Savage Kiss - Chapter 95

Xu Qingyi’s mind buzzed with noise. Before she could fully process what was happening, she had already stormed toward Zhuang Mi Lian, determined to stop her from saying another word.

Seeing Xu Qingyi’s aggressive approach, Zhuang Mi Lian raised the object in her hand first, shouting frantically at Shen Yanzhou, “She’s the kind of woman who can’t go a single day without a man!”

Xu Qingyi grabbed the bag Zhuang Mi Lian swung at her and flung it aside.

Caught off guard, Zhuang Mi Lian was thrown to the ground.

“Tell me who you are!” Xu Qingyi glared coldly at her.

By now, she had a rough idea of why the photo scandal had erupted a few days earlier.

But she was certain she didn’t know this person.

Zhuang Mi Lian lifted her head and smirked, “Did I hit a nerve?”

She scrambled to her feet and leaned in closer to Xu Qingyi. “You live like an ant, sneaking around every day. Aren’t you tired?”

“I’m just helping you see men for what they are, letting him know how vulgar you are. Let’s see if he still likes you then.”

Shen Yanzhou had already reached her side. “Go get your car.”

No matter how insignificant the Zhuang family might be, crushing someone like her would be effortless.

Xu Qingyi avoided Shen Yanzhou and continued staring at Zhuang Mi Lian, demanding an answer.

Zhuang Mi Lian dusted off her hands. “Couldn’t you recognize my voice outside the game?”

“Let me formally introduce myself. I’m Mi Lian, Zhuang Mi Lian, your ‘wealth god.’”

Xu Qingyi was stunned. She couldn’t reconcile the person standing before her with the lively, warm, and kind team leader Mi Lian she knew, the one who always generously sent her red envelopes.

“You shouldn’t be like this.”

Xu Qingyi stared at her steadily. The humiliation of having her privacy exposed was overshadowed by another kind of sorrow.

What saddened her was that the one person she had trusted after isolating herself from social interactions had turned out to be like this. She grieved her own naivety.

Zhuang Mi Lian dropped all pretense. “What should I be like, then?”

“Why did you think a complete stranger would suddenly become so close to you? Or shower you with red envelopes without a second thought?”

Xu Qingyi disagreed. “The emotional value I provided was worth that compensation.”

Zhuang Mi Lian laughed.

“Honestly, I think it’s a pity. You’re even better than a therapist. I really wanted to be friends with you. But it’s a shame… Why did you have to get so close to him?”

Xu Qingyi slowly turned her gaze to Shen Yanzhou.

She remembered how Mi Lian had repeatedly mentioned her so-called “male god” in their WeChat chats.

From the very beginning, it seemed she had mentioned that his surname was Shen.

Suddenly, everything clicked for Xu Qingyi!

But something still didn’t add up. She had never told Mi Lian what she did for a living.

“Did Shi Qing tell you?”

Only Shi Qing knew about her profession, since they had rented a container together, and Shi Qing had met Ke Yan a couple of times.

Zhuang Mi Lian smiled. “Guess.”

She took a step closer to Xu Qingyi. “If anything happens to me, I’ll make sure you go down with me! You’d better talk some sense into him.”

With that, Zhuang Mi Lian left.

Xu Qingyi didn’t understand the meaning behind her final words. Had Shen Yanzhou done something to her?

But she had no ties to Shen Yanzhou now, and Shen Yuqiao hadn’t asked her to maintain any relationship.

The auto repair shop was quiet that day. Xu Qingyi had no idea who might have overheard Zhuang Mi Lian’s words.

When things were already bad enough, a little more misery only made her numb. She simply took her car keys and went to retrieve her vehicle.

Shen Yanzhou followed her, hesitating to speak. Xu Qingyi opened the car door and asked, “Haven’t you had enough of my humiliation?”

…

When Shi Qing saw that the photos had been released again, he worried Xu Qingyi would be upset and hailed a cab to meet her halfway.

But as he scrolled, he discovered the subject of the photos had changed.

The gossip explicitly named the person in the photos: Zhuang Mi Lian.

Shi Qing was stunned. How could she have the same name as Mi Lian?

Mi Lian’s surname was Zhuang?

After the two sat down, Shi Qing was still puzzling over the matter, wondering how Mi Lian had gotten dragged into it. It seemed like a tit-for-tat, the most direct form of revenge.

Did Shen Yanzhou do this?

Xu Qingyi’s thoughts were not in disarray. “She likes Shen Yanzhou and thinks I stole her man, so she exposed my client’s privacy.”

Perhaps to make the number of photos seem vast, the poses sufficient, and the gimmick strong, she had even added her own photos into the mix.

The effect was certainly achieved.

She thought it over and over, finally concluding it must have happened that day Mi Lian had asked to use her WeChat to log into the game.

“She’s a really good actress!” Shi Qing gritted his teeth in anger.

He had often bantered with Mi Lian like they were buddies and genuinely thought he was a good person.

He never expected her to be so venomous.

In just one day, all the gossip platforms were flooded with those photos. Once you saw a picture, the related links were all about Zhuang Mi Lian or the Zhuang family.

Shi Qing said that Zhuang Mi Lian’s parents and their company had been affected.

In reality, Zhuang Mi Lian came from a very good family, and her parents doted on her. Even if she caused a small scandal like this, they could have suppressed it and it would have blown over.

But for some reason, it just couldn’t be suppressed.

The cease and desist letter from Wu Yi’s lawyer had also been delivered to the Zhuang family.

Reporters were constantly staked out outside the Zhuang family villa.

The Zhuang household was in utter chaos.

The next day at noon, Xu Qingyi received a call from Zhuang Mi Lian.

She answered after a few seconds of hesitation.

The voice on the other end sounded somewhat unfamiliar. The usual lively, happy, and chirpy tone was now replaced by one that was dejected and sullen.

“Xu Qingyi, let me go. I’ll admit I was wrong, okay?” Mi Lian asked her.

“My house is surrounded by reporters, and everyone online is cursing me out. I’m going to go crazy!”

Xu Qingyi, who had already calmed down, found these words laughable. “When you were leaking the story, did it not occur to you that I would face the same things?”

Did she think she wouldn’t go crazy?

Zhuang Mi Lian sniffled. “You’re different…”

Xu Qingyi gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Right. I don’t have a family to protect me, but you do.”

Zhuang Mi Lian quickly said, “What I mean is, you only exposed a client’s privacy, which isn’t a big deal. At most, you’d be detained for a few days. As long as you break things off with him, I won’t keep making things difficult for you. Besides, those photos aren’t even of you, so you don’t have to worry about them at all.”

Xu Qingyi let out a small laugh. “Everyone says those photos are of me. What good does it do if I’m the only one who knows they’re not?”

“We’ve known each other for years, haven’t we? All for a man… you could have at least given me a heads-up.”

Zhuang Mi Lian’s voice was choked with sobs. “I’m sorry! I regret it too, I really do. Please, help me. Can you get him to take down the dirt on me?”

Xu Qingyi didn’t respond, because she couldn’t detect any sincerity.

Zhuang Mi Lian let out a breath and asked her, “You saved me bit by bit back then. Can you really bear to watch me be driven to my death?”

Xu Qingyi’s brow furrowed slightly. “I saved you?”

Although her family life had been unfortunate, she had been a bit of a wild child growing up and had a habit of fighting for justice. She had probably saved quite a few people.

She didn’t know which category Zhuang Mi Lian fell into. If she really had saved her, was it too late to regret it now?

She then heard Mi Lian say, “My sex addiction, my psychological illness… it was your counseling messages, one after another, that helped me slowly get better, Designer Xu.”

Designer Xu?

In an instant, Xu Qingyi connected all the dots.

Mi Lian was Ke Yan’s long-term experience provider.

Mi Lian had entered the industry in the first place because she was in it. She had specifically sought her out, which included getting to know her through the game.

No wonder.

No wonder she knew her profession so clearly.

Xu Qingyi had thought she had hidden everything so well. It turned out she had been completely exposed the entire time.

She laughed to herself. “I saved you, and this is how you stab me in the back?”