Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 407: The Tragedy of a Simp

"Sister Hui! Believe me, just give me time. I can absolutely do just as well as them!" Li Qiang knelt before Lu Hui, making a solemn vow."Get lost!"

Lu Hui, however, had absolutely no desire to listen to his nonsense. She simply spat out the curse through gritted teeth and hurried away.

Li Qiang tried to stop her, but his efforts were met with a vicious slap to the face.

She still had to go and explain everything to Liu Shuo.

Women were often like this: when making a mistake, they brushed it off as no big deal, treating it as a trivial matter of no consequence. But once the truth came to light, sheer panic set in. Now that her affair with Li Qiang was fully exposed—known not only to Liu Shuo but also to Zhou Yuwen—it meant she could no longer live in the residential compound apartment. Beyond that, she might even lose her job.

Lu Hui simply could not accept such an outcome. She had to go to Zhonghai Garden to explain herself to Liu Shuo.

As long as she could earn his forgiveness, she was even willing to fall to her knees.

A sliver of hope still lingered in her heart. She felt Liu Shuo was quite simple-minded; as long as she acted coy, threw a tantrum, and swore never to betray him again, she was confident he would take her back.

Yet she waited at Zhonghai Garden all night, and Liu Shuo never showed up.

As for Li Qiang, he sat alone in his dormitory, deeply saddened. He clutched his phone, muttering "Sister Hui" under his breath, his back an image of sheer desolation.

This completely baffled Chang Hao.

In the past, Li Qiang had often mocked him. Now that Li Qiang was down on his luck, Chang Hao had no intention of kicking him while he was down. He simply could not comprehend his roommate's mindset.

He used to think of Li Qiang as a rather clever guy.

Some of the things Li Qiang said before made a lot of sense. Although he had been ridiculing Chang Hao, his constant reminders that Zheng Yanyan did not like him and that his efforts were in vain were, in truth, for his own good.

So why was he now so hopelessly entangled in the same trap?

Li Qiang had called Zheng Yanyan a gold-digger, but wasn't this Lu Hui a gold-digger too?

A twenty-six-year-old woman, hanging around Zhou Yuwen and his crew every day, even dating someone like Liu Shuo—if not for money, what else could she possibly be after?

She even lived in the apartment Liu Shuo rented, strutting around with an arrogant air every single day.

Why would Li Qiang confuse a woman like that for true love?

Furthermore, the true colors Lu Hui had just exposed in front of everyone were genuinely repulsive. What did she mean by, "If you weren't from Jingcheng, do you think I'd even look at you?"

This was the textbook definition of a materialistic woman.

How could someone as smart as Li Qiang be so blind to it?

Unable to bear seeing Li Qiang so distraught, Chang Hao tried to console him. "Just let it go."

"One look and you can tell that woman is no good. She only came after you for your status. Now that she's exposed your background, there's no way she'll ever contact you again."

"What do you know?!"

Before Chang Hao could finish, Li Qiang suddenly roared, startling him.

With unwavering conviction, Li Qiang declared, "She is different from other women!"

In his heart, Li Qiang was actually worried about Lu Hui. The entire class was currently gossiping about them. Her situation was no secret; a little probing was all it took for everything to spill out.

Rumors flew—how at twenty-six she hooked up with Liu Shuo and became his girlfriend, how well Liu Shuo treated her, and how he even rented an apartment in Zhonghai Garden just to keep her.

"Sure, Liu Shuo might be a bit ugly, but does he really need to find a girlfriend that much older?"

"Who knows? To be fair, Lu Hui is actually quite pretty. Otherwise, how could she have Li Qiang completely mesmerized?"

As the details about Lu Hui came to light, everyone on the outside saw her as an unapologetic materialistic woman. Li Qiang was the only one who thought otherwise.

He sent her a message:

"Sister Hui, they all call you a materialistic woman, but that's just because they don't understand you. Only I know that you must have some hidden difficulty. No matter what, I believe in you. Sister Hui, Liu Shuo flew into such a massive rage, so you definitely can't go back there, right? Where are you? Should I come pick you up?"

Li Qiang fired off one message after another. While everyone else treated her as cheap gossip, he was the only one genuinely worried about where she would sleep tonight.

He even warned her in his texts: "That guy Liu Shuo has a tendency towards violence! Sister Hui, you absolutely must not go back!"

"Sister Hui, I still have money on me. I can take care of you. Sister Hui, please reply to me, okay?"

Chang Hao asked Li Qiang what made her so different.

She had hands and feet; why did she need someone else to support her?

Besides, Li Qiang had seen it with his own eyes—that repulsive true face she showed the moment she found out he wasn't from Jingcheng. Could he really accept that?

"What do you know?"

No matter what Chang Hao said, Li Qiang dismissed it with sheer disdain. He looked down on his roommate, sneering, "You've never even been in love."

"She's just having a hard time accepting it right now. I lied to her; it's my fault, and I should make it up to her. Moreover, this is her darkest hour. No matter what, I need to stand by her side!"

Li Qiang was dead set on this belief. Whatever Chang Hao said simply fell on deaf ears.

This blind faith stemmed from their days of online romance. Back then, Lu Hui had mentioned an ex-boyfriend from Jingcheng. She recounted visiting the city, exploring all sorts of places with him. Smiling, she had told Li Qiang, "Your Jingcheng is the best; it has everything."

Li Qiang loved listening to her stories over the phone. After she finished, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he asked, "Sister Hui, if I wasn't from Jingcheng, would you still be with me?"

Lu Hui had chuckled softly. "You dummy. What does it matter to me whether you're from Jingcheng or not?"

Li Qiang remembered that response vividly.

And that was the absolute truth to him.

Sometimes, a simp who had actually experienced a relationship was far more pathetic than one who hadn't. A boy who had never dated—like Chang Hao—could only rely on self-inflicted sentimentality. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't piece together non-existent clues to convince himself the girl loved him.

But a guy who had actually been in a relationship would spiral into an endless cycle of self-gaslighting after a breakup.

For instance, when Chang Hao told him, "Li Qiang, stop dwelling on it. She never loved you. She's a gold-digger who only came to drain your wallet."

Li Qiang would retort, "Bullshit! She barely spent any of my money. When we were together, she even paid for more things than I did! You're just jealous of me! You're jealous because I've actually dated someone and you haven't!"

Li Qiang genuinely believed Lu Hui loved him. At the very least, she had feelings for him; otherwise, why would she have used her hands to satisfy him?

Chang Hao pushed further. "Then what about her two-timing? How do you explain that?"

"That just proves she loves me even more!" Li Qiang argued.

"Huh?" Chang Hao was dumbfounded.

Li Qiang let out a cold laugh. "Don't you guys see how contradictory you sound?"

"On one hand, you claim she was after my Jingcheng status. But on the other hand, you accuse her of two-timing."

"If she really coveted my background, why didn't she break up with Liu Shuo? She never even considered dumping him. And when I found out they were together, she immediately wanted to cut ties with me instead of leaving him."

"That proves she didn't give a damn about some bullshit Jingcheng status! She loves me for who I am. She purely enjoyed the time she spent with me. Do you understand?!"

Like a rabid dog, Li Qiang ranted at Chang Hao with bloodshot eyes.

Chang Hao fell silent, completely at a loss for words. Meanwhile, Li Qiang looked at him with an overwhelming sense of superiority.

Because Sister Hui loved him.

Every frown and smile of Lu Hui's was etched deeply into Li Qiang's heart. But Chang Hao had nothing. He had simped for Zheng Yanyan for so long, and what did he have to show for it?

Looking at it from this perspective, Li Qiang felt he had every right to be proud.

He firmly believed that Lu Hui was just struggling to process his deception. Given enough time, she would eventually realize that the only person willing to stay by her side—the only person who truly loved her—was him.

And so, holed up in his dormitory, Li Qiang endlessly drafted massive long posts to Lu Hui, recounting everything from the day they met to their eventual online romance.

He sent line after line of text, even detailing the specific moments they shared playing the Werewolf app.

For example, they had met quite a few people through the game. Sometimes, Li Qiang would struggle to keep up with the logic, and the other players would get on the mic to poke fun at him.

In those moments, Lu Hui had always stepped up to defend him, talking and laughing cheerfully as she chided them, "Stop it, don't tease my hubby!"

To Lu Hui, those might have been just a few casual words. But to Li Qiang, it was an unforgettable experience. No one else had ever called him "hubby." No other girl had ever coaxed him so sweetly.

At the thought of this, a couple of tears squeezed out of Li Qiang's eyes.

In the early morning hours, long after lights out in the dormitory, Li Qiang still clung tightly to his phone, waiting for a reply.

He dozed off several times, drifting into a semi-conscious state. His grip on the phone never loosened. Even while sleeping, the chat interface hovered in his mind, and in his dreams, he continued composing his essays.

Then, with a soft chime, Lu Hui replied!

A blurry response flashed through his mind, but he couldn't make out the words.

"Sister Hui."

Li Qiang would jolt awake and frantically check his screen.

Tragically, the screen only displayed the massive walls of text he had sent. There was absolutely nothing else.

Over the course of the night, he sent over a dozen long posts, each ranging from five hundred to two thousand words.

Unfortunately, Lu Hui didn't read a single one.

Lu Hui, meanwhile, had her own host of troubles. Sitting on the living room sofa, she was a bundle of nerves.

At first, there were noises echoing from the hallway.

Thinking it was Liu Shuo returning, she quickly tried to foster her emotions, preparing for her tearful performance.

But the commotion was fleeting, and silence swiftly reclaimed the corridor.

This left her utterly confused.

'Why isn't he back yet?' she wondered.

She began calling his phone. Unsurprisingly, the calls couldn't connect. Panic truly set in now. After a moment of hesitation, she dialed Zhou Yuwen.

Zhou Yuwen was even less likely to answer her.

Desperate, Lu Hui reached out to anyone who might be able to contact the two men, including Jiang Xinyi and other office colleagues. Jiang Xinyi did pick up, but she was smart enough to simply claim ignorance.

Anxious beyond belief, Lu Hui pleaded with Jiang Xinyi to put in a good word with Zhou Yuwen.

Biting her lower lip, she begged, "Xinyi, we've been friends for so long, you have to help me!"

Jiang Xinyi replied, "Uh, how am I supposed to help? I don't even know what happened with you."

"Sigh! Xinyi, you must help me. I... this isn't entirely my fault either. Liu Shuo... Sigh!"

She paused, trying her hardest to paint herself as the victim. She wanted to say terrible things about Liu Shuo but felt too embarrassed to spell it out.

Ultimately, she couldn't hold it in. She complained that Liu Shuo was actually incredibly crude. To outsiders, it looked like he doted on her, buying her all sorts of gifts, but in reality, he never respected her.

"Did you know, Xinyi? Before we were even officially together, he forced himself on me!"

These words were completely true.

But Jiang Xinyi had no patience for this sob story. "Then why didn't you call the police back then?" she asked flatly.

"I...!" Lu Hui choked on her words.

Then, slipping back into her pitifully wronged persona, she whined, "Wasn't I just blinded by his sweet talk?"

"I was too foolish! Xinyi, I never expected him to be such a brute. I'll admit I made some mistakes here, but you can't blame me entirely. If he had just cared a little about my feelings, how could I have ever sought out another man? Xinyi, you can understand me, right?"

"No, I can't."

Jiang Xinyi spoke the absolute truth; she truly could not wrap her head around it.

If you chose to be financially supported by someone, you surrendered your right to preach about your independent personality.

You couldn't have your cake and eat it too.

Truth be told, ever since Lu Hui got together with Liu Shuo, Jiang Xinyi had secretly despised her. Expecting Jiang Xinyi to speak up on her behalf was nothing more than a fool's daydream.

Offering a few careless, perfunctory remarks, Jiang Xinyi cut her off. "Alright, I'm going to bed."

"I have no idea what went down between you two, and I'm not close with Liu Shuo anyway."

"You could talk to Zhou Yuwen—"

Lu Hui tried to interject, but the line had already gone dead.

In Jiang Xinyi's eyes, entertaining the call for as long as she did was already doing everything humanly possible for the woman.

"Xinyi! Xinyi!"

Seeing that Jiang Xinyi was ignoring her, Lu Hui was overwhelmed with a mix of grief and indignation. Resentment flared in her chest. Why was everyone taking Liu Shuo's side? 'Was it truly all my fault?' she fumed inwardly. 'Why is the blame always pushed onto the woman?'

Undeterred, Lu Hui continued dialing numbers. If the person on the other end was willing to chat, she would frantically complain about how it wasn't her fault, dragging Liu Shuo through the mud. If the person remained silent, she felt a sting of rejection but convinced herself they were just disgusting sycophants, trying to curry favor with the boss, Zhou Yuwen.

Hmph!

After exhausting her options, she finally called Gao Yang, the junior male student she used to know.

At that exact moment, Gao Yang was actually hanging out with Liu Shuo. Glancing at the caller ID, he hesitated for a second before answering. "Hello, Sister Hui."

"Gao Yang, do you know where Liu Shuo is?"