Although the Male Lead still wore a smile on his lips, the warmth in it had noticeably faded.
This expression resembled the way he had looked when Xiao Yao first met him.
People had their pride.
Ming Jing was not the type to shamelessly pursue someone after being rejected again and again.
His gaze swept over the girl’s swollen lips before he asked calmly,
“I’m sorry. What happened just now was inappropriate. Is there any compensation you want?”
“I don’t need anything,” Xiao Yao replied.
Ming Jing’s expression remained unchanged.
He nodded slightly and walked past her first.
Xiao Yao remained where she was, watching the Male Lead’s retreating figure.
The system finally found an opportunity to gloat.
“See? See? I told you! Once the Male Lead came to his senses, he wouldn’t be bewitched by you anymore. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You rejected the Male Lead now, but when your storyline ends, he’ll definitely take revenge on you!”
The system had returned to its usual behavior of mocking Xiao Yao and kicking her while she was down.
In fact, it seemed happier than ever.
On the way home, it hummed songs nonstop and even deliberately asked Xiao Yao how it sounded.
“Terrible,” Xiao Yao evaluated honestly.
The system was not offended.
Instead, it cheerfully said,
“You must be regretting it now, rejecting the Male Lead. Hmph. Cannon fodder who oppose the protagonist never end well. But don’t worry. As your system, if your ending is too ugly, I’ll kindly censor it for you.”
“Thank you, but that’s unnecessary.”
“You don’t have to be polite. We’re in this together, after all. Even though you’re just a stupid, evil cannon fodder who likes seducing people, I’m a smart and kind system.”
It assumed Xiao Yao was afraid of her future tragic ending and was trying to curry favor with it, but was too embarrassed to admit it.
After all, it was a mature system.
Surely it would not stoop to arguing with its host.
“I—”
Just then, Xiao Yao arrived home and casually muted it for ten minutes.
She had allowed it to chatter all the way back only because she had not heard its nonsense for so long that she had actually missed it a little.
But after listening for that long, she felt like calluses had formed in her ears.
The system was far more likable when it stayed quiet.
At A University’s parking lot.
Ming Jing sat alone in his car.
Under the dim lighting, his handsome face appeared unusually cold.
A cigarette rested between his fingers as he slowly inhaled and exhaled.
His phone chimed.
After a pause, he unlocked it with his free hand.
It was a friend request.
He stared at the application message for a long time before accepting it.
…
After that day, the Male Lead and Xiao Yao returned to being two parallel lines that no longer intersected.
During class, Ming Jing no longer deliberately searched for the figure in the last row.
When they occasionally crossed paths on campus, they passed each other like strangers.
In his eyes, Xiao Yao had become no different from anyone else.
He returned to being the School Heartthrob everyone knew.
Outstanding.
Perfect.
Untouchable.
The system had expected Xiao Yao to regret her actions and begin desperately chasing after him.
After all, she had not given up an ordinary person.
She had given up the most perfect Male Lead in the entire novel.
To its disappointment, however, Xiao Yao genuinely did not seem to care.
During the day, she was busy following Liang Yu.
At night, she was obsessed with improving her appearance.
Those two activities occupied all of her attention.
One day, she opened WeChat and saw the contact note she had saved as “Hypocrite.”
She stared at it for a while before finally remembering it belonged to the Male Lead.
Casually opening the chat, she found that they had exchanged only a few messages on the day they first added each other.
The Male Lead had apologized.
She had replied, “It’s okay.”
The Male Lead had told her to rest early.
She had responded with a simple “Mm.”
Cold and brief.
The system immediately jumped out as though it had finally discovered a weakness.
“Aha! I knew it! You’re pretending! Were you planning to—”
Before it could finish, Xiao Yao calmly tapped a button.
Delete contact.
The system froze.
“You deleted the Male Lead?”
Xiao Yao looked confused.
“Why would I keep his contact information?”
The system was speechless.
It was true.
As a villainous cannon fodder standing on the opposite side of the Male Lead, Xiao Yao had no reason to keep his contact information.
Based on her current character setting, she should have wanted nothing to do with him.
But…
How could she delete him so decisively?
…
During her surveillance, Xiao Yao finally managed to uncover some clues.
Through the university confession wall, she added one of Liang Yu’s roommates and pretended to be Liang Yu’s friend while asking about his life on campus.
The roommate was rather simple-minded.
After seeing Xiao Yao answer questions about Liang Yu’s basic information, birthday, and preferences perfectly, he believed her and honestly shared quite a bit.
There was one matter, however, that he discussed hesitantly.
Only after Xiao Yao repeatedly promised not to tell Liang Yu’s girlfriend did he finally reveal everything.
Apparently, Liang Yu left campus every weekend and stayed elsewhere.
He was not a local student and had no other friends in the city.
The first time he announced he would not be returning to the dormitory, his roommates worried he might be getting scammed and asked a few questions.
Liang Yu vaguely explained that he was working as a full-time tutor and staying overnight at a student’s home.
The roommates believed him and merely joked that he was a workaholic.
After spending one weekend away, Liang Yu returned on Monday limping.
He looked pale and exhausted.
The moment he lay down on his bed, he barely moved for the rest of the afternoon.
The next day, one roommate kindly offered to help him request leave from class.
Liang Yu reacted strongly and insisted it wasn’t necessary, then forced himself to attend class despite his apparent injury.
Everyone assumed he was worried about losing scholarship opportunities and did not press further.
However, the pattern repeated itself.
For several consecutive weeks, Liang Yu returned looking extremely weak.
He also spent unusually long periods in the bathroom.
Naturally, suspicion began to grow.
What followed was told entirely from the perspective of the roommate chatting with Xiao Yao.
He was one of only two people in the dormitory with a girlfriend.
At first, he did not think much about it.
But gradually, something started feeling off.
Liang Yu’s condition did not resemble a leg injury.
In fact, it oddly reminded him of the way his own girlfriend sometimes looked after exhausting intimate activities.
The moment the thought appeared, he immediately rejected it.
It was ridiculous.
Liang Yu had a girlfriend.
Everyone knew they were deeply in love.
How could he possibly be involved with another man?
It was absurd.
Feeling guilty for even thinking such things, the roommate began treating Liang Yu with extra kindness.
He was tall, athletic, broad-shouldered, and handsome in a straightforward way.
Although somewhat carefree, he was undoubtedly considered attractive.
Gradually, he noticed that Liang Yu’s gaze toward him had become strange.
One day, when only the two of them were in the dormitory, he was showering.
Suddenly, Liang Yu entered the bathroom and hugged him from behind.
Startled, he instinctively drove an elbow backward.
A scream followed.
Turning around, he saw Liang Yu lying naked on the floor in pain.
That was when everything became clear.
Disgust immediately churned in his stomach.
His first instinct was to expose the incident.
However, Liang Yu seemed to realize what he was thinking.
He scrambled up and grabbed his leg, begging him not to tell anyone.
Dropping to his knees, Liang Yu cried miserably and repeatedly promised it would never happen again.
He insisted that if people found out, he would not be able to go on living.
After calming down, the roommate worried that pushing him too hard might lead to something serious.
Reluctantly, he agreed to keep the secret.
But afterward, he went out of his way to avoid Liang Yu whenever possible.
After hearing the story, Xiao Yao felt equally disgusted.
Liang Yu truly was an incredibly selfish person.
Because he was afraid of damaging his reputation, he concealed his orientation, used an innocent girlfriend as a shield, kept her in the dark for three years, and still sought relationships elsewhere.
Yet what had his girlfriend done to deserve any of that?
Glancing at the date, Xiao Yao saw that it was Friday.
According to the roommate, Liang Yu had behaved himself for a while after the incident.
But recently he had returned to his old habits.
For the past few days, he had been glued to his phone, chatting enthusiastically with someone.
It seemed he had arranged to meet someone over the weekend.
Whether it was his girlfriend or another man was unknown.
The following Monday would be the couple’s third anniversary.
How desperate was he?
He could not even wait until after the anniversary before sneaking off to fool around.
Xiao Yao opened WeChat and sent Moon a message.
She told her to arrive one day earlier.
She had decided to let Moon catch him in the act personally.
Only then would she truly see her boyfriend’s real face.
Only then would she completely give up on him.