Successfully Fell for the Trap, the President's Mother's Late-Night Call

Dongfang family estate, first-floor main hall.

Du Wanyi's voice stopped, followed by a long silence. The married couple both fell silent, looking at each other, not knowing what the other was thinking.

Seeing that her words hadn't quite hit the boiling point, Du Wanyi took out her phone, logged into the university's official confession wall, and opened the posts she had bookmarked before coming over, displaying them right in front of the couple.

"Shocking! A man does THIS just to live off a woman!"

"The most shocking 'confession' at the freshman ceremony! The strongest freshman challenges the Student Council President!"

"Shocking! The textbook gold-digger! To live off a woman, he actually did this!"

"Worse than a beast!!! The eldest miss of the Dongfang family and the young master of the Shen family actually..."

Looking at post after post on the phone, the couple was dumbfounded. How long had it been since they were in school? Had the campus walls and confession walls evolved to this extent nowadays?

Moreover... the couple was puzzled by one thing. Such negative news should have been handled by their daughter herself. Why were they still up? Was their daughter too busy recently to notice and didn't have time to deal with it, or...

Regardless of the situation, one thing was certain: Du Wanyi wasn't lying. Their daughter had indeed been targeted by some shady scum.

Cases of such social climbers were actually not uncommon in their circles.

Many naive young ladies and wealthy heirs would be targeted by scheming "phoenix" men and women from the outside. The latter's goal was simple: class leap.

Hard work takes a long time and doesn't guarantee success. When there's a faster, more stable shortcut, why wouldn't you take it?

Many parents in this circle guarded against such situations. It had nothing to do with the other party's talent, looks, or IQ. The moment they chose this "shortcut" method, their character was already deemed unacceptable.

At least in their eyes, their character was absolutely flawed.

Most people looked for a match of equal social status, just like Du Wanyi and Dongfang Zhan when they were young. They were a perfect match in status, but unfortunately, they didn't see eye to eye. Whenever they met, they only thought about elbowing each other.

Only when families are of equal status can one talk about "equal love" without considering too many external factors. Otherwise, when there is a massive gap in status between two people, one of them is inherently driven by an ulterior motive.

It wasn't an absolute rule, but it was true over ninety percent of the time. When you aren't sure if a snake is venomous, the best approach is to stay away, rather than gambling on whether it has venom.

Of course, this was only Du Wanyi's side of the story, and the couple wouldn't believe it entirely. But... the seed of doubt had been planted. Their first impression of Ye Cheng had already been stamped with negative labels like "gigolo," "freeloader," "gold-digger," and so on.

In a sense, Du Wanyi's plan was already a success...

But just this wasn't enough; she had to keep going. These old foxes weren't fools and wouldn't be easily hoodwinked. She needed a mix of truth and lies, or even just a tiny bit of falsehood would do.

Hahaha, she was indeed a genius!!!

Seeing that the time was right, Du Wanyi swiped her finger across the screen twice and brought up Ye Cheng's personal information profile.

However... it was slightly different from the original copy Du Wanyi had received. She had deleted some objective evaluations and added in some "subjective" ones.

Su Su frowned, looking at the profile and photo on the phone.

"Ye Cheng, male, 18 years old. Sinister appearance, bizarre non-human-like behavior, suspected of having an unknown psychiatric history. Raised in an orphanage, psychologically twisted to a certain extent. Appears normal on the surface but harbors a treacherous heart. Stubborn, loves money as much as his own life..."

Reading this series of "true and objective" evaluations made Dongfang Zhan and his wife frown deeply, their hearts instantly clenching.

Especially when combined with the posts they had just seen, it completely verified the evaluations above!

Things like sinister appearance, bizarre non-human-like behavior, twisted psychology, loving money as much as his life...

He had practically hit every possible red flag, each one stepping directly on the landmines of Dongfang Zhan and his wife. They couldn't accept a single bit of it.

The rest were the results of Du Wanyi's edits. The only thing she couldn't completely fabricate was his appearance, so she Photoshopped it a bit, making Ye Cheng look much more mediocre. Then, she had someone apply a "minor touch-up" to Ye Cheng's photo, perfectly modeling it after the classic look of a "gold-digger."

In the end, this drastically altered photo of "Ye Cheng" appeared before the couple—a face with regular features but one that inexplicably gave off an uncomfortable vibe.

Changed, but not entirely changed—this was the highest realm of Photoshopping. It felt like something was altered, but you couldn't pinpoint it even if you compared them. Yet, the overall comfort level of the person's face had drastically shifted.

Otherwise... with Ye Cheng's current standard incubus-like good looks, no matter how wicked or vile the written description was, the couple wouldn't have believed it because his face wouldn't match the description.

But now that Du Wanyi had altered it like this... well, it matched up, and it made sense.

Su Su frowned and spoke up, "Not very old, but full of schemes. There are quite a lot of people looking for shortcuts these days..."

Du Wanyi nodded vigorously beside her, chiming in, "I know, right? I wouldn't have even known about this if our Little Hanhan hadn't accidentally let it slip while we were chatting a couple of days ago."

"Let it slip?" A hint of confusion appeared in Su Su's eyes, and an image of an unreasonably beautiful but exceptionally cold young girl surfaced in her mind.

"Yeah, it's not like you don't know. Our Little Hanhan hasn't talked much since she was little, but she's quite close to me. She likes to tell me about everything that happens at school. I have no choice but to bear with it and listen..." Du Wanyi spread her hands in a "helpless old mother" gesture, holding her forehead with a wry smile.

In reality... Boohoo, Little Hanhan, you can't treat me like this, I'm your mommy...

The truth of the matter wasn't important, nor was the process. As long as the result was right, that was all that mattered.

People could say Du Wanyi was bragging about other things, but she was telling the truth about the young lady being close to her. Even if there were some exaggerated, boastful elements, anyone who had interacted with them knew that the young lady treated Mrs. Du differently and was indeed much closer to her.

Because of this, neither Dongfang Zhan nor the Student Council President's mother, Su Su, doubted the authenticity of Du Wanyi's words. As for Du Wanyi's penchant for bragging, the couple had long since gotten used to it.

But one thing was certain... nine times out of ten, what Du Wanyi was saying right now was the truth. This guy who was hitting on their daughter at school was no good, and it seemed their daughter had already fallen for his trap!

Dongfang Zhan: "!!!"

Su Su: "!!!"

The couple seemed to share a telepathic connection. They exchanged a glance, both seeing the decisiveness in each other's eyes... Their daughter had been duped!

Off to the side, a certain Mrs. Du's instigating voice continued to fan the flames.

"This kid is such an idiot. Of all the people he could target, he had to set his sights on our Little Hanhan. Thankfully, our Little Hanhan has only ever been close to me since she was little; anyone else doesn't stand a chance."

"Our Little Hanhan has relatively high magic resistance and managed to tank it. Who knows if your Little Zhixia will have the good luck to survive it."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... Hmph, hmph, hmph. Good thing our Little Hanhan is smart. She won't be fooled by men or fall for their tricks. Our Du family won't have our wealth swallowed up by an outsider, hmph, hmph, hmph..."

Du Wanyi muttered to herself in a low voice on the side, humming and hawing. Her voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Dongfang Zhan and his wife beside her to hear.

With every word Du Wanyi said, the couple's faces grew a little darker, and their hearts sank a little further...

The couple exchanged a glance and nodded, as if they had made some kind of resolution.

A moment later.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

Su Su sat on the sofa, waiting somewhat anxiously for her daughter to answer the phone. Beside her sat Dongfang Zhan, whose complexion didn't look too good, and Mrs. Du, who was making sarcastic remarks.

"Sigh, it's fine. You old fogey, you don't have a son anyway, so what does it matter if your family's wealth gets swallowed up? Oh my, those are just the pedantic ideas of the older generation. Relax, it's fine. You leave your things to your Little Zhixia, and I'll leave mine to our Little Hanhan. Your Little Zhixia will then give them to someone else, while our Little Hanhan... Oh, it seems our Little Hanhan doesn't have anyone to give them to. She can only keep them in her own pockets, sigh..."

Du Wanyi counted on her fingers as she rambled on, even putting on an act and sighing as if she were looking out for Dongfang Zhan's best interests. Dongfang Zhan's face twisted in anger, his fists clenched rock hard!

But... Dongfang Zhan knew that although a certain crazy woman's words were harsh, they were the truth. If a scheming gold-digger succeeded, their family would no longer carry the surname Dongfang in the future!

Having his sore spot hit all at once, Dongfang Zhan furrowed his brows.

He couldn't help but feel a bit emotional in his heart. Even though a certain crazy woman was always at odds with him, she still thought of him when it came to major issues like this. Sigh...

Thinking of this, Dongfang Zhan's resentment towards Du Wanyi lessened considerably. "I'll give you that turtle from before. Take good care of it, and keep it facing north in your house."

Du Wanyi blinked. "Turtle? What turtle? What does our family's turtle have to do with you? What do you mean you're giving it to me? It belonged to our Du family in the first place, okay!"

Dongfang Zhan: "..."

You freaking...

Forget it, I won't get angry today.

Just as Dongfang Zhan was lamenting, Su Su's phone call finally went through!

"Hello, Zhixia, are you asleep yet?"

...

Meanwhile.

At the academy, in the villa area of the Student Council President, on the lawn outside.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz..."

A phone vibrated; someone was calling.

Dongfang Zhixia held up her phone and took a look, furrowing her brows... Mom?

Why is she calling so late?

"Madam President, is it something important? How about this, I'll go to the second floor to give you some privacy. Take your time with the call, and wait a bit..."

"Thump!"

"Shut up, you jerk. Who told you to stop? Keep walking!"

Dongfang Zhixia, with a cold face, let out a cold snort and knocked Ye Cheng on the head with some dissatisfaction.

Ye Cheng: "..."

Accepting his fate, Ye Cheng continued to have his head held by Dongfang Zhixia as they walked in circles on the lawn outside the villa. Round and round they went, circle after circle, circle after circle...

Huh?

Something was shining!

Ye Cheng's eyes were vacant, walking in circles as if his soul was about to leave his body. He looked like he was spacing out, but in reality, he was looping those mind-numbing short videos he had watched earlier in his mind... Still the strongest brain!

The unusual glow in the lawn suddenly caught Ye Cheng's attention, summoning his smooth brain back and filling it with wrinkles!

A one-yuan coin!!!

Ye Cheng's eyes lit up, and he suddenly accelerated, charging towards the one-yuan coin not far away.

Completely disregarding the life or death of the Madam President behind him...

"Hello, Zhixia, are you asleep yet?"

"No, I'm out for a walk right now... Ah!" Dongfang Zhixia was holding Ye Cheng's head, chatting casually with her mother, when... the sudden acceleration almost threw her off, causing her to cry out!

Su Su: "???"