Eva loathed Xin Qing very much. In bed, Randa was an outright sadist, and Eva had allowed him to abuse her body just so she could secure her spot at CK. Even now, she could still feel the soreness down there. After that came the sudden news about Xin Qing's diamond mine. Eva knew all along that there was more to Xin Qing's background than meets the eye. What she did not see coming was for Randa to change his mind just like that. Randa had kicked Eva to the curb.
Eva also knew that she had got on Xin Qing's bad side from the start, which was why CK would not want to recruit her anymore. Today, she had come here on purpose. She had heard from the people in the academy that Xin Qing was a married woman with a child, so she had decided to come here and see for herself.
She had expected Xin Qing's husband to be an old man, not someone this young. This discovery unsettled her even more.
Such was human nature. Most tragedies were the result of one's own knowledge and awareness, or lack thereof. People would fail to recognize their own place, which led them to various delusions that involved taking over and replacing the position of others. They were completely unaware that such actions would lead to their own demise. In the end, they would fall to their death and face utter destruction, so much so that not even their corpses would remain.
"Bring it here," Ying Qingcang told Ah Che, who was standing beside the car.
Swiftly, Ah Che handed a leather envelope to Ying Qingcang. Ying Qingcang hurled the envelope at Eva's face. Feeling strange, Eva opened it. A stack of photos fell out, and Eva's expression changed the moment she saw them.
The photos were snapshots of Eva's sexual activities with various men. Panicking, Eva picked up a few of them and looked. Immediately, her face grew paler. Those few were from the time when she had seduced men of status, all of whom were married. Those men would play with her from time to time, and they would often lavish her with little gifts.
If their wives ever found out... Eva could not even imagine the consequences that awaited her.
Her future and her entire life would be ruined.
"You... How did you get these?" Eva asked. After that, something flashed in her eyes, and she stared at Xin Qing. "It was you, wasn't it? You've been trying to set me up all along!"
Ying Qingcang looked at the woman in disgust. "As if she has the time and energy to scheme against you. You've overestimated yourself," Ying Qingcang said, wrapping an arm around Xin Qing and kissed her cheek. When he felt the body in his arms growing stiff, he angled his head and whispered to Xin Qing, "I'm helping you to get your revenge. I think I deserve a little reward!" After that, he gave her another kiss.
Xin Qing pressed her lips together and said nothing, though the grinding of her teeth was pretty much audible at this point.
"But I can't stand by and watch someone else bully my woman!" Ying Qingcang told Eva. "So, since she doesn't have time to deal with you, that responsibility falls on me, her husband!" Ying Qingcang smirked. "I'm now giving you two choices. One, I hand over these photos to a reporter."
"No!" Eva yelled out in panic before Ying Qingcang could even finish.
Ying Qingcang nodded. "Well, then I guess you can only choose the second option, then."
"You... What do you want?"
Ying Qingcang glanced at her. "Easy. Leave this place."
"You want me to leave the academy?" Eva shouted in disbelief. "No, you can't. I swear I'll never give Xin Qing any trouble again. Please, don't make me leave the academy. If you do that, then it'll be all over for me."
"That's your business," Ying Qingcang said. He turned around to enter the house with Xin Qing. "If you're not out of the borders of this country in three days, then you'll have to bear the consequences."
Eva pounced at him, though Ying Qingcang slammed the door in her face, trapping her outside. Eva pounded at the door like a lunatic while Ah Che silently reached for his phone to call the cops.
"This... haven't you gone too far?" Xin Qing did not feel the need to bring someone to utter destruction.
Ying Qingcang gave her a profound stare. "My mind won't be at ease with someone like her hanging around you. Especially when you don't have me by your side."
Something inside Xin Qing's heart shook. She lowered her head and bit her lip. Her emotions would overwhelm her any second now. Then she heard Ying Qingcang's next words. "You're so stupid and idiotic. I won't be surprised if someone sold you out and somehow got you to count their earnings from it!"
All that touchy-feely emotions vanished instantly...
Xin Qing spun around and headed upstairs. "This man hasn't changed one bit," she thought. "Still as despicable as ever."
After a week, Ying Qingcang was finally returning to their home country. Ying Qingcang was the one who had suggested it.
"I have to be in England the day after tomorrow," Ying Qingcang said. He held Ah Sha in his arms as he said his goodbyes to Xin Qing.
Xin Qing did not pay him much attention at all. Instead, she kept peppering Ah Sha with kisses. Ah Sha was still completely unaware of the fact that they were about to part ways. Ah Sha was even laughing as she bit down on her own tiny fist.
"Alright, then. We're going," Ying Qingcang said, staring at her with cryptic eyes.
Xin Qing nodded. "This coming Chinese New Year... I'll go back to see Ah Sha."
"Okay!" Ying Qingcang did not say anything more. He turned around and boarded the plane.
Xin Qing cried all the way home. Even the startled taxi driver thought something horrible must have happened to her. Back home, she remembered Ying Qingcang's words just now. He had told her something about having to be in England the day after tomorrow. Another wave of sadness hit her.
He was no doubt going to see Molly. Those two would probably be married soon. Xin Qing's sob grew louder at the thought. The floodgates opened, and all the emotions that she had kept bottled up for the past few days gushed out along with her tears. After that, she booted up her computer. She needed to vent out to Zhang Mi and Shi Qianqian.
She sent a couple of messages, though none of them were replied. She glanced at the clock and realized that it was still dawn over there.
Xin Qing cast her laptop aside, picked up her book, and began reviewing her notes. She had missed an entire week of class, which meant she had a lot of catching up to do.
Kass approached her the next day at the academy. "Do you know? Eva has withdrawn from the academy!" Kass told her secretively.
"So she's leaving for real?" Xin Qing thought. Shrugging, Xin Qing said, "I don't know."
"She was doing fine. Why would she be withdrawing all of a sudden?" Kass' eyes brightened instantly. "Hey, let me tell you something. I bet she's seduced some married man, and then the wife came knocking on her door and scared her off."
Xin Qing had got to hand it to this lady. Even gossip could get so close to the truth. Kass went on, "But there's a piece of even more shocking news! You're already married, and you even had a kid!" Kass looked at Xin Qing. "I heard your husband is handsome and rich?"
"Where did you even get all that?!"
Kass stared back at her. "Oh, please. The entire academy knows by now. This isn't some hidden secret anymore. There were even photos of you and your family having dinner on the Intranet."
"What?" Xin Qing asked in shock. She hurriedly took out her laptop and logged on to the academy's website. There was a thread pinned right on top, which contained a photo of herself and Ying Qingcang when they celebrated Ah Sha's birthday.
Kass drew closer to Xin Qing. "Tsk, tsk. Look at that! So handsome, and the baby's so adorable. How old is she?"
"One," Xin Qing answered distractedly. "Who posted this?" Xin Qing asked. More like, who took the photo? Was it Meyer? No. Meyer would not have done such a thing. Then it had to be Ailey, or that woman known as Mira? Xin Qing was completely in the dark as to why the picture was even posted.
Kass looked at Xin Qing in confusion. "Don't you want everyone to know that you're married?" After a while, something came to Kass' mind. "Ah! Makes sense. That way, you'll have fewer people pursuing you."
Xin Qing was not in the mood to entertain Kass. She waved her hand and said, "Go back to your seat. Class is about to start."
At noon when class ended, Xin Qing bumped into Meyer on the way back. When Meyer saw her from afar, he grinned at her and hollered, "Mrs. Ying!"
"Why are you yelling so loudly? You think I'm not famous enough?"
Something came to Meyer's mind, and he said, "By the way, was it you who uploaded that photo?"
"What, you think I'm nuts?" Xin Qing glared at him. "I thought it was your younger sister!"
Meyer shook her head. "Nah, that's impossible. She did not have the chance to snap a photo that day." Seeing the look on Xin Qing's face, he added, "Neither did Mira."
"Weird. Then who's it? Is someone stalking me?" Xin Qing wondered aloud, frowning. Seeing her like this, Meyer said, "Come on, don't overthink it. It's nothing, anyways. It will pass in a few days after everyone gets over the shock. Let's walk together?"
Xin Qing quickly waved him off. She remembered Ying Qingcang's words. If she was seen with walking out of the academy with Meyer and his family somehow found out, they would no doubt think there was something going on between them!
"I'm off to the library to do some research. You go on ahead!" Xin Qing threw out a random excuse. Meyer waved at her and left.
That night, she told Zhang Mi and Shi Qianqian about the photo. Zhang Mi shot back with much enthusiasm. "That is some weird sh*t you got right there. It's like someone is watching and controlling your every move. The person behind it must love you so much!"
"I don't think this kind of perverted behavior has anything to do with love." Xin Qing thought that Zhang Mi was focusing on the wrong thing here.
"Mimi, can't you think normally for once?" Shi Qianqian said. "This should be a sign of threat."
"Exactly. I'm just a normal student. What's there to surveil about? It wasn't just me either. All three of us were in the photo."
Zhang Mi chuckled. "Then why don't you release a statement and tell everyone that the child was adopted, and that Ying Qingcang is actually an ex-boyfriend. Tell everyone that you're still single and open to any pursuit!"
"Doing that would just add to my own troubles!"
"Right," said Shi Qianqian, who did not see the situation as entirely bad. Shi Qianqian went on, "I don't think you should think about it too much. You'll be going nowhere with wild guesses anyway. Regardless of their agenda, at least right now the photo had taken care of those men who'd been bugging you." Shi Qianqian paused. "But you should still watch out. Don't go out alone at night. Remember to lock the door whenever you get home." 平时晚上不要一个人出门，回了家就锁好门。"
Xin Qing soon forgot about the incident, because CK suddenly contacted her. They wanted her to represent the academy in a design competition known as "Tears of an Angel", which would be held during the end of this year. "Tears of an Angel" was the most prestigious award that any jewelry designer could ever hope for. Xin Qing did not expect CK would ask her to represent the academy. She had always thought they would ask Dianne.
"I took part in it last year," Dianne said, not sounding surprised at all. "I didn't even get into the top ten."
Xin Qing's eyes widened. "What? That can't be it. There are others even better than our academy?"
"It's not only open to academy students. Think about all the professional designers in those jewelry companies. Which one of them isn't a prodigy?" Dianne patted Xin Qing's shoulder. "Don't worry. I don't think CK is expecting you to win a prize. They just want you to make an appearance. This will also be an advantage when you become an official designer next year."
Xin Qing understood what Dianne was trying to say. At the same time, she could not help but look upon CK in awe. No wonder CK had the best designers in the world. It was because CK had given its students such opportunities to broaden their views and improve their design skills. Once these students grow, all of them would become prodigies!
Xin Qing saw this as a golden opportunity. She would give her everything to complete her design for the competition. Because of that, Xin Qing had deliberately requested a two-day leave from the academy. She wanted to use the time to visit the ancient castles nearby and find her inspiration. However, she received a call from the diamond mine.
"Miss Xin, I'm in France. The auction of the diamond will be held the day after tomorrow. You must attend." Rang's excited voice rang out from the speaker. It was then that Xin Qing was reminded of the diamond.
"Where will the auction take place?"
Rang rattled out a name, and Xin Qing was surprised at how coincidental it all was. Apparently, the auction would be held at the ancient castle she had been planning to visit tomorrow.
"Understood. I'll see you at the castle!"