Pretty women are all liars—have you not paid enough in lessons written in blood?
Over the years, quite a few college students had been lured abroad by scams. Thinking of this, Xue Yang quickened his pace.
He had rented a room near the campus. Originally, he had planned for it to be a place to stay when he went to find Chen Ying after successfully confessing his feelings and after she started her internship. Now, it had become a sanctuary where he could nurse his wounds alone.
Yet, to his surprise, that little loli followed right behind him.
She kept a careful distance, neither too close nor too far. Whenever Xue Yang stopped, she would quickly duck under a streetlamp, acting like an ostrich that thought as long as she hid her head, nobody could see her.
Xue Yang couldn't help smiling at her silly, adorable antics.
With such a dopey, endearing look, it was hard to believe she could be a scammer. The odds of her getting scammed herself were much higher.
Xue Yang stopped, turned around, and said to the little loli:
"Are you lost? How about this, I'll help you call the police and have an officer come take you home."
When in doubt, calling the police was always the right choice.
The moment he took out his phone, the little loli hurriedly said, "Don't call the police, I'm just lost... I really am lost... As soon as I reach somewhere I recognize... I can walk on my own... Truly."
It was the classic "the lady doth protest too much" routine.
Sometimes, the more you emphasize something, the more suspicious it becomes.
"In the middle of the night, for a girl like you who is lost, calling the police is still the best option."
"Please don't call the police, wuu wuu wuu~ I'm begging you, wuu wuu wuu~"
The little loli finally couldn't help squatting down and bursting into tears.
She looked as though she had suffered a monstrous grievance and run away from home in a fit of temper.
Back in high school, when Xue Yang was at odds with his parents, he too had toyed with the idea of running away from home, but in the end, he never went through with it because he wanted to study hard and get into Yanbei.Now that he had finally been accepted into Yanbei, his parents were completely at ease with him, and there was no need to run away from home anymore, because going to university meant leaving home anyway.
Xue Yang walked over to the little loli in a few strides, his tone softening. He didn't want to get involved, but his conscience wouldn't let him walk away, because at heart, he was a good person.
"Stop crying. I won't call the police, but you have to tell me the truth—did you run away from home?"
The little loli nodded. Because of her crying, her small body was racked with sobs, making her look like a frightened little kitten.
"Yes."
"Do you have a phone, a wallet, or anything like that on you?"
"I forgot to bring them."
Xue Yang: "..."
She had zero experience, yet she dared to run away from home. Her courage was commendable, but he certainly couldn't condone it.
"What are you planning to do after I get you to a familiar street? Find a convenience store and sit there until dawn? And what about after dawn? Without money, you can't buy food. Without an ID card, you can't check into a hotel. You're of age, right? You should know that out in the real world, you can't take a single step without money."
"..."
"Your food, clothing, shelter, and transportation are all going to be problems right now. And most importantly, what do you plan to do if you run into bad people? There are men out there who specifically look for naive young girls to sell off to remote mountain villages so they can bear children for older bachelors who can't find wives. Are you willing to let that happen?"
Xue Yang never expected that as a student himself, he would one day find himself lecturing someone else like this under such circumstances.
Still, how should he put it?
The feeling of mentoring someone else wasn't half bad, and it actually put him in a much better mood.
The little loli's face turned pale, and she clutched her loli dress tightly, clearly terrified and completely at a loss.
"So you'd better let Uncle Policeman take you home!"
"...""If you don't want me to call the police, then I'm leaving. Stop following me either. I'm just a college freshman, I can't help you with anything."
In situations like this, being a student was the best protective coloration—he didn't have any money anyway.
What Xue Yang didn't know was that his student status was precisely what made the little loli make up her mind. "Could you... let me stay at your place for the night?"
Xue Yang: "..."
"I'll only stay for one night, and leave tomorrow. Really, I won't overstay my welcome... If it doesn't work... then never mind..."
The little loli lowered her gaze, standing desolately beneath a streetlamp. The light stretched her shadow long and thin, making her look even more desperate and helpless.
She didn't want to ask a stranger for help either, but... what Xue Yang said made sense. Yet if she went home right now, it would seem too spineless.
What should she do?
Xue Yang walked a few steps, but still stopped. He turned back and called out:
"Hey! Just for one night?"
They were both wanderers far from home, so helping out a bit shouldn't be a big deal. Besides, she would be leaving first thing tomorrow morning anyway.
And so, Lin Xi followed Xue Yang.
Other than knowing that Xue Yang was a college freshman at a nearby university, she knew nothing else about him.
She didn't even have anything on her for self-defense. If he tried to pull anything, there was really nothing she could do.
Lin Xi quickly ran through all the possibilities in her mind. Suddenly, she picked up a palm-sized rock from the ground—if he dared to lay a hand on her, she would smash him with the rock!
Right!
Just like that!
Lin Xi silently gave her own cleverness a mental thumbs-up.
Little did she know, every move she made had long since been seen through by Xue Yang; he simply hadn't called her out on it.
"We're here!"
Just as Lin Xi was lost in her wild imagination, they finally arrived at the place Xue Yang rented.
It was a one-bedroom, one-living-room apartment in an old, rundown residential complex, totaling around thirty square meters. You could see the entire place at a single glance. For a student, being able to afford to rent a place like this near Yanbei was quite a lavish expenditure.
To be honest, though, a single floor tile in Lin Xi's house was almost as big as this place.
Any random parking spot in her family's garage was much bigger than this.
Could people actually live in a place like this?
"How can you live in a dump like this?"
"I rented this myself, I just come over here occasionally. I'm a student, being able to live in a place like this is already pretty good. You can sleep right here tonight!"
Xue Yang pointed at the living room sofa and said.
Lin Xi was slightly stunned. "You're making me sleep on the couch?"
Xue Yang smiled faintly. "Otherwise, what? You want to share a room with me?"
Lin Xi immediately grew alert. See? Look at that, his true colors are showing already. He really was lusting after her body.
Even though Lin Xi was usually heavily sheltered, she still surfed the internet and knew that most men were driven by their lower halves.
She had gone with him tonight out of sheer necessity—she couldn't just let herself freeze out in the cold wind all night, could she? What if she actually ran into a bad person?
Lin Xi had initially thought Xue Yang would take her back to his campus, not knowing he rented a place outside!
"Sleep on it or don't, as you like. You can also just sit here until dawn and leave before I wake up."
After saying that, Xue Yang went into the bedroom to find a white T-shirt and athletic shorts for her, tossing them onto the sofa. "Whether you want to change into them is up to you. The bathroom is right by the entrance, there's hot water."
Being an eighteen-year-old boy after all, once he brought Lin Xi back, Xue Yang didn't quite know how to face her.