You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

"It's that picture on the forum where you were wearing a white T-shirt under your military training uniform." Su Qinghe opened the comments section to show him, where it read—"This photo of Jiang Che with his shoulders and back barely visible is absolutely stunning, even I, a straight man, can't resist it."

The comments below were even more outrageous.

"I've saved this photo. I look at it every night before bed, and it cured my depression."

"Hey lady upstairs, wake up! He already has a girlfriend!"

"I know, I'm not trying to poach anyone. Can't I just look? It's purely for appreciation, understand?"

Su Qinghe shoved her phone screen closer to Jiang Che's face, her tone tinged with jealousy again: "Jiang Che, you now have not only female fans, but also male fans. How do you feel about that?"

Jiang Che immediately raised three fingers, "Please rest assured, Teacher Su, I will protect myself."

Su Qinghe was taken aback for a moment, then laughed out loud: "How can you protect me? Does that mean I'll never socialize with anyone again?"

"What can I do? My girlfriend is jealous. Even if I were a guy, I'd have to avoid her."

"Hmm~ Not bad, not bad, I'm very satisfied. You can come again tonight."

"...No need for that reward, haha..."

"No, darling, not even once less, no, that won't do."

……

Meanwhile, at Kyoto University, in the woods behind the library.

Ye Qingru leaned against a thick tree trunk, the cold white light from her phone screen illuminating half of her face.

The composed and elegant school beauty mask she wore in front of everyone had long since been removed, replaced by an unconcealable restlessness.

A moment later, Ye Qingru found a number labeled "Aunt" in her contacts.

Her thumb hovered over the dial key for a moment, then she took a few deep breaths before pressing the dial key hard.

beep - beep - beep -

Each busy signal made her feel even more irritable.

On the fifth note, the call was connected.

"Qingru, why are you calling at this hour? How's the matter going?"

Ye Qingru gripped her phone tightly: "Aunt, I went to meet Jiang Che tonight as you requested."

"Hmm, how's the result?"

"The effect... wasn't very good."

Ye Qingru carefully chose her words and said somewhat heavily, "His wariness is greater than I expected. I took the initiative to talk to him as the school beauty and senior, but he didn't even give me a second glance."

"Later I simply told him that he and Qinghe were not a good match, and Qinghe happened to arrive just in time."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Taking advantage of this break, Ye Qingru quickly organized her thoughts, trying to figure out how to make tonight's defeat sound more respectable.

She couldn't very well tell Ye Yunjin directly that she had been publicly confronted by a freshman and forced to flee.

"Qinghe is here too?" When Ye Yunjin's voice rang out again, there was a subtle change in her tone. "How is she?"

"You look great, and you're much more cheerful than before."

Ye Qingru paused here, the image of Su Qinghe throwing herself into Jiang Che's arms to assert her dominance flashing through her mind, and hesitated whether to tell him about it.

"And then? What was Jiang Che's reaction?"

"He wasn't buying it at all," Ye Qingru said honestly. "I tried to subtly suggest that Qinghe couldn't help him and that he should find a partner with more resources, but he didn't even lift an eyelid and treated me like I wasn't there the whole time."

"Later, when Qinghe came, his attitude immediately changed completely. He hugged and coaxed her, and didn't care about me at all."

Ye Qingru's words contained two layers of meaning.

The first layer is reporting on task progress.

The second layer is a subtle reminder to Ye Yunjin that it's absurd for you to ask me to steal your own daughter's boyfriend.

Ye Qingru never wanted to get involved in these messy affairs.

Jiang Che is the heir of the Jiang family, and Ye Yunjin wants to bring down the Jiang family to gain access to industries in mainland China; she knows this.

Su Qinghe is her cousin. Although she has been separated from her family for so many years, she is still a member of the Ye family.

Now Ye Yunjin is asking her to sow discord between Jiang Che and Su Qinghe, which is basically using her as a pawn. Ye Yunjin herself is happily staying out of it, not taking any risks.

But Ye Qingru could only think these words in her heart; she couldn't say a single one out loud.

Ye Yunjin is now in charge of the Ye family.

Her father, Ye Yunsong, had been marginalized in the company for several years, and the whole family relied on Ye Yunjin for their livelihood.

If she doesn't obey, Ye Yunjin has a million ways to make it impossible for her family to stay in China.

"Aunt, based on my observations tonight, it seems that using conventional methods to drive a wedge between him and Qinghe will be a bit difficult."

A moment later, Ye Qingru cautiously uttered these words, testing Ye Yunjin's attitude.

"Disaster?"

Ye Yunjin chuckled softly, "You mean this can't be done?"

"Auntie, that's not what I meant."

Although this was what Ye Qingru really meant, she still had to rack her brains to come up with an excuse: "What I mean is, it's unlikely to be effective after one or two tries."

"Jiang Che is a very wary person. He looks at people like he's a thief. He definitely won't be able to achieve anything in a short time."

"Then try a few more times."

Ye Yunjin's tone turned colder and harder, "You're only a junior this year, you can stay at Peking University for almost two more years."

"There are so many times and opportunities. If it doesn't work once, try twice. If it doesn't work twice, try five or ten times."

Ye Qingru still wanted to make one last attempt: "But Aunt, Jiang Che has already started to be wary of me—"

That's your problem, not mine.

Ye Yunjin interrupted her, her voice turning completely cold, "Ye Qingru, after two years at Peking University, you don't actually think you deserve to be at this school, do you?"

"I spent money to get you into Peking University so that you could be my contact on the mainland, help me handle things here, and deal with various situations."

"This is just a trivial matter for you. If you can't even handle this, how can I trust you with more business matters?"

"Qingru, your parents are doing quite well in Hong Kong lately. I know you know what to do."

A casual remark, like ice water, poured over Ye Qingru's head.

Ye Qingru closed her eyes in pain.

When she opened her eyes again, her expression returned to the calm and composed look she had on the playground.

"I understand, Auntie. I will continue to try to find a solution."

"Yes, remember to be mindful of the limits."

Seeing that Ye Qingru had softened, Ye Yunjin's tone also softened a bit, "I'm not asking you to break ties with Qinghe. After all, you are sisters and family."

"What I want is for Jiang Che to waver in his feelings for Qing He. Once his resolve softens, things will be much easier."

"understood."

"Use your brain when you do things, Qingru. You've always been smart, don't let me down in this matter."

"it is good."