Lu Xuan tightened his fingers slightly, forcing Zhang Yining to raise her head and look directly into his icy eyes.
“Right now. Immediately. Right here.” Lu Xuan leaned closer, his hot breath nearly brushing against her face as he enunciated each word. “Let me have you once. If you satisfy me, perhaps I’ll consider leaving you alone for the time being.”
What?!
Zhang Yining’s eyes widened in disbelief. The color instantly drained from her face, only for her cheeks to flush crimson a moment later, as though she had suffered an unimaginable humiliation and shock.
She could hardly believe her ears!
“You… what nonsense are you talking about?! This is the university! Someone could walk past at any moment! Are you insane?!” she shrieked, her voice turning sharp with fear and humiliation.
Although Zhang Yining had flirted with several boys for vanity and personal gain, she had always guarded her boundaries carefully. She rarely even allowed anyone to hold her hand, much less… do something like this!
Especially in a place like this!
Seeing the sheer terror on her face, Lu Xuan felt a surge of satisfaction from his revenge.
He released her chin, but instead pressed closer, forcing her farther into the corner until she was almost completely trapped between his body and the wall.
Deliberately twisting her words, Lu Xuan curled his lips into a wicked smile and said, “Oh? So what you’re saying is that as long as we’re not at the university and there aren’t so many people around, you’ll let me have you once?”
“Get away from me! What kind of nonsense are you talking about?!” Zhang Yining was both terrified and humiliated. She reached out to push Lu Xuan away, but after the system’s enhancement, his body didn’t budge in the slightest.
Instead, Zhang Yining stumbled backward and slammed heavily against the cold wall.
“If you keep doing this… I’ll… I’ll call the police! That’s right! I’ll call the police!” she shouted, desperately grasping at what seemed like her final lifeline.
“The police?” Lu Xuan wasn’t frightened in the slightest. Instead, he seemed to have heard something amusing.
He calmly stepped back, slipped his hands into his pockets, then actually took out his phone and held it in front of Zhang Yining. The screen was still displaying the PowerPoint file.
“Here. Take my phone and call them right now.” His tone was relaxed, almost encouraging.
“I’d genuinely like to see what happens when the police arrive. Will you report me for harassment first, or will I hand this wonderful gift over to them first and notify every major media outlet while I’m at it?”
“Then we’ll see what happens faster. Will your reputation be completely destroyed first, or will your government-official father be invited in for questioning by the disciplinary authorities first?”
Lu Xuan leaned casually against the opposite wall. His posture was relaxed, yet his gaze was as sharp as a blade, slicing through Zhang Yining’s final line of defense.
Zhang Yining stared at the phone right in front of her, then at Lu Xuan’s cold, commanding eyes. Her hand trembled like a leaf caught in an autumn wind.
Call the police?
How could she possibly dare?
Once the police became involved and the matter blew up, what awaited her would be an abyss a hundred, even a thousand times more humiliating than her current situation.
Her body gradually went limp as though every trace of strength had been drained from her. Her eyes became vacant, leaving only despair and numbness on her face.
Seeing her devastated state, Lu Xuan knew he had pushed her far enough.
He took back his phone and spoke indifferently. His voice wasn’t loud, but every word reached Zhang Yining clearly.
“Do you understand what you should do now?”
Zhang Yining stared into those eyes that seemed capable of seeing through everything, her heart pounding violently against her ribs.
Call the police?
Those words were like a needle piercing the last fragile remnant of her courage.
How could she dare?
The moment the police became involved, the fraud surrounding her National College Entrance Examination results would be thoroughly exposed. She would fall into an abyss from which there would be no return.
And it wouldn’t affect only her.
There was also her father, a division-level government official…
She didn’t dare continue thinking about it.
Fear wrapped around every part of her body like icy vines, leaving her limbs weak.
She stared at the phone Lu Xuan had offered her. The glaring title of the PowerPoint presentation seemed to be mocking her stupidity and naïveté.
She trembled, yet couldn’t even muster the strength to reach for it.
Seeing her utterly devastated state, Lu Xuan knew that her final psychological defense had completely collapsed.
He withdrew his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. There was no particular expression on his face. He simply looked at her indifferently, as though admiring a piece of artwork on the verge of shattering.
“Now, do you know what you should do?” His voice remained quiet, yet it carried an unquestionable pressure.
Zhang Yining’s lips trembled. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.
She glanced around the dim stairwell. Faint laughter and conversation from other students drifted through the distant corridor, and every sound seemed to remind her just how dangerous and humiliating her current situation was.
“N… not here…” Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, trembling with tears and desperation. “Someone… someone could come by at any moment… Can we… can we go somewhere else? Please?”
She was practically begging him.
Even if she had to endure the humiliation, she wanted it to happen somewhere more secluded, where she could at least preserve the last shred of her dignity.
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow slightly, a mocking curve appearing at the corner of his lips. “Hah. Even now, you’re still trying to pick and choose? Looks like you haven’t learned your lesson deeply enough.”
“N… no! That’s not it!” Zhang Yining hurriedly waved her hands in terror, and the tears she had been holding back finally spilled down her cheeks. “I’m… I’m just scared… Please…”
With tears streaking down her beautiful face, she looked pitiful enough that almost any boy would have softened toward her.
However, Lu Xuan only found her hypocritical and ridiculous.
Had she shown even the slightest mercy when she framed him in his previous life?
Still, he had no intention of causing too much commotion here.
He had already achieved his objective. The process itself wasn’t important. What mattered was the result: making this woman utterly terrified of him and bringing her completely under his control.
“Fine.” Lu Xuan deliberately shrugged as though he were being generous. “Consider yourself lucky. Follow me.”
He turned around and headed down the stairs.
Zhang Yining hesitated. She stared at his tall yet dangerous-looking back, then glanced at the deserted corner around her.
In the end, she bit her lower lip and followed him closely like a puppet that had lost its soul.
The semester had only just begun, so the university campus was still unfamiliar to her. She didn’t even know where Lu Xuan intended to take her.
But she knew one thing.
She had no choice.
Relying on memories from his previous life, Lu Xuan expertly led her through several corridors before arriving at an old teaching building in a relatively secluded part of the campus.
He pushed open an unlocked door that creaked on its hinges. Beyond it was a room filled with discarded desks, chairs, and miscellaneous clutter.
“Go inside.” Lu Xuan stepped aside to let her enter, then gently pulled the door shut behind them.
However, he didn’t lock it, almost as though silently telling her that trying to escape would be pointless.
Zhang Yining stared at the even more enclosed and oppressive surroundings, and her heart tightened further.
She pressed herself against the cold wall, both hands clutching tightly at the hem of her clothes as her body trembled uncontrollably.