Zhong Qin had asked Xin Siyue to go clothes shopping with her, but thanks to her period Xin Siyue was ultimately too lazy to try anything on. For the whole trip, she basically assumed the role of a personal assistant. She helped Zhong Qin carry bags, pick out clothes, and gave advice where she saw fit.
Zhong Qin bought a heaping pile of clothes, and as the two of them leisurely strolled around with their arms locked together, she enthusiastically offered to treat Xin Siyue to a meal for her help. “Sure,” Xin Siyue replied. She agreed without hesitation.
Zhong Qin brought her to a Western steakhouse and made small talk as they waited for their orders to arrive. Zhong Qin smiled and commented, “I didn’t think you were coming back for the summer.”
Xin Siyue took a sip of water before replying, “I didn’t want to come back, but I was deceived.”
“By who?”
Xin Siyue thought of Weng Yinlin and Bai Ning. She shook her head helplessly and sighed. “Never mind, the story would take way too long to tell.”
Zhong Qin raised her head and saw two women entering. One of them was wearing jean shorts and a white tank top and had just taken off her sunglasses. Zhong Quin was planning to ask Xin Siyue what she had been up to recently, but she stopped to examine the woman whose sunglasses were taken off. She leaned over the table towards Xin Siyue, and said in a hushed tone, “Look over there. Isn’t that girl in the jean shorts next to Ms. Lai from our school? She looks so familiar… I feel like I’ve seen her at school before.”
Xin Siyue followed Zhong Qin’s gaze, and also saw the two young women. She thought the one that Zhong Qin had alerted her to was only trying to show off with those shorts. The other woman, however, had long hair and wore a light purple dress. It was obvious that she was from a respectable family.
Ms. Lai?
Xin Siyue took a moment to recall if she knew either of the two, but couldn’t. “I don’t even know them. Who’s Ms. Lai?” she asked in reply.
Zhong Qin saw the two women, who didn’t pay any attention to them, walk to the left side of the table. “You don’t know about Ms. Lai and Chen Sinan?” she asked.
“Sorry?”
“The incident and its fallout were both so bad that I thought for sure you’d have heard! I tried not to mention it since I was afraid you’d get all depressed if I brought it up!” Zhong Qin said with disbelief.
Realizing this gossip was about Chen Sinan, Xin Siyue immediately lost interest. “Since you’re so concerned for me, then don’t talk about it,” she said. It would be better if she didn’t know.
“No no no, don’t be like that! I’ll tell you. Know both yourself and your opponent, so that you may taste victory in every battle!” Zhong Qin declared confidently. “Near the end of June, an entertainment company exposed a bunch of tabloid-worthy pictures of Chen Sinan. In them, there was one of him and yours truly over thereーMs. Laiー embracing intimately! The media went totally nuts over it, especially since it was Chen Sinan’s first time ever exposing that kind of relationship with a woman to the public.
That picture was evidence, but in less than three hours, he managed to silence all the news about it. The head of the company responsible for the leak even released a public apology to Chen Sinan at the event, saying that he shouldn’t have stirred up such trouble over nonsense. Soon after, Chen’s PR department clarified on a post that Chen Sinan had absolutely no relationship with Ms. Lai and that they would be pursuing legal action.
Xin Siyue listened to Zhong Qin intently, and remarked, “That neat freak germaphobe probably took it pretty badly.” Just thinking of Chen Sinan’s disgusted face was satisfying. Not bad at all.
“Are you not curious about them?” Zhong Qin was stupefied.
“What’s there to be curious about?”
“If they’re really in a relationship or not.” Zhong Qin was getting impatient.
“Didn’t Chen Sinan himself say that they’re not?” Xin Siyue replied.
“And you’re going to believe him, just like that?”
Xin Siyue was speechless. The reason she believed him was because she knew that Chen Sinan only had a relationship with Sheng Wenyang! Every other female character slipped away like morning dew into the earth. When all was said and done, they were worthless to him and powerless against their fate.