Chapter 48: Li Heng's Dense Assault

"Monster, take this old grandson's staff!"

The living room was quiet, save for the sound of the television.

Although Li Heng had watched the 1986 television adaptation of *Journey to the West* many times, rewatching it still completely captivated him.

Chen Xiaomi, filled with a tangle of thoughts, watched for a short fraction of an episode before she simply couldn't sit still any longer. She stood up and walked over to the window.

Through the glass, she scanned the campus outside, searching for Wang Runwen and the mysterious "December," whom she had never met.

After remaining bent in that posture for about fifteen minutes, lost in her own thoughts, she finally opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

Li Heng merely glanced at her sideways and continued watching TV.

Another twenty minutes or so passed. Suddenly, Chen Xiaomi strode back inside from the outside, unable to contain her impatience any longer, and demanded directly:

"Which teaching building is that female teacher lecturing in?"

Li Heng remained completely indifferent to her question, acting as though he hadn't heard it. His eyes were glued to the Monkey King on the screen, thoroughly enjoying the show.

Seeing herself ignored, a surge of unwarranted anger flared up inside Chen Xiaomi.

Yet she knew this was no time to pick a petty fight. A rival representative from *Harvest* magazine might show up at any moment, so she had to make contact with "December" first.

Chen Xiaomi raised her right wrist to check her watch, looked back at him, and after a moment's thought, said:

"You tell me where that female teacher is, and I'll answer a question for you about Zijin."

It would have been better if she hadn't mentioned Chen Zijin.

The moment she did, an unprovoked fire ignited within him!

Li Heng, who had intended to ignore her, said coldly, "Is this what you call upbringing? Using your niece as a bargaining chip?"

Seeing the little bastard who used to not even dare let out a peep in front of her speak to her this way, Chen Xiaomi finally snapped:

"Li Heng, do you have the nerve to talk to me about upbringing? You took Zijin's virginity when you were seventeen years old. Are you even human? Is this something a human being does?"

Li Heng raised his head and delivered a ruthless retort: "Chen Zijin and I loved each other and were in a free relationship for five years. What of it? At what age did Grandma Chun marry your father? Since you're so high and mighty, sticking your nose into everything, why don't you go lecture your father?"

"You! You bastard..."

Driven mad with rage, Chen Xiaomi pointed a finger at him, preparing to unleash a torrent of fury.

However, the Li Heng of today was no longer the Li Heng of the past; he had no intention of pandering to her anymore. He reached out and pushed her hand away.

He rebuked sternly, "So noisy! Making a shameful spectacle of yourself! Go close the door."

Hearing the sound of an argument from inside, a teacher passing by in the corridor outside curiously poked their head in, then quickly pulled it back.

From childhood on, Chen Xiaomi had always been the paragon of a child in the eyes of elders, the darling in the eyes of relatives, classmates, and friends. When had she ever been subjected to such bossy treatment?

At that moment, her inner cosmos exploded.

Nrowing her eyes, she counterattacked: "Li Heng, you...!"

Yet she had barely uttered three syllables when she seemed to suddenly remember something. Her entire body shuddered violently as if struck by lightning, and she stared blankly at Li Heng, instantly falling silent.

Her mouth hung wide open.

Truly wide open—one could see her entire tongue, wide enough to swallow a goose egg.

Then her eyes widened in horror, every pore on her body contracting, staring fixedly at Li Heng as though she had just seen a ghost.

The expression on her face shifted through a myriad of transformations: turning from a coffin shop to a paper-doll store, and then into a graveyard of the dead. Astonishment, shock, disbelief, and complexity washed over her one after another, rivaling a face-changing performance in Sichuan opera—it was as spectacular as it could possibly be!

Earlier, blinded by the heat of the argument, she hadn't paid attention. But once it hit her—once she recognized that Li Heng's voice was identical to that of the writer "December" on the phone—

She was completely dumbfounded!

She was frozen stiff!

She was too terrified to talk back!

Her brain had short-circuited, reduced to a total blank!

When she came, she had been brimming with ambition, fantasizing one rosy future after another. Now, reality had ruthlessly smashed them into dust.

Seeing that she had figured out his identity, Li Heng simply dropped the act and said in an unquestionable tone:

"Close the door."

Chen Xiaomi paused, failing to move for a moment.

Yet when she saw his overwhelming presence, gazing at her with cold indifference, she clenched her teeth. After a long moment, caught in a bizarre atmosphere she couldn't possibly fathom, she found herself mechanically and slowly turning around to shut the door.

Before closing it, she seemed unaware of what she was doing.

The very instant the door clicked shut, she snapped out of her daze.

In that fraction of a second, she wanted to rebel, wanted to curse him out with utter abandon just as she used to. But the next second, recalling his identity, thinking of her promises to the editor-in-chief and her elders, and picturing the gloating face of that bitch Zhou Chunlan,

She hesitated.

After a long internal struggle, she took a few deep breaths, turned her back to Li Heng, and desperately suppressed the fury that was driving her to the brink of madness.

Seeing this, Li Heng was in no rush, quietly waiting.

Truth be told, watching a proud woman whose tail usually curled up to the sky now obediently following his orders to close the door stirred a sudden, inexplicable sense of pleasure deep within him.

Exhilarating!

Damn it, simply exhilarating!

Something he had fantasized about for decades in his past life and never achieved had finally, damn it, come true today.

His heart was brimming with a profound sense of accomplishment!

Yet compared to the insults and injuries she had inflicted upon him in his past life, this was still not enough!

Far from enough!

Half a minute later, Chen Xiaomi turned back around. By now, her expression was smooth as still water. She walked over, sat down opposite him, and leveled her gaze at him.

Seeing her recover her composure so quickly, Li Heng couldn't help but marvel that this woman was indeed exceptional, possessed of truly formidable mental fortitude.

Exchanging a moment of emotionless eye contact, she took the initiative to speak first in order to seize back the upper hand:

"You are truly December?"

Li Heng smiled and said softly, "There's an old saying: 'One fails to recognize Mount Tai.' It seems your family's judgment is just about that level.

Half a year ago, you deemed a poor boy unworthy of a daughter of the Chen family, choosing to mercilessly strike him down with a single stroke without even granting him the chance to propose marriage.

And today, the gold-encrusted December is standing right before you, yet you have foolishly let slip a golden opportunity."

Hearing this, Chen Xiaomi's face shifted through shades of light and shadow, filled with extreme gloom.

Although she had previously suspected his identity, who could have guessed that Li Heng actually *was* December?

Before she could reply, Li Heng leaned forward slightly and delivered the first blow: "By the way, meeting again like this, should I address you as Little Aunt?

Or should I call you Chen Xiaomi?"

The words sounded calm, gentle, and unthreatening, utterly devoid of profanity or aggressive posturing.

Yet they were venomous to the extreme!

Why call her Little Aunt?

Naturally, following Chen Zijin's form of address.

If she dared to accept that title, it meant the Chen family and Chen Xiaomi tacitly approved of this relationship.

What did that imply?

It meant she had to take back all those vicious things she had previously said about Li Heng—akin to swallowing back down every single mouthful of the shit she had shat, bearing it in bitter silence.

This was a blatant trampling upon her dignity!

At the same time, it marked her as a mercenary snob who previously opposed Li Heng and Chen Zijin being together, only to change her tune the moment there was hope of him becoming a great writer.

Wasn't this brutally slapping her own face and the face of the Chen family?

And if she rejected the title of Little Aunt and insisted on being called Chen Xiaomi?

Then Li Heng's meaning was crystal clear: Chen Xiaomi was his enemy; why on earth would he ever give his novel to her to publish?

In other words: You can get lost!

Chen Xiaomi was a clever person; how could she fail to understand his implication? Her face instantly flushed crimson, then turned a livid shade of iron.

In short, Li Heng's words were needles wrapped in silk: call her Little Aunt, and she would prove herself a petty hypocrite who ate her own words and treated promises like flatulence.

Call her Chen Xiaomi, and the deal was completely dead in the water.

This was a multiple-choice question Li Heng had handed her, and she could only pick one answer.

Even if she tried to muddle through, Li Heng would undoubtedly flip the table on the spot!

It was a torturous dilemma, pitting humiliation against dignity.

Choose humiliation, and they could continue discussing *To Live*.

Choose dignity, and she would have to pack her bag and walk out immediately.

Yet she had already swallowed the humiliation of closing that door; if she just left now, wouldn't she be taking a massive loss?

Wouldn't she have suffered those grievances for nothing?

Besides, if she left empty-handed like this, wouldn't she become a laughingstock?

Rather than becoming the laughingstock of everyone, she might as well...

Recalling the purpose of her trip and her conversation with the editor-in-chief before setting out, Chen Xiaomi, driven by her intense career ambition, forcefully suppressed her inner turmoil and finally made her choice.

There was no help for it; Li Heng held all the cards now, and she had no third option.

Meeting his gaze, Chen Xiaomi said, "I cannot make the decision regarding the title of Little Aunt on my own; I must go back and ask for Zijin's thoughts."

What were Chen Zijin's thoughts?

Did that even need to be asked?

She was enduring humiliation for the greater good, making a disguised compromise, using linguistic artistry to prettify her own wretched position.

"Heh!" Li Heng let out a lukewarm, mocking chuckle upon hearing this.

Those two simple syllables sounded exceptionally grating under the circumstances.

Even as steady as Chen Xiaomi was, she couldn't withstand his peculiar gaze. She averted her face slightly, a flush of awkwardness and shame creeping all over her cheeks.