Chapter 53: Minor Threats

Lin Jianqing returned to the dormitory at nearly 11 PM.

He had originally thought today’s disaster would more or less be over by now. He wore his hat and mask all the way to the building entrance.

Though his whole body still carried that exhaustion of being tormented by Shen Huaixue over and over, at least she’d shown some decency in the end, telling him to change clothes before returning to the dorm.

That counted as a blessing in disguise. If he’d really come back looking like that today, Lin Jianqing felt he wouldn’t need to explain anything—he could just pack up and transfer schools overnight. Sure enough, all his roommates were there.

The moment he pushed the door open, the conversation inside came to an abrupt halt. It was quiet—as quiet as some kind of large-scale trial scene.

One roommate raised his head to look at him first, his gaze sweeping from Lin Jianqing’s face to his clothes, then back to his face.

His tone sounded fairly normal, just normal in a deliberately forced way. “You’re back? The company made you work overtime this late?”

Lin Jianqing set his bag down on the chair, doing his best to make his voice sound no different than usual.

“Yeah, a last-minute project. Said something about needing to rush some progress. I didn’t really catch the details, I just went over and helped out with some stuff.”

He breathed a silent sigh of relief after saying that—at least the excuse sounded plausible enough.

Another roommate quickly leaned over, phone still in hand. “Then you definitely don’t know—today on the superpower competition’s big screen, there was a girl who looked a lot like you.”

Lin Jianqing’s mental alarm bells rang instantly, but on the surface he still had to act completely clueless.

“What girl?”

“Right here.”

The person handed the phone over. The screen showed a photo clearly captured from a livestream.

The quality wasn’t crisp. Because it was a reverse shot of the big screen, even the edges were a bit blurry.

But Shen Huaixue’s face was far too conspicuous, and the person beside her—the one whose arm she was holding, the tips of his ears flushed red, head lowered as if trying to hide—was also extremely conspicuous.

So conspicuous that Lin Jianqing nearly had a heart attack on the spot after one glance. That was him, even if he was as smudged as a mosaic.

This feeling was like someone grabbing your arm and interrogating you about your shameful past.

Lin Jianqing suppressed the urge to hurl the phone away, stared at the photo for a few seconds, then put on a very deliberate, shocked expression.

“Who is that? He does kind of look like me… right? No, not really, right?”

All the roommates looked at him as Lin Jianqing steeled himself and kept performing. “Wait, this is… he actually does kind of resemble me.”

He regretted it the instant he said it. This damned awkwardness. Lin Jianqing felt his acting was absolutely atrocious.

‘Was that too proactive?’

He should have said “not at all alike.” But saying “not at all” would look even faker. ‘Can I take back what I just said?’

One roommate squinted at him, a hint of suspicion in his tone. “You think so too, right? We were all shocked when we first saw it. Especially the way she lowered her head—it really looked exactly like you.”

Lin Jianqing was already knocking a wooden fish in his heart.

‘Stop talking. If you keep going, I’m done for.’

“It’s probably just a coincidental resemblance.” Lin Jianqing pretended to be calm as he handed the phone back.

“Besides, this photo is way too blurry. Even with mosaic image quality, you can still make out who it looks like. And why are you guys so sharp-eyed today?”

“Isn’t it because he looks too much like you?”

“Looking alike doesn’t prove anything.” Lin Jianqing picked up his water cup, pretending to go refill it. “The world is big. Plenty of people look similar.”

“But she was right next to Shen Huaixue.”

“What about Shen Huaixue? Isn’t it normal for a girl to be next to Shen Huaixue?”

The room fell silent for another second.

Lin Jianqing’s water-fetching motion froze as well.

‘Damn. What did I just say?’

‘Why did I have to answer that? Shouldn’t I be pretending I don’t know Shen Huaixue?’

‘Lin Jianqing, Lin Jianqing, this mouth of yours…’

Wait—he did know Shen Huaixue. Company Boss. School Celebrity. Knowing about her was normal.

His brain was already auto-patching itself, patching so fast it was about to smoke.

The person beside him looked at him, drawing out his words. “How do you know it’s normal?”

“Isn’t she… pretty famous at school?” Lin Jianqing placed the cup back on the table and held himself together with everything he had.

“I interned at Spirit Jade before and heard people talk about her. Besides, she’s my company’s boss. It makes sense that I’d know about her.”

This reasoning… Lin Jianqing felt like the more he explained, the darker the picture got. At least, that was his own impression.

The roommates didn’t keep pressing. They just looked at one another, and finally someone laughed. “Alright. Maybe it really is a resemblance. But this is way too similar. If you had a twin sister, we might actually believe you.”

Lin Jianqing sat back down in his spot, his expression perfectly composed.

Inside, he was nearly dead. ‘Twin sister.’ He did have a sister—just not a twin, and the ages didn’t match.

He couldn’t even protect his own identity right now. How could he possibly invent a sister on top of that?

After washing up, Lin Jianqing climbed into bed and pulled the bed curtain shut, finally separating himself from the world for a brief moment.

Outside the curtain, his roommates were still chatting. They were probably still on about the superpower competition. Lin Jianqing had no interest.

“By the way, why did we go to the underground parking lot after the competition ended?”

“I think we got lost at the time.”

He just wanted to fall asleep quickly and reset this exhausting day. Lin Jianqing closed his eyes, feeling his temples throb in pulses.

Today had already been ridiculous enough. Really, truly enough.

Just as he was about to put his phone on silent, the screen suddenly lit up—a message from Shen Huaixue.

‘Are you asleep?’

Lin Jianqing stared at those three words, and a very bad premonition rose in his heart. Generally speaking, whenever Shen Huaixue took the initiative to contact him, absolutely nothing good came of it.

‘And… this never ends, right?’

He’d wanted to play dead and not reply to Shen Huaixue’s message, but then he thought of her face… Maybe she didn’t know what he was thinking?

Besides, who knew what she wanted from him this time. If it was something strange and he didn’t even take a look, that crazy woman would absolutely go off and cause some kind of mess on her own. Lin Jianqing really didn’t dare to gamble on that.

He had no choice—after all, Shen Huaixue was the Financial Backer. If only she were the kind of Financial Backer who had more money than brains. At least then she wouldn’t be so infuriating.

But the very next second, she sent a screenshot.

Lin Jianqing watched the image load, a sense of dread swelling in his chest.

After seeing the picture, he nearly sat bolt upright in bed.

The screenshot showed a short video editing interface. The cover was unmistakably his photo from the superpower competition—a high-definition close-up.

Besides Lin Jianqing, there were plenty of other handsome men and beautiful women on it. However, the most eye-catching one was still Lin Jianqing.

In front of Lin Jianqing, these handsome men and beautiful women all seemed to become nothing more than green leaves highlighting his flower.

Lin Jianqing: “…”

‘What is this person trying to do?’

He stared at that title for three seconds, feeling his soul chill.

Every keyword below was like a wooden fish knocking against his forehead, knocking Lin Jianqing into a daze.

Shen Huaixue followed up with another message.

‘I think this shot came out pretty nicely. If I post it on the local page, there should be people watching.’