This wasn’t the first or second time, after all. Ji Yan was overreacting. This was exactly why Lu Zhou preferred collaborating with Qin Jiashu.
“Do I look like I need your help? I suspected you and Qin Jiashu were working together, so I put out some bait to see if you’d bite,” Ji Yan countered. “Who knew you two wouldn’t be able to resist as soon as you saw the lure?”
Lu Zhou knew Ji Yan well, but Ji Yan knew her just as thoroughly.
“Xu Yinian, do you see? Your ‘girlfriend’ sold you out the moment you turned your back,” Ji Yan sneered.
After Lu Zhou’s earlier instigation, Xu Yinian only pressed her lips together. The “girlfriend” relationship between her and Qin Jiashu was built on the very secret she felt guilty about. As long as Qin Jiashu didn’t leak that specific matter, Xu Yinian would keep up the charade, no matter who the woman conspired with.
Besides, she had technically sold Qin Jiashu out in front of everyone today as well…
The reason Ji Yan had arrived late and missed the climax of the three-way confrontation was that she had just received an urgent message.
At the thought of it, Ji Yan stepped toward Xu Yinian under the watchful gaze of Qin Jiashu and Lu Zhou. She propped her hands brazenly on the sink behind the girl, trapping Xu Yinian within the circle of her arms.
She leaned down and whispered into her ear: “I have news about Bai Ran. But before I tell you, you have to pay back what you owe me.”
She added softly, “Trust me, you won’t want to miss this.”
Xu Yinian’s heart flared with anxiety, and she forgot to lower her voice. “What… what do you want me to do?”
Now it was Lu Zhou’s turn to lose her smile. Ji Yan had news about Bai Ran already?! When did that Mad Dog’s brain start working so fast?
Ji Yan had been plotting to make Xu Yinian her figure drawing model for a long time. Now that the opportunity had finally arrived, she took her time.
“What are you afraid of? We still have time this afternoon. Come and paint with me.”
.
Before leaving, the group returned to the recording studio. Xu Yinian never expected Thousand Cranes to still be there, seemingly waiting for her return.
The moment she saw the woman, Xu Yinian’s face turned red all the way to her ears.
Seeing Ji Yan by her side, Thousand Cranes was clever enough to stay silent. She acted as usual, telling Xu Yinian to send her a voice message when she got home—mostly just to annoy Ji Yan.
Ji Yan let out a cold laugh. Once she finished dealing with the duo of Qin and Lu, Thousand Cranes—the nuisance who had been in the way all day—would be next.
She didn’t notice Xu Yinian’s frantic struggle as the girl secretly deleted their chat history.
Before Qin Jiashu could stop them, Ji Yan had already sped off on her motorcycle with Xu Yinian in tow. The roar of the engine felt like a deliberate taunt.
How could they possibly catch up to Ji Yan, who had spent years street racing? In moments, Qin Jiashu and Lu Zhou had lost their trail.
Thinking of how Ji Yan had been suppressed all day, and then remembering Xu Yinian’s submissive “What do you want me to do?”, there was no doubt. The Mad Dog was going to reclaim her territory and take her revenge.
Qin Jiashu said urgently, “Where could she have taken her? Hurry up and follow them!”
She immediately blamed her teammate the moment things went south. “I told you not to come! If you hadn’t been so impatient, we could have kept the Mad Dog in the dark for a while longer. Now look at this mess!”
Lu Zhou sneered. She might be wary of the Mad Dog, but that didn’t mean she’d let Qin Jiashu walk all over her.
“If I hadn’t come, would you have just kept her all to yourself? Don’t think I didn’t see those little stunts you pulled. You were just jealous that Xu Yinian was paying attention to me and ignoring you.”
Lu Zhou spoke with high-minded arrogance. “You should be grateful for my ‘tastes’; I don’t feel like breaking you two up just yet.”
She continued, “Lately, Ji Yan has been obsessed with getting Xu Yinian to be her model for her figure drawing assignment. Now that she has leverage over her and wants revenge, there’s only one place they could be: the art studio.”
Lu Zhou was deeply calculating and knew exactly what Ji Yan wanted. It was easy for her to deduce the destination.
Qin Jiashu fell silent for a moment, forced to accept the logic, but then she looked at Lu Zhou strangely. “…Why do I feel like you aren’t worried at all? In fact, you look like you’re looking forward to it.”
“Am I? Shouldn’t I be happy to see you finally suffer a setback?”
Qin Jiashu was right. A look of anticipation flickered in Lu Zhou’s eyes.
That Mad Dog better not disappoint me.
In truth, whether Xu Yinian fell into the hands of Qin Jiashu or Ji Yan, the result was the same for her. The more those two fought over Xu Yinian, the more she stood to gain.
She had already predicted what Ji Yan would do next. But tricking the “Official Girlfriend” into going there—now that would be interesting.
Even though she knew there might be a trap, the analysis was sound. Qin Jiashu couldn’t find a flaw in it, so she hurried toward Ji Yan’s studio at X University.
.
Xu Yinian knew that “painting with her” would be far from easy. Her mind naturally drifted to her theories about the original novel—the Protagonist-top, Ji Yan, painting the Protagonist-bottom, Shen Ruoshuang, over and over.
From the face… to the rest of her body.
Ji Yan had never painted her before. Surely she wouldn’t jump straight to…
Xu Yinian tried to comfort herself, unaware that an artist’s eye for body proportions meant all her “parameters” had been exposed from the very first glance. She already existed in countless fantasies on canvas, depicted in various states of forced submission.
If the day ever came where she accidentally saw those paintings, she would be paralyzed with terror.
Returning to that innermost studio after so many days, Xu Yinian couldn’t help but remember finding the injured Ji Yan here in the past. She stole a glance at Ji Yan’s expression, worried she might be upset, but realized she was overthinking it.
The chaotic, suppressed, and desperate paintings of Xiao Lin were gone. Xu Yinian felt a small spark of joy, thinking Ji Yan had moved past her shadows.
She had no idea that the woman had simply transferred that obsession onto her.
This room was originally a discarded storage closet with plenty of ghost stories attached to it. Ji Yan had used her connections with the school administration to get the key and rent it out as her private studio.
Xu Yinian didn’t know the details. She naively breathed a sigh of relief, thinking Ji Yan wouldn’t dare do anything reckless in a campus classroom.
Click.
The door locked behind them. Xu Yinian didn’t even register the sense of crisis.
It wasn’t until Ji Yan pulled the curtains shut and spoke in a casual tone that reality hit.
“Alright. Take off your clothes.”
“Ah… What?!”
It took several seconds for Xu Yinian to process what Ji Yan had said.
“A body model. Isn’t that normal?” Ji Yan spoke with such matter-of-fact seriousness that Xu Yinian felt dazed for a moment.
