"..."
Before the words had fallen, the private room was shrouded in dead silence.
An 8cm high heel smashed into Xu Lu's face, and his nose began to bleed instantly.
Stars danced before his eyes, and he felt dizzy and disoriented.
It took a full thirty seconds of stunned silence before people scrambled to help Xu Lu up, calling for a waiter to stop the bleeding.
"Brother Xu, should I call 120 and get you an ambulance now—"
"Call what? Want to embarrass yourself further?" Xu Lu snapped back to reality in an instant, clutching his nose in fury, "Ye Wanlan, what the hell are you doing? Got a death wish?"
"As you wish, strip four pieces off," Ye Wanlan said with a composed smile, "What's the matter, can't scrape together forty thousand? No wonder you're no match for Zhou Hechen."
Striking a nerve, Xu Lu flew into a rage born of humiliation, "Who said I can't come up with forty thousand? I'm telling you, stop comparing me to Zhou Hechen!"
The Zhou and Xu families were related by marriage, so out of respect for Zhou Hechen, he would call him 'brother'.
Without respect, he would make Zhou Hechen bite the dust!
Xu Lu sneered and slammed a bank card down on the coffee table, "There's four million in here, keep stripping!"
Ye Wanlan raised an eyebrow, and calmly recited a string of bank account numbers, "Transfer the money first, with a note for 'voluntary gift', and then I'll know you're serious."
Provoked, Xu Lu's hands trembled with rage as he picked up his phone to make the transfer through online banking.
Once the text message for the deposit chimed in, Ye Wanlan glanced down at her phone.
"You got it, right?" Xu Lu, his nose still covered, snapped viciously, "Now strip!"
So long as he could humiliate Zhou Hechen, the money meant nothing to him.
Finally, Ye Wanlan's smile vanished, and she said coldly, "Idiot."
She turned and left without taking her soiled high heels.
The private room fell silent once again, everyone frozen in shock.
A few seconds later, Xu Lu finally realized what had happened, "I've been played!"
He sprang up to chase after her, but in his agitation, his nose began to bleed again, making it hard to breathe.
Someone spoke up timidly, "Brother Xu, we should really go to the hospital."
"Nonsense, I have a private doctor. Why the hell would I go to a hospital?" Xu Lu spat out harshly, "You, go to the Zhou Family right now and find Zhou Hechen. Tell him to compensate me for emotional distress and medical expenses, and let him see what kind of thing he's raised, with no manners at all."
They had all kept a few lovers themselves. Which of them dared to overstep bounds like Ye Wanlan?
Xu Lu's face grew dark, "And get the forty thousand back for me as well."
"But, Brother Xu, you wrote 'voluntary gift'..."
"Shut up!" Xu Lu's complexion worsened, forcing the words out through clenched teeth, "I've noted this debt."
**
Outside Yuting Clubhouse.
Ye Wanlan opened the car door and patted Zhou Yixiang on the shoulder, "You were scared today. I got forty thousand for you, which I've already transferred to your card. That's enough for next semester's tuition. Stop working here from now on."
On her 428th timeline restart, she went to Jiangcheng University for more information and that's when she met Zhou Yixiang.
Zhou Yixiang exhibited an astonishing talent for jewelry design but was unrecognized and suppressed for a long time. She even had to work in a clubhouse just to scrape together her tuition fees.
Zhou Yixiang was startled, "You—"
Ye Wanlan smiled faintly, "You have class this afternoon, right? You go back to school first. If there's anything, I'll get in touch with you. Qingli, see her off. After you've dropped her off, keep the car at your place; I'll come by to pick it up tonight."
Cheng Qingli nodded, "Oh okay, but Sister Lan, you..."
"I'm going for a walk. Don't worry about me." Ye Wanlan exited the car, waved her hand lazily, and walked barefoot down the road.
Cheng Qingli was somewhat baffled.
Could it be that Sister Lan was so stimulated that she went even crazier?
Zhou Yixiang was also puzzled.
She was sure that today was the first time she had met Ye Wanlan, yet the woman seemed to know her inside out.
Could it be that they had met before when she was unaware?
Cheng Qingli started the car, "Miss Zhou, which company's head jewelry designer are you? How about joining our company? Our Sister Lan is awesome!"
"Ah?" Zhou Yixiang said blankly, "I, I am a junior in the Fine Arts Department at Jiangcheng University, still looking for a summer internship..."
Cheng Qingli: "?"
Oh, she understood now, Ye Wanlan had indeed gone crazy again.
**
The sun shone brightly as a white car made its way toward the suburbs.
Yan Tingfeng rolled down the window, and the early summer breeze swept in, carrying the faint scent of gardenias.
He gazed quietly at the green belt by the roadside, and suddenly narrowed his eyes: "Stop the car."
"What's wrong?" Rong Yu asked, perplexed, as he stopped the car and followed his gaze.
At the intersection, a girl was wearing a light green, modernized traditional long dress, with the hem fluttering above her slim calves in the breeze.
The lines of her ankles were smooth, her skin under the sun like creamy white jade.
Rong Yu exclaimed in surprise, "Why is she walking barefoot on the road? Doesn't it hurt?"
Yan Tingfeng said, "Get out."
Rong Yu: "Ah?"
"Buy a pair of shoes and take them over."
"Why don't you take them yourself?" Rong Yu muttered, but he still got out of the car and ran into the first shoe store in the mall.
After closing the car door, Yan Tingfeng then looked up and said, "Speak."
Upon receiving the command, Bing He in the back seat began to report: "Young Master, the information on Miss Ye is very strange. The her now and the her of the last four years are completely different people, like two separate individuals, and we can't find any trace of replacement. We will continue to investigate."
Yan Tingfeng chuckled, "I am very interested in her, a person who has ambition written all over her face is truly beautiful."
Bing He involuntarily shivered slowly.
The last person their Young Master had taken interest in was still lying beneath the icebergs of the Northern Lands.
The last thing their Young Master said was beautiful had already shattered.
Bing He looked towards Ye Wanlan with a touch of sympathy as Rong Yu handed over a box of shoes, evidently saying something to her.
It was then that Ye Wanlan turned her head back.
Yan Tingfeng smiled at her, his eyes seeming to ripple with specks of starlight.
It reminded one of a gentle breeze over the wilderness, softly caressing the face.
But Ye Wanlan sensed an even more intense scent of fresh blood, gloomy and dark.
Like a knife coated with honey, one that would cut your fingers if you got too close.
Ye Wanlan withdrew her gaze and smiled faintly: "Doctor Rong, how much is it? I'll transfer the money to you."
"No need, no need," Rong Yu waved his hand, sincerely saying, "Student Ye, you must be happy every day. As long as you are in a good mood, nothing else matters."
Confident about being a good doctor who could pull a misguided young girl back from the wrong path, he was full of confidence.
**
The setting sun melted into gold, and the evening lights began to illuminate.
"Sister Lan, I have taken Miss Zhou back to the school," Cheng Qingli scratched her head in the personal apartment. "But she hasn't graduated yet, what kind of company are we supposed to start?"
"You'll know when you come with me to the company tomorrow," Ye Wanlan said as she practiced calligraphy.
"No problem, Sister Lan, what are you writing?" Cheng Qingli leaned in, curious, and saw twelve big characters.
Grand and bold, piercing deeply into the wood, the calligraphy carried an aura of its own.
Righting the landslide at the brink, supporting a teetering mansion. [Note 1]
"Sister Lan, if this writing weren't by you, I would have thought it was the real work of Princess Yongning," Cheng Qingli marveled. "It's so well written, with this skill, we could indeed quit the modeling business and dive directly into the art scene!"
Ye Wanlan stopped her brush: "I indeed forgot something, you reminded me."
"What is it?" As Cheng Qingli pulled up the real work of Princess Yongning from their image archive, she exclaimed, "Look, look, it's almost exactly the same."
Ye Wanlan sighed.
The time loops had lasted too long, and back in the normal world, she had forgotten to change her handwriting from her previous life.