When Xu Yinian returned to the dormitory, the room was still empty.
Thinking of Shen Ruoshuang, who was still at the main residence, and Sister Ran, who hadn’t shown her face or replied to messages for several days, Yinian felt her heart continue to sink.
Taking advantage of the solitude, she crouched down and quickly stuffed the entire bag into the cabinet under her desk, locking it tight.
Under Shen Yi’s forceful pressure and her explanation of it being “compensation,” Yinian had been forced to accept the envelope. She shoved it into the deepest corner of the bag. It felt like a card was inside. Shen Yi hadn’t mentioned the amount, and Yinian never wanted to know.
Once she finished, she remained curled up in a ball—the only position that gave her a shred of security—and stared blankly at the wood grain of the cabinet door.
She remembered the text she had sent Shen Ruoshuang this morning to cover up her lie, and the reply she had received: [Okay, I’ll come back early too.]
It mirrored the message sent before everything had changed: [Come back early.]
Ruoshuang was persistent, yet soft-hearted.
When did the simplest, most habitual act of avoidance become so difficult?
Suddenly, a message from an unknown number flashed across her screen, abruptly cutting through her thoughts:
[Bai Ran is at He Yan, Yunshui Room.]
Sister… Ran?!
Bai Ran’s disappearance over the past few days had left Yinian feeling both worried and powerless. She had thought they were close enough, but only now did she realize she knew nothing about Bai Ran’s life.
The moment Bai Ran stopped reaching out, the two of them became parallel lines that would never cross. Yinian didn’t even have the right to ask if she was okay.
The cryptic message triggered a wave of dread. There was surely a reason the sender hadn’t called, so Yinian didn’t dare act recklessly. Without hesitation, she searched for “He Yan” on her map and rushed out the door.
Ji Yan and Lu Zhou had arrived at He Yan early. To facilitate their observation, they had bypassed their usual private rooms and sat in the main dining area.
Sure enough, Bai Ran and Lu Zhou’s second brother, Lu Xing, arrived as scheduled.
Ji Yan captured a photo of them walking side-by-side. Staring at the picture of Bai Ran—smiling softly, her eyes curved with warmth—Ji Yan’s gaze grew increasingly wary.
In truth, Lu Xing had a decent reputation within the elite circles. Within the Lu family, he rode the coattails of his eldest sister, Lu Yuan, and was doing quite well for himself. Coupled with the fact that he was currently the only marriageable male in the Lu family, an alliance with Bai Ran would be a perfect match in terms of social standing.
“Are you sure the Bai family is forcing Bai Ran into an arranged marriage?” Ji Yan asked.
Lu Zhou shrugged. “You can hide for a while, but you can’t hide forever. Besides, hasn’t the Bai family’s overseas branch taken a hit recently? That’s a significant blow to her power base. Since she’s already fallen out with her parents, maybe she needs the support of an alliance through marriage?”
“I heard your brother likes Bai Ran?”
Based on Ji Yan’s understanding of Bai Ran, no matter how well she could act, she shouldn’t be showing such a pleasant face to someone she was being forced to marry.
“Is there anyone in the Capital’s elite circles who doesn’t ‘like’ her?” Lu Zhou replied with thick mockery. “The ‘Gentle Goddess’ and the sole successor to the Bai family. Even if they don’t like her as a person, they certainly like Xinyu Medical’s assets and shares.”
How many people in high society were actually clean?
Bai Ran herself likely had blood on her hands, let alone Lu Xing, who spent his days sycophantically following his eldest sister.
However, it was said that Lu Xing had indeed pursued Bai Ran before. For a lesbian to maintain such a dignified and gentle conversation with a man who had once leered at her… one could only say she lived up to her reputation as a “smiling tiger.”
“Whatever, just watch. Just don’t be in such a hurry to tell Xu Yinian before the dust settles. If something really happens, we’ll find a chance to get revenge later.”
As she spoke, Lu Zhou signaled a waiter to order food. The show was only just beginning.
At the mention of Xu Yinian, Ji Yan’s heart stirred. Because Qin Jiashu had suddenly dropped out of the voice acting project, they needed to find a new voice actress, and this week’s recording session had been canceled.
Ji Yan herself had been occupied with her grounding and investigating Bai Ran’s affairs, so she hadn’t seen Yinian for days. Seeing that the school had suddenly announced an emergency room check for tonight, she figured she would head back and see her.
They didn’t see each other often in person, but not a day went by without a WeChat message. Although Yinian was slow to reply, she had a soft-hearted trait of always being polite. No matter how much Ji Yan annoyed her, she would eventually reply with a sentence or two in her good-tempered way. This had become Ji Yan’s little pleasure before bed.
Among the current rivals, Bai Ran, Qin Jiashu, and Lu Zhou were all temporarily offline. Only Shen Ruoshuang was still developing in the shadows—a clear and present danger.
But unfortunately, Ruoshuang’s weakness was held by Bai Ran. The fact that the madwoman had kept it quiet this long meant it was her ultimate trump card.
Ji Yan rarely felt this kind of impotent rage. She was even considering moving back into the dorm just so she could replace Bai Ran in watching Shen Ruoshuang’s every move.
Inside the “Yunshui Room,” Bai Ran and Lu Xing sat across from each other.
Lu Xing hadn’t expected the day to come when he could actually marry his goddess. Being treated with such patience made him feel like he was walking on air.
As Lu Zhou had said, such a gentle, seemingly easy-to-control “sickly beauty” with the entire Bai family behind her was a prize every man in their circle coveted. If it weren’t for his eldest sister’s support, the opportunity never would have fallen to him.
