Chapter 2

Shangguan Xuan did not answer. She stared absently at the finger marks on Lin Fei’s jaw. Judging by the severity of the marks and the amount of force used, the original character must have been quite strong—and must have hated Lin Fei intensely.

Shangguan Xuan instinctively reached out to touch the marks on Lin Fei’s face, but Lin Fei recoiled sharply as though startled. She then grabbed Shangguan Xuan’s arm, opened her mouth, and bit down hard.

“Ah…” Shangguan Xuan cried out in pain and instinctively tried to pull her arm away, but Lin Fei clamped down and refused to let go. Shangguan Xuan felt as though Lin Fei was about to tear an entire chunk of flesh from her arm.

Even as she bit her, Lin Fei continued glaring at her with hatred.

Summoning all her strength, Shangguan Xuan shoved her away. Looking at the two bloodied rows of teeth marks on her forearm, she asked in a choked voice, “Are… are you a dog or something?”

Lin Fei stumbled and dropped to her knees on the floor. When she saw that Shangguan Xuan’s eyes had turned red, she froze.

Clutching her forearm, Shangguan Xuan gave Lin Fei an indignant “Hmph!” before turning around and leaving.

Lin Fei remained rooted to the spot in bewilderment.

She was leaving just like that?

After returning to her room, Shangguan Xuan easily found the first-aid kit in the cabinet. She disinfected the wound, applied medicine, and wrapped her arm in a bandage.

The moment the alcohol touched her wound, the pain nearly made her suck in a sharp breath. At the same time, she cursed Lin Fei for being such a shrew. The woman might look frail on the outside, but beneath that delicate appearance, she was definitely a fierce hellion who was not to be trifled with.

Then again, it made sense. This was also what laid the foundation for the female lead’s eventual return for revenge. If Lin Fei were truly as weak as she appeared, she would never have been capable of sending the original character to prison and arranging for someone to kill her.

At that moment, Shangguan Xuan suddenly remembered something. Her head snapped up, and her expression changed drastically.

Wasn’t that scene just now the one in which the original character, unwilling to accept that her plan had failed, ran to the female lead’s room to bully her again? The two of them had gotten into another physical struggle, and the hysterical female lead had slashed her arm with a shard from a broken vase. The original character had been so frightened that she fled in panic.

The more Shangguan Xuan thought about it, the more alarmed and frightened she became. It turned out that, without even realizing it, she had still been following the novel’s original plot.

She flopped heavily onto the bed and racked her brain, trying to remember what happened next.

She had read this novel in high school. Four or five years had passed since then, and her memories were somewhat hazy. She could only recall the general course of events.

Shangguan Xuan lay quietly for a while, then suddenly sat up.

Tonight was the night Ye Shen had arranged to meet Lin Fei at the hotel. Afterward, however, Ye Shen did not keep his promise to leave Lin Fei alone. Instead, he pursued her even more aggressively and used his power and influence to threaten her at every turn. Of course, he also gave her plenty of benefits afterward. Through their constant back-and-forth, feelings gradually developed between them, and before long, Lin Fei became pregnant.

Shangguan Xuan’s face turned deathly pale. Nearly trembling, she pulled her phone from her pocket, steadied herself, and sent Ye Shen a message.

【I’m not feeling well. Come home early tonight.】

Ye Shen did not reply immediately.

Shangguan Xuan walked to the door and quietly pulled it open a crack, leaving it ajar so she could hear any movement from the room across the hall.

She waited like that until dusk, eventually falling fast asleep without realizing it.

It was around four thirty in the afternoon when she awoke. She had been startled awake after her body suddenly jerked in her sleep for no apparent reason.

Shangguan Xuan checked her phone. There was only one message from Ye Shen, sent an hour earlier.

【Have A-Cheng take you to the hospital. I have a business engagement tonight and won’t be able to come home.】

Shangguan Xuan sneered. He was going out to fool around with a woman, yet he called it a business engagement. Bah.

Her gaze inadvertently fell on the time displayed in the status bar, and her heart jolted.

It was already this late?

Shangguan Xuan hurried to the door. At the same moment, she heard the door across the hall open.

She instinctively lightened her footsteps and peered outside through the crack. She ​read the original at bailiantales.com​saw Lin Fei hesitate in the doorway for a moment, then raise a hand to wipe her face before closing the door and leaving.

Shangguan Xuan hurriedly called A-Cheng. He answered almost immediately.

“Miss.”

“Lin Fei is about to come downstairs. No matter what you have to do, don’t let her leave.”

A-Cheng replied, “Yes.”

After ending the call, Shangguan Xuan followed Lin Fei out.

When she stepped outside the villa, Shangguan Xuan did not see Lin Fei. She only saw A-Cheng standing in front of the garage on the right.

She walked over and asked, “Where’s Lin Fei?”

A-Cheng pointed to an Audi A6 beside him and opened the car door. “She’s in here.”

Shangguan Xuan lowered her head and peered inside. Lin Fei was unconscious in the back seat. “What happened to her?”

A-Cheng replied, “I knocked her unconscious. She didn’t see me.”

Shangguan Xuan curled her lips and silently grumbled, He really has no idea how to treat a woman gently. No wonder he still doesn’t have a girlfriend.

She bent down and climbed into the car, then felt around Lin Fei’s body with both hands. Lin Fei was extremely thin, as though she had suffered from chronic malnutrition. There was no flesh where there shouldn’t be any, and where there should have been some… there wasn’t much there either.

“Ahem…”

Shangguan Xuan moved her hand away from a certain area and found Lin Fei’s phone in her trouser pocket. It was an old model from several years ago. Although it did not have a password, it was so sluggish that Shangguan Xuan spent quite some time simply trying to open the messages.

As expected, the latest message was from Ye Shen. It contained only one concise sentence.

【XX Hotel, Room 3026.】

Shangguan Xuan stuffed the phone back into Lin Fei’s pocket.

Just then, Lin Fei slowly regained consciousness while clutching the back of her neck. When she opened her eyes, she saw a pair of “perverted hands” groping all over her body.

Startled, Lin Fei hurriedly propped herself up and shrank backward. She stared warily at Shangguan Xuan. “What… what are you doing?”

Shangguan Xuan jumped at her sudden movement, then calmly replied, “Nothing…”

Lin Fei looked around. “Why am I here? Did you knock me unconscious?”

Without the slightest change in expression, Shangguan Xuan said, “Come on, lady. Someone attacked you just now. I was the one who saved you.”

Lin Fei regarded her suspiciously, then turned to get out of the car.

Shangguan Xuan abruptly grabbed read the original at bailiantales.com her wrist and said cryptically, “If you don’t want to… then don’t go.”

Lin Fei froze for a moment.

Shangguan Xuan continued, “I’ll help you figure something out regarding your friend. You don’t need to go meet Ye Shen.”

Lin Fei looked at her in surprise, then let out a cold laugh. “Instead of trying to stop me here, you should keep your Ye Shen under control. You know better than I do what kind of person he is.”

With that, she forcefully pulled her hand free, turned around, and left.

Shangguan Xuan stared blankly at the bandage around her right forearm. After a long while, she got out of the car and said, “A-Cheng, I need you to do something for me.”

…

Standing outside Room 3026, Lin Fei gripped the door handle tightly but did not open it for a long time.

Now that things had reached this point, she had nowhere [stolen content]left to retreat. What could further hesitation possibly change?

She took a deep breath and tilted her face upward slightly, forcing back the stinging sensation in her nose. Then she gritted her teeth and turned the handle—

The room was brightly lit, but there was no one inside the enormous suite. Perhaps she had still been clinging to a sliver of hope, because when she did not see Ye Shen, Lin Fei instinctively breathed a sigh of relief.

The sudden sound of running water came from the bathroom, instantly making Lin Fei’s heart sink to rock bottom. Her hands, hanging at her sides, abruptly clenched. Her knuckles stiffened beneath the force of her grip, and her face gradually turned pale.

Before long, the bathroom door opened, followed by the sound of slippers dragging across the floor.

Lin Fei kept her head lowered, nervously curling her fingers.

Wrapped in a bath towel with another towel covering her dripping-wet hair, Shangguan Xuan emerged from the bathroom. When she saw Lin Fei standing beside the sofa, she showed no surprise.

She dried her hair, casually tossed the towel aside, and looked back. Lin Fei was still standing there rigidly, motionless as a statue.

Shangguan Xuan raised an eyebrow. What was going on?

On second thought, Lin Fei did not seem to have raised her head even once. Could she have mistaken Shangguan Xuan for Ye Shen?

At the thought, Shangguan Xuan silently began to laugh. Staring at Lin Fei’s uneasy and bewildered figure, she was suddenly seized by a mischievous impulse.

She strode over to Lin Fei and reached out to caress her cheek.

The pleasant fragrance of body wash lingered in the air, but Lin Fei held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

She still wouldn’t look up?

Shangguan Xuan could not resist lowering her head to look at her and nearly burst out laughing.

Unable to resist teasing Lin Fei a little more, she raised her other hand and thoroughly felt up her entire face with both hands. Then she curled her fingers around Lin Fei’s cheeks and shook her head from side to side.

Annoyed at being toyed with, Lin Fei ​read the original at bailiantales.com​abruptly opened her eyes—only to find Shangguan Xuan’s smiling face mere inches from her own.

Startled, she hurriedly stepped backward, only to trip over the sofa beside her and topple onto it.

At that critical moment, Lin Fei instinctively grabbed the bath towel wrapped around Shangguan Xuan. Shangguan Xuan’s foot slipped, and she cried out in surprise as they both tumbled onto the sofa.

Shangguan Xuan’s body landed heavily on top of Lin Fei. Her bath towel had come half undone and hung loosely from her body, revealing the [prosperity, democracy, and harmony] beneath it.

Lin Fei stared blankly for a moment before slowly turning her head away, averting her eyes in embarrassment.

Shangguan Xuan, however, calmly pushed herself upright. With her back to Lin Fei, she leisurely wrapped the bath towel securely around herself again. Once she was done, she lowered her head for a glance, then recalled Lin Fei’s.

Hmm… She felt much more confident now.