Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Tell Him Our Relationship

’I’ve been photographed?’

Jiang Qingli’s first thought was of the camera she and Ye Linyuan had found in their suite a while ago.

’I’ve been carrying the blocking chip Ye Linyuan gave me last time. Does the other party have a new trick up their sleeve?’

Her fingers felt a little cold as Jiang Qingli quickly logged into the forum.

The first thing she saw was the post at the very top. The headline was explosive: [Miss Jiang Made a Move on You-Know-Who! Photo Evidence Inside!]

Jiang Qingli clicked on it and saw a photo of herself.

It was taken from a surveillance camera angle. In the picture, she was looking up to speak with a black-haired young man, her posture intimate, clearly showing that she was the one initiating the closeness.

The replies below were all filled with shock: [Damn, is she not afraid of getting suspended?!]

[You-Know-Who is handsome, but I wouldn’t dare even if you gave me ten times the courage...]

’This angle... it probably isn’t the same person who sent the robot to spy on me before.’

’A normal person would be extra vigilant after discovering they were being filmed, which would give the perpetrator fewer opportunities to spy on them.’

Jiang Qingli sent the post to Ye Linyuan, then, as if nothing was wrong, asked Lin Xiyue, "Why do they call Ye Linyuan ’You-Know-Who’?"

Seeing how calm she was, Lin Xiyue couldn’t help but marvel at her steady nerves.

’Then again,’ she thought, ’she’s already gone after this special-appointment professor. Of course her nerves are steady.’

Lin Xiyue remembered that Jiang Qingli had been busy pestering Ling Qing last month and hadn’t come to the academy, so she gave a simple explanation.

Ye Linyuan had only started his position at the academy this semester.

At the Imperial Royal Academy, it wasn’t uncommon to see people who got in through connections.

But Ye Linyuan wasn’t just some guy with connections. He was incredibly strict in his shooting class, gave very low grades, and didn’t care whose connections you had. In the beginning, people constantly cursed him out, wrote complaint letters, sent text messages, and made posts on the forums... It was a whole ordeal, but Ye Linyuan acted as if he didn’t see any of it.

It went on until a few students from noble families jointly demanded his dismissal, reasoning that "a snake’s eyesight is too poor for him to be a shooting instructor."

But not only did the academy reject their demand, it suspended those very students.

When those few returned to the academy, they were as docile as if they were completely different people, treating Ye Linyuan with the utmost respect. Overnight, all the insulting posts about him on the forum were deleted. From then on, students only dared to call him "Professor Ye," and if they wanted to curse him, they would only dare to refer to him cryptically as "You-Know-Who."

When Jiang Qingli heard the part about "a snake’s poor eyesight," she couldn’t help but picture Ye Linyuan squinting through glasses while trying to shoot, and she almost burst out laughing.

Since class was about to start, she didn’t dare to laugh too obviously. She buried her face in her arms on the desk, her body trembling with suppressed laughter.

Lin Xiyue, afraid she’d be noticed, rested a hand on her back to cover for her.

Not far behind them, the red-haired young man’s brow was tightly furrowed.

Chi Yun had been feeling unwell ever since he fainted in the lounge last time.

It was only when Yu Chenglan called, urging him to come to the academy and keep an eye on Jiang Qingli, that he finally dragged himself out of bed.

He could have chosen not to come.

But whenever Chi Yun thought of Jiang Qingli, he felt a wave of irritation.

He attributed this to how much he despised her.

That was why he’d come when Yu Chenglan told him to watch the show. He figured that seeing Jiang Qingli make a fool of herself would improve his mood.

But...

His gaze fell on the girl’s slightly trembling back. At the thought that she might be crying her eyes out, Chi Yun’s irritation grew even stronger.

He even felt an urge to go and comfort her...

Throughout the entire class, Chi Yun was distracted, his eyes constantly fixed on that slender figure.

After class, the girl glanced at her terminal and waved goodbye to Lin Xiyue.

Lin Xiyue leaned in and whispered something in her ear, and she reached out to pinch her friend’s cheek.

She was all smiles, looking completely unaffected.

’She must be forcing a smile,’ Chi Yun thought.

’She seemed to have cried on the day their marriage was annulled, too.’

Seeing Jiang Qingli get up and walk out, Chi Yun felt as if he were being pulled by a string, and he unconsciously followed her.

He didn’t expect, however, that just as he reached the back door of the classroom, he would see the noble yet foreboding male standing not far away. The man’s golden, slitted pupils swept the room before locking onto the girl’s figure.

A collective gasp echoed through the room.

"Damn, You-Know-Who is here!"

"Jiang Qingli is so screwed now..."

"Let’s go, let’s go! We can’t get caught in the crossfire!"

In less than a minute, everyone in the classroom had scrambled to leave, except for Jiang Qingli and Chi Yun, who deliberately slowed his steps.

Jiang Qingli, however, didn’t slow down. Chi Yun even heard a hint of schadenfreude in her voice as she said, "They’re so scared of you, You-Know-Who." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The male seemed to scoff before grabbing her wrist with one hand and pulling her toward him.

His eyes were cold, like a predator that had locked onto its prey.

Jiang Qingli noticed he was staring at her mouth and had a bad feeling. She flinched, her voice shrinking. "It was just a joke, what are you doing...?"

"Not now. When we get back," Ye Linyuan said in a voice only the two of them could hear.

Jiang Qingli’s eyes widened, and her ears burned. Just as she was about to speak, an angry voice rang out from behind her. "What do you think you’re doing to her?"

Ye Linyuan looked up to see Chi Yun striding toward them aggressively. "Professor Ye, even if she did something to you, you don’t have to be so rough."

"Am I being rough?"

Ye Linyuan seemed to chuckle, but the sound was dripping with sarcasm.

He applied a little pressure, pulling the girl into his embrace with extreme possessiveness.

"Aren’t you going to tell him?"

Jiang Qingli was pulled into the embrace before she could even glance at Chi Yun. She paused, confused. "Tell him what?"

Ye Linyuan looked down at the girl in his arms, a ghost of a smile in his slitted pupils. His words were light, almost floating, yet delivered with absolute dominance—

"About our relationship."

Seeing this, Chi Yun felt a sense of dread. "What relationship?!"

Not bothering to waste another word, Ye Linyuan lifted his chin and looked down at Chi Yun as if surveying a defeated opponent. "A legal one."

’A legal one?’

Chi Yun froze for a few seconds. When the realization hit him, he looked as if he’d been struck by lightning.

He could barely find his voice. "You’re her... her new Beast Husband?!"

Ye Linyuan sneered, "Idiot."

He paid Chi Yun no mind at all, simply taking Jiang Qingli’s hand and leaving.

Chi Yun staggered after them for a few steps before his entire body went rigid and cold.

A long time later, he belatedly realized something.

Before, whenever he showed up, Jiang Qingli would always find him and come over with a smile to talk to him.

But today, she hadn’t even given him a single glance.

All of Jiang Qingli’s attention was on someone else.

Realizing this, Chi Yun instinctively refuted the thought, as if trying to convince himself, ’No, that’s not right. It’s Yiyi. I like Yiyi. Why should I care about that wicked female...’

But the more he insisted on it, the stronger the dizzy spell in his head became.

His body swayed unsteadily a few times, and then Chi Yun fainted.

[DING!]

[Affection rating for capture target ’Chi Yun’ is fluctuating drastically!]

The voice in her head made Bai Yiyi frown.

’What is it now?’ Bai Yiyi thought, annoyed, as she was about to enter the student council meeting room. ’Why is he so much trouble all the time? Did his affection rating drop?’

"No," the system said. "After the drastic fluctuation, his affection rating is still holding at 92, and the prop hasn’t lost its effect."

’Then don’t bother me.’

Bai Yiyi glided over and sat in her vice president’s seat.

In five minutes, the meeting to discuss whether to admit specially recruited students from other city districts for the next school year would begin. The senior officers trickled into the meeting room one by one.

Ke An, a senior officer, sat down next to Bai Yiyi.

She turned to look at Bai Yiyi, her face showing surprise.

Though it was almost summer, Bai Yiyi was actually wearing a long-sleeved, long dress. Her hair fell to cover the sides of her face, socks covered her calves, and she wore a pair of white canvas shoes.

Although she usually wore white dresses, they were mostly short skirts; she had never been covered up so completely.

Not only was all of her skin tightly covered, but she was also wearing an oversized mask that concealed most of her face. Her bangs hung low, making it hard to even see her eyes.

But, and perhaps it was just an illusion, Ke An felt like Bai Yiyi’s skin seemed a few shades darker...

Ke An leaned in, originally intending to tease her a bit, but then she noticed that Bai Yiyi—who always presented a gentle image to others—had a raised eyebrow. Bai Yiyi was staring at her terminal, her eyes filled with condescending mockery.

Glancing at the screen and getting a clear look, Ke An gasped in shock, "What?! Jiang Qingli assaulted You-Know-Who in the garage?!"

Yuan Shiyao, who was passing behind the two of them, paused, his turquoise eyes narrowing slightly.

’Who has she gone and provoked now?’