The eighth-floor hall was about to experience the most intense moment.
Yang Xinyi was a believer, and after the banquet, she had arranged for a Western ceremony. A priest specially invited for the event was to bear witness for the couple on stage.
"Mr. He Haodong, do you take this beautiful, gentle, virtuous, and exceedingly clever girl by your side to be your wife, and in the days to come, whether she be poor or rich, sick or healthy, do you pledge to always be faithful to her, cherish her, and love her, until you depart from this world?" the priest asked, holding his book.
"I do," He Haodong answered without hesitation.
"Miss Yang Xinyi, do you take this handsome, good-looking, kind, and exceptionally talented young man..."
At that moment, Yang Xinyi sat on the stage in her wedding dress, beautiful like a snow lotus on Ice Mountain, the focus of everyone's gaze.
However, at that moment, she fell silent.
After a long while, she managed to say with reluctance, "I am will..."
"Hold on!"
From the crowd, Xiao Fangfang stepped forward, holding a smartphone, and limped onto the stage.
"Fangfang, what happened?" Yang Xinyi asked with surprise.
"Xinyi, I have something to show you." Xiao Fangfang glared at He Haodong, then played a video, "from half an hour ago."
Xiao Fangfang didn't want to cause embarrassment, so she muted the volume.
Yang Xinyi took the phone, looked at it, and her face instantly changed colors.
"Xinyi, what's wrong?" He Haodong asked, puzzled.
Slap!
A fierce slap struck his face.
Everyone below the stage was stunned, unaware of what had happened.
"Xinyi, what did I do wrong?" He Haodong covered his face and asked guiltily.
Yang Yi snatched up the smartphone and hurled it at He Haodong, who ducked.
The phone smashed on the ground.
"My phone!"
Ye Xiong burst from the crowd, picked up the broken device, and wore a mournful expression.
"All I did was come for a free meal, was it easy for me?"
Two hours later, at the Yang Family Villa!
Yang Xinyi locked herself in her room, refusing to see anyone except Xiao Fangfang.
If it hadn't been for Xiao Fangfang's company, Yang Xinyi's father, Yang Dingguo, would have been tempted to break down the door.
Even now, Yang Dingguo had no clue what had happened. When he called He Haodong to question him, he wouldn't say.
"Xinyi, don't be sad, you haven't lost anything," Xiao Fangfang consoled.
Yang Xinyi's mood also settled down, and she even felt relieved that the incident had happened. She had made the decision to marry under pressure. She believed there was no better man on earth than He Haodong, which was why she had agreed to his proposal.
"Fangfang, how did you manage to secretly record it?"
When Xiao Fangfang remembered the two of them hugging tightly in the closet, her face turned red with embarrassment!
"It's not my phone. It belongs to that jerk."
"Ye Xiong?"
"Yes, that fake. Despite his decent appearance, he came to freeload. It made me so angry," Xiao Fangfang cursed.
Yang Xinyi couldn't help but laugh; it had been a long time since she saw her close friend take such an interest in a man.
As Xiao Fangfang went on about Ye Xiong, Yang Xinyi couldn't stop giggling.
The displeasure from the wedding was swept away.
"This guy is top grade. I'm just wondering how he got into the hotel room?"
According to He Haodong's style, he must have rented that room in advance. Without a keycard, how did that guy get in?
This was what Xiao Fangfang couldn't figure out either.
"Right, those two security guards you sent me—they ended up passed out. That guy said they fell asleep."
"Those two were ex-military, how could they have fallen asleep?" Yang Xinyi became even more suspicious and said, "Now that you've mentioned it, I'm quite curious to meet this guy."
"Beauty, we really are on the same wavelength."
From outside the balcony, a figure walked in—who else could it be but Ye Xiong?
"How did you get in here?"
The two women were shocked, staring at Ye Xiong as he appeared as if from nowhere, with a triumphant look on his face.
"I climbed up."
"This is the fifth floor," Yang Xinyi said, astonished.
Ye Xiong looked at his dirty hands and asked, "Excuse me, where is the bathroom?"
Xiao Fangfang dumbly pointed in the direction of the bathroom.
After a long while, Ye Xiong emerged from the bathroom, sat down on the sofa, and said, "Now let's talk about the compensation for the phone."
"You climbed up to the fifth floor just for a broken phone?" Xiao Fangfang was on the verge of a breakdown.
"The climbing will be included in the labor costs," Ye Xiong stated seriously.
"The iPhone 6 costs six thousand seven hundred. I've had it for two months, and it had become dear to me; let's set the emotional distress at fifty yuan a day—sixty days makes three thousand. Just now, climbing dirtied my clothes, which need to be cleaned, let's call that three hundred. So, give me ten thousand yuan and we're even."
"As for the round-trip expenses, let's forget about them. How do you intend to pay?"
Xiao Fangfang was nearly driven mad—was this guy even human? Climbing up to someone's fifth-floor home in the middle of the night to collect a debt for a phone, just how bizarre could he be?
Yang Xinyi looked at Ye Xiong with interest and said with a smile, "Ten thousand yuan, no problem."
She walked to the desk, took out a thick stack of banknotes from the drawer, and placed them on the table.
"Count it, is it enough?"
"Miss Yang is so straightforward, not like some deadbeat dogs."
"Say that again, I dare you," Xiao Fangfang stood up abruptly.
"The truth only needs to be told once."
Whoosh!
A pillow came flying at him.
Ye Xiong slapped it back, the pillow struck towards Xiao Fangfang and knocked her onto the sofa, legs kicked up in the air.
Clutching one end of the stack of banknotes, the other end pointing skyward, she displayed them like a peacock's tail.
"I don't like taking advantage of petty gains."
Ye Xiong pulled out two bills from the stack and placed them on the table, then leaped out of the window.
"I'm going to kill you."
Xiao Fangfang sat up from the floor, but Ye Xiong's shadow was already nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, where did that bastard go?"
"He's gone."
"Why didn't you stop him?"
"The villa's dozen security guards couldn't stop him, and dozens of cameras didn't detect him, how could I stop him?"
Yang Xinyi picked up the two banknotes and fell into deep thought. She had heard of the peacock tail fan counting technique before but had never seen it in person.
"Damn it, even if you run to the ends of the earth, I will find you," Xiao Fangfang yelled frantically.
…
The weather in Jiangnan City in August was exceedingly cool, making it the best time to start work.
Ye Xiong was wearing tattered jeans and a sky-blue worker's uniform on his upper body, with the four big characters for "Future New City" written on the back.
He straddled his battered second-hand motorcycle, black smoke billowing from the tailpipe as he zoomed off with a roar.
Sunshine shines on my tattered clothes
Driving around, looking everywhere
No one knows where I come from
No one asks if my last name is Li or Zhang
I don't care about that sentimental nonsense
I don't think about being that hero
…
Bang!
A BMW sedan ahead suddenly braked hard, and Ye Xiong's motorcycle crashed right into its rear end.
A fashionably dressed lady in red high heels and heavy makeup stepped out of the car, looked at the damage, and began to scream.
"Are you driving without eyes? Do you know how much this car costs? You couldn't afford it even if you sold yourself."
The lady was haughty and pointed at Ye Xiong's nose, "Don't run away, I've already recorded your license plate. You can't escape even if you run to the ends of the earth."
A sly smile appeared on Ye Xiong's face as he backed up the motorcycle, and then he revved the engine hard.
The motorcycle shot forward like an arrow about to hit the rear end of the car, the entire bike flew up and landed on the roof of the BMW.
Suddenly, a tire trail was left on the roof of the brand-new BMW.
"Wow, that's so cool!"
"How do you spell 'awesome'?"
"Quick, take a picture and share it to Moments."
The surrounding spectators pulled out their phones, ready to capture the moment.
"Get down from there, you've damaged the car, you couldn't pay for it even if you sold yourself," the lady cursed loudly.
Ye Xiong twisted the throttle, the wheels crushed the car window, leaving behind a trail of exhaust as he roared away.
"My car." The lady walked up to the car and began to cry out of heartache.
Looking at the lady's state through the rear-view mirror, Ye Xiong felt unspeakably exhilarated!
Shameless people should be dealt with shamelessly.
Suddenly, police sirens wailed from behind, and a policewoman on a motorcycle was in hot pursuit.
"Pull over, move to the side, or I'll shoot," the policewoman commanded loudly, pointing at him.
"I'm not well-educated, don't scare me, since when do Huaxia's traffic cops carry guns?" Ye Xiong didn't believe her for a second.
Swish!
The policewoman quickly drew a dark gun, its black muzzle pointed at him, and coldly said, "Do you want to try if this is a toy gun?"
Ye Xiong deflated completely, promptly pulling the motorcycle over to the side of the road.
The policewoman was driving with her right hand and holding the gun with her left hand—how do you spell 'cool'!
The police car pulled to a stop, and a 22- or 23-year-old policewoman got out.
She was wearing black trousers, a blue shirt, a black sun visor cap, and stood around 168cm tall. Her slightly darker skin than the typical office lady seemed not to detract from her beauty but instead added a brisk and impressive air.
Jiangnan is full of beauties, especially these days!
I had already run into two top-grade beauties last night, and I didn't expect to encounter another today. I wonder what her face looks like.
At this moment, the policewoman had already taken off her helmet, revealing a stunningly spirited face with her loose hair framing it, eyes bright as the moon, eyebrows like willow leaves, her features so refined it was to the extreme. Had she not been in uniform, Ye Xiong would have thought he had encountered a model.
Ye Xiong took a glance at her shoulder badge and was shocked.
He had not expected her to be a police officer.
This rank was definitely not for a mere traffic cop; there was only one possibility—this girl must have gotten into some trouble and been exiled.
He guessed right. Luo Weiwei had indeed been exiled.
Recently, there had been several children's disappearances in the area she was in charge of. Just yesterday, she arrested a suspect, and during the interrogation, he was very uncooperative, insisting on silence or asking for a lawyer, even making lewd comments. An infuriated Luo Weiwei ended up giving him a beating.
And then, she was demoted to patrolling.
Who would have thought that on her first day on the job, she would see a construction worker trying to look cool by riding a motorcycle over the top of a BMW.