Chapter 50
Tong Jiayu couldn't leave the hospital for too long, so she drank a cup of milk tea and went back. After Tong Jiayu left, Tang Ruxin ordered a vegetable salad and apple juice and ate her lunch leisurely.
Behind her, two tables away, Yu Lei stood up with his unfinished steak. He walked over to her table and sat in the seat where Tong Jiayu had sat.
"What is it?" Yu Lei asked while stuffing steak into his mouth.
Tang Ruxin glanced at him with a teasing look in her eyes, "Aren't police officers very good at reasoning? Guess."
"You're in such a good mood. It seems like this is something that can justify both her installing surveillance and locating you." Yu Lei held the knife and fork and slowly cut the steak, thinking as he cut.
After a moment, he paused with his knife and fork, and looked at Tang Ruxin with a strange expression.
Seeing his expression, Tang Ruxin burst out laughing, covered her lips with the back of her hand and coughed a few times, choking. After stopping her cough, she lowered her voice and said:
"Sex toys."
Yu Lei threw his knife and fork onto the plate and leaned back in his chair in silence.
"As for?!"
Tang Ruxin thought for a moment and nodded, "Tong Jiayu comes from a relatively isolated rural area, and her thinking is conservative and traditional. She's never been in a relationship, so it's normal for her to be curious."
"Why don't you ask her about Yu Zhe?" Yu Lei said.
"That's unnecessary. You and I both know what she might say. The best-case scenario is that I won't answer her and won't get the answer you want."
"Try it out; your body language and facial expressions will give you clues."
Tang Ruxin nibbled on some vegetable leaves and took a moment between bites to say, "You know how good I am at deceiving myself. These things can't convince me."
Yu Lei frowned and looked at her for a while, and the more he looked, the more disgusted he looked.
“Is this something people eat?”
"People who eat protein bars have no right to say such things." Tang Ruxin rolled her eyes at him.
"I eat that while lifting weights." Yu Lei poked his fork into her salad bowl, "Let me try it."
"...Brother, you are being a bit rash." Tang Ruxin looked at him unfriendlyly as he stuffed vegetable leaves into his mouth.
"You haven't paid me back yet." Yu Lei chewed for a while, couldn't help but eat a piece of beef, and then reluctantly swallowed the vegetable leaves.
"So what?" Is this a reason to take food from other people's bowls?
"Five hundred dollars a mouthful, you make a profit."
That’s fine, Tang Ruxin nodded and continued eating her salad. The next moment she raised her head.
"You didn't actually intend to ask me to pay you back, did you?"
"Are you going tomorrow?" Yu Lei changed the subject, thinking: So this is what it feels like to occasionally practice tea art, it's quite interesting.
"Where are you going?" Tang Ruxin raised her head.
"Jinan Mountain Area."
"Isn't it next week?" she asked in surprise. There would be no time to buy a ticket tomorrow.
"There are no tickets for next week, only tomorrow."
Tang Ruxin hurriedly picked up her phone to check her flight tickets. Just then, a text message appeared at the top of the screen, vibrating. She clicked it and saw it was a ticketing request from the airline.
"I didn't say I was going." She glared at Yu Lei.
"Then I won't go. I'll ask Chen Jingzhou to refund the ticket."
"...Forget it, I've already bought it." With the Spring Festival travel rush approaching, she had some idea of how hard it would be to buy air tickets. If Chen Jingzhou were to cancel now, he'd probably vomit blood.
Yu Lei lowered his head to eat steak, a smile hidden on his lips.
*
It was not until she landed at Jinan Airport that Tang Ruxin realized that she had probably been tricked by Yu Lei.
They'd been leaving today from the beginning, otherwise why would he have said the day before that they only had one night to think it over? In reality, she hadn't considered it at all. Even if she really wanted to go, she didn't have to go with them. Yu Lei was now reading her mind with uncanny precision; he was playing this trick to prevent her from going alone.
It was already here—Tang Ruxin sat on the suitcase, legs apart, spinning in circles. Their rental car hadn't arrived yet. Chen Jingzhou went to buy a drink, while Yu Lei stood nearby, calling the rental company.
Tang Ruxin was so bored that she was sliding the suitcase back and forth, not noticing that it was sliding farther and farther away.
Suddenly, someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around and saw two men smiling at her. One had blond hair, the other wore a large gold chain, practically slapping the words "not a good person" on his forehead.
"Are you alone, young lady? Where are you going? We have a car to take you."
"No need." Tang Ruxin pushed off the ground and started to slide away. The hand on her shoulder fell again. She frowned and turned to look at the two men. "What are you doing? Are you forcing me to buy or sell?"
"How could that be? We'll give it to you for free. Just add us on WeChat, how about that?" The man with the big gold chain grinned at her, which seemed to be the most amiable expression he could put on.
It turned out to be a pick-up, and she thought it was a black car soliciting passengers.
"I'm giving you some good advice: leave quickly." Tang Ruxin advised earnestly.
"Just add WeChat, and we'll go right away." The blond-haired man said as he raised his phone and took several photos of Tang Ruxin's face from different angles. "Oh my! Miss Tang Ruxin is so photogenic, like a celebrity poster."
Tang Ruxin's face darkened and she said coldly, "Delete it."
"Come on, scan me and add me on WeChat, I'll immediately..."
Before he could finish his words, Tang Ruxin quickly reached out and grabbed his cell phone, kicked off with her feet, and slid away on the suitcase.
The two men were stunned. It was the first time they encountered a woman who dared to steal their phones.
After realizing what was happening, the yellow-haired man cursed and chased after Tang Ruxin. After all, a suitcase can't run as fast as a person's legs. Just as the yellow-haired man's hand was about to touch Tang Ruxin's long hair, a foot suddenly stretched out from the side. The man's attention was focused on Tang Ruxin, and he was tripped by the foot, rolling forward.
The guy with the big gold chain who was a little behind saw that the person who stretched out his leg looked like a college student, and thought that he was just an overconfident and nosy person, so he rushed up and punched him.
Chen Jingzhou was carrying three cups of milk tea. He stepped aside and stretched out his leg, causing the two men to fall into each other.
Tang Ruxin was so focused on running that she accidentally hit a speed bump. The suitcase's wheels cracked with a metallic sound, and Tang Ruxin, losing her balance, screamed in surprise and nearly went face-to-face with the ground. Fortunately, Yu Lei had noticed the anomaly and hurried over. He quickly grabbed her before she fell.
"Is it fun?" Yu Lei asked in surprise.
He had seen Tang Ruxin riding a suitcase over there bored, but he didn't expect her to be so exciting.
Tang Ruxin shoved the stolen phone into his hand and said, "Someone forced me to take photos and threatened to add me on WeChat."
Yu Lei turned his head to look at Chen Jingzhou not far away, only to see him squatting on the ground, with the police officer's ID in his hand almost touching the eyes of the two men on the ground.
"Don't you have a mouth?" Yu Lei looked at Tang Ruxin with a cold face. "I'm so close to you. I can solve the problem with just a shout. Why do you have to make yourself so embarrassed?"
After saying this, he didn't give Tang Ruxin a chance to explain, picked up the phone and walked towards the two people. He took two steps and stopped, then turned back and pulled Tang Ruxin over with him.
Huang Mao and Da Jin Lianzi, already frightened by Chen Jingzhou and apologizing profusely, saw another police officer, a head taller than them and with a sullen face, grabbing the woman's wrist. Huang Mao's legs went weak, and he had to force himself not to kneel down. Only then did he realize that the woman's words to leave quickly were not empty words—she had brought two police officers with her.
Half an hour later, the local police station completed the evidence collection, deleted the photos of Tang Ruxin from the mobile phone, and took the two people away.
Although Yu Lei and Chen Jingzhou revealed their identities, they didn't reveal the purpose of their trip, saying only that they were on vacation. They didn't need the local police's cooperation yet; they could discuss it later when it was truly needed.
It was a seven-hour drive from the airport to Yongmiao County, so the two of them took turns driving. It wasn't tiring, but ever since the incident at the airport, Yu Lei had switched to babysitting mode, following Tang Ruxin wherever she went, even waiting outside when she went to the bathroom.
Chen Jingzhou almost wanted to rent another car. He was so embarrassed by his own lightbulb behavior. Tang Ruxin, however, was completely oblivious, as if she was used to being followed around.
"What's the point of those two adding each other on WeChat? I can just delete them right away." Tang Ruxin still couldn't figure this out, and she couldn't help but ask in the afternoon.
Chen Jingzhou glanced at Yu Lei and saw that he was concentrating on driving and had no intention of answering. He hesitated, not knowing whether he should say it.
"Go on, it's time for the young lady to learn about species diversity." Yu Lei held the steering wheel with one hand, looking straight ahead with a calm tone.
So Chen Jingzhou turned around and explained to Tang Ruxin who was sitting in the back seat:
"When they add someone on WeChat, they immediately check their Moments and download any photos they can use. AI is developing very quickly these days, and with photos from all angles, you can create face-swapped videos. It's that kind of, uh... kind of video. The more attractive the woman is, the more expensive the video will be."
Tang Ruxin was dumbfounded and shocked beyond words. She was speechless for a long time before she blushed and uttered two words through gritted teeth.
“—scum.”
This was an angle she had never expected. She had thought they were just flirting. She shouldn't have run away. She should have torn those two apart. Even if she couldn't tear them apart, she should have ripped off some of their scalps. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She pounded the car seat a few times.
"You bastards are really...ah, you make me so angry!" Tang Ruxin had no place to vent her anger, so she raised her head and roared in frustration.
Chen Jingzhou, one of the "dog men," was as quiet as a chicken, not daring to say another word. What else could he say? Only men would make this kind of video, and only men would buy it.
Chen Jingzhou turned his head with grievance and looked at the old driver who was driving. Only then did he understand why Yu Lei didn't explain. Whoever explained would be scolded.
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