Chapter 73
“Are they really jumping? No, no, no, don’t, I’m scared!”
“I’m airborne!”
“This is my first time jumping off a building. I’m a little nervous.”
“Have reporters become an extreme-sports profession now?!”
“Got it, got it—we caught that associate professor on camera.”
“Huh? They caught up with him!”
“My god, those reporters and cameramen are insane. They jumped off a building to chase someone.”
Two large shadows fell over Yang Liwan, who was sitting on the ground. Both men carried the kind of aura that made it seem like they wanted to lift a foot and grind him into the dirt.
The more he said, the more likely he was to slip up. Yang Liwan knew perfectly well that until he had a lawyer by his side, he should not say a single thing or give a single statement.
Panting hard, Yang Liwan shouted upward, “I have no comment on anything!”
Jing Changyu crouched down and jabbed the microphone right into his face. “Sir, I haven’t even asked anything yet.”
He had not asked a single question, and the man was already saying “no comment.”
That would not do.
Jing Changyu’s expression was cordial. When he interviewed great rifts and canyons, even the wind had to howl back at him a few times.
And Yang Liwan wanted to give him nothing but “no comment”?
No way.
For the sake of the footage, Shi Ye crouched down too. He was exceptionally good at finding angles, and he had practically captured Yang Liwan’s ugly state in its entirety.
“Ah, my eyes.”
“The cameraman’s heart is too cruel.”
“That handsome guy’s filming me like I’m Japanese.”
The camera, the microphone, the interview subject—everything was in place.
Shi Ye glanced at Jing Changyu, who was clearly gearing up, and suddenly recalled that corrupt-official arrest scene back at the hot-spring resort.
That had truly been one hell of a cathartic release.
Honestly, “Will you accept an interview now?” had probably been the most polite sentence Jing Changyu had uttered back then.
The next second, Jing Changyu spoke.
“So squeezing students dry like this gives you a thrill, does it? Outside of school, people only see you as some middle-aged old man. If you so much as walk up and try to speak to someone, they’ll think they’re being harassed. They might even have nightmares afterward and be so disgusted by you they lose their appetite. Isn’t that right?”
“That politician behind you got dragged down by you. You know exactly how he’s cursing you in his heart, don’t you? You two look so alike—you should have some kind of telepathic connection. Care to tell us? Is he greeting your whole family right now?”
“And this whole business of hiring escorts so you could pretend to be virile—has no one ever told you that all you’ve really got is a body built like a bear? Your running posture is ridiculous, and you barely have any hair left. Do you seriously think being bald looks handsome? Has no one ever advised you to buy a wig? You don’t have any real friends, do you? Not a single person has ever told you this.”
Every word was sharp and aggressively targeted. Yang Liwan’s face flushed red from the humiliation. This reporter clearly had not come to interview him.
No interview—just pure venting.
“You—!”
Yang Liwan had just started to flare up when Jing Changyu shoved the microphone into his face again.
“For your academic fraud, your exploitation of students, your bribery of officials, and your falsification of data in order to secure state project funding—do you have anything you’d like to say? Oh, and don’t tell us your life story. I’m only asking whether you did those things or not. Don’t tack your personal experiences onto it.”
“No one cares.”
Yang Liwan’s face turned purple with rage. A man could be killed, but not humiliated.
He was, after all, an associate professor at the nation’s top university. Until today he had always been all prestige and glory. When had he ever been humiliated like this?
And now here he was, blocked off and forced to sit on the ground being interviewed. What had become of his decades of pride and dignity? Pointing at Jing Changyu, Yang Liwan shouted furiously,
“Don’t push things too far!”
Jing Changyu replied, “We’re conducting an interview. Please don’t bring your emotions into the workplace.”
Yang Liwan: …
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
The livestream comments exploded with laughter:
“I’m dying, this interview is too funny.”
“To be fair, the handsome reporter used to be a geography journalist. He interviewed cliffs and canyons and rifts all the time. He hasn’t interviewed that many living people.”
“That mouth is vicious. I learned something today.”
“I want to live just once with that level of vicious sarcasm.”
“That garbage advisor deserves it. Run all you want—there’ll always be someone to deal with you.”
“It’s this trash right here. Don’t let him get away, everyone!”
“The reporter actually has a system. Haven’t you ever seen police interrogation? They keep asking and asking, or they say nasty things to agitate the suspect and throw their mind into disarray. Once they’re flustered, the excuses they make will have holes in them.”
Sure enough, the very next second, Yang Liwan shouted, “What does anything I’ve done have to do with you? Did I hurt you? What right do you have to question me?!”
Instead of getting angry, Jing Changyu smiled. “So you admit it, then?”
Yang Liwan felt like he was about to go insane from rage.
“Get lost! Get the hell away from me!!!!!!” His facial muscles twisted out of control as he roared, “GET LOST!!!!!!”
Jing Changyu calmly told him, “Could you maybe not yell like that? It’s really funny.”
Yang Liwan: …
“HAHAHAHAHAHA, no true friends ever told you, so the reporter is telling you.”
“This reporter really knows what he’s doing. If he licked his lips, he’d probably poison himself.”
“That old bastard just admitted he did those things. This interview is fresh new evidence.”
“I used to be this old bastard’s student. Everything online is true. Please help spread it!”
“And don’t let those academic overlords off either! High schoolers publishing SCI papers—what nerve! Give those papers back to their real authors!”
“Stealing other people’s academic work deserves divine punishment!!”
The interview wrapped up there. News was not daily life—once they had captured the useful parts, that was enough.
Just as Shi Ye and Jing Changyu were getting ready to end the interview, the police the school had called finally arrived and arrested Yang Liwan.
Shi Ye owned a lot of cameras, and he even knew how to operate the old-fashioned models he collected, but this was his first time using a video camera.
“How do you turn this off?”
He searched for the power button, only for a gorgeous handsome face to suddenly fill the frame.
“Ahhhhhhhh, who is he exactly? He’s so handsome, prprprprpr…”
Jing Changyu helped him. “Let me see.”
In an instant, a second handsome face appeared in the frame too.
“Holy shit, they’re both insanely handsome.”
“These days reporters are really paying more and more attention to looks.”
Jing Changyu had used video cameras before, so after fiddling with it a couple of times, he switched it off.
Phew—he let out a breath. Today’s job was done.
They could head back to the station this afternoon.
He looked at Shi Ye, who was still studying the unfamiliar piece of equipment with open curiosity.
“Student Shi, you came to help Student Xia too, didn’t you?”
He had not expected to run into him here. The last time they had seen each other was back in February at the hot-spring resort.
Jing Changyu said, “It really has been a long time.”
Back then, the two of them had gone racing through the mountains together like their lives depended on it. Even now, Jing Changyu could still remember the unforgettable agony of both his legs turning into mermaid tails. After getting out of the elevator, he had practically had to crawl back to his room by clinging to the wall.
He never wanted to experience that again in his life.
Shi Ye handed the camera back to the cameraman, who had arrived belatedly.
“Long time no see.” Then his gaze sharpened in suspicion as he asked Jing Changyu, “How did you get here?”
Jing Changyu replied, “I drove.”
Shi Ye asked, “You didn’t speed, did you?”
Jing Changyu looked confident. “Of course not. What kind of person do you take me for?”
Shi Ye: … A guy who cheats at games.
Jing Changyu looked upright and proper, but whenever they played games, he was always trying to cheat.
Shi Ye had to make absolutely sure Jing Changyu had not done anything on the way over that could be used against him.
“Did you step on the grass?”
“No.”
“When you were chasing him, you didn’t steal anybody’s bicycle, right?”
“Of course not.”
Jing Changyu slung an arm around his shoulder like old buddies. “After all this time, Student Shi is still so concerned about me.”
Shi Ye guiltily looked off toward the distant horizon.
Once the police had taken Yang Liwan into custody, they needed to regroup with the school leadership and with Xia Fengsheng’s side.
There were too many people involved in the case. Just among the students filing accusations, there were already eleven victims.
After handing off their equipment to the cameraman, Shi Ye and Jing Changyu followed the police over to Xia Fengsheng’s side.
They wanted to check on Xia Fengsheng, after all—something this big had happened.
The whole country knew about it now.
As the group entered the dorm building and passed the washroom, the two figures who had been following the police vanished instantly.
Splash—
A tap was turned on. Jing Changyu washed his face while Shi Ye fixed his hair.
The two of them were both terribly vain about making an entrance.
If anyone had walked up at that moment and told either one of them, “One of you is really handsome,” the effort both of them were putting into tidying themselves up would only have intensified.
Once they were done putting themselves in order, they headed together to the dorm floor where Xia Fengsheng was.
The moment they stepped out of the elevator, they saw Xia Fengsheng standing there with one hand in the pocket of his suit trousers, his head lowered, speaking to an officer with a serious expression.
At that moment, he looked a lot like he did while working—serious, focused, naturally commanding. The mature masculinity on him, combined with his professional composure, was deeply captivating.
The officer was shorter than him, so Xia Fengsheng had lowered his head slightly and adjusted his height to the right level while listening carefully.
Xia Fengsheng’s group was surrounded by police officers.
“Student Xia!”
Jing Changyu waved at him as he came out of the elevator.
Xia Fengsheng looked up, and his eyes filled with surprise the moment he saw him.
He had not expected Jing Changyu to come.
As class monitor, Jing Changyu had taken good care of Xia Fengsheng in high school. He never left him out of anything, and he had been one of the rare people Xia Fengsheng could actually talk to.
Shi Ye came out right behind Jing Changyu and crossed to Xia Fengsheng’s side with astonishing speed.
He gave Xia Fengsheng a quick once-over, checking for injuries. From the videos online, he had seen that there had been quite a few security guards trying to grab him at the forum.
Earlier, while chasing Yang Liwan, he had only managed to catch a hurried glimpse of Xia Fengsheng through a crack in the door.
Although the two of them were usually bashful and lovey-dovey, they both knew how to keep a clear head when it mattered.
In an instant, Xia Fengsheng found himself surrounded by his lover, his friend, and the comrades who had risen up and fought beside him.
Other than Xia Fengsheng and Shi Ye, Jing Changyu did not know anyone else there. Everyone else was a stranger.
Xia Fengsheng was rather busy, with people constantly coming up to question him.
Shi Ye took it upon himself to introduce Jing Changyu to everyone one by one.
After all, besides them, Jing Changyu did not know a single person there. He could not just leave him standing awkwardly on the outside.
Qin Buming and Jing Changyu were meeting for the first time, and the two greeted each other with polite “Hello, hello.”
Qin Buming looked at him and said, “You’re a friend of Fengsheng and Shi Ye’s, right?”
Jing Changyu replied, “Mm. We were classmates in high school, and now I’m their best friend.”
That was how Jing Changyu saw it anyway. After all, he and Shi Ye had been through life-and-death moments together.
Qin Buming said, “I’m pretty close to them too.”
Soon the police were preparing to take the relevant people back to the station. There were many things Xia Fengsheng’s group needed to cooperate on.
Shi Ye wanted to go too, but the police refused.
The reason was that there were already too many people involved. They could not accommodate family members or extra companions, and anyone who was not one of the principal people involved in the case should not follow along.
Shi Ye had no choice but to droop and step back. At a time like this, he badly wanted to stay by Xia Fengsheng’s side.
The sunlight seemed to go out all at once.
Every time something major had happened in Xia Fengsheng’s life, he had failed to be there. And now he could not stay with him even this time.
He began doubting himself—was he really too incompetent as a lover? Why was it that even at a time like this, he still could not be by the other man’s side?
As people began leaving one after another for the police station, Xia Fengsheng walked with them. Then he turned his head and saw Shi Ye standing where he was, looking utterly crestfallen.
His ears and tail had drooped.
But when Shi Ye saw Xia Fengsheng look back, he immediately forced a smile and waved at him.
Shi Ye had just returned from chasing Yang Liwan, and there was some dust on him. For once he looked a bit disheveled, even in the way he was dressed.
Xia Fengsheng looked at Shi Ye’s smiling face.
These past few days he had been busy collecting evidence and finding the other students willing to speak out. He had not had much time for Shi Ye. Some days he had come home only long enough to wash up and sleep, and in the mornings he had been leaving so early that he had not even had time for a good-morning kiss. The next few days were not going to be any easier.
And the egg-stuffing he had promised this week would probably have to be postponed too.
Looking at the disappointment in Shi Ye’s eyes, Xia Fengsheng abruptly changed direction.
“Shi Ye.”
When Shi Ye saw Xia Fengsheng heading back, he thought there must be something the matter, and he immediately asked in a serious tone, “What is it?”
The next second, Xia Fengsheng cupped his face and kissed him.
Shi Ye’s eyes flew wide open. He went stiff all over, like a block of wood rooted to the spot, his hand frozen in midair for ages without moving.
And Shi Ye was not the only one shocked. Qin Buming, who had turned back when he saw Xia Fengsheng walking back, was stunned too.
Good lord above.
No one had expected Xia Fengsheng—a man usually so particular and composed—to actually kiss someone in public.
Seeing that the people ahead were about to turn around, Qin Buming hurriedly stepped in to block them.
“Officer, look at this elevator. The elevators at Beijing University have a special significance.”
The officer looked puzzled. “What significance?”
Was there some kind of story behind it? Or had some feng shui master designed it?
Qin Buming replied, “If you press a high floor, it goes up. If you press a low floor, it goes down.”
The officer looked at him as if looking at a madman.
As expected, geniuses all had some kind of issue.
While Xia Fengsheng and Shi Ye remained oblivious to it, someone else was carrying the burden for them behind the scenes while they were kissing.
Xia Fengsheng had his eyes closed, one hand hooked around the back of Shi Ye’s head, deepening the kiss with calm, steady assurance.
Shi Ye only felt something slipping into his mouth.
Shi Ye: !
Standing nearby and witnessing everything, Jing Changyu was even more shocked than Shi Ye.
What was going on? Since when were those two kissing?
Jing Changyu blurted out in astonishment, “You two are a couple?”
At his side, Qin Buming was just as stunned. “You didn’t know?”
Jing Changyu: …
I’m their best friend.
Jing Changyu stared with his mouth hanging open. No wonder the two of them had shared a room at the hot-spring resort.
And no wonder they always showed up together.
So they had been dating all along?
Once the kiss had gone on long enough, Xia Fengsheng finally pulled away and murmured in Shi Ye’s ear, in a voice only the two of them could hear, “Wait for me to come back, you horny little puppy.”
Shi Ye went bright red with a hong, his whole body practically smoking.
Without another glance back, Xia Fengsheng strode off after the police.
Shi Ye stood there dizzy and dazed, completely bewitched, so weak in the knees that he leaned one arm on Jing Changyu’s shoulder.
He really could not take it anymore. Clutching his heart, he felt like he was about to need emergency rescue.
At a time like this, Xia Fengsheng had still spared him a thought.
What a devastatingly attractive man.
And he had even called him a little puppy. In Xia Fengsheng’s eyes, he was as adorable as a puppy.
He completely ignored the added word horny.
Shi Ye stood there reliving it in total bliss.
Jing Changyu, meanwhile, was still reeling from the fact that the two were dating.
Jing Changyu asked, “So you two are together?”
Shi Ye frowned in confusion. “You really didn’t know?”
Jing Changyu replied, “No! You never told me!”
Shi Ye: …
So when Jing Changyu had forced his way into those photos before, he had not been trying to play third wheel at all—he genuinely had not known they were a couple.
Even if he could not accompany Xia Fengsheng into the police station, he could still stay outside for him. He could at least bring him food and things he needed. There would be a lot to cooperate on, but even then, meals should still be eaten on time.
As Xia Fengsheng followed the police away, Qin Buming went after him as well. But just as he took a step forward, he turned back and called to the two of them,
“One of you has a really handsome hairstyle.”
Shi Ye and Jing Changyu, who had both just fixed their hair in the washroom: …
They exchanged a look, each thinking inwardly: It must be me.
—
On the ride to the police station, Xia Fengsheng sat in the police car pressing a hand to his brow.
Just now he had kissed Shi Ye on impulse. Now, with his eyes closed, he was working hard on his mental preparations.
Though the embarrassment only hit afterward, Xia Fengsheng did not regret it. Even if he were given another chance, he would still kiss Shi Ye again.
He did not want outside circumstances to make Shi Ye feel neglected.
Of course, he knew Shi Ye would not think that way. Shi Ye would understand that something major had happened and had to be dealt with, and that it would take time. But the instinct of love had driven Xia Fengsheng to act.
He had also been influenced a little by seeing other couples kiss, and the impulse had simply seized him.
Cold decisiveness was one of Xia Fengsheng’s defining traits. Once he set his mind on doing something, he would think of every possible way to see it through.
He probably would not have time to go home over the next few days. It was not just Yang Liwan’s case—he also had plans to deal with Li Ruling, Zhou Qiong, and the housekeeper at home, suing each of them in turn.
So the next time he saw Shi Ye… how exactly was he supposed to face him?
Xia Fengsheng lifted a hand to his chin in thought.
After all, this time he had used his tongue.
Not very deeply—he had only lightly licked the inside of Shi Ye’s lip and had not actually touched Shi Ye’s tongue.
Thank god Shengyao had not been standing beside him at the time.
Otherwise she would definitely have called him a sex maniac again.
On the other side, Zhou Qiong, having received the news of Yang Liwan’s arrest, was completely at a loss. He had no idea what might still be able to turn the situation around.
The backer behind Yang Liwan had fallen too. There was absolutely no saving things now.
Zhou Qiong himself had been involved in Yang Liwan’s academic fraud, and he knew the police would come for him soon enough.
What was he supposed to do?
He could not run forever. No matter where he went, the police would still find him.
Zhou Qiong paced anxiously around the room, frantic and desperate.
Right—he still had dirt on Xia Fengsheng.
Before, everyone’s attention had been drawn to Yang Liwan’s academic fraud. No one had paid much notice to Xia Fengsheng’s scandal.
Now that Yang Liwan had already been arrested, it was the perfect time to redirect public attention.
Logging into his social media account, Zhou Qiong posted a blog entry.
He uploaded all the so-called evidence he had on Xia Fengsheng soliciting prostitution—photos, recordings, and even the medical report for Li Ruling’s kidney failure.
“Has nobody noticed,” he wrote, “that one of the students exposing Yang Liwan is a man named Xia Fengsheng, who abandoned his own mother when she developed uremia and used the family’s life-saving money to hire a prostitute?”
“Here’s the evidence. See for yourselves. I don’t want the public to be misled by scum and end up speaking for a piece of trash, only to get slapped in the face later.”
The blog post included Xia Fengsheng’s ID photo from the university website, Li Ruling’s uremia diagnosis report, a sleazy erotic advertisement card, and a mysterious audio clip.
In the clip, someone said, “I saw with my own eyes that duck coming out of the room first thing in the morning, stark naked. He was slutty as hell.”
Very soon, some netizens recognized Xia Fengsheng from the photos.
“Isn’t this the hot guy people were saying might appear on that dating show?”
“I thought it looked like him when I watched the expose video. Same name too—it really is him.”
“Holy shit, doesn’t he have a boyfriend? And he’s still hiring male escorts?”
Some sharp-eyed commenters noticed something odd.
“…Wait, can I say this? That guy on the ad card is literally his boyfriend.”
“Dear heavens above, so S has become an escort now.”
“HAHAHAHAHAHA, I’m dying. Why is S on a sleazy little ad card?”
“‘Passionate gigolo, ten times a night’—good lord.”
“S really does show up just to embarrass himself every single time.”
“No wonder he insisted on getting back together even after being laughed at. Brother Xia is such a shining, righteous man for stepping forward. It really is a once-in-a-century thing.”
“So the two of them are really into some wild play in private, huh? (blushing)”
“That Mr. Xia looks so proper and refined. Who would’ve thought he’d play this kind of game with S in private?”
“S, congratulations, I guess. Mr. Xia was actually willing to play with you. (Yanjin smirking meme)”
“HAHAHAHAHAHA, even the recording says S was slutty as hell.”
“So S made ad cards of himself and had his boyfriend hire him? Damn, that’s real love. He said he wouldn’t get back together, and now after getting back together he’s making his man hire him? S, if you leave this world, who’s going to keep making me laugh?”
“Wait, I don’t get it. If his boyfriend is the escort, then did he hire one or not?”
“S, you keep doing absurd shit and now people really think you’re a gigolo.”
“No, seriously, they’re in a normal relationship. Neither of them is an escort and nobody hired anybody.”
Not long afterward, Qi Qianli reposted the blog.
Qi Qianli wrote: “You cleaned up Yang Liwan and forgot to clean up these people too. Everything before this was fake. Is the person behind this post a pig? The uremia report is from seven years ago. Wasn’t the whole story that they had no money to treat it? Then how is she still alive now? So now you’re framing the victim? Hurry up and arrest the person who made the post and the woman claiming she has uremia—this is enough for a criminal sentence. (PS: the last recording is real. I can testify that he really was slutty as hell.)”
At the other end, Shi Ye had just gone online and found himself being called slutty by strangers. His face burned bright red. Some people were even spreading rumors that he was an escort.
So what if Xia Fengsheng had passed out little ad cards of him?
Very soon, the account S posted a new status.
“Have none of you ever played around with your lover before?”
