“If it weren’t for classmate Liu Yan bringing me here today, I would never have known you all did something like this!”
Shi Yiyi’s voice, not loud but firm, rang out throughout the debate venue.
“If you offer it with a shout, even a passerby on the road would refuse. If you give it with a kick, even a beggar would scorn it! Yes, I’m sick, and I’m grateful for your help, but if it’s through this kind of method… I’d rather die!”
Her words were harsh, sounding somewhat ungrateful.
But Bai Mengling couldn’t remember the expressions on the faces of those Wenli University students at the time, nor could she recall the looks of her own team members, her “subordinates.” All she remembered was turning to look at Liu Yan.
His expression was a bit stunned, as if he hadn’t expected Shi Yiyi to bring up his name.
But beneath that faint surprise lay a kind of calmness, a… confidence.
Why had he brought Shi Yiyi here?
Could it be that everything today was a performance he put on for her?
Bai Mengling wouldn’t let her mind run wild like that, because she quickly obtained the hospital surveillance footage.
“Liu Yan, please! Take me to the venue with you! The doctor said my condition has been stable the past couple of days and I can go out for a walk! That research project was something we worked on together. Even if I can‘t stand on the debate stage with everyone, I still want to watch them, to follow their struggle!”
She had made this request to Liu Yan.
Liu Yan fell silent for a moment. “They’ll probably take that income and use it for your medical expenses.”
“Huh?”
Shi Yiyi clearly hadn’t thought of that. “There’s something you might not know. Have you heard of Bai Mengling? The student council president at our school? She contributed a sponsorship of ten thousand yuan. It’s not much—but it raised the debate prize money to six times the original amount.”
“That… that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
Liu Yan nodded. “Of course it’s a good thing. No matter what, the prize money increased. Regardless of where it’s used, everyone earning more money is a good thing—that was also Mengling’s reason for providing additional sponsorship. She wanted to motivate everyone and raise the intensity of the debate competition, not just have them go through the motions.”
“Then…”
“But more money breeds greed, and what’s worse, sometimes people resort to unsightly methods in pursuit of a good result.”
“What… what do you mean by that?”
Liu Yan shook his head. “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling. If you come with me, something you don’t want to see might happen.”
The two of them fell into a long silence.
Finally, Shi Yiyi made the request again. “Even so, I still want to go.”
“Alright, I’ll take you then.”
…
That was what Bai Mengling saw in the hospital records—she rewound the timeline.
She saw that Liu Yan first found Shi Yiyi on Tuesday, confirming her identity. On Wednesday, he brought a fruit basket for a hospital visit, saying he’d seen something about Shi Yiyi on Wenli University’s official website and wanted to stop by, adding that Shi Yiyi reminded him of his younger sister.
Thursday and Friday, he still came to the hospital after dinner, sitting with Shi Yiyi for two or three hours.
He had gained Shi Yiyi’s trust.
Oddly enough—normally, it would be difficult to gain someone’s trust like that. But Bai Mengling could understand, because she felt the same way.
Just being with Liu Yan, she could sense that he had no ill intentions. It was like when he had confessed to her and taken her on dates—she hadn’t felt any disgust.
So she could empathize with Shi Yiyi’s feeling of trust toward him.
He knew from the very beginning.
‘This was all for me,’ Bai Mengling thought.
She had told him about her debate competition, casually mentioning that she’d added some funds so the student council members could earn a bit more.
When she said that, she had been very confident, fully believing she would win the debate.
Liu Yan had taken it to heart. He investigated the Wenli College debate team, found out about Shi Yiyi, and even used the brute-force method of searching hospital after hospital until he located her.
Had he been thinking about this since she told him about it on their date last Saturday?
That’s why, when she was being scolded today and didn’t know what to do, Shi Yiyi stood up to speak—if Shi Yiyi hadn’t come that day, what would he have done?
Chen Tang.
The name surfaced in Bai Mengling’s mind—she had noticed during the debate that Chen Tang was holding her phone and filming the whole time from the audience.
Liu Yan had arranged that.
Bai Mengling came to this conclusion… Only Liu Yan could make the so-called Demon Ball School Beauty obedient to such an extent that she’d spend one or two hours at a debate competition, holding her phone and recording.
That Demon Ball School Beauty normally couldn’t have sat still that long.
‘He clearly doesn’t like me.’
Bai Mengling wasn’t that foolish. She hadn’t thought that Liu Yan truly liked her just because he confessed.
She simply didn’t dislike him and felt she could try dating him. The level of contact was all within the boundaries she silently permitted.
There was distance, conforming to the gentlemanly and ladylike standards of interaction, with no boundary crossing.
Only the form of address was somewhat intimate.
‘He’s helping me.’
‘But he didn’t say anything.’
‘If I’m not mistaken, if Shi Yiyi hadn’t come today, he would have comforted me, and then the next day, Chen Tang would have edited the footage, put it online, shown the complete story, and prevented me from being swept along… maybe even edited it in a favorable direction for me.’
‘At that point, I’d just need to use a little of the Bai family’s resources to push traffic, and it would be resolved.’
‘Actually, for me, this doesn’t affect anything at all.’
‘Even if Liu Yan and Chen Tang hadn’t done anything like this, even if the matter was taken out of context and put online, it wouldn’t have really impacted me.’
‘But they did it.’
‘Even though it was meaningless, they still did it, and they didn’t come to take credit, didn’t do any of that…’
‘Maybe, from a conspiratorial point of view, you could say this shows how deep and calculating Liu Yan and Chen Tang are. In an extreme case, they might have guessed I would investigate and thus deduced this outcome. If I follow that train of thought… then Liu Yan is qualified.’
‘If he has this level of cunning, if he can grasp human hearts to this degree, having planned everything a week ago, knowing my personality, knowing Shi Yiyi’s personality, knowing everything that would happen… then as my husband, as the Bai family’s son-in-law, he is completely qualified.’
‘There is no husband more suitable for Bai Mengling than this.’
‘Clean background, deep scheming, ambitious.’
‘As the only young lady and sole heiress of the Bai family—for someone to make even Bai Mengling, raised with elite education, fall into his calculations unknowingly, to the point where her heart is pounding right now—that should be the Bai family’s son-in-law!’
‘That should be her husband, Bai Mengling’s husband!’
‘Ah… what am I even thinking!’
‘That kind of thing is impossible!’
‘Liu Yan can’t have calculated that deeply. But if he didn’t calculate that deeply, doesn’t that mean… he’s simply kind and gentle to this extent? He doesn’t truly like me, yet he’s willing to do so much for me. He knows it might be useless to me, but he still takes action…’
‘What do I do?’
‘No matter how I think, my heart is racing.’
‘No matter how I think, his image of holding my hand in a suit as we walk down the wedding aisle keeps appearing in my mind.’
‘I’ve never even seen him like that!’
‘This isn’t good…’
“Knock, knock.”
The door rapped.
“Mengling.” Bai Mengling saw the elegant woman open the door—it was her mother.
“I’ve already heard about what happened today. Are you… okay?”
Bai Mengling sat up from the bed, her cheeks flushed. “What do I do, Mom? I think… I’ve really fallen for him.”
The noblewoman looked at her daughter’s expression and gave a soft smile. “Mom understands. Mom already knows how you feel. So, aren’t you going to invite your boyfriend to our house? Let your father and mother meet him?”
“!”
Bai Mengling’s face turned even redder, like a ripe tomato.
“Don’t… don’t make things hard for him!”
“Oh, child. He helped you so much and likes you so much—how could your parents make things hard for him? We want to thank him in person. And also, take a look at what kind of person he is. Don’t worry, there are absolutely no tests involved. We just want to see.”
…
Chen Tang was thinking about a problem. Liu Yan seemed to know her a little too well… just as she knew him, he knew her too.
He had actually managed to sneak out after dinner for a whole week without her noticing—he knew exactly what she would be thinking!
‘That bastard… using all his tricks on his bro.’
Even though she knew that Liu Yan would definitely take some action after she gave him information, she hadn’t expected him to go this far.
She was a bit dissatisfied with this situation. After all, there was no essential difference from the original novel. In fact, Bai Mengling would still help Shi Yiyi with her treatment, and she would still fall for Liu Yan. Then, for the same reason, she would ditch Liu Yan one day.
Maybe after the initial passion faded, or maybe she would realize that Liu Yan would do this for anyone, not just her.
Or maybe she just wasn’t a stable person by nature.
Either way, Chen Tang didn’t like it.
Her original intention was to have the two of them not develop feelings, making a breakup easier later. But in the current situation… it still seemed to be moving in the general direction of the original book.
‘The Hand of Fate is truly terrifying.’
‘Unless I pull some big move.’
‘But… but she and Liu Yan had years of friendship.’
‘She had been a Demon Ball for many years, back when Liu Yan was young and should have been studying hard. Using Demon Ball methods to get him to take his studies seriously was a good thing.’
‘But now, Liu Yan was an adult, already eighteen.’
‘If she took action without permission and changed his fate, would it really be appropriate? A big move for Liu Yan… would he be happy or angry if she arbitrarily altered his destiny? Would he be grieved and in pain?’
‘After all, they’d been friends for over a decade. In her original world, she hadn’t had such a long friendship with anyone… besides her parents.’
‘You could say Liu Yan was her real friend. Even though this was a world from a novel, Liu Yan was an incredibly real person.’
‘He knew her too well.’
‘The only secret about her that Liu Yan didn’t know was probably that she was a transmigrator.’
But Chen Tang would never, ever say that.
So, should she pull a big move or not?
What kind of big move wouldn’t hurt Liu Yan and would guide him toward a happy life?
She thought about it, her mind growing a bit restless.
She walked out of her room.
Intending to use the bathroom.
Instead, she ran right into Liu Yan coming out of the shower.
He was only wearing a pair of boxers.
“!”
Liu Yan froze, and Chen Tang froze too.
Her gaze uncontrollably drifted downward.
‘Bro, I know you’ve got a good body, but why are you pointing that gun at me?’
‘What were you thinking about in the shower?’
‘Since you were thinking about those things, why didn’t you take care of it? Why do you have to point that gun at your bro right now?’
‘Haven’t you heard that guns shouldn’t be pointed at people, especially your own people?’
‘If you’re going to point, shouldn’t it be at Xia You, Bai Mengling, or someone like that?’
‘We’re family, we’re brothers! How can we turn our blades on each other!’
Liu Yan’s gaze quickly swept over Chen Tang.
Chen Tang was wearing a pink dress and black stockings—the same outfit she had worn to accompany him to the debate.
Nowadays, she paid a lot of attention to “presentation.” Especially when Bai Mengling would be present, she would change into a skirt and stockings.
The main idea was to highlight her youthful vitality, a complete contrast to Bai Mengling’s more mature, elegant style.
It seemed she hadn’t changed clothes after getting home either…
His gaze uncontrollably lingered on the area of absolute territory—that flash of pale white completely captured his attention.
Then he realized his own awkwardness. He instinctively bent over… then remembered Chen Tang wasn’t an outsider; she should understand.
So he coughed twice. “Ahem! Well, I’ll head back to my room first. Use the bathroom if you need to.”
He quickly walked away in two or three steps.
Staying there would only be awkward.
Chen Tang watched Liu Yan leave.
‘…How did I forget to turn off auto-aim?’
‘What does this mean?’
‘Is a human’s entire life really controlled by hormones?’
‘Liu Yan knew she used to be a man, but Chen Tang had clearly seen his gaze linger on her thighs—he was obviously seduced by her beauty. And she… after becoming a beautiful girl, she actually aimed at a man?’
‘What does this mean?’
‘What on earth does this mean?’
‘Does this make any sense?’
‘But honestly, Old Liu is seriously ripped—could you being the male lead of this regret novel have something to do with this too? Could it be that later Bai and the other girls regret things because of this aspect of you? That’s terrifying!’
‘It shouldn’t… be that way, right?’
‘I read normal novels, not that kind of thing…’
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