Ye Ran was explaining the sequence of events to the police officer.
Suddenly, Lu Lingshuang lashed out, hurling a cup at her as if she had lost her mind. Ye Ran dodged it, but Lu Lingshuang lunged forward with claws outstretched, her hand whistling through the air as she aimed a vicious slap at Ye Ran’s face.
Ye Ran had been on guard; there was no way she would let that happen. With a slight tilt of her head, she dodged the blow and caught Lu Lingshuang’s wrist. At that exact moment, the officer beside them rose to his feet and moved in to restrain Lu Lingshuang.
"What is the meaning of this? Look where you are! Do you think this is a place where you can just assault people?"
The reprimand went unheeded.
Lu Lingshuang felt no fear. She cast a disdainful glance at the officer’s rank insignia, her tone dripping with arrogant contempt: "A local police station, and you think you’re qualified to bark orders at me? Come back when you’ve got more bars on your shoulder if you want to talk to me!"
After brushing the officer off, she tugged her wrist hard and glared at Ye Ran. "You damned slut! Let go of me!"
There was no point in arguing with someone so unreasonable. Ye Ran released her grip.
Lu Lingshuang rubbed her wrist, her face twisted in a look of ugly resentment. Seeing the officer still trying to lecture her, her rage boiled over. "Shut up! You say I filed a false accusation, that I planted evidence, and that I wasted public resources..."
She paused, a malicious, wild, and insolent laugh escaping her throat. She tapped the officer’s chest with her finger. "Do you have any idea how much the Lu Family contributes to society? How much we donate to charity every year? How much we pay in taxes?"
"Don't talk to me about wasting public resources over a trifle like this. Even if I were to mobilize the entire city’s police force, you would still have no choice but to—"
Lu Lingshuang stopped, then tapped his chest forcefully with every word: "—cooperate obediently!"
"Who else but us has the money and the power? Isn't that how the world works? With enough money, you can make the devil turn the mill."
Lu Lingshuang put on that innocent, harmless face again, smiling with an expression both radiant and utterly wicked.
The officer’s fists clenched with fury. Before he could speak, Lu Lingshuang saw her chance, turned, and slapped Ye Ran hard across the face.
*Slap!*
The sound of flesh on flesh was crisp. She had put her full force into it; the pain was searing.
"You damned bitch, you still dare to deny it! For years you’ve lived off my brother, eaten his food, and spent so much of our family's money! You want to just wipe the slate clean? Keep dreaming!"
"I say you stole from my brother, so you stole! My word is evidence!"
"Is that so?"
Ye Ran slowly turned her face back. Her voice remained calm, and there was not a trace of pain on her indifferent expression, as if the blow hadn't landed on her at all. She even managed a faint smile at the raving Lu Lingshuang. "In that case, you’ve stolen a family heirloom of mine: a pair of Yuan dynasty blue-and-white plum vases. They have an auction value of roughly one billion."
Lu Lingshuang was stunned, then let out a scoff of disdain. "What did you say? Your family is so poor that even a thief would cry on their way out of your house, and you have an heirloom worth hundreds of millions? And you’re accusing me of stealing it?"
Ye Ran was neither angry nor annoyed. Her gaze was steady and clear as she nodded slightly. "That’s right. You stole them. And my word is evidence."
Two could play at the game of spite and irrationality.
Miss Lu might be a bully with power to lean on, but while Ye Ran had no influence to rely on, a person with nothing to lose never fears someone who has everything to lose.
She would burn it all down if she had to. She wanted to see if the Lu Family could really allow Lu Lingshuang to run rampant and ruin their reputation entirely.
"So you're copying me? Who do you think you are to mimic me?!"
Lu Lingshuang was so angry she laughed. Gritting her teeth, she reached out to strike again, but this time, Ye Ran didn’t just dodge; she slapped Lu Lingshuang back, hard.
"That was for the first one!"
Ye Ran didn’t release Lu Lingshuang’s arm. "You aren't worth the effort of me copying you! Lu Lingshuang, stop this insane, tantrum-throwing act. I am not your brother, and I am no longer going to tolerate your nonsense!"
In the past, Lu Lingshuang had used her brother's influence and her position as the younger sister to constantly set traps and ride roughshod over Ye Ran.
But those days were over.
As she spoke, Ye Ran’s eyes narrowed, and she slapped Lu Lingshuang again.
She was collecting on her debts, with interest.
The witnesses nearby felt a surge of secret satisfaction. Lu Lingshuang, clutching her face, stared at Ye Ran in shock and disbelief. If it hadn't been for the burning pain on her cheek, she wouldn't have believed she had been hit—let alone by Ye Ran.
Unlike the false accusations she usually fed Lu Linshen, this time it was real. Ye Ran had actually… dared to lay a hand on her.
"You... you dare hit me?"
Lu Lingshuang was blinded by fury and hatred, unable to fathom why Ye Ran was acting this way. A surge of conflicting emotions left her so flustered she couldn't even form a coherent sentence.
Ye Ran couldn't be bothered to deal with her anymore. She turned, pulled back her chair, and sat down to continue her statement.
A policewoman rushed in and led Lu Lingshuang to another room.
The farce had temporarily ended, but with Lu Lingshuang under investigation for false accusation, defamation, and creating a disturbance, a few days in detention were inevitable. By the time Ye Ran finished cooperating, it was late into the night.
She walked wearily back to her dormitory. As soon as she opened the door, she smelled a faint scent of tobacco in the air.
Before she could reach for the light, she froze, sensing something in the darkness.
The room was pitch black, lit only by the faint light of the moon filtering through the curtains, yet it was enough to clearly reveal a tall, slender figure sitting on the single bed.
His suit jacket was draped to the side, and an empty pack of *Fujisan* cigarettes lay nearby.
The man’s long, straight legs were carelessly crossed. His posture was commanding and imposing, yet his well-defined, strong wrists, his long, sharp fingers, and the faint, striking contours of his face made him look like a breathtaking figure in a moonlight portrait—sexy, restrained, and alluring.
But Ye Ran felt none of that. All she felt was a sickening anxiety and fear.
This was the staff dormitory she had just been assigned.
Lu Linshen…
How did he get in?
Lu Linshen was idly toying with a metal lighter, the crisp *click-clack* of the lid shattering the silence. He slowly turned his head to look at Ye Ran, who stood motionless by the door. His face was hidden in the shadows, but his voice came out low, hoarse, and soft.
"Where have you been? Why are you back so late?"
There was no reproach, no interrogation.
He sounded like a husband waiting for his wife to return from working late, offering nothing more than a nagging, concerned inquiry.
The long-lost gentleness caught Ye Ran off guard, sending a tremor through her taut heart. She rubbed her stiff fingertips and, after a long hesitation, finally spoke: "This is my dormitory. You shouldn't be here."