Caught Red-Handed The Young Lady's Awakened Form Makes Its Debut

"Ah——"

After a round of friendly exchange and sparring.

Da Congming was brought back again, his eyes looking noticeably more dazed and innocent. The same question was once again placed before him.

Dongfang Zhixia tapped the photo in front of her with her fingertip and said, "Do you recognize this person?"

"I... I should recognize him!"

This time he nodded lightning-fast, not even glancing at the photo before agreeing. He had no choice—nod or get beaten to death. How dark were these people? He couldn't even count how many people had laid hands on him just now. All he remembered was a lot of people, and a lot of feet...

Wiping the dusty shoeprints off his face with a grimy hand, Da Congming sat up on his seat and began studying the person in the photo, trying hard to recall. Then... his mind went completely blank.

He had absolutely no memory of this guy!

Where did this ridiculously handsome man come from? His looks were almost catching up to Da Congming's own. If this guy were truly that notable, he would have at least some impression of him.

But nothing. Not a single memory.

Dongfang Zhixia's face remained cold: "Remember anything yet?"

Da Congming wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Uh... almost, miss. Just give me a moment, let me think harder. I've had quite a lot of patients recently, and this guy is too handsome—let me just think carefully, I should be able to recall..."

His survival instincts were working overtime.

When Dongfang Zhixia heard Da Congming say that Ye Cheng was "too handsome," her furrowed brow relaxed slightly. She kept her arms crossed over her chest, maintaining an aloof expression.

But she didn't rush him further. She gave him time to think.

A few minutes later.

"I remember now, miss!" Da Congming shouted with excitement.

Dongfang Zhixia straightened up: "Speak. Once you're done, you can leave with the money. Of course, you must abide by the terms in the contract. Otherwise, you'll have plenty of trouble coming your way. You understand what I mean."

With a look, the bodyguards around her stepped forward and opened a case. Inside—cash!

A whole case full of cash!

"After you go back, you can go from being a resident physician to a department head," Dongfang Zhixia added more bait.

The Dongfang family wasn't some gangster syndicate, after all. They couldn't be like that arrogant, holier-than-thou problem child's family, going around beating people up and solving everything with violence.

Their preferred method was the classic "slap then candy" approach.

Whether you ate the candy was up to you, but that slap—there was no dodging it. If Da Congming had simply said "yes, I know him" from the start, he wouldn't have taken that beating just now.

Dongfang Zhixia had investigated thoroughly. Every lead pointed to the hospital, and at the hospital, every lead pointed to Da Congming right here.

And you're telling me you haven't seen him?

If not you, then who else gets beaten?

"Miss, I remember now—I genuinely don't recognize him!" Da Congming said with a face full of sincerity.

Dongfang Zhixia: "..."

In an instant, her face darkened. She no longer wanted to waste any more words on this man. The bodyguards, well-trained and perceptive, caught the look in their young miss's eyes.

And so, "The Unspoken Tale of a Doctor and Bodyguards in an Abandoned Factory" was staged once again...

"Ahhh—"

After quite a while of beating, Dongfang Zhixia's brow furrowed. She even began to suspect that she might have gotten the wrong person. After all, Da Congming had no financial or personal ties to Ye Cheng—nothing, no connection whatsoever.

And she had put obvious benefits right in front of him. All he had to do was answer a few questions, and he'd walk away rich. There was no reason for him to be this stubborn.

Unless... he really didn't know. He really had never seen this person. They'd gotten the wrong guy.

Dongfang Zhixia rubbed her brow, hearing Da Congming's screams from not too far away. She waved her hand: "Stop. Let's go. Wrong person."

The bodyguards stopped and brought Da Congming back. There were no visible marks on his body, but he looked completely broken, half-dead and barely coherent.

"Whatever happened today stays buried in your gut. If anyone else comes looking for you, you'd better keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, you'll be in even worse shape."

Leaving that little "friendly advice," Dongfang Zhixia led her people away.

Naturally, the Dongfang family did leave behind the medical fees—not as outrageous as that case of cash from before, but still a very considerable sum.

Enough to keep him from working for over half a year.

That beating today... worth it!

But... he still had one burning question. Who the hell was that guy in the photo? He had zero recollection of him.

He hadn't even remembered, had taken a beating, and still walked away with this much. If he HAD remembered, would he have gotten everything?

He'd heard Dongfang Zhixia mention "department head" loud and clear. Oh, how he wanted to climb up that ladder. It's just that the hospital was as deep as a dark pit—the moment he walked in, sudden darkness, no sunlight to be found.

Barring any surprises, his life was probably set as it was. Before retirement, he might manage to scrape his way to some deputy position... but now, an opportunity had come.

Seize it, and deputy? Straight to full department head!

Da Congming had already sunk deep into his fantasy of a glorious future as a department head, completely ignoring Dongfang Zhixia's final warning before she left.

There would be more people coming for him. And the smartest thing to do was say nothing. Otherwise, things could get much worse. The next ones wouldn't be so kind.

All the photos Dongfang Zhixia had brought were collected and taken away when they left. The table was now empty. But on the floor—there was one photo that had fallen off during cleanup, accidentally stepped on as they were leaving. In the trampled dirt, Ye Cheng on the photo looked covered in a layer of gray, dull and filthy.

The handsome young man had suddenly turned into...

"Hm?"

Da Congming blinked, staring at the "dirty and battered" Ye Cheng. He felt oddly familiar.

It was like he'd seen him somewhere before.

None of the photos Dongfang Zhixia had shown him before gave him this feeling. But now, with that change... something clicked.

Two minutes of staring. He remembered. Well, sort of—not fully.

A giant question mark popped over Da Congming's head. Something was still missing. And then... he placed the photo of Ye Cheng on the ground and stomped on it a few times for good measure.

Picked it back up.

All fog dispersed. The skies cleared—everything came back.

He remembered. Oh, he remembered it all. No wonder he'd found the guy oddly familiar. It was HIM!

Of course he remembered. How could he forget? He'd come so close—so damn close—to going down in history. He'd already even thought up a name for the disease. And then... Ye Cheng had bolted.

The day Ye Cheng vanished, he'd been upset for a long time. Every subsequent call had gone unanswered. And with time, the whole thing had slipped his mind. But now, after all these months, a boomerang had come straight back and smacked him right in the head!

Hell yes. This was AWESOME!!!

Grinning with wild excitement, Da Congming grabbed the photo and dashed off after Dongfang Zhixia and her crew—only to stop halfway.

"Wait... if I go over there right now, am I going to get beaten to death?"

In just ten minutes or so, they'd gone from claiming not to know him to suddenly recognizing him—wasn't this just messing with him on purpose?

By then, forget about becoming some director, he'd be flattened into a meatball.

Da Congming: "..."

Silently, he stuffed the photo into his pocket, waiting for the right opportunity. Next time he came back to see the guy, he'd take a beating first, then claim he'd suddenly remembered, and happily collect the welfare package!

A million in the bag, director status achieved, life peak accomplished!!!

But until he was actually found... no way. He'd probably be treated as someone who deliberately hid the truth, get whipped into next week, and end up not even getting the reward he was owed.

...

Back at the academy.

Question: "I got caught by a female classmate I'm close with sneaking off to eat with another girl on the side... is there any dignified way to die?"

Answer: "666..."

Six your ass!

Damn it!

Can't you see I'm panicking right now?!

Ye Cheng was busy posting the thread while simultaneously cussing out the people replying to him, all while the Head Maid and the Young Miss were locked in a standoff right in front of him.

Unfortunately, it was right after school—class had just ended—and the Young Miss had caught them red-handed. The two of them were even in a sweet co-op formation, one in front and one behind... well, that's how Tang Yuyao saw it, anyway.

The Head Maid was also breaking out in a cold sweat, especially when she looked at the motionless yakuza heiress in front of her—she was the most troublesome one of them all.

Logically speaking, they should... be on the same side, really. But judging by the look on the other girl's face, it seemed she didn't really care for her or her Young Miss as "family."

The Head Maid's brain cells were burning at full capacity. Finally, after nearly two minutes of stalemate, she broke the ice.

"What we have isn't what you imagine. We just happened to run into each other on the way and came back together..."

"Oh? Did I say what kind of relationship you have?" Shen Qinghan said calmly.

Head Maid: "..."

The Head Maid's scalp was tingling. This kind of thing should have been a cakewalk for her—just a small-scale love triangle drama between girls, nothing complicated, easy to dissect...

But now that she was actually in the middle of it, the Head Maid realized just how dangerous it really was!

From secretly being thrilled and delighted before getting caught, to now feeling regret and desperately wishing she could turn back time...

It was like being a student who smuggled a phone into class, got busted by the teacher, and was now sitting in the office waiting for judgment—pure agony, absolute agony... but she'd still do it again next time.

The Head Maid was burning through every brain cell trying to find a way out, while Ye Cheng... tap tap tap.

He was still over there engaged in an intense firefight with the reply folks—using "your mom" as the center point and "your family tree" as the radius, laying down a three-dimensional, saturation-style bombardment. Judging by his typing speed, he was clearly on the winning side.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have failed to notice the pair of fancy little leather shoes that had appeared right in front of him.

Wait... leather shoes?

Ye Cheng: "???"

Holy crap, Young Miss, since when did you learn to teleport?!

Before Ye Cheng could even hide his phone, it was snatched away.

Ye Cheng: "..."

Damn, the no-look snatch!

Ye Cheng launched himself off his little e-bike like a rocket, but he didn't have the guts to try grabbing the phone back from the Young Miss. He just stood there on the side, staring at her with the most "innocent" puppy-dog eyes.

Attempting to melt the Young Miss's heart with love and convince her that taking someone's phone is a very rude thing to do...

Shen Qinghan furrowed her brows. "Idiot."

The entire phone screen was spotless—clean. Every single line was Ye Cheng going head-to-head with someone in a verbal brawl, and not a single one of those messages was fit to be shown in public. As for the original question he'd been worrying about? That was long gone, completely off the rails.

"Where did you go today?" Shen Qinghan shut the phone down and handed it back to him, her gaze calm as she asked.

Thump, thump, thump...

His little heart was pounding at a terrifying two hundred beats per minute, giving him that helpless feeling of being caught cheating by his girlfriend.

The Head Maid stepped forward to take the heat: "Today—"

"Does that concern you?" Shen Qinghan frowned, showing her displeasure more bluntly than she ever had before.

Head Maid: "..."

Was it just her imagination...? Why did it feel like this wasn't a simple classmate relationship anymore?

It felt like... it had gone a step further?