishment.

He, too, swiftly pulled up his pants.

"You... you adulterous pair!" Zhongshan Taka's face reddened, his eyes seemed about to burst with anger as he roared at Hashimoto Youko: "Is this the overtime work you said you had? Why do this to me? Why! You've been deceiving me all along! How miserably you've fooled me!"

Blind with rage, he lost all reason and rushed forward, grabbing Hashimoto Youko by the throat.

"Speak! Why deceive me! I came back specially for your birthday, and this is the gift you give me!"

"Ah… Taka…" Hashimoto Youko struggled to explain, but couldn't utter a word; her originally flushed face quickly turned pale.

"Stop!" Having fastened his belt, Aoyama Xiu Xin rushed forward and kicked Zhongshan Taka away, pulling Hashimoto Youko into his arms, "Mr. Zhongshan, what are you doing! Youko is my girlfriend; you can't be rude to her!"

"What am I doing?" Zhongshan Taka got up from the ground, laughing bitterly with utmost anger, "She is my fiancée!"

"What?" Aoyama Xiu Xin looked incredulous, his gaze turning to Hashimoto Youko, "Is that true? Didn't you say you didn't have a boyfriend?"

Hashimoto Youko's eyes widened, her mind exploded with realization, and in an instant, everything became clear.

She broke down on the spot, both shocked and furious: "You…"

"Well done! So it was you who hid the engagement and seduced Aoyama Xiu Xin!" Zhongshan Taka was also falling apart. He couldn't believe his innocent fiancée could do such a thing; he was in agony, and said word by word: "Hashimoto Youko, I was blind. From now on, you go your way, and I'll go mine. Let's part ways."

With that, he turned and walked away. As a marginally successful businessman, he wasn't one to linger needlessly over romantic entanglements. Once he had clarity on the situation, a swift and clean breakup was best.

Time would heal all emotional wounds.

In his furious state, he failed to notice that the commotion hadn't attracted any onlookers from the club's staff or patrons because Jin Yucheng had cleared the area in advance.

"Taka! Don't go, listen to my explanation…" Seeing this, Hashimoto Youko, no longer concerned with settling scores with Aoyama Xiu Xin, instinctively wanted to chase after him to defend herself.

But Aoyama Xiu Xin held her tight, preventing her from moving, and sneered darkly, "This is the surprise I was talking about. How do you like it?"

"Ah!" Hashimoto Youko screamed hysterically, her former charms gone, her eyes red with rage as she shouted, "I'll kill you!"

With that, she grabbed a leftover dinner knife from the table and stabbed at Aoyama Xiu Xin's throat without hesitation.

But he caught her wrist in one swift move.

Then, with a twist, Hashimoto Youko cried out in pain as the knife fell from her hand to the floor.

Aoyama Xiu Xin then pushed her backward.

Hashimoto Youko fell to the floor in disarray, her hair a mess, her clothes untidy, a picture of total dishevelment.

"Hmph! Slut, I knew of your and that old woman's scheming all along. Ha, thinking you could plot against me; do you think you're even worth it?" Aoyama Xiu Xin arrogantly adjusted his suit and bent down to grab Hashimoto Youko's chin, "With a flick of my finger, I could end you."

Hashimoto Youko glared at him hatefully.

Wishing she could tear him limb from limb.

Though she had already done so, in a way.

"Thanks for the hospitality, it was luscious. It's just too bad Mr. Zhongshan arrived at an inopportune time, preventing me from enjoying a second round." Aoyama Xiu Xin shook his head, released her, and left without a backward glance, bursting into uninhibited laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Jin Yucheng, who was waiting at the door, closed the lighter he had been toying with and followed behind his despicable boss.

"Boss, don't we need to deal with that woman?"

Aoyama Xiu Xin chuckled, "She's still of use to me."

This wasn't over yet. Zhongshan Runmei had sacrificed even her future daughter-in-law in her plot against him; he certainly needed to strike back.

And he'd use Hashimoto Youko to do it, this time he would completely extinguish Zhongshan Runmei's hopes, forcing her to be a puppet in Hokkaido!

"Ah!" Hashimoto Youko clutched her head and cried out in heartrending anguish, then curled up and sobbed uncontrollably. After crying, she calmed down a bit, got up, dressed herself, and stumbled out of the place in her dress and heels.

She had to find Aunt Runmei; surely she would understand her dilemma and help explain things to Taka.

At that moment, Zhongshan Taka, his anger unabated, had already stormed to his mother's place. In his rage, he had overlooked many details, but after leaving the scene that drove him to madness, they all came back to him.

For instance, he surmised that Hashimoto Youko hadn't gone to see a movie with his mother last time; she'd gone with Aoyama Xiu Xin. Why would his mother lie for her?

During the days he was in Sapporo, she claimed to work overtime several times, and twice it was his own mother who told him over the phone. Why would she conspire with Hashimoto Youko to cuckold her own son!

Zhongshan Taka needed an answer.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" He pounded on the door forcefully.

Soon, Zhongshan Runmei, in her nightgown, opened the door, concern etched on her face as she saw her red-eyed and clearly distressed eldest son, "Taka, what's wrong?"

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