Cen Han responded with a flat tone.
This was it. This had spiraled completely out of control. He Liang and Zhang Ming were ashen-faced. Anyone would instinctively shudder at the sight of over a dozen bodyguards, each nearly two meters tall, carrying iron implements. They had the misfortune of being singled out as evidence, brought here under coercion. Their other brothers were no better off, probably surrounded and suffering the torment of sheer terror.
When the hotel manager had respectfully received Cen Han, the two of them had finally realized who they had messed with. With the hotel owner even coming in person, this wasn’t just about getting the truth—it was about dragging out the one pulling the strings.
Damn their rotten luck, how did they cross a top executive from Starlight Entertainment?
“Mr. Lin, around what time did you check in?” After a brief exchange with Zhang Hua, Yan Yue had the relevant monitoring clip sent to the laptop.
“If I remember right, around three in the afternoon.”
The medicinal alcohol made contact with skin, a sharp stinging sensation passing. Lin Qinghe rolled up his sleeve; his arm also showed signs of bruising. His complexion was pale, making those marks seem especially severe.
Xi Nian drew a sharp breath, frowning deeply.
Zhang Hua dragged the progress bar to the three o’clock mark and began slowly searching for Lin Qinghe’s figure. After a moment, he spotted him and Xi Nian stepping out of the elevator.
He rewound a dozen seconds or so. There they were, just entering the elevator, followed by a waiter pushing a cart and holding flowers.
“Right here, Mr. Lin. Which person were you talking about?”
Lin Qinghe scrutinized the footage, then raised a finger, pointing at one of the waiters. “Him.”
The waiter he pointed to became the focus of everyone’s attention. Under their watchful eyes, the man could be seen sneaking glances toward Lin Qinghe, his movements furtive and strange. It was indeed off. At the second floor, he stared directly at Lin Qinghe’s back as he exited the elevator, and upon seemingly being discovered, he quickly averted his gaze.
After the elevator doors closed, he pulled out his phone from his uniform and typed, head lowered.
Yan Yue immediately turned to Li Kai. “Which waiter is that?”
Li Kai hesitated. “I vaguely remember him. The name’s Gao… Gao Yuan.”
Gao Yuan was a recently hired employee. Li Kai had thought him honest, hardworking, no petty greed, no bad habits. So much so that he’d been put on regular duty after less than two days’ probation.
A very quiet young man. It was baffling how he could have done something like this.
But the scene that followed completely floored him.
Gao Yuan was brought in. His gaze met Lin Qinghe’s, and in his eyes was undisguised hatred and revulsion.
Lin Qinghe calmly accepted Gao Yuan’s glare. He had never known Gao Yuan, so naturally there was no grudge between them. He was somewhat puzzled by where this hatred came from.
He spoke. “Do you know those two?”
He Liang and Zhang Ming fidgeted nervously, rubbing their ears, wringing their hands, their small tics frequent.
It wasn’t that they were cowards, but the bodyguards beside them were just too terrifying. They were afraid that if Gao Yuan blurted out the word “Yes,” they would never see the light of day again.
Gao Yuan lifted his chin, looking somewhat arrogant, and refused to answer.
Lin Qinghe stated, “Seems that you do.”
Gao Yuan still didn’t reply.
“I don’t quite understand your hostility toward me, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not important, and I won’t take it to heart.” Lin Qinghe smiled mildly, pulling his sleeve down once the medicinal alcohol had dried.
“Let me think. A hotel waiter certainly doesn’t have the ability to organize a group of people, so your role was to pass on my schedule, making it easier for them to lie in wait.”
“The person truly capable of ordering them to harass me must have seen the messages you spread on your phone, and then contacted you.”
“I imagine the pay was substantial.” Lin Qinghe continued, “Otherwise, why would you still choose to take the risk when rumors are flying around online that I have a sugar daddy?”
He said the words “sugar daddy” lightly, in passing, as if such attacks couldn’t even make him frown.
Lin Qinghe had hit the mark nine times out of ten. Gao Yuan, from the moment he saw Lin Qinghe’s carefree demeanor, as if nothing mattered, couldn’t bear it anymore. It was as if everything they had done was just a joke.
He laughed a few times, like a mad dog. “Think you’re so smart? I’ll tell you the truth. There are too many people who hate you. Everyone wants to see you become a drowned dog. Just pick a few random ones.”
“You didn’t really think you could go far with just that skin of yours, did you? Watch out, you might catch a virus.”
He enunciated each word clearly, cursing venomously. “Look at how everyone online is cursing you. Now you know just how little you deserve to exist in this world, right?”
He Liang shut his eyes. This guy was hopeless. He never expected such an extreme idiot teammate. Wasn’t this a roundabout way of committing suicide? He loved money, but he loved his life even more.
“Hey, shut up! Get a grip!”
Lin Qinghe’s expression remained serene upon hearing this, his brow and eyes gentle as a clear breeze and fresh snow. “Believe it or not, if I relied on my looks, I’d get along even more brilliantly.”
Gao Yuan froze for an instant. When he snapped out of it, his emotions grew unstable. He had almost believed Lin Qinghe’s words. Xu Anyu was the best, kindest, sunniest person in this world. He was Gao Yuan’s faith.
This was wrong. Acting like this meant he was betraying Xu Anyu. It was wrong. Lin Qinghe was too arrogant, too smug. In that case, he should just make him disappear. Then everything would go back to the way it should be.
“Ha, you’re not even worthy!” As if a wire had snapped, he suddenly became hysterical. “It’s come to this anyway. Might as well go down together! It was all my own scheme, no one else had anything to do with it!”
The folding knife in his pocket was whipped out. He charged ferociously at Lin Qinghe, knocking the laptop to the floor. Zhang Hua urgently grabbed at Gao Yuan’s waist, but the angle and strength were off, and Gao Yuan’s blade still slashed past him.
“Brother Qinghe!”
Lin Qinghe retreated, nowhere left to dodge. In his pupils, the sharp edge of the knife reflected. He instinctively reached out his hand to block it, but someone was even faster. A familiar, woody, warm fragrance swept over him, and he was enveloped in an embrace.
Snick.
The sound of tearing fabric.
“Ugh… hah… hah…”
The bodyguards swiftly seized Gao Yuan and dragged him to an open space, firmly pressing his head down. The knife fell. His face was pressed sideways into the carpet, arms wrenched behind his back, a guard’s foot planted on his lower back. He could only pant and struggle helplessly.
Everyone present was horrified by this scene. Who pulled out a knife at the slightest disagreement? This man’s personality was too dangerous, too extreme. Li Kai was utterly regretful; he should never have hired Gao Yuan.
Lin Qinghe came back to his senses and immediately pulled over Cen Han’s arm. A section of the suit fabric was slashed, the white dress shirt split, and bright red bloodstains were blooming across it.
Those beautiful eyes filled with nothing but concern. His expression was complicated. “Mr. Cen.”
Zhang Hua asked urgently, “Mr. Cen, are you alright?”
“The wound isn’t deep.” Cen Han’s expression was calm. It was just bleeding a little more, nothing that required stitches.
Yan Yue was certainly not going to sleep tonight. So many awful things happening in such a short time had him burning with anxiety.
“I’ll call a doctor right away to take a look.”
Noticing Lin Qinghe staring at the wound with a troubled expression, Cen Han unobtrusively covered it with his other hand, then said, “It’s not serious.”
“Sorry.” Lin Qinghe only said that one word, but everything was contained within it.
He was the victim, yet he had indirectly caused Cen Han’s injury. Inside, he blamed himself, but he didn’t know how to express it, because he had never imagined Cen Han would take the knife for him.
Cen Han understood Lin Qinghe’s meaning. At the time, he had taken a call from his family. The Enduring Hall was too noisy, so he had stepped outside the hotel to chat. Soon after, he heard Xi Nian’s indignant shouting.
That group had crude language, surrounding and interrogating Lin Qinghe. Lin Qinghe was a Star artist, and any negative impact would be bad for Star. So he had stepped in to rescue him.
Before this, it had been easy to believe that reasoning. But after the episode of unhesitatingly shielding Lin Qinghe from the blade, for the first time, he felt his conviction waver. Perhaps a deviation had occurred from some earlier point. Was the true reason really solely for Star?
Cen Han took the handkerchief Zhang Hua passed him and laid it over his forearm. His tone, slow and measured, carried a hint of comfort. “It’s nothing.”
Cen Han was always so considerate. Lin Qinghe pressed his lips together.
Zhang Hua was already numb to it all. A minor incident, nothing major. Getting used to having his heart stop was all in a day’s work. God only knew how terrified he had been at that moment. Working with Cen Han for so many years, no night had ever tossed his emotions like this one. But that said, the way his boss had protected Lin Qinghe had indeed been pretty dashing.
Xi Nian was equally numb. She found the whole thing utterly absurd. From the malicious interview to pulling a knife and assaulting someone—every single incident left her speechless. What kind of deep-seated hatred could drive a person to this?
For a brief moment, the air went quiet, as if everyone had silently agreed to hold their tongues. Only Gao Yuan kept cursing under his breath.
Lin Qinghe’s gaze lingered. He seemed to think of something.
From a meter’s distance, he looked down at Gao Yuan and denied his words. “You’re wrong.”
Gao Yuan glared fixedly at Lin Qinghe.
“Not only will I go further, I’ll stand even higher. I might not be formally trained, and I might not have any major works, but there will always be a crowd of sugar daddies fighting to shower me with resources. Look at how Dream of the Blue Moon Night turned out.”
“You like Xu Anyu?” Gao Yuan’s eyes widened. Lin Qinghe seemed to understand everything. “He will also watch me become a top streamer, step by step. More and more people will chase after me, and no one will be able to stop me. Who knows, one day, someone you hold so dear might have to bow his head in front of me.”
“Lin Qinghe! In your dreams!”
“In your dreams!”
Each word stomped directly on Gao Yuan’s pressure points, to the point of driving a man to death from sheer fury. Gao Yuan was pinned down in extreme discomfort; he couldn’t move, could only rant with his mouth. But every time he tried, he was silenced with a blow. After a few rounds, he had no energy left to even speak, barely breathing as he lay prone on the carpet.
It could be done like this?
Yan Yue’s mouth fell open.
Zhang Hua and Xi Nian were also visibly shocked.
Having achieved a satisfying effect, Lin Qinghe mouthed silently to Cen Han: I did it on purpose to piss him off.
Cen Han had witnessed the entire thing. Lin Qinghe’s actions had surprised him a little. When had he ever seen him so sharp-tongued, so vividly expressive?
Because he felt guilty, he was seeking revenge on his behalf.
After a long moment, Cen Han smiled faintly. Nice acting.
