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"What? This is too strange!" Yuan Yuan exclaimed in disbelief, her face filled with astonishment.

Lin Tingfeng also fell into deep thought. He wasn't in pain now, but rather bewildered.

For a while, he seriously doubted that he had lost his fortune, which is why he didn't know that he had ever known Ye Wenyu.

To him, she was like a maze.

Yuan Yuan said to him, "Uncle Lin, how about this, I'll go eat with you, since I haven't eaten either. We can chat while we eat."

Lin Tingfeng looked at Yuanyuan and remained silent for a long time. He knew that this girl was actually trying to comfort him.

He gazed thoughtfully into the distance. Having missed dinner, night had already fallen gently, and silver raindrops shimmered against the black backdrop. His heart was bewildered by a profound confusion. Before, when he thought of Ye Wenyu, a young and beautiful girl would appear before his eyes; now, thinking of Ye Wenyu was like shrouding in a white mist.

He felt as if he were trapped in a fog.

Hearing Yuan Yuan's invitation, he smiled and said to her, "No need, I'm going back to the company." Having been stood up, he had no appetite at all.

Of course, being a mature man, he didn't need this girl's comfort.

Not only did she break her promise, but she also deleted him on WeChat, and probably didn't intend to return the two hundred yuan to him. So, he silently took out the white, square student ID card from his pocket.

He lingered for a few moments, looking at the tiny ID photo, no bigger than a fingernail, but with big eyes, a high nose, and small lips, she was a beautiful woman. He had imagined how his heart would race and how he would turn away, unable to meet her gaze, when he met her in person.

Unfortunately, all of this was just his fantasy. In reality, when she saw him, she refused to meet him.

Knowing he was going to have dinner with the girl he liked, he planned to surprise her by returning her student ID, which he had kept for a long time, during the meal. He wanted to show her how wonderful their connection was. They had not only met online through WeChat and become friends, but they had also met offline at a bar where he had paid off the bar's debt for drinks. Today, he would return the student ID to her.

Everything was arranged to be romantic and touching, but all the plans fell through.

He thought gloomily that he had waited so many days, hoping that one day she would return his student ID, but many days had passed and she had neither called him nor come to him. Obviously, she would not come to him.

So keeping the student ID with me is meaningless.

Lin Tingfeng thought for a moment, then handed the student ID to Yuanyuan and said gently, "Give this student ID back to her, and she won't need to get a replacement."

Yuan Yuan took the student ID and was very surprised to find that it belonged to Ye Wenyu. She wondered how Uncle Lin could have Ye Wenyu's student ID.

She asked curiously, "How did you get her student ID?"

Lin Tingfeng then recounted how they met at the bar, how she saw him break his drinks, how she owed the bar money and couldn't pay it back, how she used her student ID as collateral, and how he paid it off for her. To thank him, the bar manager told him about how Ye Wenyu had given him her student ID.

Yuan Yuan asked Lin Tingfeng, "She hasn't come to see you, hasn't returned the money, and hasn't gotten her student ID back?"

Lin Tingfeng nodded.

Yuan Yuan exclaimed, "This isn't right." Based on her understanding of Ye Wenyu, she knew that Ye Wenyu was a person of high moral character, and she would never do something like not paying back money she owed.

Lin Tingfeng raised his head and listened intently.

Yuan Yuan, as if possessed by Sherlock Holmes, calmly analyzed, "She broke the drinks at the bar because she saw you! She would never default on a debt, so the reason she didn't come to ask you for the money is because she didn't want to see you! Just like today, when she saw you, she didn't want to come forward to acknowledge you and have dinner with you."

Lin Tingfeng asked softly, "You noticed something was wrong too?" Of course he knew that only by piecing together all the fragmented pieces could a complete puzzle be formed. His conclusion was that the girl who had captured his heart was, for some unspeakable reason, terrified of him, hated him, and avoided contact with him.

Yuan Yuan nodded and said to Lin Tingfeng, "Yes, to me, you seem like a nightmare to her."

nightmare?

Was he a nightmare for her?

Lin Tingfeng stroked his chin, pondering, and said, "But I don't know the reason." Yuan Yuan described it so well.

Don't know the reason?

Yuan Yuan put Ye Wenyu's student ID back into her pocket and said to him, "How about this, Uncle Lin, I'll go and find out for you. No one hates another person for no reason. There must be a reason why she's like this."

Lin Tingfeng nodded, a glimmer of hope rising in his heart. He said goodbye to Yuanyuan and returned to the company.

Yuan Yuan took Ye Wenyu's student ID and went to find her.

They found Ye Wenyu in the cafeteria where the two of them often ate. She was eating alone, her face pale, her brows slightly furrowed, clearly preoccupied. It was obvious that she had no appetite; the food on her plate remained untouched. Lin Tingfeng was heartbroken at being stood up, and Ye Wenyu, having stood someone up, didn't seem to be happy either.

Yuan Yuan sat down opposite her, placed her student ID on the table, and pushed it towards her.

Ye Wenyu's mind wasn't on it at first; she didn't even look at Yuanyuan. Yuanyuan tapped the table and said angrily to her, "Take a closer look."

Ye Wenyu, who had been lost in thought, only came back to her senses when she heard Yuan Yuan's words. She glanced down at her ID card and immediately stood up as if burned. Her hands trembled as she picked up her student ID card, her heart pounding wildly like a deer. She stared at it repeatedly with wide eyes.

Their faces were filled with disbelief and shock.

Yuan Yuan, with a stern face, said to her impatiently, "He returned your student ID, he paid the more than eight thousand yuan in compensation the bar owed you. He's your benefactor. You took his red envelope, but he didn't hold it against you. He's never done anything to hurt or wrong you. Yet you stood him up today. He's the boss of a large corporation, extremely busy. He made time for you to have this meal, but you stood him up. Ye Wenyu, isn't what you did going too far?!"

Ye Wenyu raised her head, all her suspicions gathering in her mind. Yuanyuan, as her friend, was speaking up for Lin Tingfeng. As if she had found evidence, she stared coldly at Yuanyuan and slowly questioned her, word by word: "What is your relationship with Lin Tingfeng?"

Yuan Yuan froze, her face turning deathly pale in an instant, like a thief caught red-handed, her heart pounding wildly.