CHAPTER 16 - The Meeting at the café.

At a Café.

Liu Quingshuang had called Xin Lianxin out of the class because she wanted to take her to meet with Fang Haoran, but in the end, they were late to arrive.

The mature and intellectual teacher, along with the pure and adorable student, turned heads as they entered. The men in the café couldn't help but glance at the pair of beautiful women—one young, one older. The women, however, were all looking at Fang Haoran, who was waiting for someone.

When Liu Quingshuang walked over, Fang Haoran frowned, looking at his wristwatch, he spoke, "Miss Liu, you're a full ten minutes late." With his gaze fixed on her, he added, "Don't you think that's rather rude?"

Liu Quingshuang, who had just sat down, when faced with Fang Haoran's question, instinctively retorted, "I just finished my class and had to pack up…"

Fang Haoran, however, interrupted, "If that's the case, you should've managed your time better when you made the appointment, not set it for six o'clock and show up at 6:10."

"I…" Hearing the tone of Fang Haoran's reprimand, Liu Quingshuang felt a bit wronged. She wanted to explain, "I did say six o'clock, but you know that's my off-time!" 

Also, I'm a woman—what's the big deal about making you wait a little longer? You were perfectly fine waiting before. But knowing that things were a bit different from before, she just lowered her head in apology, "Sorry…"

Fang Haoran, looking at her like that, sighed on the inside. He was sure that Liu Quingshuang had regretted enough, but as he wanted more, he didn't continue the topic. "Forget it, let's talk business." 

Upon hearing this, Liu Quingshuang immediately became serious. 

"Haoran, the reason I'm here today is to apologize to you in person," she spoke, her expression as sincere as it could be, but then her expression changed, "I didn't expect Ye Feng to be so scheming and shameless."

Gritting her teeth as at foolishness from before, he lowered her head again, "I misunderstood you before, and I'm sorry!"

Just then, as Liu Quingshuang found Xia Lianxin, staring at her, she hurriedly sat straight and started listing Ye Feng's faults.

This was the main reason for this meeting after all.

"..."

"..."

Liu Quingshang went on and on, telling Xia Lianxin everything, including the stone market incident as Haoran had sent the video to her.

Fang Haoran, on the other hand, just sipped coffee, waiting for her to finish.

"You see, Lianxin? Ye Feng is just too despicable!" Quingshuang spoke, and added, "But I've finally seen through him, and I won't be fooled by that little man any more."

As she ended her long list of complaints, Haoran finally put down the coffee and turned his gaze toward Xia Lianxin.

Under the gaze of both of them, Xia Lianxin, however, didn't show the slightest bit of nervousness. Instead, she was very composed.

Given her prior experience, Xia Lianxin suspected that Fang Haoran had already deceived Liu Quingshuang, and now he was trying to deceive her as well, so she decided to turn the tables and expose his true nature in front of Liu Quingshuang.

"Mr. Fang, may I ask you a few questions?" Xia Lianxin said, smiling.

"Sure," Fang Haoran replied calmly, though inside, he was amused.

Xia Lianxin's eyes were steady, and her tone confident, but Fang Haoran could see from the way she kept fiddling with her cup as if she was nervous.

However, from his knowledge of her past lives, Fang Haoran knew that she wasn't the kind of person to be uncertain or afraid; she must be excited because she was about to save Liu Quingshuang from someone as despicable as him!

In the original story, Xia Lianxin was portrayed as a pure but overly confident person. Despite being naive, she always thought of herself as mature and able to see through everything. But in the end, she was relentlessly manipulated by the protagonist, Ye Feng, who kept her under control.

And there was this incredibly absurd plotline in the original story as well.

After Xia Lianxin and Ye Feng became a couple, Ye Feng wanted to take their relationship further, but Xia Lianxin, being reserved, rejected him. But at that time, a petty rich man, who had no interest in his career and only thought about love, meddled and caused misunderstandings between the two.

Because of this, the heartbroken male lead, Ye Feng, ended up in Bai Cui Town, where, to his shock, he found solace in the arms of the third heroine, Yun Jing'er.

Through a series of complicated events, Ye Feng returned to S University with Yun Jing'er, much to Xia Lianxin's fury.

But when Ye Feng, armed with his twisted logic—"If you hadn't rejected me, none of this would've happened. So, really, we're both at fault. Let's compromise: I'll apologize, and you forgive me!"—and evidence exposing Fang Haoran's meddling, Xia Lianxin actually forgave him. 

She convinced herself that Ye Feng was just impulsive and that she, being mature and magnanimous, needed to be understanding.

Such a broad-minded heroine.

Fang Haoran then decided to check Xia Lianxin's status window, and it popped up right in front of his eyes.

[Xia Lianxin: Heroine

 → Combat Power: 50

 → Physique: 85

 → Mental Strength: 100

 → Favorability: -15]

He couldn't help but shake his head as even with his top-tier conditions and a maxed-out charm stat of 100, her favorability was in the negatives. It seemed this naive, sweet girl had a deeply rooted bias against him.

Then next, he checked Liu Quingshuang's status.

[Liu Quingshuang: Heroine

 → Combat Power: 65

 → Physique: 90

 → Mental Strength: 90

 → Favorability: 40]

Not bad. A favorability score of 40 meant they were already good friends. A little higher, and it'd cross into "liking" territory. This was way better than he had expected, but as he had thought, with a bit more waiting, she would already be in the "liking" zone.

Xia Lianxin, on the other hand, oblivious to Fang Haoran's thoughts, was gearing up to interrogate him and leave him speechless.

"Mr. Fang," she began, "does Ye Feng's head injury have anything to do with you?"

"Yes," Fang Haoran answered immediately, surprising her a bit as she expected him to lie, but she quickly asked her other question. "Did you force him to kneel and kowtow?"

"And if I did? What if I didn't?" Haoran, however, asked her a question in reply, making her quint her eyes, her grip on the coffee cup tightening.

"Mr. Fang, you claim to be a good person and that Ye Feng is a bad one. Let me ask you, what kind of good person forces someone to kneel and kowtow? And what kind of bad person gets forced to do it without fighting back?" She questioned in a sharp tone, taking his question as acceptance, and with a deep breath she pressed on, "You're the wealthiest man in the city, while Ye Feng comes from a struggling background. You two—"

She wanted to go on for longer, but Fen Haoran interrupted her rant by raising his palm. 

"Hold on." He didn't feel like listening to her naive "self-righteous" arguments any longer, so he questioned with a frown, "Who said I forced Ye Feng to kneel?" 

"It was just the penalty for losing a bet." He then added before she could even say something in retort, staring right into her eyes, he asked another question, "Surely you know how fond Ye Feng is of saying, 'Why don't we make a bet?'"

Xia Lianxin wanted to argue that their status difference made it impossible, but Fang Haoran's words reminded her of Ye Feng's earlier confidence in making bets. Mid-sentence, she faltered and awkwardly changed the topic.

"Even so, by your own words, you, the city's wealthiest man, couldn't deal with an ordinary student and even suffered losses. Do you think that makes sense? And why didn't you explain to Teacher Liu at the time?" She asked, not wanting to believe that Fang Haoran was free of blame here.

'How should I know if it makes sense?!' was all Fang Haoran could reply to her, but only on the inside. The damn author deliberately set up a scenario where a billionaire has to constantly bicker with and lose to a broke student. What could I do about it?

On the surface, Fang Haoran replied with a righteous expression, "I only wanted to teach him a lesson and spare Quingshuang from heartbreak after seeing Ye Feng's true nature. But who could've known he would be so unreasonable?"

He then bends forward and continues, "Now that I've already broken off my engagement with Quingshuang, and we won't reconcile, there's no need to fabricate lies just to target a mere student.

As you said, the gap between us is far too wide."

Hearing those words, a pang of guilt assaulted Liu Quingshuang as she was reminded of the broken engagement so she just murmured another silent apology. Xia Lianxin, however, seemed like she still had more to say.

Fang Haoran had already decided that was time to sever Xia Lianxin's ties with Ye Feng once and for all as she seemed to be defending him more than needed.

It would be a problem if he let it continue since Xia Lianxin's father was a powerful man and if he started backing Ye Feng, things could get troublesome.