Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Princess Yong Ning’s Authentic Work
The room fell dead silent.
An eight-centimeter heel slammed into Xu Lu’s face.
Blood burst from his nose instantly. His vision swam; pain detonated behind his eyes.
For a full thirty seconds, no one moved. Then they surged forward in a panic, hauling him up and calling for someone to stop the bleeding.
“B-Brother Xu, should I call an ambulance and—”
“Call what?” Xu Lu snapped. “Do you want me to lose even more face?”
He clutched his nose, furious, and glared at Ye Wan Lan. “What the hell are you doing? You don’t want to live?”
“As you wish.” Ye Wan Lan smiled, unhurried. “Then I’ll take off four things first.”
Her eyes skimmed over him with lazy contempt. “What, you can’t even come up with four hundred thousand? No wonder you can’t compare to Zhou He Chen.”
Xu Lu’s pride detonated. “Who says I can’t? Don’t compare me to Zhou He Chen!”
The Zhou and Xu Families were connected by marriage. When he felt like giving Zhou He Chen face, he called him “brother.”
When he didn’t, he’d bury him.
Xu Lu slammed a bank card onto the table. “There’s four million on it. Keep stripping!”
Ye Wan Lan lifted an eyebrow and recited a bank account number as if reading from memory. “Transfer first. Mark it as a voluntary gift. Then I’ll believe you actually have it.”
Provoked, Xu Lu snatched up his phone, hands shaking as he made the transfer.
A message alert chimed. Ye Wan Lan glanced down once.
Xu Lu snarled through his fingers. “Got it? Then strip already!”
Ye Wan Lan’s smile vanished as if it had never existed.
“Idiot.”
She turned and walked out, not even bothering to retrieve the dirty heel she’d left behind.
The room froze again.
A few seconds later, Xu Lu finally understood what had happened. “I got played!”
He lurched after her—only for his nose to start bleeding all over again, his breathing turning rough and strangled.
Someone said shakily, “Brother Xu, we should go to the hospital.”
“Bullshit. I have a private doctor. Why would I go to a hospital?” Xu Lu hissed. Then he jabbed a finger at someone. “You—go to the Zhou Family right now. Find Zhou He Chen. Make him pay for my mental suffering and medical costs. And make him see what kind of thing he’s keeping. No manners at all.”
They’d all kept lovers before. None of them had ever dared act like this.
Xu Lu’s face was storm-dark. “And get that four hundred thousand back.”
“B-But, Brother Xu… you marked it as a voluntary gift…”
“Shut up!” Xu Lu ground out, teeth bared. “I’ll remember this.”
—
Outside Yu Ting Club, Ye Wan Lan opened the car door and patted Zhou Yi Xiang’s shoulder.
“You were frightened today. I got you four hundred thousand. It’s already transferred to your card.” Her voice stayed steady. “That’s enough for next semester’s tuition. Don’t work here anymore.”
On the 428th time reset, when she went to River City University to dig for more information, she met Zhou Yi Xiang.
Zhou Yi Xiang had astonishing talent in jewelry design—yet she’d been suppressed for years, never given a chance. When she couldn’t scrape together tuition, she was forced to work at a club.
Zhou Yi Xiang stared at her, stunned. “You…”
“You have class this afternoon, right?” Ye Wan Lan’s tone softened by a hair. “Go back to school. I’ll contact you when I need you.”
She turned to Cheng Qing Li. “Qing Li, take her back. After you drop her off, keep the car with you. I’ll come get it tonight.”
Cheng Qing Li nodded quickly. “Oh—okay. Sister Lan, then you…”
“I’m going for a walk. Don’t worry about me.”
Ye Wan Lan stepped out, waved lazily, and walked barefoot down the road.
Cheng Qing Li sat there, stunned.
Was Sister Lan… even crazier now?
Zhou Yi Xiang was just as shaken.
She was sure this was the first time she’d ever met Ye Wan Lan—yet the woman acted as if she knew her inside and out.
Had they met before, without her realizing?
Cheng Qing Li started the car. “Miss Zhou, you’re a jewelry design director for which company? Come work for us! Our Sister Lan is seriously amazing.”
“Huh?” Zhou Yi Xiang said blankly. “I—I’m a junior in the art department at River City University. I’m still looking for a summer internship…”
Cheng Qing Li: “?”
Oh.
She got it now.
Sister Lan really was out of her mind.
—
Sunlight spilled across the road as a white car headed toward the suburbs.
Yan Ting Feng rolled down the window. Early-summer wind poured in, carrying the faint scent of gardenias.
His gaze swept the green belt beside the road—then narrowed. “Stop.”
“What?” Rong Yu slowed and pulled over, confused, following Yan Ting Feng’s line of sight.
At the intersection, a girl in a pale green modern Chinese dress walked barefoot. The hem brushed her long calves, fluttering in the breeze.
Her ankle line was clean and elegant. In the sunlight, her skin looked like white jade.
Rong Yu blinked. “Why is she walking barefoot? Doesn’t that hurt?”
“Get out,” Yan Ting Feng said.
Rong Yu stared. “Huh?”
“Buy a pair of shoes. Take them over.”
“Why don’t you give them to her yourself?” Rong Yu muttered, but he still got out and jogged into the first shoe store he saw.
Once the car door shut, Yan Ting Feng lifted his gaze. “Report.”
Bing He, sitting in the back seat, began immediately. “Young Lord, Miss Ye’s information is strange. The current her is completely different from the her of these past four years—like two different people. We also can’t find any sign of her being replaced. We’ll keep investigating.”
Yan Ting Feng chuckled. “I’m very interested in her. Someone who wears her ambition on her face is truly beautiful.”
Bing He shivered.
The last person their Young Lord took an interest in was still lying beneath an iceberg on the Northern Continent.
The last thing their Young Lord called beautiful had already been shattered to pieces.
Bing He couldn’t help looking at Ye Wan Lan with a sliver of pity. In the distance, Rong Yu handed her a shoebox, speaking with earnest enthusiasm.
Ye Wan Lan turned her head at that moment.
Yan Ting Feng smiled at her, starlight seeming to ripple in his eyes—gentle, warm, like a breeze across open fields.
But Ye Wan Lan caught the scent beneath it: blood, dark and heavy.
A knife wrapped in honey. Get too close, and it would cut you.
She looked away and smiled faintly. “Doctor Rong, how much was it? I’ll transfer the money.”
“No, no.” Rong Yu waved both hands, sincerity written all over his face. “Classmate Ye, you have to be happy every day. As long as your mood is good, everything else is nothing.”
He looked utterly satisfied with himself.
A good doctor, saving a lost girl from the wrong road. He was certain he’d done a good deed.
—
Sunset melted into gold, and the city lights rose.
Back at her apartment, Cheng Qing Li scratched her head. “Sister Lan, I dropped Miss Zhou off at school. But she hasn’t even graduated yet. What company are we even starting?”
“Come with me tomorrow. You’ll see,” Ye Wan Lan said.
She was practicing calligraphy.
Cheng Qing Li leaned in, curious. “What are you writing?”
On the paper were twelve bold characters, the strokes wild and powerful, cutting deep into the page:
To turn back the raging tide when it has already fallen; to prop up a great building as it begins to collapse.
Cheng Qing Li stared, dazzled. “Sister Lan, if I didn’t watch you write it, I’d swear this was Princess Yong Ning’s authentic work.”
She clasped her hands like she was praying. “This is incredible. With skills like this, we can quit the modeling world and jump straight into the art world!”
Ye Wan Lan paused, brush hovering. “I did forget something. You just reminded me.”
“What?” Cheng Qing Li had already pulled up images of Princess Yong Ning’s calligraphy. “Look, look—seriously, it’s almost exactly the same.”
Ye Wan Lan sighed.
The Time Loop had lasted too long. After returning to a normal world, she’d forgotten to change the handwriting she’d used in her past life.