Ink Wash

At the police station entrance, Lin Yu let out a heavy sigh after a long, exhausting night.

Even though the past day and night had felt like a nightmare—one that made him want to bang his head against the wall just to end it all—he still mustered a weak smile and thanked the uniformed officer beside him.

"Thank you, officer, for helping me out."

"No problem."

The officer waved it off, then paused before adding in a slightly reproachful tone,

"But you should be more careful in the future. What you did was way over the line. Look at what you did to that girl."

Lin Yu opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to explain the reason behind last night’s outburst.

But in the end, he said nothing, closing his mouth just as quickly.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t be bothered to explain—he simply didn’t have the energy left.

The miserable events of the past day and the interrogation tonight had drained him completely. All he wanted now was to go home and sleep, without expending another ounce of effort on anything.

"Alright, I’ll be more careful in the future," Lin Yu nodded heavily, his voice lifeless.

"Mm, go get some rest," the officer replied before turning and heading back into the station.

Lin Yu shoved his hands into his pockets, gripping the hundred yuan he’d borrowed from the police, and hailed a taxi to take him straight home.

Once there, he glanced at the clock on the wall.

4:20 AM.

Looking out the window, the sky was still pitch black. If it were summer, dawn would already be breaking.

Exhausted, he stripped off the clothes he’d bought less than twenty-four hours ago—now too filthy to wear—took a hot shower, dried off, and prepared for bed.

Lin Yu wasn’t planning to go to school today.

After staying up all night, even if he went, he wouldn’t absorb anything. Better to rest properly at home.

As he lay in bed, fatigue and drowsiness washed over him.

The events of the past day and night flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, until all his thoughts condensed into two words:

Worth it!

Damn.

Sure, he’d been unlucky, humiliated, drenched, and even electrocuted.

But if nothing went wrong, the third female lead would definitely have nothing to do with him anymore.

If there was any relationship left between them at all…

It was probably that of enemies.

Lin Yu stared at the ceiling, silently thinking.

Actually, being enemies wasn’t so bad.

At least it was better than whatever mess he had with Tang Manman—unwilling to scold her, unwilling to hit her, and twisting himself into knots if he so much as criticized her.

Compared to that, being enemies wasn’t entirely unacceptable.

After summing it all up, Lin Yu let out a long exhale and drifted off to sleep with a somewhat decent mood…

...

"What?"

"You let him go?"

"How could you let him go?"

"Don’t you know he almost killed Qing Mo?"

The furious voice pierced through the soundproofed walls, reduced to a faint echo in the lavishly decorated bedroom.

Qing Mo sat curled up on the bed, hugging her snow-white, slender legs. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, her delicate fingers lightly tracing the dark purple bruise around her neck.

"Compensation?"

"How laughable."

"Who needs his money?"

"Tell him—our Qing Mo has more than enough money!"

"We want him to pay the price!"

"Money means nothing to us."

"We want him behind bars!"

...

"What?"

"It only counts as minor injuries?"

...

After another round of heated arguing, the bedroom door swung open. A handsome man stormed in, his face twisted in anger. When he saw Qing Mo’s despondent figure huddled on the bed, a flash of heartache crossed his eyes.

Assuming she was upset with the police’s handling of the matter, he immediately vowed through gritted teeth,

"Qing Mo, don’t worry. If the police won’t deal with him, I will. I won’t let that bastard get away with this!"

"No need."

Qing Mo’s voice was hoarse, as if the injury to her neck had affected her vocal cords.

"I’ll go find him myself."

At this, she lifted her head and looked at the man by the door, speaking softly,

"Zhou He, let’s break up."

...

...

"Morning," Gu Yue greeted weakly.

"Morning," Lin Yu responded, equally groggy.

The two met at the intersection and naturally fell into step, walking shoulder to shoulder toward school.

"Long-ge, what’s up with you today?"

"You look completely out of it."

Gu Yue’s eyes were half-lidded, her state even worse than Lin Yu’s.

"Didn’t sleep well. My sleep schedule’s messed up—only fell asleep at 3 AM."

Lin Yu was exasperated.

He’d gone to bed at 3 AM the previous night, only waking up at 9 PM, and then couldn’t fall back asleep until the early hours of the morning. No wonder he felt like a zombie!

"What about you?"

Lin Yu eyed Gu Yue’s near-dead expression and asked curiously,

"English studying again?"

Gu Yue nodded miserably, too drained to even complain about the hardships of studying like she usually did.

"Sigh!"

"Sigh!"

Lin Yu and Gu Yue sighed one after the other, dragging their exhausted bodies toward school at a snail’s pace.

"Oh, right."

"Long-ge, why weren’t you at school yesterday?"

Gu Yue pouted slightly, a hint of dissatisfaction in her voice.

"I waited for you forever and almost ended up late!"

"Ugh."

Lin Yu rubbed his temples and sighed again.

"Don’t even ask. The day before was the unluckiest day of my life—I was stuck dealing with crap until almost dawn yesterday. No way I had the energy for school."

Hearing Lin Yu’s exhausted words, Gu Yue blinked, suddenly perking up.

She instinctively ignored the first half of his sentence, zeroing in on the latter part.

Stuck dealing with crap until almost dawn, no energy for school.

What kind of "crap" was he dealing with?

What exactly left him so drained?

Who was he "dealing with"?!

"What happened?" Gu Yue probed cautiously.

"Don’t wanna talk about it," Lin Yu refused flatly, not wanting to relive those cursed events.

Gu Yue pouted in dissatisfaction but didn’t press further.

They walked in silence for a while before Gu Yue suddenly exclaimed,

"Oh! Right!"

She’d just remembered what she’d meant to say earlier. Turning to Lin Yu, her expression turned serious.

"Long-ge, someone’s looking to cause trouble for you!"

"Who?" Lin Yu asked.

"Zhao Dahu—the tallest and strongest guy in school."

"He went to your class looking for you yesterday."

"You weren’t there, so he grabbed one of your lackeys and beat the crap out of him!"

"Probably came for you, but since you weren’t around, he took it out on your underling!"

Gu Yue spoke with absolute certainty, clearly confident in her theory.