Two days earlier. When Zheng Qingyuan realized that Dong Jiaoyan had been leading him around by the nose, making a complete fool of him from start to finish.
His voice carried the bitterness of having been deceived.
"Can you help me get back at her?"
He looked up at Qiao Liuyue. Those narrow eyes, usually lazy and indifferent, were now anything but relaxed.
"Join me. Let's take revenge on Dong Jiaoyan together."
Qiao Liuyue didn't respond. She just watched him quietly, her eyes behind her glasses betraying no emotion at all.
"Hasn't she always been playing with other people's feelings?"
Zheng Qingyuan's hands clenched into fists, his anger palpable.
"Then go steal her boyfriend."
Even as he said the words, he knew how absurd they sounded.
But so what if it was absurd? Being absurd was still better than being played for a fool.
Qiao Liuyue's tone was slow and audacious.
"What if I was already planning to do exactly that?"
Those words sent a tremor through Zheng Qingyuan's pupils. It was as if, at that moment, he truly saw the girl standing before him for the first time.
Before this, every time his assistant Sui Feng met with Dong Jiaoyan, he would return and write a detailed report of the meeting.
Those reports had also mentioned Dong Jiaoyan's best friend, Qiao Liuyue.
They described her as an introverted, shy girl, but polite. Someone who spoke softly, never initiated conversations, and ate her meals in quiet peace.
But there were so many people like that. Unremarkable.
Zheng Qingyuan had always skimmed over those parts of the reports. The only impression he had was that she was "Dong Jiaoyan's good friend," and that her name sounded nice. That was it.
He had even entertained the thought that, if he ever got into a fight with Jiaoyan, he might bribe this best friend to put in a good word for him. But it was just a fleeting thought—he never took it seriously.
Their first real meeting was at that trendy restaurant.
Zheng Qingyuan couldn't resist the urge to see Dong Jiaoyan and "Sui Feng" meet in person, so he sneaked into a corner not far from their table.
He had a laptop open in front of him, pretending to be working overtime, but his eyes kept drifting toward them.
He thought his disguise was flawless. But when Qiao Liuyue walked past him on her way to the restroom, her sharp gaze swept across his face.
At that moment, Zheng Qingyuan's heart skipped a beat.
Not because he was lovestruck, but because he was terrified.
He froze in his chair, his fingers hovering motionless above the keyboard.
A single thought raced through his mind: No way—first time sneaking around like this, and I’m caught before I’ve even started?
Fortunately, her gaze only lingered for a moment before moving on.
Zheng Qingyuan let out a long exhale. A small patch on his back was already damp with cold sweat.
But when Qiao Liuyue walked back to where he had been sitting a second time, her eyes searching the now-empty table, Zheng Qingyuan knew for certain—she had really spotted him.
He marveled silently to himself.
Who would have thought that Jiaoyan's good friend, with her plain looks and plain personality, would have such sharp instincts?
She must have figured out that he was the real Sui Feng.
A sense of crisis surged through him. He knew that if he didn't take control of the situation quickly, things could spiral in an unpredictable direction.
So he had no choice but to show himself, pulling her into a small private booth nearby, and pouring everything out in one breath—his identity, the matter of the assistant, the reason for the test.
(In reality, the truth was that Qiao Liuyue knew nothing at all.
She had merely found it suspicious that a man in sunglasses was staring at someone else while they ate. Out of curiosity, she went back for a look, but before she could even ask anything, this guy had already volunteered all his secrets.)
Fortunately, Qiao Liuyue was sensible.
After hearing him out, she didn’t make a big deal of it, nor did she show any hint of contempt or mockery.
She agreed to keep it a secret, then prepared to leave.
Zheng Qingyuan silently thanked her in his heart at that moment.
Qiao Liuyue was a good person, and she truly understood his situation—knowing that he wanted to find someone sincere, someone who didn’t judge by looks or chase after his family’s money.
He breathed a long sigh of relief, feeling that he’d gotten lucky at least in that his secret had been exposed to someone reliable.
But of course, as the saying goes, what you fear most is what comes to pass.
No sooner had Qiao Liuyue stepped out than she was caught red-handed by Dong Jiaoyan, who had just returned from the restroom.
In a panic, Zheng Qingyuan made up a story on the spot about a “Neighbor Brother” identity, thinking that would be the end of it.
Who could have guessed that this hastily fabricated identity would later trigger a whole chain of events—
and ultimately make him see Dong Jiaoyan’s true colors for good.
“Master Zheng, is this young lady the one in need of a makeover?” came the hairstylist’s voice.
Zheng Qingyuan pulled himself back from his reverie.
He gave a nod, his tone firm and resolute: “Yeah, that’s right.”
Since he and Qiao Liuyue had already formed an alliance to make Dong Jiaoyan taste the same bitter fruit of being played with in love, a makeover was an indispensable step.
He admitted that Qiao Liuyue was a good girl—
kind-hearted, clever, and tight-lipped.
But by his own standards of aesthetics, the way she dressed now was hardly going to catch the attention of Dong Jiaoyan’s online boyfriend.
Coarse, unkempt hair, thick black-rimmed glasses hiding the contours of her eyes, a frumpy top, and outdated jeans.
A makeover—it had to be done. There was no way around it.
Qiao Liuyue was surrounded by a group of hairstylists and makeup artists.
A bit flustered, she pushed up the black frames on her nose.
“Ah… this many people?”
She had thought it would just be a matter of changing clothes and getting a new hairstyle—at most an hour to wrap up. But when she walked in, the scale of it was way too big.
Zheng Qingyuan sat on the sofa, legs crossed, striking an easygoing pose.
His whole demeanor radiated a laid-back vibe.
He waved a hand, his tone breezy.
“Not many at all—just one hairstylist, one stylist, one makeup artist, and two assistants.”
He counted them off one by one on his fingers.
“Oh, and I’ve already contacted the luxury store I usually shop at. Their sales assistant will be coming over soon with the latest season’s collection.
I don’t know much about women’s fashion, so I told them to bring a bit of everything, bags included.”
The way he said it was so casual, so completely natural.
Qiao Liuyue mentally did a quick calculation.
Just the people you’ve hired for me, plus all those luxury clothes and bags—the amount you’re putting into this already exceeds the money you transfered to Dong Jiaoyan several times over.
But she didn’t say it out loud, because she understood a very simple principle:
Getting cheated on… no, that’s not right.
A man who had been played for a fool didn't care about the money.
They cared about only one thing:
Getting even.
After finishing all of this, Zheng Qingyuan lowered his head and began scrolling through his phone, idly waiting.
He swiped through the news for a while, then irritably closed the news app and habitually opened a mobile game.
