"How is that possible?"
Antonio frowned, impatiently telling the clerk to check again. There couldn't be a problem with the check; he had watched the signature being written with his own eyes yesterday. It had to be the bank's problem.
He knew these bank clerks well—careless and lazy.
They also liked to judge a book by its cover and treat people accordingly.
They had low moral character.
In the past, he couldn't be bothered to argue with them about these things. Now it seemed he had been too easygoing. Just like the Chinese saying goes, petty people fear power but lack gratitude for virtue. He decided he must file a complaint and get this person fired after finishing his business.
"I'm sorry, but it really cannot be cashed."
The tone seemed polite but was highly perfunctory.
"You didn't even check!"
"We already checked all the reasons just now." After all, it was a check issued only yesterday; it was indeed strange that it couldn't be cashed in less than a day.
They had been afraid the bank made a mistake.
After checking, they found that the issuer had indeed revoked the authorization early in the morning. As for the reason, it was quite simple—the clerk glanced at the newspaper pressed under his hand, then looked at the haggard yet still undeniably handsome young man opposite him. His desire for gossip peaked.
The very first customer of the morning brought such a good show.
Well, he wasn't sleepy anymore.
He was fully energized.
Antonio took a deep breath to suppress the violent rage in his heart and simply handed over another check.
"I'm sorry, this one won't work either."
He handed over another.
"I'm sorry..."
Before he could lose his temper, the bank clerk spoke first, "Young Master Antonio, we are very busy here. I hope you won't waste our time. I'll just tell you the truth: none of the checks you brought today can be cashed."
After a thought, he added:
"That is, if the issuers are people who harbor romantic feelings for you."
Look how precise he was.
After all, love didn't just happen between the opposite sex. With Antonio having so many checks from different sources, who was to say he hadn't crossed that line?
"What do you mean by that?"
Antonio's heart sank, but he only received a mysterious smile in return.
At this moment.
He finally noticed that the other people were stealing glances at him, whispering among themselves with strange looks—mockery, disgust, amusement... The matter of the burial objects alone wouldn't generate such overwhelmingly negative emotions given his popularity!
Something must have happened.
Suppressing his unease, Antonio's first thought was to resolve the check issue. He easily borrowed a phone from the bank. The first, second, and third calls either didn't connect or were hung up the moment he spoke.
Finally, the fourth call didn't hang up.
His spirits lifted.
He had just formulated his words and spoken a few syllables when— "Ahhhhh!"
A burst of screaming.
Followed by furious cursing:
"How dare you call me, you liar! You shameful liar whose soul should burn in hell by the devil! Just like your lowly mother, you constantly speak of love, but you only want to use love to swindle money. You bastard, how dare you play me like this! I won't let you get away with it, and my family won't tolerate this insult!"
Antonio's scalp went numb.
He hastily said:
"Wait, did you misunderstand something? My mother and I are not the same kind of people. As for Su Ning, I explained it to you yesterday, I was just..."
"Because you are a bastard."
The female voice rose again, seizing control of the conversation:
"You still want to lie to me! The newspapers have made it very clear. Miss Su from the East obviously wouldn't love a complete loser and shameless existence like you. Thank goodness for that. You and your true love can go be destitute together and rot in hell!"
Click.
The phone was completely hung up.
The bank clerk looked at him worriedly—telephones were very expensive, and it would be a hassle to repair if broken. Good news: Antonio hadn't lost his mind and smashed the phone.
Bad news.
He frantically started grabbing newspapers from other customers. No one expected this to happen. Screams erupted all around, amidst the overwhelming reports about the burial objects.
He finally found the only newspaper where he was the "main character."
Reading ten lines at a glance.
What caught his eye was a full-page spread of photos, with text squeezed into the gaps between them. The more he read, the redder his eyes became, until he finally tore the newspaper to shreds.
"Su Ning, you bitch!"
At this point, what was there not to understand? Everything had been calculated by Su Ning.
He thought of how smug he had been, arranging all the public opinion to force her to concede to the agreement and swallow the bitter pill. Who knew that he was the stupid one in the end!
She must be very proud of herself right now, right?
Thinking of the arrogant smile on that disgusting face—
Antonio spat out a mouthful of blood.
He fainted on the floor.
The last sentence he heard before losing consciousness was, "Why did he faint? Quick, help him up..."
He didn't expect there to still be good people in the world. Thinking this, he completely lost consciousness, so he didn't feel the pain of his face being roughly slapped twice in the very next second.
"...Looks like he isn't faking it. Alright, hurry and notify his family to take him back. Whatever you do, don't let him die in the bank."
"Okay."
This was the bank staff.
The customers formed a loose circle, whispering excitedly among themselves.
"How did he just faint like that?"
"Hmph, if it were you, you probably wouldn't have lasted this long. Don't forget, this Young Master Antonio still hasn't recovered from the injuries he got while playing the hero saving the beauty!"
"Oh, come on, what 'hero saving the beauty'? The newspaper made it clear. When the Easterner Su was assassinated, he didn't help at all. He just got injured by accident. The main thing is that he got badly hurt fighting his true love's husband!"
Everyone laughed with tacit understanding.
The topic shifted.
"Did you guys see? Good heavens, I didn't expect Antonio to be so morally corrupt. Being with someone else's wife is one thing, but to actually say such things in front of her husband..."
"God will punish him."
"Exactly. Thank goodness for Miss Su from the East. Although she is also a sinful person, I have to say, it's because of her that those ignorant and pure young ladies were saved from having their hearts and money swindled."
"Yeah..."
............
"Ding, detecting that the host is rich and unkind, and the tier-one plot character Antonio has suffered severe physical and mental trauma. Rewarding..."
"Turn off notifications for now."
Su Ning said impatiently, unable to resist complaining to the system:
"He really bites the hand that feeds him. I kindly helped make his love public. It's bad enough he didn't come to thank me, but he actually viciously harassed me with reward notification sounds!"
System: ...
Listen to yourself, are those words a human would say?
Although it knew Su Ning was being totally unreasonable, for the sake of peace, it had to offer a few perfunctory words:
"Yes, yes, yes. He's too bad."
"Right?"
Who would have thought Su Ning would get even more fired up. "And also, he's so fragile! Squeezing out so many rewards right now completely disrupted my plans. It's so annoying!"
"Isn't it good to get a lot of rewards?"
"Of course not."
Su Ning spoke with absolute conviction, "According to my plan, I was supposed to completely crush his ridiculous idea of diluting the shares at the shareholders' meeting. Then, in utter disbelief, he would slowly slump to the ground, watching me triumphantly acquire Swire Shipping and extract all the rewards, before he turned into worthless trash and disappeared from my world forever."
She rattled off the long speech without a single stammer.
It was obvious she had been fantasizing about this for a long time.
"Heh, well, I am so sorry that Antonio didn't act according to your divine will."
"Sigh, forget it."
Su Ning said generously, "I will be the bigger person and forgive him."
Venting her frustrations made her feel much better.
Therefore, even when faced with someone like Mr. Faust who was trying to take advantage of her, she did not immediately kick him out. Instead, she magnanimously decided to hear him out.
