When the time came, photos of Xu Jingran and that scholarship student would spread all over the campus forum.
Would Young Master Lu Ran still want such an embarrassing girlfriend?
The strong liquor was quickly brought over. The bottle was long and slender, and the foreign words on the label indicated its high alcohol content.
Bai Zhenxi personally picked up a bottle and twisted off the cap. The amber liquid released a sharp, pungent scent.
She walked over to Xu Jingran and looked down at her. Behind the mask, her eyes gleamed with malice.
“Xu Jingran, aren’t you relying on that pretty face of yours?”
She sneered.
“Let’s see if Young Master Lu Ran will still want you after everyone sees how pathetic you look!”
Bai Zhenxi shook the bottle and secretly dropped a small white pill into it.
Her eyes flashed with venom.
This time, she had to make sure Xu Jingran would never recover.
Adding a little something would make her even more disgraced.
Xu Jingran looked up. Her gaze swept over Bai Zhenxi, then over the others—fearful, yet too excited by the spectacle to intervene.
Finally, her eyes landed on Liu Ruan, whose consciousness was already fading.
Liu Ruan’s white dress was soaked with wine stains. Her left cheek was swollen from being slapped. She looked utterly miserable. When she looked at Xu Jingran, her eyes were filled with pain and humiliation.
She couldn’t fight them head-on.
Xu Jingran lowered her eyes, hiding the calculation in them.
She reached out with a slightly trembling hand and took the bottle.
“I’ll drink it myself.”
Her voice was soft, resigned, obedient.
Bai Zhenxi snorted in satisfaction and handed it over, watching calmly.
Xu Jingran brought the bottle to her lips. The harsh, burning smell hit her face.
Her heart sank.
She had seen Bai Zhenxi slip something into it.
Her fingers tightened around the bottle.
If she drank it, the consequences would be unimaginable.
If she didn’t, they wouldn’t let her go.
She lifted the bottle and took several large gulps. The alcohol burned her throat, and she began coughing violently.
Her disheveled state made the others burst into laughter.
Xu Jingran kept her eyes fixed on where Bai Zhenxi was standing. After another swallow, she suddenly hurled the bottle at her.
Crash!
The bottle shattered, and liquor splashed everywhere.
Broken glass cut Bai Zhenxi’s leg.
“Ah!” Bai Zhenxi screamed and stumbled backward, lifting her skirt. “Damn it!”
While everyone’s attention was on the shattered glass and spilled liquor—
Xu Jingran suddenly turned and threw herself with all her strength toward the opposite window.
Bang! Crash!
The window wasn’t fully sealed. She smashed half of it open.
A cold night wind rushed in, whipping everyone’s hair and clothes.
“She’s trying to run!” someone shouted.
Bai Zhenxi stamped her foot in fury. “Catch her!”
But Xu Jingran was faster.
She braced one hand on the window frame. Barefoot, she stepped on scattered glass without caring about the pain. She glanced back at Liu Ruan, who lay weakly on the floor.
Liu Ruan stared at her in disbelief. In her drunken, despairing eyes was a spark of astonishment.
In that instant, a fierce desire to survive ignited in Liu Ruan’s heart.
“Grab my hand!” Xu Jingran shouted in a low voice, stretching her arm out as far as she could.
Almost instinctively, Liu Ruan lunged forward and grabbed her hand.
Xu Jingran’s hand was so cold.
Yet somehow warm.
Gritting her teeth, Xu Jingran used all her strength. Her slender arm burst with surprising power as she dragged Liu Ruan toward the window.
The two squeezed through the half-open window. Xu Jingran climbed out first, then pulled Liu Ruan out after her.
Below them was the lower slanted roof of the castle’s side wing, covered in cold tiles.
They tumbled down. Xu Jingran tightly shielded Liu Ruan’s head while her own arms and back scraped painfully against the rough tiles.
There was no time to think.
“Jump!”
Below them was a dense rose bush behind the castle.
Without hesitation, Xu Jingran grabbed Liu Ruan and leaped toward the softer part of the bushes.
Thud!
Thud!
The two of them fell into the rose bushes one after the other. Sharp thorns scratched their skin, but the bushes absorbed most of the impact.
Ignoring the pain, Xu Jingran pulled up the still-dazed Liu Ruan. “Run! Head toward the maple forest!”
Liu Ruan stumbled after her and glanced back at the brightly lit castle windows.
Several masked figures were leaning out, furious.
She looked again at Xu Jingran, who was dragging her forward at full speed. Her white dress was torn and dirty, and her bare feet were streaked with blood.
Xu Jingran’s long hair flew wildly in the night wind, yet under the moonlight, her profile was breathtakingly beautiful.
A complicated wave of emotions surged in Liu Ruan’s heart—gratitude, shame, lingering fear…
And a trace of indescribable shock.
This girl she once disliked, whom she believed relied only on Lu Ran’s protection.
In that moment, she had chosen to bring her along.
She wasn’t the traitor the other scholarship students claimed she was.
Xu Jingran could have left her behind to buy time.
But she didn’t.
Her grip was tight, as if she would never abandon her.
Liu Ruan’s eyes grew inexplicably wet.
No one had ever been her protector. She was the only promising daughter in her family.
She was the one who had to protect everyone else.
But now…
Xu Jingran had protected her.
The two of them ran blindly, cutting through the rose bushes and narrow paths.
Suddenly, Xu Jingran felt a strange heat rise from her lower abdomen, spreading rapidly through her limbs.
It was the wine.
Her steps grew unsteady. The heat came too fast, too violently…
Her vision blurred. Her breathing turned hot and uneven. A hollow, aching desire welled up deep inside her, making her legs weak.
“Xu Jingran? What’s wrong with you?”
Liu Ruan noticed her abnormal state. Xu Jingran’s cheeks were flushed, and fine beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
“I’m fine… Go that way. We split up!”
Xu Jingran forced herself to stay conscious and pushed Liu Ruan away.
She now understood what had been put in the wine.
How typical of a cliché romance plot.
Ice water… she needed ice water…
She remembered there was a fountain pool in the castle’s back garden.
“Xu Jingran!”
Liu Ruan watched as Xu Jingran let go and ran in the opposite direction.
Was she trying to lure them away?
Dizzy and disoriented, Liu Ruan ran deep into the wooded area of the estate, determined not to waste Xu Jingran’s sacrifice.
【Oh my god! They’re both such good girls!】
【I take back what I said earlier. I love Xu Jingran too now!!!】
【Forget who the female lead is—just run, girls! Don’t let them catch you!】
【Those people are awful! Why haven’t the male leads shown up yet? I can’t take it!】
【I saw someone put something in the wine… I wonder who’s going to benefit from that…】
【I can’t—Jingran looks beautiful even when she’s running. I’m shipping the female lead and the rival now. Just elope already! (shouting!)】
【They’re even wearing matching outfits…】
【You people are crazy. The female lead will definitely meet a male lead in the maple forest! Just wait. Stop shipping weird pairings—I forbid it.】
【Do you forbid it? Who do you think you are? Get lost.】
【Falling for Xu Jingran is only natural! All in!】
【Falling for Xu Jingran is only natural! All in!】
【Falling for Xu Jingran is only natural! All in!】
Xu Jingran jumped into the fountain pool. The icy water instantly wrapped around her burning body.
For a brief moment, she regained clarity.
Then came an even sharper wave of heat and stimulation.
She sank beneath the surface, then struggled back up. Her soaked white dress clung tightly to her body, outlining her youthful curves.
Her long hair spread out like seaweed. The flush on her face shimmered under the water’s reflection. The small red beauty mark beneath her left eye looked strikingly vivid against the droplets.
She clung to the edge of the pool, breathing heavily.
So hot…
A desperate craving for touch… for something she couldn’t even fully name…
At that moment, a slow, unhurried set of footsteps approached.
A pair of polished men’s dress shoes stopped at the edge of the pool.
Xu Jingran struggled to lift her head. Water droplets slid down her eyelashes.