Chapter 180: Incident (Bonus)

Liu Xie carried her worry all the way back to the dormitory.

She could only remember that, no matter how busy Liu Anran usually was, he would always find time to reply to her messages—even before she became a girl, he’d still find the time to curse her a couple of times.

But now, there wasn’t a single message from him. It was as if a stone had been thrown into a pond so deep that it failed to stir up even the faintest ripple.

She lay on her bed. Ye Qingchang sat at her own desk below, scrolling through videos.

Everything was so quiet. Liu Xie was lost in concern for her good little brother, while Ye Qingchang planned to watch videos for a while before going to sleep.

“Second, your brother’s name is Liu Anran, right?” Ye Qingchang spoke up, breaking the rare silence.

“Yeah, that’s right, why?”

“I sent you a video. Watch it yourself.” With that, Ye Qingchang fell silent.

The unease hovering over Liu Xie’s heart made her open the video from Ye Qingchang right away.

The title and content were obviously from some marketing account, with a catchy headline—clearly a bit of clickbait too.

[Promising Young Man Rejects His Own Blood—Ungrateful or Heartless?]

The video was noisy, but it was clear that two people dressed as cleaning staff were being stopped and forced out.

The camera angle was well-chosen. It looked as if the security guards were pushing the people out, though there was no physical contact at all.

The sound editing was spot-on, amplifying the pitiful lines from the two people in cleaning uniforms, lines like “how hard it is to be a parent,” tugging at the heartstrings.

Watching the whole thing, it didn’t feel like a real event, but more like a movie. The actors’ lines and background music were timed perfectly.

Liu Xie recognized the place. She had been there herself before, even stayed there for a while.

It was the lobby of Liu Anran’s company. She had been left there by Liu Anran to wait while he handled business, and it was also where that so-called female assistant interview took place.

The people in the video claimed to be Liu Anran’s parents, saying they had come from far away just to see him.

Anywhere else, this would be a deeply moving story. If it were about someone else, Liu Xie might have even pitied the parents and spoken up for them.

But this was about Liu Anran.

Liu Anran had been abandoned by his birth parents, then later picked up and brought home by her family.

Even setting aside the fact that Liu Anran didn’t even know his biological parents, meeting them wouldn’t necessarily mean a reunion was needed.

Were these really Liu Anran’s birth parents?

If not, wasn’t Liu Anran now suffering unjust accusations and attacks?

Liu Xie started scrolling through the comments under the video. As expected, there was a flood of abuse, mostly denouncing Liu Anran for supposed heartlessness and malice.

“What’s going on?” Liu Xie shot up from her bed, her face full of confusion.

She looked down at Ye Qingchang, who only shrugged. “I don’t know. I just saw the video too. That’s all I know.”

Ye Qingchang knew that something was going on in her good roommate’s family.

“No, I can’t let my little brother be wronged like this. I have to go to him.”

Liu Xie grabbed at her golden hair a couple of times, pretending she’d brushed it.

“Don’t rush. What if there’s something more to it?” Ye Qingchang reached out to calm the panicked Liu Xie.

“No matter what’s going on, as long as I see him, he’ll tell me everything.” Liu Xie was still very confident about this.

She put on her shoes and, full of energy, rushed out the dorm door.

But less than half a minute after she left, the door opened again.

“I forgot my phone.” Liu Xie looked around, finally finding her phone on the bed.

“Want me to come with you?” Ye Qingchang asked. “I’ve got some time.”

“Uh, sure.” Liu Xie pulled Ye Qingchang along, planning to have her good roommate join her on this quest.

Or maybe, on the surface Liu Xie looked calm, but inside she was so flustered she needed someone beside her for support.

“Let’s take a taxi, gogogo, I need to see if my brother’s being bullied. If he is, I’ll think of a way to stand up for him.”

Liu Xie spoke, but didn’t mention the other possibility.

Ye Qingchang just watched quietly. This really was Liu Xie’s family affair, and it wasn’t her place to interfere.

She simply looked down and messaged the dorm group, letting Yang Shuli—who no one knew when would return—know that the two of them had gone out.

Of course, she knew that even if she left a message, Yang Shuli would still ask them where they’d gone when she got back.

The only point of sending the message was so she could throw it in Yang Shuli’s face and scold her if she asked later.

Once in the car, after reporting the last digits of their phone numbers, Ye Qingchang watched as Liu Xie, sitting next to her, began gently tapping her fingers against the window.

Though this was a bit impolite and a little noisy, Ye Qingchang could understand given Liu Xie’s mood.

If Liu Xie did this when nothing was wrong, her mom must have been mass-produced on an assembly line.

At this point, there wasn’t much Ye Qingchang could do except be there for Liu Xie.

She didn’t know how many times Liu Xie tapped the glass—Ye Qingchang was almost lulled to sleep by the sound like white noise—when finally the car came to a stop.

Liu Xie abruptly stopped tapping the glass, replaced by the sound of the door opening.

A beat late, Ye Qingchang apologized twice to the driver, then got out and chased after Liu Xie, who was already running toward Liu Anran’s company building.

“Slow down, keep calm.”

Ye Qingchang, a former 800-meter runner, was already gasping for air after only a couple of steps.

But Liu Xie in front paid her no mind at all.

However, it seemed they weren’t the only ones here.

“Everyone, right behind me is the company gate of that heartless, cold-blooded young boss Liu Anran. But just now they stopped letting anyone in. Are they feeling guilty or what…”

Those bloodsucking scavengers had arrived, drawn by the scent.

Liu Xie raised her brows, rolling up her sleeves as if ready to charge.

But Ye Qingchang hurriedly grabbed her. “Don’t rush, let’s figure out the situation first. Don’t start a conflict for no reason, okay?”

“…Fine.”