Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Lin Hanyan and I stopped our standoff. His expression shifted slightly.

We turned at the same time and saw a young woman in a lace nightgown walking toward us.

Lin Hanyan hurried forward to stop her. “Why did you come out? I’ll be back inside right away. Be good and go in first.”

But the girl seemed determined to find out what was going on.

She slipped past Lin Hanyan and looked at me with a smile, a trace of familiarity and contempt in her almond-shaped eyes.

“And this is…”

No one answered.

Seeing us both fall silent, she curved her lips.

Then, as naturally as could be, she looped her arm through Lin Hanyan’s and tugged the pale pink, slightly sheer nightgown lower.

The red marks on her neck and the curves beneath the fabric were on full display.

Her whole body leaned bonelessly against Lin Hanyan.

The man’s uneasy gaze landed on me.

In despair, I turned my head aside and slowly closed my eyes.

My sweat-soaked hair stuck damply to my face, and pain throbbed at my temples.

No matter how slow I was, I could tell what had happened here.

Originally, I thought I was just the unlucky idiot in some rich guy’s game of experiencing civilian life. Now it seemed I was also the seasoning in a romance story between wealthy heirs.

What rotten luck.

So I didn’t want to stay any longer. I turned and began packing up the delivery box, ready to leave.

But the girl suddenly called out to me.

“Wait. Don’t tell me you’re Hanyan’s slum girlfriend from off campus.”

“I didn’t recognize you in that delivery uniform. Are you Jiang Mingluo from the College of Literature and Law?”

I paused, then turned back to look at her.

Half a minute later, I finally confirmed it.

She was my senior from the year above, Shen Zhu-the one with both an exceptional family background and good looks, always surrounded by admirers.

But there was bad blood between us.

Because she had pulled strings behind the scenes to help someone else steal my financial aid for poor students, I had never fawned over Shen Zhu like everyone else did.

Seeing the dark, stiff look in my eyes, Shen Zhu tightened her hold on Lin Hanyan’s arm.

Feigning delight, she spoke in a sweet, coquettish voice.

“Hanyan, I never expected that after I casually complained to you last year about how there was this fake, aloof junior I really hated…”

“After asking a few questions, you actually went and messed with Jiang Mingluo for me. I have to admire your methods. So brilliant…”

Shen Zhu lifted her eyes and shot me a cutting glance before continuing.

“Brilliant enough to make Jiang Mingluo, the great talent of our college, run around in circles like a dog.”

My hands, hanging at my sides, slowly clenched into fists. The air-conditioning in the room blew over me, but I felt no coolness, no relief.

For ordinary people, everything-our futures, our feelings, our money, our sweat-was nothing more than unsightly weeds by the roadside to people like them. Not only did they ignore us, they had to grind us under their heels and spit on us too.

Shen Zhu leaned in and kissed Lin Hanyan on the cheek, as if rewarding him for fooling me to this point. Then she looked at me with provocative eyes.

A moment later, as though she had suddenly remembered something, her expression turned strange and almost unhinged. She asked, “Mingluo, did Lin Hanyan tell you he has depression?”

I frowned and did not deny it.

At that, the woman before me doubled over with laughter.

But the words that came out of her mouth chilled me to the bone.

“That’s because I told Hanyan you had a younger brother who killed himself because of depression.”

“As long as Lin Hanyan said he had depression, you would definitely fall for it like an idiot.”

“And sure enough, you did.”