5
Earlier, Jiang Mian had caught a glimpse of a striking side profile from inside the car. She had stayed only because she wanted to see what the man actually looked like. But now that she saw his eyes were injured, staring at him would be rude, so she turned to leave.
Suddenly, the man turned around. Even though he couldn’t see, it didn’t hinder him from accurately facing Jiang Mian’s direction. His voice was cool. “Please stay.”
Jiang Mian raised an eyebrow at his perceptiveness.
They were about ten meters apart, and she hadn’t made a sound. The fact that he could pinpoint her direction showed how sharp his hearing was.
“Sir?” Luo Jiale looked confused.
Jiang Mian thought for a moment, then walked over. After all, her car had taken his spot. The man seemed to be someone of importance—the young man who had moved her car was probably his assistant or something.
“Is something wrong?” As she drew closer, she noticed the red stain on the white cloth over his eyes was still spreading.
The man “looked” at her. After a moment, his pale lips parted. “May I touch your face?”
Jiang Mian: “???”
Luo Jiale: “???????”
“Sir,” Luo Jiale whispered in the man’s ear, speaking very softly. “She’s a pretty young girl, probably only in her teens.”
He knew this gentleman had a peculiar temperament, but asking a pretty young girl if he could touch her face? Even if your eyes are injured, you can’t just act like a lecher.
“Teens?” The man frowned.
Jiang Mian: “…”
Did he think she couldn’t hear them?
“Why do you want to touch my face?” Jiang Mian was genuinely curious to hear his reason. If it was a good one, she wouldn’t mind letting him touch it. It wasn’t like she would lose a chunk of flesh.
The man fell silent.
Jiang Mian: “…”
Jiang Mian: “???”
“If you’re not going to tell me, I’m leaving.”
The man remained silent. Seeing this, Jiang Mian didn’t hesitate. She turned and walked away.
Luo Jiale could tell she was a bit annoyed and hurried after her for a couple of steps. “Miss Jiang, I’m sorry. My boss didn’t mean to offend you.”
“It’s fine.” She couldn’t be bothered to hold a grudge against a stranger with injured eyes.
“Your boss’s eyes…” Jiang Mian started to warn him—the amount of bleeding was not normal. But as soon as she spoke, she saw Luo Jiale’s expression change. She wisely stopped.
Jiang Mian didn’t dwell on this little incident. She went home and meditated, and this time, no one disturbed her.
The Garage
“Sir, what you did just now…” Luo Jiale wanted to say it was highly improper, but seeing the man furrow his brow, he swallowed his words and changed tack. “Master Fang said this place has good feng shui, which is beneficial for your injury.”
The man gave a soft “mm” in acknowledgment. Luo Jiale moved to help him walk, but the man said flatly, “No need.”
Luo Jiale had no choice but to back off. He watched nervously as the man walked forward, accurately avoiding every obstacle in his path. The white cloth over his eyes had now turned red. Luo Jiale swallowed hard, stayed by the man’s side, and said nothing more.
They entered the elevator, and Luo Jiale pressed the button for the 18th floor.
This apartment building had two units per floor, and Jiang Mian’s apartment was on the 18th floor.
Jiang Mian knew nothing of this. The next day, she opened her eyes. Despite having stayed up all night, there was no trace of fatigue on her face—only a hint of joy in her eyes.
The results of this single night were better than the entire week she had spent in the hospital. She had successfully managed to draw spiritual energy into her body.
She took an internal look. A thin strand of true energy was quietly resting in her dantian.
Compared to her previous life, Jiang Mian sighed.
But no matter how much she complained, a mosquito’s leg was still a leg. It was better than nothing.
Dark secretions began to emerge from her skin. This body had been protected by various expensive skincare products since childhood, and its skin condition alone could already outperform seventy percent of women. Yet even so, this much impurities had accumulated inside.
After Jiang Mian took a shower, she looked at herself in the mirror with satisfaction. In the cultivation world, most women didn’t pursue the Dao for immortality—they just wanted to make themselves more beautiful.
Drawing spiritual energy into the body, letting it circulate through the meridians to remove internal impurities—that was the highest and most perfect skincare method.
Aunt Liu had already arrived and prepared breakfast. When she saw Jiang Mian emerge from the bedroom, she paused for a moment. Something about Jiang Mian seemed different, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what.
After a while, Aunt Liu glanced at the fresh red roses she had bought on her way over, now sitting in a vase, and suddenly understood what was different about Jiang Mian.
Today, Jiang Mian looked even more radiant and dazzling than those fresh red roses.
“Oh, by the way, miss, it looks like someone has moved into the unit across the hall,” Aunt Liu said as she served Jiang Mian some preserved egg and lean meat congee. “When I arrived, I saw someone coming out of there.”
“Oh.” Jiang Mian didn’t pay it much attention.
But Aunt Liu was more concerned. When she had arrived, the man walking out of the opposite unit was tall, wearing sunglasses, and had an expression that said he wasn’t to be messed with.
Jiang Mian might be willful and spoiled, but she was still just an eighteen-year-old girl living alone. What if the man across the hall saw how beautiful she was and had ill intentions?
—The fact that Jiang Mian had given Aunt Liu all those expensive skincare products and designer clothes yesterday had made Aunt Liu start genuinely looking out for her.
Even though Aunt Liu couldn’t use those things herself, she had a daughter in college, and they would be perfect for her.
She wasn’t sure whether to tell Han Xu about this. Given Jiang Mian’s fearless nature, she wouldn’t care about such things at all.
But Aunt Liu knew the reason Jiang Mian kept her around was because she had good judgment and never reported anything back to Han Xu. If she told him, Jiang Mian would likely think she was a spy and fire her.
Aunt Liu was torn, but she didn’t let it show.
Jiang Mian had no idea about Aunt Liu’s inner conflict. After finishing breakfast, she grabbed her bag and took a taxi to the film academy.
The original owner had a dormitory on campus, but she rarely stayed there. When she went to school, she usually drove her flashy Aston Martin—the same car Luo Jiale had helped move the night before.
Arriving at school, Jiang Mian went to the dormitory to pick up her course materials, relying on memory. The dormitory’s purpose for the original owner was simply a place to store her books and—
“Mianmian, you’re back! I heard you went on a trip. Where did you go?”
“Wow, Mianmian, it’s only been a few days and you’ve gotten even prettier. Looking like this, how are we supposed to live?”
“Mianmian, did you go to a beauty clinic? Your skin is incredible—’skin like congealed fat’ is a phrase tailor-made for you.”
As soon as Jiang Mian pushed open the dormitory door, the three girls inside were stunned for a few seconds, then stood up and gathered around her, showering her with compliments.
Jiang Mian: “…”
Yes, this was one of the reasons the original owner kept the dormitory and occasionally returned.
She would often give the three girls some handbags, jewelry, skincare products, and so on, and then enjoy being flattered and put on a pedestal.
The three girls kept eyeing Jiang Mian’s bag. Given her personality, if she had been out traveling and then came to the dormitory, she would surely have “souvenirs” for them.
And given Jiang Mian’s generosity, those souvenirs wouldn’t be cheap.
“Don’t we have a line class today? Aren’t you going?” Jiang Mian walked naturally to her own spot and took out the course materials she needed for class.
The three girls exchanged glances, confusion in their eyes, and none of them spoke.
By all rights, this should have been the moment Jiang Mian gave them things. But she hadn’t?
“Why isn’t anyone saying anything?” Jiang Mian picked up her materials and raised an eyebrow at the three girls, whose expressions varied.
“Class doesn’t start for another half hour. There’s no rush,” Jin Mengqiao was the first to speak. “Mianmian, where did you go on your trip? What did you buy?” Her words were laced with hints.
“Just wandered around. Didn’t buy much.” Jiang Mian walked out.
The three: “…”
After Jiang Mian left, the three immediately started discussing.
“I was waiting for her to give me a bag,” Mao Xuanling said. “Then I could sell it and buy that new dress from XX brand.”
“Even if it’s not a bag, anything else would be fine,” Wu Yue frowned. “Did you see the bag she was carrying? It’s not a designer brand—just an ordinary one.”
Jin Mengqiao said, “Her family didn’t go bankrupt, did they?”
Mao Xuanling: “No way. She didn’t look like it.”
Wu Yue: “Probably not. Her skin looks even better than before—I wanted to reach out and touch it. If her family was bankrupt, she wouldn’t be so radiant.” Her tone was laced with undisguised envy.
“Then why did she suddenly become so stingy?”
The three looked at each other in silence.
“So just because I didn’t bring you gifts, I’m stingy?” A sudden voice broke the silence. The three turned their heads in unison and saw the dormitory door had somehow been pushed open. Jiang Mian stood at the entrance, quietly watching them.
The three: “…”
Hadn’t the door been closed?!
Their acting skills were nowhere near Lin Feifei’s level. Jiang Mian couldn’t be bothered to argue with them, but there were things that needed to be said.
She always preferred to strike to kill, giving the enemy no chance to fight back. “In that case, I’ll be stingy then. I won’t take back the things I’ve given you, but when are you going to pay me back the money you borrowed?”
Once you understood the original owner’s personality, it was far too easy to take advantage of her.
The original owner had no concept of money. Every month, her four fathers deposited living expenses into her personal account. Even she herself didn’t know how much was in there.
In the beginning, the three girls had been reserved. When the original owner gave them things, they would even act embarrassed. But when they realized Jiang Mian didn’t mind and even enjoyed the compliments they gave her when they accepted the gifts—they began to take it for granted.
When they ran out of money, all they had to do was act pitiful and ask Jiang Mian, and she would lend it to them. “Lend” was just a word—Jiang Mian never asked for it back. They knew this very well, so they only grew bolder.
In just over a month since the semester started, aside from the things Jiang Mian had given them, each of them had borrowed at least twenty thousand yuan in cash.
Now Jiang Mian was asking for it back. They were all students—where were they supposed to get that kind of money?
The three girls’ faces were more colorful than a makeup palette.
Jiang Mian said flatly, “I’ll give you one day. Pay me back by this time tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll have someone announce over the school broadcast that you borrowed money and refused to repay it.”
With that, she didn’t bother to look at their reactions and turned to leave.
The three girls’ expressions changed dramatically. They were all performance majors, aiming to become actors in the future. If any negative news about refusing to repay debts spread around the school, it would be dug up later when they entered the entertainment industry, doing them nothing but harm.
Just as Jiang Mian’s figure was about to disappear from sight, Mao Xuanling couldn’t hold back any longer. Anger flared up in her. “Jiang Mian, you’ve been treating us like servants all this time. The money you lent us was just payment for our labor. Why should we pay it back?”
Jiang Mian stopped in her tracks and looked back at Mao Xuanling. Her features were already slightly twisted, her hands clenched tightly, and her eyes as she looked at Jiang Mian held a hint of ferocity. It made her otherwise pretty face look hideous and ugly.
Smiling slightly, Jiang Mian pulled out a voice recorder—the one she had taken from the bookshelf at the original owner’s dormitory spot earlier.
She pressed play, and Mao Xuanling’s words were played back verbatim.
Mao Xuanling’s eyes widened, her face going completely blank.
As she walked out of the dormitory building, Jiang Mian curved her lips in satisfaction.
She wasn’t really accustomed to confrontations like this. She much preferred to solve things with force, but unfortunately, her combat power was currently zero.
Still, she always lived by one rule: Don’t mess with me, and I won’t mess with you. If you do mess with me… well, it depends on my mood.
But she hadn’t walked far before two people approached.
One was Gu Qiwen, dressed in a white shirt, the very image of a romance novel male lead—though there were faint traces of bruising visible on his face. Beside him was Guan Xin, clad in a white dress, pure and seemingly untouched by any worldly dust. Her delicate, pale little face was the type that could easily stir a man’s protective instincts.
Jiang Mian: “…”
The campus was this big, and she still ran into them?
Quite a few people around were watching them with expressions of anticipation. Jiang Mian was well-known on campus—wealthy, good-looking, and driving a flashy, limited-edition Aston Martin to school every day. It was impossible not to notice her.
News of her pursuing Gu Qiwen, the department heartthrob, had already spread. So had the story of her cornering Guan Xin at Zhishu Pavilion and being rejected by Gu Qiwen. There were all sorts of versions floating around.
Fortunately, Gu Qiwen cared about his own reputation. So even though he knew Jiang Mian had slit her wrists over him, he wouldn’t go around telling people.
Jiang Mian liked Gu Qiwen. Gu Qiwen liked Guan Xin. And Jiang Mian had confronted Guan Xin.
Now that Gu Qiwen and Guan Xin were appearing together, it was a classic case of rivals meeting—their eyes were supposed to turn red with jealousy.
The onlookers were thrilled.
And then, then they watched as Jiang Mian didn’t even glance at the two of them. She walked right past, looking straight ahead.
Walked… walked past?
Crowd: Huh???
**