Overnight Hit: Vicious Stepmother and Genius Son
Chapter 352

Chapter 352: 352

Song Jinze turned his head and his ink-dark eyes slid over the woman’s delicate face, a trace of a smile curling at the corners of his lips, "I clarified our relationship to everyone for your sake, you know.

"Mrs. Song might have had a tough day today, but from now on, you won’t have to see those irrelevant rumors anymore."

That was precisely the reason for his appearance here tonight.

He had learned about the absurd rumors between Ye Zhenzhen and Director Ding of Little Pink Elephant while he was on a business trip in Haicheng.

He had made a special effort to return a day early, just to tell everyone in such a public setting that Ye Zhenzhen was his, Song Jinze’s, wife.

Previously, he wanted to follow her wishes to keep it private, but now he found that if they were not public about it, all sorts of strange rumors and trending searches would always come up between them.

Ye Zhenzhen naturally understood the meaning behind Song Jinze’s words. She thought for a moment and smiled, "According to what President Song says, should I thank you?"

Song Jinze nodded, "Yeah, I think you should."

Just as Ye Zhenzhen was about to speak, the man spoke again, "You absolutely must not give me a verbal thanks here, I prefer something more tangible."

Ye Zhenzhen: ...

"Mrs. Song, hello, I’m a fan of yours, can we take a photo together?"

Another woman, dressed in a red evening gown, approached Ye Zhenzhen, appearing all admiring and fond of her, while the man beside her took the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Song Jinze.

A barely detectable sneer curled the corners of Ye Zhenzhen’s mouth; she didn’t directly respond to the woman’s request, but instead asked, "Really? You’re really a fan of mine?"

The other person nodded eagerly, "Yes, yes, I really do like you a lot!"

"Oh, then did you start following me from ’Daxiao Hutong,’ or from ’Futu’?"

"Uh... ’Futu,’ hehe, I liked watching you in ’Futu’."

Ye Zhenzhen’s gaze stayed fixed on the woman before her, expressing regret, "I think you must have remembered wrong, ’Futu’ didn’t need me to act, it was just a set of magazine photos I shot."

It was also the only set of magazine photos the original owner had shot before, because her popularity was lacking, which led to a drop in overall sales for the entire magazine that week.

The woman’s smile stiffened on her face and after an awkward "uh..." she fell silent.

In that moment, the air around them thickened with awkwardness.

Ye Zhenzhen silently sneered but said no more.

This woman had just been standing with Fu Shinuan, whispering about something, and their eyes had kept flicking over to her, so she had an intuition that the other party wasn’t up to any good.

Accordingly, she didn’t feel the need to be particularly gracious to the woman.

And the man beside her fared no better with Song Jinze; after just a couple of exchanges, he was sent packing.

An Xi had been watching from not too far away for a while, from the moment Song Jinze went on stage until now.

She took in all the actions and expressions between Song Jinze and Ye Zhenzhen, calculating silently in her heart the most advantageous way to proceed!

Seeing that there was nobody around them at the moment, An Xi walked up arm in arm with her husband Gu Liangjun to Ye Zhenzhen and smiled, "Zhenzhen, I really had no idea your husband was President Song."

The Gu family was also a wealthy family in Jiangcheng’s upper-class circles, and while they were not close with the Jiangcheng Song Family, they were certainly aware of them.

Gu Liangjun, seeing An Xi’s familiarity with Ye Zhenzhen, immediately offered his hand to greet Song Jinze warmly, "President Song, long time no see."

The last time they met was at Tang Tianyou’s birthday bash, which several wealthy young men, including himself, attended. Afterwards, when Cheng Shaoqing arrived, he brought Song Jinze along too.

At that time, he had simply exchanged a few words with Song Jinze; naturally, he left a deep impression on him. Apart from being the only son of the Song family, Song Jinze was also very aggressive in his business dealings.

Song Jinze’s handsome face remained without a ripple as he responded indifferently, "Hello."

Seeing Song Jinze’s reaction, the hand Gu Liangjun had wrapped around An Xi’s waist tightened slightly. An Xi quickly reacted, smiling at Ye Zhenzhen as she said, "Zhenzhen, let me introduce you, this is my husband, Gu Liangjun."

To An Xi’s sudden introduction, Ye Zhenzhen responded lightly, "Hello, President Gu."

Gu Liangjun was all smiles as he returned the greeting, "Hello, Mrs. Song."

Turning his head, Gu Liangjun glanced joyfully at Song Jinze, thinking to himself, President Song, my name is Gu Liangjun. Now you’ll remember me.

However, Song Jinze had no recollection of him whatsoever and completely didn’t remember him.

It didn’t matter; if he couldn’t remember, that was fine, as long as An Xi’s relationship with Mrs. Song was good, then he could use An Xi to arrange frequent meetings with Mrs. Song and President Song.

An Xi asked, "Zhenzhen, where is Xiao Chen?"

"He went off to play with Yibo." Ye Zhenzhen glanced towards the dessert table, thinking that since Yibo loved to eat, they must be there, but she saw no one.

Neither of the two little guys was in sight where she looked. Just now, while she talked to the woman in red, she had seen Yibo leading Xiao Chen to the dessert table to get some food.

In just a few minutes, they had disappeared.

Ye Zhenzhen’s heart suddenly felt anxious, "I didn’t see Xiao Chen."

While speaking, she had already let go of the man’s arm, taking quick steps heading outside the hall.

If they weren’t inside the hall, could they have gone outside in their playful spirits?

Thinking this, Ye Zhenzhen also quickened her pace.

Song Jinze’s brows were tightly furrowed, following behind Ye Zhenzhen; his deep, ink-like eyes swiftly scanned the hall, also failing to spot the children.

He spoke softly to Ye Zhenzhen from behind, "Don’t worry, the bodyguards are around; the children won’t be lost."

Immediately, he took out his phone and dialed Secretary Zhang’s number.

"Secretary Zhang, I can’t find Xiao Chen."

Secretary Zhang replied, "Received, I’ll start looking right away."

At that moment, An Xi also realized that Gu Xiaoran was missing; she had been there just a moment ago.

Her heart missed several beats in fright, and she said to her husband, "I didn’t see Ranran either."

Gu Liangjun wasn’t too concerned about the children; he assumed that not seeing the children simply meant they had not been found yet, not that they were lost.

He said with a nonchalant face, "Just because you didn’t see them doesn’t mean they’re lost. They’re probably hiding somewhere, playing."

"I’ll go look!" An Xi followed behind Song Jinze, hoping that all three children were together playing outside.

As the three of them left, Gu Liangjun quickly followed suit...

At this time, those inside the hall assumed that the Gu and Song families wanted to discuss something privately, hence their leaving one after the other. Finding somewhere quieter, no one suspected anything unusual.

Cheng Shaoqing was currently holding a glass of wine, chatting with President Lei of Chenguang. The fundraising segment of the evening banquet had just ended, and the charity auction was about to start; he was probing President Lei to see if there would be any rare treasures coming up...

As he tipped his head back to drink, he saw Song Jinze following Ye Zhenzhen out of the hall, with Gu Liangjun behind them. He immediately set down his glass and apologized to President Lei, "President Lei, we’ll talk later, I have to step away for a moment."