"Protecting you is free of charge!" Meng Qingyan smiled, his eyes full of deep affection. Alas, turning around, he discovered that Song Xinxin had run off somewhere. It turns out that those words had been said in vain.
When Song Xinxin saw the spot where she had been drugged and knocked out, she gave a start and ran right over. After searching around in the dark for a moment, she noticed that Meng Qingyan had followed her, so she turned back without looking at him and said, "Hoodlum Bro, could you help me make a phone call?"
"Who to?" Meng Qingyan was somewhat baffled.
Song Xinxin directly reeled off a phone number. Although Meng Qingyan had no idea who she wanted to call, he faithfully dialed the number anyway.
A pleasant ringtone chimed out, and Song Xinxin excitedly followed the sound as she searched through the green hedge.
Soon she found it, crying out in pleasant surprise, "Ah, ah, ah... It really is here!" Holding the mobile phone, Song Xinxin hopped and skipped with excitement, as happy as a little rabbit.
Standing beside her, Meng Qingyan watched the scene with the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. She really was profound for three seconds and lively for six.
Now that she had the phone number, she could really work hard from now on.
Back on Yuan Lai's side, he placed the drugged Lin Miaoke on the bed, cursing furiously in his heart: "You little bitch, you actually plotted against me, got people to beat me up, and even made me hand over the woman I love for others to play with? Well, today I'll let you taste what it feels like to be played with by others too! You still want to sue me and ruin my reputation? Let's see whose reputation gets ruined first! With something I have on you, let's see how you can still act so arrogant and domineering in front of me from now on!"
Yuan Lai was a man of action once he set his mind to something.
He set up the camera, picked up the Polaroid and his phone, and began his "creation."
To capture an authentic feel, he specially administered medicine to Lin Miaoke and took some himself.
That night, Yuan Lai truly fulfilled this task with both quantity and quality, not only letting Lin Miaoke experience floating to the immortals, but also allowing him to attain unprecedented pleasure in wave after wave of outbursts.
The next day at noon, Lin Miaoke was woken up by a phone call as she lay exhausted on the bed.
She reached out weakly, fumbling for her phone on the nightstand, and answered the call without even opening her eyes.
Her mother's anxious voice came through from the other end of the line: "Where on earth have you been running wild, girl? The school even called me saying you didn't go to class this morning. Hurry up and call your teacher to explain why you skipped class without a reason!"
"Skipped class?" Hearing those two words, Lin Miaoke suddenly bolted upright in bed. "I clearly set my alarm... How could I possibly skip..." Before she could finish her sentence, she let out a piercing shriek.
At that moment, she was completely naked, standing right there in the middle of the bed. Scattered all around the bed were numerous used tissues and little raincoats.
She suddenly felt a sharp pain from a private part of her body. Her legs went weak, and she collapsed, sitting heavily on the bed.
She could not believe everything happening right before her eyes, nor the pain coming from her body. Never in all her life had she suffered such humiliation. Her tears gushed down like a burst levee as she wept, shouting and fiercely beating the pillow in her hands to vent the anger in her heart.
Humiliation and fury intertwined in her chest. At that moment, Lin Miaoke felt that life was utterly pitch-black, and the sole culprit behind all of this was none other than that scum Yuan Lai.
Right then, she wanted nothing more than to tear him apart with her bare hands!
"Bastard, bastard, Yuan Lai, you bastard, how dare you... treat me this way? I'm going to kill you, kill you, kill you..." she roared, yet the rage in her heart did not diminish in the slightest from venting; instead, it grew heavier and heavier, pressing down on her until she could barely breathe.
When her eyes swept across a photograph placed on the nightstand, she lunged forward in fury and tore the humiliating picture to shreds.
Then she screamed, "Yuan Lai, you bastard, scum, absolute pervert..." Just as she was venting her grievances, an envelope on the nightstand caught her attention.
She lunged forward once more and opened the envelope. Inside was a printed letter.
The general gist of it was that he now had something on her; if she ever got people to hurt him or Song Xinxin again, he would make all these things public and completely ruin her reputation.
Lin Miaoke's head was buzzing; she was finished, completely finished.
The raging fire in her heart was doused thoroughly by this basin of cold water. She knew that at a time like this, she had to stay calm—to calmly analyze the problem rather than let anger cloud her judgment. She had to maintain the most accurate powers of judgment.
She forced herself to restrain her temper and carefully analyzed the ins and outs of the matter. She knew that at this moment, apart from endurance, there was no other way out. At the same time, she could not let Yuan Lai manipulate her so easily; she would definitely find a way to strike at his weak spot and use it as leverage to trade back the evidence he held against her.
After quite a while, she wiped away the tears that had already gone cold on her face.
Lin Miaoke called her mother and told her not to pursue the matter regarding Yuan Lai any further. Then she instructed her mother to tell those hoodlums to release Song Xinxin and Li Xuan.
Only then did her mother inform her that their men had lost contact after kidnapping Song Xinxin. The exact situation was still unknown.
Furious, Lin Miaoke roared into the phone, "How can you people not even handle such a small task properly! What if we get caught by the police and dragged into this?"
Her mother on the other end comforted her, "Don't worry, at worst Mom will take the blame for everything. Besides, they are Long Jiao's men, so Long Jiao will definitely find a way."
"I don't care whose men they are! I need to ensure my own safety right now. I'm going to be a big star in the future—do you have any idea how much of an impact it would have on me if news like this came out about me?"
The mother on the other end of the line was also very anxious, but she could not fall apart the way Lin Miaoke did. She comforted her, saying she would find a way to resolve everything and telling her not to worry, before hanging up the phone.
Putting down the phone, Lin Miaoke burst into uncontrollable sobs. "How can I not worry? How can I not worry? In the state I'm in now, if any other news breaks out, what am I going to do in the future? What am I going to do?"
At this moment, she was extremely fragile, as if a mere gentle touch would shatter her instantly.
In Meng Qingyan's office, Assistant Bai knocked on the door and walked in. "President Meng, you asked for me?"
As Meng Qingyan looked over the documents in his hands, he asked, "Did you get any news out of that gang of hoodlums?"
Hearing this, Assistant Bai wore a troubled expression and hesitated for a long time before finally speaking, "President Meng, this matter might not be as simple as it seems. Those hoodlums are indeed Long Jiao's subordinates, but this time when they made their move, it wasn't ordered by Long Jiao, but rather by Madam Lin..."
"Madam Lin? Which Madam Lin?" Meng Qingyan didn't understand why he was hesitating and not daring to speak out, using the title "Madam Lin" instead of giving a direct name.Seeing that he could no longer keep it a secret, Assistant Bai blurted out, "It is Lin Jinshan's wife—your aunt—Gu Ping."
Hearing this name, Meng Qingyan's face darkened with displeasure. "What? Her?"
"Yes, President Meng. She married Lin Jinshan as his second wife. You were sick and away abroad at the time, so the old madam never mentioned it to you," Assistant Bai explained, telling him everything he knew.
"No wonder. I remember when I was little, my aunt used to visit our house often, and my mother would always give her some money and things. After I went abroad and came back, I never saw my aunt again," Meng Qingyan recalled. "I remember she often brought a younger sister with her back then. What about that sister?"
"I checked on that, President Meng. Your cousin went with Gu Ping into the Lin Family, changed her name, and is now called Lin Mohan. Gu Ping and Lin Jinshan had a daughter named Lin Miaoke. And Lin Miaoke just got accepted into Media University this year. She is Miss Song's junior."
"Lin Miaoke and Song Xinxin are at the same school?" Meng Qingyan seemed to realize something.
Assistant Bai swallowed hard. He knew he couldn't hide it anymore, so he mustered up his courage and spilled everything he had found out at Media University in one breath.
After listening to Assistant Bai's account, Meng Qingyan had a rough idea of what was going on in his mind.
"So President Meng, you really can't blame me for this. You know the old madam's temper, her family on her mother's side... I really had no choice..." Assistant Bai said helplessly.
"So according to you, these people should just be let go?" Meng Qingyan raised his eyelids, clearly displeased.
"Anyway, I've said everything I should say. Why don't you make the decision?" Assistant Bai adopted a fatalistic attitude.
He knew all too well about the old madam's habit of shielding her own family. If she found out, who knew what kind of uproar she would make?
Meng Qingyan thought about it. His cousin had stolen Song Xinxin's boyfriend, and not only that, she had even sent people to do such a vicious thing to Song Xinxin, yet he was expected to just swallow it and endure.
Of course, in terms of reason and morality, he could never tolerate this. But when he thought of his mother, he had no choice but to hold back. This matter would probably have to be left at that.
Yet, if that were really the case, how was he supposed to give Song Xinxin an explanation? He had clearly promised her, but now that promise was likely going to fall through.
"Sigh!" Meng Qingyan let out a helpless sigh. Just the thought of his mother crying and pleading with him, then preaching a whole bunch of high-minded principles about blood and kinship, gave him a headache. If it came to that, worn down to the end, he would still have to agree to let them go. He might as well just release them now. After all, he had already investigated everything he needed to. If he really wanted to deal with the Lin Family in the future, using a few small tricks in the business world would be enough—as long as it wasn't too obvious for his mother to notice...
"Go ahead. Do Long Jiao a favor and let these people go. At the same time, tell Long Jiao to pull his men out of the South Street area. Otherwise, if I take action again next time, it won't just be broken hands and feet."
"Understood, President Meng. I'll go take care of it right away." Relieved of his heavy burden, Assistant Bai scurried out eagerly.
That afternoon, Lin Miaoke returned to school and asked her teacher for leave under some pretext. For various reasons, the teacher agreed and did not impose any punishment on her.
Yuan Lai strutted around smugly all day. During class, his mind kept wandering back to that night with Lin Miaoke at the hotel last night. That feeling had been simply wonderful.But when he saw Song Xinxin attending the same class as him, it felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over him, chilling him to the bone from head to toe. In his mind, Song Xinxin had become the victim of bullying, and the lewd grin of the hoodlum boss was as vivid as drops of blood staining a sheet of white paper.
Having done something wrong, Yuan Lai did not dare to face Song Xinxin. Yet Song Xinxin's cold indifference made him feel even worse. The woman who used to hover around him almost every day now refused to even spare him a single glance, and this stark contrast filled him with agony.
Then again, he thought, if Song Xinxin had already been used by a man like that, he wouldn't even want her now if she were handed to him on a silver platter.
Class finally ended. Yuan Lai's mind had been racing with wild thoughts all day, making it impossible for him to focus on the lectures. As a result, he couldn't answer a single question the teacher asked, and when he was called up to the stage to act out a scene, his performance was completely nonsensical. The teacher was deeply disappointed with him and even considered kicking him out of the drama rehearsal.
After school, Yuan Lai was still in a daze as he walked down the campus path, when suddenly a fertilizer sack was jammed over his head. Immediately, a barrage of punches and kicks rained down on him. He cried out loudly for help, but not only did his assailant stay silent, the blows actually grew heavier. He felt the fists pounding like a constellation of stars across every inch of his body. He wailed in agony, but received no response in return. After a long while—perhaps because his attacker grew tired or left—he finally managed to catch his breath and prepared to crawl out of the sack.
Just as he was pulling hard with both hands, the person who had beaten him seemed to return, delivering another round of kicks to his body, followed by grabbing a tree branch from the ground and lashing him wildly with it.
Perhaps he had been beaten so many times over the past couple of days that his body had developed a certain tolerance; he felt that the force of this latest assault was far inferior to the previous barrage of fists and feet. If it weren't for the fact that every blow landed on his body hurt his pride just as much, he would have loved to shout, "Bro, is that all you've got? Are you just tickling me?"
Yet he didn't dare yell that out. Although it wasn't quite as painful, it still hurt; the pain was simply overshadowed by the sheer intensity of the earlier beating.
Just as he was wondering whether the attacker had run out of strength and could no longer hit him, a vicious kick landed squarely between his legs.
That single kick nearly cost him his life. He let out a shriek, clutching his most precious asset as he curled up into a ball.
Seeing him in this state, his assailant felt utterly refreshed and almost burst out laughing. She then delivered two heavy thuds against his shielding groin, as if only this could vent her pent-up fury, before tossing her head back and walking away without looking back.
After walking for a bit, Lin Miaoke found it strange why Yuan Lai had been trapped inside a fertilizer sack in the first place—it was something she simply couldn't figure out. But precisely because he was trapped inside that sack, she had been able to beat him to her heart's content. What a cathartic release! Especially those kicks to his crotch; they had made her feel ecstatic.
Thinking about the beating she had just administered, Lin Miaoke felt the whole day was wonderful as she walked away in high spirits.
Walking away in similarly high spirits was Song Xinxin. Because she had hit him a bit too hard, her knuckles were still aching.
She gently rubbed her hand, thinking to herself, "Next time, I should buy some brass knuckles. That way, my hand won't hurt when I beat people."