Chapter 93: In This World, No One Is Anyone’s One and Only

Hsssh!

Tears hung like crystal beads on her childlike face, her eyes blurred with weeping, her soft pink lips muttering through a pout while the hand that held her stuffed bear clenched tight.

At the sight of that fragile little scene, Ma Yanbin jumped to his feet.
He was itching to tease her.
If they had been indoors, he would have gone at her without hesitation.

Fortunately, they were by the seaside, and the cameras had not yet caught up with them, so his reaction was not filmed.

Lin Feng, too, was startled by the girl’s two-faced expression; a rush of sensation shot up his arm and made his heart tighten.
So familiar.
He kept thinking her tone sounded familiar, yet he could never be sure.

He simply didn’t know enough about the Chu family. In Capital City, everyone only really knew the Four Great Families with overwhelming power. People knew Yihan Group, but very few had any real knowledge of the Chus.
A great aristocratic house like the Chus was not something ordinary people could touch, and the Chus would never openly expose themselves to the public eye.

The girl in front of him, after all, was just a young lady from some background family.

Lin Feng inhaled deeply and asked, “So what should we do?”

Xiao Ran turned her tearful head aside and, with a wounded voice, said, “Brother, beat him!”

Her innocent, adorable face paired with such fierce words made the contrast hit instantly.
Thinking she was joking, Ma Yanbin immediately backed off and, with a sheepish grin, said, “Sorry, sorry. I lost control for a moment, my force got a little too much.”

He sounded sincere enough.

But Lin Feng felt something was off.
There was a sly glint that flashed through her eyes—just for an instant—telling him she had meant it.
And didn’t Zheng Bochao say that if he just listened to her, he’d get money out of it?
Then he was not to blame.

So he decided to play along with this little girl. He wanted to know exactly what she was up to.

Lin Feng lifted the corner of his mouth and, unexpectedly, said, “All right.”

“Eh?”

Yanbin was stunned. Before he could even start cursing, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach.
When he looked up again, Lin Feng had already kicked at him.

“Ahhhh!”

Yanbin screamed in pain.
He had never imagined Lin Feng was being serious.
The impact made him unable to keep his footing; he lurched backward, but Lin Feng didn’t give him a single chance to recover.
Another flying kick came, and the hard tip of his leather shoe crashed into Yanbin’s face.

With a wet thud, Yanbin fell flat to the sand.
Scattered grains of beach sand rose into the air as he landed. One hand over his face, the other over his belly, he writhed as if torn between life and death.
“Damn you—you actually dared to hit me. I’ll have my father kill you!”

Xiao Ran froze too.
She had only uttered those words casually, never expecting Lin Feng to truly act. No wonder her sister had brought this man home; truly, he was unlike other men.

The cameraman on the other side saw the scene and rushed over at once.
“Mr. Yanbin, are you all right?”

“Call an ambulance—quickly!”

The cameras followed.
Violence itself wasn’t shocking; what was shocking was open violence on the show.

The first comments online were against Lin Feng, but as soon as the lens caught Xiao Ran’s misty eyes, the tide shifted.

“Serves you right! She didn’t even choose you—why jump into this?”
“And yes! He even made my little Xiao cry. It’s only lucky she’s so miserable to punish you!”
“Factory Boy, that was brilliant! What a release!”
“Don’t fear retaliation. Factory Boy, charge on—Factory fans will always be with you!”
“Take him to the hospital now! If he waits too long, those wounds will scab over!”

The quick swing in tone made Zheng Bochao, watching backstage, go still.
Yanbin was the son of a celebrated real-estate magnate. If anything happened in this program, who knew if it would survive at all?
Panicking, he called the cameraman immediately and sped to contact the nearest medical team to arrange treatment.

Zheng didn’t expect his friend to be so casual.
He was about to call Lin Feng when, on the camera, he saw Xiao Ran, with a wounded expression, saying something to the staff.
He instantly put the phone on speaker.

“My arm’s swollen, too. Little Feng brother has agreed to sleep with me. Can we leave now?”

She pouted, her tiny hand tightening around Lin Feng’s arm, and in a pitifully pleading way leaned half her face against his forearm.
Even the cameraman, stunned a moment ago, found the scene surprisingly adorable.

Then he saw Zheng’s message: “Let those two pass first. Cut to the other two couples.”

With Zheng’s instruction, the cameraman nodded and, carrying the camera, said, “Understood. Miss Xiao, please proceed first with Mr. Lin to the Seaview Villa Hotel.”

He pulled out his phone and told the staff to bring out the small sightseeing boat.

The shot cut.

Watching the little boat glide over, Lin Feng’s lip twitched.
There was another location after all. He had half-expected they would stay on this lonely island for seven days.

At his side, Xiao Ran tugged his sleeve and brought back that gentle smile.

“Brother, the boat’s here. Let’s go.”

Lin Feng didn’t refuse, only nodded. “Fine.”

And so they became the first pair of contestants to move on, the first to unlock the next destination.
Because there were no cameras during the transfer, once on the boat Lin Feng casually pulled his hand away from Xiao Ran’s, sat by the edge, crossed his arms, and quietly watched the sea.

His deliberate distance made Xiao Ran raise a faint brow.
Oh? So this was just acting before?

With no interest in the scenery now, a thick thread of playful mischief surged in Xiao Ran’s eyes.
She slowly turned, angled her body toward him, then suddenly bent at the waist and tilted her head, studying Lin Feng.

“Brother, do you not like me?”

Her words were blunt—more blunt than any woman Lin Feng had ever met.
But while she spoke, Lin Feng glanced past her face and saw the gulls circling in the sky.
With wings spread, they moved in flocks, twirling low over the distant pier, gliding in graceful arcs.

At once he remembered the verse that had once struck him with startling clarity:

The broad sea lets fish leap freely;
the high sky lets birds fly.

Beneath that vast world, at this moment on the boat, he possessed a precious and absolute freedom.
He stood inside a domain that belonged only to him.

His eyes grew deeper, dark with the relief of something he had finally gained.

Wealth? He had tasted that kind of indulgence before and did not like it.
Power? He had once had some; he despised it.
Women? No.

Nothing tied to people lasts.
In this world, no one belongs solely to anyone, and no one is unconditionally kind to another.

Any unexpected surprise or romance is merely strategy and calculation.
When he came into this world as a blank sheet, everything he knew had been no more than what certain people wanted him to know.

His gaze returned to Xiao Ran’s face. Their eyes met, curious and almost pitying, and he said:
“I helped Miss Xiao. Miss Xiao should help me bring this to a close, too, shouldn’t she?”