"Shenxin, how did you let him trick you again?" Li Xuan felt a deep sense of frustration. "What's the use of treating him so well? What's the use of loving him so much? But look at this—you've only been gone for half a month, and he's already mixed up with this Lin Miaoke. You always were too soft-hearted. If it were me, I'd have broken his scoundrel legs for sure!"
Hearing Yuan Lai's remark just moments ago claiming she had actively seduced him, Lin Miaoke felt her anger surge instantly from somewhere deep inside. Fueled by a sudden burst of strength, she sprang to her feet, bolted over to Yuan Lai, and shoved Song Shenxin aside from where she was kneeling before him. Then, she let loose a furious barrage of blows on Yuan Lai.
"Say that again! I wouldn't be caught dead looking at you, I wouldn't look twice at you! What, are you still too thick to understand human speech? Who's seducing who? Let me tell you straight today, trash like you is only good enough for someone as blind as Song Shenxin! The moment your eyes start rolling, I know what filthy schemes you're cooking up. You were trying to trick me into staying alone with you so you could take advantage of me, weren't you? Scumbags like you deserve to be beaten until your endocrine system is completely wrecked, left lying in bed forever with nobody to look after you!" Lashing out like a madwoman with her fists, Lin Miaoke pounded away at him mercilessly.
This behavior completely clashed with her usual image of an adorable young girl, and the raw profanity she was shouting made the whole spectacle indescribably awkward. It was the absolute picture of a shrew cursing in the street.
Fearing that Lin Miaoke might accidentally hurt Song Shenxin, Li Xuan had already pulled Song Shenxin back to her side. The two of them stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the front, watching this fine show of dogs biting dogs.
Looking at Song Shenxin with worry, Li Xuan said, "I told you long ago that a man like this is trouble, but you wouldn't listen. Well, now you've got no choice."
"I know, I know. You've got an eye for people, you see right through everything, and I'm just a blind fool. But never again, I promise!" Song Shenxin was deeply touched that Li Xuan had taken leave to rush back and help her. With that, she held up three fingers and swore an oath.
Li Xuan hurriedly batted her hand down. "Look where we are before you start making oaths! If you want to swear oaths, save it for when we get back!"
"Right, right, right, I know. My bad, my bad," Song Shenxin whispered.
At that moment, Teacher Qiu walked over with an angry expression and demanded, "What is going on here?"
The moment she heard Teacher Qiu's voice, Song Shenxin burst immediately into tears.
After sorting out the whole sequence of events, Teacher Qiu ordered all of them to go to the disciplinary office to write self-criticisms.
The main issue was that the incident had disrupted school operations; everyone had been so caught up in the spectacle that nobody had gone to class, and someone had reported them to the teachers.
After writing their self-criticisms and enduring a stern lecture and reprimand from the teacher, the group finally headed back.
Dating in university was nothing out of the ordinary, and while the act of physical violence was perhaps somewhat severe, since none of the parties involved wished to press the matter, the school did not explicitly demand any formal disciplinary action.
After all, the students here would all be stepping out into the public eye in the future, and some might even become major stars, so under normal circumstances, the school preferred to avoid handing out any disciplinary records.
And so, the affair drew to a quiet and unceremonious close.
Song Shenxin could finally consider herself temporarily free of Yuan Lai, having regained her independence.
While the matter was essentially settled on Song Shenxin's end, for Yuan Lai and Lin Miaoke, it felt as though it had only just begun.
Lin Miaoke came from a prominent and well-connected family. When her relatives discovered what had happened to her at school, they were absolutely furious.
Lin Miaoke's mother insisted on coming to the school to demand an explanation from Yuan Lai.
Yuan Lai had groundlessly slandered her daughter, causing severe damage to her reputation and daily life. If the school failed to provide a satisfactory resolution, she threatened to report the school for shielding Yuan Lai and file a defamation lawsuit against him in court.
Yuan Lai felt completely overwhelmed today, as if a black cloud of bad luck was following him wherever he went, impossible to shake off.
That afternoon, after finally managing to slip out of the school gates to clear his head, he was intercepted by a group of thugs.
Without a second word, the thugs fell upon him with clubs, beating him until he couldn't even speak.
Midway through the beating, one of the thugs remarked, "I seem to remember your girlfriend is quite pretty. How about you hand her over for our brothers to play with, and we won't give you any more trouble from now on!"
Battered into a daze and racked with agonizing pain—with old and new injuries compounding together—Yuan Lai felt as though his body was falling apart.
Hearing the thug's demand, he nodded frantically like a chicken pecking at grain, stammering, "Boss... Boss, as long as you don't hit me, anything goes, whatever you want! Whoever you want, I can get them for you."
"Is that so?" The thugs flashed wicked grins upon hearing this.
"Well then, I saw a poster posted right at your school gate. There are two women on that poster who look drop-dead gorgeous—just bring those two to me," the lead thug ordered.
"Brother, you're my own brother, I... I'll definitely bring them to you, I promise you'll have a blast," Yuan Lai fawned, wearing a ingratiating smile."Hahaha..." The punk laughed loudly. "I have to hand it to you, kid, you really know how to play the game. Look, tonight I'll be at the entrance of your university with that van—you saw it, right? You just bring the two of them to the van, and I'll take care of the rest." With that, he let out another lewd chuckle, and before leaving, he didn't forget to kick Yuan Lai twice as the latter lay on the ground.
Yuan Lai was beaten black and blue, with large bruises covering his body, legs, and waist. Even breathing caused him a sharp ache. He propped himself up from the ground and slowly stood, cursing inwardly: *My own girlfriend, whom I haven't even touched yet, and I'm supposed to let you have her?*
Inside the Meng Group building, Meng Qingyan sat at his office desk in a daze, holding an actress ID card between his fingers.
This ID card had been found inside the handbag. Aside from this card, the bag contained only some cosmetics.
Meng Qingyan looked at the photograph on the actress ID card, which showed a rather pretty young girl. In her bare-faced photo, she looked very pure and innocent. This was somewhat different from his impression of her. He clearly remembered the way she had ordered him to turn around, a manner that made her feel like a military officer and him like her soldier.
Yet, relying solely on an actress ID card to find someone wasn't easy, but fortunately for him, finding an actress in Y City wasn't difficult either.
He had sent the silver sequined halter neck dress to the dry cleaner's, and after it was cleaned, it had stayed inside its bag ever since. He thought that if he ever found her, he would return this dress to her—along with that silver wig, of course, which he had also had professionally cleaned.
At that moment, a man walked in carrying a stack of documents. He approached the desk and respectfully placed the files upon it.
"President Meng, the actress you asked me to investigate has been found."
Meng Qingyan opened the document pouch, looking at the papers and photographs inside.
"She's still in school? Media University?" Meng Qingyan said.
A memory flashed through his mind.
Half a year ago, he had been hunted down by enemies and had fled all the way to the university town.
He vaguely remembered that it had snowed heavily that year, seemingly right in an alley near Media University. Just as he had done before, he had covered a woman's mouth and asked her to help him.
That woman had reacted with extreme speed, picking up the scarf she wore and looping it around his neck in one fluid motion, even taking a moment to arrange it over his chest to conceal the blood-soaked coat beneath. Immediately afterward, she pulled out a men's woolen cap and placed it on his head.
Just as the men hunting him approached the area, she had instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, looking at him with a coy expression and speaking in a slightly spoiled tone: "Please stop being angry, just listen to me this year, okay? Let's each go home for the New Year, and we'll see each other again after the semester starts."
Although slightly stunned, he had cooperated to the utmost, saying, "But I just want you to come home with me for the New Year. The thought of not seeing you for a whole month makes my heart feel like it's bleeding."
While the two of them were talking, her pursuers walked past them.
One of them looked at the sweet, clingy pair, feeling that the man's build somewhat resembled the person they were tracking, and started walking toward them.
Hearing the footsteps drawing closer, the woman closed her eyes as if making a difficult decision. "No, you have to listen to me this year..." As she spoke, she suddenly pushed the man against the wall and kissed him deeply.
The approaching man saw that the two were already locked in an embrace, and coupled with the sweet conversation they had just exchanged, he guessed that this man merely had a somewhat similar physique. Besides, this man wasn't wearing a hat, nor did he have a scarf around his neck. Moreover, that fugitive had been injured, whereas this man didn't look like him at all.
With that thought, and fearing that running too slowly might allow their target to escape, the men split up and chased off in other directions.
After waiting for a good while, the woman looked around in all directions, and seeing that the men had truly gone, she let him go.
Once they separated, he had looked at the lip print on the woman's thumb, thinking back to the intimate moment just before.
The woman had suddenly lunged forward, pushing him against the wall, and brought her face straight toward his. He had been so startled at the time that only one thought ran through his mind: his first kiss might be given away right here. But unexpectedly, just as the woman's lips were about to meet his, her thumb suddenly moved horizontally to block his lips. And thus, the woman's lips naturally and seamlessly landed upon her own thumb.
"I'm sorry, when I saw them coming over, I was really scared. But you don't have to worry, that was a camera-angle kiss! I kissed my own hand, I didn't take advantage of you!" the woman had explained with a smile.
Of course he knew it had been a camera-angle kiss, but at the time, the two of them had been pressed very close together, with merely a thumb's width between them. Furthermore, one side of that thumb was his lips, while the other side was simply the woman's lips. Even their breath blew clearly against each other's faces, and it felt as though he could hear her heartbeat.
Pity that her heartbeat hadn't been as fast and chaotic as his.
He knew the woman's heart raced from fear, whereas his raced because of that ambiguous distance.
Thinking of this, a sudden thought popped into his mind: Is there any possibility that the person who saved him both times was the same person?
He sighed and patted his head—what on earth was he thinking about? But since he was going to her university anyway, it would be a good chance to look into what happened half a year ago.
With that thought in mind, he instructed his assistant to ready the car for Media University.