During Zhou Qin's absence from Tiannan University, Ding Nan swiftly capitalized on her influence to gather a coterie of like-minded girls. As they swept out of the grand auditorium, a throng of admirers trailing behind her, Ding Nan’s eyes immediately landed on Zhou Qin, confined to her wheelchair. A surge of old resentments and fresh anger flared within her, and she couldn't resist stepping forward to deliver a few barbed remarks.
Seeing Ding Nan’s provocation, Zhou Qin was not one to be easily dismissed, and she responded with a cold laugh. “Well, well, if it isn’t Ding Nan?”
Her gaze swept over the group of girls standing behind Ding Nan, and she chuckled. “What, haven't seen you in a while—have you managed to join a club?”
Ding Nan observed Zhou Qin in the wheelchair, aware that the power and influence she once wielded had been utterly destroyed, yet her arrogance remained sky-high. She couldn't help but sneer, “You’ve changed a lot in two months. But your mouth, at least, is still as sharp as ever!”
When Ding Nan’s words clearly mocked her current state as a disabled person in a wheelchair, Zhou Qin’s expression immediately darkened, and she chose not to engage in further verbal sparring.
Seeing Zhou Qin fall silent, Ding Nan mistakenly assumed she had backed down. Having known Zhou Qin for more than just a day or two, she understood Zhou Qin’s fiercely uncompromising nature, her preference for meeting force with force.
At this momentary retreat, Ding Nan felt a mix of triumph and melancholy. She sneered, “Oh, Zhou Qin, as they say, thirty years in the east of the river, thirty years in the west—fortune turns like the wheel! Weren't you always so smug? Why the sudden silence today?”
Ding Nan clapped her hands together and muttered to herself, “Ah, I know! You must be scared!”
Ding Nan snorted, her tone dripping with mockery. “Scared of what? Is it because you no longer have the power to command me, to threaten me? Is it because you’ve finally realized you are no longer the triumphant princess you used to be?”
With that, Ding Nan threw her head back and laughed boisterously, all the accumulated grievances pouring out in that single moment. “Zhou Qin, Zhou Qin, you have a day like this too?”
“When you used to boss me around, calling me here and there on a whim, did you ever imagine you’d see this day!” Ding Nan’s expression turned fierce as she roared the accusation.
Cheng Cheng, who was behind Zhou Qin pushing the wheelchair, couldn't bear to watch any longer and shouted loudly, “Ding Nan, don’t go too far!”
Ding Nan let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Me, going too far?!” She pointed directly at Zhou Qin, her voice ringing with fury. “Back on the rooftop, she forced me to jump! Was that not going too far? She repeatedly used her power to humiliate me—was that not going too far!”
Zhou Qin looked at Ding Nan, a cold smile playing on her lips, and said, “Ding Nan, some roads are chosen by you; you can’t blame anyone else!”
Ding Nan suddenly bent low, both hands gripping the armrests of the wheelchair, her eyes locked fiercely on Zhou Qin. “Yes, I chose this road! But did I have a choice? Humph. Before, you used your wealth and status to crush me underfoot. And now? Ha! Heaven truly has eyes!”
Ding Nan suddenly straightened up and shouted toward the gathering crowd of students. “Look closely, everyone! This is the once impossibly arrogant Miss Zhou Qin! She can never be as overbearing and willful as she once was. If anyone holds a grudge, now is the time for revenge! Hahahaha!”
Although Zhou Qin had always been aloof and proud, she maintained a low profile at school and hadn't made any real enemies. Moreover, her extraordinary beauty, coupled with her current vulnerable state in the wheelchair, naturally inspired pity. Thus, no one stepped forward to trouble her.
Cheng Cheng sneered, “Ding Nan, have you had enough? Do you think everyone in the world is like you?”
Ding Nan shot her a hateful glance and ground out through clenched teeth, “Cheng Cheng, this has nothing to do with you! Get away from here!”
Cheng Cheng’s voice rang out defiantly. “Zhou Qin is my friend; her business is my business!”
Ding Nan roared with laughter. “You’re killing me! Zhou Qin is powerless and without influence now. Why are you bothering to prop up her rotten legacy? Do you think she’ll thank you or that you’ll gain anything by clinging to her downfall?”
Cheng Cheng’s face paled with anger, and she was about to unleash a torrent of curses when Zhou Qin suddenly raised her hand, signaling her to remain silent. Cheng Cheng let out a cold snort, leveling a venomous glare at Ding Nan before falling silent.
Zhou Qin was a person accustomed to storms. When her father was detained and she herself was subjected to nearly two months of secret interrogation, she hadn't wavered an inch. How could she yield now?
Zhou Qin gave Ding Nan a look laden with profound meaning. A cold smile touched her lips as she spoke, “Ding Nan, you’re right. I am indeed no longer the person I once was. Be it a phoenix fallen from the roost becoming less than a common fowl, or a tiger stranded on the plains. But let me tell you this: no matter what I become, a chicken is always a chicken. It will never soar to the branches and become a phoenix!”
Hearing Zhou Qin obliquely insulting her by calling herself a chicken, Ding Nan instantly flew into a rage. Her expression twisted unpleasantly as she spat back, “And what makes you so high and mighty? You are nothing but a cripple, a lame duck! What’s there to be proud of!”
Li Yundong had never fully grasped the depth of the feud between Ding Nan and Zhou Qin, which was why he had held back until now. But hearing that last comment, he could no longer restrain himself, and a roar of anger erupted from him: “Ding Nan, and what does that make you!”
Li Yundong’s sharp outburst drew every eye toward him. Ding Nan startled upon seeing him, her aggressive posture instantly deflating. She stammered, “Li Yundong? What are you doing here?”
Li Yundong demanded, “What am I doing? What are you doing?”
Ding Nan desperately wanted to avoid conflict with Li Yundong; she adored this young man, which was the ultimate reason for her falling out with Zhou Qin. But now, stuck in a precarious situation, she had no choice but to brace herself. “This is between Zhou Qin and me. Stay out of it!”
Li Yundong scoffed. “I didn't want to get involved! But did you hear what you just said? Zhou Qin is already in this state, and you still want to press the attack? You have not an ounce of compassion left in you—are you even human? Look at yourself now, what difference is there between you and a venomous shrew?”
Ding Nan stared at Li Yundong in shock, feeling as though her heart had been brutally squeezed. She cried out involuntarily, “You don’t know! This is an act she’s putting on, she’s lying to you! I know her best—she is a master of pretense and hypocrisy, she…”
Li Yundong cut her off with a roar. “Enough! Do yourself a favor and accumulate some good karma!”
With that, Li Yundong pointed sharply. “Get out of here now. I don’t want to see you!”
Tears welled up in Ding Nan’s eyes, and she choked out, “You… how could you treat me like this!”
Li Yundong’s eyes flared with mounting fury. “Scram!!”
That furious shout tore Ding Nan’s heart to shreds. Covering her face with both hands, she sobbed and rushed out from the crowd, her figure rapidly vanishing into the deepening night.
Cheng Cheng watched her retreating back and spat onto the ground. “What kind of person! If she’s a snobbish opportunist, does she think everyone else is too?”
Li Yundong took her hand, pushed Zhou Qin’s wheelchair forward, and offered a quiet apology. “Don’t think too much about it. It was my fault just now; I shouldn't have left you alone.”
Zhou Qin smiled faintly. “It’s nothing.” She looked up at Li Yundong and said, “I’m a bit tired. Can you take me back?”
Li Yundong nodded with a gentle smile. He waved goodbye to Ziyuan and then to Cheng Cheng before pushing Zhou Qin away from the school grounds.
All the way, Li Yundong could hear students whispering and pointing at him, and then at Zhou Qin in the wheelchair.
“Who is that? So beautiful! Is she Li Yundong’s girlfriend?”
“I don’t know, maybe? What a shame, why is she in a wheelchair?”
“Yeah!”
Li Yundong frowned deeply, wishing he could heal Zhou Qin’s legs immediately. Just as he was about to speak, to offer some comfort, he heard Zhou Qin let out a soft sigh.
Zhou Qin spoke quietly. “Li Yundong.”
Li Yundong leaned down slightly. “Yes?”
Zhou Qin hesitated for a moment before asking, “Was I really a bit too much before?”
Li Yundong was silent for a while, then sighed. “Everyone has their own fate. Others only see that you were born into a better family than them, which breeds jealousy, but they don’t see the pain and difficulty you endured behind the scenes. You could call it a gilded cage, perhaps?”
At this point, Li Yundong’s tone shifted abruptly, turning cold. “However, I absolutely cannot tolerate someone like Ding Nan publicly humiliating another person! To kill someone, you only need to press down on their head once; she already has you incapacitated, and she still chooses to humiliate you like that—what kind of behavior is that! If she weren’t a girl, I would have slapped her long ago!”
“Forget it. I was wrong about some things in the past too,” Zhou Qin conceded with a sigh. She tilted her head back to look at Li Yundong, her face lit with a gentle smile, as if having him standing there brought her a sense of peace, serenity, happiness, and contentment. “Thank you for standing up for me today.”
Li Yundong looked at the sincerity in Zhou Qin’s smile, and for some reason, his heart felt heavy. He sighed. “Don’t say things like that. If it weren’t for you, I might be a prisoner right now! I owe you a great debt!”
Zhou Qin’s expression suddenly changed, and she whispered, her voice trembling, “Are you only treating me this way because you feel you need to repay my kindness?”
Li Yundong was momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected Zhou Qin’s mood to shift so rapidly—from gentle and calm to a sudden squall in the blink of an eye!
“Of course not, you’re my friend!” Li Yundong looked at her and replied.
Zhou Qin fixed her gaze steadily on Li Yundong’s eyes. After a long moment, her features softened again, and she murmured sweetly, “I’m sorry, I was too sensitive. Let’s go back.”
Li Yundong smiled and nodded. One person stood pushing the wheelchair, the other sat within it, their shadows stretching long beneath the campus lampposts.
Meanwhile, Ding Nan, having been berated away by Li Yundong, wandered the streets like a headless fly, weeping uncontrollably. She was a lost soul, moving like a walking corpse drained of spirit.
She had no idea how far she had walked until she finally came to her senses and found herself on an unfamiliar, dimly lit street corner.
It was late, and the road was nearly deserted; she stood alone by the curb, isolated and desolate.
Ding Nan wiped a tear, utterly bewildered about what to do next. Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind swept past her, and the next instant, she was airborne, only to land dozens of meters away in the shadow of a dark alley.
A white-haired, youthful-faced old man held Ding Nan by the throat with one hand, his eyes scrutinizing her up and down with rapt attention. He clicked his tongue in wonder. “Not bad, truly a top-grade Crucible! Good apprentice, among all the cauldrons you’ve scouted these past few days, this one is finally satisfactory, wouldn’t you agree?”
As he spoke, a woman suddenly materialized beside him. Her face was alluring, her eyes carrying a hint of insolence. She looked Ding Nan up and down, then broke into a slow, sultry laugh. “Not bad, certainly a top-grade Crucible. What’s rarer is that she’s an untouched Crucible! Good, good, good!”
She repeated the word ‘good’ three times, but Ding Nan was paralyzed with terror, struggling against his grip. “What are you doing?”
The woman laughed. “Stop struggling. No one can save you! Once I possess your body, you will finally settle down! Ah, of course, your soul will belong to me soon enough, along with this excellent virgin Crucible body. Heh heh, so beautiful and still untouched—truly rare!”
With that, the woman lunged toward Ding Nan in a flash, penetrating her body in an instant.
Ding Nan struggled wildly, her face contorted in horror. The woman’s mocking laughter echoed in her mind. “Oh, and you must remember my name. My name is Lü Fengping!”