“I’d advise you to choose your next words very carefully.”
Jiang Nian locked eyes with Xu Ke as he said this.
Hearing that, Xu Ke glanced at Jiang Nian’s clenched fist, and something suddenly clicked in his mind. He snapped to attention, his gaze turning noticeably sharper.
He nodded repeatedly. “Got it.”
“Good.”
Jiang Nian let out a low grunt.
Then he checked the time and realized it was almost ten o’clock without them even noticing. But Gao Yuan’er was still there with them, so he suggested they wrap up the meal here and that he would drive Gao Yuan’er home.
Xu Ke, of course, had no objections to that.
Yang Mi, on the other hand, gave Jiang Nian a long, thoughtful look, then turned her gaze to Gao Yuan’er, seeming lost in thought.
As a woman—
And one who had already been won over by Jiang Nian, at that—
With just one glance, she could keenly sense that Jiang Nian had less-than-innocent intentions toward Gao Yuan’er.
But Yang Mi didn’t say anything more.
She simply watched Jiang Nian leave with Gao Yuan’er, exchanged a few brief pleasantries with Xu Ke, then went to the front desk to settle the bill and left.
Over on Jiang Nian’s side, the atmosphere on the drive back to drop off Gao Yuan’er was a bit heavy.
Jiang Nian was fine, though. In the memories of both “Du Gao” and “Yu Huatian,” he’d been through this kind of thing more times than he could count. He was highly adaptable and had already put the whole incident behind him by the time they left the police station.
The main issue was Gao Yuan’er.
As a university student who had never experienced anything like this before in her life, she was still visibly shaken and distracted.
Noticing her unease, Jiang Nian asked with concern, “Still not quite over it?”
“Yeah,” Gao Yuan’er replied softly, lowering her head. “Sorry, Teacher Jiang. I must be embarrassing myself.”
“Ah, come on. What’s there to be embarrassed about? It’s only natural to be scared when something like this happens.”
Jiang Nian brushed it off casually, pulling out a cigarette and putting it between his lips.
He took a deep drag, then exhaled, letting the smoke curl around him. “I know this might not help much, but go home and get a good night’s sleep. When you wake up, it’ll all be behind you. The sun will still rise tomorrow.”
“What if tomorrow’s overcast?”
“Then it’ll rise the day after. Bottom line—as long as you’re alive, everything will eventually pass. And look at it another way: going through this isn’t entirely bad for you. You didn’t get hurt, nothing terrible happened, and you got a real taste of what it’s like to be attacked. If you ever play a similar role in the future, you won’t need to search for the feeling—just think back to today, and it’ll come naturally.”
Jiang Nian said this with a smile.
Hearing that, Gao Yuan’er couldn’t help but laugh despite herself. She looked at him with a mix of amusement and exasperation. “Teacher Jiang, is that really how you comfort people? Out of nowhere, you’re bringing up acting?”
“Haha, force of habit, force of habit.”
Jiang Nian chuckled dryly. The lingering influence of filming The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate was just too strong—it had him approaching everything with a work-mode mindset, chasing that “dad-energy” vibe in every word and action, with little room for anything else.
And so, amid their conversation, Jiang Nian unknowingly escorted Gao Yuan’er back to her hotel.
They exchanged contact info downstairs, and after watching her head up, Jiang Nian hailed a cab and returned to the hotel Xu Ke had booked for him.
Beep beep.
He swiped his keycard and opened the door.
But oddly enough, the room was already brightly lit.
Jiang Nian walked down the hallway and into the bedroom.
There he found Yang Mi sitting on the bed, drinking wine and watching TV.
The moment she saw him back, a cold smirk curled across her face.
“Oh, look who it is. If it isn’t Jiang Nian—Teacher Jiang.”
“What brings you back here?”
“Not keeping your little sweetheart company anymore?”
Yang Mi’s tone dripped with undisguised jealousy.
Jiang Nian knew exactly who she meant by “little sweetheart,” but he played dumb: “Little sweetheart? What are you talking about?”
“Still playing coy? I’m talking about Gao Yuan’er.” Yang Mi called him out.
Jiang Nian feigned surprise. “Her? You’ve got it wrong. She’s just a fan of mine.”
“Right, right, right—just a fan. A fan you look at like you’re about to drool, and then you just had to be the one to take her home. What a perfectly innocent relationship!”
Yang Mi wasn’t buying his nonsense for a second.
And Jiang Nian knew his flimsy excuse wouldn’t cut it.
So he climbed onto the bed, looked at Yang Mi, and asked, “What’s this? Jealous?”
“No!”
As a strong-willed woman, Yang Mi wasn’t about to lay her feelings bare that easily. She immediately denied it. “We’re not even boyfriend and girlfriend. Why would I waste my time being jealous of you?”
“Good. Then I won’t bother you. I’ve had a long day and I’m pretty beat, so I’m gonna crash now.”
With that, Jiang Nian flopped onto the bed and shut his eyes.
Yang Mi froze.
Wait—he’s actually going to sleep?
She let out a laugh of pure disbelief, then grabbed him by the collar. “Get your ass up!”
“Huh? What’s up?” Jiang Nian asked, looking genuinely confused.
Yang Mi glared at him with a face full of resentment. “What’s up? I said I’m not jealous, and you don’t have anything to say to me?”
Jiang Nian pretended not to understand. “Nope. You said you’re not jealous, so what else is there to say?”
“Are you seriously that dense?! Can’t you tell that was sarcasm? Sarcasm!” Yang Mi was starting to lose it.
“So?” Jiang Nian shot back.
“So you need to comfort me! Comfort me, got it?” Yang Mi said through gritted teeth.
But Jiang Nian shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. You literally said you weren’t jealous. Why would I comfort you?”
“…”
At that, Yang Mi fell silent.
She stared at this stubborn, bullheaded man who refused to budge no matter what she said, and she felt a surge of heat rush to her head.
Her fist clenched tight.
“You bastard—have a taste of my fist!”
As the saying goes, when you’ve had enough, you’ve had enough. Yang Mi swung her fist in a fit of rage and embarrassment, aiming straight at Jiang Nian.
Jiang Nian wasn’t about to take that lying down. He immediately flipped from defense to offense, pinning Yang Mi down onto the bed.
Just as Jiang Nian and Yang Mi were tussling in a lively brawl, the internet was also buzzing with excitement.
As everyone knows, early 2012—
This was the era when the internet was beginning to spread into every household.
And if you asked which software reigned supreme, Penguin was number one, and no one dared claim otherwise.
They held the largest user base in the country.
This brought them massive traffic, but also made the platform chaotic.
Pornographic videos flooding the space were secondary.
The real issue was that during this period, all kinds of gruesome, bloody videos were everywhere.
And amid all those foreign beheading clips, one image stood out among the rest.
It showed a man bathed in moonlight, covered in blood, standing in front of a police car.
The photo’s background was downtown. The man had just stepped out of the car—probably snapped by some random passerby, a bit blurry, suggesting the shot was taken from a distance.
What caught people’s attention wasn’t just the photographer’s clever angle and clear framing—
But also the fact that the background indicated the photos were taken domestically, and the timestamp in the bottom-right corner confirmed they were from tonight.
In an instant, these images spread like wildfire across every major Q group.
And from there, they radiated out to all platforms.
Everyone still awake and scrolling online that night saw the news.
And they were all stunned.
At the same time, the Security Bureau got wind of it immediately.
After all, they were handling this case—they’d know about any ripple.
But strangely, they didn’t make a move.
When a staff member reported the situation, the agent who had interrogated Jiang Nian earlier replied with just two words:
“Fishing.”
