Liu Ruyan replied earnestly, “I’ve never heard of the Sikong family. Maybe they’re a hidden clan or just some newly rich nobodies.”
After hearing her explanation, Lin Fan gave a slight nod.
“Are you thinking of seeking him out for help? Trying to borrow someone else’s strength?” Liu Ruyan asked while gently turning the teacup in her hand.
Lin Fan frowned. “It’s not that. He helped me a lot at first… but he also took the woman I love.”
“I don’t think I can ever call anyone a friend again.”
“Heh…” Liu Ruyan let out a sarcastic chuckle. “If someone could steal her from you, it means someone else could too.”
Lin Fan didn’t take that well. In his heart, Jiang Huaiyue wasn’t that kind of woman.
“Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t understand her. She’s not that type. We were close comrades-in-arms. I know her character!”
Liu Ruyan now looked at him as though he were naive.
“So, you were comrades-in-arms, and you liked her. But she ended up with someone else. What does that have to do with you? How can you say she was stolen?”“Uh…” Lin Fan was momentarily speechless. The truth stung.
Liu Ruyan snorted. “Stop always blaming others. Sometimes you have to reflect on yourself. Over all these years, has your income increased? Have you even tried to improve?”
Lin Fan clenched his jaw but had no rebuttal.
Still, the partnership had been established. Now all he had to do was wait for Liu Ruyan’s updates.
After she left, Lin Fan stayed behind in the teahouse.
The room wasn’t big, but it had everything he needed. Compared to the shabby building he had lived in before, it was a hundred times better.
After showering, Lin Fan lay on the bed and absentmindedly opened a photo on his phone.
It was a group photo. He zoomed in on Jiang Huaiyue in her military uniform, and a bitter ache filled his chest.
He truly loved her. But now, she belonged to someone else.
And the bastard who stole her—he might be gloating this very moment.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. So, Lin Fan dialed a number.
Meanwhile, Shen Wuxiao was just arriving at the Bay Villa when he saw the call. He grinned.
Lin Fan was walking right into the trap himself.
Letting him suffer a bit seemed just right.
He rolled down the window, letting the sea breeze in, and answered.
“Hello? Hahh… Lin Fan… why’re you calling me now? Oh~” Shen Wuxiao answered with deliberately exaggerated breathing, pretending to be in the middle of something intimate.
Lin Fan immediately picked up on the sound of wind, the car swaying, and Shen Wuxiao’s uneven breaths.
His face turned pale.
“Damn you, Zhao…” Lin Fan was about to cry. It was too much. They were playing that game now?
What he didn’t realize… was that Shen Wuxiao was actually alone.
But that didn’t stop him from continuing the act.
He turned to the empty air and said with a moan, “Yue’er, hold tighter!”
Lin Fan’s body trembled, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles cracked.
Shen Wuxiao kept up the wheezing, taunting him mercilessly.
Lin Fan was so angry he couldn’t even form words.
“Brother Lin Fan, if you have something to say, speak up. I can’t stay distracted too long, or Yue’er will be upset,” Shen Wuxiao teased while shaking the car—“accidentally” kicking the door and making a loud bang.
Lin Fan, of course, took it the wrong way.
“Zhao!! Can’t you be gentle?! Do you not know how to treat a woman with care? You animal!” Lin Fan’s voice cracked.
“Brother Lin Fan, aren’t you being a little nosy?” Shen Wuxiao laughed inwardly, completely entertained.
Just then, Jiang Huaiyue, who had noticed Shen Wuxiao’s parked car at the villa, came over, puzzled.
She approached, and just as she reached the side—
Shen Wuxiao suddenly stuck his head out the window.
“Ah!” Jiang Huaiyue screamed in surprise.
Lin Fan heard the scream through the phone.
That was the final blow.
He hung up immediately and collapsed onto the bed, kicking and struggling like a madman.
“Damn it!”
“Beast! That bastard! That animal!!”
Lin Fan sat up, fists clenched, and punched the mattress repeatedly—as if trying to beat up a certain someone in his head.
No… not just a bastard—he was worse than that. A monster. A beast. A freak.
After letting it all out, Lin Fan sat frozen in place, staring blankly into space.
Sleep that night was out of the question.
Meanwhile, a familiar system notification echoed in Shen Wuxiao’s mind:
[Ding! Lin Fan collapses. Points +10,000.]
Shen Wuxiao was beyond pleased.
He wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to humiliate someone who had come looking for humiliation.
Jiang Huaiyue rolled her eyes and gave him a light punch on the shoulder.
“What are you grinning at? You didn’t even come inside when we got home. And then you scared me!”
Her slightly annoyed expression was strangely adorable.
Usually cold and stoic, this softer, livelier side of her made her even more charming.
“Let’s go inside,” Shen Wuxiao said as he shut off the engine and got out of the car.
He wrapped his arms around her and led her into the villa, his heart full of satisfaction and warmth.
Once they were inside, Jiang Huaiyue tugged on his collar and leaned against him, sniffing playfully.
“Have you been drinking?”
“Just a little. What’s better than sipping wine while watching a good show?” Shen Wuxiao replied, his hands growing restless.
Jiang Huaiyue rolled her eyes and slapped his hand. “Eat first, then we’ll go to the room…”
She had been waiting for him in the villa all evening.
Now that she saw he wasn’t hurt, she was relieved.
After pulling him down onto the sofa, she walked toward the kitchen.
Shen Wuxiao leaned back, enjoying the comfort, and let his thoughts wander.
He thought about Lin Fan’s “plotline.”
At this point, it had completely collapsed.
Not a single event had unfolded the way Lin Fan expected. Everything had been flipped upside down by Shen Wuxiao himself.
In typical martial arts stories, the protagonist would enter a high-level world…
He’d be reborn, inherit a sacred body, unlock great powers.
He’d act cool, attract women, and start building a massive harem.
He’d always stand on moral high ground. He’d fight injustice, take down bullies, and punish anyone who mocked him.
Opportunities would fall into his lap. Fortune would follow him everywhere.
Every time a fight started, his enemies wouldn’t even get a chance to draw their weapons before their bones were shattered.
Eventually, he’d rise to dominate both the underworld and upper society of Zhonghai.
Then he’d change maps, start fresh, and rise again—step by step to the peak of martial arts.
But Lin Fan?
He couldn’t even clear level one.
From start to finish, he’d been played by Shen Wuxiao.
Even if he realized the truth now, he didn’t have the strength to fight back.
He was finished.
Did he really think teaming up with Liu Ruyan would change anything?
He was still a small fish, trapped in a tank.
Even if he was given the chance to grow, the powerful figures he’d meet were nothing but ants in Shen Wuxiao’s eyes.
People who call themselves righteous love to say “justice will prevail.”
But that’s just wishful thinking from people too powerless to do anything else.
The so-called “mantis trying to stop a chariot” was just a poetic excuse for helplessness.
Lin Fan was like an ant… staring up at a mountain with no summit in sight…
All he could do was sigh.