Bastard.
But Yanyan still took out her phone. If there was money to be had, she’d be a fool not to take it.
As for Wen Ling, she frowned when she saw the bodyguard return.
“How did it go?”
The bodyguard lowered his head, not daring to look at him, and answered honestly, “I was forcibly taken away by the fifth young master of the Zhou family’s bodyguards. They only just let me come back.”
“…”
Two days later, Wen Ling sat before the mirror, allowing the stylist behind her to arrange her long hair.
The stylist, Aaron, was someone she had specially brought back from Country M. Like the housekeeper and nannies, he lived next door, all for the sake of styling Wen Ling’s hair and outfits every day.
Aaron lifted a lock of Wen Ling’s hair and wrapped it around the curling iron. Unexpectedly, when he lowered his eyes, he saw an especially conspicuous red mark on the side of his young miss’s slender neck, made all the more obvious by how fair her skin was.
“Miss, on your neck…” Aaron hesitated.
Wen Ling raised her eyes and looked at him through the mirror. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly as she asked, puzzled, “What is it?”
Aaron pointed to where the red mark was. Wen Ling leaned closer to the mirror and tilted her head to take a look. It was actually quite an obvious red mark; anyone who didn’t know better might think she had done something interesting last night.
Wen Ling touched the red mark with her finger. It itched a little. She said with certainty, “Something probably bit me. It’s fine. Just let my hair down and it’ll cover it.”
Aaron agreed. Wen Ling lowered her eyes to look at her phone, then suddenly seemed to think of something. Her lips curved into a smile that was anything but well-intentioned, and she looked up at Aaron. “No need to cover it. Put my hair up for me.”
Aaron looked at her in surprise through the mirror. Wen Ling blinked playfully and said, “Listen to me. Put it up.”
Since it was his young miss’s instruction, even if Aaron felt it was inappropriate, he did not refute her. He could only gather Wen Ling’s hair into a beautiful low updo, a few strands falling over her collarbone, giving her a disheveled yet gentle kind of beauty.
Wen Ling looked herself over in the mirror with satisfaction. Aaron picked up an off-white satin fishtail dress from the side and asked, “Miss, this dress suits your hairstyle today.”
Wen Ling trusted Aaron’s taste. She took it and went to the walk-in closet to change.
Standing before the full-length mirror in the walk-in closet, Wen Ling lightly traced her fingers over her own neck. The fishtail dress had a shallow V-neck, just enough to reveal the red mark that could easily make one’s imagination run wild.
Wen Ling laughed softly, picked up her handbag, and went out.
Hua University’s anniversary celebration was especially grand. Not only alumni from every class year attended, but popular celebrities had also been invited to perform on-site.
At this moment, luxury cars gathered outside the school gates. But when the car Wen Ling was sitting in gradually approached and drove straight into the campus, curious gazes all turned toward it in unison.
The car was rare enough; the breathtaking beauty who got out after it stopped outside the auditorium was rarer still.
Wen Ling glanced around, then returned a polite smile to the curious onlookers staring at her.
She walked slowly into the auditorium. At this time, people inside were gathered in twos and threes. During Wen Ling’s two years as an exchange student, she had not actually been very close with her classmates. After several years apart, everyone had changed so much that she had no idea who was who anymore.
Just then, three girls huddled together, as if deliberately speaking for her to hear. Even from far away, their mocking, insinuating voices could be heard clearly.
“Isn’t that Miss Wen Ling? She came back from Country M? The school actually invited her?”
“Back then, she relied on her good family background and her boyfriend to bully Ruan Miaomiao on campus. Plenty of people in school saw her leading others to bully Ruan Miaomiao. That’s why she tucked her tail between her legs and went back to Country M. And now she still has the nerve to come back.”
“Shh, keep your voice down. She’s a member of the Wen family. She’s not someone we can afford to provoke.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? The Wen family may indeed be a prominent family in Country M, but here in Sijiu City, powerful families are everywhere. I’m not scared of her. Besides, the Wen family didn’t choose her as the heir and chose an adopted one instead. Doesn’t that make it obvious that she isn’t favored in the Wen family?”
Wen Ling smiled gently as she took a glass of champagne from the tray in a waiter’s hands. Her high heels clicked crisply and pleasantly against the smooth floor. She walked slowly, and only when she had reached the three women did she softly speak. “Excuse me, are you talking about me? I’m very curious. Could you tell me about it?”
The three of them turned back in unison, looking at Wen Ling with frightened expressions, as though Wen Ling were some terrifying beast.
Wen Ling smiled helplessly at the three of them. “Sorry, I accidentally overheard.” She took another step forward, drawing even closer to them, and said softly, “Why don’t you say it again? I’ll listen and see whether what you’re saying is right or not. If it isn’t, I can tell you the truth, so that when you go out and spread nonsense, no one will mock you for spouting lies.”
“You!” The woman in the pink gown took a step back in embarrassed anger and raised her hand to point at Wen Ling. But before she could even start cursing, her finger was gently seized by a delicate, fair hand, then abruptly bent downward.
“Since you’re accusing me of campus violence, then I might as well make the charge real and let you taste what true violence is.”
The woman screamed in pain. As Wen Ling used more and more force, her body twisted more and more. Cold sweat ruined the makeup she had so carefully applied. She truly could not bear it anymore and began pleading, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Miss Wen. I was talking nonsense. I’m sorry. Let me go, please.”
“Miss, next time, remember to keep that mouth of yours in check when you’re outside.” Wen Ling suddenly let go. The woman fell to the floor, and the other women who had been gossiping with her hurried forward to support her, not daring to look at Wen Ling.
“Oh.” A flash of inspiration crossed Wen Ling’s mind, and only then did she match the three of them to her memories. In a soft, gentle voice, she asked, “Aren’t you the three who used to follow behind Ruan Miaomiao back then? What is it? Now that Ruan Miaomiao is a newly popular young actress who’s climbed onto a high branch, you’ve all risen along with the tide too?”
The woman still wanted to retort, but the woman in the blue dress who had gone to help her covered her mouth and warned in a low voice, “No matter what, she’s still from the Wen family. If you keep scolding her, she’ll definitely have someone make trouble for your family!”
The woman could only shut her mouth unwillingly. Wen Ling raised a brow and was just about to say something else when a cold male voice, tinged with reprimand, interrupted her.
“Wen Ling, what are you doing?”
Wen Ling turned her head to look. It was actually Senior Shen Yusheng, Zhou Yinhe’s classmate.
The contemptuous expression originally on her face instantly vanished. Wen Ling looked at Shen Yusheng innocently as he walked closer.
“Wen Ling, are you bullying your classmates?” Shen Yusheng looked at her in disappointment. “You weren’t like this before. Could it be that, just as they said, everything back then was just an act?”
Wen Ling secretly rolled her eyes in her heart. She bit her lower lip slightly, the corners of her eyes turning red, her voice filled with grievance and panic.
“Senior Shen, I didn’t bully them. They were the ones who cursed at me and even wanted to hit me, so I fought back.”
Wasn’t it just acting like a green tea? I can do that too.
Shen Yusheng had arrived late and had not heard the three women’s mocking insinuations. He had only seen that it was indeed the woman in the pink dress who raised her hand first before Wen Ling grabbed and twisted it back. He frowned, his face full of confusion. Why had he subconsciously felt that Wen Ling was bullying someone else?
Seeing this, Wen Ling continued in an aggrieved voice, “Senior, I really didn’t bully them.”
Shen Yusheng felt ashamed of his own subconscious assumption. A blush spread directly over his handsome, fair face.
“Sorry. I misunderstood you.”
Wen Ling was too lazy to argue with someone shackled by the plot’s settings and said magnanimously, “It’s all right, Senior.” After she finished speaking, she muttered another sentence, “Anyway, I’m already used to being misunderstood.”