Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

Zhao Sisi did not know the inside story. Probably no one from a rival company would dare come making trouble, but Yang Ce could hardly say such things to her.

Li Dadong was led by the receptionist downstairs straight to the reception room, where Lin Yanhe was already seated and waiting.

The reception room had large glass partitions. Though those outside could not hear what was said within, they could see everything clearly. If Li Dadong dared to do anything to harm Lin Yanhe, the security guards patrolling outside would rush in at once.

"Brother Dadong, what's the rush?" Lin Yanhe glanced at Li Dadong, his forehead beaded with sweat, somewhat puzzled.

"Zhiyun, how well do you really know Yang Ce?" Li Dadong closed the reception room door, sat down across from Lin Yanhe, and came straight to the point.

To be continued.

705. The Truth, Adapted

"Know him?" Lin Yanhe was startled. "Brother Dadong, what are you talking about?"

"I mean, do you know what kind of person Yang Juehuan really is? And the people he associates with day to day?" Li Dadong hinted.

"Of course I know him. He's my boyfriend—how could I not know him?" Lin Yanhe answered thus, though she found it strange.

"Then did you know that Yang Ce has another girlfriend outside?" Li Dadong glanced at the security guards beyond the door. Though he knew full well they could not hear, he still lowered his voice.

"I—" Lin Yanhe's heart jolted. Could it be that Li Dadong knew something? Her face turned somewhat pale. She did not know how to answer Li Dadong's question.

Her relationship with Yan was truly in a delicate place right now—pretending to be a couple, yet no different from a real couple in most respects, at least as far as Lin Yanhe felt. This, she supposed, was probably what it felt like to be madly in love.

Sometimes Lin Yanhe felt lost too, though most of the time she simply played dumb and refused to think about the two of them having any future. And in truth, she really did not want to think about it.

Her mother was a very conservative woman. In her eyes, a girl should stay with one man for life. Since she and Yan had already crossed that line, her mother had no choice but to accept it—but if she and Yan actually broke up, her mother likely would not be able to take it.

And Lin Yanhe knew perfectly well that her first time had indeed been given to Yang Ce; deep down, she also hoped Yang Ce would keep pretending like this forever, until the end of time.

But reality and ideals are always far apart. When Lin Yanhe learned from Yang Ce's own mouth that Chen Shutang already knew of her existence, she was seized by a powerful sense of crisis—even a kind of guilt.

Lin Yanhe had never intended to monopolize Yang Ce. If such a thought had ever crossed her mind, she would have used what happened back then to threaten him long ago. As things stood, she already felt quite satisfied.

Yet Lin Yanhe also knew that this satisfaction could only be temporary. Getting Yang Ce to pretend to be her boyfriend for the rest of his life—even if Yang Ce agreed, would Chen Shutang agree?

She had kept reminding herself never to fall for Yang Juehuan, but when Lin Yanhe looked back, she found that Yang Ce already occupied a very large place in her heart.

But these things could not be told to Li Dadong. Though Lin Yanhe regarded Li Dadong as her own elder brother, her affairs were all private matters—not to mention him, she could not even tell her parents.

Lin Yanhe could not possibly explain the whole chain of cause and effect to Li Dadong. Otherwise, Li Dadong would certainly ask: back in high school I watched you at school the whole time—where did you get a boyfriend? And who did you give your first time to?

Lin Yanhe would have no answer. Still less could she tell him the truth. Somehow, Lin Yanhe was desperate to protect Yang Juehuan's image; she did not want anyone to know that there had been an unpleasant episode between the two of them.

"Zhiyun, what's wrong?" Seeing Lin Yanhe's dazed, at-a-loss expression, Li Dadong thought she had been stunned by his news, and hurried on: "Zhiyun, I only just found out myself. My younger brother was Yang Juehuan's high school classmate—the two of them were very close. And Yang Ce, besides you, has another girlfriend out there. Her name is Chen Shutang."

"I—I know," Lin Yanhe said, cornered by Li Dadong and forced to brace herself and speak.

"What? You know?" Li Dadong stared at Lin Yanhe in astonishment. "Zhiyun, what are you saying? Did you even understand what I meant?"

"..." Lin Yanhe did not know how to answer Li Dadong. The tangled complexities in all this were something only she, the person involved, could understand.

"Zhiyun, say something!" Li Dadong said anxiously.

"Brother Dadong, please just stop worrying about this from now on, all right? I—I, ah, there are some things I can't explain," Lin Yanhe said with a bitter shake of her head. "Don't push me, all right?"

"Zhiyun, how can you be so foolish? You—what am I supposed to say to you? You're driving me crazy!" Li Dadong said, his face ashen. "Did he get some kind of hold over you? Is he blackmailing you?"

Seeing Lin Yanhe's troubled look, Li Dadong's heart skipped a beat. These days sex-scandal photos and videos were flying everywhere—could Yang Shuoxuan have taken some video or photos and be using them to threaten Lin Yanhe?

One could hardly blame Li Dadong for his vivid imagination. Such things were not unheard of—on the contrary, they were all too common.

If anyone held a hold over anyone, it should have been Lin Yanhe holding one over Yang Juehuan. But Lin Yanhe had no wish to use it to threaten Yang Ce in any way. She shook her head. "Brother Dadong, don't guess wildly. It's not what you think."

"What do you mean, it's not? Zhiyun, don't be afraid. If there really is something going on, Brother Dadong will bear it with you," Li Dadong said. "We can take him to court."

"Take him to court for what?" Lin Yanhe bit her lip and stammered for a long while. "I—I'm the lesser one. You—you understand?"

"The lesser one?" Li Dadong was stunned, then understood what Lin Yanhe meant—that she was the real third party, Yang Juehuan's mistress, or rather his lover. This struck Li Dadong as somewhat unbelievable. He stared wide-eyed, dumbly at Lin Yanhe. Lin Yanhe had been a well-behaved girl who excelled in both conduct and studies since childhood and had never done anything out of line. And though her temperament was somewhat meek, she had strong principles and would never do anything that went against them.

"Zhiyun, how—how did you become like this?" Li Dadong was shocked and furious, trembling all over with rage.

Looking at Li Dadong, Lin Yanhe knew that if she did not tell him some of the real situation today, he would never let it go—he might even make a scene at her parents' place, and then the whole thing would blow up.

So, after thinking for a long while, she said in a low, faint voice: "Back then my father was in a car accident and needed surgery urgently. My mother and I went to every relative and friend we could borrow money from. But those people either had no money or came up with a pile of excuses to put us off. There was nothing to be done—I was just a girl. What did I have to offer?

"With nowhere left to turn, I could only sell myself. I hardened my heart and went to the entrance of a bar, wanting to find a customer to sell my first time to."

"Zhiyun, how could you do that? Didn't I say? I'll do tutoring—I can definitely scrape together the surgery fee for you!" Li Dadong shouted, overcome with emotion.

"Tutoring?" Lin Yanhe gave a self-mocking smile. "I did tutoring too. In a month, you're lucky to earn a few hundred yuan. With a surgery fee of over three thousand, how long would it take to save up? Surgery can't be delayed."

Li Dadong fell silent, knowing in his heart that Lin Yanhe was telling the truth. Yes—how could surgery wait?