Lin Feng's voice was very soft, yet it pierced the flashy and noisy atmosphere of the scene like a needle.
The man accompanying Song Zizhou—a wealthy young man with pale skin and sunken eye sockets—was startled at first, then laughed as if he had just heard the biggest joke in the world.
He pointed exaggeratedly at Lin Feng and said with a smile to his female companion, Song Zizhou: "Zizhou, did you hear that? Your good friend's kept boy has quite a temper. He's asking me what I just said."
Song Zizhou, the heiress of the Song Family in Haicheng and Qin Ruyan's acknowledged arch-rival in every possible circle, wore a fiery red long dress and held a wine glass. Her contemptuous gaze swept back and forth between Lin Feng and Qin Ruyan, a trace of undisguised sarcasm curling at the corners of her lips.
"Ruyan, your taste is getting harder and harder to understand." Song Zizhou swirled the red wine in her glass, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, yet loud enough for guests at the surrounding tables to hear clearly.
"In the past, you at least maintained the title of having a vegetative boyfriend, keeping yourself pure. Everyone respected you as a chaste and loyal woman."
"What's wrong? Could you not hold back after three years? Finding a piece of trash like this to have a tryst, aren't you afraid of cuckolding your 'fiancé' who's still lying in a hospital bed?"
As soon as these words were spoken, a suppressed chuckle rippled through the surroundings. Countless gazes filled with curiosity, disdain, and schadenfreude fell squarely upon Qin Ruyan.
Qin Ruyan's face turned pale in an instant. Her knuckles grew white as she gripped her knife and fork with all her might; she hated nothing more than others using this matter to humiliate her, especially in such a public occasion!
"Song Zizhou, watch your mouth!"
"What? Did I hit the nail on the head, and now you're enraged out of shame?" Song Zizhou smiled even more smugly.
"True, after all, that vegetative boyfriend of yours is just a good-for-nothing. Lying there for three years makes no difference from a dead man. It's understandable for you to find a new one—it's just this little mister here."
She turned her gaze to Lin Feng, full of scrutiny and disdain: "I wonder how much allowance this handsome young man gets from you each month? Is it enough to buy the knockoff he's wearing?"
Trembling all over with anger, Qin Ruyan was about to lash out recklessly when Lin Feng pressed his hand down on hers once more. His palm was warm and strong, carrying a reassuring power.
Lin Feng didn't even look at Song Zizhou; his gaze remained locked on the man beside her as he repeated in a flat tone: "I asked you, what did you just say."
The man felt somewhat unnerved by Lin Feng's calm gaze, but saving face, he still stiffened his neck and blustered: "I said you're a kept boy, so what? Believe it or not, with a single word from me, I can make it impossible for you to survive in Haicheng!"
"Oh." Lin Feng nodded and suddenly smiled.
He picked up the glass of lemonade in front of him, took a light sip, and then spoke in a leisurely manner, his voice clearly carrying across the entire venue: "It seems to me that the one who won't be able to survive is probably you."
The man's expression changed: "What do you mean?"
"Nothing much." Lin Feng put down his water glass, his gaze turning sharp as if it could pierce through clothing and see straight into people's hearts.
"I'm just giving you a reminder: that so-called 'vigorousness' maintained by drugs is ultimately like drinking poison to quench thirst. Your left kidney is deficient, and both your vital energy and blood are depleted, resulting in night sweats and fatigue. Over the past half month, have even your morning erections disappeared?"
"You, you're talking nonsense!" The color drained from the man's face instantly, as if he had been stripped bare in public, his eyes filled with panic and shame.
Ignoring his denial, Lin Feng continued: "The blue little pills you've been taking have too harsh a medicinal potency and have already damaged your heart meridians."
"Right now, isn't your heartbeat at least thirty percent faster than usual? And accompanied by a needle-like dull pain in your chest?"
"I, I didn't!" The man was still putting up a front, but the cold sweat constantly beading on his forehead and his instinctive gesture of clutching his chest completely betrayed him.
The surrounding guests were dumbfounded, looking at Lin Feng as if he were a monster.
These symptoms were both intimate and accurate—how did an outsider like him know? Could he have just guessed? Yet judging by the man's reaction, he had hit the nail completely on the head!
The curve of Lin Feng's lips grew wider, carrying a trace of pity in his tone: "Still won't admit it? If you don't cut your losses now, within three months, that thing of yours will be completely ruined, and not even immortals will be able to save you."
"You... you." Pointing at Lin Feng, the man trembled all over with anger, unable to utter a single word.
He felt as though everyone's gaze around him was mocking his incompetence, especially Song Zizhou beside him, whose expression had turned immensely bizarre.
Shame, anger, and fear instantly crushed his last line of psychological defense.
"You lunatic! You're just a lunatic!" He shrieked, abruptly shoving his chair back, and fled the restaurant without looking back, practically running for his life.
A dead silence fell over the entire hall.
Qin Ruyan's beautiful eyes widened in shock as she stared at Lin Feng. She couldn't figure out for the life of her how Lin Feng could pinpoint the other man's hidden ailment with just a glance, knowing even what kind of medicine he took.
Song Zizhou was completely dazed as well. She looked at the flustered retreating figure of her male companion, then back at the calm and composed Lin Feng. The smugness and sarcasm on her face had long since vanished, replaced by heavy shock and suspicion.
"Who on earth are you? How do you know these things?" Song Zizhou's voice was somewhat dry.
Only then did Lin Feng shift his gaze toward her, a playful smile curving the corner of his lips: "Me? I am the very vegetative boyfriend you mentioned, the one who was cuckolded by her."
"What?" Thinking she had heard wrong, Song Zizhou instinctively retorted, "Impossible! Lin Feng, he—"
"He's awake." Lin Feng finished the sentence for her, leaning forward slightly with a hint of banter in his eyes.
"Just this morning. So it's not a tryst—she is my legal wife, celebrating my recovery with me."
Song Zizhou's expression shifted like a palette, transitioning from shock to disbelief, then to shame, anger, and embarrassment in a colorful display.
Her face burned as if she had been slapped hard across both cheeks back and forth.
She had just been mocking Qin Ruyan for finding a kept boy, only for the actual person to be sitting right in front of her! Every single sarcastic remark she had made had turned into a joke!
Just as she was caught on the horns of a dilemma, so embarrassed she wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into, her phone in her pocket suddenly rang sharply.
Granted a reprieve, Song Zizhou hurriedly pulled out her phone. Seeing the caller ID, her expression changed once more, and she answered the call.
"Hello? What?!" Whatever was said on the other end of the line caused Song Zizhou's pitch to shoot up sharply, the embarrassment and awkwardness on her face instantly replaced by extreme shock and wild ecstasy.
"He's really awake?! Are you sure? Good! Good! I know!"
She hung up the phone, trembling slightly from excitement.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at Lin Feng and Qin Ruyan again. Her gaze had already recovered that aloof sense of superiority, even tinged with a hint of schadenfreude and pity.