Volume One, Chapter Nine: Using a Woman to Scheme Against Me & Blocking Me After the Breakup

Luo Xuan felt a sudden jolt.

She realized with a start that this was exactly the way Lin Zhaodi habitually observed people, a trait she had inherited entirely.

She had never liked her mother’s snobbish gaze. Annoyed, she thrust her hands into the pockets of her light-colored tennis skirt. "498 yuan for an hour. That’s not cheap."

The man asked, "What about an annual pass?"

Luo Xuan pulled out her left hand and pointed at the price list.

The man glanced up at the rates and said, unhurriedly, "Get me an annual pass."

Luo Xuan waved a hand. "You’ll have to talk to the staff."

The man’s gaze drifted past her toward the reception desk, then returned to linger on her for a moment.

He smiled and apologized, "My apologies. I mistook you for the tennis coach here."

There was no real apology in his tone, only a faint, polite detachment. It felt less like an apology and more like a display of refined manners and upbringing.

Luo Xuan detected a hint of condescension.

"It’s fine," she said, frowning, and turned to walk away.

After a few steps, she calculated the cost of the annual pass—divided by 365 days, then by 24 hours—and stopped, glancing back.

The man stood before the counter, his posture tall and elegant. The harsh light from the reception area cast faint shadows beneath his brow, making his nose bridge appear even more prominent and refined.

A moment later, he swiped his card to pay. The manager asked, "What should I call you, sir?"

The man lowered his head to sign, his voice gentle. "My surname is Jiang. Jiang Mingying."

As Jiang Mingying walked out with his card, Luo Xuan approached him. "Mr. Jiang, interested in sharing the pass?"

Jiang Mingying raised an eyebrow, wearing an expression of surprise, and gestured for her to continue.

Luo Xuan said, "Mr. Jiang, judging by your accent, you’re from the south and probably don't live in Luosang County often. As it happens, I don’t come here often either. I’d like to buy eight hours off your annual pass. We can negotiate the usage times, and it would save you from wasting the remaining hours. Would you be open to that?"

Jiang Mingying kept his smile, maintaining his silence.

A few seconds passed. Luo Xuan, receiving no reply, began to feel awkward.

She understood. This was how people like him refused others—without saying a word, letting the other person realize they should leave, all while maintaining an air of high breeding.

Fortunately, having watched her parents do business since she was a child, Luo Xuan was thicker-skinned than most.

As Jiang Mingying turned to leave, Luo Xuan took two steps after him. "Mr. Jiang, if you change your mind—let me leave you my contact information."

Jiang Mingying’s expression shifted instantly.

Luo Xuan couldn't figure out which word had offended him, only hearing Jiang Mingying say, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, his tone neither gentle nor harsh: "If we exchange contact info, does that mean we have to schedule a match? After the match, we’ll have to eat together? And after that, we’ll be friends, and you’ll want me to go out singing at night? And then you’ll tell me that your Luosang factory is doing well and you have a batch of orders to unload, right?"

"Huh?"

Jiang Mingying smiled again. "Is business in this part of the world always so dirty?"

Luo Xuan was stunned.

"Excuse me." Jiang Mingying nodded coldly, skirted around her, and climbed into a gleaming black car without looking back.

The driver’s side window rolled down slowly. The man revealed half his face, his smile still present, but his voice was utterly blunt: "Don't let me see you again. Go back and tell Manager Wang at your Luosang factory that if you try to scheme against me with a woman again, I’ll call the police. I mean what I say."

With that, he didn't give Luo Xuan a chance to respond, and the car roared away.

...

Luo Xuan recovered from her shock, noticing eyes turning toward them from all directions.

Who was pestering him?!

Luo Xuan made a silent, angry gesture at the retreating tail of the car.

Life is truly eight or nine parts disappointment, she thought. Take this Jiang Mingying, for instance—a perfectly whole human being, yet not only did he have a face paralyzed into a smile, he also suffered from paranoid delusions.

...

Luo Xuan cursed under her breath as she hurried along.

Turning a corner along the side wall of the Luosang factory, the scene at the back gate was an entirely different world. Traffic flowed in and out—deliveries, raw materials, constant movement. Trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and handcarts were jammed together, inching forward millimeter by millimeter, accompanied by a chorus of irritable honking.

Suddenly, someone called out, "Luo Xuan!"

Luo Xuan looked up, lost her focus for a split second, and immediately collided with a worker carrying goods. She quickly swerved, only to bump her shoulder against another. She decided to stand still, only to be bumped head-on by a third.

"Don't block the road!"

"Watch where you're going!"

"Can't you look where you're walking?"

They glared at each other, but continued moving and cursing as they hurried along, disappearing into the crowd within half a second.

"Coming through, coming through!"

A motorcycle with five meters of fabric tied to its rear seat moved slowly around the bend.

The swarm of workers from the front gate of the Luosang factory flowed in part into the factory, while another part flowed like a river along the side wall toward the back gate, where they were sliced into smaller fragments by the traffic of carts carrying fabric, materials, and parts. Then, they surged forward again, merging into a massive human river that eventually flowed downstream to the various large and small factories.

A man struggled through the tide for a moment before finally squeezing over.

"Luo Xuan, you're back?"

...

Luo Xuan looked up and saw a handsome man with a calm expression, wearing thin, dark-gray framed glasses. He looked very familiar.

Why did he look familiar?

The Lin family produced beautiful people, regardless of gender. He was handsome; could he be a relative from her mother's side?

Luo Xuan couldn't for the life of her remember who he was, until she heard him say politely, "I heard about what happened to your family. It’s so sudden; please accept my condolences."

Recalling her eldest sister’s accusations against their uncle, Luo Xuan decided to try and fish for information from this Lin relative. She invited him, "I was just about to have breakfast. Want to join me?"

The man smiled and nodded.

They arrived at a breakfast shop and ordered. The man poured Luo Xuan a glass of water and sat opposite her at the shabby little table with an air of ease, his white linen shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows, his long legs in jeans crossed.

Luo Xuan had already eaten breakfast at home and wasn't hungry. She wasn't in a hurry to speak, either, calculating how to broach the subject.

The man pondered for a long time, adjusted his glasses, and said naturally, "How is Luo Qi doing lately?"

...

Luo Xuan nearly spat out her water—she remembered!

He wasn't some cousin from the Lin family at all; he was her younger sister Luo Qi's boyfriend!

No wonder he looked familiar. Last Spring Festival, her sister had brought him home to meet the elders, and they were planning to get engaged this October. This brother-in-law was named...

Luo Xuan coughed for a while before finally recalling his name: "Zhang Dongyao. You can ask her yourself."

Zhang Dongyao looked at the water in his glass with a calm expression. After a long while, he said quietly, "After she broke up with me, she blocked me."

Luo Xuan felt like she was sitting on pins and needles.

Her little sister and Zhang Dongyao had broken up? When did that happen?

Luo Xuan gripped her water glass, taking a sip to calm herself, lamenting internally: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west—of all the people she could have run into, it had to be her ex-brother-in-law.

Zhang Dongyao leaned back in his chair, clutching his glass, and continued in a flat voice, "The day my father-in-law-to-be had his accident, Luo Qi suddenly asked me for help—she needed to borrow an electric scooter. I’m not very good at riding one, and I crashed while carrying her... I just wanted to know how she’s recovering."

Her sister was hurt? When did that happen?

Luo Xuan hurriedly asked, "Was it serious?"

Zhang Dongyao leaned down and lifted his trouser leg, revealing a long, raw scrape. "I’m fine."

Luo Xuan stared at the long wound on Zhang Dongyao’s leg and couldn't help but say, "That must hurt."

Zhang Dongyao replied, "I’m all right. Luo Qi was hurt worse than I was."

The two fell into silence.