Volume One, Chapter 42: Let’s Get Rich Together

I hurriedly pushed Yu Qingman away, my gaze sweeping across Lin Fangyang's retreating back as my heart rate accelerated involuntarily.

I was terrified!

Once I provoked Lin Fangyang to turn hostile in this private room, I had nowhere to run.

I would only be forced to the ground by his bodyguards and beaten mercilessly, leaving me bruised and battered.

"Zhou Yan, my dad is very open-minded and supports my choices."

Yu Qingman looked utterly unconcerned. Her words sounded deeply ironic to me, filling me with profound contempt for her.

In the eyes of the wealthy and powerful Lin Fangyang, the young and beautiful Yu Qingman was nothing more than a plaything.

And I felt even more pathetic, like an accessory to that plaything.

"Zhou Yan, with your academic grades, you are bound to succeed. No matter how difficult it gets, you must persist and return to retake your exams. I will still be waiting for you at Pingchuan University."

There was affection in Yu Qingman's eyes, and her tone seemed sincere.

Yet I did not believe her. Unable to hold back any longer, I muttered gloomily, "You applied to Pingchuan University just for Mr. Lin, didn't you!"

"Of course!"

Yu Qingman answered without hesitation. "By then, I can be with Dad often, and he will do everything in his power to help me live with dignity."

Dignity?

How could Yu Qingman even bring herself to say that word? She had completely lost all sense of shame.

Seeing that I remained silent, the smile on Yu Qingman's face gradually faded, and her red lips parted to deliver a warning.

"Zhou Yan, you must draw a clear line between yourself and Fu Xiaoya. I hate it when you two are entangled."

"She is like an older sister to me," I raised my voice to emphasize.

"As if anyone would believe that! You protect her with such utter disregard for everything else. Could it be that you've actually slept with her?" Yu Qingman said with disdain.

"No, absolutely not. Don't slander her," I said, agitated.

Slap!

Seething with rage, Yu Qingman raised her hand and struck me across the face.

I froze on the spot, my chest heaving violently as if it were about to burst.

How dare Yu Qingman hit me?

This was already the third time.

I desperately wanted to lunge forward and choke the life out of her, but I had to fight tooth and nail to control the demon of impulse within me.

I couldn't do it, or everything would be ruined.

"Fu Xiaoya hit me and humiliated me. I will never let her off easily."

Displaying a deeply vindictive side, Yu Qingman angrily grabbed a bottle of fruit beer, drained it in one breath, and slammed the bottle heavily onto the coffee table.

"She was already detained because of that and has paid for what she did. Why won't you let it go?!"

I let out a long sigh of dismay.

"Nowhere near enough!"

Yu Qingman gritted her teeth. "She dared to compete with me for a man, without even looking in the mirror to see how filthy, stinking, and rotten she really is. I want her dead."

Compete for a man?

What nonsense was this?

"Qingman, how can I make it up to you so you'll leave her alone?"

I lowered myself to negotiate, driven by sheer necessity.

Now that Yu Qingman had attached herself to the wealthy and powerful Lin Fangyang, how could Fu Xiaoya possibly stand a chance against her?

"You can kneel down for her."

Yu Qingman's words shocked me so deeply that I could hardly believe my ears.

She was actually starting to humiliate me as well!

It was clear that her previous professions of love for me had all been empty lies.

For Fu Xiaoya's sake, I clenched my teeth and dropped to my knees at Yu Qingman's feet.

I saw my own reflection in the glossy, pointed leather tips of her shoes—looking so utterly insignificant.

Lin Fangyang, who had been singing, turned around and caught the sight of me kneeling.

He suddenly laughed and gave Yu Qingman a thumbs-up.

"Zhou Yan, you are truly beyond saving. Why on earth did I ever like you?"

Yu Qingman screamed and burst into tears. She stood up and pulled hard on me, shouting, "Get up! Get up right now!"

"Promise you'll let Fu Xiaoya go," I kept my head down and persisted.

"Fine, I promise you! As long as she stops provoking me, this matter is over!"

Yu Qingman finally relented, letting out a heavy, exasperated sigh. "Besides, it won't be long before I leave for Pingchuan City. I won't run into her anymore."

I breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Fu Xiaoya remained safe, no price was too high to pay.

Yu Qingman and I sat back down on the sofa. She handed me a beer, and I tilted my head back and drained it in one go, treating the act almost as a release of pent-up emotion.

She handed me another bottle, and I downed that one too.

Yu Qingman smiled. In her eyes, this probably made me look more like a bold, heroic man.

Having sung enough, Lin Fangyang sat down to smoke a cigarette.

Yu Qingman took the microphone and invited me to sing a duet with her.

I refused on the grounds that I didn't know how.

Finding me boring, Yu Qingman told me to leave the private room first.

Though my pocket now held a thousand yuan, I couldn't muster any joy. The intensity of my former affection for Yu Qingman was now matched only by my hatred and disgust for her.

Yu Qingman was nothing more than a bitch, and I had been blind to mistake her true nature before.

In the hallway, I ran into Fu Xiaoya, who was pacing back and forth. She asked with concern, "Xiaoyan, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just had a couple of beers."

I put on a calm facade, not wanting Fu Xiaoya to detect my extreme disillusionment, and added, "Sis, it's all in the past now. I'm begging you, stop tangling with Yu Qingman!"

"I couldn't care less about that little bitch." Despite her words, Fu Xiaoya reached out and jabbed me hard on the forehead. "You really are a glutton for punishment, begging me on her account!"

At that moment, someone called out for Manager Fu, and she hurried away.

Half an hour later, Lin Fangyang and his companions came downstairs to check out. Ignoring old Hei's polite disclaimers, Lin Fangyang insisted on leaving a two-thousand-yuan tip.

This sum became the largest single earning the KTV had seen since Han Feng took over.

Old Hei enthusiastically escorted Lin Fangyang outside, bowing as he pulled open the car door and shielding the top of Lin Fangyang's head with his hand.

As for what Lin Fangyang whispered to old Hei, no one ever found out.

It was midnight once again by the time I arrived home.

Xu Li was in, and voices could be heard coming from the first-floor bedroom.

Listening closely, I realized she was on the phone, sounding as though she were having a wonderful time.

Two half-smoked cigarette butts sat in the ashtray on the coffee table.

A strange man had definitely been in the house!

With my father's lower-body paralysis now a permanent reality, Xu Li had grown increasingly brazen, no longer even bothering to hide bringing men home to cheat.

With a look of disgust, I spat into the ashtray before heading upstairs.

Let Xu Li do as she pleased.

I understood her intentions well enough; she deliberately left the cigarette butts out so I would discover them and go report her to my father.

If she could literally anger my father to death, she would undoubtedly be overjoyed.

I refused to grant her that satisfaction and simply pretended not to see them.

Lying in bed in my room, I thought back to Yu Qingman. How could she have transformed into such an utterly loathsome person in such a short span of time?

Perhaps she had always been this way!

With the alcohol still clouding my head and amidst a jumble of chaotic dreams, I ushered in a new day.

Liu Fang菲 called, her voice sweet and melodic.

"Zhou Yan, what are you up to?"

"I'm still in bed," I replied, rubbing my eyes.

"Haha, such a lazybones! It's already ten o'clock; I've been at work since seven."

Liu Fangfei laughed musically, then asked, "Can you come over to my place around noon? I've got some good news."

"Are you treating me to lunch again?" I joked.
"Lunch, pfft! We're going to make a fortune together, and we'll split the profits fifty-fifty. Aren't I loyal?" Liu Fangfei said with a triumphant laugh.

"Make a fortune? How?"

I was completely baffled, unable to fathom how Liu Fangfei, stuck running a small photo studio, could possibly have a path to sudden wealth.
"I can't tell you over the phone!"

Deliberately leaving me in suspense, Liu Fangfei said with a mysterious tone, "Zhou Yan, if you aren't interested, I'll just go find someone else."