Lu Shicheng showed no surprise at Wen Tingli’s arrival. He continued pointing the gun at Zhu Zihe, but unconsciously softened his gaze into a gentle look, signaling for Wen Tingli to come in, as though he were merely handling some trivial matter, telling her not to worry or be afraid.

But when he noticed Kuang Zhilin wasn’t behind Wen Tingli, he was clearly taken aback.

Wen Tingli had no time to explain that she hadn’t been led here by Kuang Zhilin, but had come on her own—she was busy surveying the state of the room.

Behind Lu Shicheng, a cup lay shattered on the floor, its water having spilled entirely onto the carpet. One patch of the carpet had already partly dried, its plush surface coated with a layer of white frost.

That was clearly a cup of poisoned water!

She resolutely pressed her back against the door, aimed her gun at Zhu Zihe at the same time, and demanded coldly, face ashen: “Who exactly are you?!”

Zhu Zihe laughed in surprise: “You have a gun?! Lu Shicheng, look, your Miss Wen actually has a gun.”

Lu Shicheng made as if to pull the trigger. Wen Tingli rushed forward to stop him: “Wait.”

Though she despised Zhu Zihe for scheming against her and Lu Shicheng, she didn’t want Zhu Zihe to come to any harm before the truth was clear.

Zhu Zihe’s voice trembled slightly: “Lu Shicheng, I’ve already fallen into your hands, why rush to pull the trigger? You surely can’t shoot someone dead in front of Miss Wen—it would frighten her terribly!”

The earlier words had had no effect on Lu Shicheng at all, but this last sentence seemed to work like magic, freezing him in place.

Zhu Zihe didn’t thank Lu Shicheng—instead, she winked toward Wen Tingli. “Thank you.” Unfortunately, her face was deathly pale, making the gesture look rather comical.

Wen Tingli understood, more or less. Zhu Zihe’s earlier behavior had clearly been meant to draw her here. Perhaps in Zhu Zihe’s mind, as long as Wen Tingli was present, it meant she herself would be safe.

Thinking this, Wen Tingli grew even more certain of her judgment. Gripping the gun, she crouched down and searched Zhu Zihe’s body, confirming she carried no weapons, then said quietly to Lu Shicheng: “She’s not going anywhere. Let’s hear what she has to say first.”

Lu Shicheng continued pointing the gun at Zhu Zihe. He stood up, keeping it aimed at the back of her head while slowly backing toward the window, then reached back to open it outward.

Zhu Zihe’s expression grew tense again.

“Mr. Lu, don’t rush to call your men up here! Listen to me—I don’t know when exactly you started suspecting me, but I swear I never had any intention of harming you. The reason I did this tonight was because I was forced by the White Dragon Gang. One day three months ago, while my mother was out, the White Dragon Gang kidnapped her. They found out my mother and your mother used to be close schoolmates, and on that basis decided I was the ideal candidate to assassinate you. They threatened me into coming to Shanghai to get close to you, forcing me to find a way to scheme against you—if I refused to do as they said, they’d kill my mother immediately.”

Her lips trembled continuously, but she still struggled to keep her voice steady.

“Before I came, they gave me a dossier on your habits and preferences and put me through intensive training. They taught me how to please you, ordered me to win your favor and trust in the shortest time possible. Last time, during the standoff between Yifeilin and Xinxin Department Store, the White Dragon Gang originally wanted to use me to lure you to the beauty pageant finals at the Yifeilin Hotel, so they could set a trap to murder you that night. Unfortunately, no matter how much I used my connection through Principal Zou to get close to you, you remained utterly unmoved.”

At this point, she gave Wen Tingli and Lu Shicheng a subtle, ambiguous look, and sighed helplessly:

“Seeing that I couldn’t win you over, the White Dragon Gang grew increasingly impatient with me. The reason I recklessly went with Principal Zou to visit you at the hospital that day was because the White Dragon Gang had given me a final ultimatum: if I didn’t succeed within ten days, they would send me photos of my mother’s corpse.”

“Why didn’t you think to ask Principal Zou for help?” Wen Tingli cut in coldly.

“How could I not have thought of it?” Zhu Zihe laughed bitterly. “But before I left, they warned me they’d already planted eyes on people around Mr. Lu—if I dared reach out for help, my mother would die an even more horrible death. After arriving in Shanghai, I secretly tried twice, and found that no matter what I did, they got word of it immediately. Besides, Shanghai is so far from Tianjin—even if I risked reaching out to Aunt Zou and Mr. Lu for help, before Mr. Lu’s people could reach Tianjin, my mother would already have died a horrible death at their hands.”

At this, she closed her eyes in dread.

“They once killed a man in front of me. Just one shot, and a hole burst open in his chest, blood gushing out, staining the entire floor red. In a matter of minutes—just minutes—a life vanished before my eyes! How could I dare gamble with my mother’s life?!”

Wen Tingli said nothing. Based on the leads Li Chengying had provided, Zhu Zihe wasn’t lying. Mrs. Zhu was a longtime member of the Tianjin Women’s Mutual Aid Association, going to work at the relevant institution almost daily. Three months ago, Mrs. Zhu had suddenly stopped showing up, which quickly alarmed her colleagues—it was Zhu Zihe who later called in sick leave on her mother’s behalf, which put her colleagues’ suspicions to rest.

Looking at it now, Zhu Zihe had most likely made that call under coercion from the White Dragon Gang.

The key point was, the leads Li Chengying had obtained seemed to go far beyond this. In fact, she’d already suspected early on that Li Chengying had an inside source within the White Dragon Gang—otherwise there was no way she could have known so precisely that Gang Leader Cao intended to bring someone from Tianjin to murder Lu Shicheng, let alone identify that person as Zhu Zihe so quickly.

Thinking this over, her hostility toward Zhu Zihe eased somewhat. If it were her own mother who’d fallen into the White Dragon Gang’s hands, she probably would have made the same choice as Zhu Zihe.

Lu Shicheng, however, merely regarded Zhu Zihe with a cold gaze. The moment she finished speaking, he turned to Wen Tingli and pointed to the desk set apart from himself.

Wen Tingli, in tacit understanding, went around behind the desk and pulled open the second drawer.

Inside the drawer was a stack of photographs and a letter.

Wen Tingli didn’t touch the letter, since the envelope was addressed “For Young Master Lu’s Eyes Only.” She drew out the photographs underneath instead.

In the photo was a woman in her forties or fifties, at an old house, being helped inside by an old servant woman, her steps a little unsteady.

Wen Tingli hurried back to Lu Shicheng’s side, and after comparing Zhu Zihe’s features with the middle-aged woman’s, quietly confirmed with him: “This is Mrs. Zhu?”

Lu Shicheng nodded, gesturing with his eyes for Wen Tingli to check the back of the photo.

On the back was written a line.

【Taken August 29th, 4 p.m.】

That was the day before yesterday! Wen Tingli said to Zhu Zihe without any sympathy left: “And here I felt sorry for you! Turns out your mother was already rescued the day before yesterday! Then why haven’t you told Principal Zou and Mr. Lu the truth today? Why are you still trying to murder Mr. Lu tonight?!”

Zhu Zihe looked shocked: “My mother’s been rescued? I—I didn’t know that.”

Meeting Lu Shicheng’s gaze, she flinched. Lu Shicheng’s eyes were no longer merely full of sarcasm—they were like two silent blades, cutting her down where she knelt. She couldn’t help but laugh bitterly: “Fine, I admit it, I did already know my mother had been rescued by Mr. Lu’s people. As for why I’m still pretending to threaten Mr. Lu tonight, it’s all because of you—Miss Wen.”

“Me?” Wen Tingli was baffled.

Zhu Zihe pointed at the white stain on the carpet: “There’s no poison in that cup at all—it’s just ordinary stomach medicine. If Mr. Lu doesn’t believe me, he can send it for testing right away. Now that my mother’s been rescued, I don’t want to be the White Dragon Gang’s accomplice anymore. The person I really wanted to deal with tonight, from start to finish, was only Wen Tingli.”

Wen Tingli exchanged a puzzled glance with Lu Shicheng.

“Miss Wen.” Zhu Zihe’s gaze fixed firmly on Wen Tingli. “You must be very curious why I did this. If you trust me, I’d like to speak with you privately.”

Lu Shicheng fired without hesitation, aiming just in front of Zhu Zihe’s foot.

Zhu Zihe screamed. Lu Shicheng had wrapped a thick towel around the muzzle, so the sound was only a muffled thud, but the carpet’s plush surface immediately turned black and scorched.

The bullet had landed just a few centimeters from her foot, and Zhu Zihe trembled all over like a sieve.

Wen Tingli instinctively grabbed Lu Shicheng’s wrist and urgently said to Zhu Zihe: “You’re already at this point, stop trying tricks. Whatever you have to say, out with it.”

Zhu Zihe shuddered for a good while before managing to calm herself: “Since Miss Wen refuses my offer of kindness, I’ll just say it plainly. I guarantee every word I’m about to say is true.

“If I’m not mistaken, Mr. Lu’s suspicion of me began when I visited you in the hospital. Before that, almost no one knew Mr. Lu was injured—the hospital is Lu family property, and everyone around Mr. Lu is tight-lipped. The one flaw was Aunt Zou—Mr. Lu would never suspect Aunt Zou, but he overlooked that I was right beside her. I learned Mr. Lu had been hurt from the White Dragon Gang’s people, and immediately had them spread the news in the papers, so I could openly visit Mr. Lu at the hospital and take my next step. Mr. Lu is extremely sharp—that day at the hospital, once he’d figured out the problem lay with me, he immediately decided to set up a plan against me.”

“Enough beating around the bush!”

Zhu Zihe smiled bitterly. “But that’s exactly what I’m trying to say! Miss Wen, Mr. Lu has no shortage of capable people around him, and even he didn’t start suspecting me until that visit to the hospital—yet you saw through me from the very start. I remember that night at Principal Zou’s house, you had many strange moments—you deliberately disrupted my chance to be alone with Mr. Lu, even pretended to trip and spilled the cup of water I’d poured for Mr. Lu, so reckless and rude, so unlike your usual manner. I wondered at the time, could you have somehow already guessed there was something wrong with that cup of water?”

Wen Tingli’s scalp prickled. Through the corner of her eye, she clearly noticed Lu Shicheng stiffen too.

“And not just that time—every action of yours since then has proven you were unusually guarded against me. That’s odd, since you didn’t even know me before that.” Zhu Zihe said meaningfully, “The White Dragon Gang’s plan successfully fooled Aunt Zou, fooled Kuang Zhilin, even fooled young master Lu himself—the only one it never fooled was you. And you’re just a student. I can’t figure out how you could have known all this in advance—unless—”

She calmly reached her conclusion: “You yourself are with the White Dragon Gang. Perhaps, from beginning to end, I was merely a pawn sent as a decoy, and you’re the one the White Dragon Gang truly wants planted at Lu Shicheng’s side—using this exposure of me to completely dispel Mr. Lu’s guard against you.”

Wen Tingli didn’t want to explain.

“To be honest, I’m not worried about how you might deal with Mr. Lu—I’m only afraid you might harm Aunt Zou down the road. On the surface, you’re a graduate of Wushi Middle School, and you could find all kinds of excuses to get close to her frequently. So, even though I learned the day before yesterday that my mother had been saved, I still decided to use this rare opportunity to lure you here once—tonight I deliberately let you see that note to draw you here, precisely to force you to reveal your true face. What just happened has already confirmed it: you really do have something going on.”

Wen Tingli laughed. “What makes you so sure? Just because I couldn’t resist coming to find you and Mr. Lu after seeing the note?”

Zhu Zihe smiled slightly.

“I’d guess you’ll chalk this all up to ‘jealousy.’ But…” she suddenly pointed at the gun in Wen Tingli’s hand, “mere jealousy alone couldn’t have you walking in already holding a gun! The moment you came in with a gun looking for me and Lu Shicheng, you gave yourself away completely! You clearly already knew I was dangerous, yet you kept still and did nothing—compared to me, you’re the one with the real ulterior motives. Earlier when I wanted to speak with you privately, it was only because I was worried you too might be under the White Dragon Gang’s coercion. I sympathized with your situation and wanted to help you—unfortunately, you refused my goodwill.”

Wen Tingli couldn’t help but silently applaud Zhu Zihe—this woman was truly clever and had a remarkable grasp of the whole picture, managing to turn the tables even in such a dangerous situation.

It wasn’t that she had no way to counter this, but before speaking, she wanted to see how Lu Shicheng would look at her. If he doubted her intentions just because of a few words from someone else, there would be no point staying to explain herself.

Lu Shicheng’s response came even faster than she expected.

He walked to the desk, pulled open the drawer again, took out the letter, and tossed it in front of Zhu Zihe.

The letter’s contents were brief.

【For Young Master Lu’s Eyes Only:

When we located where Mrs. Zhu of Tianjin was being held, she had already been successfully rescued by another group. She was then safely relocated last night to the vicinity of No. 59 Guanshan North Lane in Peiping. Investigation shows that property may be connected to the Weiying Gang of Shanghai. This morning, Mrs. Zhu was escorted to a residence of the Peiping Women’s Protection Association on An’ren Lane. Further details pending.】

“The Weiying Gang?” Zhu Zihe looked bewildered.

Lu Shicheng offered no further explanation, merely regarding her coldly.

Zhu Zihe was very intelligent—after a moment’s thought, she said in astonishment: “You mean to say, my mother wasn’t rescued by your people, Mr. Lu, but by the Weiying Gang’s people?”

Lu Shicheng arched an eyebrow.

Zhu Zihe’s gaze locked onto Wen Tingli once more, realization dawning: “So you’re with the Weiying Gang?! Was my mother really rescued with your help?”

Her voice trembled slightly.

Wen Tingli said coldly: “Since early last month, members of the Tianjin Women’s Association noticed your mother had gone missing. You’re her only daughter, and instead of seeking outside help after the incident, you went specifically to Shanghai to compete in a beauty pageant—that was highly unusual. Mrs. Zhu had helped many women in hardship through the Tianjin Women’s Association; when trouble befell her, we naturally couldn’t stand by and do nothing. But firstly, the Weiying Gang couldn’t determine exactly what the White Dragon Gang intended to force you to do, and secondly, they hadn’t yet figured out where the White Dragon Gang was hiding Mrs. Zhu, so they could only first send people to watch over you, before taking the next step toward rescue. Fearing that a stranger might arouse your vigilance, they went through a member I’d previously helped, who entrusted me to sound you out.”

Lu Shicheng tilted his head, listening to Wen Tingli’s account, listening with great focus, as though afraid of missing even a single word.

Wen Tingli spoke with confident certainty, but out of the corner of her eye, she kept sneaking glances at the tall figure beside her. Lu Shicheng’s intelligence and decisiveness left her heart pounding with alarm—in just a few days, he had quietly completed a full investigation, set a trap, and orchestrated a rescue, all without revealing a trace of it.

This showed that whenever Lu Shicheng set his mind to investigating something, she was practically transparent before him.

Fortunately, the last time she’d saved Lu Shicheng, in order to protect Li Chengying, she had proactively “revealed” her connection to the Weiying Gang to him.

She was also grateful she’d called Li Chengying to confirm the latest leads before coming to the Lu residence tonight.

Otherwise, no matter how quickly her mind worked, she might not have been able to handle such a complicated scheme-within-a-scheme so smoothly tonight.

Then again, she’d never really concealed much from Lu Shicheng—except for her connection to Dean Deng and Li Chengying, which was simply a bottom line for her as a person. Besides, ever since the time they’d rescued him, he must have already guessed she was concealing something from him.

Thinking of this, she simply looked at Lu Shicheng openly. He was watching her too, his eyes as gentle as the soft lamplight on the desk before them.

No wavering, no suspicion. Only trust and protection, all the way through.

That attitude was more reassuring than the most beautiful words in the world.

The smile Wen Tingli had been hiding in her heart slowly rose to her face.

Zhu Zihe, meanwhile, sat stunned in thought for a long moment, then suddenly lowered her head and laughed in shame:

“No wonder—even though you were guarded against me, you never once embarrassed me in front of anyone. So you knew from the start I was being forced—that’s right, up until tonight, you kept trying to give me a way out unscathed, and I went and treated you like a spy for the White Dragon Gang to deal with. I really am—”

Full of shame, she bowed low toward Wen Tingli where she sat on the floor.

“I’m sorry, I offer you my sincere apology—no, I should thank you first—thank you both, thank you for rescuing my mother. Everything I said just now was the truth—my mother really has been rescued, the White Dragon Gang can no longer threaten me, and I’ll cooperate fully with your investigation.”

Her eyes reddened slightly, but her tone was unmistakably sincere. After saying this, as if suddenly losing the willpower that had been holding her upright, she went limp and collapsed onto the floor.

Fifteen minutes later, Zhu Zihe was escorted out of the study by Kuang Zhilin and others. Upon inspection, the shattered water cup indeed hadn’t contained poison, but some kind of Western stomach medicine.

Principal Zou waited anxiously for Zhu Zihe in the first-floor parlor. Kuang Zhilin had already roughly explained the course of events to her.

Regarding Zhu Zihe’s exploitation of her, Principal Zou felt utterly shocked and heartsick, but thinking of the great suffering the mother and daughter had endured at the White Dragon Gang’s hands, sympathy and pity welled up in her too. Out of a sense of justice and responsibility, she decided to accompany Zhu Zihe to Peiping that very night to visit her old friend, and, worried that Zhu Zihe might be injured, asked Lu Shicheng to have a doctor examine her.

A doctor was quickly found, but Lu Shicheng refused to let the doctor treat Zhu Zihe at the Lu residence.

Clearly, on this matter, Lu Shicheng had his principles.

Once he’d sorted out the whole truth of the matter, he no longer held it against Zhu Zihe.

But he wanted Zhu Zihe to leave the Lu residence as soon as possible.

Principal Zou didn’t press the matter further, simply nodding: “Shicheng is someone who knows right from wrong. Very well, then let the doctor examine Zihe at my house instead.”

Just as she was being escorted to the staircase landing, Zhu Zihe suddenly stopped in her tracks.

“I’d like to speak with Miss Wen alone.”

Lu Shicheng acted as though he hadn’t heard, guiding Wen Tingli downstairs.

“Don’t worry, I would never harm Miss Wen. I have no weapon on me that could hurt anyone—you’ve already confirmed that. I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back once I leave Shanghai this time. There are some things I must say to Miss Wen. Five minutes, just five minutes. If you’re not at ease, you can watch from outside the door the whole time. Tingli…”

She looked at Wen Tingli with pleading eyes.

Wen Tingli said without hesitation: “Alright.”

Lu Shicheng refused to budge. Wen Tingli said quietly to him: “Nothing will happen. You watch from outside.”

Lu Shicheng thought it over, then had Kuang Zhilin escort Wen Tingli back to the earlier room while he himself stood guard at the door.

Wen Tingli gave Lu Shicheng a “don’t worry” look, and upon entering, deliberately left the door open, only leading Zhu Zihe further into the room, to the window.

“Say whatever you have to say now.”

Zhu Zihe glanced toward the door, and after confirming Lu Shicheng and the others couldn’t hear her conversation with Wen Tingli, a hint of a mysterious smile crossed her lips.

“I know the ones who rescued my mother this time weren’t from the Weiying Gang. Miss Wen, what exactly is your background?” Her voice was very low.

“Ha, so this is the nonsense you wanted to talk about?! Sorry, I don’t have the leisure to listen to you talk rubbish.”

“Don’t go!” Zhu Zihe stopped her with a wry smile. “I have my reasons for saying this. When my mother was first kidnapped, I actually reached out to the Weiying Gang’s Tianjin branch first.”

A cold sweat instantly broke out on Wen Tingli’s back.

“In short…” Zhu Zihe bit her lip, “I’ve dealt with people from the Weiying Gang’s Tianjin branch before, and I’m quite certain it wasn’t them who acted this time. But don’t worry—whoever you people really are, given how much trouble you went to for my mother’s sake, I, Zhu Zihe, will be your most trustworthy ally from now on. I won’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”

Wen Tingli remained unmoved. Zhu Zihe held up two fingers as if taking an oath: “Think about it—if I truly wanted to sell you out, I’d have voiced my suspicions in front of Lu Shicheng just now. I swear on my own life, I will never mention this to anyone.”

Wen Tingli remained wary, but couldn’t help asking a question that had long been buried in her heart.

“Since you already realized that night that I deliberately knocked over your cup, why did you never mention me to the White Dragon Gang?”

“If I’d really told them, wouldn’t the trouble just shift onto you?” Zhu Zihe lifted her chin with reserve. “It was my mother who was kidnapped, not my soul. I value my life, sure, but there are still some things I refuse to stoop to.”

Wen Tingli chuckled softly. Only now did the tension in her nerves and muscles truly relax. Indeed, Zhu Zihe hadn’t taken action for so long after arriving in Shanghai—proof that there existed a certain kind of person who, even when driven to the wall, wouldn’t easily sell out their own character.

Looking at Zhu Zihe again, there was less wariness in her eyes now, and more appreciation.

“You knew you’d exposed yourself in front of Lu Shicheng, so you deliberately used that trick in the front hall to lure me here? How could you be so sure I’d follow you to the back building?” she asked quietly.

“Of course I was sure.” Zhu Zihe smiled with total confidence. “You like him. You like him so much.”

Wen Tingli’s cheeks burned.

“Your jealousy is completely impossible to hide—that’s not something reason can control. Even someone as clever as you would come to investigate, driven by possessiveness. That’s exactly what I was betting on.”

Wen Tingli had nothing to say, so she simply turned to look out the window. Music drifted up from the front building, figures moving behind the glass windows—the Lu family had invited Shanghai’s most famous opera troupe and band to liven things up. The guests were busy drinking and making merry, with no attention to spare for what was happening in the back building.

“To be honest, the first time we all sat down together to eat, you and Lu Shicheng and I, I already sensed this mission was doomed to fail.” Zhu Zihe walked to the window, standing shoulder to shoulder with Wen Tingli. “That night, there were only eight or nine of us at the table, your three-year-old sister included. Lu Shicheng seemed indifferent toward you on the surface, but whether you were putting food in your sister’s bowl or chatting with your classmates, he’d always pause involuntarily for a few seconds.”

Wen Tingli listened quietly, ears perked.

“When you joked around with your classmates, his attention would drift. When you mentioned you were going to be in a film, he’d tilt his head to listen.” Zhu Zihe examined the blush rising on Wen Tingli’s face with amusement. “Didn’t you notice this at the time? I still remember how you clung to him after the meal ended—a man like him, unless he wanted it himself, would never have let you cling to him like that. I thought you must have already known.”

Wen Tingli coughed lightly, her face reddening. She didn’t want to reveal too much awkwardness in front of Zhu Zihe, so she decided to seize back control of the conversation.

She turned to face Zhu Zihe head-on: “In my view, that time at the hospital, you deliberately let your guard slip in front of Lu Shicheng. The White Dragon Gang had given you a final ultimatum, and to break the deadlock, you simply decided to use Lu Shicheng’s own strength to rescue your mother. It was an extremely risky plan—the first step being to expose yourself to Lu Shicheng deliberately. Let’s set that aside—I want to ask you, what exactly was that ‘that night’ you mentioned back at the hospital?”

“Guess.” Zhu Zihe winked playfully at Wen Tingli.

Wen Tingli snorted. “I already know without asking—it was nothing more than a failed attempt on your part.”

“Yes, I failed.” Zhu Zihe shrugged indifferently. “One night, I played a little trick trying to hitch a ride with Lu Shicheng. I was confident the ‘chance encounter’ was flawless, and my stomach pain looked completely convincing too. But Lu Shicheng wouldn’t let me into his car—he had his driver get out and call me another car from a rental agency to take me to the hospital, while he drove off himself. He seemed to be in quite a hurry. Not long after, he was seriously injured and hospitalized.”

Something stirred in Wen Tingli’s heart, and she hastily pressed: “What day was that?”

“The night of the 2nd.”

Wen Tingli momentarily forgot to breathe. That was the night she’d waited for Lu Shicheng at Taotao Ju.

She couldn’t help pressing further: “Which road did you flag down his car on? What time was it? Do you remember which direction he drove off in?”

“I can’t quite recall that.” Zhu Zihe eyed Wen Tingli sideways. “I was too busy putting on my act of stomach pain in front of my friends and the Lu family’s driver—how would I have dared openly watch which way Lu Shicheng’s car went? I only remember I flagged him down near Lixin Bank. As for the time… half past seven.”

At this, Zhu Zihe changed the subject: “Why don’t you just ask him yourself what happened that night? Are the two of you playing some sort of riddle game with each other?”

“Whatever riddles we play between ourselves is none of your business!”

Zhu Zihe raised her eyebrows lightly. “Lu Shicheng is quite an upstanding man, I’m sure you know that too. If this situation hadn’t been so complicated, even I might have nearly fallen for him.”

Wen Tingli didn’t know what to say. Zhu Zihe burst out laughing: “Just teasing you. I’m not interested in men at all—otherwise I wouldn’t still be single in my twenties and refusing to date.”

She suddenly grabbed Wen Tingli’s right hand and wrote a string of numbers on her palm.

“We don’t dare go back to Tianjin. Next, my mother and I will be staying in Peiping for a while—I have many friends there. However long the White Dragon Gang’s reach, it can’t stretch to Peiping. This is the phone number of an office I had a friend rent for me there beforehand. You’re welcome to come find me anytime. Anyway, thank you for tonight.”

Under Wen Tingli’s astonished gaze, Zhu Zihe suddenly bent down and lightly kissed the back of her hand.

Wen Tingli’s mind went blank.

Zhu Zihe looked up and gave Wen Tingli a mischievous wink, then leaned in close to her ear again: “Lu Shicheng is so smart—do you really think he believed everything you said, just like that? That’s only because he’s fallen in love with you! So whatever you say, he’ll believe. As long as you give him a reasonable explanation, that’s enough. How long do you plan to keep your organization’s business hidden from him? If you two ever have a falling out someday, feel free to come find me—my door will always be open for you.”

With that, Zhu Zihe turned and drifted away.

Wen Tingli stood dazed for a moment, then couldn’t resist making a big face at Zhu Zihe’s retreating back.

That wicked woman!

Even as she cursed under her breath, she couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Then, she turned her gaze to the tall, graceful figure at the door.

He was frowning at Zhu Zihe, then curiously peering into the room. The moment Zhu Zihe left, he immediately signaled for his men to take her away at once.

Wen Tingli walked toward him, smiling.

Lu Shicheng’s expression relaxed, and he looked her over from head to toe.

【Are you alright?】

“I’m fine.” Just as she spoke, the people in the corridor had already tacitly withdrawn all at once.

Everything around was so quiet, the entire world seemed to hold only the two of them.

She had a feeling something was about to happen. Without a word, she brushed past him and walked downstairs.

Her leather shoes struck the teak staircase, making a “tap tap tap” sound.

As expected, he followed her down.

Two figures fell one after the other on the spiral staircase, one tall, one shorter, occasionally overlapping.

Suddenly, Wen Tingli stopped on the steps.

The figure behind her stopped too.

When she walked, he walked. When she stopped, he stopped again.

No matter how many times she paused, Lu Shicheng always stopped right behind her at just the right moment.

She stared at the shadow in front of her, endlessly amused by this little game.

She didn’t even know how much longer this silent riddle-game between her and Lu Shicheng would continue, but in this moment, she found that Lu Shicheng’s understanding and patience with her ran even deeper than she’d expected.

Even a pointless game like this, he’d play along with her, in perfect harmony.

“I—” Wen Tingli paused again, but this time, she spoke clearly.

Lu Shicheng stopped immediately.

A soft breath sounded behind her.

He was listening intently to what she had to say.

She couldn’t help the corner of her mouth curving upward: “I’m hungry.”