The Shrimp Test My Girlfriends Regret

On our third anniversary, a single phone call from her best friend was all it took.

My girlfriend didn't just cancel our plansshe dragged me straight to a bar and ordered me to peel three thousand crayfish for said best friend.

Are you blind? Can't you see Kevin and the others are waiting to eat?

Elisa Fox leaned into Kevin Gilbert's embrace, her gaze slicing over me like frosted glass.

"Kevin has delicate hands. He's not built for rough work." She flicked her wrist toward me. "You, on the other hand, have plenty of experience. Hurry up and peel them."

She wasn't finished.

"An orphan like you should be grateful. If Kevin's in a good mood later, he might toss you a red packet worth a year of your salary."

Kevin surveyed the cluster of wealthy heirs he'd summoned, his expression oozing servility.

"Gentlemen, I know you're used to being served." He swept his arm toward me like a ringmaster presenting a trained bear. "This is my good sister's boyfriend. He was born to serve. If you need anythingjust bark."

They had no idea.

I am the sole heir of the Mason family. The lost son of the capital's most powerful dynasty.

Staying with Elisa served one purpose only: repaying her motherthe woman who pulled me from the orphanage and reunited me with my biological family.

Protecting Elisa for three years had been her mother's dying wish.

And that wish would be fulfilled in exactly two hours.

1.

"If you don't want to peel, then break up and get lost." Elisa's voice sliced through the din. "And stop looking at everyone with those dead, listless eyes. It's bad luck."

Her lip curled. "Honestly, I don't know how someone as shameless as you has managed to cling to me this long."

The mountain of crayfish shells before me stood nearly half a meter high.

I said nothing. My hands moved on autopilot.

*Pinch off the head. Twist away the tail. Strip the vein. Drop the glistening white meat onto the plate.*

Elisa's patience frayed. Her stiletto cracked against my shin.

"Adam Mason, why are you dawdling? Can't you see Kevin's plate is empty?"

Elisa Fox. The "Iceberg Beauty" of the capital's elite circle. My girlfriend in name only.

For three years, an unknown orphan had shadowed her every step. In the words of her inner circle: *"Elisa really found herself a good dog. Obedient to a fault."*

Everyone believed I loved her miserablya simp willing to swallow any humiliation just to breathe her air.

Right now, she was practically draped across Kevin's lap, her eyes glazed with adoration as he spun tales of his "glorious achievements" on Wall Street.

The fabrications were so laughable my head shook before I could stop it.

"You damn simp. Peeling shrimp is just peeling shrimpwhat kind of expression is that?"

A cigarette butt arced through the air and landed on the back of my hand. The ember seared into skin. The crayfish slipped from my fingers.

The man humiliating me was Evan Whitney, Kevin's number-one lackey.

He squatted down, his fleshy face invading my space. "Do you know how expensive these are? Can a stinking shrimp-peeler like you even afford to replace one?"

Elisa laughed.

She lifted one lazy eyelid, sweeping a glance my way. "Evan, don't tease him."

"Kevin's family runs a massive businessa world someone like Adam can't even imagine." She stretched the words like taffy. "As for him? His only value is his utility. If he can't even peel shrimp properly, why would I keep him around?"

Yes.

For three years, everyone in the capital knew the truth: Adam Mason was a dog kept by Elisa Fox.

On call twenty-four-seven. Never fought back when hit. Never talked back when scolded.

I didn't refute her. Didn't even look up.

If this were the Adam Mason from three years ago, I would have flipped the table and sent that plate of shells flying into their faces.

But now, I kept my head down, eyes locked on the time glowing on my phone screen.

Three hours remaining.

I inhaled slowly, picked up another crayfish, and let their jeering laughter dissolve into white noise.

My mind drifted back three yearsto Elisa's mother clutching my hand on her deathbed.

The once decisive, iron-willed businesswoman had looked fragile as a child in her final moments.

"Adam... I know this isn't fair to you." Her grip was fading, each breath a wheeze. "But Elisa... her pride will be her downfall. The collateral branches of the Fox family are circling like wolves. If you don't protect her, they will swallow her alive."

"Three years. Just give me three years. Help her secure her position. Shield her."

Tears had carved rivers down her hollowed cheeks. "I'm shamelessly begging you... treat it as repayment for sending you back to the Masons..."

To honor that kindness, I signed the damn agreement.

From that day forward, I became the useless live-in boyfriend. Her shield against every arrowopen and hidden alike.

For three years.

I watched her drink herself into oblivion to close contracts, vomit splashing across her designer clothes. I carried her home. Cleaned her up. Tucked her in.

I watched her hide in restrooms, sobbing after the board cornered her. I quietly leveraged the Mason family's connections to solve problems she never knew existed.

Those three years had gone too smoothly. She convinced herself she was a chosen business genius.

And in return, she treated me like a servant.

"Hey! Kevin is talking to you! Are you deaf?"

A sudden chill drenched my skull. Amber liquid cascaded through my hair, stinging my eyes, dripping down my jaw.

Evan Whitney loomed over me, wine glass tilted at a mocking angle.

"Oops." He gasped with theatrical shock, a vicious smirk splitting his face. "My hand slipped. Young Master Mason, don't mind it. Just think of it as a bath to wash off that poor, sour stench of yours."

The private room went silent for a heartbeatthen erupted into raucous laughter.

Kevin rocked Elisa in his arms, howling. "Evan, you're wasting good alcohol! That wine is worth more than his life."

Elisa didn't intervene.

She only frowned and shrank back, as though terrified the splashed wine might stain her custom haute couture.

"So filthy," she muttered, disgust dripping from every syllable. "Adam, go to the restroom and clean yourself up. Don't be an eyesore. You're making a fool of yourself."

I wiped my face. Wine and sweat mingled, bitter and astringent on my tongue.

But I didn't move. I remained on that small stool in the corner, gaze fixed on the time.

Only a few hours left.

This 1,095-day prison sentence was finally ending.

"Adam Mason!"

Seeing me motionless, Elisa's patience shattered. Her voice pitched upward. "I told you to get out. Didn't you hear me? Do I have to call security to throw you out?"

"Elisa, don't be angry." Kevin's voice was silk, though his hand roamed shamelessly around her waist. "A dog... sometimes it just can't understand human speech. Beat it once. It'll learn."

He glanced at Evan.

Evan understood immediately. He chuckled, snatching an empty wine bottle from the table, weighing it in his palm, eyes glittering with malice.

"Adam. Rolling out yourselfor should I help?"

I raised my head.

It was the first time tonight I'd met their eyes directly.

Watching these clowns preen and posture, laughter bubbled in my chest. I swallowed it.

Elisa was already burrowing into Kevin's embrace. Since she was occupied, I decided to leave.

I stood. Walked out.

By the time the bus deposited me at the villa, it was past eleven.

The house was in Elisa's name, but I'd lived here for three full years.

As I stepped inside, a foreign scent hit mered wine, heather, and a pungent men's cologne that made my nostrils flare.

I recognized that cologne. It had clung to the air in the private room all night.

Aggressive. Cheap. Carrying a lewd undertone that made my skin crawl.

The master bedroom door on the second floor hung ajar. Sounds drifted down the hallwaysounds no one should have to hear.

"Mmm... gently... you're so annoying..."

Elisa.

At the company, she was a terror. Subordinates fell silent mid-sentence when she entered a room. When she scolded me, she transformed into a drill sergeant. But now? Her voice dripped with false sweetness so thick it curdled my stomach.

"Kevin, the company's been a bit tight on cash lately." She cooed between breaths. "The investment you promised me... it can't fall through."

"Got it, got it. That little bit of money? Nothing. Pocket change." Kevin's voice oozed lust and arrogance. "Elisa, what I'm more curious about is thisif you let that useless boyfriend of yours watch us right now, what do you think he'd do?"

"Why bring up that buzzkill?"

She scoffed. "He's just a useful dog. Tell him to go east, he won't dare go west. Tell him to eat shit, he won't even complain it's hot. If my mom hadn't made me promise to keep him, I'd have kicked him to the curb years ago."

"Hahahaha, true." Kevin sounded incredibly pleased with himself. "I saw how cowardly he was in the private room. Didn't even dare let out a fart. A man like that is just wasting air by being alive."

"Stop talking about him." She moaned. "Do it again..."

I stood at the bottom of the stairs, expression blank.

Then turned and walked toward the storage room at the end of the hall.

Elisa always claimed the "poor sour smell" on me was too heavythat I wasn't worthy of sleeping in the master bedroom. I'd been relegated to the guest room. Often, the couch.

I pulled a battered tin box from under the guest bed.

Inside lay my only real possessionsrelics from the orphanage. The expensive clothes Elisa had "bestowed" upon me to play the role of her well-dressed accessory? I left them where they hung.

I walked out just as Elisa and Kevin emerged from the master bedroom. They stood on the second-floor landing, staring down at me with cold contempt.

"Adam Mason, what trouble are you trying to stir up now?" Elisa clutched her silk robe.

I ignored her. Headed straight for the front door.

Her temper ignited. She grabbed a vase from a side table and hurled it.

*Crash.*

I sidestepped. Porcelain shattered against the floor where I'd stood a heartbeat before. I turned back. Looked up.

Checked my phone.

Three minutes.

The three-year agreement hadn't ended yet.

"Nothing." My voice was calm. "Just going out for a walk."

"If you dare walk out that door today, we are through!" She shrieked. "If you know what's good for you, get your ass up here and serve us. Clean up the room. Do that, and I won't hold you accountable for embarrassing me tonight."

I said nothing.

Turned around. Walked up the stairs.

Kevin burst into laughter. "I'm telling you, Elisayour dog-training skills are world-class! You could make a career out of this."

Elisa snorted proudly, arms crossing. "This useless trash. If my mom hadn't been so soft-hearted... I don't know what kind of bewitching potion he gave her to make her insist I stay with him."

She sneered as I reached the landing. "A cowardly waste like him... if he leaves me, he'll never live this kind of luxury again in his entire life."

Hearing this, I finally laughed.

"Elisa, you're right." My voice was steady. "I really did rely on your mother to live a 'good life.'"

The contempt in her eyes deepened. She pointed a manicured finger toward the master bedroom, where tangled sheets lay in chaotic evidence.

"In there. We were a bit too... intense. Hurry up and change the sheets and the quilt. Why aren't you moving? We have important matters to discuss."

But I didn't move toward the bedroom.

I stood in place. Eyes locked on Elisa.

On my phone screen, the numbers shifted.

The time had passed.

"Elisa Fox." My voice dropped to a temperature that matched the frost in my gaze.

"I quit."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Kevin Gilbert clutched his stomach, that grating laugh scraping against the silence. "Elisa, look! The lapdog you keep is actually trying to rebel!"

Elisa Fox snapped out of her shock, her expression hardening into something cold. "What? You think just because you've hung around me for three years, you're suddenly part of the upper class?" She tilted her chin up. "You're nothing but a kept man, Adam. Have some self-awareness."

I didn't waste a single word on her.

I turned on my heel to leave.

Kevin stepped into my path, blocking the doorway.

I shoved him aside hard enough to make him stumble. "Elisa used a breakup to threaten me. Now that we've broken up, I have no reason to tolerate you." My voice dropped. "A good dog doesn't block the road."

Kevin regained his balance, his eyes locking onto the box in my arms. "I suspect you're stealing something! Open that box. I want to see what's inside!"

Inside sat a jade pendant I had carried since childhoodthe token that had allowed me to prove my identity to the Mason family. After acknowledging my heritage, I had signed a three-year agreement with Elisa's mother. To avoid exposing myself prematurely, I had kept the pendant hidden away.

My silence only fed his arrogance.

He lunged forward, snatching the box from my grip before I could react.

*Crash.*

He flung it onto the floor. The lid popped open. The jade pendant tumbled out, skittering across the hardwood.

Kevin pointed at it, triumphant. "Mason! I knew your hands were dirty! I caught you red-handedtrying to steal valuables!"

Elisa walked over. She didn't even glance at the heirloom on the floor. Her gaze remained fixed on me, cold and imperious. "If you don't want me to send you to prison for theft, get down on your knees and clean this up. As long as you behave, I might pretend this never happened."

I looked at the two clowns standing before me.

*Idiots.*

"Elisa Fox." My voice came out flat, devoid of emotion. "Instead of threatening me, maybe you should check on your so-called 'bestie.' Does he really have the capability to save your dying company?"

Kevin's face went white. "Mason, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

I ignored him and walked straight downstairs.

Behind me, Elisa's voice rose to a shrill scream. "Adam Mason! If you dare walk out that door, don't expect to come back! You can wait for the police to drag you away!"

I waved a hand dismissively without looking back.

The sunlight hit my face as I stepped outside. A black sedan with a chauffeur was already waiting at the curb.

I slid into the backseat. "Go. Take me to the Manor."

I leaned back against the cool leather, closing my eyes. "I've been away too long. It's time I paid the old man a visit."

The next morning, I woke up to a phone screen cluttered with notifications.

**[Shocking! Wealthy Heiress's Live-in Husband Absconds with Fortune!]**

**[Kept Man Turns Thief: The Betrayal of the Century!]**

I tapped on a video trending across every platform. Elisa filled the screen, weeping.

"I really didn't expect this," she sobbed, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. "I supported him for three years. Treated him with all my heart." Her voice cracked beautifully. "In the end, he not only betrayed me but stole my mother's jade pendant and embezzled $500,000 from the company. He even stole our core business secrets..."

Flawless. Voice choking at just the right moments. Tears flowing on command.

"Adam Mason, I'm not asking you to return the money." She looked directly into the camera lens, mascara smudged just so. "But those materials represent the hard work of over a hundred employees. How can you be so ruthless? And that pendant... it was the only thing my late mother left me..."

The camera panned.

Kevin Gilbert's face appeared in the frame, his arm draped protectively around Elisa's shoulders, his expression dripping with righteous indignation.

"Everyone, judge for yourselves. Are men who live off women nothing but trash? Usually, he can't even mop the floor properly, and now he dares to commit crimes!" His lip curled. "People like this belong in prison!"

The comments section was a war zone.

*"Damn, that's disgusting. Living off a woman and stealing her money?"*

*"Cut that scumbag into a thousand pieces! I feel so bad for Miss Fox!"*

*"Dox him! Don't let him escape!"*

*"I know this guy! He used to be the Fox family's dog. Never expected him to be such an ungrateful leech!"*

Vicious curses piled up by the second.

*Stole $500,000 and ran?*

A cold smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth.

Elisa seemed to have forgotten that the registered capital for her company came from my pocket. Although she was the legal representative, the actual control agreement had been notarized by my lawyers three years ago.

As for the "business secrets"? Nothing more than a few discarded proposals I had plucked from the Mason Group's trash bin to give her shell company a facade of value.

Meanwhile, in the CEO's office at the Lin Group

Elisa scrolled through Weibo, a satisfied smile lighting up her face as she read the thousands of comments cursing my name.

"See, Kevin?" She laughed, spinning her phone around to show him. "I told you this would work. The whole internet hates him. Unless he wants to live like a hermit, he's finished."

"Elisa, you're brilliant." Kevin fawned over her, massaging her shoulders. "Once this charge sticks, he won't just go to prisonhe'll have to spit out every cent he took."

"Hmph. $500,000 isn't enough." A vicious glint flashed in her eyes. "I want him to pay back every meal he ate and every drop of water he drank for the past three years."

The office door burst open.

Elisa's assistant stumbled in, her face drained of color.

"M-Ms. Fox..." The girl's voice trembled. "The police... the police are here!"