CHAPTER 5 - Unknown Woman.

The moment they heard those words, both mother and daughter were startled.

They watched as Liu Wei stormed out of the house, his face red with anger, tossing the documents onto the table before stepping outside to calm himself.

The two women picked up the documents and began reading, and as they read further, Liu Quingshuang's expression grew darker and darker.

The documents detailed information about Ye Feng. Here's a summary of the contents:

Ye Feng came from a poor family. His parents were blue-collar workers who worked tirelessly to put him through high school. However, despite their efforts, Ye Feng remained unmotivated, spending his days with troublemakers from outside the school and frequently getting into gang fights.

Recently, Ye Feng's grades had mysteriously improved, and he claimed he'd "had an epiphany." Yet many classmates suspected he was cheating, as some had seen him acting suspiciously during exams. When asked about test questions later, he couldn't even recall basic trigonometric formulas.

Unaware of this background, Liu Quingshuang admired Ye Feng for frequently coming to her and Xia Lianxin for academic help.

Ye Feng presented himself as a model student, but secretly, he was associated with a local gang leader known as Brother Hu. The delinquents around the school often referred to Ye Feng as "Brother Ming."

She didn't want to believe it, but when photos of some gang members appeared in the documents, Liu Quingshuang's face turned pale.

These were the very same men who had harassed her in the past. At the time, Ye Feng had intervened and driven them away, though he was injured in the process. Liu Quingshuang had felt so grateful that she'd even skipped a planned meeting with Fang Haoran to take Ye Feng to the hospital.

Not only that, but those same gang members had harassed Xia Lianxin as well, only to be driven off by Ye Feng again.

"How could this be..."

Frantically flipping to the next page, Liu Quingshuang's worst fears were confirmed.

It turned out that Ye Feng's arm had been broken by those very same gang members just a few days ago!

Moreover, these gangsters referred to Liu Quingshuang and Xia Lianxin as "sisters-in-law," implying that they were Ye Feng's women.

By now, Liu Quingshuang's face was utterly pale, and Zhang Yijuan, sitting beside her, maintained a stony expression as she continued reading.

The documents also recorded how Liu Quingshuang had repeatedly defended Ye Feng, leading to several arguments with Fang Haoran. There were even instances where she delayed her meetings with Fang to "help Ye Feng with his studies."

But the most damning revelation was the final incident. One day, when Fang Haoran visited the school to deliver lunch to Liu Quingshuang, he encountered Ye Feng, who taunted him by saying, "Teacher Liu is destined to be my woman." Outraged, Fang Haoran had retaliated physically.

However, Liu Quingshuang only arrived after the fight began. She saw Fang hitting Ye Feng and immediately sided with Ye Feng, throwing the lunchbox at Fang in anger.

When Zhang Yijuan finished reading, her jaw had tick marks. Clearly enraged, she stood up abruptly, her expression ice cold.

"Mom?" Quingshuang tried to call out to her, a bit fearful as she had a feeling of deja vu, only to be glared at by Zhang Yijuan, "Don't call me Mom! I don't have a daughter like you!"

With those words, she stormed toward the living room to find Liu Wei. For someone as gentle and composed as Zhang Yijuan to utter such harsh words, her fury was evident.

Just as she reached the door, recalling something, she turned back with a stern yet disappointed look and added, "And don't even think about touching the soup in the kitchen!"

Liu Quingshaung was left alone in the room, her face covered with her palm as she couldn't stop her tears from flowing. She didn't know what to do and what not to do now. Nothing made sense to her.

The one responsible for all of this, Fang Haoran, on the other hand, was soaking in the bathtub, looking utterly relaxed.

[Ding! The host's strategic manipulation, selective storytelling, and misrepresentation of facts have led to Liu Wei and Zhang Yijuan harboring deep resentment toward the protagonist, Ye Feng. Liu Quingshuang, disillusioned and heartbroken, has turned cold toward Ye Feng. The protagonist, Ye Feng's halo: -100! Host's luck points: +100! Ability points: +10!]

The contents of the documents Fang Haoran handed to Liu Wei were mostly true, except for the final incident.

That particular event was far less dramatic. For reasons unknown, Fang Haoran had simply found Ye Feng's smug smile irritating. Despite his years of self-control and awareness of Liu Quingshuang's potential arrival, he couldn't resist punching him.

Well, it was because the author wanted it, but still, if it was the transmigrated Haoran, he wouldn't have done that.

Aside from that, the other incidents were indeed factual. All Fang Haoran did was rearrange the timeline to his advantage.

The real sequence of events was something like this:

 1. Liu Quingshuang was harassed, and Ye Feng heroically intervened.

 2. Xia Lianxin was harassed, and Ye Feng heroically intervened again.

 3. Ye Feng befriends a local gang leader, Brother Hu, and they become sworn brothers.

 4. Fang Haoran bribes Brother Hu's subordinates to cause trouble for Ye Feng.

 5. Ye Feng defeats the gang members sent to trouble him.

 6. The gang members reveal they work for Brother Hu. However, Ye Feng smirks confidently and calls Brother Hu himself. Hearing Brother Hu address him as "Little Brother," the gang members realize they've misjudged the situation. They immediately beg for forgiveness and recognize Ye Feng as their leader.

All Fang Haoran did was shuffle events #3 and #6 to the front.

He never claimed the events were listed in chronological order. If someone misunderstood, how could he be blamed?

He wasn't worried about the Liu family investigating him either. The incident of hiring troublemakers was so meticulously arranged, with layers upon layers of intermediaries, that it would never be traced back to him.

Most importantly, the troublemakers sent to harass Ye Feng were indeed the same group of gang members. It seems the author of "Mighty and Romantic" was too lazy to create new characters, opting instead to reuse these thugs repeatedly.

The only people who could disprove the file's credibility were these gang members. But who would believe the words of street thugs over the Liu family's trust in Fang Haoran?

Moreover, Ye Feng had deliberately wrapped his barely scratched left hand in layers of bandages and even put it in a cast to gain Liu Quingshuang's sympathy.

Her sympathy was indeed aroused, but with his act were exposed...

After breaking off the engagement, Fang Haoran intentionally left behind this file to sever any ties between the Liu family and Ye Feng.

His target was solely Ye Feng. Both Liu Wei and Zhang Yijuan had always treated him kindly; in fact, they'd even called earlier to arrange a time to apologize.

As for Liu Quingshuang, he would let her go if she came to her senses, which he really hoped for the sake of her last five lives. But if she continued associating with Ye Feng, he would let them be a tragic couple.

In the end, it all depended on how Quingshuang reacted, so humming a tune, Fang Haoran relaxed, enjoying the bath.

...........................

Meanwhile, deep in an unknown mountain valley.

A lone figure sat cross-legged, meditating in serene stillness.

Dressed in crimson robes, her expression was cold and distant, resembling a moonlit night—dazzling yet untouchable.

The powerful aura surrounding her indicated immense strength.

But suddenly, beads of sweat began to form on her pristine forehead, dripping down her light blue hair, and her aura grew unstable. The next second, with a muffled "ugh," the woman spat out a mouthful of blood, her once-imposing energy now severely weakened.

She had failed to break through to the Grandmaster level. Worse, the backlash from her failure caused her strength to plummet to the early Hua Jing (Transformational Stage).

But she had no time to dwell on her loss. A flood of overwhelming memories surged into her mind, demanding her attention, and as she went through them, her blue eyes went wider and wider.

She recalled that she had lived 20 lives before this one, and all of them had the same set of people around her. Among those lives, the first 10 were simple. She was killed when, just like now, she was injured and her enemies were chasing after her.

But things changed from the 11th life. The enemies were still there, but this time she was rescued by a man, an exceedingly handsome one at that. 

That man cared for her and protected her selflessly, even risking his life sometimes, and as time went on, she found herself falling for him, but just when she was about to tell the man about it, the life would reset and she would forget everything.

This went on for 5 cycles, until the 15th cycle arrived, and this time, she finally became one with that man, but when the 20th life arrived, the man seemed to have changed a bit. He became cold, distant, and even cruel to her, but she just did what he asked for.

Initially, she had resisted fiercely. But over time, her body betrayed her. She found herself helplessly obeying his commands. Sometimes, even without his orders, she would seek his approval.

Their goal in every life was the same: to kill a man named Ye Feng. And she never disagreed with it, but the things she had to do in the last cycle were a bit too much.

She watched in humiliation as her mind replayed those degrading moments. After a particularly shameful memory, her consciousness returned to the present.

Overwhelmed by the influx of memories, she fainted.

Just before losing consciousness, she involuntarily murmured the man's name.

"...Haoran."