Xu Yan, the person at the center of the incident, remained perfectly calm. She even passed over the leftover coffee beside her.
"Have some coffee and cool down. Whatever it is, we can talk it over slowly."
Ye Jin was rather shocked by the sight.
[Wait, why does this plot feel so familiar? Why do they seem like the male lead and second female lead of Domineering CEO's Forced Love?! Oh my god, can this world really be that full of coincidences?!]
Chapter 16
Ye Jin froze, rapidly recalling the novel's plot.
With "forced" right there in its title, the novel was naturally a thoroughly old-school CEO romance, tormenting both body and heart.
Fu Ruiming came from the wealthy Fu Family. As the second son, he had not inherited the family business and had instead started his own. He did have some talent, and with his family's help, he had soon successfully established one of the country's largest video platforms.
A young master from such a wealthy family was naturally arrogant and possessed many of the nasty habits of rich scions. He treated life as a game, tangled with countless women, and changed girlfriends as often as he changed clothes-until he met the female lead, Ling Xiao Rui.
Ling Xiao Rui was a young woman who dreamed of becoming a film empress. After graduating from university, she had entered the entertainment industry despite her family's objections.
But how could making a name for herself in the entertainment industry be that easy? In her first year, she had only landed a few jobs as a nameless extra. Her income could not even support her, and she still had to rely on her family's help.
Having entered the profession without formal training, she naturally could not sign with any major company. Unfortunately, she had also run into an agent who shunned honest work and devoted themselves to pimping.
Proud by nature, Ling Xiao Rui had naturally refused to attend the dinners her agent arranged. Her agent had then effectively shelved her, and she had gone several months without any work.
When the roof leaked, it just had to rain all night. At that point, her family's business had failed, leaving them deeply in debt.
Left with no choice, Ling Xiao Rui could only bow to reality and attend a dinner arranged by her agent. It was at this dinner that she met Fu Ruiming.
As the female lead, Ling Xiao Rui was naturally very beautiful, with the innate looks of a little white flower. Especially after her family's troubles, her unsettled state of mind had left her looking pitiful and helpless. Fu Ruiming had taken a fancy to her at first sight at the dinner.
And in Ling Xiao Rui's eyes, compared with the other potbellied, fat-headed middle-aged tycoons, Fu Ruiming already counted as a quality option.
The two had hit it off, and Fu Ruiming had taken Ling Xiao Rui as his kept woman.
As they spent time together, Fu Ruiming had gradually fallen for the resilient little white flower, Ling Xiao Rui. Yet he also thought she was nothing more than a gold digger clambering after wealth and status, and looked down on her.
And so the two had embarked on a tortured romance-
Ling Xiao Rui's heart would flutter at Fu Ruiming's tenderness and sweet words, only for her to soon discover that he had hooked up with another woman. Just after Fu Ruiming stood up for her and made her feel she held some place in his heart, she would hear him tell his friends that she was nothing but a plaything...
Ling Xiao Rui had reveled in Fu Ruiming's occasional tenderness and sweet words while hating herself for being so pathetically cheap that she could fall for a man like him.
This had continued until Fu Ruiming was to follow his family's arrangements and enter a marriage alliance with Xu Yan, whose family matched his in status. Ling Xiao Rui had finally given up on Fu Ruiming, believing she was nothing more than his plaything.
So she had run away. Only then had Fu Ruiming realized that he had long since fallen in love with Ling Xiao Rui, and the two had begun an affair of "she runs, he chases, and she couldn't escape even with wings."
Ling Xiao Rui had escaped time and again, only to be caught and brought back by Fu Ruiming every time. He had even suppressed her career and those of her friends to force her to return.
And once, after seeing the heartbroken Ling Xiao Rui decide to accept a confession from the second male lead, her childhood sweetheart Lu Chun, Fu Ruiming's jealousy had exploded. He had abducted Ling Xiao Rui and imprisoned her in a villa in the suburbs, subjecting her to repeated rape, SM, violence, abortions... He had even sent his men to run the second male lead over, leaving him bedridden for more than half a year and nearly disabled.
Yet under the author's pen, all these acts had been prettified in the original novel as the male lead being jealous, with countless readers exclaiming, "He really loves her so much!"
In the end, after Fu Ruiming hurt himself on one occasion, Ling Xiao Rui had finally been moved again. Discovering that Fu Ruiming loved her so much, she had forgiven the male lead, and the two had gotten together.
After a round of threats and inducements, Fu Ruiming had also divorced Xu Yan and held a worldwide wedding with Ling Xiao Rui. After their marriage, they had three sons and two daughters.
After reviewing it all, Ye Jin clicked her tongue inwardly.
[Fu Ruiming really is a pervert. He not only □□ the female lead but even filmed it. He's a complete lawless lunatic. The female lead has Stockholm syndrome and actually fell in love with a □□ offender. These old-school novels really went all out!]
Then she could not help looking toward Xu Yan nearby, remembering what had caused the scene before her.
[Xu Yan was unlucky too, somehow ending up as the vicious female supporting character. What did she do wrong? Fu Ruiming went crazy and disregarded the two families' cooperation, so Xu Yan had no choice but to step in and get Ling Xiao Rui to leave.]
[But weren't Xu Yan's methods pretty mild? Isn't "I'll give you twenty million to leave my husband" practically charity? Fu Ruiming even thought she was insulting his precious darling and ruining their pure love, and hated Xu Yan for it. He didn't just come here today to vent his darling's anger for her. In the end, he even used every means at his disposal to bankrupt the Xu Family. Xu Yan lost her career too, and could only marry an old nouveau riche man to repay the Xu Family's debts.]
Absorbed in recalling the plot, Ye Jin missed the flicker of surprise on the face of the woman nearby, who had been utterly composed until then.
What had she heard Ye Jin saying? A novel? A female supporting character? But Ye Jin clearly had not opened her mouth!
Still, she had navigated the business world for many years and soon regained her earlier composure.
She was a producer and needed to keep an eye on market trends at all times, so she had naturally read plenty of popular novels. She soon formed a guess: was she hearing Ye Jin's thoughts?
Combining that with reality and a reasonable amount of extrapolation, she soon understood what Ye Jin's thoughts meant.