Lin Jianqing had no thoughts left by the time he finished his last exam and returned to the dorm.
It was a coin flip. A big, ugly coin flip. He was already starting to regret slacking off all week—he should’ve at least skimmed some review material back then.
Whether he failed or not now rested entirely on whether the professor was feeling merciful.
His mood was already rock bottom. He’d thought the exam was torture enough, but reality was quick to remind him that human suffering could stack.
Shen Huaixue, that black milk dragon, was already leaning against her signature SUV, like she was waiting for someone.
Her black sunglasses covered half her face, but even so, Lin Jianqing recognized her instantly.
Right… he’d forgotten about this little ancestor. He had no idea what she’d make him pay for that week he owed her.
And Lin Jianqing had completely forgotten Shen Huaixue even existed—let alone expected her to come looking for him on her own.
“Done with exams? How’d it go? Don’t forget what you promised me a week ago.” Seeing Lin Jianqing come out, Shen Huaixue pushed the sunglasses up the bridge of her nose, then flashed that trademark little demon smile at the corner of her lips.
Like some snister conspiracy was brewing in her head.
“President Shen, I just finished my exam. Um… is there something you need?”
‘Can’t you just notify me on your phone beforehand?’ Lin Jianqing complained internally.
Shen Huaixue didn’t say anything. She just handed him a folded piece of paper.
Lin Jianqing didn’t take it right away. Because it was Shen Huaixue’s stuff, and his instinct told him it carried an ominous aura.
And sure enough, just as he’d predicted, this paper wasn’t good news for him.
“What’s this?”
“Your plane ticket.”
“What plane ticket?” Lin Jianqing had no idea what Shen Huaixue was talking about. Even though they hadn’t seen each other for a week, he could tell her mood seemed a bit different somehow—he just couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Lin Jianqing, don’t… fine, I’ll explain it to you. I need you to come with me to the Capital City to deal with my family. Understand?” Looking at Lin Jianqing, Shen Huaixue slowly took off her sunglasses, then grabbed his arm and pulled him into the car.
Lin Jianqing was naturally no match for Shen Huaixue in strength. Like a delicate doll, he was placed in the passenger seat.
“What’s the meaning of this? Why didn’t you tell me about something like this beforehand?”
Lin Jianqing was genuinely annoyed by how casually she did things. Something like this definitely required advance notice.
“I was worried it would affect your ‘studying,’ so I didn’t tell you. Besides, you’re supposed to listen to me right now anyway.”
“Coming to the Capital City to deal with my family is technically part of your job, isn’t it?” Watching Lin Jianqing’s bristling reaction, Shen Huaixue was already used to it.
“Um… can I just… refuse?” Feeling Shen Huaixue’s dominance, Lin Jianqing still tried asking, doing his best to put on a friendly smile.
He already knew the answer. But what if?
What if a miracle actually happened?
“Your leave request from before might just turn into debt. And with my abilities, that little bit of debt would be enough for you to owe me money for the rest of your life. Are you sure you want to do that?” Hearing Lin Jianqing’s question, Shen Huaixue was clearly amused.
Lin Jianqing: …
There it was. He knew it.
“Shen Huaixue, can you not turn a normal leave request into some kind of loan shark arrangement? Can’t I just take a normal, humanitarian leave to study?” Lin Jianqing kept trying to reason with Shen Huaixue, but Shen Huaixue never seemed to reason with anyone.
“If you were actually studying, I wouldn’t be like this. Did you really study at all this week?” At that, Shen Huaixue’s black pupils stared straight through Lin Jianqing, as if seeing right through him.
“Besides, that’s just the interest.” Shen Huaixue added at the end.
“You never said the interest was going with you to the Capital City to meet the main family!”
“I’m saying it now.”
Lin Jianqing let out a bitter laugh of anger. But things had already come to this, and it wasn’t like he could refuse.
Maybe from the very start, he never had a choice.
“You can also think of it as me giving you an early repayment opportunity.” Shen Huaixue wasn’t actually a demon. She knew that suddenly rushing Lin Jianqing to the Capital City like this was a bit unreasonable.
This might have been the first time in her life Shen Huaixue considered things from someone else’s perspective, so she wasn’t as harsh as usual. At most, she was just joking around.
“I’m so thankful for you.” Lin Jianqing was so annoyed by her words that his temple twitched. How did this woman always manage to blow her own trumpet like this?
“It’s alright.”
“It’s alright?”
Lin Jianqing nearly snapped his seatbelt in half.
He turned his head to look at Shen Huaixue, his voice carrying a hint of desperation on the verge of breaking:
“Do you rich people have some kind of misunderstanding about the word ‘alright’? No wait… why do you suddenly need me to deal with your family…” That’s when Lin Jianqing finally caught the real issue.
“Take a guess?” Shen Huaixue was like a lazy cat, quietly watching his reaction.
“You didn’t… you didn’t sell me to the Shen Family or something, did you?” Lin Jianqing instinctively thought of those melodramatic stand-in novels.
Though what he was going through right now was already one of them, thinking about Shen Huaixue and her family…
All the major premises were already in place. It was like every trope was checked off.
Hearing that, Shen Huaixue seemed amused. She tilted her head to look at him.
“Selling you to the Shen Family wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
Lin Jianqing: …
He took a deep breath, trying hard not to take them both out in the car.
“Can you stop grabbing onto weird details?” And… what was with that ambiguous comment anyway? Didn’t Shen Huaixue like women?
“You brought it up yourself.”
“I was using a metaphor. A metaphor, you understand?”
Shen Huaixue took off her sunglasses and casually tossed them onto the center console.
Without the sunglasses covering them, her eyes looked a bit colder. But the corner of her mouth still carried a faint smile. That smile was familiar to Lin Jianqing—it basically meant she wasn’t in a bad mood at all. She even had the leisure to have some fun at his expense.
Which made Lin Jianqing even angrier. He was over here about to be crushed by the words “Capital City,” while she was over there perfectly relaxed.
“Fine.” Lin Jianqing leaned back into the passenger seat, throwing caution to the wind. “Then at least tell me—today, or tomorrow?”
Shen Huaixue said naturally, “Today.”
Lin Jianqing froze for a moment, then slowly turned his head.
“Today?”
“Yeah.”
Lin Jianqing was a bit confused.
“When you say today, do you mean tonight? This current today?”
“If you don’t have another interpretation of the date, it should be this today.”
Lin Jianqing stared at her for several seconds.
He thought he’d already developed some immunity to Shen Huaixue’s torture by now.
All sorts of bizarre and unreasonable demands, and then there was the way she’d occasionally say something infuriating in such a calm tone.
But still… how could something like this not give him any time to prepare at all?
Lin Jianqing was about to ask why she didn’t notify him earlier, but then remembered Shen Huaixue had already explained that.
Was that even a real explanation?
Technically, it made sense. But Lin Jianqing just felt like Shen Huaixue did it on purpose.
“No wait, hold on.” Lin Jianqing sat up a little straighter, not knowing where to put his hands.
“So you’re telling me now—the day I finish my exams—you’re taking me to the Capital City the same day? What about my luggage? My clothes? My ID? My dorm? I haven’t prepared anything, and you’re just about to drag me straight to the airport?”
Shen Huaixue looked at him, her tone still calm.
“You should carry your ID with you. If not, I can take you to get it. As for clothes, what you’re wearing is fine. If you want a change of clothes, I can take you to buy new ones.”
Lin Jianqing felt even worse hearing that. She’d already thought of everything.
“Shen Huaixue, this really feels like kidnapping.”
“I’m not kidnapping you.” Shen Huaixue said, “You buckled your seatbelt yourself.”
Actually, Shen Huaixue didn’t want to admit it. But sometimes, she really was using her special ability to subtly influence Lin Jianqing’s thoughts.
And not only did Lin Jianqing fail to notice, even Shen Huaixue activated it unconsciously.
Lin Jianqing looked down. He’d been so dazed getting into the car that he’d buckled up without thinking.
He reached up to unbuckle it, but Shen Huaixue stopped him.
“Alright, alright. I’ll compensate you when we get back. Besides, the car is moving now—unbuckling your seatbelt would be really unsafe.”
As Shen Huaixue said this, Lin Jianqing suddenly glanced out the window and realized the car had already left the school gate at some point. The streetscape was slowly rolling backward.
Lin Jianqing: …
When had he been taken away? He’d been so absorbed arguing with Shen Huaixue that he hadn’t even noticed the car had started moving.
This really was like a kidnapping now.
And not just any kidnapping—the kind where he got in the car himself, buckled his own seatbelt, argued with the kidnapper for a long time, and only then realized the car had already driven off.
Facing Shen Huaixue, Lin Jianqing always felt a strange mental fog, but he could never quite put his finger on what was wrong.