Xu Xiaoyue paused. Her personality was such that she responded better to softness than force.  

Without hesitation, she fired back, “What do you mean by that? Do I need your permission just to make a friend?”  

“The way you’re talking—I’m not one of your soldiers!”  

Her temper flared, and her words spilled out in a rapid stream.  

“I didn’t mean it that way,” the man explained.  

“Then what did you mean? Why should I stay away from him? Besides, he’s helped me before.”  

“So he helped you once—have I not helped you more?” The man’s dark eyes fixed on her.  

Xu Xiaoyue gradually fell silent, though her expression remained defiant. “You can’t compare it like that. You’re both good people.”  

Yan Ye could finally understand how his brothers with younger sisters felt—it was endless worry, like no matter how much you cared, it was never enough.  

He reached over to adjust Xu Xiaoyue’s seatbelt properly before starting the engine and pulling onto the road.  

The entire time, he didn’t say a word.  

His face was as dark as charcoal, his lips pressed into a tight line as he stared straight ahead.  

“Are you… mad?” Xu Xiaoyue ventured cautiously.  

Yan Ye let out a cold laugh, not even glancing at her. “How could I be mad? If I got angry, I’d ruin my image as a ‘good person’ in your eyes.”  

He was throwing her own words back at her.  

Xu Xiaoyue opened her mouth, then closed it. “That’s not what I meant.”  

The rest of the drive to the police station passed in silence. Yan Ye turned off the engine and slowly rolled up the windows. Just as he was about to get out, he felt a timid tug on the hem of his shirt.  

“Are you mad?”  

A small, hesitant voice came from behind him.  

The man closed his eyes briefly, the faint scent of the girl’s fragrance drifting into his senses.  

He turned to face her and sighed. “He likes you. Can’t you tell? Or did you notice and just let him get close to you anyway?”  

It took Xu Xiaoyue a long moment to process his words.  

She had only met Gu Yichen twice—how could she possibly have noticed that he liked her?  

Her innocent eyes blinked in confusion. “I just met him today. There’s no way he already likes me.”  

Xu Xiaoyue thought to herself—she knew her own worth. It wasn’t like she was so stunning that everyone fell for her at first sight.  

Yan Ye didn’t respond. Instead, he reached out and gently pinched her chin between his fingers. “If you couldn’t tell he likes you, then what about me?”  

“W-what about you?” With her soft chin held in his grasp, Xu Xiaoyue’s mouth formed a little ‘O,’ and she had to quickly suck in her drool to keep it from dripping.  

“I like you.”  

Silence filled the car.  

Xu Xiaoyue wondered if she was hallucinating. Otherwise, how could Yan Ye—with that icy expression—just blurt out that he liked her?  

She hadn’t forgotten that this was the same man who, in the novel, had ultimately given the order for her execution.  

And now he was saying he liked her?  

As they stared at each other, Xu Xiaoyue’s mind went completely blank.  

If she had been bold enough to look closely, she would have noticed that the tips of the man’s ears had turned a deep shade of red, as if he were having an allergic reaction.  

“You can pretend you didn’t hear any of this.”  

Seeing how stunned she was, Yan Ye withdrew his hand, his face as cold as if she owed him a hundred grand.  

Faced with that expression, Xu Xiaoyue still found it hard to convince herself that what she had just heard was real.

The rough sensation of his touch still lingered on her skin, just like the man himself—impossible to ignore.  

She lowered her head, flustered and unsure of what to do. “This is so sudden,” she murmured, almost to herself.  

Yan Ye’s gaze fixed on her plump, rosy lips, his rationality and desire locked in an internal battle.  

He wanted to kiss her—to press his lips against hers, then trail kisses down her soft cheeks, from her forehead to the corner of her mouth.  

In the confined space of the car, Xu Xiaoyue sensed the danger and instinctively shrank back.  

The man indulged in his thoughts for a moment before forcing himself to suppress the rising heat.  

“Let’s go.”  

With a click, Yan Ye pushed open the car door, breaking the tension.  

Meanwhile, Scarface, still drunk, was snoring loudly in the police station, completely unfazed by the cloth stuffed in his mouth.  

“Wake up. Time to give your statement.”  

Jostled awake, the man instinctively wanted to shove whoever was in front of him, but upon seeing the officer, he slurred, “The hell you wakin’ me up in the middle of the night for?”  

“Middle of the night? You’re still drunk. Get up!”  

Yan Ye had given Chief Li two hours—enough time to dig up Scarface’s criminal record.  

Theft, robbery, and harassing women.  

Every time, he’d get detained for a while, then walk out unscathed.  

He committed plenty of offenses, but they were always minor, making it hard to pin him down for long.  

Scarface sat for a while, but when Xu Xiaoyue didn’t show up, he yelled toward the door, “Ain’t we s’posed to give statements? Where’s that bitch?”  

Remembering Xu Xiaoyue’s figure, he leered.  

Footsteps echoed down the hallway, growing louder.  

Scarface had already decided—since that little hussy had hit him first, he’d refuse to back down, reject any settlement.  

Unless, of course, she agreed to spend a couple of nights with him.  

The thought made him so excited he started whistling.  

The door creaked open—but the person who walked in wasn’t Xu Xiaoyue.  

A towering figure, nearly six and a half feet tall, loomed over him with sheer intimidation.  

“Why’s it you?” Scarface blurted, twisting his body to peer past the man toward the door.  

Yan Ye looked down at him coldly. “Who were you waiting for?”  

If Scarface had been sober, he might have noticed the terrifying darkness in the other man’s expression.  

But right now, his mind was clouded with lust, already fantasizing about how he’d negotiate with Xu Xiaoyue to get her into his bed.  

“Where’s that slut? I wanna see her! Bring her here!” he bellowed.  

Yan Ye said nothing, calmly unlocking the handcuffs.  

Scarface blinked in confusion but didn’t move, still shouting, “I ain’t leavin’! Get that bitch in here! She busted my head open—gotta fuck her twice to make it even!”  

He kept spewing filth, but when Yan Ye still didn’t react, he finally turned to look at him—  

Only to be met with a blinding pain as something slammed into his skull.  

He crumpled to the ground, writhing in agony.