The pretty little follower gets targeted by the crazy guys at the elite academy

"Because I spent more than an hour with her just now."

Lu Xingzhou finally found an opportunity to fight back.

One hour.

In that case, it wasn't short either.

Zhou Si's expression changed.

His pupils contracted slightly, his jawline tightened, and his fingers, resting on his knees, clenched unconsciously.

More than an hour.

He knew, of course he knew.

He stood guard at the door for over half an hour, listening to the sound of water, her suppressed breathing inside, and her calling Lu Xingzhou's name. He knew everything.

But when Lu Xingzhou said it, it was a different story.

"Are you showing off?" Zhou Si's voice lowered.

"I am stating the facts."

Lu Xingzhou's expression remained unchanged, his tone as flat as if he were reading a financial report:

"Do you want to hear it?"

Zhou Si remained silent.

His fingers loosened and clenched on his knees, loosened and clenched again.

His knuckles turned white, and the veins on the back of his hand stood out one by one.

Lu Xingzhou watched him clench and unclench his fists. The curve of his lips remained unchanged, but there was a hint of something in his eyes that seemed to be trying to confirm something.

"Zhou Si," he asked, "do you think that if I go up there, it means I'm taking something from you?"

Zhou Si raised his head and looked directly into his eyes.

"She's a piece of trash," he said.

Li Ruo, who hadn't even had a chance to appear here yet: "..."

"I know," Lu Xingzhou nodded, "That's why I didn't take it. She did it willingly."

The air freezes.

Zhou Si looked at Lu Xingzhou, and Lu Xingzhou looked at Zhou Si.

Their eyes met in the air, like two knives pressed together.

No one intended to take it back.

But no one actually cut it down.

[It's here! The main heroine and the fox spirit clash head-on!]

[You insisted on assigning me a number yourself; Lu Xingzhou really knows how to talk!]

[Zhou Si: What number are you in line? Lu Xingzhou: I don't take a number. Translation: I want to be the only one, I'm not going to compete with you guys for rankings!]

[For over an hour... he was showing off! He was just showing off!]

But when he said "it was her own choice," Zhou Si really broke down...

Zhou Si clenched and unclenched his fists; he was enduring. He wasn't enduring Lu Xingzhou, he was enduring himself.

Lu Xingzhou looked at Zhou Si's increasingly somber eyes and suddenly stopped smiling:

"You guarded her for three days, and I didn't touch her. You hid her on this island, and I didn't steal her."

"The night Jiang Wu sneaked in, I was watching from three nautical miles away while you were searching the entire island."

Do you know why I didn't move?

Zhou Si did not answer.

"Because you are guarding."

Lu Xingzhou bluntly stated, "You've been working very hard, very diligently, and almost recklessly. I can't bear to undermine you."

Zhou Si's lips twitched: "Couldn't bear it? I didn't see you showing any reluctance when you went upstairs?"

"That's different."

Lu Xingzhou sat there lazily, his arms draped over the back of the sofa:

"I went upstairs because she woke up."

"When she's awake, she has the right to choose who she sees and who she doesn't."

"You've locked her up on this island. People outside can't get in, and people inside can't get out. She doesn't know I'm here, she doesn't know Lu Ran is here, and she doesn't know Pei Qingrang and Guo Yiling waited at sea all night."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word felt like a nail driven into Zhou Si.

Are you protecting her, or imprisoning her?

Zhou Si slowly clenched his fingers, then slammed his fist on the sofa armrest. He stood up and looked down at the smug Lu Xingzhou across from him.

"Land Boat!"

He lowered his voice: "Do you think I wouldn't dare touch you?"

Lu Xingzhou raised his head to meet his gaze: "You dare. But you won't."

Zhou Si narrowed his eyes: "Why not?"

"Because you touched me, she will be angry."

Lu Xingzhou's lips curled slightly: "You can't bear to make her angry."

Zhou Si clenched his fists.

His knuckles were white, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged out like winding rivers.

"Shut up."

His voice was so low it seemed to burst from his chest:

"You have no right to say such things!"

"I have!"

Lu Xingzhou did not back down, looking directly into his eyes:

"Because I'm just like you!"

"I also wanted to lock her up, to a place where only I could see her, and not let anyone touch her! But I held back."

His voice suddenly softened: "Because I'm afraid she'll hate me."

"Five years,"

As Lu Xingzhou recalled the past, his once smiling peach blossom eyes gradually dimmed:

"I searched the world for five years. Every place she might have gone, every city she mentioned, every street she walked. I sent out more than 300 investigators, traveled to 47 countries, and spent this much money."

He stretched out one hand, his five fingers spread wide.

Zhou Si glanced at it: "Fifty million?"

"Five hundred million," Lu Xingzhou corrected him. "US dollars."

Zhou Si's brow twitched, but he didn't say anything.

"Do you know what I finally found?"

Lu Xingzhou continued, his voice neither hurried nor slow:

"I realized I wasn't looking for her, I was looking for myself."

"Without her, I am nothing. The Lu Group, the business empire, the global layout—it's all empty."

"so what?"

Zhou Si narrowed his eyes, which were filled with a dangerous chill, and asked:

"You plan to stay on this island? As a... what? retainer?"

Lu Xingzhou smiled faintly.

But a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

"Retainers?"

"Zhou Si, you know my worth. You can't afford to hire me as a retainer."

Zhou Si's lips twitched slightly: "Even if you were a male servant cleaning toilets here, I wouldn't want you."

Lu Xingzhou leaned back on the sofa, his hands crossed on his knees, his posture as elegant as if he were holding a board meeting.

I don't hold it against him.

"But then again, you're braver than me."

"What you dare to do, I don't, so you win."

"This island is yours, and so are the rules. I'm not here to steal it. I'm here because I miss her."

"I've been thinking about this for so many years, I'm almost going crazy."

"Let me see her, let me say a few words to her, let me stay on this island for a few days. Then I'll leave."

Zhou Si looked into his eyes for a long time.

It's like trying to discern how much truth or falsehood is in what he's saying.

Unfortunately, he no longer saw hypocrisy and scheming on Lu Xingzhou's face.

There was only one thing he was all too familiar with.

It's the kind of weariness and emptiness that only someone who has waited too long can feel, the kind of humility where nothing else matters as long as they can be by her side.

"You're leaving?" Zhou Si asked.

"meeting."

"When?"

Lu Xingzhou remained silent for a while.

"When she told me to leave," he said.

Zhou Si: "..."

Good grief, are they exploiting a bug here?

[When she told me to leave, the translation was: She'll never let me leave in this lifetime, so I'm not leaving!!]

[Lu Xingzhou's mouth is a liar's mouth. She said she'd stay a few days, and now she's telling me to leave. A few days and a lifetime are worlds apart, okay?!]

[Zhou Si: Are you playing with this set of nested dolls?!]

[The nickname "Business Tyrant" isn't for nothing; he's a master of wordplay!]

Lu Xingzhou looked at Zhou Si, a slow smile curving his lips. He looked at him like he was looking at prey, and his voice lowered as well.

"Then do you know why I wanted to be your partner?"

Zhou Si narrowed his eyes.

"It's not to stay by her side," Lu Xingzhou said, "it's to keep you out."

Zhou Si: "???"

"You let me move in thinking you could watch over me, control me, and kick me out whenever you want?"

Lu Xingzhou stood up, walked to the wine cabinet, and poured himself a glass of wine:

"But you forgot one thing: if I'm inside, you can't get in."

He turned around, holding his wine glass, leaned against the wine cabinet, and looked at Zhou Si.

"You are the host; you hold ownership, control, and armed forces over this island."

"You can decide who goes to the island, who gets off the island, who stays in which room, and who eats at which table."

"But you can't get into her room."

Zhou Si's pupils began to contract violently.

"Because I'm inside."

Lu Xingzhou raised his glass and swirled it in the light:

"By letting me in, you're essentially locking yourself out."

"You protected the whole island, but you failed to protect that door. And that door is the only thing that matters."

Zhou Si suddenly stood up.

He knocked over the monochrome sofa, which crashed onto the marble floor with a loud thud.

His fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and the veins stretched from his arms all the way to his neck, like angry snakes.

Lu Xingzhou remained calm in the face of danger.

She remained standing quietly and calmly, holding her wine glass, watching Zhou Si walk over step by step.

The distance between the two people has been shortened.

So close that you can see your own reflection in the other person's pupils.

"Lu Xingzhou," Zhou Si's voice was forced out through clenched teeth, "Do you really think I won't do anything?"

Lu Xingzhou looked at him without backing down.

"You will take action," he said, "but not against me."

Zhou Si raised his fist.

"Go ahead and fight!"

Lu Xingzhou looked at him defiantly:

"And then what?"

What will she think of you?

"A gang leader who only knows how to solve problems with his fists? A loser who can't control his emotions? A..."

"Bang!!!"

Zhou Si slammed his fist into the liquor cabinet behind Lu Xingzhou.

The glass is broken.

The wine bottle tipped over, and amber liquid spilled from the shattered glass, flowing down the shelves of the wine cabinet and dripping onto the marble floor, splashing out dark red flowers.

The shards cut Zhou Si's knuckles, and blood seeped from the wound, mixing with the wine, making it impossible to distinguish between the two.

Lu Xingzhou looked at the fist, at the blood on his knuckles, and at the bulging veins on the back of his hand.

"Are you satisfied now?" he asked.

Zhou Si withdrew his fist, turned around, and walked to the window.

He stood by the window, his back to Lu Xingzhou.

His shoulders rose and fell slightly, and his breathing was heavy, like a trapped beast that had been provoked but was forcibly suppressing its anger.

"Lu Xingzhou,"

His voice came from behind him, low and hoarse:

"You're fucking right."

"I won't hit you."

"It's not because I'm afraid, it's because..."

He paused.

"Because she hit you, she still has to treat your wounds."

"I don't want her to touch you."