Yu Sixue did not linger on her, replying politely, "Excuse me, classmate, I'm afraid that's not convenient. Please let me pass."
Yu Sixue's rejection instantly shattered all of Yang Qingmei's fantasies. That night, when he showed concern for her and handed her tissues, wasn't he interested in her?
Fu Siyu watched the whole exchange and couldn't help teasing with a smile, "Qingmei, that's not how you chase a guy."
Hearing his voice, Yang Qingmei's expression instantly turned ice-cold.
Seeing this, Fu Siyu stepped forward to block Yu Sixue's path, pulled out her phone, and radiated an air of absolute certainty: "Hey, speak! How much to buy your name, and how much for your contact information?"
Money again! Yu Sixue felt a wave of irritation. He curved his lips in a mocking smirk, but before he could speak, a familiar voice cut in.
"What? Wasn't five million enough for you to blow through? In such a hurry to look for your next meal ticket?"
Following the voice, Annie stood with her arms crossed, deliberately glaring at Yu Sixue with a raised eyebrow. A bitter, weary smile filled Yu Sixue's eyes. Is that really how she saw him?
He had told her he didn't care about her money; why wouldn't she just believe him?
"Doesn't this classmate want my contact info?" Yu Sixue quickly unlocked WeChat, pulled up his contact QR code, and held it right in front of Yang Qingmei.
Since Annie wouldn't believe a word he said anyway, he might as well just make her hate him even more!
At that moment, Yang Qingmei's eyes lit up. Terrified that he might change his mind, she opened her scanner to add him as a friend.
The moment Annie saw he actually dared to do it, she flew into a rage: "Don't you dare!"
The corners of Yu Sixue's lips curved in a faint smile, his eyes clearly saying that he dared indeed.
"A kept man!" Furious, Annie lunged forward and snatched his phone. Before Yang Qingmei could scan the code, Annie smashed it fiercely onto the ground.
The phone screen shattered, flickered twice, and breathed its last.
"You—" Yang Qingmei widened her eyes, staring at Annie in disbelief. "What are you doing?"
Seeing her hard-earned WeChat contact vanish into thin air, Yang Qingmei's heart sank instantly, adding several shades of gloom to her face.
"Shut up!" Annie snapped angrily, then turned back to Yu Sixue, who remained unfazed despite having his phone smashed. "Let me tell you, I, Li Yunru, despise kept men more than anything in this world! Five million wasn't enough? I'll give you another five million. Is that enough now?"
Yu Sixue raised his gaze slightly, a bleak coldness flashing through his eyes. "Enough. Thank you, Ms. Li."
"Get lost!" Annie roared. Yu Sixue bent down, picked up the lifeless phone from the ground, and walked away with heavy steps.
Yang Qingmei wanted to stop him, but Annie clearly looked out of her mind with rage. Under Annie's fierce glare, Yang Qingmei had to swallow her unwillingness.
Annie glanced at Yang Qingmei's cheap clothing, her tone laced with hostility: "Men are no good. The moment he takes my five million, he turns right around and looks for another sucker. You can't afford to keep him, so do yourself a favor and give up on that idea. Spending money on men brings bad luck for a lifetime."
Yang Qingmei clenched her jaw, taking Annie's warning as humiliation. Yang Qingmei hated rich people, and she hated rich people who looked down on her even more.
Annie stormed into the production crew's set. Yang Qingmei's resentful gaze seemed steeped in poison, following Annie until she disappeared from sight.
Fu Siyu, who had been watching the drama the whole time, looked genuinely surprised. "I never took Li Yunru for someone who would lower her social standing."
Her implication was unmistakable, causing Yang Qingmei to clench her fists even tighter.
"Ouch! Got so caught up in the show I almost forgot the main business." With that, Fu Siyu went back to arguing with the security guards; she was determined to get onto this production set today no matter what.
After multiple failed attempts, Fu Siyu grew furious, pulled out her phone, and called Tong Xin.
"Cousin~ Your set's watchdogs won't let me in! Hurry up and give them a word, make Director Zhang come out and pick me up!"
"Which Director Zhang could I mean? Zhang Buyang from the Xianxia Production Crew, of course! Aren't you the female lead? A bunch of dogs judging people by their clothes—have them all fired later."
"What? No way? I don't care, I just want to get into the Xianxia Production Crew, hurry up and come get me!"
"What? You're not here? Then tell Zhang Buyang to come get me. Playing a second female lead shouldn't be a problem, right?"
At this, Fu Siyu grew a bit irritated. Why was it that nothing worked? When did Tong Xin become so stingy?
"Cousin! Do you still acknowledge me as your cousin? Aren't you supposed to run the entertainment industry? How can a mere second female lead be out of reach?"
The guard at the gate remained indifferent, his expression growing even more disdainful as he decided Lin Xiangxiang was nothing but a chronic liar.
Having been rejected several times in a row, Fu Siyu's temper flared. With an impatient and exasperated expression, she snapped, "Fine, forget it then! Who even cares?"
She hung up the phone with a sharp slap of her hand. Yang Qingmei felt a rush of satisfaction; even though they hadn't seen Tong Xin, as long as Fu Siyu was frustrated, she was happy.
"Let's go! This lousy Xianxia Production Crew—even if they begged me, I wouldn't come!" Fu Siyu stormed off, and Yang Qingmei strode along right behind her.
Lin Xiangxiang shrank back behind a tree, making sure Fu Siyu couldn't see her.
What on earth were they talking about? I'm so curious! They were too far away; even with Lin Xiangxiang straining her ears, she couldn't make out a thing. She decided she would just wait for Annie to come out and ask her!
She didn't have to wait long. Annie hurried out, looking flustered—clearly, something had happened inside.
"Xiangxiang!" Annie jogged all the way over, completely abandoning her usual image.
"What's wrong?" Lin Xiangxiang quickly emerged from behind the tree. "What happened?"
"I... I think I misunderstood him! Or... or was he doing it on purpose, playing hard to get?" Annie spilled everything out in one breathless rush, like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.
"Yu Sixue, that sweet younger guy who chased me for so long, the one I told you about last time."
"I rejected him clearly many times, but he only grew more persistent the more he got knocked down. That's why when I saw him today, I assumed he was resorting to any means necessary to get me."
"He didn't take the five-million-yuan check, and just now I even used five million to humiliate him. Now I don't know if he only approached me for my family's wealth, or if... could there be a chance he actually likes me?"
"No way! Absolutely not! Men are no good! Xiangxiang, help me!"
Annie had always been confident and strong; it took a truly rare force to rattle her heartstrings like this.
Anxious and terrified of having wronged him, Annie poured her heart out. Lin Xiangxiang knew nothing about Yu Sixue; this was only the second time she had ever heard his name from Annie's lips.
"Don't panic. Good things take time. If he truly is the right one for you, he will definitely stand the test."
Before Lin Xiangxiang could even finish, Annie shook her head frantically. She had lost too badly and didn't dare gamble again: "You know I'm terrified."
"Annie, don't worry, time will prove everything." Lin Xiangxiang took her trembling hands and comforted her, "Do you want me to come with you to clear your head?"
"Yes! Let's go clubbing! Move!" Ignoring Lin Xiangxiang's protests, Annie gripped her wrist tightly, terrified she might run off.
Whenever Annie grew restless, it was always karaoke or clubbing. She was already a regular at the bars.
A pleated mini-skirt, an oversized baseball jacket, blonde twin-tails, and a glowing hairpin with small colored lights gifted by the bar's vibe squad—at this moment, Annie was the flashiest babe in the entire place.
Amidst the noisy crowd, dim and shifting colorful lights flashed to the rhythm of heavy, pulsating DJ beats.
Annie had the kind of youthful, baby-faced cuteness: big eyes, double eyelids, long eyelashes, and a cherry mouth. Every expression made people want to protect her.
Lin Xiangxiang shrank into the corner of the booth. She hated it when Annie went clubbing, but she hated karaoke even more. Who would have guessed that such a sweet-looking girl was a top-tier tone-deaf singer?
Bored out of her mind, Lin Xiangxiang looked around. She knew bars were chaotic: a young couple on the left humped along to the beat; a couple of big guys on the right strained their tight shirts to the bursting point; and right in front, a one-on-three session of heavy petting and groroping was genuinely hard on the eyes.
Having finished partying, Annie came back with party confetti stuck all over her hair, sat down unceremoniously, and tossed a small slip of paper onto the table in front of Lin Xiangxiang. "A few little pups handed these to me. One of them looked too earth-shattering so I turned him down, but the others looked decent—want me to split one with you?"
"No thanks," Lin Xiangxiang refused decisively. Annie wasn't surprised.
"Can't take them anyway; everyone here is a spoiled brat, don't mess with them." Annie played wild and talked a big game, constantly flirting with guys just to run away afterward, but deep down she had her head screwed on tighter than anyone.
"Are you sure you don't want to come clubbing with me? It's so much fun!" Annie had lost count of how many times she'd invited her, and every time Lin Xiangxiang refused flatly.
"Oh come on, didn't you say you were coming along to help me blow off steam?" Annie kept tugging at Lin Xiangxiang, but Lin Xiangxiang simply clung to the table leg and stayed completely still.
Right as the two of them were tugging back and forth, a punk with dyed red hair came over to hit on them.
A cliché routine: a mainstream-defying oversized fringe blocked his entire left eye, and the guy was twitching constantly like he had Alzheimer's.
Ultra-low-rise ripped jeans revealed a thoroughly unsexy waistline, and a titanium-steel chain running from his shirt chest pocket to his lower back clinked endlessly. Adopting a second-rate gangster accent and clearly believing himself irresistibly charming, he purred, "Hey there, beauty~ here alone?"
The red-headed punk gave his head a sudden violent toss, sending his fringe flying and scattering a couple of flakes of dandruff. It was only when his left eye was finally exposed that he noticed someone sitting right beside her: "Oh~ two beauties?"
"......"
"......"
Lin Xiangxiang and Annie exchanged glances, both rendered utterly speechless. What era was this? Hadn't non-mainstream punks gone extinct yet?
"You two lucky ladies meeting this young master is the blessing of eight lifetimes. I'm willing to give you both an opportunity to please me." The red-headed punk looked immensely pleased with himself, waiting for the two of them to be overwhelmed by his charm.
"Little bro, watch out for a cold womb if you leave your belly button hanging out like that~" Annie rubbed her temples, her voice still calm and even.
The punk froze for a split second, leaned in close, curved the corner of his mouth, and sneered, "Woman, are you playing hard to get with this young master?"
So greasy! So utterly greasy! Lin Xiangxiang and Annie rubbed their arms in unison, barely holding back their urge to vomit.
"Let's go. Probably ate too much boneless chicken feet sucked on by some old lady—total mood killer." Annie stood up, grabbed Lin Xiangxiang, and made to leave. The red-headed punk sidestepped, blocking their path.
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave!"
The moment Annie laid eyes on his smirking, obnoxious face, she wanted to slap him hard across the cheek. Considering he had only said something disgusting so far, Annie didn't want to lower herself to his level, so she simply said in a low voice, "Get lost!"
"Don't push your luck. This young master taking a fancy to you is your blessing. Since you're at a bar anyway, what's with the holier-than-thou act?" The red-headed punk extended a gesture with his pinky finger, aiming to poke Annie's shoulder. Annie sidestepped to dodge it.
"I'm warning you, this bar belongs to my Leng family brothers. Believe it or not, with one word from me, we'll take turns running a train on the two of you! By then you'll be begging me to grace you with my favor again, so what's with acting like pure virgin lilies?"
As the foul language spewed out, Annie's hot temper instantly blew. She snatched up a wine bottle from the table and, with lightning speed, smashed it right across the top of his skull.
Bang!
The glass bottle shattered. The red-headed punk clearly hadn't expected her to play for keeps; this single bottle to the head left him completely dazed.
"Play? My ass will play with you!" Annie gripped the jagged, broken bottle tightly, the sharp glass pointing menacingly right at the red-headed punk's face.
A chill ran down the red-headed punk's spine, sending his heart racing. *Damn it! This bitch is playing for real?!*
"Leng family, prepare for battle!" At the punk's command, a bunch of one-eyed wannabes rushed out of the bar in a flurry. They all sported matching oversized fringes and teased hair; pull any single one of them aside and you'd have a walking palette.
"You dare show disrespect to Young Master Leng? Step forward and die!"
"Daring to cross the Leng family? Do you still want to survive in these streets?"
Annie grabbed another wine bottle and smashed it against the edge of the table with a loud *clack*. With a jagged, broken bottle in each hand, she squared off against the crowd.
"We're finished!" The moment Lin Xiangxiang saw Annie's state, she knew she had lost her mind. Seeing the overwhelming numbers, she quickly pulled a pair of nunchucks from her bag and assumed a fighting stance.
"Come on then! Let's see who dares step up!" The alcohol Annie had just consumed was finally hitting her full force.
The red-headed punk and his crew of fifteen or sixteen people took her fierce display almost as a personal insult to their pride.
*Crack, crack, crack* went the sound of shattering bottles as the Leng family members each armed themselves with a bottle. When those sharp glass shards pointed directly at Annie's face, she sobered up quite a bit.
Lin Xiangxiang caught her breath and grabbed Annie's arm in a death grip, terrified that a single impulse would send her charging forward.
"Get behind me!" Lin Xiangxiang wasn't entirely confident either; she only knew a few flashy martial arts moves, good enough for ordinary people, but against professional thugs like these, she would likely take a beating.
Sure enough, walk by the river often enough and you're bound to get your shoes wet. Go to bars often enough, and you're bound to run into trouble eventually.
"Run first when I say so. I'm fast, I can shake them off." Lin Xiangxiang tightened her grip on the nunchucks and backed up, shielding Annie.
Annie grabbed Lin Xiangxiang by the collar, forcefully hauling her behind her. "I, Li Yunru, need a weak woman to protect me? Get behind me!"
"Oh~ how very righteous! This young master likes it~" The red-headed punk tossed his oversized fringe once more, opening his mouth to speak, but Annie couldn't hold back any longer!
"Damn it, you're disgusting!" Annie raised the broken bottle and charged straight at him. The Leng family didn't hold back either, thrusting jagged glass right toward Annie's face. Lin Xiangxiang's heart skipped a beat; she whipped her nunchucks out hard, striking the punk's wrist with a resounding smack. The man let out a cry of pain as the bottle flew from his grip.
Though these thugs hung out on the streets, they hadn't lost their minds entirely; they knew committing actual murder meant prison time.
Annie charged forward like a madwoman, terrifying the swaggering punks and sending them scattering wildly across the bar in a panic.
Screams rose one after another. There was simply no holding back a berserk Annie as she chased the red-headed punk, with Lin Xiangxiang desperately chasing after Annie.
"Li Yunru! Have you lost your mind?!" Lin Xiangxiang could run fast, but in this shoulder-to-shoulder, packed bar, her mobility was completely restricted. Annie, however, was in her element; before Lin Xiangxiang knew it, Annie reached out a long arm and grabbed the red-headed punk by his teased hair.
"Ah—!"
"Li Yunru! Stop!" Lin Xiangxiang cried out in sheer panic, her voice sharp.
The jagged glass in Annie's hand was already descending toward the red-headed punk's face. Onlookers covered their eyes with their sleeves. The red-headed punk's shrill screams cut off abruptly as he passed out cold on the spot.
Annie's wrist was caught in a tight, firm grip just as the glass shards stopped a mere centimeter away from the red-headed punk's eyeball.
Seeing the frenzied Annie finally restrained, the remaining members of the Leng family rushed forward. One of them pried Annie's hand loose from the punk's hair while the others dragged him away by his limbs, fleeing the bar as if running for their lives, shouting in lingering terror, "She's crazy! That woman is out of her mind!"
Annie stared fixedly at the newcomer. It was none other than Yu Sixue, the very man she had just told to get lost.
Annie jerked her hand back violently. Because she pulled the glass bottle back too hastily, the sharp edge sliced a jagged gash across the web of his hand, and blood instantly spurted out. Annie's chest seized, her pupils contracting sharply.
Yu Sixue frowned slightly, then calmly closed his hand into a fist to stem the bleeding.
"You..." Annie started with a single word, but before she could finish, Yu Sixue stood up, speaking in a flat tone completely devoid of emotion: "What a coincidence, running into Big Sis even when coming out for a dance."
His implication was clear: the two of them had simply bumped into each other by chance.
"Is that so?" Annie slowly stood up, looking up at him. "You know how to club?"
"Gotta start learning sometime, don't I? Otherwise, how could I live up to my five-million-yuan price tag?" Yu Sixue lowered his gaze, shrouding all his expressions in the shadows cast by his crow-feather-like eyelashes.
"Five million?" Annie slammed the wine bottle in her hand down onto the floor. Just hearing those words made her blood boil.
Why hadn't he explained himself when he didn't take that five million? What was his mouth for? Did he have to make her misunderstand him on purpose? Annie strode forward, reached out to grab his collar firmly, pulled him down, and stood on tiptoe to press her red lips against his.
Startled by the sudden move, Yu Sixue pushed Annie away abruptly, wiping the lipstick off his mouth with the back of his hand. He looked at Annie with a gaze burning with anger.
"Li Yunru, do you even know what you're doing?"
"Five million. Stay the night with me." As Annie stepped forward again, a look of hurt flashed across Yu Sixue's face, his heart sinking. He twitched the corner of his mouth without a word.
Seeing him remain completely unmoved, Annie turned to the surrounding crowd and shouted loudly, "I'm Li Yunru from the Li Group! Is there anyone here who wants to spend the night with me?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, a commotion broke out. People shoved and elbowed each other, all trying to catch her attention.
Annie smiled triumphantly and turned back to Yu Sixue. "See? Just the name Li Yunru alone is enough to attract all these suitors. Giving you the chance was doing you a favor."
It was precisely this attitude of hers that Yu Sixue detested—she always treated the feelings between them as trivial, acting as if every man in the world only cared about her money.
"If you're happy, that's all that matters." Yu Sixue was already used to her saying the exact opposite of what she meant.
He turned to leave, but Annie shouted urgently, "Go on then! If you dare walk out that door, I'll find some random person to spend the night with—a different one every single day."
Yu Sixue's steps came to a halt. He didn't know if Annie would actually do it, and he certainly didn't dare take the gamble.
Seeing that her threat had gotten a reaction out of Yu Sixue, Annie felt a burst of hidden triumph and threw on one last bit of fuel.
"Either you stay with me tonight, or I'll just find some random—ah—!" Yu Sixue suddenly spun around, heaved Annie over his shoulder, and strode straight out of the bar.
Lin Xiangxiang grabbed both of their backpacks and hurried after them in a desperate rush.
Matters of the heart were like drinking water—only the drinker knew if it was hot or cold. Lin Xiangxiang couldn't guarantee whether Annie genuinely liked him, nor could she guarantee whether Yu Sixue was a kept man like Zhou Hao, but she simply couldn't stand by and watch Yu Sixue carry Annie off like this.
Yu Sixue flagged down a taxi by the roadside and forced Annie into the back seat with a mix of firmness and gentleness. Seeing that he had no intention of getting in the front, Annie grabbed his sleeve in a death grip.
Yu Sixue glanced back at Lin Xiangxiang, signaling her to take the front seat, before climbing into the back himself and sitting right beside Annie.
"Driver, Riverside Villas."
With a cheerful "You got it!", the driver hit the gas, and the car roared forward.
Lin Xiangxiang wanted to ask something, but through the rearview mirror, she caught sight of Annie in the back seat clinging tightly to Yu Sixue's arm, burying her face in his chest as if terrified he might run away.
The driver possessed excellent skills; within five minutes, the car pulled up outside Riverside Villas. After paying the fare and getting out, she saw that Annie had already drifted into a daze.
Yu Sixue scooped Annie up bridal-style and walked familiarly into the villa, heading straight for Annie's bedroom.