Chapter 47: Never Mind Then...

After all, human beings are not made of iron. In the small hours of the morning, Miao Leling had dozed off unsteadily on the sofa, and when she opened her eyes again, it was already half-past one in the afternoon.

Her clothes were completely intact, and a thin blanket was draped over her.

As for Yan Xuan, he was nowhere to be seen...

Following Yan Xuan's instructions, Miao Leling changed her clothes and then threw the Song-style ruqun into the bathtub to soak.

Before heading out, Miao Leling stood in a daze, staring at herself in the mirror. She raised a hand to rub the spot where Yan Xuan had grabbed her the night before, seemingly still able to feel the man's rough and powerful strength.

If she hadn't cried last night, she would probably be shivering with pain just putting on a bra these past few days.

Miao Leling crossed her arms, gently lifting her soft breasts upward.

Her chest was full, but her heart felt empty...

Stepping out of the room and walking down the stairs, she happened to run into Yu Mengyi again. Following Yan Xuan's instructions once more, Miao Leling steadied herself against the stair handrail and put on an act of walking with an unsteady stagger.

Yu Mengyi looked Miao Leling up and down and offered a warm smile, "You're up? Just in time to have lunch together."

"No thanks, Director Yu. I have to head back; I still have classes at school."

Miao Leling no longer called Yu Mengyi sister, nor did she dare to step forward and act affectionately with her.

"Alright then, I'll have someone book a plane ticket for you."

"No, no, no, I've already bought a discounted economy class ticket. There's no need for Director Yu to spend money."

After last night, Miao Leling had gained a clear understanding—she was not cut out for first class, nor did she wish to have that kind of fate...

Squeezing into economy class wasn't a bad thing at all.

Yu Mengyi continued, "By the way, about the female lead role..."

Miao Leling refused once again, "Director Yu! I still want to prioritize my studies and have no intention of acting in movies for now."

"You don't get the final say on this matter. I need to ask President Yan for his opinion."

"Oh..."

Miao Leling couldn't be sure if Yan Xuan would help her out again, so she could only pray silently in her heart.

Just as she walked out of the hotel lobby, Miao Leling quickly turned back and hurried to Yu Mengyi, asking tentatively, "Director Yu, could you give me President Yan's contact information?"

Yu Mengyi raised an eyebrow, "He didn't leave you his contact info?"

"No..."

"Interesting."

Yu Mengyi wore an amused expression.

She had seen Miao Leling trot all the way back from the hotel entrance, moving as briskly as if she were flying.

So the meal was served right to his lips, and he didn't even taste it?

***

After the plane landed in Nanjiang, Yan Xuan unlocked his phone and saw that Yu Mengyi had sent a message ten minutes ago.

Yu Mengyi: President Yan, were you satisfied last night?

Yan Xuan: Director Yu, you've trained her well. Little Miao knows how to handle things.

Yu Mengyi: Being able to serve President Yan is her fortune. Also, Little Miao told me she doesn't want to act in movies anymore. Was that your arrangement, President Yan?

Yan Xuan drew in a sharp breath. He had never expected that Miao Leling would suddenly give up the movie role, and on top of that, draw Yu Mengyi into probing him.

Yan Xuan: I don't want my woman wading into the muddy waters of the entertainment industry. I hope Director Yu understands.

Yu Mengyi: President Yan is certainly overbearing!

Immediately after, Yu Mengyi forwarded Miao Leling's contact card, and the conversation came to an end.

Yan Xuan could easily guess that Miao Leling must have asked Yu Mengyi for his contact information.

He claimed to be "keeping" Miao Leling as his mistress, yet didn't even leave her his contact info. Yu Mengyi wasn't a fool; she could naturally tell what was real and what was fake.

Looking at Miao Leling's contact card on his phone, Yan Xuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He had overestimated Miao Leling, and underestimated Yu Mengyi.

She was just a pure little girl; how could she possibly have the skill to leak no flaws in front of Yu Mengyi?

He tapped on Miao Leling's contact card to send a friend request. Just as Yan Xuan walked out of the airport, Fang Lian came bouncing joyfully toward him.

As luck would have it, Fang Lian happened to be wearing traditional Hanfu today as well, specifically a similar style of Song dynasty ruqun.

Fang Lian leaped straight into Yan Xuan's arms and started acting spoiled as usual, "I missed you to death~"

Seeing that Fang Lian was wearing her hair in a pair of buns today, Yan Xuan couldn't resist reaching out to pinch them. "It's only been two days over the weekend, there's no need for that."

"I just want to stick to you every day..."

"Be a good girl, get in the car first."

"No way, I need a kiss first."

Fang Lian tilted her head back with her eyes closed, her moist pink lips slightly puckered.

"There are a lot of people at the airport."

"No~ Kiss me!"

Yan Xuan let out a helpless, bitter smile. As he lowered his head and bent down to satisfy Fang Lian's demand, his hands naturally moved to her chest, measuring through the ruqun.

Sure enough, they were still just a tiny bit smaller...

Back in the Bentley, Yan Xuan slid into the driver's seat and started the engine, casually asking, "Why are you wearing this kind of outfit today?"

Fang Lian shook the little buns on her head and said playfully, "The Hanfu Club is having an event. I went over to do their makeup, and figured I'd try wearing it while I'm at it... Do you like it?"

"As long as you're comfortable wearing your clothes, stop always asking if I like it."

"I don't care! I only wear what you like to look at."

"Silly girl, I like whatever you wear."

Yan Xuan shifted the topic to business, "Have you contacted the lawyers?"

Fang Lian nodded, "Don't worry. From now on, whenever we have legal issues, we can just go to them. But I'm still a little worried..."

"Worried about what?"

"The lawyer was introduced by your ex-girlfriend. Will she leak my situation to your ex-girlfriend?"

"Lawyers have their own professional ethics and codes of conduct, especially ones at their level."

Yan Xuan tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, "Even if she leaks it, so what? It's been almost a year since we broke up. Am I not allowed to find someone new?"

"Hehe..."

Yan Xuan's words made Fang Lian's heart overflow with sweetness.

By the sound of it, is the man equating me with his ex-girlfriend, at least on the surface?

No!

I've slept with the man, it should be an even more intimate relationship!

Win!

A massive, sweeping victory!

At this thought, Fang Lian couldn't help but wonder—just who was the vixen that took Yan Xuan's virginity?

After returning to campus, the two went to their respective classrooms for class.

Having played around outside for several days, Yan Xuan was in no mood to listen to the lecture for the moment, keeping his head down and fiddling with his phone from start to finish.

Miao Leling had already accepted the friend request, briefly expressed her gratitude to Yan Xuan, and hadn't disturbed him further.

However, the damn algorithm seemed reluctant to let him go, continuously pushing short videos of Miao Leling to Yan Xuan. The latest one had been posted just six minutes ago.

The video was only thirty seconds long, filmed at her school gate, and the content featured nothing but an empty blue sky and white clouds.

The title—Escaping the Tiger's Mouth.

A tiger's mouth?

Yan Xuan felt a mild annoyance. He had just helped her out, and in the blink of an eye, he was being treated like a man-eating tiger?

He tapped open the comment section and typed a reply: Biting the hand that feeds you?

The class bell rang, and Yan Xuan put away his phone to head to his next classroom. Just seven or eight minutes later, when he opened his phone again, the short-video app notifications showed 99+.

Tapping into it, he found it was all triggered by Miao Leling replying to him—"I didn't say you were a big tiger, don't be mad."

It was followed by an "aggrieved" sticker, which easily made people imagine Miao Leling pouting in a spoiled tone.

The lethality of that image was simply too high.

Floor 1: Bro, who are you?

Floor 2: First time seeing Miaomiao take the initiative to reply.

Floor 3: There's something fishy going on! Definitely something fishy!

Floor 4: Did Miaomiao let you bite her?

...

Clearing his comments and private messages, Yan Xuan sent a message to Miao Leling.

Yan Xuan: How did you recognize me?

Miao Leling: Your profile pictures on both apps are the same. Didn't you realize?

Yan Xuan: Aren't you afraid of matching profile pictures?

Miao Leling: Other people wouldn't send me "Biting the hand that feeds you?".

Yan Xuan: You are not allowed to reply to me in the future.

Miao Leling: Then you shouldn't comment in the first place...

Yan Xuan was left speechless by her retort, leaving him no choice but to reopen the video app and delete his previous comment.

Yan Xuan didn't take the simple interlude to heart, but the internet had a memory. Not only had Yan Xuan deleted his comment, but screenshots of his comment had instead been pushed to the very top.

Floor 1: Feeling guilty, definitely feeling guilty.

Floor 2: Who is hitting on our X University campus belle?

Floor 3: According to insiders, Miaomiao wasn't on campus last weekend.

...

Among Miao Leling's followers were quite a few of her schoolmates, and batch after batch of onlookers came to watch the drama unfold.

Yan Xuan's private messages began to buzz endlessly. Finding it irritating, he simply deactivated his account.

Comment interactions and flirtations with a minor internet celebrity could draw so many flies, which explained why celebrities ended up trending on hot searches over matters the size of a sesame seed.

Watching executions at the marketplace was an instinct deeply engraved in human bones...

Yan Xuan could deactivate his short-video app account, but Miao Leling couldn't deactivate WeChat.

The private messages on the video app would forever show 99+, which she was already used to and didn't care about.

However, her WeChat friend messages had also surged to over two hundred in just ten minutes. Miao Leling had never maintained a cold and aloof persona, so she had to pick and choose a few to reply to.

Among them, a male classmate with the remark "Chen Lie" was the most frantic, having already sent Miao Leling a full seventy-plus messages.

Chen Lie: Little Miao, who was that person? What on earth did you go do over the weekend? Why did you say you escaped the tiger's mouth?

Miao Leling: I went to see Director Yu Mengyi over the weekend, but the character audition didn't work out. That person was just a friend.

The only reason she exercised patience and replied to Chen Lie was simply because he lived in the same residential complex as her family. If she didn't explain clearly, Miao Leling worried that some gossip might reach her parents' ears.

Chen Lie: What kind of friend? You usually never reply to anyone else!

Miao Leling set Chen Lie's chat to "Do Not Disturb," and then reopened Yan Xuan's chat window, sending another aggrieved sticker.

However, this time Yan Xuan did not reply for a full dozen minutes.

Unable to help herself, Miao Leling sent another "Are you there" sticker featuring a cute child knocking on a door.

Yan Xuan still didn't reply.

Just five minutes later, Miao Leling couldn't hold back for a third time. She typed out a question: Are you busy?

Yan Xuan still didn't reply.

Time ticked by. Holding her phone, Miao Leling suddenly felt like she could understand how Chen Lie must have felt just moments ago.

Just as she was about to ask for a fourth time, Yan Xuan finally sent a reply.

Yan Xuan: Anything up? I was just busy having dinner with my girlfriend.

The three words "my girlfriend" were exceptionally glaring, freezing Miao Leling's fingers in mid-air.

After a long while, she gently tapped the screen to reply: Oh, never mind then...