Hurting yourself and trying to frame someone? The crowd's eyes were sharp!

Just then, hurried footsteps came from the far end of the corridor.

"Make way! Please, make way!"

The restaurant manager pushed frantically through the crowd with four burly security guards in tow.

The sight of the bloody mess on the floor made the manager's scalp prickle.

This was the restaurant on the top floor of the World Trade Center. Its patrons were either rich or influential. If someone actually died here, his days as manager would be over.

"Wh-what happened here?" The manager hurriedly pulled out his radio. "Quick! Call an ambulance! Bring the first-aid kit!"

Hearing the manager's voice, Zhao Yutang, still on the floor, seemed to clutch at a life-saving straw.

He struggled into a sitting position, one hand clamped over his still-bleeding forehead while the other pointed shakily at Lin Bei, who was sitting in his chair.

"Call the police! Call the police right now!"

Zhao Yutang roared hysterically in his harsh, ducklike voice.

"I'm a deputy division chief at the municipal education bureau!"

"This little bastard hit me with an ashtray! I want him in prison! I want him to spend the rest of his life rotting there!"

Zhao Yutang turned the tables and accused his victim with utter self-righteousness.

His head was throbbing and buzzing so badly that he had not even sorted out what had just happened.

All he knew was that he had meant to hit Lin Bei, but his wrist had gone numb, and the ashtray had landed on his own head.

But he was a deputy division chief, after all. How could he admit in front of so many people that he had hit himself?

That brat must have used some dirty trick!

As long as he dumped this bucket of filth onto the poor student's head, with his connections, destroying a university student would be as easy as crushing an ant.

Hearing Zhao Yutang twist black into white, Shen Ruoxi grew anxious.

She knew Zhao Yutang's methods all too well.

The man was sinister and vicious, stopping at nothing to get what he wanted.

If he actually got the police here, Lin Bei would never wash himself clean, even if he jumped into the Yellow River.

"You're lying!"

Shen Ruoxi abruptly stepped forward and planted herself firmly in front of Lin Bei, trembling all over with anger.

"Zhao Yutang, have you no shame? You were the one who picked up an ashtray to hit someone, then lost your grip and hit yourself! Now you actually have the nerve to frame him!"

"I'm framing him?" Zhao Yutang sneered, pulling at his wound and making him hiss in pain, but his tongue remained merciless. "Shen Ruoxi, you'd even make up lies to protect this pretty boy? Do you think I'm fucking crazy enough to hit myself?"

He turned toward the plump restaurant manager and barked, "What are you standing there for? Didn't you hear me? Call the police! Detain this brat!"

The manager was intimidated by Zhao Yutang's ferocious manner.

A deputy division chief at the municipal education bureau was neither a particularly high-ranking official nor a low-ranking one. If things really escalated, their restaurant could not afford to offend him.

The manager wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and signaled the guards behind him with a look.

"Well... sir, please don't leave just yet. Come with us to the security office and wait for the police to handle this."

The guards immediately stepped forward in a semicircle, blocking Lin Bei and Shen Ruoxi inside the booth.

Shen Ruoxi's face turned deathly pale, and her eyes reddened with anxiety.

She was just about to argue further when a large, warm hand suddenly caught her wrist.

Shen Ruoxi froze and turned around.

Lin Bei sat in his chair without even having changed his posture.

He gently squeezed Shen Ruoxi's wrist and drew her back behind him.

"Easy." Lin Bei patted the back of her hand.

He looked up at Zhao Yutang, who was lashing out like a mad dog on the floor, and suddenly grinned, just about to speak.

But the diners watching nearby refused to stand for it first.

Everyone dining here was either wealthy or influential. None of them had to put up with anyone else.

The earlier revelation that Zhao Yutang was riddled with syphilis had already thoroughly disgusted them.

Now, seeing him dare to turn the tables and bully a university student, the crowd's sense of justice instantly overflowed.

"What kind of endless, spiraling bullshit are you spouting?"

At the next table, a man wearing a thick gold chain around his neck slammed his chopsticks down hard on the table.

"I was sitting less than two meters from you! I saw every damn thing!"

"You fucking raised that lousy ashtray yourself and cracked your own skull like an idiot! Now you're trying to scam someone? Do you think we're all blind?"

The man's voice was so loud that the restaurant's windows hummed.

With someone taking the lead, the surrounding diners instantly erupted.

"Exactly! All of us were watching! That young man never laid so much as a finger on you!"

"You went crazy and hit yourself, and now you dare play the villain who accuses his victim first? What a piece of work!"

"A deputy division chief at the education bureau? Pah! With that mouth spewing shit and that body full of venereal disease, you're a disgrace to education!"

Just then, someone suddenly pushed in from the edge of the crowd.

It was the woman who had fled in terror earlier after Lin Bei exposed Zhao Yutang's illness.

She had already reached the elevators, but remembering that she had left her bag behind, she had doubled back. She happened to see Zhao Yutang pick up the ashtray to hit someone, so she took out her phone and recorded it.

Seeing Zhao Yutang still putting on airs, the woman pulled out her phone, opened a video, and thrust the screen right in the manager's face.

"Take a good look! I was so disgusted by him that I recorded a video while I was at it. This old bastard hit himself, and I got the whole thing!"

The video clearly recorded the entire sequence: Zhao Yutang grabbing the ashtray, his wrist twisting strangely, and then smashing it hard into his own forehead.

From beginning to end, not even the hem of Lin Bei's clothes had moved.

The evidence stood as solid as a mountain.

After watching the video, the restaurant manager's expression was quite a sight.

He turned to look at Zhao Yutang, still bleeding on the floor, his eyes filled with contempt and disgust.

"Division Chief Zhao, was it?" The manager's expression turned cold as he waved the guards back. "We now understand what happened. This was self-harm. It had nothing whatsoever to do with this young man."

"However, you broke our restaurant's custom-made crystal ashtray, worth thirty-eight hundred. And there's the carpet you stained..." The manager pointed at the blood on the floor. "A cleaning fee of five hundred. Please settle the bill first."

Zhao Yutang was dumbfounded.

He sat blankly on the floor, looking at the disgust on the surrounding diners' faces and listening to the mocking curses grating against his ears.

It was over.

He was utterly finished.

If this video got out, forget remarrying-he would not even be able to keep his position as deputy division chief.

Secondary syphilis. Hurting himself in public and trying to frame someone.

Either one alone would be enough to leave his reputation in ruins throughout Jinghai City.

An unprecedented wave of humiliation and fear instantly surged into his heart.

Zhao Yutang could no longer even spare a thought for the pain in his head.

He scrambled up from the floor and stumbled desperately toward the exit.

Before leaving, he turned and stared fixedly at Lin Bei and Shen Ruoxi.

His gaze was like a blade steeped in poison.

"You... just you wait!" Zhao Yutang gritted his teeth, his voice trembling. "This isn't over! I will never let you off!"

"Just get the hell out! Haven't you embarrassed yourself enough?"

The man with the tattooed arms picked up a wad of used tissues from the table and threw it straight into Zhao Yutang's face.

"If you don't leave, I'll post that video online right now and make you really famous!"

Zhao Yutang shuddered in fright, covered his bleeding head, and slunk into the elevator.

The farce came to a dramatic end just like that.

Lin Bei turned and cupped his hands toward the diners who had spoken up for him.

"Thank you all for speaking up for what was right today. You have my thanks."

The tattooed man waved a hand expansively.

"No need for that! Scum like him deserves to be brought down by everyone."

"Brother, you were just unlucky to run into a mad dog like that. Go on, enjoy your meal!"

Everyone smiled kindly, dispersed, and returned to their seats. The atmosphere grew pleasant once more.