That was a simian crease!

The boy lowered his head to speak to the girl, while she tilted hers up to answer, unmistakable affection in her eyes.

"Chu Yannan?" Liu Muyan sounded a little uncertain. She narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to get a clearer look at him. The streetlights were not very bright, leaving his entire figure hazy and hard to make out.

[Oh, that's Chu Yannan and An Qian.] Once they drew closer, Shen Zhiyi knew who the two were.

It was too obvious. As though the world's consciousness feared people would fail to recognize the two leads, the spot where they stood was brighter than anywhere else. Their atmosphere alone would have taken several hundred words to describe.

Beside her, Liu Muyan folded her arms and sneered.

"That bastard is making trouble for me again."

The two of them still had a relationship tying them together. If someone photographed Chu Yannan again and posted it on the School Forum, who knew how long Shan Yirou and those fake friends would gossip about her behind her back?

Just thinking about it annoyed her!

She walked over to the two and began sarcastically.

"Well, well, if it isn't Chu Yannan. I heard you were so busy studying you didn't have time to go home."

Liu Muyan disdained targeting a girl to get at a boy. She had never interacted with An Qian, but she was not so low as to start insulting someone before she understood the situation.

Chu Yannan was the one who most deserved a scolding. He knew perfectly well that the relationship between their families was still publicly in place. Acting like this disregarded their families' friendship and humiliated Liu Muyan in public.

Had he openly explained things properly to both families instead of throwing tantrums as he pleased, Liu Muyan would still have respected him.

An Qian withdrew her gaze and looked at Liu Muyan in some panic before speaking.

"Miss Liu, you've misunderstood. We weren't doing anything. We only happened to run into each other. Please don't misunderstand, Miss Liu."

Liu Muyan frowned. This was not right. An Qian should not have been like this. Why did she give off such a delicate, innocent-flower air the moment she spoke? Liu Muyan found the scene strangely familiar.

It was far too much like the domineering-CEO-falls-for-me dramas her mother followed. The fragile, innocent heroines all talked this way. Liu Muyan's expression immediately became difficult to describe.

Meanwhile, Chu Yannan recklessly stepped in front of An Qian, frowning as he spoke angrily.

"Mu Mu, don't make things difficult for An Qian. If you have a problem, take it out on me!"

Liu Muyan, who had only said a single sentence from beginning to end, was speechless. "..."

"Are you two out of your minds?" She could not help insulting them both. What was this supposed to be? They each said one thing, and suddenly she was the villain?

Liu Muyan glanced back at Shen Zhiyi, as though seeking agreement from her companion to prove she was not the problem.

Shen Zhiyi had originally had no intention of getting involved. She already knew the relationship between the three.

Liu Muyan turned out to be the vicious supporting female character the author had written as utterly evil, committing every kind of wrongdoing just to be with Chu Yannan.

But back in the art classroom, the name Liu Muyan had carved was Chu Yanqing, Chu Yannan's older brother. Liu Muyan did not like Chu Yannan. She liked Chu Yanqing.

So the plot had long since gone off course, except that the male and female leads were still following it.

Liu Muyan's eyes were so full of speechless disbelief and a need for validation that Shen Zhiyi stepped forward, gave her a look, and stood beside her in encouragement.

With that affirmation, Liu Muyan turned back to the pair and scoffed.

"Chu Yannan, if you're so capable, settle the matter between our families before you start entertaining other ideas. I don't want to damage the harmony between our families, but the way you're acting now is truly childish and stupid.

"I used to hold back from insulting you out of consideration for someone else, but now I think I've been too kind. Why else would you have grown taller without growing a brain?"

If Chu Yannan did not care about being posted on the forum and discussed by everyone, then she should not care either. She had the Liu Family behind her, and it was the Chu Family who had asked the Liu Family for this childhood betrothal.

She, Liu Muyan, would not allow anyone to slander the Liu Family.

Chu Yannan clenched his jaw and fists, glaring defiantly at Liu Muyan. "Shut up! What right do you have to criticize me?"

Anyone would be angry at being berated like this in front of the girl they liked. All the more so for Chu Yannan, who had grown up with everything going his way and had never been humiliated to his face like this.

Liu Muyan refused to back down.

"Why should I shut up? You do things but won't own up to them. I've given you too much fucking leeway, and that's why you keep refusing to take responsibility for anything.

"Chu Yannan, I've already told my parents I won't be with you. Because I know we're friends who grew up together.

"So I could treat those nasty things you said as jokes. When you dismissed me however you pleased, I didn't think much of that either. But you should never, ever have trampled on the friendship between our families without the slightest regard for their dignity.

"Do you know how many people are predicting our families' partnership will fail? Do you know that the slightest disturbance can affect both families' stocks? Do you know that for the Chu Family, for his work, Yan Qing spends all day stuck at the office, too busy even to eat?

"Do you know that even his birthday next week has been turned into a banquet? He has to entertain guests on his own birthday, while you, Chu Yannan-

"On your birthday, you can invite your friends to a party and happily clasp your hands together to make a wish.

"Your birthday cake says, 'May you always be happy.' Yan Qing has none of that. Only now have I realized that you, Chu Yannan, don't deserve it!"

As Liu Muyan spoke, her eyes unwittingly grew moist. She thought of Chu Yanqing, exhausted and overwhelmed with work.

She thought of how Chu Yannan had grown up with her, yet assumed the worst of her with the greatest malice. There was no romantic love between them, but she had thought of him as family. She had never imagined that, at some unknown point, they had begun heading in opposite directions.

She felt a little sad, inexplicably unable to find a way out of this crossroads.

An Qian hid timidly behind Chu Yannan and spoke, looking somewhat unable to bear it.

"Miss Liu, are you all right?" Her voice was gentle, her face full of concern, but she should not have spoken at that moment.

Liu Muyan lifted her head and stared at her. Chu Yannan's expression was far from pleasant, but he instinctively moved to shield An Qian. That movement made Liu Muyan's pupils widen slightly. She could not believe Chu Yannan was guarding against her.

She found it outrageous. Had Chu Yannan not taken in a single word of everything she had said so sincerely?

Smack! A crisp sound rang out. Chu Yannan's face twisted to one side, a red handprint stark against his fair skin.

He had not reacted at all-or rather, no one had expected Shen Zhiyi to hit anyone. The exceptionally sharp sound faintly echoed along the road.

That was a simian crease, Liu Muyan thought to herself after hearing it.

An Qian was the first to speak, crying out in alarm.

"Yannan, are you all right?"

Chu Yannan slowly touched his face. It's so numb. I can't feel it anymore. Then another thought struck him. Why did I get hit? Who hit me? Does Liu Muyan hate me so much she even hired someone specifically to beat me up?

With that kind of force, she has to be a professional. Otherwise, why am I a little afraid to turn my head now?