Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"Mm. My friend's men," Yang Hengye said. "They didn't scare you just now, did they?"

"No. Just a few thugs. I got back in the car but they still wouldn't leave, just shuffling around nearby." Zhou Yanning shook her head. "I was just wondering what to do when they came charging out and gave those thugs a proper thrashing."

"Haha, serves them right." Yang Yanzhou said, "By the way, school starts tomorrow. Is there anything you need to buy? Let's go get it together."

"No need, we have everything at home. I checked." Zhou Yanning shook her head. Now it was just her and Yan left, and there were things she wanted to ask Yang Ce, yet she did not know how to begin.

"All right then, let's head straight home." Yang Yuting nodded and started the car.

Those thugs truly had no eye for trouble. Just from the car Zhou Yanning rode in and its license plate, they could have seen who she was—yet they still dared provoke her. It was fated that they would amount to nothing more than petty thugs.

The men were beaten until they could not even crawl up, and had no idea why they had been beaten—though they could not ask, for they could no longer speak.

Zhao Ying followed Wang Yanqiu to Wang Yanqiu's home.

"Sister Ying, sit down." Seeing Zhao Ying standing there dumbly, Wang Yanqiu was rather baffled. What on earth was wrong with Sister Ying today? Why so strange?

"Oh, all right." Zhao Ying was preoccupied and somewhat absent-minded; only when she heard Wang Yanqiu's question did she come back to herself and sit down on the sofa.

Wang Yanqiu fetched two bottles of drink from the fridge, handed one to Zhao Ying, then sat down beside her and asked, "Sister Ying, what's really the matter? If there's something, just say it."

"Yanyan, aren't you lonely living alone all the time?" Zhao Ying hesitated. She still could not bring herself to ask about Yang Juehuan directly, so she decided to sound things out first with some roundabout topics.

"Yes, why?" Wang Yanqiu nodded. "But Sister Ying, you live close by now—you can come keep me company!"

"Great, then how about I live here every day from now on?" Zhao Ying said, following the opening—but kept a close watch on Wang Yanqiu's expression.

Wang Yanqiu felt a pang of bitterness, yet she could not show the slightest displeasure on her face. "Sure. We'll be just like before."

Seeing nothing amiss in Wang Yanqiu's face, Zhao Ying found it rather strange. She thought: if she moved in here, what would become of Yang Ce? Weren't Wang Yanqiu and Yan—"Yanyan, do you have a boyfriend?" Seeing nothing abnormal about Wang Yanqiu, Zhao Ying had no choice but to ask more directly.

"A boyfriend?" Wang Yanqiu's heart tightened. Zhao Ying was acting so oddly today—asking whether she lived alone, and now whether she had a boyfriend. Could she suspect something? That shouldn't be. Her affair with Yan had never been broadcast; she would not tell, and Yang Ce certainly would not. So how did Zhao Ying know? Still, it was only conjecture. Wang Yanqiu showed no panic on the surface, but chided playfully, "Sister Ying, don't you know a thing or two about my family situation? What boyfriend would I have?"

Zhao Ying did indeed know a little about Wang Yanqiu's family—enough to know she seemed to have run away from home to escape a marriage—but only in rough outline, not the details.

And there seemed to be some agreement with her family: after university, she was to go back home and marry. Zhao Ying had felt sorry for her for quite a while back then, but Wang Yanqiu was unwilling to discuss the matter in any detail, so naturally Zhao Ying could not press.

"Really?" Zhao Ying sighed faintly and said, "Yanyan, you and I are both outsiders who came to Songjiang. We have no family here, no friends. I've treated you as my best sister, so I don't want you keeping things from me."

"Sister Ying, I'm not keeping anything from you!" Wang Yanqiu grew more alarmed. "Sister Ying, if you have something to say, just say it straight, all right?"

"All right." Seeing Wang Yanqiu would not admit it, Zhao Ying had no choice but to lay it bare. "Yanyan, you and Yan—are you two already... already together?"

Zhao Ying had thought for a long while and could not think of a better word to describe it, so she had to ask vaguely.

"Ah?" Wang Yanqiu had not expected Zhao Ying to ask about precisely this. But how could Wang Yanqiu expose herself so easily? So she asked, feigning puzzlement, "Sister Ying, why would you say that?"

"Yanyan, there's no need to hide it from me anymore." Zhao Ying shook her head with a bitter smile. "The truth is, I saw everything."

"What did you see, Sister Ying?" Wang Yanqiu said, pressing on.

"That day, you and Yan came back hand in hand and went into your villa together—and Yang Ce didn't come out all night." Zhao Ying sighed. "Yanyan, I know I have no right to stand between you and him, but I only wish you would tell me the truth."

"Sister Ying, so that's what you meant." Wang Yanqiu promptly put on a look of sudden enlightenment. Inwardly, though, she had already turned it over and over: it seemed Zhao Ying really did know something—and had even caught evidence.

It was all because she and Yan had been careless. Never again could they do anything so foolish. Wang Yanqiu was by nature a meticulous person, yet whenever she was with Yan, she did not know why, she would become so impulsive, so utterly lost in him.

But in an instant, Wang Yanqiu found an excuse to extricate herself. It was not that she meant to deceive Zhao Ying—it was simply that there were things she truly could not explain to her.

Zhao Ying was not of the assassin world; the more she knew, the worse it would be for her, and Wang Yanqiu could never tell her about the assassin organization. And she and Yan, though by now they had clearly gone beyond an ordinary partnership—more like lovers—Wang Yanqiu also knew that her future with Yan was exceedingly dim.

Once the Black Butterfly Assassins could no longer claim the title of world's number one, he would have to keep his word and go home to marry. And when that happened, everything else would lose all meaning.

"What's going on?" Seeing that Wang Yanqiu showed not the slightest awkwardness, but rather looked perfectly at ease, Zhao Ying was rather puzzled. "Yanyan, you and him—"

"Ying, you mean me and Yan?" Wang Yanqiu laughed. "I asked him to pretend to be my boyfriend."

"Pretend to be your boyfriend?" Zhao Ying was taken aback, staring at Wang Yanqiu in confusion. "What would you want him to pretend to be your boyfriend for?"

"Exactly," Wang Yanqiu nodded. "Ying, you know my family situation. I don't want to marry some stranger I have no feelings for. A few days ago my father called again, telling me that once I graduate I'm to go home and get married. I was so furious that I told him straight out that I already had a boyfriend.

My father must have people quietly watching me. I wanted to make him angry, so I deliberately got Yang Ce to put on a little act with me and let them carry the wrong news back to my father. Ha—I imagine he's plenty furious right now."

"So that's how it is." Zhao Ying had never imagined the truth would be like this—Yang Ce had come to pose as Wang Yanqiu's boyfriend. "Then he's staying the night here?"

"In two separate rooms, of course. Ying, you're so silly." Wang Yanqiu giggled.

If Yang Ce ever learned of the role Wang Yanqiu had assigned him, who knew how he would react. Perhaps he would say, Damn it, so I've become a professional fake boyfriend—day in and day out I'm standing in as somebody's man. If I ever get the chance, opening a boyfriend-rental agency would surely turn a tidy profit.

"Then why didn't you tell me before?" Zhao Ying felt a long breath of relief.

"You never asked." Wang Yanqiu shrugged innocently. "Yan and I live close to each other, and you know I don't talk to boys much. So I just grabbed him and pressed him into service."