Chapter 20: Hurt self-esteem

Lin Yiwei wiped her damp, fluffy long hair as she walked out of the bathroom. Her phone on the bed buzzed incessantly. Sliding the screen open, a barrage of accusing messages from Ye Anning popped up. Ye Anning was an impatient person—if Lin Yiwei couldn’t provide a satisfactory answer today, Ye Anning would probably come to Luguang Town overnight.

“Lin Yiwei, what do you mean? Speak up.”

“What’s going on between you and Xie Bo?”

“Why did you lie to me? I introduced him to you. Why would you do this to me?”

Among these messages, there was also an urgent voice message in Chi Xiyu dialect from someone else, pushing her to complete a task soon: “I’m not very patient. I want to see them fall out, become complete strangers within these two days.”

Lin Yiwei put down her phone, lay on the bed, and rubbed her eyes, not caring that her freshly washed hair was wetting the sheets.

Ye Anning kept bombarding her with texts:

“Lin Yiwei, speak up!”

“Do you believe I will come to Luguang Town right now? I need a reasonable explanation from you!”

“Speak up, you coward!”

As she read these messages, Lin Yiwei felt torn inside. Xie Bo was right; to achieve her goal, she couldn’t afford to hesitate. Worrying about this and that, she’d end up achieving nothing. She might as well be the villain.

After some thought, Lin Yiwei sent Ye Anning her location, including the hotel and room number.

An: “What do you mean?”

Breeze: “Aren’t you coming to settle the score? Come on, don’t just threaten and not follow through.”

An: “You… don’t think I wouldn’t dare.”

Breeze: “Look how many messages you’ve sent me, daring only to trouble me. Can you be so bold in front of Xie Bo?”

An: “Just you wait!”

Provoking Ye Anning like this, given her straightforward nature, she would surely come over tonight.

Lin Yiwei’s trembling hands put down the phone as she stared at the ceiling, her mind going blank. If Lin Xie knew she had become like this… Lin Yiwei dared not even imagine what his expression would be. With this thought, her eyes grew sore.

She really missed her brother.

Xie Bo had just finished showering and was drying his hair when he heard the doorbell and opened the door to find Lin Yiwei standing there. Her fluffy, long hair hung messily over her shoulders, and she looked thin and frail. The dim incandescent light in the hallway gave her a ghostly pallor, like the fair skin and delicate bones of a female ghost, accentuated by a mole between her brows, adding a mysterious allure.

Xie Bo’s gaze deepened, a hint of teasing playfulness emerging as he asked, “Miss Ghost, what can I do for you?”

“Just now, it seemed like someone was knocking on my door,” Lin Yiwei said timidly. “Xie Bo, I’m scared.”

“So?”

“I don’t dare to be alone, can I stay in your room for a while?”

After she spoke, she tried to barge in, but Xie Bo blocked her way.

His upper body was bare, his arms were muscular and bulging, and his muscle lines were smooth and superior, forming a solid barrier before her eyes.

“What are you up to?”

“What could I possibly be up to? Look at you, always so suspicious,” Lin Yiwei said with a mischievous smile, “Let me in, please.”

“You refused to spend the night when I invited you, and now you’re so proactive,” Xie Bo said, looking down at the young girl with a fox-like gaze, “Trying to play some tricks on me?”

“You’re being too suspicious. I don’t know anyone here; what could a frail girl like me possibly do?”

A draft blew through, and she sneezed.

Xie Bo lowered his arms, allowing her to enter the room.

The moment he closed the door, Xie Bo turned around, and the young girl, like a cat, swiftly moved away from the big bed to the window, leaning awkwardly against the wall.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

Xie Bo didn’t bother with her anymore and picked up a hairdryer, blowing his damp hair.

“Can’t sleep because it’s a long night, thinking about it again?”

“No!”

“Then you want to take the pure love route with me?”

“Can’t I just be here to stay in your room for one night?”

He snorted through his nose, “Do you realize how absurd that sounds?”

“I don’t care what you think.”

Lin Yiwei was calculating the time it would take for Ye Anning to arrive; in no more than two hours, she would see her sharing a room with Xie Bo.

She didn’t believe she could stand it.Breaking it off early with such a scumbag, Lin Yiwei thought she was saving a life.

She simply sat down on his bed.

Xie Bo’s lips curved coldly, he put down the hairdryer and moved toward her.

Lin Yiwei kept retreating until she was against the soft headboard, with nowhere else to go.

She smelled the faint mint scent on the man, like that of shampoo.

He didn’t need any perfume; his body was exuding strong male pheromones, dominant, assertive, and intense…

“If Chi Xiyu finds out you’ve slept with me, she’ll kill me,” she said coldly.

“If she knew how you slept with me that night, she’d do more than kill you,” Xie Bo murmured against her cheek, his tone laden with meaning, “She’d cut you into a thousand pieces.”

Lin Yiwei glared at him, “You two are childhood sweethearts; even if she’s not your girlfriend now, can’t you at least act a bit like it, and not be such a jerk?”

Xie Bo laughed, like a heartless rogue, “Speaking of which, I grew up with our family’s German Shepherd too; also a childhood friend. I should introduce you sometime; she’s cuter than Chi Xiyu.”

Xie Bo inhaled the faint scent of her body wash, his hand already reaching out, but Lin Yiwei pushed him away.

“Coming to my room, voluntarily getting into my bed, and then rejecting me, your actions are quite immoral.”

Lin Yiwei anxiously checked the time on her phone, speaking in a serious tone, “I don’t have protection.”

“I can go buy some.”

“No, Xie Bo.”

The longing in his eyes was uncontrollable as he gently stroked her jawline, “Yiyi, what exactly are you thinking?”

“If I tell you what I’m thinking, would you satisfy my wish?”

“Let’s see, you know I usually indulge you.”

Lin Yiwei thought for a moment and set a condition that Xie Bo would definitely refuse—

“Be my boyfriend and give up the arranged marriage with the Chi family.”

The moment she spoke, Xie Bo’s gaze deepened significantly.

“You’re not serious, you want to marry me?”

Lin Yiwei made a greedy expression, making her words seem genuine and believable, “For a girl from the lower classes like me, marrying into a wealthy family like the Xie’s is something I wouldn’t even dare dreamed of.”

He sneered his rough fingertips gently stroking her chin, “Yiyi, there’s no free lunch in this world. You get as much as you give, and high society isn’t easy as you think.”

After years of enduring grievances and hardships, trembling with fear every day as if walking on thin ice, Xie Bo didn’t think that by marrying him and entering a wealthy family, she could gain much happiness.

“You should know, you can’t possibly marry me.”

“Then you should also know, I won’t do this with you anymore.”

“That night you took me home, you didn’t say that marrying into the Xie family was your goal.”

Xie Bo clutched her hand, almost pressing her entirely into the soft bed, his heavy breathing mingling with hers, ambiguous desires growing wantonly, “Are you playing tricks on me now, Yiyi?”

Lin Yiwei suddenly said, “Yes, Xie Bo, I am essentially a gold digger, and catching you was an unexpected delight. Keeping you at arm’s length, playing hard to get, are all necessary tactics. Do you think it was your charm that conquered me? On the contrary, if you didn’t have the Xie surname, if you couldn’t marry me, you would mean nothing to me.”

This statement, like a switch, instantly cleared the gloom in Xie Bo’s eyes.

Xie Bo let go of her and threw a soft pillow at her: “Go sleep on the couch.”

Lin Yiwei breathed a sigh of relief and took the pillow to the couch.

After such a definitive statement, he probably wouldn’t want any intimacy with her anymore.

Although it hurt his pride, it was admittedly unkind.

But… he himself said it, being a bad girl isn’t so bad.

Lin Yiwei curled up on the couch like a kitten, motionless, even suppressing her breath to be very light, very light.

Waiting, waiting for Ye Anning to knock on the door.

The cool autumn wind filtered through the window screen, causing Lin Yiwei to shiver and cough lightly.

Already unable to sleep, Xie Bo opened his eyes impatiently: “Noisy.”

Lin Yiwei covered her mouth, desperately holding back the itch in her lungs, but couldn’t help sneezing again, rubbing her nose: “Can’t help it.”

Finally, Xie Bo said, “Come to bed.”

“No.”

“I won’t touch you.”

“No.” The girl persisted, “You’ll kill me.”

“I won’t hit you.”

“Still no.”

Xie Bo was really annoyed by her stubbornness.

With her bad temper, strong self-esteem, and especially her double standards, he wouldn’t have given such a girl a second glance in the past.

Most girls were willing to listen to him, indulging his temper, and wouldn’t say something like, “I like you only because you are Mr. Xie, you yourself are not attractive to me at all” – such utterly nonsensical words.

But no matter how annoying, it was undeniable that Lin Yiwei still attracted him.

Purely physical attraction.

A few minutes later, he irritably got up, walked over to the couch, and picked up the girl horizontally.

She was startled and struggled fiercely.

Xie Bo’s embrace was firm and restrictive, and after throwing her onto the bed, he pulled up the blanket and wrapped her like a silkworm in its cocoon, then lay down and embraced her from behind.

Lin Yiwei felt as if she had entered a web, bound tightly by layers of spider silk, unable to move.

She struggled stubbornly, as if she was extremely repulsed by his touch.

Xie Bo lowered his voice and threatened, “Try moving again, I really can’t bear it anymore.”

His words had some effect; Lin Yiwei dared not move at all, allowing him to hold her through the blanket.

Soon, the man’s breathing became even, and his warm breath fell on the back of her neck.

He fell asleep.

Lin Yiwei, however, endured with all her will, suffering through most of the night, counting every second that passed.

Why hasn’t Ye Anning come yet?

Logically, the text message clearly indicated the hotel room number, and with Ye Anning’s naive and impulsive nature, she would definitely come to “catch the cheaters in bed.”

Everything that was happening was enough to make her see Xie Bo’s true character clearly and stay away from him.

Then, the plan would be successful.

Struggling until the early hours of the morning, Lin Yiwei finally couldn’t hold on any longer; her eyelids fought fiercely, and she fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, she was awakened by the sound of Xie Bo’s electric razor in the bathroom, and she sat up groggily, looked at the empty space beside her in bed, and glanced at his jacket carelessly thrown on the sofa.

Ye Anning… didn’t come at all last night!

That’s not like her.

Lin Yiwei took out her phone and sent Ye Anning a message with just a punctuation mark: ?

The received red dot indicated—Ye Anning had blocked her.

She turned her head toward the bathroom and through the mirror’s reflection, could see the man’s superior jawline and his long, beautiful neck.

One day without shaving, and his face had a clear stubble, indicating this man’s strong secretion of male hormones.

Noticing Lin Yiwei’s gaze in the mirror, he smiled and countered, “Didn’t your good friend come to disturb our sweet dreams last night?”

Lin Yiwei frowned, “Did you contact her?”

He cleaned the razor and replied disdainfully, “Do I need to?”

“Then why didn’t she show up?”

“Yiwei, think about it. Ye Anning has no status now, not a girlfriend, not a lover, at most an admirer I haven’t directly rejected. What right does she have to ‘catch a cheater in bed’?”

Hearing him say this, Lin Yiwei realized she had been naive.

Although Ye Anning was simple, she was not stupid and was particularly tactful in front of Xie Bo.

Not just Ye Anning, probably even Chi Xiyu didn’t have the status to directly interfere with Xie Bo’s private life.

Lin Yiwei felt somewhat defeated, “If you don’t like her, why not just reject her? If you rejected her, there wouldn’t be any issues at all!”

“Reject her, help you achieve your KPI, what do I gain from that?” Xie Bo wiped the wet razor with a paper towel, giving her a cold look, “A woman who thinks I have no charm, a woman who only cares about my surname, how low would I have to be to keep helping again and again?”

After saying that, he even took out his phone and called Ye Anning.

It rang only once before Ye Anning picked up, her voice filled with grievance and astonishment, “Xie Bo…”

Xie Bo had never initiated contact with her before.

The man intentionally turned on the speakerphone, allowing Lin Yiwei to hear, “Nothing happened last night, don’t misunderstand, it was just that the car broke down and we stayed overnight in Luguang Town. I’ll be back today, I won’t touch your friend.”

Ye Anning sounded almost tearful, “Young Master Xie… I knew it, she was talking nonsense, I knew you wouldn’t…”

Xie Bo smirked coldly, his eyes hooking Lin Yiwei, “Yes, you have to be careful about who you make friends with, you’re so naive, don’t be deceived by bad girls.”

“Mhm, I’ve already blocked her, I won’t hang out with her anymore!”

“That’s good, bye then.”

Saying that, he didn’t wait for Ye Anning’s sticky goodbyes and hung up the phone.

Lin Yiwei: ……

Alright, alright, in the end, it looks like I’m the only bad person left.

In the morning, Xie Bo went to the motorcycle repair shop to supervise the repair process, pulling Lin Yiwei along as if walking a dog. Lin Yiwei was clearly unhappy, unresponsive to anything he said, and her expression was very cold.

Chi Xiyu sent her another message—

Xixi: “Did you succeed? You said they would break up today, what’s the situation now?”

Lin Yiwei looked down at the text message, her fingertips hesitating: “Sorry Xixi, I failed. Xie Bo didn’t fall for me.”

Xixi: “…………”

This statement evidently heightened Chi Xiyu’s sense of crisis.

Why would Xie Bo stubbornly choose Ye Anning despite the two looking similar? Chi Xiyu wouldn’t care if Lin Yiwei, being a minor character, got picked by Xie Bo to play around with for a while. But Ye Anning… Ye Anning was a threat, her existence could jeopardize the future alliance through marriage between the Xie and Chi families.

Chi Xiyu couldn’t let this happen.

Xixi: “Lin Yiwei, if you can’t pull this off, I don’t need you as a friend. You understand that, right?

“Breeze: “I know.”

If she couldn’t handle things for Chi Xiyu, she didn’t deserve to stay in her circle of friends. Chi Xiyu wasn’t short of friends, especially not ones from the lower rungs.

Breeze: “Give me a bit more time, let me try again.”

Xixi: “How long do you need?”

Breeze: “Two weeks.”

Xixi: “Ten days at most.”

Lin Yiwei had no room to refuse, so she gritted her teeth and agreed.

Xie Bo pushed his black motorcycle out of the repair shop, pressed the brake, and prepared to test the braking system. Lin Yiwei ran over, straddled the bike from the front, and hugged him.

Xie Bo: ?

Xie Bo: “What’s this pose?”

“Haven’t seen you for a few minutes, I missed you so much.” Lin Yiwei wrapped her arms around him like an octopus, resting her head on his shoulder, “Can you stop paying attention to Ye Anning, please, Bo…”

“Are you sick?”

“Get off.”

Lin Yiwei still stubbornly clung to him, speaking in a timid voice: “I’m desperate, the only way you can get me to let go is to push me away.”

Xie Bo chuckled coldly, indeed pulled her off, and kicked her away, saying, “I’m testing the bike, come on if you’re not afraid of dying.”

Lin Yiwei, sticky as glue, clung to him again, embracing his waist from behind: “Xie Bo, please agree, okay, can’t I apologize for what I said last night?”

“Get lost, I’m about to test drive.”

He pulled her away and revived the engine, driving the motorcycle away.

Raising a cloud of dust, it choked Lin Yiwei into a coughing fit.

She frowned, watching his retreating figure, even wondering if he would just leave and abandon her there.

The young girl crouched pitifully at the edge of the grass, looking down at the WeChat profile picture of Lin Xie.

It was a fat cartoon white polar bear, while she always used a little penguin. Later, a mutual friend with her brother joked that one was a polar bear and the other a penguin from the Antarctic, almost like they were using a couple’s profile picture.

She blushed, wanting to change the profile picture, but Lin Xie insisted it was a sibling picture and didn’t need to be changed.

She had to find him, dead or alive, she must find him!

Lin Yiwei wiped the moisture from the corner of her eyes.

………

She waited by the roadside for over half an hour, almost believing that Xie Bo had really left her behind. She considered calling a van to go back to Qinggang City, thinking that during the day she probably wouldn’t encounter any bad people.

Soon, a black figure finally appeared, racing toward her and screeching to a halt. His long legs touched the ground to stabilize the motorcycle, his storm jacket making him look quite cool.

Seeing the girl crouching by the curb, looking pitiful and her eyes slightly red, Xie Bo frowned, “Cried?”

“I thought you had left.”

“Are you silly? I told you I was testing the bike!”

“Why didn’t you take me with you?”

“The braking system has a problem; it won’t stop. You want to die with me?”

Lin Yiwei stood up, “Oh, I misunderstood.”

Xie Bo threw the helmet at her, while he still wore gray goggles, “Get on.”

“Wait a second.”

Lin Yiwei clumsily put on her helmet, and Xie Bo, disliking her awkwardness, yanked her over, roughly fastened her helmet, and buckled the strap around her neck.

“It’s tight! Xie Bo, it’s choking me, cough cough…”

Xie Bo ignored her complaints and securely fastened the strap. The young girl kept tugging at it.

“Get on the bike.”

She obediently sat on the back of the motorcycle and wrapped her arms around his lean waist.

Xie Bo didn’t immediately start the engine, feeling the girl’s arms tightly around him. “Yiyi, it must be uncomfortable being forced to hug someone you dislike, right?”

Muffled by her helmet, Lin Yiwei responded in a stifled tone, “A bit.”

Xie Bo rolled his eyes, started the engine, and drove off. Then he heard the girl say, “Last night, I was talking nonsense.”

“Saying you wanted to marry me was nonsense?”

“Not that part.” Lin Yiwei spoke sincerely, “Saying you had no charm, that was false. After that night, I wasn’t the only one reminiscing.”

The man looked down and clearly saw his sports watch heart rate fluctuate dramatically, like a small mountain range.