[Starlight Café, Back Corner — September 16, 10:50 AM]
Over the past hour, the shura field had cooled from open warfare to a simmer.
It was nearly eleven. The morning shadows had gone thin across the café floor. On the low table between the couches, a teapot sat with four cups on saucers and a plate of pastries nobody had reached for. Three cups had been used. The fourth sat untouched, waiting.
They'd moved from the cramped corner couch to the curved sofa near the back of the café, where the seat could hold three people without anyone having to press into the armrest.
The move had cost both women their places. In the scramble for the new seats, sides had been traded, and neither of them had said a word about it since.
A separate couch sat across the table from them. The café staff had been happy to rearrange — Xiao Yue was effectively their most loyal customer with a lot of cash, and the Lin family's young master and young lady required no introduction.
Lin Feng sat in the center. Lin Weiwei had claimed his left side, her hand resting on his arm, her thumb tracing absent half-circles against his sleeve.
Xiao Yue occupied his right, her shoulder pressed against his in quiet territorial insistence. Neither woman had yielded position. Neither had stopped watching the other. But they'd reached an unspoken ceasefire — directed outward now, toward the door.
Both of them were waiting for the same person.
Lin Feng checked his phone. 10:50.
Ten minutes.
He put the phone back in his pocket and reached for his tea. The oolong was still warm. The cup was light in his hand.
Zhang Tingting.
The name did something to the space between his ribs.
His body remembered her. The original's memories sat behind his eyes like a film he couldn't unsee.
They called it 'practice'. They had dates, dinners and everything else, all of it filed under an innocent label.
How come none of these were mentioned in the novel? I used to wonder why Zhang Tingting always sticks around him.
Sometimes, she was like his loyal puppy.
Poor girl…
Lin Feng sighed. Then, he took a sip and set the cup down.
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[10:54 AM]
The café door opened, the small brass bell above it chiming, and Zhang Tingting stepped inside.
She spotted him immediately — the silver hair was impossible to miss, catching the late morning light like polished metal even from across the room.
Lin Feng saw her at the same time.
She was wearing cheap clothes — a thin jacket over a plain top, the kind sold folded on a table at campus stalls, three for a hundred yuan. Her hair was pulled back with a band that had seen better days. No makeup. The strap of her bag dug into her shoulder, and the phone in her hand had a spiderweb fracture across the screen.
She'd slept in those clothes. Somewhere that wasn't home.
She glowed when she saw him. Just for a moment — something bright and unguarded that lit her whole face.
Then it dimmed. Her shoulders dropped, one lower than the other, like she was bracing for something, and her fingers moved to the hem of her sleeve.
Meanwhile, as Lin Feng looked at her, memories of the original Lin Feng's time together with her came flooding back. His face went red. He turned his gaze to her hands — which didn't help either.
In the end, he turned his gaze somewhere else, and his hand found his teacup a beat too fast.
On his left, Lin Weiwei's thumb stopped its half-circles. On his right, Xiao Yue's shoulder pressed harder against his. Neither woman spoke.
Neither needed to.
Zhang Tingting's steps slowed as she took in the arrangement. Lin Feng sandwiched between two women.
The hooded girl on his right was the same one from the restaurant yesterday — the one who looked like she belonged on a magazine cover and dressed like she was hiding from one.
Then, the woman on his left, clinging to him with a possessive hand, her face composed. She could have worn a dish towel and it would have looked expensive.
And there, on Lin Feng's lower lip, she saw a purple-centered mark she could read as clearly as a signature.
Her eyes moved from the mark to Lin Weiwei's hand to the couch across the table. The seat prepared for her.
Then she walked toward the empty seat and sat down.
"Thanks for coming," Lin Feng said, voice neutral as he tried to make eye contact with her.
Zhang Tingting's fingers curled around the strap of her bag. She set it down beside her.
Lin Feng leaned forward, took the teapot in his free hand, and filled the fourth cup.
He did not ask whether she wanted it. He set the pot down and pushed the cup a little closer to her side of the table.
Then, Zhang Tingting's eyes went to the cup in front of her — a fourth place, laid before she walked through the door — and a tiny smile bloomed on her lips before she could stop it.
"Thanks for asking me." She shifted on the couch. "I know this sounds crazy, but something is wrong with Qingxue."
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Lin Weiwei's eyes narrowed at the name. Xiao Yue's expression went cold and flat.
Zhang Tingting pushed past their glares and focused on Lin Feng.
"Tell me everything," he said.
She took a breath and began.
"Yesterday, after the restaurant, I took Qingxue back to our dorm." Zhang Tingting leaned forward, her brow furrowing. "She just got publicly humiliated in front of so many people. Videos everywhere. Her reputation in shreds. She should have been furious. Crying, screaming — something."
She shook her head.
"She wasn't. She was calm. Almost peaceful. There was even a time when she had this soft little smile, like nothing had happened. I've seen dead fish with more going on."
"Her father called screaming about business deals and loans — threatening her with bankruptcy, total ruin — and she just sat there. Still calm. Still with that smile."
Zhang Tingting rubbed the back of her neck.
"And then she started staring at her phone." She swallowed. "At your photo, Lin Feng. Your profile picture. For five minutes straight. She didn't move at the time. I didn't even see her blink."
Something moved in Lin Feng's face — small, controlled, gone before it settled. He didn't speak. Instead he just nodded.
Xiao Yue glanced sideways at him, then back at Zhang Tingting.
Seeing Lin Feng nod at her, Zhang Tingting continued.
"She had this look on her face I'd never seen before. This raw… vulnerable look? Something like that." Her voice dropped. "I thought she was finally realizing something. After four years of treating you like — "
She stopped herself.
"Then his text came. Long Tian." Zhang Tingting's hand went to her temple and stayed there. "And I swear, it was like watching a different person climb into her body. Same face, same voice, but everything behind it — it was different. Like someone possessed her or something."
Lin Weiwei's grip on Lin Feng's arm tightened.
"One second she's drowning in whatever she was feeling about you. The next? Glowing. Bouncing on the bed. Smiling so wide it looked like it hurt."
Zhang Tingting put on a dreamy, faraway voice — mimicking. "Then she said weird things like: 'We're destined to be together.' 'The moment I saw him, I knew.' 'He's a dragon among men.'"
She let the imitation drop.
"Dragon among men. She said that to my face without a trace of irony."
Xiao Yue's eyes narrowed. "About someone she just met?"
"Yes! Thank you!" Zhang Tingting gestured at Xiao Yue like she'd found a witness. "She met him once. One time. A few hours in the library. And now he's her destiny?"
She caught herself, pressed a hand to her forehead, took a breath. Then she looked at Lin Feng.
"And when I tried to point out how insane that was, you know what she said?"
Her expression hardened.
"She said you were pathetic. Desperate." The bitterness in her voice wasn't Qingxue's — it was her own. "Said thinking about you made her skin crawl."
The room contracted by a degree. Lin Weiwei's nails dug into the fabric of his sleeve. Xiao Yue's jaw set so tight the muscle at the hinge showed.
"Five minutes." Zhang Tingting held up her hand. "Five minutes earlier, she was staring at your photo like you were the only person in the world. And then one text later, you're disgusting to her."
She let her hand drop.
"How does that even work?"
Lin Feng didn't answer.
"But that's not even the worst part." Zhang Tingting pulled her jacket closed across her chest. "She tried to get me to meet him."
Lin Feng's brow furrowed slightly. "Meet him?"
"Yeah, she goes—" Zhang Tingting's voice shifted, bright and eager, imitating how Su Qingxue had said it to her. "'Tingting, you should come with me tomorrow! Maybe you'll like him too!'"
She dropped the act, her face twisting.
"With this smile. You know those girls in malls with the clipboards? The pyramid scheme types who corner you near the escalator and act like they're doing you a favor?"
Xiao Yue tilted her head. "She wanted to share him? With you?"
"EXACTLY!" Zhang Tingting's voice cracked. "Her soulmate! Her destiny! And she's trying to—to recruit me into his fan club or something? Who does that?!"
She was breathing harder now.
"So I panicked. I made up some excuse about a culinary exam and just—ran." She exhaled. "I went to my cousin's place. Zhang Yuting. Just needed to talk to someone normal, you know? Get my head straight."
Her mouth went flat.
"But she was saying the exact same things too. Word for word. Same phrases, same voice. 'He's different from other guys.' 'We're destined.' 'The moment I saw him, I knew.' About the same guy!"
Zhang Tingting pressed her palms against her eyes. Her voice wavered.
"When I pushed back, when I tried to ask questions? Point out how weird this all was?" She dropped her hands. "They just smiled at me. Both of them. This empty, patient smile. Like I was the crazy one."
Zhang Tingting looked up at Lin Feng, her eyes pleading.
"Please tell me I'm not losing my mind."
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"That does sound wrong," Lin Feng said carefully. "It's like something is influencing them."
As Lin Feng said that, his mind went to Long Tian's system.
Zhang Tingting sagged. The relief was visible in her shoulders; her grip on her knees loosened.
"Exactly, Lin Feng. You get it! It's like something crawled inside their heads and started pulling strings."
The espresso machine behind the counter cycled through a burst of steam and went quiet.
Zhang Tingting's gaze shifted.
"Also — the Jinglan meeting." She said it like an afterthought, but her voice was careful. "The one you arranged yesterday. You, me, Qingxue, and her" — she glanced at Xiao Yue — "at two o'clock."
Lin Feng waited.
"I don't think Qingxue is going. She hasn't said anything about it. I didn't receive anything from her saying it's cancelled. But I think she already has other plans with that Long Tian guy this afternoon."
Lin Feng shrugged and drank. "That's fine."
Hearing those two words, Zhang Tingting searched his face for his reaction — regret, relief, bitterness. She found nothing she could read. The old Lin Feng would have slumped his shoulders, asked her what to do and designed a plan to satisfy Su Qingxue.
This Lin Feng meanwhile looked like he was playing poker with her.
Zhang Tingting looked down at the untouched teacup.
"Lin Feng... about the past three years."
The words came out heavy. Reluctant.
"I took your money. I helped you chase someone who never deserved you." She tried to look him in the eye, only to move away, looking at something else instead. "Three years of passing along gifts. Arranging meetings. Enabling all of it."
Her voice dropped.
"I'm sorry."
Lin Feng waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it, Tingting. It's just pocket change."
Zhang Tingting's head snapped up.
"Pocket change?" She leaned forward. "Lin Feng, I added it up once. You spent over 400,000 yuan through me alone. Four hundred thousand."
400,000 yuan?
In my past life, that was years of a major's salary.
Not only was the original a bootlicker — he was a spendthrift too.
Lin Feng ran his fingers through his silver hair. Relaxed. Like none of it could touch him.
"No big deal. It's just money... I can earn it back."
None of the women bought it. Zhang Tingting noticed the twitch at the corner of his eye. Lin Weiwei noticed the jaw tighten for a fraction. Xiao Yue noticed the pause that lasted half a beat too long.
Zhang Tingting looked away from him, her face red. He knew where that money went. Gifts for her, dinners, walks, their evenings together. Some of it went to her family's business and their home.
"But what about you?" Zhang Tingting's gaze moved from him to the two women flanking him. "Why are you suddenly surrounded by..." — she gestured vaguely — "when you were so dedicated to Su Qingxue yesterday morning?"
Both women's attention sharpened. Lin Weiwei's grip closed on his arm. Xiao Yue's head tilted.
Three women stared at Lin Feng. Waiting.
He met their gazes calmly.
"I just realized something. That there are women who actually like me." He gestured at Lin Weiwei and Xiao Yue. Nonchalant. As if commenting on the weather. "I'm just too handsome, you know."
Then he looked back at Zhang Tingting. The moment their eyes met, she lowered them once more, looking more flustered than before.
Silence.
"Being too handsome is a sin." He continued without missing a beat. "Such sin. Such burden. The heavens must be punishing me."
Zhang Tingting looked back at him again, less flustered now, but her eyelid twitched. Lin Weiwei stared at him like he'd stepped in something. Xiao Yue's expression said: this guy is an idiot.
Yet, all three of them were staring at him. The wariness in their faces loosened as they did.
Then a soft, half-swallowed giggle broke the silence. Lin Feng looked at the source of it.
It was Zhang Tingting doing her best to hold it in. Her face awash with relief. Then from both his sides, he could also hear the same sound.
It came from Lin Weiwei and Xiao Yue.
"What's so funny?"
The three women looked at each other, then back at him.
Their gaze lingered on him. The silver hair catching the light. The sharp features. The way he tried to make himself look confident.
Zhang Tingting lowered her head again. "Nothing."
When Lin Weiwei and Xiao Yue realized what they were doing, their giggling also stopped, then they settled back beside him, acting like two cats fighting over the same lap.
Zhang Tingting looked up again to watch the two fight over him.
Soon, her eyes drifted to the mark on his lip — the purple center, the ointment still shining at the edge. Then to Lin Weiwei's hand on his arm. Then to Xiao Yue on his other side, her jaw tight, watching Zhang Tingting watch the mark.
Then she looked away again as she suddenly found the teacup very interesting.
But even as she avoided eye contact, she could still see them fighting over him. Lin Weiwei's thumb resumed its circles on his sleeve — comfortable, like she belonged there. On his other side, Xiao Yue pressed closer when Lin Weiwei's hand shifted higher.
They seem so happy now that Lin Feng chose them over Qingxue…
Over...
She thought as she could still hear the subtle back and forth between the two women. She looked down at her teacup, and a sad smile appeared on her face.
Well… This is okay too…
As long as we're still friends, that's good enough for me.
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Lin Feng set down his teacup.
The warmth dropped from his face. His posture straightened, shoulders squaring, and when his gaze locked onto Zhang Tingting, the ambient noise of the café — the jazz, the porcelain, the murmur of other customers — seemed to recede.
Zhang Tingting felt his familiar gaze and looked up at him, both hands folding in her lap.
"Whatever happens." His voice came out quiet, but it cut. "You must never approach Long Tian."
"What?" She blinked. "Why?"
On both sides of him, Lin Weiwei's and Xiao Yue's eyes narrowed suspiciously — not at Zhang Tingting this time, but at Lin Feng.
Lin Feng did not notice. "How did your cousin and Su Qingxue both fall for the same guy so fast?"
Zhang Tingting didn't answer right away. She was seeing it again — Qingxue's glassy eyes, Yuting's dreamy voice, the same exact words coming out of both of them.
Underneath it, something warm was still going from the thing he'd said. She shook it away and looked back at him.
"What? Does he have some kind of supernatural power over women?" The laugh that came out was thin and brittle. "Did he feed them love potions or something?"
"I don't know," Lin Feng said. "But I don't think he's a good man."
All three of them looked at him. Nobody asked him how he knew.
In the original novel, Zhang Tingting had held out longer than almost anyone. Thousands of chapters. But she fell in the end. They all did.
Except two.
The two women sitting on either side of me right now.
Lin Weiwei's hand had gone flat against his sleeve. Xiao Yue's chin came up on his right. They still had nothing on Long Tian but a name in a text message.
But the way Lin Feng said it was enough for them.
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"So what do we do now?" Zhang Tingting asked. Her fingers wrapped around the teacup and finally lifted it from the table — taking the first sip without noticing. "About Qingxue and my cousin?"
The sun through the café windows had pulled back while they talked, the wedge of light narrowing across the low table until only the edge of the pastry plate still sat in it.
Lin Feng picked up his own tea and asked: "Do you know if Long Tian has any plans today? Anything your cousin or Su Qingxue mentioned?"
Zhang Tingting's brow furrowed.
"Actually, yeah. Qingxue said she was meeting him for coffee. Around 2 PM, at someplace called Cloud Nine Café."
Lin Feng's fingers stilled on the porcelain.
"And Yuting mentioned the same thing." Zhang Tingting's voice flattened. "Also at Cloud Nine Café. Also at 2 PM."
"What kind of person does that?" She looked at Lin Feng as if expecting him to be as outraged as she was.
He wasn't. Lin Feng said nothing for a moment. Not surprise, not anger — he looked curious, as if he already knew what came next.
"Maybe we should find out."
Zhang Tingting looked at him sideways. "Uhmm… You want to go watch?"
"Yes, I want to go." Lin Feng's voice had gone soft. He wasn't looking at any of them anymore. "After all, I once loved Qingxue so much."
"Loved." Xiao Yue's voice was quiet. "Past tense. Right?"
"I just want to see if she's happy in Long Tian's arms now."
"What if she is?" Lin Weiwei asked. "Happy with him?"
Lin Feng shrugged. "Then at least I'll know she's okay."
"That's very sweet, Big Brother," Lin Weiwei said, smiling up at him. The hand on his arm squeezed. "Say it again and I'll bite the other lip."
"And if she isn't?" Zhang Tingting said. "Happy, I mean." She paused and looked at Xiao Yue and Lin Weiwei before she went on. "Would you go back to her?"
Lin Feng shrugged again. "Go back to what? She doesn't like me. She doesn't even want me." He let out a small laugh. "Honestly, looking back at it now, I don't think what I was doing for four years was love. I think it was harassment."
Lin Weiwei's eyes lit up. She looked like someone who'd just been handed a gift.
Xiao Yue exhaled slowly beside him. Something in her shoulders loosened for the first time all morning.
Zhang Tingting's smile froze.
"Harassment?" she asked, her fingers tightening around her teacup. Then her expression shifted. It was small at first, like a crack running through porcelain. "Was it all… just harassment?"
He looked at Zhang Tingting without thinking. "Not all. It's just funny, looking back. I spent four years staring at Qingxue while missing the ones who actually want me."
Lin Weiwei's gift-wrapped expression vanished. Her eyes went from Lin Feng to Zhang Tingting and back. The ones?
Xiao Yue's loosened shoulders went tight again. Plural? Her thumb pressed the pad of her index finger — herself. Then the middle — Lin Weiwei, and she let that one sit a moment longer than it needed to, a bit pleased with herself.
Then the ring finger. Her thumb hovered there for a moment, then went to the pinky instead. Zhang Tingting. Three.
Zhang Tingting blinked. Then she stared at him. He was looking right at her and had no idea what he'd just done. Then her heart did something stupid — her face gave up on being hurt.
Her cheeks colored, her eyes dropped to the teacup, and the smile that pulled at her lips wasn't the sad one from before.
"You're such a scumbag," she said.
"Womanizer," Xiao Yue murmured beside him.
Lin Weiwei pinched his arm. "Three-timer."
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Lin Feng rubbed the spot where Lin Weiwei had pinched him. He looked at Xiao Yue. Xiao Yue looked away. He looked at Zhang Tingting. Zhang Tingting was suddenly very interested in her shoes.
"Why does it feel like I'm the bad guy here?" he asked. Then he waited for their reply.
Nobody answered.
"Okay… So… Cloud Nine. 2 PM. Are we going or not?"
"I'll come," Zhang Tingting said. "I also want to check on Qingxue."
Lin Weiwei's hand tightened on Lin Feng's arm — not affection this time, but a leash. "We'll come too," she said, her eyes on Zhang Tingting, not Lin Feng.
"Mm," Xiao Yue said before Lin Feng could respond. "I can't let you go off on your own. Not when you're in this kind of mood."
Xiao Yue and Lin Weiwei both smiled at her.
Zhang Tingting met their eyes. The smiles were very polite.
She understood perfectly.
She pulled her bag onto her lap and hunched behind it. "I'm— I'm just worried about Qingxue," she mumbled into the strap.
She looked like a turtle retreating into its shell. A very happy turtle.
Lin Feng set his cup down and watched the three of them for a moment. Then he pulled out his phone. He looked at the time. 11:28.
So… Su Qingxue and Zhang Yuting. And a double date mission.
Double dates were a mid-story event. It wasn't something that happened the first day.
This wasn't supposed to happen yet. Not this early.
I let go of Su Qingxue and made my moves on Lin Weiwei, Xiao Yue and Zhang Tingting at the same time.
Is the system adapting to my moves in real time?
Hmm…
Very well… Let me see how you operate, Long Tian.
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Lin Feng finally pocketed his phone and stood up.
"Right! We have work to do."
Both women stood the moment he did, like they'd been waiting for it. Lin Weiwei then took his left arm. Xiao Yue fell in on his right.
Zhang Tingting rose almost at the same time they did. She didn't hesitate.
She then shouldered her bag and followed them. At the door, she slowed — just for a second. She'd walked in alone this morning from a motel room.
Now she was walking behind them, then beside them, and nobody moved to block her path.
On the table behind her, four teacups sat on their saucers. All four had been used.
Then, they stepped out into the September sun.
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[End of Chapter]