「The next morning.」
Shen Fanyun was suddenly woken up by the sound of sobbing. His eyes were bleary, and he immediately felt annoyed. Who cries like it's a funeral this early in the morning? Last night, the dragon had stormed the cavern four times, and Shen Fanyun desperately needed his rest.
"Did someone in your family pass away?" Shen Fanyun raised an eyebrow.
Su Xiyang choked out between sobs, filled with self-loathing, "Sob, sob... I'm not clean anymore. I'm a completely bad woman now."
"Before I met you, I was chaste and conservative. Now? My mind is filled with your wildness and how I eagerly gave in. I… I must be losing my mind!"
"How could I be this kind of woman?"
Shen Fanyun was speechless.
"What exactly is our relationship? Lovers? Strangers? Or am I just... your plaything? A tool?" Su Xiyang questioned him, her eyes brimming with tears.
Women are such a hassle.
Shen Fanyun sighed softly. Just last night, this woman's eyes were silky with seduction, and she had been even more proactive than him. But as soon as the sun rose, she started sobbing with self-reproach?
"Do you love me?" Su Xiyang suddenly asked. If there was no love, then what was the pleasure they shared worth?
Love? What even is love? What does it mean?
A flicker of pain crossed Shen Fanyun's eyes. Su Xiyang noticed something was wrong, so she stopped crying and silently stared at him. To her, this wicked, domineering man was making her extremely uncomfortable.
"Love?" Shen Fanyun shook his head and sighed.
Fortunately, Su Xiyang's emotions stabilized. She took a bath on her own and got ready to leave.
"We shouldn't see each other again. Let's end it here," Su Xiyang said, her resolve firm as she clenched her fists.
"You're crazy," Shen Fanyun waved dismissively, turning over to go back to sleep.
Su Xiyang stared blankly at Shen Fanyun on the bed, her expression a mess of complexity.
What a heartless bastard, pulling up his pants and not giving a damn. I was crying my eyes out, and not only did he not comfort me, he called me crazy?
"Go to hell, you jerk!" Su Xiyang slammed the door with a BANG and stormed out.
Shen Fanyun woke up around eleven o'clock and had brunch. Zhan Feng had been waiting downstairs for a while.
Once in the car, a visibly dazed Shen Fanyun silently opened the window. In the few days since his return, he hadn't truly taken the time to observe the changes in Hangcheng City.
Ten years. The city changed with each passing day, with skyscrapers rising from what was once flat ground. In those same ten years, Han Feng—the rich young master who had once boasted he would run Shen Fanyun out of Hangcheng City for good—was still as prominent as ever.
The giant screen in the commercial district was displaying Han Feng's wedding photo. In the picture, he was dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, his face beaming with a radiant, blissful smile. His right arm was wrapped around a stunningly beautiful woman. The woman wore a phoenix coronet and embroidered wedding robes, her posture graceful and charming. Her head leaned gently against Han Feng's shoulder. They were the very picture of a match made in heaven, a handsome and talented couple.
Li Qiuchan.
After all these years, she had finally become Han Feng's bride. On this very day, their upcoming marriage was being advertised with great fanfare all over Hangcheng City. Their wedding photos hung from the lampposts on every street and alley. What a grand display!
Shen Fanyun was left breathless. He spread his hands and began to clap slowly, as if offering a sarcastic blessing to the couple about to enter the hallowed halls of marriage.
After a decade had passed, he thought the pain would have faded. But alas, the humiliation and disgrace of his youth were like a scar on the palm of his hand—impossible to remove, impossible to heal. It would only serve as a daily reminder.
"Back then, Qiuchan and I were deeply in love. We adored each other and promised we'd go to the same university."
"The dreams of youth are so pure, so pristine, and I was carefully working toward ours. Unfortunately, some people just can't stand to see you succeed."
"By the same token, the person you once firmly believed would stand by you and trust you unconditionally, no matter what, can suddenly change one day—so much that you barely recognize them!"
The scenery remained, but the people had changed.
So, after ten years, to see you and him nestled together, looking so blissful and happy... it still affects me, Shen Fanyun, even just a little.
That day, Han Feng falsely accused me, Shen Fanyun, of sexually harassing a female classmate from our year. He reported it at a school-wide assembly, in front of thousands of students.
"Every time I remember that past event, I wonder, why did Liu Sihan insist that I harassed her?"
"Then I understood. Han Feng is a rich kid. There was no reason for Liu Sihan to offend him for an ordinary guy like me. If he says you did it, then you did it."
"This world doesn't care about right or wrong, black or white. It only respects fists and power."
But what I never expected, what hurt me the most, was not Liu Sihan's accusation, but the testimony from Li Qiuchan, the girl I loved at the time. She acted her part perfectly, playing the role of an eyewitness, confirming that everything Liu Sihan said was true.
How laughable. How utterly absurd.
The person I loved and trusted the most conspired with Liu Sihan and Han Feng to publicly frame and condemn me. I stood under the fluttering school flag like a clown stripped naked, unable to defend myself, left to be drowned in the spit of thousands.
It was a meticulously staged conspiracy by several people. Everything seemed so seamless.
Within half an hour, my parents appeared at the school, and so did Han Feng's tycoon father. In front of thousands of students, he slapped my adoptive father hard across the face. That arrogant, disdainful posture—I, Shen Fanyun, have held a grudge about it to this day.
Honestly, even if I, Shen Fanyun, had committed a thousand wrongs and deserved to die, was it Han Feng's father's place to punish me? It was not! Han Shaochang was just showing off his status, his power, and the so-called overbearing presence of a big shot!
That day, I saw my adoptive father wring his hands subserviently. Even after being slapped so hard, he was still trying to argue my case, to plead for me. The sight of my adoptive father bowing and scraping, looking lost and helpless, and the shame on his face as he forced a smile while enduring Han Shaochang's mockery, utterly at a loss... I, Shen Fanyun, will never forget it as long as I live!
Standing by the car, Shen Fanyun raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. He muttered to himself, "Han Shaochang once said that this world is a competition to see whose fist is bigger, whose is harder."
"Right and wrong, fairness and justice, none of it matters."
"I think he was right."
After that moment of reflection, Shen Fanyun's wicked, cynical demeanor returned. He curled his lips into a smirk, his gaze landing playfully on the wedding photo of Li Qiuchan and Han Feng hanging from a lamppost. "We were all classmates, after all. Your wedding would be a lot less fun without me."
"I wonder how that Han tycoon, Han Shaochang, will feel when he sees you again," Zhan Feng mused. "Back then, he was a grown man bullying a student. I hope he can still stand tall and puff out his chest for this reunion after ten years!"
"And of course, Li Qiuchan and Han Feng should also have a proper meeting with you!"
Smiling, Shen Fanyun's hand went to the Fish-Dragon Jade Pendant he always carried. His return to Hangcheng City wasn't just about settling scores with Han Shaochang. His true goal was to unravel the mystery of his own origins. The Fish-Dragon Jade Pendant was his only known clue.
"By the way," Zhan Feng said, "yesterday, I did a casual search on that woman, Su Xiyang."
"There's something I think you'll find very interesting."
Shen Fanyun was confused. But when he opened the file Zhan Feng handed him, he was stunned.
Su Xiyang also has a Fish-Dragon Jade Pendant? This...