The next day, Mu Wan, still groggy from sleep, was woken up by the sound of her phone ringing. She answered it to find it was Kuang Xingran.

She picked up the call.

Kuang Xingran immediately began yelling from the other end of the line. “Wan wan, are we not friends anymore? You don’t answer my calls or reply to my messages. Are you trying to cut me off?”

Mu Wan rubbed her throbbing temples, her voice groggy. “If you have something to say, just say it.”

Kuang Xingran angrily responded, “What else could it be? It’s about you and Kuang Ye, of course.”

At the mention of his name, Mu Wan instantly became alert. She glanced at the time on her phone, yawned, and made plans with Kuang Xingran to meet at a private café. After getting up and freshening up, she prepared to go.

Kuang Xingran and Mu Wan had grown up together. Although she sometimes acted out, her heart wasn’t bad. Mu Wan was curious, though. In the past, Kuang Xingran had disliked Kuang Ye, but she would only complain to them about it. This time, however, Kuang Xingran seemed to be taking things too far, trying to make him embarrass himself in front of everyone. What had changed?

When they arrived at the café, Kuang Xingran was dressed in a strikingly sexy outfit. She wore a dark green diamond-patterned tube top on top, and extremely short shorts on the bottom. Her arms were adorned with colorful studded bracelets. If it weren’t for her face, this outfit would have been a disaster.

Kuang Xingran sulked, stirring her coffee with a spoon, glaring at Mu Wan sitting across from her.

“Come clean and you’ll be forgiven, resist and you’ll be punished. What’s going on between you and Kuang Ye? You know I hate him.”

Mu Wan had nothing to hide from Kuang Xingran. “I like him. I’m planning to marry him.”

Kuang Xingran raised her voice in disbelief. “Why? Didn’t you like my brother?”

Mu Wan corrected her. “Xingran, Kuang Ye is also your brother.” Then she said with a calm expression, “As for Kuang Shuyu, we’ve never officially been together, so there’s nothing to talk about.”

Kuang Xingran retorted, “How could that be? Shuyu Ge really likes you, I can tell.”

Mu Wan looked up at her. “Xingran, being able to tell isn’t enough. If he liked me, knowing that I’m engaged to Kuang Ye, why did he never try to compete for Grandpa’s favor?”

Kuang Xingran replied, “Because Grandpa favors Kuang Ye—”

Mu Wan interrupted, “But your parents and you also favor him, including me in the past. If he even had a tiny bit of desire to be with me, this engagement banquet would have never existed from the start.”

So either he didn’t like her, or he was sure she would run away from the wedding, and didn’t want to be the bad guy first. The latter was far worse.

Kuang Xingran fell silent, her mouth opening but no words coming out. Finally, she scratched her head in defeat. “Alright, alright, I can’t argue with you, but if you don’t like Shuyu, fine, but why would you like Kuang Ye?”

Mu Wan’s ears turned slightly red as she raised her eyebrows and smiled. “I just like him.”

She then stretched out her hand and asked Kuang Xingran, “You mentioned a video yesterday of Kuang Ye working as a thug for Black Net Bar. Can you give it to me?”

Kuang Xingran, confused, replied, “It’s in my phone. Why do you want it?”

Since Mu Wan had mentioned she was going to get engaged to Kuang Ye, Kuang Xingran, despite her dislike for him, couldn’t ruin her friend’s engagement banquet. So she urgently pulled back the file.

Mu Wan said with confidence, “I want to admire my fiancé’s youthful charm.”

Kuang Xingran: “…”

She reached out and touched Mu Wan’s forehead, wondering if her best friend had been possessed. “What curse did Kuang Ye put on you?”

Mu Wan retorted, “And why do you hate Kuang Ye so much? Didn’t you used to say his background was pitiable and that we should make up for it?”

Kuang Xingran fell silent and looked away, clearly not wanting to discuss it further.

Mu Wan didn’t press her, but after downloading the video that Kuang Xingran sent, she reminded her to delete it and not keep a copy.

Kuang Xingran gave her a side-eye. “You’re my best friend, even though I can’t stand him, I won’t go after him. I’ll just ignore him.”

Mu Wan, touched, ordered a few more delicate cakes for her, then casually asked, “Where did you find this video?”

Kuang Xingran replied, “I just found it online.”

After parting ways with Kuang Xingran, Mu Wan opened her phone and found someone with the username “x,” sending the video to them. “Help me trace the original source of this video.” Then she clicked the transfer button and sent over ten thousand yuan.

After being brought back to the Kuang family, Aunt Zhou had always treated Kuang Ye’s past as a disgrace and had made sure all content related to his public appearances was deleted from the internet. Kuang Xingran had casually found his black history—something that didn’t make sense.

…

Walking out of the café, Mu Wan strolled down a tree-lined avenue, basking in the warmth of the sunlight. During the time she was imprisoned in the basement, even a ray of sunshine felt like a luxury to her.

“Another win! It hasn’t even been fifteen minutes, the ST team is amazing.”

“Thanks to Kuang Ye, he successfully counter-jungled and kept ganking, the other side couldn’t even get any farm. He’s so skilled.”

On a bench by the street, two kids leaned together, murmuring, eyes glued to their phone screens.

Mu Wan paused in her steps.

Kuang Ye? He was indeed a professional esports player, but in high society, this job was seen as unseemly, even shameful. The Kuang family regarded it as disgraceful, so very few people knew about it.

Curious, she opened her phone, searched for Kuang Ye, and a live-stream link quickly appeared. She clicked on it, and a large victory banner flashed across the screen. At the same time, an excited voice came through the speaker.

“Let’s congratulate the ST team for winning this LPL Spring Championship!”