Lily Ling was barely able to hold in her anger. Taking a deep breath, she pushed Riley Rong aside. He tried to grab her, but she seized his arm and flipped him over. However, as befitting a Mary Sue CEO male lead who could do everything under the sun, from working out to making billions of dollars to fighting like a pro, he somehow managed to twist his body and land his feet.
Fortunately, Lily was not the typical female lead who turned useless just because she ran into a male lead, so she managed to stay out of his grasp. She retreated before Riley Rong could grab her. However, the fangirls of Riley Rong mobbed her, trying to help their beloved idol grab the person they believe was "his" woman.
"What are you doing?" Lily demanded, ducking under the hands of the crowd. "Stay back! Otherwise I won't hold back!"
"How dare you reject the male lead's proposal?!"
"Yeah! You must marry President Rong!"
"Are you guys crazy!?" Lily snapped. "I'm already married to another man!"
"Just fucking divorce him!" One of the fangirls screamed at her. "Are you an idiot?! You have a chance to marry a much better man than that loser! Take it with both hands!"
"And why are you assuming my husband is a loser?" Lily asked, unable to keep the exasperation out of her voice.
"Because he's not the male lead! He's nothing compared to President Rong! He's not handsome or sexy! He wears glasses and is nerdy! He's not overbearing and assertive enough! He only drives a Toyota! He doesn't have a retinue of servants or maids at home! He's not from some prestigious family! He doesn't deserve your love!"
What kind of logic was that? They were honestly making my head hurt. Were they insane? Or perhaps they had highly unrealistic perceptions of what the ideal husband should be. They were free to indulge in their own delusions, but now they were forcing their own exaggerated ideals onto other people. It was downright disgusting.
What? You were telling me that such people didn't live in reality? Sorry to break it to you, but you ought to read the Disqus comments in Zinmanga or even look at the comments in Webnovel stories. The readers absolutely hated any person who wasn't the male lead yet made a move on the female lead. Don't ask me why. I didn't understand either. But I had seen way too many comments condemning characters like me for being ugly, readers hating my counterparts in other stories just because we weren't the male leads.
Even second male leads received better treatment from the readers than mob characters like me. Sigh. Well, whatever.
"Enough!" Lily yelled. "If you love him so much, you guys should marry him instead! Now stop bothering me!"
She managed to shove her way through the crowd and dove into my car. She slammed the door shut before the crowd could rush her, protectively concealing herself inside the Toyota. She glanced at me apologetically.
"I'm very sorry."
"It's not your fault," I assured her. Then I glared through my windshield at the teeming mob of rabid fangirls, who were literally frothing at the mouth as they scratched and tore at my Toyota. Damn it! I was aware that my Toyota was relatively cheap, especially when you compared it to the branded cars that most CEOs drove, but it still hurt to see the abuse my trusty Toyota was subjected to by the rabid mob. I wanted to sue them for damages to my car. With the number of people attacking my Toyota, they probably could afford to pay for the damages as long as they divided it out.
"Get out of the car!" Riley Rong roared. "How dare you leave with another man?!"
"This man is my husband!" Lily shouted back, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "What the hell is wrong with you?! If anything, you should be the one who gets lost!"
"CEO logic," I muttered under my breath. "The female lead is not allowed to leave with any man except the CEO male lead. Otherwise she's considered to have cheated on him."
"What do you mean cheat on him? I have no relationship with him whatsoever! You're my husband, not him!"
"Don't ask me. Ask the readers or maybe some of the CEO novel writers." I leaned back in my seat, trying not to let a headache overwhelm me. This was getting ridiculous.
Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to run over the mob and drive out of there, but even with my position and current wealth, I couldn't afford to commit murder in broad daylight. To be fair, if I was patient, the police would arrive soon enough and arrest these idiots for unlawful behavior and harassment. No matter how you looked at it, they were disrupting public disorder. If I wanted to be wicked, I could even sue them for psychological damage in addition to scratching my car.
But that wouldn't solve the issue at its core. I caught sight of Riley Rong standing several meters away. He had wisely stayed out of the riot, keeping his distance. If the mob got arrested, he could plead innocence because he wasn't involved in the scratching and harassing (though we might have a point if we pointed out that he was stalking and harassing Lily, which I was determined to bring up in court).
Unfortunately, just like a certain ex-president from over a century ago, he would get away scot-free even though he had clearly instigated this riot against me. Of course, he would just plead innocence and pretended that his remarks were never meant to instigate violence and that his fangirls acted all on his own, never mind that his careless statements on social media and his silent inactivity when all this was going on – just standing to the side and watching without doing anything to help or stop his fangirls – contributed to this mess in the first place.
I had a sneaking suspicion he would issue a statement and request that they stop once the police showed up. Then he would use his money to hire the best lawyers and absolve himself of responsibility in causing this riot. History was going to repeat itself all over again. Damn it.
"The police will be here soon. I've already called them. They'll be here in another ten minutes." I decided to focus on the present for now and assured Lily, who was looking beleaguered. She flinched when a rabid fangirl slammed into her window, clawing at the armored glass. She pounded on it relentlessly.
"Get out here! Divorce that loser and marry President Rong instead!"
"They are all mentally ill," Lily murmured under her breath, looking horrified. Swallowing, she reached out and took my hand, entwining her fingers along mine. She closed her eyes and allowed the physical contact to calm her down. I guess she felt safer with me holding her hand, though I wasn't sure how it worked. Was it a psychological effect? Did physical contact encourage the production of certain hormones?
Unfortunately, I wasn't a psychiatrist, doctor or biologist, so I didn't know how the human body worked. What? I was an engineer. I built giant robots, energy shield generators and antimatter engines. All right, I hadn't succeeded in the antimatter engines yet (which I was hoping to use for faster than light travel), but I was determined to make them a reality.
For now, though, I should focus on getting out of here. I took my smartphone and called the police again.
"Come on…please hurry…" I begged, waiting for the operator to pick up my call. I was tempted to mobilize the military. Currently Alan Shou and Brad Biao were stuck in the back seat, unable to do anything. There were only two of them – they would be dragged down by the mob, which numbered over a hundred.
"Boss, you want us to go out there and fire warning shots?" Alan Shou asked, unruffled by the mob outside the car. I shook my head.
"Don't give them an excuse to besmirch us," I replied. "They are civilians…and if the media catches wind of us threatening them with guns, we are going to take a hit to our reputation. No, it's better to leave this to the police."
"I'm just worried about your and the madam's safety," Brad Biao said. His tone remained as impassive as ever, though.
"We'll be safe. This Toyota of mine is probably the safest vehicle to be inside right now." I smiled reassuringly. "And we are the victims here. As long as we don't do anything extreme like intimidating them with guns, the public and media will take our side."
I had modified my Toyota in the aftermath of the assassination attempts and so it was actually a lot more armored than it looked. Well, rather than armored, my Toyota possessed more sophisticated defenses.
"We just need to be patient. Hopefully, Riley Rong's reputation will take a dive after this. I'm sure the paparazzi will absolutely love this story that we will be sending them. Imagine this…CEO tries to pursue a married woman, and when he fails, he continues to harass her by using his fangirls. Best of all, when I sue him and he denies involvement, his fangirls are going to feel betrayed and accuse him of abandoning them."
"Why does this story sound very familiar?" Lily asked, frowning.
"It happened about a century ago, in Country A. A president lost an election, but continued to protest and accuse his opponents of rigging the votes or cheating, and when he failed to provide solid evidence for his case, he had his supporters storm the capitol…only to later deny involvement and effectively abandon the rioters to rot in prison while he got away without being impeached."
"You seem to know a lot about another country's political history," Lily remarked skeptically. I chuckled.
"Well, I studied there for a few years before coming back, remember?" I leaned back against my seat and consulted the console, which displayed a holographic view of the surroundings. I raised my eyebrow at several energy spikes in the distance, and then smiled. "Oh, the police is finally arriving…"
Then I blinked when I realized that something was amiss. I immediately slammed my hand on a button in my driving console, panic filling me.
"Activate defensive protocols!" I yelled at the car's AI. In response, a shimmering energy shield expanded across the surface of my Toyota. The rabid fangirls outside my car didn't notice, continuing to hammer away and scratch at my car. The energy shield, as I mentioned before, didn't work on physical objects that were traveling under a certain speed, so fingernails and hands would pass through the shield.
Those weren't what I was worried about, though.
A second after I raised the energy shield of my Toyota, a Tomahawk MKIV cruise missile slammed into my car and detonated, engulfing the entire clearing in a broiling inferno that blew the mob of fangirls into bits. The flames spread outward and consumed even a stunned Riley Rong, who had no idea what had just happened.
The entire space vanished in a blinding flash of light as a colossal conflagration burst into being, consuming everything in a hundred meter radius.