Chapter 32

No matter how brave Gu An’an was, she wouldn’t dare answer in front of anyone whether Xie Jinxing would bite someone.
On the surface, Xie Jinxing appeared polite and generous. But if you looked closely at what he actually did, no one would call him a good person.
What kind of “good person” would spend millions to provide health checks for an entire school just to drive someone out of Jing City? What kind of “good person” would make every service industry under his family’s name refuse to hire anyone under 1.6 meters just to avoid seeing one person? Xie Jinxing’s every bone seemed filled with ruthlessness. Only his education and manners were carefully polished, making it easy to overlook the cruelty beneath the exterior.
Though Gu An’an didn’t know his exact reason for manipulating the health-check data, she guessed he was laying a trap for later, a kind of ultimate move that, when used, would strike without warning.
She had never fully understood Xie Jinxing’s mindset.
He supposedly disliked Su Ruan, yet he found her mother a rare RH-blood-type kidney, something even the wealthy might struggle to acquire. Anyone with medical knowledge would know how scarce such a resource is. Obtaining it must have cost him greatly.
And yet, he forced Su Ruan to leave school and exit Jing City.
Honestly, before hearing from Su Ruan, Gu An’an thought it was just a temporary leave. Once her mother’s surgery succeeded, she would return. But Xie Jinxing’s decree was final: Su Ruan had to quit school and leave without even a proper university diploma.
It was impossible to predict what he was really thinking.
Gu An’an secretly glanced at Xie Jinxing. He leaned against the car window, eyelashes drooping low.
Perhaps he was tired from the late hour or dissatisfied with business negotiations. His expression was cold and indifferent, silent throughout the ride.
The faint woody scent lingered in the car, pure, familiar. It seemed this Maybach hadn’t carried a woman since his return; not a trace of femininity was inside.
Truly a man who guards his virtue like jade.
After leaving, Gu An’an didn’t return to the VIP room. Out of a modicum of politeness (an “80% favorability” score), she sent Shen Shan a message: that she had to leave.
No reply, probably still caught up in the festivities.
Gu An’an muted the page and tucked herself into a corner to play Timi. Playing silently felt dull, but she feared disturbing her uncle’s mood. If she played too loudly near him, he might toss her out onto the highway.
Zhang, the driver, drove steadily along the quiet road. It was past midnight; even normally congested streets were empty. The car was silent, and after a round of the game, Gu An’an lost interest.
Even with his eyes closed, Xie Jinxing’s presence was palpable.
Gu An’an aimlessly swiped her phone, opening and closing WeChat. She thought she should find something to talk about.
With the female lead absent, the usual chaos in her life was reduced, and oddly, it felt a little lonely. She wondered briefly about the bodyguard job paying 100,000 RMB a month, should she take it?
But a side glance at Xie Jinxing showed no intention of conversation.
Fine. She stayed quiet. The salary was hers anyway; no need to feel guilty.
When the car slowly entered what she assumed was her apartment complex, Gu An’an looked out and realized something was wrong.
This wasn’t her own complex; it was the private residence Xie Jinxing had previously arranged for her recovery.
“Uncle… um…”
He looked up. “?”
Gu An’an felt slightly embarrassed. “I’ve actually moved back home recently.”
Xie Jinxing replied with a simple “Hmm.”
Perhaps it was her imagination, but his tone was a little cold: “It’s too late to turn around now. Stay here tonight. Return home tomorrow.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t help but glance at him again.
Caught immediately by his eyes, deep and intense, they made her spine tingle, as if she had done something outrageous behind his back.
The car stopped. Gu An’an quickly opened the door to get out.
Though she had no idea who might have provoked him, it certainly wasn’t her. She preferred to avoid collateral damage. “Uncle, I’ll go now.”
She slammed the door behind her as she hurried upstairs, forgetting her keys and ringing the doorbell. The housekeeper, seeing it was her, let her in.
The dog immediately recognized her and happily limped over, jumping on her, wagging its tail and whining. At 45 kilograms, the dog toppled her; she rolled on the floor, massaging it until it flipped on its back and rolled around happily. Only then did she rise, laughing, patting its head as it scampered off.
The bedroom was unchanged; only the housekeeper had tidied things up.
Gu An’an fetched her pajamas and took a hot shower. Wearing a short skirt outside had been too cold; even the fur coat hadn’t helped. The day-night temperature difference in Jing City was extreme.
As she lay in bed, Xie Jinxing’s words echoed in her mind.
What did he mean by “I’d break her legs”? Did he think she had been embracing male models in the VIP room?
No…impossible. He couldn’t have thought that after Lu Xingyu rejected her, she went wild, could he?
Recalling Xie Jinxing’s expression, she realized the car was too dark to see clearly. His gaze had been partly amused, partly cold, partly indifferent.
Ah! Her image as an innocent young girl…misjudged by Xie Jinxing!
Though being mistaken for a bad girl was trivial, the thought that it was Xie Jinxing judging her made her indignant. She rolled on the bed, convinced she needed to clarify: she hadn’t done anything wrong!
Immediately, she tried to message him.
But opening the pink-haired avatar of her uncle, Gu An’an froze. How should she start? Jump straight in, or warm up first?
After hesitating, she sent: “Good evening, Uncle.”
Xie Jinxing, on the way back to the Linshui villa, was indeed in a bad mood. A subtle, inexplicable irritation lingered, affecting his otherwise calm demeanor.
He glanced at his phone, never had someone so peripheral sent him a message at this hour, and raised an eyebrow. Opening it, he read and then locked the screen.
Gu An’an thought he wouldn’t reply, hesitated on what to send next, when the phone buzzed again: a red dot appeared on his chat box.
Xie Jinxing: “?”
A single question mark conveyed much. In her experience reading CEO romance novels, male leads rarely responded positively to late-night messages from non-leads, especially from girls like her, who weren’t the main female protagonist.
Xie Jinxing didn’t think she had improper intentions, she was clearly Lu Xingyu’s loyal fan, but the sudden “Good evening” text raised doubts.
Fearing misunderstanding, she quickly typed out the truth:
“Uncle, I was framed! I really didn’t flirt with the male models.”
“It was Shen Shan celebrating her rival Su Ruan leaving Jing City!”
“Yes! That Su Ruan!!”
“They wanted a unique farewell party. I didn’t embrace anyone or drink with them. They surrounded me, but I pushed them away, firmly telling them it was another price!”
“Not even touching a single male model’s hand!!”
“None of them are even worth a hair of yours, Uncle!!”
Under extreme conditions, typing speed becomes supernatural.
Xie Jinxing read each message, expression cold, lips straight, then a small, unreasoned smile appeared at the last line.
The car was silent for a second, then he suddenly let out a scoff: “You’ve got some nerve!” Spouting nonsense without shame.
Through the rearview mirror, Zhang saw the boss relax, returning to his usual lazy posture. The tension of the night was finally lifted.
Apparently, the multi-billion deal negotiations went well. A good mood upstairs meant a good mood downstairs. Zhang stepped on the accelerator, driving quickly to the scarcely populated villa.
By November, time passed quickly.
Using normal geography: winter nights are longer. Jing City is at a high latitude, so it gets cold faster than southern regions.
Gu An’an didn’t expect the first snow to arrive so soon. Yesterday, she wore a short skirt; today, it was down coat weather.
Lin Niaoniao and the basketball club girls wanted to celebrate the first snow at a new milk tea shop downtown. Though Gu An’an, a southern girl unaccustomed to snow, didn’t see the point, the determined girls insisted.
Fine, let’s go. After entering her third year, Gu An’an’s major coursework wasn’t too heavy. She used the chance to catch up on first-year courses, exhausting herself with study, then went out to play.
This semester, her main course professor assigned a final project: a twenty-minute short film due before winter break. Theme and style were open, but the content and quality would determine whether she passed.
Gu An’an worried; she could write stories well from reading novels, but filming techniques were weak. Her one-take camera style could make the audience dizzy.
Casting was another issue. Unpaid actors, good performances hard to find.
“Today is Halloween; the commercial street will have a cosplay parade. Plenty of material there!” Lin Niaoniao grabbed her professional equipment, dragging Gu An’an to the busy street.
As the de facto leader of the campus paparazzi squad, Lin Niaoniao had the final say on material.
Gu An’an agreed and quickly grabbed her Sony camera. After changing clothes, they set out.
Jing City moved fast. Normally, the streets were packed like sardine cans; people looked disheveled and tired. But on Halloween, the streets were full of handsome and beautiful people in costumes.
Walking along the commercial street, vampires, witches, Taoists, zombies, Ultramen, every species imaginable swarmed the streets.
Gu An’an was dragged to the main group at a crossroads. Sure enough, although she often joked about Shen Shan’s entourage having Sailor Moon girls, tonight, they really did: Sailor Moon in twin tails.
The basketball team girls bravely withstood the cold, their strong arms protecting the group.
Then, Gu An’an learned shocking news:
Lu Xingyu was going to get engaged to Shen Shan.
Apparently, the marriage was arranged by the elders of the Shen and Lu families.
According to the intelligence chief Lin Niaoniao: the Shen and Lu families had planned this many years ago, but it had previously been blocked by the old master of the Xie family, so it never came up officially. Now that the old master has given up and isn’t interfering with Lu Xingyu’s engagement, Mrs. Xie has taken the initiative on his behalf.
This news hadn’t yet spread like wildfire in the gossip circle of Jingchuan University, mainly because the fans shipping Gu An’an and Lu Xingyu were fiercely loyal.
They firmly believed that a devoted fan should be rewarded in the end.
Even if the “loyal fan” had given up, the shipping fans never abandoned hope.
Gu An’an: Alright, whatever makes you happy.
Lin Niaoniao even came over to console her: “Old ones leave, new ones come. How about I take you to Q University or Jingchuan University tomorrow and see what luck we can find? I’ll soon have the perfect plan ready, and you just follow my lead. I guarantee we can get whoever you want in one shot.”
“Thanks, I guess.” Gu An’an didn’t feel sad, just shocked.
After Su Ruan exited the stage, was Lu Xingyu finally free?
Or was it something else entirely, just a plot that had been brewing for a long time, now finally ready to strike back like a super boomerang? Waiting for the engagement party, when the heroine has gone through countless trials and the Dragon King returns, ready to slap the engagement ring on the villainous female lead, only for her to be publicly humiliated in an epic “heroine triumphs” moment?
Thinking carefully it wasn’t impossible. Old-school romance novels had everything.
Seeing that Gu An’an didn’t look very interested, Lin Niaoniao assumed she was discouraged.
Grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, she said: “Gu An’an, cheer up! It’s time to fight, man!”
“I know you’re upset now, but don’t be sad yet. Pull yourself together.”
She pulled out her phone. “How about this? We can deal with those Q University science boys later. I also have a pure, top-notch male high school resource. Younger guy, how about it? Want me to push his contact to you now?”
“Who?”
“My brother.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
“……”
“…You should record this and send it to your mom. She would absolutely kill you, girl.”
Gu An’an was swept forward by the crowd, deeper into the chaos of monsters and demons.
Lin Niaoniao shoved a replica of the “Shuiyue Night Rabbit” into her hands. Suddenly, Gu An’an lost all sense of shame, everyone else felt embarrassed, she didn’t care.
“My brother is really great. Sweet and gentle, guaranteed to melt your heart! Then you can raise your arms and cheer.”
“I can raise my arms, my ass! He’s underage, that’s illegal. I think you want to send me to go stomp a sewing machine.”
Gu An’an flat-out refused. Her moral standards were that high, she never tested the edge of the law. No matter how sweet the high school boy, the sewing machine was calling from afar. Right now, what concerned her more was whether she’d have to attend Shen Shan and Lu Xingyu’s engagement party on the cruise.
Probably not, right? Her surname is Gu, not Lu Xingyu’s aunt.
Su Ruan was no longer in Jingchuan, and Lu Xingyu hadn’t done any outrageous stuff in a long time. Shen Shan probably wouldn’t go crazy with jealousy and drug anyone like in the books. Without anyone spiking drinks, Xie Jin won’t drink the wrong thing, and she won’t get tossed into the sea by a bodyguard.
But the problem is…a cruise. She had strong PTSD about cruises. Even knowing nothing would happen, it still scared her.
Whatever, the engagement party was still a long way off.
Lu Xingyu and Shen Shan’s engagement was set for the end of the year. The exact date wasn’t decided yet, probably around New Year’s. This information also came from Lin Niaoniao. The intelligence chief was indeed Jingchuan’s top gossip, she knew everything.
The parents of both the Shen and Lu families were recently discussing the engagement.
They agreed to a dinner meeting to talk things over. After being confined for almost three months, Lu Xingyu finally saw a chance. He snuck the car keys from his father’s study drawer and bolted out like a wild horse.
When Gu An’an was dragged onto the backseat of the car, she was still squatting on the food street, filming.
She had planned to shoot a campus romance story, a light, fresh theme. The main leads were set: the male lead was a dark-skinned handsome guy from the basketball club at the sports institute, “won over” by Gu An’an during a hotpot dinner. The female lead was from the art institute, the long-haired girl A who had asked Gu An’an to model before. Girl A wasn’t a stunning beauty, but with makeup, she looked like an innocent flower.
Gu An’an thought they had good chemistry; the script was ready. Lin Niaoniao had personally written it, truly stirring.
Damn, they were just short of filming the exact shots they wanted. Who would ruin her plans?
Gu An’an sat dumbfounded in the backseat, suddenly a helmet slammed onto her head. Her curses and shock collided in her mind. She was carrying filming equipment, a portable camera and almost got thrown off due to the bike’s sudden acceleration.
“Do you know how expensive this is?!” she yelled, clutching her equipment. “Over thirty thousand! Which reckless brat is causing trouble?!”
The troublemaker ignored her, legs extended in the air, and the bike shot forward.
Gu An’an clutched the rider in front of her, the icy wind making it hard to open her mouth.
The bike sped through city highways and overpasses, finally reaching a deserted mountain road.
After several sharp turns, Lu Xingyu finally stopped on Jingchuan’s Third Track.
The Third Track was in the northern suburbs of Jingchuan, rarely visited, with eighteen winding curves. A secret track for motorcycle enthusiasts, nicknamed “Autumn Name Mountain” in the biker world. Every night, all kinds of modified motorcycles gathered here.
After getting off the bike, Gu An’an’s legs were numb.
Lu Xingyu, long legs astride the bike, stepped onto the ground and lifted the protective visor of his helmet. He glanced around, kicked the stand, and the roar of motorcycles filled the air, while the second-generation rich kids shouted “Brother Yu! Brother Yu!”
Several well-equipped Yamahas were parked nearby.
One rider in black gear twisted the throttle; the exhaust roared deafeningly. A few others rode over, and Lu Xingyu removed his helmet, shaking his hair.
Gu An’an watched as they surrounded him.
After greeting them, Lu Xingyu squinted and turned back to look at the helmeted Gu An’an.
Their eyes met, and Lu Xingyu walked over.
It seemed the past period had been hard on him, he was much thinner than before. His long legs and slim frame made his already sharp face now resemble a sword.
He waved his hand, letting the others move ahead. Then he reached out and pulled Gu An’an close. Opening his mouth made her want to punch him: “You reported to your uncle, asking him to drive Su Ruan out of Jingchuan?”
“Huh? What the hell?” Gu An’an’s face was lashed by wind gusts, ears ringing.
Suddenly, she heard a dog bark and for a moment couldn’t process it.
“Su Ruan withdrew from school.”
“Oh,” Gu An’an nodded. “So?”
“It was Xie’s doing.”
“So…you learned from this that it was me who made her withdraw?” Really, dogs can’t spit out ivory, everything out of his mouth makes you want to scold him. Gu An’an rolled her eyes sarcastically. “How come I didn’t know I had this power?”
Lu Xingyu lowered his head and smiled. “Never mind then.”
Rumors at school were unreliable, and Lu Xingyu knew that. Even if it wasn’t a rumor, Gu An’an couldn’t possibly do such a thing. But when the second-gen rich kids guessed wildly in the group chat, he still held a glimmer of hope.
If Gu An’an had actually done this, it would mean she still cared about him.
The cold wind howled along the deserted mountain road. If it weren’t so hard to get a taxi here, Gu An’an would have turned around in a second.
“Anything else?”
Gu An’an really felt she couldn’t communicate with him, and didn’t understand why the original protagonist liked him. “Nothing, just take me back.”
“That might not be possible.”
“What do you mean ‘might not be possible’? You picked me up, so you’re responsible for taking me back!”
Gu An’an was really furious, if she were taller, she’d have smashed her helmet on Lu Xingyu’s head. Spinning in place in frustration, kicking stones: “This shitty place doesn’t even have a bus. Are you brain-dead from being locked up?”
Still scolding, classic Gu An’an.
Lu Xingyu ignored her temper and said something shocking: “Your secretly hidden boyfriend, could it actually be your uncle?”
Gu An’an immediately turned her head. “What did you just say? Say it again.”
Shivering, she asked, “I think I just hallucinated. You better say that again!”
“Someone saw you often riding in your uncle’s car?”
“Are you stupid? If my boyfriend were my uncle, would he let me have one?” She must be wind-blown crazy to even hear such nonsense in broad daylight.
“Ah, he let you?!”
Seeing her horrified, wide-eyed gaze, he seemed relieved. If it were Xie Jinxing, he probably wouldn’t dare, but others, no problem: “Good that he did. Your boyfriend deserved to be dumped. Your uncle was right.”
Gu An’an’s reaction calmed Lu Xingyu, and he exhaled, smiling easily.
“But why are you panicking all of a sudden?”
Gu An’an had cursed so much in a minute that he pointedly said: “Girls should be civilized, not mumbling curses all day. I just heard from Shen Shan that you’ve been living in your uncle’s house lately. Asking is bad?”
“Just asking and you make stuff up?” Gu An’an really wanted to chop him.
“I’m not making it up,” Lu Xingyu shrugged. “Your uncle is only twenty-eight.”
Then he warned Gu An’an: “Though your uncle is twenty-eight, he’s still your elder. He’s handsome and young, but that doesn’t mean you should have improper thoughts about him.”
This dog Lu Xingyu went on: “He won’t like you.”
Gu An’an thought it was fine that Xie Jinxing was her elder, but she didn’t like the rest: “Why not?”
Why wouldn’t he like her?
Was she crippled or disabled? Why wasn’t she happy hearing this?
Pausing, she realized she wasn’t unhappy, she was just irritated by Lu Xingyu’s disdain.
“Hey, I need to know clearly, why can’t my uncle like me?”
“Of course he won’t. Your uncle has always had many women liking him, but he’s never had a girlfriend,” Lu Xingyu said without blinking, fabricating: “Because…he likes men.”
Gu An’an: “……” If Xie Jinxing ever found out you were smearing his sexual orientation behind his back, he would absolutely kill you, you bastard!