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Lin Tingfeng didn't utter a single word of reproach or excuse. He slowly said, "Okay." Then he added, "Where are you? I'll come pick you up right away." Ye Wenyu looked up and saw the English sign on the tallest building under the dim light. She spoke in English once, and Lin Tingfeng understood before hanging up.
Ten minutes later, he drove up to her himself.
He parked the car next to her, rolled down the driver's side window, and looked at her. Ye Wenyu stood up from the bench. At this moment, dusk had completely fallen, all the streetlights in the British streets were lit, the cold wind swirled, blowing a few fallen leaves, and there were only a few pedestrians to be seen. They walked hurriedly with their heads down and their arms wrapped around themselves.
Ye Wenyu knew that if she didn't back down, she would freeze to death on this foreign street.
She hugged herself tightly, the streetlight casting her shadow on the street. Looking at that thin, frail shadow and her long hair disheveled in the wind, Ye Wenyu felt particularly desolate.
Lin Tingfeng got out of the car and opened the passenger door for her. His clothes were wrinkled like pickled vegetables, and there were bloodshot eyes in his phoenix eyes, but she pretended not to see it. She took it upon herself to open the back door and got in.
Lin Tingfeng saw this but didn't say anything. He got into the driver's seat and started the car again.
The two were in the car, which was speeding along. Silence weighed heavily on their hearts, and neither of them spoke.
Ye Wenyu remained silent because she was too angry and heartbroken to speak. At this moment, sitting in Lin Tingfeng's car, she even felt humiliated. This man had seriously hurt her, yet she still had to lower her head and beg him to take her home and bring her back to the country.
There could be nothing more humiliating in life than this.
Lin Tingfeng remained silent because he had already said what he needed to say. He would never change his mind for anyone, and naturally, he wouldn't let Ye Wenyu's sadness and anger, her humiliation and tears change his decision. He thought she was a smart girl, and it was only a matter of time before she understood. He just needed to wait patiently. It didn't matter; after years of experience in society, he had long since developed the patience of a fisherman.
Half an hour later, Lin Tingfeng's car stopped in front of his villa in England. He opened the car door and got out, then opened the car door for Ye Wenyu. Ye Wenyu got out of the car, and Lin Tingfeng handed the keys to the driver. Ye Wenyu went inside, and Lin Tingfeng followed her inside.
Ye Wenyu walked with her head down, enduring immense pain and humiliation. Lin Tingfeng followed silently behind her. The lamplight shone on him, casting his tall and muscular figure on the ground, making him look like a terrifying beast.
Upon reaching the living room, Ye Wenyu stopped, slowly turned around, and looked expressionlessly at the equally silent Lin Tingfeng. She had something to say.
The two people gazed at each other from a distance. At that moment, the city lights were just coming on, and the wind was howling outside.
Lin Tingfeng watched Ye Wenyu without changing his expression, waiting for her to speak. Ye Wenyu thought to herself, "He's back, he's back again. This is his true face: cautious and distant, never smiling, calm and restrained, yet despicable and shameless. This is the real Lin Tingfeng, because only someone like him can dominate the business world for decades and remain invincible."
The man who gazed at her affectionately, smiled at her, gently shook her hand, and said "The wind blows the old leaves in the courtyard," and built her a house surrounded by leaves, was just a figment of her imagination.
That was her ideal lover, who would rescue her from her suffering, but the real Lin Tingfeng was not like that.
She desperately tried to control her overwhelming urge to cry, and said to Lin Tingfeng in as cold and calm a tone as possible, "This is the last day of the ten-day escort tour. I have done everything I promised you, and I ask you to keep your promise as well. I want to go back to my country tomorrow, and I hope you will."
Lin Tingfeng nodded, but his handsome face remained expressionless. His face, devoid of any emotion, was like a marble sculpture—perfect, yet incredibly cold.
It inspires both admiration and fear.
Ye Wenyu suddenly laughed and said to him in a hoarse voice, "I used to think that you paid my tuition for four years of college, which was a huge favor. You are the best person in the world, and I will definitely repay you in the future. But now I realize that you don't deserve it!" After saying that, she gave him a disgusted look.
Lin Tingfeng remained silent, but his fingers trembled slightly. He calmly and slowly put both hands into his trouser pockets, appearing in a more relaxed manner.
Seeing his unresponsive expression, Ye Wenyu felt even more pained. She shrieked, "You said before that the condition for repaying your tuition was ten days of companionship. I did it. After we return to China, we'll be even, and from now on, we'll never see each other again!" She roared in her heart, she had to leave him, she absolutely had to, she could. Recalling the little things she used to do, like secretly taking pictures of him with her phone, she felt incredibly stupid. Already at the bottom of society, she foolishly fell in love with a wolf, as if she didn't want to be miserable enough.
Lin Tingfeng remained silent.
After saying this, Ye Wenyu returned to her room. Once inside and behind closed door, tears streamed down her face. She pressed herself against the door and wept silently.
Neither of them slept well that night.
When Lin Tingfeng arrived at the airport the next day, his eyes were bloodshot and his face was unusually pale. However, he remained silent. Sometimes, when he received a call from the group and had to handle group affairs, he would answer the phone and revert to his role as the president of the Lin Group, giving concise and decisive instructions from afar.
Ye Wenyu felt utterly devastated and her body was as stiff as a withered tree. She listened silently to him, pretending not to hear him. This person was no longer related to her.
The plane soared into the sky. After a nearly 15-hour long-haul flight, Ye Wenyu tried to sleep the entire time because her heart was filled with pain and despair. But how could she sleep? Her mind was in turmoil, filled with memories of the past and her future.
The past is like ice, chilling to the bone; the future is like fog, leaving one bewildered.
Of course, Lin Tingfeng's proposal to make her his lover was an insult to her, and she was furious. She resolutely refused. But what would her life be like after returning to China and becoming a poor student again?
Ye Wenyu pondered painfully. Did she have a better choice after leaving Lin Tingfeng? She recalled with a chilling feeling that terrible time working as a hostess. How heartbroken and desperate she had been when lecherous men kept offering her drinks, forcing her to drink them down her throat. She thought that she still had three and a half years to work and earn money after returning to school. Without Lin Tingfeng's protection, she might very well go back to working as a hostess, selling her body. Wholesale and retail—it would all be the same thing, just a matter of degree. In the end, how far would she be from selling her body?
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