[Central Plaza Restaurant — September 15, 11:55 AM]
"Lin Feng!"
Upon hearing his name being called by a familiar voice, Lin Feng tensed up. The sound of that voice almost made his spine want to turn. The shoulders started to square. The head began to lift toward the sound.
His body went into full attention.
Yet he did not turn.
His hand stayed where it was, under hers, fingers laced.
He picked up a glass of water with his free hand. Took a slow sip, then set it down on the table with a small clean sound.
Across the table, Xiao Yue's eyes never left his face. She looked at Lin Feng like she was watching some interesting show.
"You look stiff, Lin Feng…"
Xiao Yue said, her eyes still on his. Sweat began to form on Lin Feng's forehead, and he wiped it off with his free hand.
"LIN FENG!"
The second call came sharper than the first, the voice getting closer.
Xiao Yue tightened her grip on his hand.
"Lin Feng, you already promised me that you'll never leave me." She tightened her grip even more before looking at the woman who was now a mere few meters away from them.
"Maybe you two are just fighting… Or maybe this is just some scheme of yours… So…"
Her brow furrowed slightly under the hood. Her grip on his hand had not changed.
"I'm giving you one last chance to change your mind now."
Lin Feng looked at his hand, which was now being squeezed tight by Xiao Yue.
Then he took a deep breath, brought his free hand over, and placed it on top of Xiao Yue's hand.
"I meant every word that I said earlier." Lin Feng gave a slight shrug. "As to whoever was calling me…"
Lin Feng looked in the direction away from the source of the voice, careful not to look at whoever was calling him.
"I don't know who was calling me." Lin Feng smiled at Xiao Yue. "By the way, we should be done with our meal now. How about we go somewhere else?"
Xiao Yue's eyelids twitched. Then she slowly pulled her hand away, but Lin Feng tightened his grip on hers.
"Lin Feng. Ms. Su is calling for you."
Xiao Yue's voice came out low and polite.
Lin Feng felt the gazes of a few people behind him. He looked everywhere except behind him and saw that everyone was looking their way.
"Ms. Su," Lin Feng asked with a straight face. "What Ms. Su? And besides, I'm on a date right now, why should I bother with some other woman?"
"Lin Feng — what —"
Behind him, Su Qingxue went still, as if something had caught her — the redness on her face remained, but her eyes went from anger to something that looked composed. Then she breathed in, and out.
The phones at the surrounding tables had multiplied. A girl by the window had her device propped against a water glass for a steadier shot. Someone in the back was speaking quickly into a screen, head down, narrating — the kind of low rapid commentary that meant a livestream.
Finally, Su Qingxue stepped closer to their table.
She was within his peripheral vision now. However, Lin Feng did not move his eyes to look at her.
When she spoke, her voice had been re-tuned — concern with the right amount of vulnerability under it.
"Lin Feng. Here you are. I've been trying to reach you all morning. I was worried about you. You never ignore my messages."
Near Su Qingxue, Zhang Tingting stood by, looking at Lin Feng, then at Xiao Yue, then at their table.
For a moment, she looked crestfallen, remembering her thoughts earlier of having lunch with him, asking him whether her soufflé was good, after he'd spent time with Su Qingxue in the library. And their dinner plans as well.
Now, the soufflé was in ruins, she had failed her practical exam, and Lin Feng was with someone else.
Then, she shook her head and took half a step backward.
She did not advance.
Lin Feng finally let go of Xiao Yue's hand and took a sip of water.
"Well, I'm having a date with someone. And besides, I know how much you hated my guts. So here I am. From now on, we are nothing more than strangers. And I don't know your name."
The room went silent.
The quiet did not arrive all at once. It moved out from their table in a ring, and by the time it reached the door the whole room was in it.
Zhang Tingting heard him call her a stranger and the breath she had been holding came out of her.
Then, all of a sudden, Lin Feng could hear footsteps coming from behind him.
The footsteps were flat.
However, when they were just half a meter away, the last step hesitated. Longer than the steps before it. Then it continued until the person stood right beside his table.
When the footsteps stopped, Lin Feng looked down at his side, and saw a pair of kitchen shoes.
A hand took his free arm, gentle and urgent.
He turned his head toward it.
A girl stood beside him.
Waist-length black hair pulled back in a braid that had loosened into a strange ponytail. Flour dust on the cuff of her sleeve. The grip on his arm was tight. Her cheeks were flushed in the uneven way that came from running. Her eyes were red at the edges.
She was looking up at him. Her face fully visible. Hiding nothing. She looked worried, and slightly wounded.
"Lin Feng?"
Her voice came soft and genuine.
"What's happening? I don't understand. Last night everything was normal, and now —"
She stopped. Gestured vaguely at the table, at Xiao Yue, and at Su Qingxue who stood still behind them.
Lin Feng held her gaze for a beat.
So, this is her.
Zhang Tingting.
The one-star heroine that gave Long Tian a very hard time. And the original's matchmaker, and his 'friend.'
Lin Feng stretched out a hand to her, leaned slightly toward her, and spoke in a softer, gentler voice.
"It's alright, Tingting."
Zhang Tingting blinked.
Then Lin Feng held Zhang Tingting's gaze, making her stand still beside him.
Behind them, Su Qingxue's eyes shifted.
Lin Feng held Zhang Tingting's arm and answered her, not Su Qingxue — in a voice he had never used with Zhang Tingting before.
Su Qingxue's mouth almost opened. Then she caught it, and her face went still.
Wait! Tingting is pleading my case.
Of course she is.
Though, I really don't understand why Tingting has always been close with this bootlicker. She always said she just wants to keep her job — teaching him how to court me and to let him practice with her.
But anyway, this is actually smart. Tingting could plead on my behalf, cry on cue and mean it.
If anyone can crack whatever this is, it's her. Let her soften him. I'll step in once he's ready to apologize.
Su Qingxue's shoulders relaxed a bit beneath her camel coat.
Lin Feng's grip on Zhang Tingting did not loosen.
Across the table, Xiao Yue sat silently, watching them while toying with a piece of carrot on her plate.
"Can we talk?" Su Qingxue said, after the moment had stretched. "Privately?"
Lin Feng did not look at her.
Across the table, Xiao Yue had not moved. Her hood was still up.
Lin Feng turned his gaze back to Xiao Yue and saw that her soup bowl was already empty.
He spoke to her instead.
"More soup?"
"I'm fine."
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Lin Feng turned his head back towards Zhang Tingting.
"Tingting, can you tell that person over there to stop disturbing us? I'm having a date here."
Lin Feng said, stretching his hand, his palm open, as if presenting Xiao Yue to her.
"By the way, I'm going to talk with you later. Would that be alright for you, Tingting?"
Zhang Tingting looked at Su Qingxue then back at Lin Feng, then again at Su Qingxue, and her gaze stayed there.
When Zhang Tingting was about to say something, Su Qingxue stormed toward Xiao Yue.
"Lin Feng! Who is this woman?"
She gestured at Xiao Yue with the last fingertip of her right hand, her voice a pitch lower.
"I don't think I've met her before."
Yet when she moved right beside Xiao Yue, Lin Feng shifted in his seat, angled his chair, and kept her out of his sight.
Watching this, Xiao Yue could not help but let out a slight chuckle. Even Zhang Tingting could not help but bite her tongue to prevent herself from laughing.
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Su Qingxue stood very still.
The campus belle. The woman everyone wants. And now, even someone like Lin Feng has the audacity to turn his seat just so that he can't see her.
She looked at the hooded girl who was gracefully letting out a chuckle. She looked at her best friend who was stifling a laugh. And then she watched her audience, who were politely holding back their laughter.
Heat rose up the back of her neck. It was a strange feeling. Something from the depths of her being. A low heat from her lower abdomen, radiating outward, pulsing all over her body.
I'm just angry, she thought. I'm just pissed off by Lin Feng right now. Nothing more. She repeated it inside her head as her nails dug into her palm.
"Lin Feng, I don't understand."
Su Qingxue's voice came out smaller than she had meant. Then she tried to recover from it, steadied herself, drew a breath and tried to find the voice she had walked in with.
"After everything we've been through —"
"Lin Feng." A slightly louder voice cut over Su Qingxue's.
It was Zhang Tingting.
"I really believed you loved her," she continued, her voice slightly trembling and genuinely aggrieved.
"You came to me for years. Asking how to make her happy. What gifts she might like. What words might reach her. You asked me so many questions, and I tried to answer them because I thought — I really thought —"
Zhang Tingting stopped. She swallowed. Then continued.
"You helped my family when we had nothing. You spent so much time and energy. You paid me so much. So much I don't know how to repay you."
Her eyes were glistening at the edges.
"So why?"
The word cracked slightly.
"Why are you giving up now? After all those years? After everything you did for… for her? After everything?"
The room was completely still. Phone cameras remained aimed in their direction.
Behind Zhang Tingting, Su Qingxue had not moved. Her left hand was slowly drifting towards her right wrist.
Lin Feng looked up at Zhang Tingting.
Her sleeves still had some flour on them. Yet the collar of her uniform had a bit of a darkened color to it, looking like a mixture of sweat and dirt.
"Tingting."
His voice had changed.
Zhang Tingting's eyes lifted.
"I remember you have a practical exam today. How was it?"
Her breath caught on something at the back of her throat.
"Uhmm…" Zhang Tingting's lips opened as if to say something, then closed again as no words dared escape.
Lin Feng shook his head. "You abandoned your exam… didn't you?"
Zhang Tingting nodded silently.
He let out a sigh. "Tingting, everything is fine here."
He looked at Xiao Yue, who was watching everything with interest — as if she was trying to measure him. Then back at Zhang Tingting.
"Whatever I owe you, I'll deal with it properly. Not here. Not like this. And I promise — I won't abandon you. If I do, I'll spell my name backwards from now on."
Lin Feng let her arm go.
Zhang Tingting's lower lip moved without sound. Lin Feng's eyes met hers. Her eyes and ears had gone red — but in that moment, he saw relief.
Then he turned his gaze back to Xiao Yue. Beside her, for a moment, he saw her — the woman who would hug him to death.
Seeing her there, he quickly turned his gaze away.
It was Su Qingxue, standing right beside Xiao Yue's seat.
But not before he saw Xiao Yue's reaction.
On the other side of the table, Xiao Yue crossed her arms, leaning back against the seat. Lin Feng could not see her eyes properly, but he could see a smile appearing on her lips.
It was a wolf's smile.
Lin Feng gulped hard.
Zhang Tingting looked at the hooded girl once more. Su Qingxue followed suit.
The two of them could only see the hood around her head.
Lin Feng turned his gaze to the wall beside Xiao Yue.
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"So that's it?"
Su Qingxue's voice had gone hard.
"Four years. And you're walking away? Just like that?"
Zhang Tingting flinched.
"After everything you have done for me? You — you are just going to walk away?"
Lin Feng's mouth shifted at the corner. It was not quite a smile.
Now, he thought.
He turned his gaze to Zhang Tingting.
"Tingting, I heard something a little unpleasant."
Zhang Tingting looked at Su Qingxue for a moment, then turned back to Lin Feng.
"Can — can you tell me what it is?"
"It's probably nothing. Just something that wants to talk about money…"
He did not raise his voice.
"Fifteen million, three hundred thousand yuan."
Su Qingxue's hand on the back of the chair went pale at the knuckles.
The heat in her lower abdomen pulsed once, hard. Harder than it had pulsed when he refused to turn his chair toward her. Harder than when he said strangers.
"Why are you saying that — in front of her?"
Su Qingxue's voice came out higher than she meant.
Stop. Don't.
"Since when did I ever ask you for any of that?"
Su Qingxue's face looked mortified. She paused for a moment, then she continued.
"The tuition was your idea. So was giving me all that money for what you claim is an investment fund for our future. So were the cars — for me, for my siblings, for my father. The investment in his business. The vacations."
The words came faster than her mouth could shape them properly.
"And now — now you're going to price it? You're going to stand here and price it? What's next, are you going to take them back?"
Her knees had started shaking. The shaking was the wrong kind. It was not the shaking of fear. The shaking had worsened on the word price. It worsened again when she said the word herself.
Then, when she asked the last question, her face arranged itself into a more 'challenger' expression.
Anger, she insisted. This is just anger.
But something was wrong.
Something was very wrong with the room, with the heat, with the words coming out of her mouth that she had not chosen. Something was wrong with the way her knees would not stop, with the way the trembling crept higher every time he said another sentence she could not predict.
The way things sounded right to her.
She needed it to stop.
She did not know what it was. She had a guess for what would make it stop. Get him alone. Away from the phones. Away from Tingting. Away from the woman in the hood. Just him and her, where she could — could what?
She did not know.
The asking came out before she finished the thought.
"We can't — we can't talk about this here."
She heard her own voice. It was wrong too.
"Lin Feng. Please. Privately. Can we —"
She looked at the people around her. Lowered her head. Found her voice again.
"Can we discuss this privately?"
"If you want, we can discuss how I can give them all back to you. I kept all the most expensive gifts you have given me still on their packaging. And the money, I haven't touched a single yuan out of it."
The asking did not make her feel better. The asking made the heat pulse again. She could not stop her words. Saying all of that felt natural, as if those were the words she was supposed to say.
She did not know why, but it felt comfortable.
Lin Feng's eyelids twitched.
This was not the script.
He had run the thought ten times since the morning. The balance came out. The face-slap landed. She broke off, refused the figure, walked out under camera cover.
That was how this kind of story resolved itself.
What was happening in front of him had her still standing there. Listing the items herself. Asking for privacy. The voice was wrong. The trembling was wrong. The pace of the sentences was wrong.
Something was wrong with Su Qingxue.
What is wrong with her? Lin Feng thought. Why is she acting like that?
For a moment, he was in deep thought, thinking about Su Qingxue. Something felt oddly familiar about her. He had a name for it, yet, for some reason, the name was stuck at the back of his tongue.
Meanwhile, Zhang Tingting was watching Su Qingxue, looking confused.
Then she turned her head and lowered it slightly, her eyes landing on Lin Feng's face. The twitch was still there.
And like him, she also looked confused.
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The phones around the room had continued filming and taking pictures of the drama in front of them.
A whisper carried — not to comment, just to register.
"…fifteen million —"
"Shh —"
As the murmurs from the melon-eating squad in expensive-looking chairs instead of white stools grew louder, Zhang Tingting looked back at Su Qingxue.
Su Qingxue was trembling so hard on her knees that she had to grip the edge of Xiao Yue's chair to stay upright. Her face was now glowing red.
However, Zhang Tingting only became more confused.
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Lin Feng slowly turned his gaze away from Zhang Tingting and to the far wall. Meanwhile, Su Qingxue stood there silently, waiting for his reply.
A minute passed by. Then two.
Lin Feng was still silent.
The heat in her lower abdomen had still not stopped pulsing. But her knees began to calm down.
"Hey, Lin Feng, look at me." Su Qingxue spoke again, taking a half step forward, her arm almost touching Xiao Yue's arm.
"You want to settle things with me, right? Then here I am. Let's talk about this! But can we do this privately?"
Zhang Tingting looked at Su Qingxue and Lin Feng, her eyes moving back and forth between them. Cold beads of sweat had appeared on Lin Feng's forehead. He kept his face still.
Meanwhile, Lin Feng still had not acknowledged her presence.
Su Qingxue, running out of patience, was about to walk toward him. However, the moment she turned to go and to make him look at her, she bumped into Xiao Yue, who was sitting silently.
It was as if she had forgotten that there was a chair there, and that someone was sitting on it.
For a moment, she looked at the hooded figure. Then at the back of Lin Feng's seat. Then back at the hooded figure.
"Hey, I remember you now… aren't you the weirdo who always sits a few rows behind us since middle school?"
Then Su Qingxue's eyes dilated. Slowly, she turned her gaze toward the back of Lin Feng's seat once more.
"Lin Feng… don't tell me you're just using her because you want me to chase you? Is that it?"
Seeing that Lin Feng wasn't turning around to look at her, Su Qingxue looked at Xiao Yue.
"Lin Feng… you think she's better than me?"
The voice had gone raw. She then raised her hand and pointed a finger at Xiao Yue beside her.
"That this nobody who hides under a hood is better than me? This stalker who admitted to being a stalker back in high school —"
Her voice rose.
Zhang Tingting, in the meantime, was now looking at Lin Feng.
Lin Feng raised his arm and wiped the sweat away from his forehead. He sighed lightly, his face relaxing as he heard Su Qingxue provoke Xiao Yue.
"At least I had the dignity to show my face! At least I'm not skulking around campus like some pathetic —"
Su Qingxue placed her hand on Xiao Yue's hood.
Yet, the moment Su Qingxue's hand touched her head, Xiao Yue finally broke her silence, her voice full of contempt.
"Peasant — are you sure you want to take my hood away?"
She then took Su Qingxue's wrist, and with a single whisk, lifted Su Qingxue's hand off her head.
"First of all, don't touch my head. The only person who can touch me is Lin Feng."
Su Qingxue immediately pulled her hand away and took a half step back.
Xiao Yue's fingers closed on the fabric of the hood.
But before she pulled, she looked toward the back of the restaurant. Near the wall, half in the shadow of a serving station, a figure was standing. The figure had been standing there the entire time.
Xiao Yue let her gaze rest there for a beat.
Then she turned back.
"And second, don't you dare compare yourself against me ever again."
"There is only one person in this world who I consider a true rival."
She pulled.
"And it's not you."
The hood came down.
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[End of Chapter]