Fang Ming turned his head, looking at Wang Meng, who was about to rush over and rub salt in Chu Yao's wounds, and immediately stopped him.
Wang Meng stopped in his tracks, looking puzzled: "Brother Ming, what's wrong? This is the perfect time to exploit her weakness... ah, no, to kick her while she's down!"
Fang Ming looked him up and down, his eyes full of disdain.
"Look at your face. If you go up there now, what can you do besides scaring her away?"
"Young Master Qin wants control, he wants her to willingly submit after being driven to despair, not for you to act out 'Beauty and the Beast.'"
Wang Meng scratched his head: "Then... what should we do?"
Fang Ming pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, tossed one to Wang Meng, lit one for himself, took a deep breath, and exhaled an elegant smoke ring.
"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."
"Just cutting off the scholarship isn't enough. Young Master Qin also wants us to monitor her fully, from all angles."
Fang Ming pointed to the women's dormitory building not far away.
"You go find the dorm manager or the dean of students, and figure out how to get the list of her roommates. I need to know their names, phone numbers, who she's close to, and who she has a bad relationship with."
"Only by handling her social network in the dorm can we truly monitor her."
When Wang Meng heard this, his eyes instantly widened like copper bells.
"Holy crap! Brother Ming! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
"How did I not think of this angle? This is about creating internal division! As long as we buy off her roommates, won't her every move be right under our noses?"
Fang Ming looked at him as if he were an idiot: "Otherwise? Should I let you move into the women's dorm to watch her?"
Wang Meng chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "I wish I could, but they won't let me in... Alright, Brother Ming, you wait here. I'm familiar with this kind of information gathering job. I'll be right back!"
After speaking, Wang Meng tucked the cigarette behind his ear and turned to run towards the dormitory building, his back view full of energy.
Watching Wang Meng run far away, the trace of sarcasm on Fang Ming's face instantly vanished without a trace.
He threw the cigarette he had just taken a puff from onto the ground and extinguished it with his gleaming leather shoe.
"Hoo..."
Fang Ming straightened his collar and checked his reflection in the nearby stainless steel window.
"I really do have the look of a refined scoundrel."
Fang Ming gave a self-mocking smile, then strode with his long legs toward the solitary figure in the corner of the cafeteria.
At this moment, Chu Yao had sat back down.
She lowered her head, wiping the soup stains on her clothes again and again with a tissue, but the more she wiped, the dirtier it got. Finally, she couldn't hold back her tears, which plopped onto the table.
The surrounding crowd gradually dispersed, but the whispers lingered like flies.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over her.
A man's hand with distinct knuckles offered her a clean paper napkin.
"Use this paper to wipe. The one you're using is just making it dirtier."
The other party's voice was deep, carrying a perfectly measured hint of charisma.
Chu Yao's body trembled violently, like a startled fawn. She looked up, her red eyes full of caution and vigilance.
What met her eyes was a young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
He was very handsome, the kind of aggressive handsomeness, especially with that expensive custom-made Polo shirt, which was completely out of place in this cheap cafeteria.
Chu Yao had seen too many people like this.
Those'successful' men who drove luxury cars and waited for her outside the school gate were mostly dressed like this.
"No need."
Chu Yao coldly refused, turning her head away, her voice hoarse: "I don't know you. Please leave."
Fang Ming neither got angry nor left.
He naturally pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down, his movements as elegant as if he were attending a dinner party at a Michelin restaurant.
"Ms. Chu Yao, I think we should talk."
Fang Ming clasped his hands on the table, watching her calmly through his glasses.
"I have nothing to talk about with you." Chu Yao stood up, ready to take her tray and leave.
Fang Ming spoke slowly and calmly: "I'm here to help you."
"Help me?"
Chu Yao looked back at Fang Ming as if she had heard a huge joke: "How will you help? By throwing money at me? Then asking me to be your girlfriend? Or maybe... your secret mistress?"
"Sorry, I have hands and feet. Even without the scholarship, I won't starve to death."
After saying that, she turned to leave, clearly having experienced such things many times before.
"What a stubborn temper. Truly worthy of the Soldier King's sister."
Fang Ming sighed softly and said in a voice only the two of them could hear: "Your older brother sent me."
In that instant, time seemed to have been paused.
The step Chu Yao had just taken was nailed firmly to the spot, as if cast in cement.
The clamor in the cafeteria seemed to fade away at that moment.
She stiffly turned around, staring intently at Fang Ming, her eyes filled with disbelief, shock, and a hint of... hope she dared not touch.
"You... what did you say?" Her voice trembled.
"I said."
Fang Ming took off his glasses, pulled out a cleaning cloth from his pocket, and slowly wiped them. His gaze was not on her, but on the void.
"It was your older brother, Chu Feng, who sent me."
Chu Feng was the name of Soldier King Lone Wolf, information Fang Ming had obtained on the way.
The moment those two words were spoken, the meal tray in Chu Yao's hand dropped onto the table with a "clang."
The remaining food spilled all over the table.
Ignoring the mess, she gripped the edge of the table, staring fixedly at Fang Ming, tears rolling down like broken strings of pearls.
"No... you're a liar... my brother, he... he already..."
She choked up, wanting to refute him, yet afraid to do so.
Ever since her brother distracted the human traffickers when she was five, there had been no news of him. Everyone told her that her brother must have died.
Even her uncle said,'Stop looking, he's long rotted away in some unknown mountain ditch.'
But now, this strange man suddenly mentioned that name.
"He's not dead."
Fang Ming put his glasses back on, concealing the trace of emotion in his eyes: "Not only is he not dead, but he's living very well; he just can't return from abroad."
"It's not convenient for him to show his face, so he entrusted me to look after you."
"I don't believe you!"
Chu Yao shook her head desperately, her eyes full of defensiveness: "You must have investigated me. You're trying to trick me, this method is too low-level!"
Although she claimed not to believe him, her body was leaning slightly forward—an instinctive reaction of wanting to hear more details.
Fang Ming smiled. He leaned slightly forward, moving closer to Chu Yao.
The distance was slightly intimate, making Chu Yao instinctively want to retreat, but Fang Ming's next words froze her to the spot.
"Fourteen years ago, at the train station, in order to distract the bad guys, he hid you behind a trash can full of waste paper boxes."
"Before leaving, he gave you half a jade pendant. It was a Qilin Jade, missing one leg."
"He told you: 'Yaoyao, don't be afraid. Gege is going to fight the monsters, and he'll be back soon.'"
Boom!
With every word Fang Ming spoke, Chu Yao's psychological defense crumbled a little more.
When she heard "Qilin Jade" and "missing one leg," she felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
That was the secret buried deepest in her heart.
She had always worn that jade pendant close to her body, never showing it to anyone, not even taking it off when bathing or sleeping.
Other than her own brother, there was absolutely no way a third person in this world could know!
"You... you really are..."