Hearing the commotion upstairs, An Ke looked up and unexpectedly saw an “old acquaintance.” She sneered, “What a coincidence.”Lou Qing acted as if she hadn’t noticed the provocation in her gaze and glanced at the two of them.” “Which one of you wants a tattoo?”
Beside An Ke was another girl who kept her head lowered the entire time, her straight bangs covering her face.
An Ke had a twisted hobby: she specifically targeted well-behaved female students, using humiliating videos to threaten them. She was determined to stain their pure white paper with black marks that could never be washed away.
The girl in front of her was one of her victims.
And Lu Huan had almost been dragged into the same mire.
An Ke’s eyes shifted, and she gestured with her chin toward the student. “Her.”
Lu Huan noticed the girl tremble all over but offer no resistance.
Lou Qing felt something was off but didn’t dwell on it. “What do you want to get tattooed?”
Lu Huan stepped forward and tugged at Lou Qing’s sleeve. When the woman turned to look, she stood on her tiptoes, covered her mouth with her hand, and whispered in her ear, “That girl is being forced.”
Lou Qing subtly glanced at the girl. From the moment she’d seen her until now, the girl hadn’t lifted her head.
She had initially thought it was shyness, but after Lu Huan’s comment, she began to notice the girl’s unusual behavior.
Still, she said nothing more and patted Lu Huan’s hand reassuringly.
Watching their intimate interaction, An Ke found it increasingly irritating. Her gaze toward Lou Qing turned icy, while a flicker of something unreadable passed through her eyes when she looked at Lu Huan. A slight smile curled at the corners of her lips.
Lu Huan happened to catch it, pursed her lips, and turned her face away.
An Ke selected a full-back tattoo design of a hundred flowers in full bloom and said with a smile, “Let’s get this for my little darling.”
Both Lu Huan and the girl paled at the sight of the design.
This tattoo would cover the entire back, making it easily noticeable and extremely difficult to remove.
For certain professions, employees are not allowed to have tattoos. The girl had been planning to apply for a formal job after graduation, but An Ke’s choice terrified her. She finally lifted her head, tears welling in her eyes, biting her lower lip as droplets fell.
Lou Qing frowned and said, “Tattoos require the consent of the person being tattooed. Otherwise, we won’t proceed.”
An Ke turned to the girl, casually twirling her phone in her hand, and smiled. “My dear Lan Lan, do you want this tattoo? A hundred flowers on your back would look absolutely stunning.”
“It’s ugly,” Lu Huan suddenly spoke up.
Everyone’s eyes turned to her, and An Ke’s expression darkened. She couldn’t stand anyone criticizing her taste.
“Oh? What’s ugly about it?” An Ke continued to smile, but her eyes were cold.
Lou Qing stepped in front of Lu Huan, blocking An Ke’s gaze.
Looking at the woman’s back in front of her, Lu Huan’s eyes curved into a smile. She peeked out from behind Lou Qing, glanced at the girl named Lan Lan, and said very seriously, “This Lan Lan sister has fair, smooth skin. If you mess it up with messy things, it would ruin the aesthetic.”The phrase ‘messy things’ struck a nerve with An Ke, who gritted her teeth and forced a smile.” “Oh, so you understand aesthetics?”
Anyone with eyes could see she was angry. Lu Huan, frightened, tightly grabbed the edge of Lou Qing’s clothes, as if gaining a bit of courage, and whispered, “I studied art.”
An Ke’s face darkened. “But how come I remember you studied finance?”
Lu Huan’s expression stiffened, and she muttered, “Art is my hobby.”
Seeing the girl’s mix of fear and stubbornness, Lou Qing pressed a fist to her lips to hide a smile, coughed once, and said, “So, are you still getting the tattoo?”
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?” An Ke gritted her teeth, glaring at Lu Huan, and said with a smile, “Not only will I have her tattoo this back piece, but I’ll also have her tattoo her arms and legs.”
The girl’s face instantly changed. She seemed to want to say something but hesitated. When she saw the phone in An Ke’s hand, she bit her lower lip and swallowed her words in humiliation.
At that moment, Xiao Mu came over and said to An Ke, “Miss, if you really want your friend to get the tattoo, we’ll need to sign a contract and receive an advance payment. The advance is fifty thousand, and the final payment is another fifty thousand.”
Hearing the price, An Ke’s eye twitched. When she heard about the contract, her expression soured even more. “You’re not trying to scam me, are you?”
“We’re a legitimate tattoo shop,” Xiao Mu replied matter-of-factly.
An Ke said, “Fine.”
Xiao Mu continued, “The contract needs to be signed by the person getting the tattoo.”
An Ke glanced at Yu Lan with a hint of threat. “Sweetie Lan Lan, you know what I mean.”
Lu Huan noticed the girl kept looking at An Ke’s phone and realized it must contain something threatening. Remembering how the original owner had been blackmailed by An Ke’s humiliating videos, she lowered her gaze, lost in thought.
Yu Lan signed the contract while crying, tears falling drop by drop onto the paper.
The person who kept calling her “Sweetie Lan Lan” not only felt no sympathy but even seemed pleased by her reaction.
“Pervert,” Lu Huan muttered under her breath.
Lou Qing squeezed her shoulder, leaned close to her ear, and whispered, “Don’t worry, she won’t get her way.”
“Huh?” Lu Huan turned her head in confusion, but the movement was too sudden, and their lips brushed against each other. The former widened her eyes in shock, lowered her head, and blushed deeply.
The latter, however, was momentarily stunned and unconsciously touched her lips with her fingers.
Lou Qing personally took on the job and, using the excuse that she couldn’t have anyone nearby while tattooing, pushed An Ke out of the room and locked the door.
Once inside, Yu Lan kept her head bowed, lifeless as a puppet on strings.
“Does she have something on you?” Lou Qing asked casually while adjusting the machine.
Yu Lan’s hands, resting on her knees, twitched. Tears she thought had dried up began to fall again.
“Take off your clothes,” Lou Qing said.
Yu Lan clenched her fists, then helplessly relaxed them, resigned as she began to undress.
Outside, An Ke sat in a chair, feet propped up on the table, looking like a troublemaker as she stared brazenly at Lu Huan.
Xiao Mu pulled Lu Huan behind the front desk, where a screen blocked An Ke’s view.
A large tattoo would take a long time. An Ke grew impatient and left within an hour.
Watching her retreating figure, Xiao Mu spat in disgust. “Let’s go check on the boss,” she said, pulling Lu Huan toward the room.
“But doesn’t she dislike having people around while tattooing?” Lu Huan asked, puzzled.
Xiao Mu laughed heartily, “That was just to fool the woman from earlier.”
When the door was knocked open, the girl was lying on a specific chair. Seeing them enter, she nervously tried to get up.
Xiao Mu quickly closed the door and reassured her, “Don’t be afraid, that woman is gone.”
Yu Lan breathed a sigh of relief, forcing a faint, bitter smile at the corner of her mouth. “Thank you,” she said.
Lou Qing added, “I can only cover for you for a few days.”
At the thought of the video in An Ke’s phone, Yu Lan trembled all over. Finally, she curled up, hugging herself tightly, and began to cry silently.
“Did she record a video?” Lu Huan spoke up at that moment.
Yu Lan’s sobs halted abruptly as she looked up at her.
Lu Huan pulled up a chair and sat facing her, placing her hands on her knees with a posture as proper as if she were in a classroom. “Two nights ago, she drugged me, dragged me into a restroom stall, and almost recorded me.” At this point, she glanced at Lou Qing. “This older sister saved me.”
“Recorded?” Lou Qing clearly hadn’t known about this part.
Yu Lan, having experienced it firsthand, was the most knowledgeable. She stopped crying, sat up straight, and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand, speaking between sobs, “She’ll drug your drink, then take advantage of you when you’re completely defenseless and humiliate you.”
“Damn it!” Before she could finish, Xiao Mu was already seething with anger.
Lou Qing shot her a look, and Xiao Mu reluctantly closed her mouth.
Yu Lan continued, “While she humiliates you, she records it. Then she uses the video to threaten you, forcing you to come out again and again to do…”
“Things you don’t want to do?” Xiao Mu’s fists clenched in rage, wishing she could drag that woman back and beat her up.
“Are you willing to expose her?” Lu Huan asked. “Or we could just delete that video, and you could hide far away, free from her threats.”
After all, she wasn’t the victim and couldn’t make decisions on behalf of those who were.
Without experiencing others’ suffering, one shouldn’t urge them to be kind.
Whether to expose this matter or not was entirely up to the victim.
Yu Lan sat there motionless for a while. No one pressured her. After a long silence, she looked up and asked, “Are there other girls who have been threatened too?”
Lu Huan had already used the system to investigate the other victims. Besides Yu Lan, there were five more.
Seeing that number had put Lu Huan in a somber mood. In response to Yu Lan’s question, she nodded.
As if having made up her mind, Yu Lan clenched her fists, her gaze resolute. “I’m willing to expose her. If it can prevent other girls from continuing to suffer under her threats, I’m willing.”
Even after experiencing multiple worlds and witnessing so much of humanity’s ugliness, at that moment, Lu Huan couldn’t help but be moved by the genuine goodness and beauty in people. She stepped forward and hugged the girl, nodding with a choked voice.