030: Shockingly, a Six-Foot-Tall Musclebound Man Was Actually ... by His Ex-Girlfriend...

Page (1/3)

“...Anyway, Guan Yue and I had a falling-out. She went to speak to him on my behalf, and he was only teasing you just now. He can be rather unreliable at times.”

Tong Dawei understood—or, more accurately, saw the truth of it.

When Dong Xuan came downstairs, she had done nothing but explain herself to him while keeping her eyes fixed on Yan Li. Yan Li’s attitude toward Dong Xuan was also completely different from the way he treated Guan Yue.

There was a very good chance that Tong Dawei had indeed misunderstood.

Now he began to panic. Their quarrel had never really been resolved in the first place, and hadn’t he just made things even worse?

“Guan Yue, I was wrong.”

Tong Dawei hurriedly apologized.

Guan Yue’s face remained cold. “What were you wrong about?”

“You were wrong because you care about her too much.”

Before Tong Dawei could say anything, Yan Li cut in again. “The reason this happened today is that this guy cares too much about Director Guan Yue. Concern makes people confused, and deep affection makes people lose their composure. He may have gone a little too far, but his intentions were good.”

How could Tong Dawei fail to realize that Yan Li was helping him? He nodded vigorously.

“That’s right. Guan Yue, I was just afraid you’d really break up with me.”

Guan Yue shot him a sideways glance, then looked at Yan Li. “What does our relationship have to do with you? Could you deal with your own problems first?”

“Look at you. I’m trying to bring you two together, and you don’t even appreciate it.”

Yan Li was about to say a few more things, but Dong Xuan had finally had enough. She grabbed him and dragged him upstairs, tossing over her shoulder:

“You two talk.”

“Good luck, buddy!”

Even as Dong Xuan pushed him upstairs, Yan Li called out one last time. Tong Dawei wanted to raise his voice in thanks, but when he saw Guan Yue’s dark expression, he promptly shut his mouth.

...

Leaving Tong Dawei and Guan Yue to argue things out, Yan Li followed Dong Xuan upstairs and entered the apartment she shared with the others.

It was a little smaller than the place he lived in at Jimenli, but the furnishings were warmer, and it was fully equipped with furniture and appliances.

Unlike their vocational college class, whose students had already graduated, Dong Xuan and the others were only entering their third year of university that September. They had not yet graduated, so they could still justifiably ask their families for living expenses.

Those who could attend an art school like the Beijing Film Academy were not necessarily from wealthy families, but few of them came from truly poor ones.

Dong Xuan’s father, for example, was a career soldier—though he served in the army’s art troupe rather than in a combat unit. He had served for many years, and his rank and benefits seemed to be somewhere between regimental commander and deputy division commander.

Guan Yue’s family was also well-off, perhaps even a little better off than Dong Xuan’s.

With comfortable family circumstances and parents willing to indulge their daughters, they received generous allowances. Their lives were surely better than those of Zhang Songwen and the other impoverished drifters in Beijing who had just graduated and had yet to find work.

“Have some water.”

While Yan Li was studying the layout of the apartment, Dong Xuan poured him a glass.

“Do you two live here by yourselves?”

“There’s also Yin Xu. Peng Xinyi used to live with us too, but something came up at home, so she went back.”

Yan Li knew both of them. They were students from the Acting Department’s Class of 2000 at the Beijing Film Academy, and both were close friends of Dong Xuan.

Page (1/3)

Page (2/3)

Yin Xu in particular was, aside from Guan Yue, Dong Xuan’s closest friend.

Yan Li had always had a good impression of her. When he and Dong Xuan had been on the verge of breaking up, Guan Yue had urged them to separate, while Yin Xu had urged them to reconcile.

For that alone, Yin Xu’s standing in Yan Li’s heart was far higher than Guan Yue’s.

After handing him the water, Dong Xuan sat down beside him, leaning toward him slightly. Her voice was gentle.

“Did you come here today to see me?”

“Mind the distance. We’ve broken up.”

Yan Li shifted a little farther away, then pulled two red banknotes from his pocket.

“I mainly came to pay you back for the fan.”

Dong Xuan stared blankly at the money in his hand. Her eyes began to redden, and tears seemed ready to spill over. Her voice trembled with disbelief.

“You... you really have to make such a clean break with me?”

Yan Li rubbed his forehead helplessly. “That’s enough. I didn’t have the heart to expose you in front of Guan Yue’s boyfriend just now. Are you going to keep this up forever?”

Compared with Qin Lan, Yan Li had always felt that Dong Xuan was better suited to starring in a Qiong Yao melodrama.

At the very least, she was extremely convincing in tearful scenes. She excelled at playing a pitiful little wife, and sometimes, even when he knew she was acting, he found it hard to withstand.

Now that Yan Li had seen through her, Dong Xuan could no longer continue the performance. She wiped away her tears, and the beautiful, pure expression on her face gave way to the fierce boldness of a Northeastern girl. Leaning forward, she demanded:

“Tell me the truth. Have you found someone else?”

“No.”

Yan Li denied it firmly, with complete confidence. He genuinely had not found anyone else—just one more... good friend.

Dong Xuan did not believe him. “Then why are you so determined to break up with me?”

“Come on, you were the one who suggested breaking up.”

“But I gave you an opening to back down. That was obviously me saying I wanted to get back together. Why did you refuse?”

“Didn’t I have Guan Yue tell you? After we broke up, I thought about it and realized that I was immature in many ways. I made you suffer, and I felt bad about it too. Since that’s the case, I might as well stay single for a while. Without the burden of a relationship, I can devote myself entirely to building my career.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Dong Xuan stared intently at Yan Li. “You’re just fickle. Is it that vixen with the surname Huang?”

“I haven’t had anything to do with her for a long time.”

Dong Xuan pressed him again. “Then did you meet someone new in Hengdian?”

Yan Li did not so much as blink. “I’m not a banknote that everyone loves. It’s not as if someone falls for me everywhere I go.”

Dong Xuan looked at him doubtfully, while Yan Li accepted her scrutiny with perfect composure. This left her completely at a loss.

All her previous plans had been based on Yan Li begging her to reconcile. She would then keep him on tenterhooks for a while before graciously agreeing to get back together, allowing their old feelings to flare up again.

But Yan Li refused to follow the script. He kept proclaiming the joys of being single, showing no intention of reconciling.

More importantly, she had already laid her cards on the table and lost the initiative. The balance of power had shifted, and now she was the one begging to get back together.

Page (2/3)

Page (3/3)

Seeing that Dong Xuan’s thoughts had begun to grow muddled, Yan Li placed the money on the table.

“It’s getting late. I’m going home.”

“You can’t leave.”

Dong Xuan caught hold of him. When Yan Li continued trying to move away, she gritted her teeth, rose onto her toes, cupped his head in both hands, and kissed him.

So what if she had no pride?

They had already laid everything bare, and Dong Xuan had begun to throw caution to the wind.

She did not want to break up with Yan Li, nor did she dare gamble on whether letting him leave would mean the two of them were truly finished.

She would keep him here for now. Once they reconciled, she could slowly deal with the bastard and reclaim the advantage she had lost today.

Yan Li stood over six feet tall and had a sturdy build, yet he was helpless against Dong Xuan’s sudden kiss. He could only wave his hands ineffectually, struggling against her. In the end, Dong Xuan dragged him stumbling into the bedroom, and one muffled, suppressed, heavy gasp after another drifted out...

—

Downstairs

After coaxing Guan Yue for quite some time, Tong Dawei finally managed to calm her down. They lingered together for a while, and just as they were preparing to part, Guan Yue suddenly noticed that the lights in the living room upstairs had gone out.

“...”

Guan Yue turned to Tong Dawei. “I remember the apartment you rented has two bedrooms, right?”

Tong Dawei realized it too. Unable to contain his delight, he nodded.

“That’s right. Two bedrooms.”

“I’m going to stay at your place tonight. Don’t get any funny ideas.”

“I won’t, I won’t.”

Tong Dawei eagerly led Guan Yue toward the stairs. Just before turning the corner, he glanced back toward the apartment building, his eyes full of gratitude.

That fellow Yan Li had really done him a huge favor!

Not long afterward, at the Jimenli residential complex, Zhou Yiwei checked the time, turned off the lights, locked the door, and returned to his bedroom before making a phone call.

“The old ghost guessed it right. It’s been almost two hours. He probably isn’t coming back.”

“Haha, each of you owes me a hundred yuan!”

On the other end of the phone, Zhang Songwen laughed triumphantly. But Lin Jiachuan, who had also lost a hundred yuan, was laughing even more happily.

“Haha! I’m going to become Yan Li’s brother-in-law!”