Chen Die looked at him.

She took a deep breath, “Mr. Wen.”

Wen Liang raised his eyebrow slightly and said languidly, “Yes?”

“…” Chen Die suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and said calmly, “It was wrong of me to hit someone at school. I’ve made a fool of myself in front of you.”

“No need to apologize to me. That guy was clearly in the wrong,” Wen Liang stood up.

What? Then why didn’t you say so earlier?

I’ve already apologized, and now you’re speaking up? What kind of performance art is this?

Wen Liang leaned forward and raised his hand.

Chen Die widened her eyes and instinctively stepped back.

He gently placed his hand on her shoulder, then quickly withdrew it, rolling a black hair strand between his fingers. His cool fingers briefly brushed against her cheek.

His movement was so natural, like an experienced elder showing concern for a younger person still in school.

The president waved his hand, “Alright, Chen Die, you can go now. If you want to be an actress in the future, you need to learn to control your emotions.”

“I understand. Thank you, President.”

After speaking, Chen Die turned and walked out of the lecture hall.

The assembly had been over for some time, and the entire gymnasium was empty.

When Wen Liang had turned earlier, he had whispered in her ear, “Wait for me outside for a while.”

Chen Die rolled her eyes.

Wait for what?

Without lingering for even a second, she walked straight out of the gymnasium.

Zhu Qicong was standing by the car and called out to her as soon as she emerged, “Miss Chen.”

Chen Die paused. The sun outside was strong, and she squinted, her willow-like eyebrows slightly furrowed as she looked over, “What is it?”

Zhu Qicong handed her a document, “This is for you.”

“Wen Liang will be out soon. You can give it to him yourself. I have things to do.”

“Mr. Wen instructed me to give this to you,” Zhu Qicong explained calmly. “It’s about Xu Zhiran’s falsified GPA and failed courses.”

Chen Die was stunned. She blinked slowly and took the file from his hand, untying the string to open it.

Inside were three neatly organized A4 pages, clearly documenting how Xu Zhiran’s GPA had suddenly jumped 80 places in the student system rankings in his senior year. Even two required core courses that he had failed had been automatically altered to excellent status in the backend.

She opened her mouth, “When did Wen Liang ask you to investigate this?”

“He sent the message an hour and a half ago.”

The last page even contained dizzying code that recorded the IP address and specific path where the grades had been tampered with in the backend.

“How did you find all this?”

Zhu Qicong nodded humbly, “I studied Computer Science for my master’s degree. Fortunately, I specialize in this area.”

“…”

Chen Die was still examining the documents closely when Wen Liang came out. He lazily put his arm around her waist and said softly, “I knew I’d need something to make you wait obediently for me.”

She asked, “Why did you investigate this?”

Wen Liang pushed her into the car, got in after her, and closed the door.

“What good is slapping someone? Exposing all this is enough to prevent him from graduating or going abroad,” Wen Liang said indifferently, half-closing his eyes to rest.

“…”

Looking carefully at the documents, Chen Die realized that altering backend grades wasn’t something a student like Xu Zhiran could do alone.

“Who helped him change the information?” she asked.

Zhu Qicong drove the car out of the school, “After checking the user ID, it was his direct academic advisor in the department.”

Chen Die took three photos and sent them to Xia Ying, asking what she wanted to do.

Xia Ying didn’t reply immediately. Chen Die put away her phone and glanced at Wen Liang.

Arrogance and fierceness dominated Wen Liang’s personality, and he was indeed ruthless in handling matters. But someone like Xu Zhiran wouldn’t even register on his radar. The fact that he’d bother to investigate now was uncharacteristic of him.

Chen Die suddenly recalled the moment in the lecture hall when Xu Zhiran angrily raised his hand to hit her, only to be interrupted by Wen Liang.

…Was it because of that?

When thinking deeply, she had a bad habit since childhood of biting her fingers.

SLAP.

Wen Liang had opened his eyes at some point and directly smacked her wrist, his voice carrying a nasal tone and slight impatience, “Don’t bite.”

Chen Die pouted, completely abandoning her previous thought.

Zhu Qicong drove the car into the underground parking garage of Wenyuan Group.

“Why are we coming to the company?” Chen Die asked, turning her head.

Today was Wen Liang’s birthday. She had thought he would go to the Wen family mansion after dropping her at the villa in the western suburbs.

“Hmm, there are some matters I need to handle.”

Chen Die had followed him for six years, but the number of times she’d been to the company could be counted on one hand.

It was Tuesday, approaching lunchtime, and employees were busy. Chen Die followed Wen Liang into the elevator, which stopped several times as it ascended to the top floor.

Everyone nodded and greeted him with “Mr. Wen,” and then their curious gazes shifted to Chen Die standing beside him.

Wen Liang turned his head, “What do you want for lunch?”

“…” Chen Die instantly felt everyone’s ears perk up. She said slowly, “Anything is fine.”

“I have a meeting to attend. Order something for yourself, or ask someone to buy it for you.”

Chen Die nodded.

She thought it was perfect that he’d be in meetings—she could focus on her diet.

The gossip about Mr. Wen bringing a woman to the company and showing concern about her lunch quickly spread throughout the office. At noon, it was the main topic of conversation in the company cafeteria.

“Can you believe Mr. Wen would care about someone?!”

“But that woman is really beautiful, and she has the same type of aura as Mr. Wen. Being in the elevator with them made me feel like I didn’t deserve to be human.”

“Of course, would anyone Mr. Wen like to be an ordinary woman?”

“But who is she? Mr. Wen’s rumored hidden treasure?”

“Too bad A-Li, the only one who’s seen the ‘treasure,’ didn’t see her. Wonder if it’s the same person.”

“If it’s the same person, that’s impressive—keeping Mr. Wen wrapped around her finger for so many years?”

“If I were Mr. Wen, I’d be wrapped around her finger too. That skin, that figure—stunning.”

…

Chen Die was unaware of the company’s admiration for her. She only knew that Wen Liang’s meeting lasted the entire day with no sign of him.

She stayed in Wen Liang’s office with nothing to do.

Her stomach was hungry, but she had to endure it for her diet.

Xia Ying had finally replied.

She had a passionate personality. Though she had cried over Xu Zhiran’s cheating in the morning, by the end of the assembly, any remaining love had been completely eroded, turning into hatred if anything remained.

“Of course I want him to fail to graduate. I was truly blind to fall for this scum from head to toe. Let Fan Yan go abroad alone and see if their long-distance relationship survives.”

As for how to leak the news about Xu Zhiran’s grade forgery, that was simple.

At school, Chen Die received a lot of attention due to her campus beauty title. After such a dramatic incident of hitting someone in front of all the graduating students this morning, the school’s online forum was already buzzing with discussion.

Chen Die uploaded scans of the three A4 pages to that thread.

Soon, everyone’s attention was drawn to it.

“Shit, what is this?”

“Major gossip alert!”

“Xu Zhiran is fucking unbelievable. Cheating with Fan Yan and also falsifying grades?”

“Who is the original poster? How did you get Xu Zhiran’s backend grade records from previous years?”

“Probably some powerful admirer of the campus beauty. In the lecture hall, Xu Zhiran almost slapped her. Probably revenge for love.”

“This is so satisfying! Slapped the bitch in the morning, and directly destroyed the bastard in the afternoon. Who wouldn’t say our campus beauty is awesome!”

“If this is true, Xu Zhiran’s current GPA ranks sixth in the year, taking the last spot for guaranteed graduate admission. My roommate is seventh and couldn’t get in because of him. Due to too much pressure, he failed the graduate entrance exam and is preparing to try again next year. What the fuck is this?”

“I’m Xu Zhiran’s classmate. I was wondering how his final GPA got so high. I clearly remember he failed courses in freshman year!”

“The school needs to address this. Investigate thoroughly—maybe even his graduation thesis isn’t his work!”

“Must revoke his degree!!”

“Agree with revoking his degree!”

The incident quickly sparked heated discussion, with someone starting a dedicated thread.

People were already disgusted by the cheating, and now with academic fraud, everyone was unusually united. Some shared the news on social media, others emailed teachers or wrote to the president’s mailbox.

By the time Wen Liang returned to the office in the evening after his meeting, many more of Xu Zhiran’s misdeeds had been exposed.

Under pressure, the school immediately announced they would thoroughly investigate the matter.

Chen Die was in an excellent mood, even feeling fresh and energetic when looking at Wen Liang.

“Did you eat lunch?” Chen Die asked him.

“Yes.” Wen Liang loosened his tie and pressed his temples.

“By the way,” Chen Die said happily, sharing with him, “The issue with Xu Zhiran’s falsified GPA has blown up. He probably won’t be able to graduate now.”

Wen Liang looked up at her.

The young woman was resting her chin on one hand while scrolling through her phone with the other, a hint of schadenfreude in her smile. Her beautiful fox-like eyes were long at the corners, very alluring.

Wen Liang laughed inexplicably.

“He dared to raise his hand to you. Not graduating is getting off lightly.”

Chen Die’s thumb paused on the screen as she looked up at him.

But Wen Liang had already lowered his head to continue handling documents.

Three days later, the incident had spread throughout academic circles. To mitigate the impact, the school quickly issued a disciplinary notice.

It wasn’t just a revocation of his degree—Xu Zhiran was expelled from school, while the associate professor involved in the bribery and abuse of power was dismissed and referred to the Ministry of Education for further action.

Without even a graduation certificate, the offer he had previously received was naturally invalidated.

In these few days, Xu Zhiran and Fan Yan had become daily topics of conversation at the school.

At the graduate assembly that day, Fan Yan had been so arrogant, but now it was said she didn’t even dare come to school. Her parents had found out about the matter, scolded her severely, and ordered her to break up with Xu Zhiran immediately.

The more thoroughly her ex-boyfriend fell, the faster Xia Ying’s heartache over being cheated on disappeared.

With love and hatred gone, only mockery and schadenfreude remained.

Since Chen Die had signed on for the role in the film “Hairpin Flower,” there had been no other news.

She wasn’t particularly sociable either. If others didn’t take the initiative to find her, she wouldn’t reach out.

That morning, the film crew contacted her for the first time, saying that by coincidence, Qi Cheng, the male lead of “Hairpin Flower,” was also in Yan City. They wanted to take advantage of this to hold a script discussion meeting before officially joining the crew.

Qi Cheng had debuted as a child star, was now a talented idol with a refined and introverted appearance, and had many fans.

When Chen Die arrived at the meeting venue, she happened to meet him.

Qi Cheng had learned in advance who the female lead was. Despite her being a new face, he recognized her, smiled, and greeted her.

Chen Die politely nodded, “Hello, senior.”

Qi Cheng smiled brightly, “You can just call me by my name.”

The director, assistant director, and screenwriter were all at the discussion meeting.

Among Chen Die’s classmates, some had also entered school with accolades, and she had heard about the format of discussion meetings from them, so it wasn’t unfamiliar.

The director broadly explained the character traits, conflict points throughout the film, and the upcoming shooting arrangements.

The meeting ended.

Chen Die followed the crowd out.

She stood at the intersection. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on her face. Standing in the warm sunshine, she stretched lazily and checked her phone.

It was still early, and she wasn’t in a hurry to return. The pedestrian light across the street turned green.

She walked into the coffee shop across the street.

“One latte, please,” Chen Die said at the service counter.

After receiving her receipt, she found a window seat and sat down, looking out absently.

A red Porsche happened to stop at the entrance. Chen Shuyuan got out, along with a woman who appeared to be in her forties.

The woman was well-maintained, her skin glowing in the sunlight, almost without a wrinkle. She wore a casual beige suit with a pencil skirt, black high heels, and carried an Hermès Constance bag on her bent arm.

The two were laughing happily.

Chen Shuyuan was holding the woman’s arm, acting coquettishly.

Chen Die’s eyelashes quivered rapidly, but she quickly looked away.

That woman was Chen Shuyuan’s mother.

And also her birth mother.