Tang Lü’s injured, squinted eyes hadn’t spotted Liu Shiyun, but her sharp eyes immediately recognized her swollen, pig-faced ex-boyfriend. She said, gloating, “Oh look, if it isn’t our eternally elegant, gentle gentleman Tang Lü? If it weren’t for that sneaky voice of yours, I honestly wouldn’t have recognized that face! How’d you end up so disfigured?”

Tang Lü pointed at Qian Chuan, furious and worked up. “Why don’t you ask him what he did? I was just walking down the street minding my own business when this lunatic came out of nowhere and started wailing on my face!” He glanced at Qian Chuan, then at Liu Shiyun. “At first I figured, since I’d never even met this guy, no grudge between us, he must be some psycho or got the wrong person. But now that I see you’re here too, it all makes sense.” He gave a cold laugh. “This is your new boyfriend, isn’t it? Wow, your taste really took a nosedive after we broke up. You went from me to someone with zero class whatsoever? After a full banquet, you’re settling for street food? Oh wait, no—you obviously don’t even like this guy, you just found someone to beat me up to vent your anger!”

Qian Chuan rolled up his sleeves. “You want more of the same?” He snorted. “Sorry to disappoint, I’m just a Good Samaritan who can’t stand a two-timing scumbag and steps in when I see injustice.”

Liu Shiyun glanced at Qian Chuan. “You actually went and hit him?” Her eyes lit up. “I thought that was just drunk talk the other night. Wow, you actually followed through!”

“I, Qian Chuan, always keep my word!”

Liu Shiyun said, genuinely sincere, “Qian Chuan, have I ever told you—you’re actually pretty good-looking.”

“Huh? Really? Ha ha ha, well, you didn’t even need to tell me, I already know I’m pretty good-looking, ha ha ha…”

Tang Lü had reached the end of his patience. “You two don’t need to keep provoking me on purpose! Regardless of the reason, assaulting someone without cause deserves legal punishment. I couldn’t figure out before who hit me, but now that I’ve caught you red-handed, this isn’t just going to slide. I’m leaving this to the police, and I’ll fully cooperate with a medical examination.” He pulled out his phone, about to call the police, but the motion seemed to pull at the wound on his face, making him wince in pain—hardly looking like some campus heartthrob from the architecture department anymore, more like a black-market cab driver who’d lost a fight over a fare outside the school gates.

Without a word, Liu Shiyun snatched the phone right out of his hand. “You cheated first. I’m the one who told Qian Chuan to hit you. And you think you’re the wronged party here?”

Tang Lü let out a cold laugh. “I don’t care who told him to. Either way, he hit me, and this isn’t over. If it goes on his record with the police, let’s see if he doesn’t get expelled.”

His tone was venomous, and combined with his mottled, twisted face, he came across as someone willing to stoop to anything.

Facing Tang Lü’s threat, Qian Chuan wasted no time turning to Lu Xun with remarkable pragmatism. “Brother Xun… if I get expelled, what am I supposed to do? I’m worried Qian Wei will cry herself to death over me…” His tone was soft and helpless, his expression thoroughly pitiful.

Qian Wei thought to herself that Qian Chuan’s flawless three-second change of expression must have been passed down from the art of Sichuan face-changing—truly a talent worthy of admiration.

Qian Wei quickly waved her hands. “Don’t be ridiculous, I would not cry if you got expelled. Mom and Dad said they’d break your legs if you didn’t graduate properly, and honestly, I’ve been looking forward to that scenario—just thinking about it is kind of thrilling.”

Qian Chuan ignored her entirely, fixing his tearful, pleading eyes on Lu Xun. “Brother Xun… brother-in-law!”

Tang Lü, of course, knew the reputation of the law school’s star student Lu Xun. He eyed him warily. “Don’t think that just because you’re some top student in law school, you can talk your way into convincing me to let him off the hook! Look what he did to my face—he deserved every bit of what I’m about to do to him!”

Lu Xun smiled, glancing at Tang Lü without giving him the slightest attention, and turned directly to Qian Chuan instead. “Where did you hit him?”

Qian Chuan scratched his head. “Uh, that little path near the back hill, between the west and east sides of campus…”

“When?”

“About three days ago, in the evening. Almost dark.”

“Was anyone else around at the time?”

“No, just me and him.”

“Are there security cameras there?”

Qian Chuan thought about it. “Nope, that stretch he was walking happens to be a blind spot.”

Lu Xun’s smile deepened. “Then there’s no problem.” He turned to Tang Lü. “Stop trying to smear Qian Chuan. Our Qian Chuan never laid a hand on you.”

Qian Chuan: …?

Tang Lü blinked, clearly not expecting Lu Xun to try to talk him out of reporting it—instead, Lu Xun was simply denying outright that it had ever happened. Furious, shaking with rage, Tang Lü pointed at his own face. “So this wasn’t from being hit? I just fell down on my own, is that it?”

With his hands tucked in his pockets, Lu Xun probably looked even more punchable to Tang Lü than before—but compared to what he said next, that was nothing.

Lu Xun glanced at Tang Lü, then said, offhandedly, “Yeah, you just tripped and fell.”

Tang Lü’s face went the color of raw liver with fury. “Fine! Once I get examined, we’ll see whether this was from being hit or from falling! No point arguing your way out of this here!”

Tang Lü was practically stamping his feet in rage, but Lu Xun remained perfectly composed and unbothered. “How would we know whether you were hit or you fell? We weren’t there. But even if you were hit, it definitely wasn’t Qian Chuan.” He turned to Qian Chuan. “Qian Chuan, did you hit Tang Lü?”

Qian Chuan caught on immediately, shaking his head with righteous indignation. “No, I didn’t, don’t go making things up!”

“You… you two…” Tang Lü was so angry he could barely get the words out.

Lu Xun shrugged. “If this injury on your face really was from being hit, it would’ve happened several days ago. Even with today’s advanced forensic technology, even if they were willing to run a full battery of tests on such a minor injury, they probably couldn’t lift any fingerprints from whoever supposedly hit you days ago—the evidence is long gone. Without that, how exactly would you prove who did it? And who knows if there were any witnesses passing by that stretch of road, or any security cameras nearby.” He finished with a smile, as though genuinely sympathetic. “I really think you should hurry up and file that police report. The longer you wait, the harder it’ll be to gather any evidence. Liu Shiyun, why don’t you go ahead and give the man his phone back—here’s this big guy, walking down the street minding his own business, and he gets randomly beaten up out of nowhere, and can’t even fight back, getting his face specifically targeted like that. Pretty pathetic when you think about it. Honestly, putting myself in his shoes, it’s almost enough to make me want to cry.”

Once Lu Xun stepped in, everyone else basically had nothing left to add. Seeing her cheating ex not only get beaten up but mocked like this on top of it, Liu Shiyun nearly burst out laughing on the spot, barely managing to clap a hand over her mouth. She quickly tossed the phone back to Tang Lü, adding, in a tone of feigned concern, “Aw, getting beaten up this badly really is rough for you. Want me to organize a school-wide fundraiser? Looking at your nose, I feel like it’s a little crooked now from the hit—maybe we should all chip in and send you to Korea to get it fixed.”

Just as Tang Lü was about to explode, his phone rang at the worst possible moment. He glanced at the screen, and though his face showed clear displeasure, he picked up anyway. But his face was apparently too swollen for the phone to even touch comfortably, forcing him to keep repositioning it—and in the process, he accidentally hit speakerphone.

“Tang Lü, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I just called and you wouldn’t pick up—you’ve been dodging me for three days straight making every excuse under the sun, don’t you miss me at all? Never mind, someone just told me they saw you outside the gymnasium, I’m coming to find you right now…”

Even though Tang Lü fumbled to switch off speakerphone right away, the brief exchange had already reached everyone’s ears.

Well, well, Liu Shiyun thought, so this is the shameless little mistress he’s been sneaking around with? That voice sounds oddly familiar…

“Tang Lü, finally found you!”

Before Liu Shiyun could even process it, that familiar voice appeared right in front of her.

“Huh? Mo Zixin???” Even Qian Wei looked baffled. But there was Mo Zixin, phone still in hand, clearly having just been on that very call—and thinking back, her voice really did match the woman’s voice from the phone.

Tang Lü had cheated…

Mo Zixin had also cheated…

The two of them had cheated together…

And now the two of them sounded intimate on the phone…

Which meant…

Liu Shiyun blinked, stunned. “You two??”

Qian Chuan’s reaction was far more intense than Liu Shiyun’s. “No way! So you’re the one who cuckolded me, Tang Lü!” He rolled up his sleeves again as he spoke. “I really regret not hitting you harder—and now, perfect timing, you show up right at my door!”

Tang Lü blinked too, looking back and forth between Qian Chuan and Mo Zixin. Mo Zixin’s face had lost all of its usual polished gentleness, flushing dark and red in turns. There was no need for anyone to say anything more—the answer was already obvious.

It was hard to read any change in expression on Tang Lü’s swollen, bruised face, but his trembling voice betrayed the shock underneath. He pointed at Mo Zixin. “So you weren’t single when we got together? Didn’t you tell me you’d never had a boyfriend before, that I was the only one you’d ever liked?” His voice shot up an octave. “You lied to me?!”

Mo Zixin had originally wanted to pull him away, but Tang Lü absolutely refused to budge, once again planting himself firmly on the moral high ground, just as he had when he broke up with Liu Shiyun. “Was all that perfection and gentleness of yours just an act too?”

His battered face and raised voice quickly drew a fair number of onlookers. Mo Zixin’s face was a picture of embarrassment. The two of them stood in a standoff for a moment before Mo Zixin, too, began to lose her temper.

“Don’t act like you’re only here to criticize me—weren’t you the one who cheated on someone else too? Why do you always assume you’re the one in the right and everyone else is wrong?” As a top student in the law school, Mo Zixin argued with sharp, airtight logic even in the heat of the moment. “And what happened to your face, anyway? No wonder you’ve been avoiding me for days. Do you have any idea how embarrassing this makes me look? My boyfriend getting beaten up like this—where am I supposed to put my face when people find out?”

Tang Lü, a man of glaring double standards, couldn’t handle being called out to his face like this. “Oh, so now you’re showing your true colors, not gentle at all—trying to pick a fight with me in public?! Not caring about my dignity at all?! Especially now, when I’m injured, and instead of asking if I’m in pain or what happened, your first reaction is that you’re embarrassed! So to you, your own reputation matters more than my physical wellbeing! You really are a vain woman! I, Tang Lü, was truly deceived by you! I want every cent back that I ever spent taking you to dinner and the movies while we were together!”

…

Qian Chuan looked at Tang Lü, unable to stop making a face. “Liu Shiyun, no offense, but your taste really wasn’t great, was it? What kind of standard is this…”

“Oh, like your Mo Zixin is any better. Honestly, you could go busk on a street corner with how blind you are.”

“Huh?”

“Blind Ah Bing, the erhu player!” Liu Shiyun rolled her eyes at Qian Chuan. “Look how blind you’ve been.”

“You…”

“Forget it, forget it, neither of us has any room to talk—we should both go get our eyes checked instead of picking on each other.” Liu Shiyun gave Qian Chuan a smile. “Anyway, thanks for helping me beat up Tang Lü. Now that you know he’s the one Mo Zixin cheated with, want to go rough him up one more round?”

Qian Chuan scratched his head. “What if I get in trouble for it this time?”

“You’ve got Lu Xun backing you up, what are you scared of? Worst case, we just drag Tang Lü into those empty bushes over there and rough him up—don’t worry, us law school types know how to handle evidence, flawlessly.”

“…” Qian Chuan pointed out, “What if he keeps demanding compensation from me though…”

“No problem!” Liu Shiyun thumped her chest. “Money’s never an issue for me, Liu Shiyun. Whatever he wants you to pay, I’ll cover it. Whatever price he names, I’ll pay him double—you just give me another round on him.”

“But I don’t feel like hitting him anymore!” Qian Chuan shrugged. “Now that he’s with Mo Zixin, I’m not even mad anymore. Honestly, I think they’re pretty well-suited for each other. I sincerely wish them a long and tangled romance—just please don’t break up and go torment someone else.”

Liu Shiyun blinked, and only then did she realize that deep down, she no longer felt that same bitterness or anger toward Tang Lü either. What she felt now, besides satisfaction and a bit of schadenfreude, was actually pretty calm.

So she and Qian Chuan just stood there quietly, watching Tang Lü and Mo Zixin bicker it out. Liu Shiyun even pulled a bag of sunflower seeds out of her purse and started cracking them open as she watched the show.