To be honest, Chen Tang genuinely thought Bai Mengling and Xia You were going to fight, which is why she stirred things up like that.
“If I’d known you weren’t going to fight, I wouldn’t have done this.”
Sigh, such a pity.
After cooking two dishes, Liu Yan noticed his parents were happily chatting with Bai Mengling and Shi Yiyi. He didn’t particularly feel the need to go in and say anything. He told Xia You and then pulled Chen Tang away. Xia You didn’t press the issue. She just gave Liu Yan a deep look and said, “I understand. I’ll tell them later.”
Let’s just say Xia You was also a capable person. But then again, since she was a woman orbiting the protagonist, it was only natural she’d have that kind of ability.
“Speaking of which, isn’t Meng Meng taking the written exam today? Doesn’t that mean she’s basically got her driver’s license?”
Chen Tang suddenly remembered this.
“Ah, you’re right. She passed the road test last week. The written test is too easy for a senior year graduate. She should be able to get her official license next week. Meng Meng was talking about going on a road trip to Tibet next year after the probationary period.”
Liu Yan thought for a moment and nodded. “Let’s talk about it next year. It’s too early to plan now, and we don’t even have a car.”
“Who says we don’t?”
Liu Yan was riding the electric scooter, and Chen Tang sat on the back. They didn’t really have a destination right then. They were just riding around the streets aimlessly. It was probably the kind of thing where you planned to laze around at home today, but since you were already out, it felt a bit weird to just go back. But the weather was hot too. They figured they’d look for some fun. So they rode the scooter to the school.
A university wasn’t like middle or high school. It was still running during the holidays. Various students stayed behind, including those assisting their advisors with experiments, art students, sports students… In short, everything was running normally, but fewer cafeterias were open; only two were operating normally. So the two walked into the school and arrived at the track.
“Oh! The track and field team!”
Liu Yan spotted the students training there. He had strong athletic abilities, but Chen Tang knew that Liu Yan wasn’t very ambitious. He didn’t want to join the track team and endure their rigorous training. Although Chen Tang felt Liu Yan would definitely achieve results if he ran, it was like the saying went: everyone has their own aspirations. She didn’t think it would be a big deal if Liu Yan didn’t achieve anything or feel regretful. After all, Liu Yan was the true protagonist of this world.
But speaking of that… she looked at the track team members. She saw a girl with a single ponytail. She was estimated to be close to 180 cm tall, with a tall and slender figure. Her chest was a bit flat, but she was well-proportioned overall. She had an olive complexion and thighs that looked springy and explosive. Her whole presence radiated a wild charm.
“The Hand of Fate!”
Chen Tang blurted out.
Liu Yan looked at her with confusion. “What ‘Hand of Fate’?”
“Huh? You don’t know? That popular meme, the three deaf generals stuff…”
“Oh! I know that! ‘All troops, hear my command! Fall on your own swords!'”
“Yeah, yeah! That’s the one! Hahaha~”
The two started joking around with various memes.
But when Chen Tang said “The Hand of Fate,” she wasn’t talking about that. It was that—even though nothing was happening today, she and Liu Yan just happened to ride the scooter to school, to the track. Throughout this process, she hadn’t felt anything unusual about it; she just thought it was their daily routine. And then the Hand of Fate acted.
The tall woman she’d just seen was the third female lead from the original novel. A sports student: Xi Zhengyi.
The name made her sound like a refined and quiet lady. But in reality, this woman was a genuine sports student. In the original novel, she actually met Liu Yan quite early. The specific situation was that after Liu Yan and Xia You broke up, before meeting Bai Mengling, Liu Yan had been running in pain on the track to ease his melancholy. However, at that time, Liu Yan was so sad he didn’t notice that his reckless running was outpacing Xi Zhengyi, who was training. Now, while it’s true that a man of the same level could run faster than a woman, there’s still a huge gap between a sports student and a regular person.
At the very least, Xi Zhengyi had never seen an ordinary guy who could outrun her. But in this situation, Xi Zhengyi had already run with all her might, even more than she would in a competition—and she was still left in the dust by Liu Yan. So she took the initiative to approach Liu Yan and get to know him. Liu Yan had just broken up with Xia You at the time, so he casually added her. He didn’t plan to chat later, and after he met Bai Mengling, he contacted her even less. But in reality, Xi Zhengyi often texted Liu Yan. Liu Yan just treated her as a normal friend. This continued until Liu Yan and Bai Mengling broke up. At that time, Xi Zhengyi was already planning to make her move, but then the female instructor appeared… But Xi Zhengyi wasn’t innocent.
As the saying went, in a novel world, there was a “once proven, always proven” theory. Unlike Bai Mengling, in a sense, Xi Zhengyi truly betrayed Liu Yan. In the original novel, after Liu Yan and the female instructor broke up, Xi Zhengyi finally got together with Liu Yan. At that time, Liu Yan had already graduated, and to support Xi Zhengyi’s track career, he chose to become a househusband. He didn’t even take over the restaurant and focused entirely on taking care of Xi Zhengyi. Although, according to Chen Tang’s understanding, this age was already a bit tough for a track athlete. But it was a novel world, after all. According to the story’s development, a year later, Xi Zhengyi did achieve results. But during a related interview, she told the reporters that she was still single. And without hesitation, she chose to break up with Liu Yan to shape her “independent female lead” image. She even said to Liu Yan, “If you really loved me, you should have sacrificed this for me.”
It could be said that in the original novel, Xi Zhengyi was a female character Chen Tang really disliked. Because this character clearly valued her own career more. Of course, someone might say, “Is that wrong?” Was there anything wrong with pursuing your own career? If we were talking about right and wrong, there probably wasn’t much wrong. But treating someone else’s sacrifices as the price for your own climb was just asking for bad reviews, wasn’t that only natural? To put it bluntly, Xi Zhengyi was a woman who admired strength. She got in touch with Liu Yan in the first place because he was stronger than her—at least from her perspective, it seemed so. And later, she broke up with him simply because Liu Yan had become a househusband for her, and in her eyes, he had lost his charm.
In other words, if you treat a woman like Xi Zhengyi, you have to harshly condemn her! Then show off your immense strength! Naturally, she would come running like a well-behaved little dog, wagging her tail at you.
Chen Tang’s eyes narrowed.
‘Xi Zhengyi… she’s not a bad choice!’
Since the Hand of Fate was unbreakable, and they’d suddenly run into Xi Zhengyi like this today, it probably meant something was about to happen… So why not go along with the Hand of Fate? After all, how was she supposed to turn Liu Yan into a scumbag? In truth, Chen Tang felt it would be a bit of a guilty conscience to have Liu Yan break Xia You or Bai Mengling’s hearts. After all, those two girls weren’t bad people. But when it came to the female instructor and the female sports student, Chen Tang had no psychological burden. Because one of them fooled around with a new student while dating Liu Yan, even if the original book said “nothing actually happened.” But so what? The fact that they hurt Old Liu was true.
Of course, at this point in time, nothing had happened. You could say Chen Tang was just worrying about nothing. Besides, the plot had already changed; no one could say for sure if those things from the original book would happen. But Chen Tang was ultimately a heartless person. She didn’t care if it was fair to this sports student or the instructor. She had a preconceived notion, she had blinders on, and so what? What was wrong with having Liu Yan play this woman? It didn’t seem like a bad thing to her. As for what if she got played? She thought for a woman like Xi Zhengyi, this probably wasn’t a negative. For a woman who admired strength, the more women around a man and the worse he treated her, the more she was attracted to him. The more she felt he was charming.
The main reason she had this thought was: what if, one day, she really got nailed by Old Liu? Who would she complain to? She’d recently found some tissues with some mysterious stains in Old Liu’s trash can. Poor Old Liu. He’d dated two school beauties in a row and hadn’t gotten any. He was probably already insanely pent up. She was also a bit scared of playing too much and getting nailed one day. What? You say if you’re afraid of playing too much, just don’t play! If you behave, you won’t get nailed, right? You’re right! But that’s a coward’s mentality! Was she Chen Tang such a weak person that she’d stop messing with Liu Yan just because she might get nailed? No way! She was going to play when she wanted and act when she had to. If she screwed up and got nailed, it would just prove that her game wasn’t good enough, her skills weren’t sharp enough!
For example, the thing she was planning right now! If she gave Liu Yan an outlet, someone like Xi Zhengyi to mess around with, then even if she stoked Liu Yan’s fire, given his moral character, he wouldn’t touch her. Instead, he would go vent on his girlfriend. So she would naturally be in a safe spot. There you go, that’s how your Sister Tang operates! Learn from it!
While she was thinking about these things, she saw Xi Zhengyi sprinting… straight toward them. But she wouldn’t hit them… ‘It can’t be the plot trigger that…’
She saw Xi Zhengyi suddenly twist her ankle, and at that high speed, she stumbled and crashed right into them.
Chen Tang’s jaw dropped.
‘Sister, are you serious or not! You can do this too?! You twisted your ankle at just this moment?! I’ve heard track athletes have to retire if they seriously sprain their ankle…’
Then she saw Liu Yan move. Even though there were still about 10 meters to go, Liu Yan took three big strides like a layup, running over on his long legs, and stood right in front of Xi Zhengyi. Just as she was about to fall… he reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist. He lifted Xi Zhengyi, who was close to 180 cm, clean off the ground, preventing her from a direct kiss with the track.
Chen Tang:
‘Bro… seriously? (Shrimp head).’
She knew that when the “plot” demanded it, Liu Yan could pull off all kinds of unreasonable things. It was like the supreme imperial weapon in many novels—the Mistress’s Knife. When the mistress decided to stab someone, no matter if you were a domineering CEO, an ace special forces soldier, surrounded by endless bodyguards… One of the male lead or female lead would always get stabbed. You never knew how he did it, but he did. Just like now, Chen Tang didn’t know how Liu Yan managed it, but he did.
Xi Zhengyi was probably even more dazed than Chen Tang at this moment. Liu Yan carefully put her down. “Are you okay, classmate?”
Hearing Liu Yan’s voice, Xi Zhengyi finally seemed to wake from a dream. She looked at him with an expression of disbelief, as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened.
“I… I’m fine… just a bit of a sprain on my ankle.”
Xi Zhengyi’s teammates ran over, their faces filled with worry. “Zhengyi! Did you just twist your ankle? Is it serious? The competition is in two days!”
Xi Zhengyi shook her head, saying she didn’t know. Then the girls expressed their gratitude to Liu Yan. “Thank you so much, classmate. If it weren’t for you, Zhengyi would have fallen hard just now. She might have even scarred her face.”
Liu Yan casually waved his hand. “I was just in the right place at the right time. Even if I wanted to help, I wouldn’t have been able to if I wasn’t. It doesn’t look serious, so we’ll be going now.”
He clearly had no intention of engaging further. He had only acted out of a moment of compassion.
“Hey! Classmate! My name is Xi Zhengyi. What’s yours?”
“Liu Yan.”
Xi Zhengyi looked at Liu Yan and pulled out her phone. “Can I add you? I want to express my gratitude…”
“That’s not necessary…”
“Add me!”
Chen Tang pulled out her own phone and showed her QR code. “I’m his girlfriend. He doesn’t add strange girls. If you really want to thank him, add me.”
Xi Zhengyi took a look.
‘She’s this beautiful?’
Normally, this would be the time to say no. But she hesitated for a moment, then scanned the code and added Chen Tang as a friend. Chen Tang knew this woman wouldn’t refuse. In a sense, Xi Zhengyi was a woman with incredibly high execution ability and was very utilitarian. Then Xi Zhengyi, supported by her teammates, prepared to get some temporary treatment, then go to the hospital for an X-ray to see if there was any bone cracking. But given the situation, even if there wasn’t a fracture or break, it was most likely a soft tissue contusion.
“Why did you add her? It was just a helpful gesture. You weren’t actually planning on collecting a reward, were you?”
Liu Yan didn’t understand.
“Mind your own business! Can’t I add a beautiful girl with long legs to chat? Don’t you know I like that type?”
Ah… sorry. I always forget you have the face of a beautiful girl.
Liu Yan reflected on himself.
“Fine, go ahead and chat. If you have any problems and need my advice, just say the word!”
“…”
‘You have advice too?’