It was the last train of the night, and there were very few passengers.
Hua Jian entered the carriage and sat in the nearest seat, but a casual glance told him something was wrong.
He could make out several men in the carriage to his left.
They were all dressed in black, with black baseball caps.
"Boss, did that kid spot us?"
"So what if he did? We're all on the same train. Where can he run?"
After He Wu spoke, his lackeys stopped asking questions.
They had followed him all the way from UP and knew he had no one with him.
Once he left the station, they could pin him down immediately.
"The train will shortly arrive at Qiaotoukou Station. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."
"Ding. We have arrived at Qiaotoukou Station. Passengers, please take care."
Hua Jian looked up and out of the carriage. The station was nearly empty, with only a few passengers.
He Wu cast a sidelong glance at him, then lowered his head to look at his phone.
Suddenly, one of his lackeys exclaimed in his ear, "Boss, why did that kid get off?"
He Wu immediately stood up. Sure enough, Hua Jian's seat was empty.
"Fuck! The doors closed! Damn it!"
He Wu's expression darkened. He turned to look, and Hua Jian, who was about to head down the stairs, seemed to glance back in their direction.
"He planned to get off right before the train pulled away. Fuck, that little shit played us."
In UP's staff changing room.
"Andy, you sure know when to back down these days. Xiao Jian beat you up, and you just took it?"
"Took it? That's not in my vocabulary."
"Tsk, you'd better be careful. He's President Lu's favorite now, and all those rich boys are protecting him. A little pillow talk with any one of them could land you in deep shit."
A vicious gleam flashed in Andy's eyes. He snorted. "He's just a little slut. What's he got..."
Knock, knock!
The sudden knock made Andy and the other waiter turn sharply, their faces deathly pale.
There, leaning against the doorframe, was Hua Jian, who had returned after leaving.
"Xiao Jian, didn't you finish your shift? Haha."
The waiter was a coward. He only dared to gossip behind Hua Jian's back, never to provoke him face-to-face.
"Well, uh, you and Andy have a chat. I'm heading home. Haha."
He hastily shut his locker and walked toward the door. He was short, barely reaching Hua Jian's shoulder.
Remembering how brutally Hua Jian had beaten someone behind the bar, he went white.
He stopped in front of Hua Jian, looked up, and forced a smile uglier than a grimace. "Xiao Jian, I was running my mouth earlier. That's just how I am. I never got much schooling, and I talk nonsense. You're the bigger man, so please don't hold it against me."
Hua Jian looked down at him and said coldly, "If I hear you running your mouth again, I'll make sure you never set foot in UP again."
The waiter's heart lurched. Of all his jobs, UP was the easiest and paid the most, and he could even meet wealthy young men here.
He hurriedly promised, "Xiao Jian, please let me off. I won't do it again!"
"Get lost."
Hua Jian shoved him aside and entered the changing room.
Andy panicked. "Don't come any closer! If you dare hit me again, I'm calling the police right away."
Hua Jian frowned. "Who sent those men to follow me?"
Andy's eyes flickered. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Hua Jian took two steps closer. "Shu Yan? Tan Xilin? Who?"
Andy backed away in a panic, holding up his phone. "Stay back! I really will call the police."
Hua Jian raised his hands, looking a little resigned. "I'm not going to hit you. Watch what you're doing with that phone. If you actually call the police, I won't be able to keep working here, but you won't come out of it clean either."
Andy instinctively glanced at his phone. The next second, pain shot through his wrist.
"Ah! What are you doing? That hurts like hell!"
Catching him off guard, Hua Jian grabbed his wrist, snatched his phone with his other hand, then twisted his arm behind him and pinned him against the lockers.
Andy's face was pressed firmly against the cold, hard metal door. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw his phone in front of him.
Andy instantly fell silent, too frightened to say anything.
I'm screwed!
"I'm in a bad mood right now. Cooperate, and I'll spare you some pain."
As he spoke, Hua Jian kicked him hard in the knee.
After unlocking it with facial recognition, Hua Jian frowned as he went through Andy's phone.
WeChat, texts, call history.
Only when he opened the photo gallery did a momentary look of bewilderment cross his face.
Humiliated and furious, Andy shouted, "Let go of me!"
"Fuck!"
Hua Jian released his arm as though he had been stung and abruptly backed away several steps.
Looking at Andy's face, which was as red as a monkey's ass, he felt sickened.
"How much did Shu Yan pay you? What did he tell you to do? Did Shu Yan arrange for those men to follow me? And..."
Hua Jian frowned and stopped talking.
Because Andy, a grown man, had crouched down and started crying.
Brother Shen arrived just in time to see this, and his head nearly exploded.
"Xiao Jian! My little tormentor! I'm begging you, can you give me a moment's peace? Huh? Your shift's over. Go home!"
"Brother Shen, Andy took money from a customer to screw me over. Never mind the rest, just look at what he's been recording on his phone."
"We have an explicit rule against using phones during working hours. If customers shoot videos, that's their responsibility. But if an employee accidentally records a customer who mustn't be filmed, how many lives do you have to pay for it, Brother Shen?"
Hua Jian's voice was mild, but Brother Shen shuddered at his words.
"Andy! Are you out of your mind? You've worked here for years. How could you film customers?"
Andy had cried so much his makeup was smeared. "I didn't, Brother Shen. I'd never dare film customers. You know me."
Ignoring them, Hua Jian lowered his head and scrolled through Andy's phone. He quickly photographed all the relevant call records and WeChat screenshots.
Then he transferred the photos and videos in the gallery to his own phone.
By the time Hua Jian returned to his apartment, it was nearly two in the morning.
He carefully examined the photos he had copied from Andy.
Of course, he wasn't looking at the ones of himself, but the photos Andy had secretly taken a few days earlier.
To respect its customers' privacy around places like the restrooms, UP had not even installed cameras in those corridors.
Andy's photos looked like unusable shots, but two of them shared a striking similarity: a man was half-dragging Shu Yao into the restroom. The men in the two photos were different, however.
One was Cui Zhao. The other was Tan Xilin, the fake young master Shu Yan's fiancé in name.
"That idiot Shu Yan thought I was the man secretly meeting Tan Xilin at UP?
"So he had those men in black follow me, planning to take nude photos of me somewhere deserted?"
Tsk.
A bunch of fucking idiots.
Early the next morning, Hua Jian sat through two classes with his eyes half-closed.
As he was about to head to the cafeteria, Xue Pan, who had been waiting by the door, stopped him.
He looked perfectly natural, without a trace of last night's awkwardness. "Hua Jian, have you checked the group chat?"
"No," Hua Jian said lazily.
"You look awful. Didn't sleep well last night?"
"Mm."
Xue Pan pressed his lips together. "Before the first class, someone posted a few photos in the Journalism Department's group chat from an unknown alt account. They're all of Shu Yao with different men."
Hua Jian's eyes flew open. "Let me see."
What Xue Pan had on his phone were screenshots from the Journalism Department's five-hundred-member group chat, which included students from all four years.
Besides the two photos Hua Jian had sent Shu Yan last night, there were other intimate photos as well.
Before you continue