Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 613: Converging Worldlines

Lu Hui skillfully lit a cigarette.The lighting in the KTV's public restroom was dim. Lu Hui wore a green camisole dress. While she wasn't particularly well-endowed, her figure was slender, perfectly accented by a pair of nude high heels.

The slit in her skirt revealed her stockings-clad thighs.

She simply leaned against the washstand in the restroom, looking playfully at Chang Hao opposite her.

Lu Hui craned her neck to lean closer to him, and Chang Hao subconsciously dodged back a little.

Finding him boring, Lu Hui muttered under her breath. She told him that she and Li Qiang weren't really dating.

"Actually, I've always treated Li Qiang as my younger brother. He's very good to me," she said.

Chang Hao sneered inwardly when he heard this. 'What kind of siblings sleep together?' he thought.

"If you want, I can keep you company too."

It was as if Lu Hui had seen right through his thoughts, suddenly speaking up.

Chang Hao was taken aback, clearly caught off guard. It never felt good to have someone read your mind. He replied in a fluster, "Want... what?"

Lu Hui, however, looked as though she knew everything. She asked Chang Hao if he was feeling lonely.

Chang Hao insisted he had no idea what she was talking about.

But Lu Hui pressed on, saying it was perfectly normal for him to be lonely as one person living down south.

"Do you want someone to keep you company?"

"I know you like to maintain your moral integrity and look down on me, but compared to the others, I'm still clean. Besides, I wouldn't need you to take responsibility."

As Lu Hui spoke, she reached out and straightened Chang Hao's shoulders, forcing him to face her.

Chang Hao found the situation completely absurd and remained silent. Lu Hui just smiled. "You're lonely, and I'm lonely too. Why can't we warm each other up? I know you're just stationed here temporarily and will head back sooner or later. I won't ask you for anything."

While she spoke, her manicured hand traced upwards along the fabric of his dress pants.

But just as she was about to reach her destination, Chang Hao suddenly stopped her.

He did not speak, but his gaze was extraordinarily resolute.

Meeting his eyes, Lu Hui hadn't expected him to reject her. However, she quickly smiled and said, "Call me anytime you have needs."

With that, she slipped a piece of paper with her phone number on it to him.

After Lu Hui left, Chang Hao pulled the slip of paper from his pocket and stared at it for a long time. Truth be told, when she reached out earlier, his body had certainly reacted. But at the critical moment, he suddenly thought: 'If it were Zhou Yuwen, would he do this?'

He definitely would. He had always refused no one. Why couldn't he do the same?

No!

At the very least, Zhou Yuwen knew how to maintain his moral integrity!

Thinking back on it, that was why Chang Hao had firmly grabbed Lu Hui's hand to stop her.

That's right! It was all about maintaining his moral integrity!

Chang Hao felt his own qualifications weren't bad. Why should he constantly fool around with these low-class individuals?

Figuring this out, Chang Hao hesitated no more. He immediately tore Lu Hui's phone number into tiny pieces!

This wasn't the life he wanted. Not in Jingcheng, and certainly not here.

That night, Chang Hao didn't linger at the KTV. Instead, he went back and made a phone call to his uncle. He explained that he wasn't suited for dispatched work and hoped his uncle would transfer him back.

His uncle was quite puzzled by such a sudden call in the middle of the night.

However, as an experienced man, his uncle quickly understood the underlying reasons.

Faced with Chang Hao's upright nature, his uncle gained a newfound appreciation for him. They had a brief chat about Chang Hao's experiences down south over the past few days, and his uncle promised to make the arrangements to bring him back.

This time, his uncle wanted Chang Hao by his side so he could mentor the young man personally.

Not long after, Chang Hao left the south.

Lu Hui never saw Chang Hao in the KTV again. Finding this strange, she asked the Small Boss who used to accompany him, wondering why she hadn't seen the young Manager Chang recently.

The Small Boss chuckled and naturally wrapped an arm around her, telling her that the man had long since been transferred back to Jingcheng.

"He's not the same kind of person as us. He has grand future prospects waiting for him!" the Small Boss said casually.

Lu Hui was somewhat stunned to hear this. She had originally thought she had Chang Hao wrapped around her little finger. She never expected that all her charm combined was only enough to bewitch someone like Li Qiang.

Holding Lu Hui, the Small Boss found her dazed expression rather amusing. "What's wrong? Did our beautiful Hui fall for him?"

Hearing this, Lu Hui couldn't help but laugh. "Boss Li, what are you talking about? Look at who he is, and look at who I am. Even if I fell for him, would he ever look my way?"

Boss Li burst into boisterous laughter. It was the honest truth. Boss Li was in his forties, with dark skin and a body that had long since grown a potbelly. He wore a thick gold chain around his neck, looking every bit like someone who had fought hard for a living in his early years.

"You're right about that," he said. "All of us here are just low-class individuals. Whether it's you whores or us patsies, none of us have a future. We just scrape by day by day."

Lu Hui felt a twinge of displeasure in her heart, but she maintained a smiling face.

Seeing that Lu Hui didn't object to his words, Boss Li grew bolder. His arm, which was already wrapped around her, began to slip under her clothes. "Huihui, I treat you pretty well, don't I?" he teased. "How about it? Come out for a late-night snack with me tonight?"

Lu Hui looked at Boss Li, who seemed entirely confident that he had her in the bag. This wasn't the first time he had asked her out for a late-night bite. Though others had asked her out before, she had always refused.

Women who had just started working in the nightlife industry always loved to brainwash themselves with a single phrase: they were out here to make money, but they weren't selling themselves.

But after enough time passed, they would realize it was merely a matter of time. They just hoped to find someone who would give them money to spend while also being young and easy on the eyes.

Only when they couldn't find such a person would they settle for the next best thing.

Now that she had been rejected by Chang Hao, looking at Boss Li again, he actually seemed decent enough. Although she didn't say a word, she didn't refuse him either.

Boss Li was a veteran of the romantic scene. Just by observing her reaction, he knew the deal was sealed, and he tightened his grip around her.

Actually, a year ago when Lu Hui broke up with Li Qiang, she had considered that she was no longer young. Li Qiang was simply too much younger than her to entrust the rest of her life to.

She had thought about returning to her hometown, finding a man to get married to, and getting a relaxed job. Living out the rest of her life like that would be perfectly fine.

She had gotten married incredibly fast.

She married within two months of returning home, accepting a bride price of 188,000 yuan.

She thought her life was set, but who would have guessed that the groom's family had borrowed the money for the bride price? They appeared radiant and affluent, but their family was actually riddled with debt. Since the wedding had already taken place, Lu Hui couldn't exactly turn around and demand a divorce immediately.

However, the sheer deception of it all left her incredibly depressed. In a fit of anger, she traveled south. At first, she genuinely wanted to find an honest job.

After searching for ages, the best she could find was a job working the front desk at a KTV.

Later on, she noticed that the hostesses there didn't seem to do much—they just drank a little with the clients and yet made far more money than she did.

She could easily do that too.

Consequently, her bottom line kept dropping. By the end, Boss Li had essentially bought Lu Hui's exclusive company for twenty thousand yuan a month.

Unfortunately, Boss Li only kept her for half a month.

After that, it was Boss Li this month, Boss Wang the next.

Eventually, Lu Hui didn't even know what the bosses' surnames were anymore. They were all called "Boss" anyway, and anyone who paid was a boss.

She drifted along like this for an unknown number of years, until one day, while scrolling through videos in the break room, she came across a short video about love.

Lu Hui took a long drag from her cigarette.

Love?

At that moment, she suddenly realized that in her entire life, perhaps the only boy who had truly loved her was Li Qiang.

Chang Hao had indeed done many absurd things during his university years, but Zhou Yuwen's appearance had changed him significantly. At the very least, for the rest of his life, no matter what Chang Hao did, he would always consider: how would Zhou Yuwen handle this?

After starting work, Chang Hao became more steady and reliable. Although his salary upon returning to Jingcheng wasn't as high as it had been in the south, it was a relatively decent job—easy, low-stress, and close to home.

The only downside was that as he grew older, his parents began to worry intensely about his marriage prospects.

Back when he used to surf the internet, he often heard stories about bizarre blind dates. However, once he actually started going on them, he realized there weren't nearly as many weirdos. At the very least, everyone he met was perfectly normal.

There was a postgraduate student from out of town who was older than him but highly capable.

There was also the daughter of a second-generation factory owner. Though technically an outsider, she had grown up in Jingcheng.

Over the span of two months, Chang Hao met with a dozen or so blind dates. Ultimately, he settled on the daughter of a factory owner. She wasn't breathtakingly beautiful, but she was well-mannered and grounded. Her hometown was in the south, giving her exceptionally supple and flawless skin. The two went out on three 'dates', and both felt quite positively about each other.

The girl mentioned that she was rather introverted.

"You boys probably all prefer those lively and outgoing girls, right?" she asked.

"I'm fine with whatever," Chang Hao replied. "I went to university out of town, surrounded by strangers, so I never really dated."

Hearing this, the girl couldn't help but laugh softly. She was very satisfied with Chang Hao.

In the blink of an eye, an entire year passed by just like that.

In May of 2016, the students had to return to the school for their thesis defenses and to summarize their year-long internships.

Over the course of that year, everyone underwent massive changes.

First and foremost was Zhou Yuwen. He had already become a top-tier businessman in Jinling, widely recognized as a newly minted internet tycoon. No one knew exactly how much wealth he possessed; they only knew that any woman aligned with him was, at the very least, a shareholder by now.

Despite her young age, Su Qing had already become an internationally renowned designer. When her former classmates saw her news on the computer, staring at her looking radiant in gorgeous formal attire, they could scarcely believe it.

Now sporting short hair and dressed in a resplendent golden gown, Su Qing wore a radiant smile of pure confidence. It left many wondering—was this really the same girl who used to cry at the drop of a hat?

As for the head of the Arts Department, Zheng Yanyan, she used to be impossible to find around campus. Yet, within a year, she had astonishingly founded her own company. Having always loved yoga and dancing during university, she created the Keep fitness app during her internship. Beyond that, she also established an exclusive girls' community software called Little Red Book.

Through sheer relentless effort, Shen Yu successfully became a postgraduate student at Jinling University and resolved to study abroad for a few years.

Meanwhile, strictly following the trajectory of her original timeline, Li Shiqi successfully passed the exams to join the Foreign Affairs Office.

In truth, Li Shiqi hadn't even planned to take the exams.

It was just that during a casual chat, she had told Zhou Yuwen that her past dream was to test into the Foreign Affairs Office.

She thought the diplomats she saw on TV were incredibly impressive.

Zhou Yuwen suggested she give it a try.

"But I haven't prepared anything," she had demurred.

"There's never any harm in trying."

Zhou Yuwen had offered encouragingly.

And just like that, as if destined by fate, Li Shiqi astonishingly secured a position at the Foreign Affairs Office.

Tao Tian was still working at Zhou Yuwen's company, serving as the general manager. Additionally, she had founded her own clothing brand and launched an e-commerce app specifically dedicated to women's luxury cosmetics.

Qu Jing respectfully assisted Tao Tian in managing the company. After studying abroad for a year, she returned to serve as the executive president of Zhou Yuwen's MCN agency, incubating internet celebrities and producing content for short videos.

By now, not only was Douyin the most popular short video platform in the country, but Zhou Yuwen's MCN agency also controlled eighty percent of the traffic in short video content. It wasn't just that he had a massive roster of internet celebrities; it was that every single one of his influencers was fully capable of standing on their own.

Jiang Xinyi was currently responsible for managing the real economy under Zhou Yuwen's banner. This encompassed the former factories of the Jiang Family Estate, as well as the mobile phone factory and battery factory Zhou Yuwen had acquired, along with the subsequent new energy laboratories.

On the surface, Lu Lin didn't appear to be in charge of anything. Behind the scenes, however, she handled all of Zhou Yuwen's under-the-table affairs.

In short, all of Zhou Yuwen's women performed their respective duties, while he took charge of the overall strategy.

In the very beginning, they had actually shared a period of perfect harmony.

There was even a time when Zhou Yuwen experienced what it was like to sleep together under one quilt with all of them.

Literally every single one of them sharing the same bed.

Inside Zhou Yuwen's foreign castle, there was a massive bed over thirty feet wide, as well as a bathing pool that mirrored a luxury hot spring resort.

Zhou Yuwen romped with them, and they all reveled together.

Unfortunately, this harmonious lifestyle didn't last long, inevitably disrupted when Su Qing became the first to get pregnant.

After Su Qing's pregnancy, subtle changes began to ripple through their family dynamics.

Zheng Yanyan couldn't wrap her head around it. She practically spent every day glued to Zhou Yuwen. If anyone was going to get pregnant, it should have been her first! Why was it Su Qing?

Jiang Xinyi was a bit more oblivious and didn't feel much about it initially.

However, she couldn't withstand Liu Jing's daily nagging. Her mother would constantly pester her, saying, "Look at her, she's already pregnant! Why hasn't there been any news from you?"

Jiang Xinyi replied nonchalantly, "It's great that she's pregnant, Mom. Haven't we talked about this? We're living in harmony. Besides, Zhou Yuwen said that all of our family's assets will be left to our child."

"But the problem is that you need to have a child first!" Liu Jing instantly became anxious.

"Moreover, our family's wealth will certainly go to my grandchild, but Zhou Yuwen is your man. If other women can have his children, why can't you?"

Liu Jing's words couldn't help but cause Jiang Xinyi a moment of hesitation.