Chapter 3: An Encounter with Campus Beauty Su Yanyan

A day later, night had fallen. Torn pieces of clothing littered the floor.

Qin Xiaoman sat on the bed, her hair disheveled and her eyes full of fear. She hugged herself, trembling, red marks visible across her body.

She had never imagined that Lin Mo, who had always obeyed her and scarcely dared touch her, could be so brutal. He had treated her as less than human.

“Disappointed I’m not dead, Qin Xiaoman?”

Lin Mo fastened his buttons and looked down at her. “Go back and tell Zhao Zihao I’ll pay him back many times over for that kick three days ago. Now take your things and get out!”

After everything that had happened, he had no affection left for her. He regarded what he had just done to her as a debt collected.

Still shaking, Xiaoman didn’t dare look at him again. She scrambled off the bed, snatched a garment from the floor to cover herself, and ran out.

Lin Mo stood in the bedroom, looking at the mess. The room held years of memories of their relationship, but now it made him sick.

“I need to clean this place out and get rid of everything she left. No—I’ll move.”

He didn’t want to stay another moment. But when he calmed down, he realized he had almost no money. He couldn’t even come up with five hundred yuan. How was he supposed to move?

“Damn it. What an idiot.”

He delivered food by day and worked as a designated driver at night, earning enough that he should have had more than five hundred yuan. But he had foolishly handed it all over to Qin Xiaoman to keep.

His phone, plugged into a power bank in the living room, rang. He picked it up. The number was unfamiliar, though it somehow looked familiar.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Shen Zhihan.”

“What?”

The cool voice brought back the night three days earlier: her beauty, the crimson stain, the shock of it all. Why was she calling him? Was she afraid he would tell someone and planning to silence him?

Before his Divine Emperor bloodline awakened, he might have been frightened. Now he was a different man. He composed himself.

“Ms. Shen, what can I do for you?”

“Twenty thousand yuan. Wait for me at the Golden Phoenix Hotel at nine tonight.”

“Huh?”

She was that direct? And she was offering to pay? Had Beicheng’s most beautiful CEO taken a liking to him?

Her next words put an end to that fantasy.

“Your driving was good the other night. I want you to drive for me again. Are you taking the job or not?”

Her voice was beautiful, but her tone was icy and kept people at a distance.

“Yes! Of course!”

Twenty thousand yuan! He might not earn that much in a month of food deliveries and evening driving jobs, yet Shen Zhihan was offering it for one night.

Still, he wondered exactly what kind of driving skills she meant.

“Good. If you’re not there by ten, you’ll answer for it.”

“Don’t worry, Ms. Shen. I’m always punctual. I’ll be there on time!”

She hung up. Lin Mo couldn’t hide his delight.

“Just when I needed it!” He had been worrying about money for a move, and now Shen Zhihan had called. A CEO really could be generous: twenty thousand for one night.

Things were looking up. He still wondered why she had specifically asked for him, but he had money to earn. Why question it?

“It’s seven. Two hours to shower, eat, and get there.”

He hadn’t bathed in three days and still had blood on him. Shen Zhihan was an important customer; he couldn’t give her a bad experience.

Twenty minutes later, he had showered and changed. He looked at the messy bedroom, his feelings mixed. “I’ll clean it when I get back. Once I’ve earned the money, I’ll move tomorrow.”

He stuffed his designated-driver vest into his shoulder bag and went out. With only a little over two hundred yuan on him, he decided to eat at a Shaxian snack shop.

It was some distance away, and his secondhand electric scooter broke down on the way. A fifteen-minute trip took him half an hour.

“Once I get paid, I’m buying a new one tomorrow!”

He parked outside the shop and was about to enter when Shen Zhihan sent him a message: “Nine o’clock. If you’re late, you’ll answer for it.”

Even through the screen, he could feel her chill. The Golden Phoenix Hotel was only ten minutes away. It was 8:06; he had plenty of time to eat.

“A bowl of mixed noodles, steamed dumplings, and a bowl of wontons, please.”

He took a seat facing the door, where he could keep an eye on his scooter. It had its problems, but it still ran, and he couldn’t afford another mishap before he got paid.

Ten minutes later, the proprietress brought his noodles. “Here you are.”

“Thanks.”

He picked up his chopsticks, eager to eat, when a familiar woman hurried past the door, looking frightened.

Was he seeing things? Hadn’t that been Su Yanyan, the campus beauty from his college days?

Before he could be sure, several men in black suits hurried past after her. They looked like bodyguards.

“Quick, catch her! If the boss finds out she got away, we’re finished!”

Lin Mo frowned. Were they after Su Yanyan?

She had attracted attention from every man at college, but in four years she’d had neither a boyfriend nor even a male friend. Lin Mo was the one exception she had gotten along with reasonably well. Because of Qin Xiaoman, however, she had stopped contacting him after graduation.

There was no time to think. He got up and followed.

“Didn’t think you’d have the strength to run this far after being drugged,” one of the men said. “Go on, run! Our boss wants you. You should be honored. Come back quietly and we won’t have to get rough.”

Four large bodyguards had surrounded Su Yanyan.

“Stay back… Come any closer and I’ll call the police.”

She was breathing hard and looked ready to faint. Her heart sank. She knew what might happen if they took her back, but against four strong men she had no way to resist.

…