She was just about to step forward to pull Bai Xiao away as she finished speaking.
Little did she know that Bai Xiao would lose all rationality when she saw that Lisa was totally unfazed by everything she said. Bai Xiao lost control of herself and hollered. "Mister, Jennie is really a despicable slut. She especially targets rich men and seduces them. She's really not a good woman..."
"Pah!"
A tight slap landed on her face before she could even finish.
The slap hit her cheek so hard that her head reeled to the side from the impact with a clear and red handprint on her face.
Zhang Yuwei did a double-take and froze on the spot. "Jennie, you..."
Jennie pulled her hand back as her palm turned red from the harsh impact, clearly showing the amount of force she used.
She stared coldly at Bai Xiao and spoke with an icy tone. "Bai Xiao, I've tolerated you enough. Just because I didn't do anything, it doesn't mean you can just bark like a crazy dog and attack me like that. From this moment on, our three-year friendship is officially over.
"If you're going to continue spouting any nonsense, don't blame me for being harsh on you."
The two of them had lived together in the same dorm for a few years without any conflict.
Jennie never imagined that she would end up fighting with her roommate like this right before they graduated.
And all this happened just because she found an overly outstanding man.
Causing all of her roommates to be uncontrollably jealous of her.
She found it ridiculously funny just by thinking about it.
A woman's jealousy was indeed one of the scariest things on earth.
Bai Xiao and Zhang Yuwei stayed hidden for so many years, and now finally everything was revealed.
Their true colors were revealed.
Obviously, all their kind words and actions were just a facade all this while.
In comparison, Zhang Yuwei was still slightly better than Bai Xiao, who seemed to totally lose all control and conscience on her end.
She seemed like a completely different person from the one Jennie knew for the past few years.
She came right before Lisa and said so many degrading and ridiculous things about her, just because she wanted to make Lisa believe that she was a loose and easy woman and then make him break up with her?
No matter what her true intentions were, Jennie had enough of tolerating her at this point.
She still tried to be easy on her previously, considering they were friends for so long.
But now, it was completely unnecessary to do so anymore.
"Did you just hit me, Jennie?" Bai Xiao only just managed to regain her senses.
She held onto her swollen cheek as she slowly turned around to face her, with her eyes showing a glint of menace.
She looked as if she was about to pounce at Jennie and have a physical tussle with her.
Lisa looked at her with his cold eyes and immediately reached forward to pull Jennie behind him, shielding her with his body.
He cast a quick cold look at the menacing woman in front of him and spoke with a voice that was injected with cold ice. "Jennie is my woman now. No matter what kind of past she has, it's not important to me. I don't care about all those things at all."
Bai Xiao stared at him with a blank yet shocked expression.
"So what even if she really did all those things in the past? This doesn't change the fact that I like her.
"She aborted a child. You... you don't care about that at all?" Bai Xiao's lips trembled as she spoke. She couldn't bring herself to accept his nonchalant attitude.
Lisa let out a cold laugh. "So what if she had an abortion before, she's still the most precious thing to me. A woman ugly inside and out like you can't even compare to her."
Even though Lisa wasn't considered the most gentlemanly guy around, he still maintained basic manners when dealing with girls.
He would rarely tell a girl straight in her face that she was ugly like this.
His words made Bai Xiao literally shake from the shock.
Her face was as awful as it could get.
It was a huge blow to be called ugly by a man who swept her off her feet.
Every last drop of blood had left her face.
"Also, you're her roommate and have lived with her for years. It's bad enough that you don't believe her, but you went further and spread rumors about her. Women like you disgust me."
Bai Xiao's face was pale. "Mister."
"I let you off the last time on her account. I didn't want to upset her, since you're classmates. But now it seems like there's no need to be nice to you girls."
Bai Xiao could get the subtext.
She went even paler, and her lips quivered. "I didn't say those things, it's the person who spilled it. It's nothing to do with me! I was just... I was just reminding you."
Zhang Yuwei was pale as a sheet too. "Jennie, this really has nothing to do with us. Everything that Xiao Xiao mentioned was already on the school forum page. You can take a look if you want. It's not just us who know about this, the whole school knows now.
"You can't blame us for this!"
The two of them started panicking after hearing what Lisa said.
It seemed like he wanted revenge.
Upon thinking about what happened to Shen Yueyue and Zhao Wanting, they felt a chill down their spines.
Especially Bai Xiao.
She'd thought that by revealing Jennie's shameful past to this man, he'd fly into a rage and dump her right away.
But this turned out very differently from what she'd expected.
Not only did the man not trust them, he even told them it didn't matter, even if it was true.
He would still continue loving Jennie.
Bai Xiao couldn't believe that he was so deeply in love with Jennie already.
So much so that he was alright with his woman having aborted another man's child.
Jennie must have cast a spell on him.
Lisa didn't listen to anyone else at all.
He didn't even bother giving them a second glance.
After saying his piece, he wrapped an arm around Jennie and guided her into the car.
Bai Xiao and Zhang Yuwei were about to dash forward and explain themselves further, but Lisa slammed the door in their faces.
Soon, the Lamborghini pulled out of the lot and left.
They were gone from their sights in less than a minute.
Zhang Yuwei thought about what the man had said to them and turned around and blamed Bai Xiao. "I told you to leave, why didn't you! Bai Xiao, I'm going to be in deep trouble because of you!"
Zhang Yuwei felt aggrieved.
She actually had nothing to do with this.
And she hadn't even said a thing as she stood beside Bai Xiao.
It was Bai Xiao who stirred all this up alone.
But now, she was also getting the blame just because she was with her.
This meant that she'd be facing the same punishment and consequences.
There was only half a year left until their graduation.
If she got expelled at this time, all the years of studying would've been in vain.
And for a girl who wanted a career in the entertainment industry, her youth was especially important.
Newbies were making their debuts one after the next, and changes were happening too quickly. Losing a few years of their youth was a big deal.
Moreover, the production crew would have second thoughts of casting someone who'd been expelled.
Zhang Yuwei was getting increasingly upset at Bai Xiao. At this point, she couldn't care less about their friendship.
"Zhang Yuwei, what do you mean by this?"
Bai Xiao was currently fuming because her plan to do Jennie in had failed. And now, with Zhang Yuwei adding fuel to fire, she was getting more enraged.
"I'm not the only one who's unhappy with Jennie. Don't you dare tell me that you don't wish to see her get dumped by that man! I just did what you wanted to do too. So don't act all innocent here."
Zhang Yuwei was furious as well. "Don't drag me into the picture. I didn't do anything just now."
Zhang Yuwei decided that she'd look for Jennie when she returned later.
She believed that Jennie wouldn't be so mean, considering that they had been roommates for years.
Anyway, it was Bai Xiao who offended her, not her.
On that thought, Zhang Yuwei decided that she was going to stay away from Bai Xiao so as to protect herself.
"Bai Xiao, I suddenly feel that we've got different opinions and values on many things. We're not suitable to be friends. I think we should maintain a distance from each other in the future."
Bai Xiao's eyes widened. "Zhang Yuwei, are you f**king severing ties with me right now? Do you think Jennie will let you off like that? Don't forget, you left mean comments about her too. If I tell her about it, do you think you can get away with your responsibility?"
"How dare you!"
"Why wouldn't I dare? If I'm going to be in trouble, I'd rather drag you in with me."
"Bai Xiao, how can you be so f**king b*tchy. You failed at your scheme, and now you want me to pay the price for your foolishness too?"
They were usually close as sisters, but at this point, they were scolding each other like arch-enemies.
In the car.
Jennie looked at Lisa's cold expression and sighed. "Lisa, don't you have anything to ask me?"
They were waiting for the lights to turn green.
The man turned to face her, and then said, "Mm, I do."
"Ask it, then." Jennie was ready.
She didn't believe that he wasn't the least bit curious about what Bai Xiao had said.
Even if he trusted her, he probably would still want to know about what had happened.
Lisa asked, "What exactly happened, regarding what your roommates said?"
Afraid to hurt her, he quickly added, "I don't mean to doubt you whatsoever. I just want to know what happened on the forum page. Who's out to malign you?"
Jennie knew that he wasn't the sort to trust rumors easily.
And that he had a lot of trust and confidence in her.
Hence, she wasn't actually worried that Lisa would take Bai Xiao's words for real.
And as it turned out, she wasn't disappointed.
His attitude now comforted Jennie.
It felt so good to be trusted unconditionally.
"You're so sure that they're just baseless rumors?" Jennie looked at him apprehensively. "What if... they're true?"
Lisa was a little stunned, but he broke into a smile a split second later. "If I don't even have that much trust in you, I'm not fit to be your husband. Moreover, Miss Kim, I'm still pursuing you. I've got to do a little better to get into your good books.
"Even if all of those were true, they only represent your past. I like the present you. So, anything that you've done before won't change my impression of you."
Jennie knew that Lisa had a glib tongue.
He always found the right words.
And he managed to make cheesy and mushy words sound sincere.
Just like now.
Jennie felt that he'd managed to win her over.
Even if these were just sweet nothings, they'd worked their magic.
She couldn't help but smile. "Mr. Manoban, you're getting better and better with your words. Has anyone ever told you that you're good at flirting?"
Flirting wasn't exactly a difficult thing to do. But it wasn't easy to do it well.
If the flirting wasn't done right, it would end up awkward.
And if done too much, it'd end up sounding superficial.
Lisa's flirting was done just right. There was a certain difficulty to it.
"No."
Lisa smiled and said honestly, "You're the first."
Jennie raised a brow. "I'm the first? You're kidding."
"I'm not kidding." Lisa looked into her dark eyes and said, "I've only flirted with you."
So, she was the first.
And she would be the last.
Jennie's heart began racing.
The red light turned green.
Lisa went back to driving attentively.
But he still remembered what they were discussing. "You haven't told me, what exactly is the forum page about?"
"Oh, that." Jennie cut the long story short. "Someone sent a post on our school forum and said that I had a very messy private life. The post said that I've had several boyfriends in high school, and had even got an abortion."
She thought for a bit and then added, "And that I've stolen my classmates' boyfriends, and I'm out to seduce rich second-generation heirs.
"You come after Kai, and you're the nth rich second-generation heir I've gotten together with."
She said it very calmly as if she was narrating someone else's story.
After all, she was past the angry phase.
But Lisa's expression darkened. "Send the link of the post to me."
"You want to find out who posted it?"
"Yes."
"It's alright, you don't have to." Jennie didn't want to trouble him with that.
After all, she'd given him enough problems as it was, in their very short period of marriage.
Although he didn't mind, and he would always do his best to stand up for her, it didn't mean that she felt good having him solve her problems.
Lisa raised a brow. "Mm?"
"I can settle this on my own. I've sent the link to Tae. He'll find out who it is for me."
Jennie didn't feel like there was a need to trouble him.
But Lisa didn't seem too happy with her thoughtful decision.
He frowned and paused for a moment, then said, "So, when something like this happened, your first instinct wasn't to call me and ask for my help, but to tell your brother about it instead? And get his help?"
Jennie: "Uh..."
Why did Lisa seem a little unhappy about it?
"I just felt like there wasn't a need to trouble you with everything. You're already busy enough with your work in the company, and this isn't a very huge matter, so..."
"So, there wasn't a need to let me know?"
"... Yeah."
She did think that way.
Lisa went quiet for a few seconds. "Anything regarding you is a huge matter to me. It's more important than my work."
Jennie looked at him, and her heart began beating faster.
"Also, it's never been troublesome to me."
Her heart rate increased...
It was so quick that Jennie had to place a hand on her chest, just in case her heart really burst out.
Ahhh.
Why was Lisa so good at making her feel this way.
She really, really... couldn't deal with this so many times.
She was losing it.
Her heart was beating so quickly, she wanted to see if it was doing fine.
Who was going to believe that...
A man who looked so cold and distant could be so good when speaking out of love.
"Miss Kim, please give this man pursuing you a chance to perform. Send me the link now, I'll resolve this for you."
This was his wife's matter, why did he need his brother-in-law to resolve it?
He was going to prove with his actions that her husband was the most reliable and trustworthy person around her.
He wanted her to get used to looking for her husband whenever something cropped up.
Not anyone else.
Lisa felt that they still had a lot of time, and she could get into this habit slowly.
It was time to start inculcating the habit of "turning to Hubby for everything."
.................
Jennie eventually did send the link to Lisa.
Considering Lisa's preferences, she picked a French restaurant not too far away from school. It took just over 10 minutes.
They got out of the car.
Lisa brought his laptop along.
Jennie thought that he was busy with work and said, "As busy as you are, you've got to set time aside to eat. Are you very busy today? You shouldn't have come to have lunch with me."
She wasn't the sort of woman who needed her man's company all the time.
If he had work to complete, he could just let her know. She'd fully understand.
Moreover, she didn't like to spend every waking moment with him.
As close as they might be, they needed their own personal space.
She felt that the current arrangement was pretty good-spending her weekdays in school and only going to live with Lisa on the weekends.
If they lived under the same roof, there wouldn't be any sense of mystery anymore, and it'd get boring.
Lisa did not say anything in response.
Only after they took their seats in the restaurant did he say, "I'm not that busy. I still have time to eat with you."