Chapter 26: Outliers are usually more interesting.

"That very night, I almost raped him."

One second

Two seconds

Three seconds

——

A sharp, explosive sound rang out from inside the bedroom.

Jiang Qingying quickly covered her ears, feeling attacked, and said, "Keep your voice down, my parents are asleep."

Lin Tingwan covered her mouth, her round eyes wide open. Unable to process this astonishing information in a short time, she looked at Nan Chun, her eyes pleading for help.

Nan Chun was almost speechless with shock, but she was a little better than Lin Tingwan. After recovering, she asked, "Back then... you seemed to be...?"

"So it's almost true." Jiang Qingying looked innocent. "And it's only a month off, so it's reasonable if we count the age difference in the traditional Chinese way of counting age."

Jiang Qingying was a central figure and the backbone of their girl group. Whenever problems or trouble arose, Nan Chun and Lin Tingwan would think of her first. But actually, she was the youngest among them. She had sneaked in when the group went to a bar to celebrate.

"Almost?" Nan Chun repeated the key point in her words, jokingly asking, "So if you were an adult, it wouldn't be almost?"

Jiang Qingying pondered for a moment, trying hard to recall the situation at the time, and thought, "It's not... impossible."

Lin Tingwan's eyes widened even more. She really couldn't imagine that Jiang Qingying had forced herself on Lu Jinyuan ten years ago! Forced sex!

For the next thirty minutes, Jiang Qingying not only couldn't get a good night's sleep, but she was also dragged back to relive how the ignorant and arrogant girl had domineeringly and forcefully pounced on the male college student.

-

June ten years ago.

At that time, they were just a group of young kids who had just come of age, full of curiosity and a playful nature, so they didn't book a private room, but instead sat in a booth on the second floor of the bar.

The second-floor booths are not as crowded as the first floor, but you can still hear the loud DJ and look down at the people dancing to the music on the dance floor. From this high vantage point, you can see many hidden things.

Jiang Qingying held a cocktail in her hand, her elbow resting on the glass railing, watching the people dancing wildly downstairs. Some were letting loose, others were dancing intimately together. The neon lights were flashing and dazzling, making it difficult to see clearly, so many of their movements would be easily missed if you didn't look closely.

"What are you looking at?" Nan Chun patted her shoulder.

Jiang Qingying looked at him and gave him a meaningful smile. "Handsome guy."

"What handsome guy? Where is he?"

"Look closely at what those two handsome guys on the far left are doing."

Nan Chun looked in the direction she was pointing, and after a while, she discovered something unbelievable. She suddenly turned her head to look at Jiang Qingying, her cheeks instantly turning red. "Holy crap, this is so exciting!"

Jiang Qingying looked away, drank half of the cocktail in her hand, and then said with disdain, "Why is this drink so sweet?"

Nan Chun grabbed her hand, almost jumping up in anxiety, "Take it easy, haven't you been drinking much before?"

Jiang Qingying thought for a moment, "Does pineapple beer count?"

“…” Nan Chun was speechless. “That thing can only be called a fruit juice drink.”

"Oh, okay." Jiang Qingying took another sip, carefully savoring the taste on her tongue. Besides being very sweet, it also had a slightly sour taste, and the combination of juice and alcohol created a very rich flavor profile.

"Why don't you stop drinking?" But Nan Chun saw that the wine glass in her hand was almost empty, so there was no point in doing anything about it. She could only explain the wine to her, "The wine in your hand is called Mai Tai."

"Dirty?"

"It's Mai Tai. It's a type of liquor from the Caribbean. Mai Tai is a local word that means 'exquisite' or 'away from the world'."

After listening to Nan Chun's explanation, Jiang Qingying's vision began to blur. "This wine seems to have a high alcohol content."

"I think it's alright. Is it because you can't hold your liquor?" Nan Chun cautiously probed.

"I don't know, I've never drunk real alcohol before, how would I know how much I can drink?" Jiang Qingying thought as she walked back to her booth, complaining to herself, "But I know today."

Nan Chun reached out to support her, asking worriedly, "Are you alright?"

Jiang Qingying sat down and touched her cheek, which was still at a relatively normal temperature. "I'm okay, just a little dizzy and sleepy."

Lin Tingwan, who was standing nearby, thought she was not feeling well and hurriedly asked, "Are you not feeling well?"

Jiang Qingying shook her head, feeling extremely ashamed, and sighed, "I think I'm drunk."

Upon hearing this, everyone burst into laughter. Although Jiang Qingying was a little drunk, she still had fighting spirit. She swept her murderous gaze from left to right, and the room quieted down instantly.

The music in the bar was so loud it gave her a headache. She rubbed her throbbing temples and said, "I can't take it anymore, I'm going home."

"How are you going to get back?" Lin Tingwan asked.

Jiang Qingying pulled out her keys from her bag, looking slightly smug: "I have a car."

"You don't even have a driver's license and you still want to bring this car out?" Lin Tingwan laughed. "It must be tough on the designated driver."

"Not having a driver's license is temporary, but being handsome lasts a lifetime." Jiang Qingying picked up her bag and turned to leave.

A slightly older man stood up and called out to her, "How about I take you home? I haven't had a drink yet."

Jiang Qingying looked over and recognized him; he was an older brother that Lin Tingwan had brought over. However, she wasn't familiar with this boy, so she directly refused.

Another boy chimed in, "Jiang Qingying, didn't you realize? He didn't drink all night just so he could take you home. You're being ungrateful. Besides, your G-Class isn't really suitable for a girl to drive. Why are you being so stubborn?"

"I didn't know driving was divided into genders." Jiang Qingying bent down, picked up the dice cup on the table, played with it in her hand for a few moments, and then threw it at the stomach of the boy who was cheering. The dice in the cup scattered all over the floor with a clattering sound, accompanied by the boy's cry of pain. "Pain doesn't discriminate between genders, but this sounds like he's giving birth."

The boy glared at her, wanting to reason with her, but when he remembered her status as someone he couldn't afford to offend, he had no choice but to shut up.

Jiang Qingying didn't have the patience to play along with him. After leaving the bar, she rested by the roadside against her G-Wagon. The bar was filled with a cacophony of smells—alcohol, cigarettes, and an overwhelmingly nauseating perfume—and she was now covered in a whiff of everything. If her mother at home knew, she'd definitely give her a good scolding.

Jiang Qingying fears nothing and no one, except her mother. She leaned against the car, letting the breeze carry away the smell from her body before calling a designated driver.

The black G-Class was both cool and stylish, and Jiang Qingying was dressed entirely in black: a black lace camisole top and a black leather jacket. One side of the jacket was draped to her elbow, revealing a well-defined shoulder. Beneath the jacket, her slender waist was partially visible, and she wore short gray-black jeans and black stockings. Her long, straight legs were crossed, and her long, slightly wavy black hair was blown by the wind. She adjusted her hair with elegant grace, exuding a sexiness and charm that seemed completely beyond her years.

The scene was so stunning that passersby couldn't help but take a second look. Jiang Qingying was used to such gazes and didn't pay much attention. Just as she was about to call a designated driver, she caught a glimpse of a man standing not far away. She raised an eyebrow, quite surprised to see him here.

Her gaze was too conspicuous, and soon the other person noticed her too.

Jiang Qingying smiled and beckoned to him with her index finger, but after half a minute there was no response.

So she had no choice but to walk over.

Normally, in a bar, it's the girls who get harassed by thugs, but Jiang Qingying is different; she's the one harassing people.

She stood next to the man. "Hi, do you remember me? Lu Jinyuan."

Lu Jinyuan raised and lowered her eyelids, her eyes as still as a pool of water, completely devoid of any emotion, a stark contrast to the way others looked at her.

In comparison, he seemed like an oddball.

People are more interested in things that are different from the norm.

He ignored her, so she said to herself, "I didn't expect to run into you in Nanzhou after several months. What are you doing at the bar?"

"What do you think you can do at a bar?" Lu Jinyuan replied.

Jiang Qingying smiled, sniffed his scent, and found only the cool scent of fir trees. "You haven't had your drink yet, have you?"

Lu Jinyuan glanced at her, and answered with silence.

Jiang Qingying looked him up and down a few times. He was dressed in a white shirt and black pants, and his aloof and indifferent demeanor didn't seem like someone who came to a bar. "Do you have a driver's license?"

Lu Jinyuan remained silent. Jiang Qingying placed the car keys in her palm and laid them flat in front of him, her voice deliberately softening.

"I've been drinking and can't drive. Can you help me?"

Lu Jinyuan glanced at the car keys in her hand, his gaze slowly and steadily shifting to her delicate and beautiful face. His deep eyes were fixed on her. The evening breeze carried the mellow scent of alcohol from her body, mixed with the fragrance of perfume, and gently entered his nostrils.

The appearance of this woman was shrouded in mystery from the very beginning, not referring to her name or her identity.

It was a feeling. She always gave him a mysterious and peculiar feeling. She was like a delicate rose that had emerged from a long-desolate forest shrouded in mist. The environment was strange, and she exuded a charming yet dangerous aura, making people want to pick her. Many things that shouldn't have happened became natural after her appearance.

Strangely, he couldn't think of a reason to reject her.