Chapter 12

Song Yi quickly helped the girl lying on the ground to stand up, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."

The girl stood up while holding her waist. Having made such a spectacle of herself in front of Shen Yujing made her extremely angry, and she naturally wouldn't let Song Yi off so easily. "I think you did it on purpose! Do you know how much this dress costs? Can you even afford to compensate me now that you've ruined it?"

After saying this, the girl still felt unsatisfied. She looked around and grabbed a glass of red wine from the nearest table, then directly splashed it onto Song Yi.

Song Yi didn't dodge, knowing she was in the wrong, and accepted being doused with the wine.

The next second, gasps of surprise erupted from the surrounding crowd.

Song Yi looked up and saw Shen Yujing, who had somehow already moved to stand in front of her, with slight surprise in her eyes as well.

The golden-haired young man's eyes grew even colder. The red wine had soaked almost his entire sleeve, dripping from the cuff of his custom-made suit onto the floor.

Shen Yujing impatiently took off the suit jacket and threw it on the ground. Wearing just his white shirt, he turned to face the girl who had spoken and asked coldly, "Chen Xue, are you satisfied now?"

Chen Xue's eyes were filled with incomprehension. Though somewhat flustered, she still tried to maintain her composure and asked, "Shen Yujing, what are you doing? Who is she to deserve you taking a hit for her?"

"Before asking that question, you should look at yourself first." The disgust on Shen Yujing's face was unconcealed. "I've rejected you many times. If it weren't for your father's reputation, you would have been thrown out of Saint Slee long ago."

"What about her then?" Chen Xue let out a cold laugh. Since Shen Yujing was being so direct, she decided to completely drop pretenses and questioned, "Shen Yujing, don't tell me you've fallen for a scholarship student?"

Song Yi: "..."

How was this any of her business?

But the girl's words also made Song Yi suddenly feel anxious for a moment. She looked at the back of Shen Yujing's head, waiting for his answer.

Although it seemed ridiculous, what if the main characters' aura was too strong, or if her personality was too charming, and Shen Yujing had actually fallen for her?

But fortunately, Shen Yujing directly laughed out loud, clearly showing his disdain for Chen Xue's words.

Song Yi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling reassured.

While Shen Yujing's expression showed three parts defiance, one part mockery, and four parts dismissiveness, his hand that had fallen to his side had unconsciously pressed against the nearby table, gripping its corner tightly.

He was desperately trying to conceal his emotional changes. In all his years, Shen Yujing had received confessions from more girls than he could count on both hands, but he had never confessed to anyone himself, so he absolutely couldn't show any signs.

Of course, it wasn't that he liked her - he was just a little interested, that's all.

Besides, Song Yi was clearly the one who liked him, so no matter what, she should be the one to confess first.

As for whether he would accept or not, and how many times she would need to confess before he might grudgingly give her a chance - well, that would depend on his mood.

Chen Xue was extremely angry. She stopped talking to Shen Yujing and walked directly towards Song Yi, raising her hand high.

Song Yi narrowed her eyes, considering at what angle she should teach this hand a lesson.

After all, being pushed too far wasn't fun anymore.

But someone beat her to it.

Shen Yujing intercepted Chen Xue, grabbed her wrist, and pushed her back several steps. Then he released her hand and only said two words, "Show her out."

The surroundings instantly fell silent, as everyone could see that Chen Xue's actions had thoroughly angered the young master Shen.

Although Shen Yujing usually acted without much restraint, directly expelling a guest at a party like this meant he hadn't left Chen Xue any face at all, and it would certainly make her the laughingstock of everyone for quite some time.

Chen Xue looked at him in disbelief, "Shen Yujing, do you know what you're doing? When my father finds out about this, he'll definitely..."

The servants had already walked to Chen Xue's side, "Miss, please don't make this difficult for us."

Leaving on her own was better than being dragged out. Even though she was seething with anger, Chen Xue could only look at Song Yi, throw out a threatening "You just wait" before leaving.

And in the corner, Lu Qingqing, after witnessing everything that had happened, quickly followed Chen Xue.

She had found a useful yet foolish pawn.

*

Everyone could see that young master Shen wasn't in a particularly good mood today, so no one dared to joke with him, making this party seem somewhat boring compared to usual.

While Shen Yujing went upstairs to change clothes, Song Yi, who had already finished her cake, took the opportunity to slip away.

She had zero interest in Shen Yujing's gift, because she was afraid his so-called gift might involve hitting her head with that hammer.

Song Yi walked out of the villa area and then hailed a taxi to go straight home.

Wanting some fried skewers, Song Yi specifically got off near an elementary school close to her home.

The fried skewer stand was at the back gate of the school, run by an elderly lady who had been selling there for many years. The food was good quality, reasonably priced, and clean - quite famous in the area.

Song Yi ordered some pork tenderloin and rice cakes. Besides her, there was only a drunk middle-aged man at the stand.

The middle-aged man had eaten more than a dozen skewers, then wiped his mouth and was about to leave directly.

The elderly lady called out to him, "You haven't paid yet!"

The man waved his hand dismissively, "Put it on my tab, I'll pay it all next time!"

The elderly lady looked anxious, even neglecting the skewers in the pot as she stumbled after the man, grabbing his arm, "This has happened several times already. I'm running a small business here, you can't keep doing this."

The man was clearly impatient and directly shook off the elderly lady's hand, "Don't touch me! It's just this little bit of money, what's the rush? When I win at gambling next time, I'll pay you back all at once!"

Mentioning gambling seemed to remind the man of something, and he walked back.

He directly opened the elderly lady's cash box and took the largest bills - the tens and twenties, saying, "Old lady, lend me some money, I'll pay you back later with interest!"

The elderly lady saw what was happening and hurried back to stop him, but was pushed down to the ground by the man, who cursed, "Get lost, old woman! This little bit of money won't kill you, what are you saving it for - your coffin?"

Just as the man was about to leave, suddenly a hand landed on his shoulder.

The man turned around ready to curse, but when he saw the beautiful young girl smiling at him, he was taken aback and his attitude softened slightly, "Who are you?"

"Not important," Song Yi grabbed the man's hair and dragged him back to the elderly lady's stand.

"F*ck! Let go! What are you trying to do, you little..."

The man's shouting stopped abruptly when Song Yi forcefully pushed his head down, with the boiling oil pot less than ten centimeters from his face. The bubbling hot oil seemed like it might splash onto his face at any moment.

The man instantly became cowardly, his voice trembling involuntarily, "Miss, we can talk about this... don't use violence."

Song Yi didn't speak but extended her hand toward the man.

The man immediately understood her meaning and quickly took out the money he had just stolen from the elderly lady's stand from his pocket, "Here, I'm returning it, just let me go!"

"There's more."

The man asked, "What more?"

Song Yi pushed down a bit harder as she spoke, "This isn't the first time you've eaten without paying, right? Pay it all back."

The man was trembling in fear and quickly took money out from his other pocket to give to Song Yi, "Here's all of it, okay?"

Song Yi saw a red bill and was finally satisfied enough to let go.

After regaining his freedom, the man's eyes were full of resentment and anger, but fear made him leave immediately.

Song Yi quickly helped the elderly lady up and stuffed all the money into her hands, "Keep all this money. Are you hurt anywhere from the fall?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, thank you, young lady." The elderly lady smiled kindly at Song Yi, then suddenly cried out, "The food in the pot is all burnt! Wait a moment, young lady, let grandma fry you some new ones."

Before leaving, she also left her phone number with the elderly lady, telling her to call if that man ever came back to cause trouble.

Finally, Song Yi left with twice as many fried skewers as she had originally ordered.

Song Yi walked while eating until she entered a small alley where she stumbled at the sight before her, blurting out, "Holy crap! Is that a dead person?"

The System was exasperated but still reminded her. Searᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

[Host, go take a closer look]

Song Yi responded without hesitation, "No way, I don't want to go to jail."

[...]

[Host, don't you think this might be an important plot point?]

An important plot point? A dead body lying by the roadside?

Just as Song Yi was deep in thought, she saw the "corpse" lying not far away move slightly and raise its head in her direction.

It was a strikingly handsome face, with narrow eyes watching her vigilantly. His white shirt was stained with mud and blood, and on his sickly pale face was a streak of blood, which oddly added to his disheveled yet beautiful appearance.

Song Yi: "..."

Oh, suddenly she knew who this was.

This was Hang Feng, the main antagonist of the book. His first encounter with the original protagonist happened when he was severely injured and had given up on life, lying by the roadside waiting to die.

The original protagonist, upon witnessing this scene, felt immense pity and secretly brought him back to her home, hiding him in her room and caring for him for three whole days.

After receiving the original protagonist's careful attention, Hang Feng naturally fell in love with her, and found a new reason to live in his pursuit of her love.

Indeed, it proved that one shouldn't randomly pick up men from the street.

Song Yi's gaze fell on Hang Feng as her mind began racing.

Hang Feng wanted to die right now, right? Perfect, let her add fuel to the fire.

If the villain died here today, then the future plot would naturally become much simpler!

Song Yi finished her last fried rice cake, threw the trash in a nearby bin, and walked towards Hang Feng.

The young man was like an injured lone wolf, currently rejecting everything around him. He spoke with a hoarse voice, "Don't come near me... I don't need anyone's help..."

If he died here, all his sins would finally end, perhaps this would be the best ending.

However, even after Hang Feng said this, he saw the young woman stop in front of him and bend down, reaching out as if to help him up.

Hang Feng closed his eyes, filled with disgust. He didn't need this kind of pity and help.

He had already said not to come near him, couldn't she understand human language? Did she think he would be grateful to her for this? What a daydream.

However, in the next moment, Hang Feng heard the girl's soft voice ring out with reproach—

"You're young and able-bodied, why would you choose to beg on the streets when you could do anything else? Sigh!"