The eighth-floor hall was about to reach its most intense moment.
Yang Xinyi was a believer, so after the banquet, she had arranged for a Western ceremony. A specially invited Priest was on stage to bear witness for the couple.
"Mr. He Haodong, do you take this beautiful, gentle, virtuous, and exceedingly clever young woman by your side to be your wife? In the days to come, whether she be poor or rich, sick or healthy, do you pledge to always be faithful to her, to cherish and love her, until you depart from this world?" the Priest asked, holding his book.
"I do," He Haodong answered without hesitation.
"Miss Yang Xinyi, do you take this handsome, kind, and exceptionally talented young man by your side…"
At that moment, Yang Xinyi sat on the stage in her wedding dress, as beautiful as a snow lotus on an Ice Mountain, the focus of everyone's gaze. However, in that instant, she fell silent. After a long while, she finally managed to say with reluctance, "I…"
"Hold on!"
From out of the crowd, Xiao Fangfang stepped forward. Holding a smartphone, she limped onto the stage.
"Fangfang, what happened?" Yang Xinyi asked, surprised.
"Xinyi, I have something to show you." Xiao Fangfang glared at He Haodong, then played a video. "This was from an hour ago."
Afraid of causing a major scene, Xiao Fangfang had muted the volume.
Yang Xinyi took the phone and watched it, and her expression changed drastically.
"Xinyi, what's wrong?" the perplexed He Haodong asked from beside her.
SLAP!
A fierce slap landed squarely on his face.
Everyone below the stage was stunned, having no idea what had just happened.
"Xinyi, what did I do wrong?" He Haodong asked guiltily, covering his cheek.
Yang Xinyi snatched up the smartphone and hurled it at He Haodong, who ducked just in time. The phone smashed on the ground.
"My phone!" Ye Xiong burst from the crowd, picked up the shattered pieces of his device, and cried out with a mournful expression, "All I wanted was a free meal! Was that easy for me?"
「Two hours later, at the Yang Family Villa!」
Yang Xinyi had locked herself in her room, refusing to see anyone except Xiao Fangfang. If it weren't for Xiao Fangfang keeping her company inside, Yang Xinyi's father, Yang Dingguo, would have been tempted to break down the door.
Even now, Yang Dingguo had no clue what had happened. When he called He Haodong to question him, the man refused to say a word.
"Xinyi, don't be sad. In the end, you haven't lost anything," Xiao Fangfang consoled her.
Yang Xinyi's mood began to settle. She even felt a sense of relief that the incident had occurred. She had only chosen to get married because of external pressure. At the time, she believed there was no man on earth better than He Haodong, which was why she had accepted his proposal.
"Fangfang, how did you manage to secretly record that?"
Remembering the two of them huddled tightly together in the closet, Xiao Fangfang's face flushed bright red. "It's not my phone. It belongs to that jerk."
"Ye Xiong?"
"Yes, that fraud. He looks decent enough, but he just came to freeload. It made me so angry," Xiao Fangfang cursed.
Yang Xinyi couldn't help but laugh. It had been a long time since she had seen her best friend take such an interest in a man. As Xiao Fangfang went on about Ye Xiong, Yang Xinyi couldn't stop giggling, and the unhappiness from the wedding was completely swept away.
"That guy is a real piece of work. I'm just wondering, how did he get into the hotel room?"
Given He Haodong's style, he must have rented that room well in advance. Without a keycard, how could that guy have gotten in? This was what Xiao Fangfang couldn't figure out either.
"Oh, right. Those two security guards you sent for me—they ended up passed out. That guy said they fell asleep."
"Those two are ex-military. How could they have just fallen asleep?" Yang Xinyi grew even more suspicious. "Hearing you talk about him, I'm actually quite curious to meet this guy."
"Beauty, we're really on the same wavelength."
From outside the balcony, a figure walked in. Who else could it be but Ye Xiong?
"How did you get in here?"
The two women were shocked speechless, staring with dumbfounded expressions at Ye Xiong, who seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
"I climbed up."
"This is the fifth floor," Yang Xinyi said, astonished.
Ye Xiong looked at his dirty hands and asked, "Excuse me, where is the restroom?"
Xiao Fangfang dumbly pointed in the direction of the restroom.
After a while, Ye Xiong emerged, sat down on the sofa, and said, "Alright, let's talk about compensation for the phone."
"You climbed up to the fifth floor just for a broken phone?" Xiao Fangfang was on the verge of a breakdown.
"The climbing will be included in the labor fees," Ye Xiong stated with a straight face. "The iPhone 6 costs 6,700 yuan. I've had it for two months, so I've grown attached. For emotional distress, we'll say fifty yuan a day, which comes to three thousand for sixty days. Then, climbing up here got my clothes dirty, so they need cleaning. Let's call that three hundred. Just give me ten thousand yuan and we'll be even."
"As for the round-trip travel expenses, I won't fuss over them. How do you intend to pay?"
Xiao Fangfang was nearly driven mad. Is this guy even human? Climbing up to someone's fifth-floor home in the middle of the night to collect a debt for a phone… how bizarre can one person be?
Yang Xinyi, however, looked at Ye Xiong with great interest and smiled. "Ten thousand yuan, no problem."
She walked to her desk, took out a thick stack of banknotes from the drawer, and placed it on the table. "Count it. See if it's enough."
"Miss Yang is so straightforward, not like some deadbeats."
"Say that again, I dare you!" Xiao Fangfang shot to her feet.
"The truth only needs to be told once."
WHOOSH!
A pillow came flying at him.
Ye Xiong slapped it, sending it flying back toward Xiao Fangfang and knocking her onto the sofa with her legs kicked up in the air.
Holding the stack of bills, Ye Xiong fanned them out with a flourish like a peacock spreading its tail. "I don't like to take advantage of petty gains," he said, pulling two bills from the stack and placing them on the table. Then, he leaped out of the window.
"I'll kill you!" Xiao Fangfang yelled as she sat up, but Ye Xiong was already gone. "Hey, where did that bastard go?"
"He's gone."
"Why didn't you stop him?"
"A dozen security guards couldn't stop him, and dozens of cameras didn't detect him. How could I have stopped him?" Yang Xinyi picked up the two banknotes and fell into deep thought. She had heard of the "peacock tail" money-counting technique before, but this was the first time she had ever seen it in person.
"Damn it! Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I will find you!" Xiao Fangfang yelled frantically.
…
In August, the weather in Jiangnan City was exceedingly cool, making it the best season for work.
Ye Xiong wore a pair of tattered jeans and a sky-blue work uniform emblazoned with the four large characters for "Future New City" on the back. He straddled his battered, second-hand motorcycle, which spewed a cloud of black smoke from its tailpipe as he roared off.
*Sunshine beats down on my ragged clothes,*
*As I ride my bike, looking high and low.*
*No one knows from where I came,*
*No one asks me for my name.*
*I pay no mind to romance or to love,*
*And don't dream of being a hero from above.*
…
BANG!
A BMW sedan ahead suddenly slammed on its brakes, and Ye Xiong's motorcycle crashed right into its rear end.
A wealthy woman in red high heels and heavy makeup stepped out of the car, walked to the back to inspect the damage, and began to scream. "Are you driving blind? Do you have any idea how much this car costs? You couldn't afford to pay for it even if you sold yourself."
The woman was unbearably arrogant, pointing a finger at Ye Xiong's nose. "Don't even think about running! I've already memorized your license plate. You can't escape, even if you run to the ends of the earth."
A sly smile touched Ye Xiong's lips. He backed up his motorcycle, then revved the engine hard.
The motorcycle shot forward like an arrow. Just as it was about to hit the car's rear, the entire bike flew up, landing on the roof of the BMW and leaving a clear tire track across the new car.
"Wow, that was so cool!"
"That's beyond cool!"
"Quick, take a video! Share it to your Moments!"
The surrounding spectators scrambled to pull out their phones, ready to capture the scene.
"Get down from there! If you break it, you couldn't afford it even if you sold yourself!" the woman shrieked.
Ye Xiong twisted the throttle. The wheels crushed the car's windshield as he sped away, leaving behind nothing but a trail of exhaust.
"My car!" the woman cried, walking up to her vehicle, heartbroken.
Watching the woman's reaction in his rearview mirror, Ye Xiong felt an unspeakable sense of exhilaration. Shameless people should be dealt with shamelessly.
Suddenly, police sirens wailed from behind him. A policewoman on a motorcycle was in hot pursuit.
"Pull over to the side of the road! Now! Or I'll shoot!" the policewoman commanded loudly, pointing at him.
"I'm not well-educated, so don't try to scare me. Since when do Huaxia's traffic cops carry guns?" Ye Xiong didn't believe her for a second.
SWISH!
The policewoman quickly drew a dark pistol, its black muzzle aimed right at him. "Do you want to find out if it's a toy?" she asked coldly.
Ye Xiong completely deflated, promptly pulling his motorcycle over to the side of the road.
The policewoman drove with her right hand while holding the gun with her left. Words can't describe how cool that was!
The police motorcycle pulled to a stop, and a policewoman of about twenty-two or twenty-three got off. She wore black trousers, a blue shirt, and a black sun visor, and she stood around 168cm tall. Her skin, a touch darker than that of a typical office lady, didn't detract from her looks at all. Instead, it gave her a brisk and impressive air.
Jiangnan is full of beauties, and there seem to be a lot of them lately! I already ran into two top-grade stunners last night, and now I've found another one today. I wonder what her face looks like.
At that moment, the policewoman took off her helmet. Her hair tumbled down, framing a stunningly spirited face. Her eyes were as bright as the moon, her eyebrows were like slender willow leaves, and her features were refined to perfection. If she hadn't been wearing a police uniform, Ye Xiong would have thought he'd run into a model.
Ye Xiong glanced at the insignia on her shoulder and was shocked. He hadn't expected her to be a commissioned officer.
That rank is definitely too high for a mere traffic cop. There's only one possibility—this girl must have gotten into some trouble and been exiled here.
He guessed right. Luo Weiwei had, indeed, been exiled.
Recently, the district she was in charge of had seen a string of child disappearances. Just yesterday, she had arrested a suspect. During the interrogation, the man was completely uncooperative, either insisting on his right to remain silent or demanding a lawyer. He even made lewd comments, which sent Luo Weiwei into a rage, and she ended up beating him.
And so, she was demoted to patrol duty.
Who would have thought that on her very first day on the job, she would witness a construction worker trying to look cool by riding his motorcycle over the roof of a BMW.