On seeing that Xu Tingsheng’s matter had been peacefully resolved, with her mood rather complex, Lu Zhixin finally called for her roommates to be on their way.

  “Aren’t you going to go see how he’s doing?” One of her roommates asked.

  Lu Zhixin hesitated slightly. Whatever her stance might be now, it was true that she was still concerned about Xu Tingsheng. In the eyes of others, the relationship between them had never changed too.

  “Our lesson’s starting. Let’s go! Huh, who cares about him, acting so immature,” Lu Zhixin gave a bit of a perfunctory reply, with blame evident in her tone.

  “Hey, Xu Tingsheng, our Zhixin says you’re too immature! She’s not caring about you anymore!” An exceptionally cheerful roommate of hers yelled towards Xu Tingsheng far off in the distance.

  Xu Tingsheng smiled and waved to show that everything was fine.

  It was truly an unprecedented occasion indeed as those of Room 602 collectively showed up to class without exception, all marked by the traces of a fight. Some of them had swollen faces, while others had bloodstains at the corner of their mouth. Even the most intact ones were basically all dishevelled from the earlier conflict.

  Only now did Xu Tingsheng feel a bit awkward as he hunched up in the corner of the room, not daring to raise his head too much.

  After attending the two morning lessons, a little before 10am, Xu Tingsheng called Fu Cheng on the way back to his dormitory and told him about Zhang Ninglang’s matter and what Xu Sheng had decided on. Then, he sent Fu Cheng Zhang Ninglang’s mobile number, basically leaving things all to him.

  This artistic young man and Zhang Ninglang could now discuss their handling of this matter between themselves.

  When lunchtime came, Xu Tingsheng and his roommates sat there loafing around, casually chatting.

  Li Xingming called Xu Tingsheng out alone and requested to borrow some money from him while appearing truly reluctant and unwilling to do so.

  “How much?” Xu Tingsheng asked.

  “Twenty thousand,” Li Xingming said.

  Xu Tingsheng hesitated for a moment before replying, “I can lend you the money, but you have to give me a reason first. From what I know, your family is quite healthy financially and provide you with quite sufficient living expenses too. I think you also had a sum saved up earlier……why are you in need of money? You’ve got to tell me that.”


  “My, my family is in urgent need of money. I want to help them out a bit,” Li Xingming explained.

  “That’s not what I’m asking,” Xu Tingsheng said.

  Li Xingming gave no reply.

  “What about your own money then? ……This is related to Yu Yayang, right?” Xu Tingsheng asked two consecutive questions.

  Li Xingming’s expression turned unnatural all at once as he explained rather desperately, “She, she previously said that she wanted to open a store in town but didn’t have enough money. I, I lent her the twenty thousand that I had saved up.”


  Being able to save up twenty thousand yuan as a university student was actually quite a laudable feat in this day and age. Still, Xu Tingsheng was surely not going to praise him. The fool had withdrawn the full twenty thousand just like that.

  “What happened then? How did the store go?” Xu Tingsheng asked.

  “In the end, she didn’t open that store,” Li Xingming said.

  “What about the money? She never returned it?”


  “I……”


  “You felt embarrassed asking for it back?”


  “With my family urgently trying to gather money everywhere, I could really care less about face, actually. I did ask her for the money back……the texts are still here……”


  Li Xingming took out his phone. Xu Tingsheng grabbed it at once.

  The conversation between the two was very long. The silly Li Xingming had saved the several hundred texts that had been exchanged between them, not bearing to delete a single one. Xu Tingsheng just skipped straight to the final part.

  Li Xingming pleaded for Yu Yayang to return him the money very awkwardly and desperately, with his attitude virtually like that of a beggar’s.

  What Yu Yayang constantly repeated was:

  “I never once asked to borrow money from you. It was you who insisted on giving it to me as soon as you heard me mentioning it.”


  “Do you have an IOU?”


  “I’ve spent it all.”


  This girl might already have realised that it was impossible for her to latch onto Xu Tingsheng or Tan Yao through her relationship with Li Xingming. She had already extracted all the benefits she could out of Li Xingming. And so, there was no need for her to feign niceties anymore.

  Twenty thousand yuan was not a small sum in this era.

  Li Xingming continued pleading like a beggar, “Can you return me ten thousand then? My family is really in urgent need of money! Please, I really need it. Just ten thousand. I can give up on the other ten thousand. I’ll never mention it again in the future, alright?”


  Yu Yayang’s reply to that was, “I won’t transfer you a single cent. Let’s put it this way. Stop bothering me already! My conscience is clear, anyway. Oh, and by the way, it’s really too disgusting, how you actually even have the face to ask for the money back. Thank you, for finally letting me see what kind of man you are.”


  She was actually righteously criticising Li Xingming’s manhood now……this woman was just so shameless and self-absorbed one could not help but shake their head.

  Xu Tingsheng returned Li Xingming his phone, telling him, “I’ll lend you that money. After that, you have two options regarding this matter. The first is to accept that you were a freaking fool and learn from this experience. Alternatively, I’ll get my company’s lawyer and sue her for you.”


  “Sue her?”


  “You have transaction records and these text messages. With our legal prowess, you’ll have a good chance of winning.”


  “No, that’s not what I’m worried about. I’m afraid that if things blow up……could her reputation be damaged as a result?”


  “That’s exactly what we want! Whether we win or lose the lawsuit, her reputation will be in tatters. This kind of woman fully deserves it.”


  “I……” Li Xingming dared not look Xu Tingsheng directly in the face as he scratched his head, stammering, “Let me think about it a bit more……”


  The dude was actually hesitating even at this stage. Xu Tingsheng really felt like slapping him.

  “Sorry, Bro Xu, I……”


  Li Xingming looked rather timidly at Xu Tingsheng.

  While this matter was clearly unrelated to him, Xu Tingsheng just felt greatly stifled, like a blood clot had formed in his chest……damn it! Having been thoroughly played by some bitch, he was going to accept it just like that?

  “If there was a third option, would you consider it?” Xu Tingsheng asked.

  Li Xingming immediately looked up, his eyes shining as he looked hopefully at Xu Tingsheng, “There’s still a third option?”


  “Accept the loss of that twenty thousand yuan. I’ll find back your face for you and get her fully subservient to you for a while. How about it?”


  “What? Can you do that?”


  “I’ll pretend that I don’t know anything at all and casually mention entering Hucheng to her when I happen to run into her. I’ll say that my assistant position is vacant and connect this to you. She will definitely come looking for you……after that, you grasp the opportunity yourself.”


  “Then, if she really turns good, that assistant position of yours……”


  “Assistant your sister. Don’t make me sick!”


  “So……?”


  “I only mentioned it. Is there a contract or an agreement? Sorry, the position has already been filled. Even if she does enter, there’s still an internship period. We can still get rid of her then ……anyway, tell me when you’ve seen her true colours and have gotten tired of her. You can tell her: thank you for finally letting me see what kind of woman you are……get her vomiting blood!”


  Xu Tingsheng was actually following the very same logic Yu Yayang had used to stymie and mock Li Xingming in her texts.

  Hence giving her a taste of her own medicine.

  Li Xingming was still rather hesitant.

  “This kind of woman will only ever desire more and more. You won’t be able to satisfy her,” Xu Tingsheng struck the final, heavy blow.

  Li Xingming thought about it before saying, “In that case, I’ll wait for her to come look for me.”


  “You won’t fall for it? You won’t end up getting totally fooled and owned by her again, right?”


  “Never again.”


  “Good.”


  Xu Tingsheng ‘very coincidentally’ ran into Yu Yayang during lunchtime. He smiled and greeted her, next continuing on his way before suddenly pretending to recall something.

  He called for Yu Yayang to stop and told her, “Right, Miss Yu? I heard that you previously said that you were interested in coming to gain experience at Hucheng? It’s like this. My assistant was recently transferred away to become a Director. I wonder if……never mind, you have your meal. I’ll just tell Li Xingming about this. He is the most enthusiastic regarding your matters, anyway.”


  With that, without giving Yu Yayang any time to react at all, Xu Tingsheng exited the canteen.

  Less than half an hour later, Li Xingming told Xu Tingsheng that he had received a text from Yu Yayang. Besides expressing her feelings of guilt, she had also invited him for dinner that night……

  When a woman was too greedy, they would have a weakness to capitalise on.

  Greed itself was not all that wrong. If one acted too shamelessly, however, they had to be governed.