15
Ruan Yu crouched in the corner of the balcony like a startled mushroom, clutching her phone with trembling hands.
On the other end of the line, Xu Huaisong said, "This situation usually isn’t what you’re imagining—some kind of criminal. Even if it were, they wouldn’t just barge in directly. Right now, you need to do two things. First, send me your location and the contact number for your residential property management or security office. Second, take your phone and check the peephole."
His instructions were swift and clear. Ruan Yu, flustered, obeyed immediately. After sending the message, she stood up just as the doorbell rang again—this time, twice in a row.
Xu Huaisong heard it too and said, "Don’t make a sound. If you see someone suspicious but they haven’t acted yet, don’t lock the door right away. Move about seven meters away from it, put me on speaker, and loudly call my name. Say you’re doing laundry and ask me to open the door. Understand?"
He deliberately broke down the string of instructions into simple, short sentences so Ruan Yu could process them even in her panicked state. "If the conversation ends and the person still hasn’t left, lock the door immediately and call the police."
Ruan Yu nodded, forgetting Xu Huaisong couldn’t see her. Hunched over, she tiptoed through the living room, carefully pressed her eye to the peephole, and stifled a gasp.
Outside stood a tall, lean man wearing a black face mask and a baseball cap, dressed head to toe in dark clothing. He was typing something into his phone, as if calling for backup.
Her heart pounded wildly. Just as she held her breath and prepared to retreat further from the door, her phone vibrated violently in her palm.
An incoming call from an unknown number.
The call forcibly disconnected her ongoing conversation with Xu Huaisong—and the sudden vibration had likely been heard outside.
She’d been exposed.
For a moment, Ruan Yu’s brain short-circuited. But then, a male voice came from the doorway: "Senior, you’re home?"
"..."
That voice—
Li Shican?
She froze, only to hear him chuckle. His voice wasn’t loud, but its distinctive timbre carried clearly. "Open the door for me. I don’t want to get photographed."
Now completely certain of his identity, Ruan Yu stepped forward and pulled the door open, exclaiming, "What are you doing here?"
Li Shican blinked twice, looking faintly innocent. "Didn’t we agree to meet at the usual spot to catch up? I tried calling you downstairs, but your phone was out of service. I just topped it up for you before I could get through."
Oh. If they had to name a "usual spot," it really was just downstairs from her apartment.
During her final semester of college, Ruan Yu had rarely stayed in the dorms. When Li Shican couldn’t find her on campus, he’d occasionally come here. Not for anything in particular—just to leave a cup of her favorite milk tea in the building’s milk box. Whether she took it or not, he’d send a message saying, "Pick up the milk tea at the usual spot."
But Ruan Yu was still baffled. "Didn’t you call me because of your livestream?"
"You knew I was livestreaming?"
Seeing the flicker of surprise in Li Shican’s eyes, Ruan Yu faltered.
She had only been playing along with his game, and since he’d explicitly stated during the stream that he wouldn’t actually meet her, she hadn’t taken the arrangement seriously.
Noticing her hesitation, Li Shican tugged at the corner of his mouth and muttered, "Right. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have agreed to see me."
Ruan Yu couldn’t think of a response and could only force an awkward laugh.
But he didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed. "Well, since I’m already here, aren’t you going to invite me in?" Before she could reply, he quickly added, as if afraid she’d refuse, "I turned down work in Haishi to come talk to you about Cen Sisi."Surprise diluted some of the awkwardness from years of no contact. Ruan Yu blurted out, "You know each other? How did you know about this?" She stepped aside to let him in.
Li Shican closed the door behind him while removing his mask and hat. "Got any ice water? Let me have a drink first, senior," he said.
Having a grown man—a celebrity at that—suddenly enter her home made Ruan Yu uneasy. "Oh," she responded, setting down her phone before turning to fetch ice water for him.
Li Shican's gaze swept over the slippers by the entryway.
Returning from the kitchen, Ruan Yu saw him still standing there motionless. Handing him the glass, she said, "Sorry, I don't have men's slippers here. Just come in as you are."
"You still don't have a boyfriend?" Li Shican muttered under his breath.
His familiar tone made it seem as if they'd just met yesterday.
Ruan Yu sidestepped the question and invited him to the living room, trying to dispel the strange atmosphere it had created. She changed the subject: "Is that car downstairs yours?"
Li Shican took a sip of ice water and nodded. "Looks cheap, right? It's raining in Haishi—got all muddy on the road."
No wonder.
Ruan Yu rubbed her forehead, then suddenly realized something was amiss.
At the same moment, her laptop on the coffee table chimed—a WeChat video call was coming through.
Then it hit her: Xu Huaisong.
She'd forgotten about Xu Huaisong!
Her expression changed. Without another thought for Li Shican, she quickly answered the call. The moment the screen lit up, she blurted out before Xu Huaisong could speak, "I'm so sorry, Lawyer Xu... I forgot to let you know I got home safe!"
The anxiety in Xu Huaisong's eyes vanished instantly, the storm within him calming abruptly—because his gaze had locked onto Li Shican's eyes just behind Ruan Yu's shoulder.
Their eyes met across the screen, creating an icy standoff.
Li Shican was the first to relax. Raising his glass toward the screen, he nodded in greeting. "Hello."
The clinking of ice against the glass, usually a pleasant sound, now seemed piercingly harsh.
Xu Huaisong didn't speak, merely giving him a slight nod before turning his attention back to Ruan Yu. "No need to report your safety to me. Report it to the police instead," he said before ending the call.
Ruan Yu stared blankly at the suddenly silent screen.
Li Shican, equally puzzled, leaned in. "What police?"
As soon as he spoke, the doorbell rang.
Understanding dawned on Ruan Yu. She hurried to open the door and found two uniformed officers standing outside—one of them armed.
Though the police station was right outside her residential area, this response time was truly impressive.
The armed officer spoke first: "Are you Ruan Yu?"
Ruan Yu nodded. "Yes, that's me."
"We received a report—"
"Sorry, officers," Ruan Yu interrupted hastily to avoid embarrassing Li Shican, "It was a misunderstanding. My friend made a mistake by calling you. Everything's fine here..."
But there was no hiding it now.
Li Shican happened to walk over just then, about to speak when his phone rang. His driver's frantic voice came through: "Brother Shican! I've been arrested downstairs by the police! Come save me!"
"..."
Ruan Yu and Li Shican were taken to the police station across from the residential complex.Originally, the matter could have been clarified on the spot, avoiding all this trouble. But Li Shican didn’t have his ID with him at the time, and Officer Fang, who was carrying a gun, was a stickler for rules. He refused to make any special exceptions for celebrities and insisted on taking Li to the police station to make a statement. He even called the person who reported the incident to confirm the details.
This was Ruan Yu’s first time witnessing such a scene. By the time the case was closed and she left the police station, she was mentally and physically exhausted. She probably wouldn’t let her imagination run wild like this again in the future.
It was almost noon by then. Li Shican had originally planned to stay in Hangzhou for only two hours before returning to Haishi due to work commitments. But now, all his time had been wasted at the police station, forcing him to leave in a hurry.
However, as soon as Ruan Yu got home, she received a call from him.
He got straight to the point: “Senior, actually, the main reason I came this time was to apologize to you. Cen Sisi is the daughter of one of my father’s business associates. When she came to study at Hangzhou University, she specifically chose the same major as me. She’s had feelings for me since high school, and I didn’t handle it well.”
With just these few words, Ruan Yu understood everything.
Cen Sisi had seen her as a “love rival” and harbored jealousy? So the pen name abbreviation was also out of admiration for Li Shican.
But she still had questions: “How did she find out about my pen name? And you?”
Li Shican coughed, sounding a bit guilty. “Do you remember when I fixed your computer for you during my freshman year…”
“Oh…”
There must have been traces left on the computer. Back then, she had just started trying her hand at writing and hadn’t been too cautious.
Li Shican continued, “As for her… I have a secondary Weibo account that only follows your work blog. Somehow, she found out about it—like a detective or something. But I only learned about this a few days ago. Otherwise, I would’ve dealt with her sooner.”
Ruan Yu grew sensitive when she heard the word “dealt.” “Was it your PR team behind what happened on Weibo these past few days?”
Li Shican paused before answering, “Not entirely.”
“Not entirely?”
Then who else was involved?
Li Shican avoided a direct answer, skirting the issue. “In any case, I’ll clean up the mess I caused for you. The rumors are already under control. Just focus on your lawsuit, and leave the rest to me.”
Ruan Yu took a deep breath, about to speak, but he seemed to read her mind. “I know, I’ll be careful. As long as she doesn’t make any more moves, the rumors will stop here.”
Whatever else Cen Sisi might have planned, under the combined pressure of the court, the law firm, and Li Shican’s control over public opinion, Ruan Yu didn’t suffer any further negative consequences.
Three days later, as the incident cooled down, Ruan Yu was able to return to her normal life. Some people on Weibo even sent her encouraging messages, hoping she could regain her composure and continue writing, finishing So Want to Whisper in Your Ear .
She had stopped serializing the novel the day after the plagiarism scandal broke out. Now that the storm had passed, many readers expressed regret over the unfinished story.
But Ruan Yu hesitated.
After learning the real reason behind Cen Sisi’s hostility, she had already moved past the cyberbullying. The problem now was that she wasn’t mentally prepared to indulge in high-sweetness fantasies right under the male lead’s nose.
Speaking of the male lead, they hadn’t been in contact since that misunderstanding. To be precise, her apology had gone unanswered, leaving her messages in the WeChat chatbox as lonely soliloquies.Three messages, one each day.
Day One: Lawyer Xu, I’m really sorry about today. I made you worry for nothing.
Day Two: Lawyer Xu, do you have time to discuss the case now?
Day Three: Lawyer Xu, I’ve sent the revised anti-plagiarism comparison to your email. Please check it when you have time.
Today was the fourth day.
Ruan Yu sighed, thinking she couldn’t blame Xu Huaisong for this. Anyone would be upset after being toyed with like that. Besides, he was already a very busy man.
So at noon that day, she persistently sent a fourth message: Lawyer Xu, have you checked the document? When can we talk?
Unexpectedly, she received his reply: In ten minutes.
Ruan Yu: Then I’ll go turn on my computer.
Xu Huaisong: No need. Come downstairs.
Come downstairs? Had he returned to the country?
Ruan Yu typed: Huh?
Xu Huaisong: In ten minutes. At your doorstep.
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