63: Bystanders see things more clearly.

"How about... you help me investigate?"

Lin Chao's eyebrows shot up, but before he could even speak...

Lan Qingyu immediately switched to a familiar tone and took the initiative to attack.

"Speaking of which, I don't even know your name yet!"

Watching her change faces faster than flipping pages in a book, Lin Chao's mouth couldn't help but twitch.

"Lin Chao. Lin as in double trees, Chao as in Superman."

"Lin Chao..." Lan Qingyu repeated the name in her mouth, then immediately flashed a brilliant smile.

"Look, since you know my mom, that makes us friends too, right?"

"You really know how to take advantage of a situation," Lin Chao commented irritably.

Lan Qingyu completely ignored his sarcasm, her skin as thick as a city wall.

"Aren't you my mom's friend?"

Her tone became righteous and self-assured.

"When a friend's daughter is in trouble, you help out. What's wrong with that? It's called the code of the underworld!"

Seeing that Lin Chao remained unmoved, she immediately switched to another persona.

One second she was a girl speaking with righteous indignation; the next, she became pitiful, looking at him with large, misty eyes.

"Brother Lin Chao..."

This call was so soft and sweet that it gave Lin Chao goosebumps all over.

"You... you wouldn't want to just stand by and watch me get scammed and treated like a sucker, would you?"

"..." Lin Chao's mouth twitched frantically.

He took a deep breath, really wanting to turn around and leave.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have meddled in this business."

"Aww, how can you be like that!" Hearing this, Lan Qingyu immediately grew anxious.

"Aren't you my mom's friend?! Are you just going to leave me to die?"

Lin Chao got a headache from her noise and finally waved his hand impatiently.

"Fine, fine, I give up."

He glared at her irritably.

"I'm telling you, I'm only helping you this once for Sister Yanran's sake."

He deliberately emphasized the words "this once."

"If you run into this kind of mess again, it can only mean..."

Lin Chao paused and scanned her from head to toe with a scrutinizing gaze.

—"That you're truly stupid, stupid beyond saving!"

"You!"

Hearing this, the anger Lan Qingyu had just suppressed flared up again.

She slammed the table and stood up abruptly.

"How am I stupid?!"

Lin Chao didn't even bother to lift his eyelids; he just gave her a faint glance.

That look seemed to say: Your current behavior is the best proof.

Meeting his all-knowing gaze, the ten thousand retorts that had rushed to Lan Qingyu's lips were instantly choked back.

She sat back down resentfully, puffing out her cheeks, not daring to say another word.

The air conditioning in the cafe seemed to seep into the marrow of her bones.

Lan Qingyu remained silent, like a defeated quail.

But those beautiful eyes were filled with indignation and confusion.

Inside her small head, a fierce internal struggle was taking place.

Finally, she couldn't help herself. She looked up and asked with a final trace of struggle.

"But... on what basis are you so sure that Zhong Xiaoru... that Xiao Ru is setting me up?"

"Where's the evidence?"

Lin Chao picked up the iced Americano on the table, took a slow sip, and then set the cup down.

He didn't even look at her; his gaze remained fixed on the heavy traffic outside the window.

"Because, as an onlooker, I see things clearly."

This nonchalant sentence carried an unquestionable certainty.

Lan Qingyu's brow furrowed even tighter.

"What do you mean?"

Lin Chao finally deigned to turn his gaze back to her face, the corner of his mouth curling into a mocking arc.

"It means I saw everything clearly from the side."

"When those people told you to pay back one hundred and twenty thousand, and you hesitated and didn't agree immediately,"

"A very subtle expression of impatience flashed across the face of your 'good friend' Zhong Xiaoru."

Lan Qingyu was stunned.

"Impatience?"

"Yes, impatience." Lin Chao's eyes became sharp, dissecting every detail of that moment like a scalpel.

"Also, when that lead thug said those bastards' words about you paying with your body..."

His voice suddenly turned cold.

"If Zhong Xiaoru truly considered you a friend, in that instant, she should have jumped up like a mother hen protecting her chick, standing in front of you to fight those people to the death."

"Instead of..."

Lin Chao trailed off, the sarcasm in his eyes growing heavier.

—"Instead of grabbing your arm and crying that she really couldn't afford to pay the money, that she had no other way."

"Think about it carefully. What was she doing?"

"She wasn't protecting you; she was forcing you!"

"She was using her tears and helplessness to pressure you into submitting, to force you to agree to those people's terms!"

Lan Qingyu's body swayed as if these words had drained all the strength from her.

She opened her mouth to argue, but found her mind was a complete blank.

Every scene Lin Chao described reappeared vividly before her eyes.

Her brain desperately wanted to find excuses for Zhong Xiaoru, but in her subconscious, a voice was telling her that everything Lin Chao said was the truth.

After a moment, she seemed to catch a logical loophole and argued urgently.

"No! According to your theory, doesn't Zhong Xiaoru just want me to help her pay back that hundred and twenty thousand?"

"If... if I was really taken away by them to, to sleep with them... wouldn't that hundred and twenty thousand be wiped clean? Wouldn't her goal be unachievable then?"

Hearing this question, Lin Chao let out a scoff as if he had heard a huge joke.

"Naive."

He shook his head, looking at her as if she were a three-year-old child.

"If you were really stupid enough to go with them, do you think they would take photos? Would they record videos?"

"When the time comes and they have that kind of material in their hands, would it be easier to just extort a hundred and twenty thousand from you, or to treat you like an ATM they can withdraw from indefinitely?"

Boom—!

It was as if a bomb had gone off in Lan Qingyu's head.

Her entire body froze, and the color drained completely from her face.

She immediately retorted shrilly, as if to hide the fear in her heart.

"I would never agree to that kind of thing!"

"Sleeping with them or whatever, I'd rather pay the hundred and twenty thousand!"

Lin Chao spread his hands, showing a "See? There you go" expression.

"Then isn't that it? You see you'd pay this time, but... what about next time? Doesn't Zhong Xiaoru still owe other people money?"

"Besides, they've exposed themselves this time; their ultimate goal wasn't just that measly hundred and twenty thousand at all."

"It was to use every possible means, whether deception or force, to trap you in that 'sleeping around' snare."

"As long as they recorded you and got dirt on you, it wouldn't be a problem that a hundred and twenty thousand could solve anymore."

"That would be a bottomless pit."