Just as Liu Hanyan finished her threat, a series of knocks echoed on the office door. Before anyone inside could respond, the doorknob twisted, and a young man in a light grey casual suit and gold-rimmed glasses rushed in.
“Hanyan, are you alright? I heard some commotion from your office, quite loud, so I came to check,” the man said, his face filled with concern. His gaze immediately fell upon Liu Hanyan’s pretty face, still tear-streaked. When he clearly saw the two distinct, symmetrical red and swollen finger marks, he froze, his expression instantly changing.
He lunged forward, his voice shifting pitch: “Your face… Who did this?!” His eyes, like knives, sharply turned towards Lu Xuan, who was still sitting calmly in his chair.
Liu Hanyan suppressed the tears welling up again and looked at the newcomer, her heart a mix of emotions. The newcomer was Sun Hao, a counselor for a neighboring class. Relying on his father, who was the Dean of the School of Finance, he had always been arrogant at Yan University.
Ever since he met Liu Hanyan a year ago, he had pursued her fiercely, but Liu Hanyan had always been indifferent to him, merely stringing him along.
Yet now, her most disheveled and pathetic state had been seen by him in its entirety.
However, Lu Xuan, the instigator, paid no attention to this new protector. His entire interest was focused on the freshly released black-material report on his phone screen. He browsed the detailed content with great interest.
“Detailed Description: Target individual Liu Hanyan, from the scholarly Liu family of Yanjing University. Her father, Liu Jie, is currently the Executive Vice President of Yanjing University; her mother is the Director of the International Cooperation Department at Beihua University. She grew up under the family’s protection and the envious gazes of others, with extremely superior material conditions. Everyone around her showered her with praise and adulation. Over time, this led her to become numb to ordinary compliments, even finding them insufficiently stimulating. Once, by accidental clicking on a webpage, she encountered the overseas live streaming platform ‘Peach TV.’ She discovered that the almost insane adoration, explicit expressions of affection, and even vulgar language in the comment section could bring her an unprecedented sense of psychological satisfaction. Thus, she registered an account ‘Princess Yanyan’ and immersed herself in it. She did not care about monetary donations; what she enjoyed was the ultimate sense of control and vanity from thousands of viewers across the screen worshipping her and revering her as a goddess.”
Lu Xuan’s lips curved into a playful smile. Interesting, truly interesting. These women, each with an incredibly powerful background, how could they all have more or less psychological issues?
He casually opened the attached PPT file package, which probably contained hundreds of pages. It was richly illustrated with text and images, meticulously documenting the time, theme, and earnings of each of ‘Princess Yanyan’s’ live streams, and even included numerous screenshots of indecent bullet screen content.
Although Liu Hanyan always wore an exquisite mask during her live streams, hinting at modesty, a high-definition screenshot note in the PPT completely confirmed her identity—a small, inconspicuous, heart-shaped mole one finger’s width below her left collarbone.
Just as Lu Xuan was engrossed in his viewing, Sun Hao’s anger had reached its boiling point. “Hey! What’s wrong with you, student?!” Sun Hao’s eyes were wide with fury, pointing at Lu Xuan’s nose. “You don’t stand up when you see a teacher, and you dare to hit your own counselor? Do you not want to stay at Yan University?!”
Lu Xuan slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping over Liu Hanyan’s face, full of grievance and embarrassment, before finally settling on the indignant Sun Hao. His look was like he was watching a clown.
“Teacher,” Lu Xuan’s tone was unremarkable, yet carried a natural disdain, “our counselor and I are having an in-depth teacher-student discussion. I don’t think it concerns you, does it?”
“You!” Sun Hao’s face turned green and then white, choked by his attitude. “What kind of attitude is that! No respect! Get up right now! Apologize to Teacher Liu!” With that, he directly reached out, aggressively intending to grab Lu Xuan’s collar and pull him up from the chair.
Liu Hanyan’s heart tightened abruptly; she instinctively wanted to stop him, yet a hidden anticipation lingered. Sun Hao was a man after all; surely, he could subdue this lawless student?
However, what happened the next second plunged her into an icy abyss. Just as Sun Hao’s hand was about to touch Lu Xuan’s collar, Lu Xuan moved.
He didn’t even stand up; his left hand, holding the phone, shot up like lightning, accurately grasping Sun Hao’s wrist, and twisted it gently.
“Click!” A crisp sound of dislocated bone echoed particularly harshly in the quiet office.
“Ah—!” Sun Hao’s face, flushed with anger, instantly turned pale, letting out a pig-like shriek. He felt a searing pain from his wrist; his entire arm went numb, instantly losing all strength.
Lu Xuan remained seated, his posture unchanged, only his eyes growing cold. “I don’t like people pointing at me.” He released his hand, as if merely flicking away a bothersome speck of dust.
Sun Hao clutched his wrist, twisted at an odd angle, cold sweat streaming down his face from the pain. He staggered back two steps, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief as he looked at Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan stood up, leisurely straightened his collar, which had no wrinkles at all, and turned his gaze back to the completely stunned Liu Hanyan.
He raised the phone in his hand, the screen facing her, displaying a live stream screenshot of her wearing a mask, her eyes hazy. “Teacher Liu,” Lu Xuan’s lips curved into a devilish smile, his voice low, yet it struck Liu Hanyan’s heart like a heavy hammer, “Now, can we continue our ‘teacher-student discussion’ from earlier?”
“Or… would you like Teacher Sun here to also listen in on the legendary story of ‘Princess Yanyan’?” Liu Hanyan felt as if her heart was about to stop beating; she could no longer breathe normally.