Chapter 51: Peeping

At 8:00 PM, after having dinner at an extremely secluded private restaurant, Lu Zhixi drove Jiang Ying back to her university.

As soon as she got into the car, Jiang Ying practically pressed herself against the door, terrified that the man beside her would launch another sudden attack.

The accident that had happened at the tennis court that afternoon was still sending shockwaves through her nervous system.

At the time, both of them were wearing standard tennis attire: Lu Zhixi in a white T-shirt and athletic shorts, and she in a tight short-sleeved top with a white pleated sports skirt. He had pulled her into his arms and kissed her, driven initially by a rash and eager impulse, which soon turned into deliberate seduction.

With their clothes so thin and their skin pressing together, he kissed her with an intensity she couldn't escape.

What was even more embarrassing was that bodily memory and physical reactions refuse to be controlled by reason. Since they were both young people brimming with vitality, the sentimental atmosphere was quickly replaced by a different kind of loss of control.

Jiang Ying pinched the bridge of her nose, forcing herself to stop thinking about it.

On the other side, Lu Zhixi wasn't trying to make conversation as he usually did either. Instead, he rested his elbow on the leather armrest, propping his face in his hand as he looked out the window.

The car merged onto the highway, passing a number of malls adorned with colorful neon signs. The brilliant hues reflected on the car windows cast a cheerful tone over the quiet backseat.

Yet, his heart was far from cheerful.

That afternoon, even when things had reached that point, Jiang Ying still pushed him away with all her might, bounding out of his arms like a frightened rabbit before rushing into the locker room to change without once looking back.

Why was that?

Had she built another insurmountable emotional barrier, turning herself into a fortress of copper and iron against him?

A tangle of chaotic thoughts crowded Lu Zhixi's mind.

After their breakup, he had watched her take on a new boyfriend, watched her meet many new people, and tried countless methods to rekindle her affection for him.

Yet, after exhausting every trick in the book—both clever and devious—he still had to endure hearing her ask that kind of question and face such rejection from her.

Lu Zhixi turned his head to look at the person beside him. Seeing her sitting with her arms crossed over her chest, doing everything she could to maintain physical distance from him in the car seat, he felt an even deeper wave of frustration.

Despite being so close, he felt a profound sense of loss of control, as if he could never truly grasp her.

At that moment, the silence was suddenly shattered by a continuous phone vibration.

When getting into the car, Jiang Ying had casually placed her phone on the armrest between the seats, facing upward. So when the screen lit up and messages from the group chat named "Male Bodhisattva Temple (18)" popped up relentlessly, Lu Zhixi was the first to see them.

He stared at those four characters, his expression freezing almost instantly.

Hearing the vibration, Jiang Ying turned her head as well. Picking up her phone, she saw that Zhou Anning was once again offering cyber-incense in the Male Bodhisattva Temple.

Without fail on a few nights every week, whenever Zhou Anning finished her tasks and grew bored, she would go into the chat group and demand that the male bodhisattvas send some freshly baked muscle photos. As trendy fashion guys who frequented the gym, their phone galleries were well-stocked. The moment Zhou Anning called out in the group, they would eagerly shower everyone with eye candy.

The young men in the group weren't very old. Blessed with superior looks, they probably hadn't lacked the attention of girls since puberty, making them smooth-tongued flirts adept at subtle displays of coolness.

Unfortunately, Jiang Ying and Zhou Anning were women who had seen plenty of men. To begin with, their ex-boyfriends far outclassed these young male models in terms of suave manipulation, so these petty tricks failed to escape their eyes. The two friends saw right through them without exposing them, remaining completely unmoved and treating it purely as an appreciation of beautiful physiques.

Still, too much of a good thing becomes tiresome, much like eating meat until you are sick of it. Jiang Ying had long found it rather boring and rarely spoke in the group.

However, the younger boys all remembered that Jiang Ying was a company shareholder. When she disappeared for a while, someone used the "poke" feature to send a teasing message like, "Does President Yingying not like this anymore?"

Lu Zhixi happened to catch sight of that exact sentence.

Jiang Ying hadn't thought there was anything wrong with the group chat, but under his eerily silent gaze, her speech suddenly stuttered for a second.

"W-What's wrong?"

This slightly stammering query made Lu Zhixi feel even worse. He asked in a deep voice, "Why are you nervous?"

Jiang Ying immediately clarified, "I'm not nervous."

Her speaking speed picked up rapidly, causing Lu Zhixi's expression to tighten even further.

A flurry of guesses flashed through his mind.

During this period, he had been calling Jiang Ying every night before bedtime to make sure she was staying in her dorm.

The bodyguards assigned to protect her at every campus gate hadn't been withdrawn either. If someone from another school wanted to see her, Jiang Ying would definitely have to go meet them at the gate—just like Ji Xun and the Wei siblings had done that day—so there was no way he wouldn't know.

Could it be a male student from Huada?

Unlikely.

In a prestigious institution like Huada, students playing the role of male bodhisattvas weren't entirely non-existent, but their numbers were certainly tiny, and they wouldn't dare look for female clients within the same school. If Jiang Ying could somehow gather a dozen of them all at once, Lu Zhixi would have to applaud her incredible capability.

Seeing Lu Zhixi sitting there in silence—his face still outwardly calm while his eyes churned with obscure emotions—Jiang Ying guessed precisely what was going through his head.

With a helpless laugh, she said, "Don't overthink it. These are just models shooting for the Meng Shao Company. Didn't you know about the time Anning and I went to visit the shooting base? That group chat was just set up back then."

Lu Zhixi didn't feel much better. "Didn't you say you didn't have their WeChat?"

"I don't have them on WeChat. It's just a shared group chat, and I rarely say anything in it."

She paused, then reminded him, "And taking a step back, I'm single right now, and I'm free."

There she went again, emphasizing that fact once more.

Lu Zhixi knew very well that all the boundary-crossing entanglement over these past few days had been initiated by him, and whenever he succeeded, it was only because Jiang Ying was reasonable and soft-hearted.

Even so, it didn't stop an uncontrollable impulse from surging within him at that moment.

Seeing that he remained silent, Jiang Ying assumed the matter was over, only for Lu Zhixi to suddenly grab the hand holding her phone. Looking at her with a calm expression, he said, "Yingying, do you think I'm slowly accepting the fact that there might be other people in your life?"

She froze abruptly, instinctively looking back at Lu Zhixi.

Setting aside that accidental kiss from the afternoon, their interactions had otherwise been quite pleasant; the harmonious atmosphere of playing tennis together had significantly softened the tension between them.

Yet at this moment, Jiang Ying had the lingering illusion that he had reverted to his former self.

The overhead car light cast its glow downward, carving his superior brow bone and sharp nasal bridge into cold, striking contours.

The gentle and mild demeanor he had worn during the day had faded from Lu Zhixi, leaving his face half-lit and half-shadowed, concealing a deeply oppressive aggressiveness.

Just as she was caught in a daze, he slowly continued, "Every time I find out about these things, it feels just like the time I found out about you and Yu Siyan."

Her heart was squeezed, battered, and tormented.

"I only endure it because I know you don't like it. But you should be clear that whenever I want to, I can ruin these people and leave them with nowhere to turn at any moment."

Jiang Ying stared into his eyes for a few seconds, then her face tightened as well. Yanking her hand out of his grip without the slightest hesitation, she turned her head away and refused to look at him. "Are you trying to use that old threat-filled routine on me again?"

That disappointed and indifferent tone struck Lu Zhixi like a bucket of ice water suddenly poured over his head.

His fingertips curled slightly. He pressed his lips together, unable to speak for a long time, struggling internally before finally softening his tone. "But you hid a part of the truth about this matter, and it really hurts."

"You only asked if I added them on WeChat."

"How can I be sure you aren't lying to me now?"

Absurd logic. Sophistry.

Thinking this, Jiang Ying noticed that Lu Zhixi's complexion had grown somewhat pale. Remembering their previous experience in the hospital room, she guessed that he was probably genuinely hurting inside, and if things kept going this way, he might trigger another stress reaction.

She sighed and said, "There really is nothing going on. Look for yourself."

With that, she handed her phone over to Lu Zhixi.

Lu Zhixi took the phone without standing on ceremony and entered his birthday as the lock screen password—incorrect.

He asked with a muffled voice, "What's the password?"

"My birthday."

"...... When did you change it?"

"After we broke up."

Hearing this, Lu Zhixi felt slightly better. It seemed Jiang Ying had never used Yu Siyan's birthday as her lock screen password.

However, when he saw the tons of group chat photos in the Male Bodhisattva Temple, his marginally recovering mood instantly plummeted to rock bottom.

As he rapidly scrolled through them, Lu Zhixi suppressed his displeasure and said, "If you want to look, I can show you mine. These guys just drink protein powder at the gym to get those looks—what's so great about them?"

He wasn't lying.

Tennis demanded absolute strength, precise control, and flawless explosive power. High-level athletes possessed fantastic physiques; not only were they tall, but their muscles possessed exceptionally graceful lines characteristic of supreme, healthy sex appeal. They didn't have the bulky, oversized look common among heavy weightlifters, nor the lack of definition found in the leanly muscled.

Because of this, major luxury brands in the fashion world loved inviting tennis players to be their brand ambassadors, and Lu Zhixi had received invitations from several top brands back when he was still competing.

The only reason he hadn't accepted was that his family already owned shares in these luxury conglomerates, so there was no need for him to step into the limelight and work for these brands.

Still, if she liked it...

Just as he was thinking this, he heard Jiang Ying say honestly, "I think you're genuinely better than them in that regard."

Lu Zhixi's expression quickly smoothed out, though his lingering dissatisfaction with those men in the group had not entirely vanished.

Taking advantage of Jiang Ying's inattention, he quietly helped her exit the group chat, deleted Ji Xun along the way, and then handed the phone back to her as if nothing had happened.

However, he hadn't expected Jiang Ying to be on her guard. Taking the phone back and turning it on, she immediately discovered his petty tampering.

"You—"

Before her anger could burst forth and finish the sentence, Jiang Ying's hand was suddenly captured by Lu Zhixi, who pressed her palm flat against his own cheek.

"If you're angry, hit me. I'll still do it next time," Lu Zhixi said calmly.

Jiang Ying let out a long sigh and pulled her hand back.