“She likes you more.” With a grinding of teeth, Ho Qijun managed to squeeze out these words after catching a glimpse of Fu Xiaoqing hastily walking away.
Lin Wei felt a sense of relief; finally, the subject of jealousy had shifted from him to Fu Xiaoqing. So, he decided to reward Ho Qijun with an honest answer: “Her attitude towards me is merely that of an ordinary friend; it cannot be classified as liking or disliking. The reason you feel the difference is purely because she dislikes you right now.”
“……” Ho Qijun stared at him, momentarily speechless, as the anger on his face began to dissipate. It was as if he could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Lin Wei paid no mind to the world’s privileged protagonists who couldn’t process such words. He pushed the fried rice in front of him and continued earnestly, “You have ruined her good job, and all her struggles now are thanks to you. It’s not like she enjoys being mistreated; do you expect her to be thrilled to see your sour face and still throw herself at you?”
The initial shock faded, and Ho Qijun fell silent. He wasn’t selfish by nature but had grown accustomed to being adored since childhood. Most of the time, he acted on his own whims without realizing he was wronging others.
Seeing that he was willing to reflect, Lin Wei stopped his relentless criticism. Just when he was about to comfort him, he received an urgent alert from the system.
[Master! The female lead is in trouble!]
Without hesitation, Lin Wei immediately got up and walked quickly in the direction Fu Xiaoqing had just taken. Ho Qijun was puzzled but hesitated for a moment before following.
It was no surprise that Fu Xiaoqing embodied the unfortunate tropes of classic melodramatic romance; she indeed had a knack for attracting misfortune. When Lin Wei arrived, he saw a drunken middle-aged man leering and reaching out toward her. The sight made one frown in discomfort.
Unfortunately, Fu Xiaoqing was completely unaware, as she was busy clearing empty plates from another table, completely innocent of the impending dangers. Just as she was about to be assaulted, she was suddenly pulled aside. Letting out a startled cry, she looked up to see Lin Wei’s serious face. Trusting him, she didn’t struggle but steadied herself and turned to realize what had just happened, feeling both disgusted and fearful.
At that moment, Ho Qijun caught up.
“What happened?!” he asked Fu Xiaoqing, his handsome face darkened with concern. Despite his anger stemming from worry for her, it startled Fu Xiaoqing who was already on edge, causing her to instinctively shrink back behind Lin Wei.
Lin Wei noticed the momentary pause in the anger on Ho Qijun’s face and nearly broke into laughter over the absurdity of it all.
However, while Ho Qijun was embattled by the female lead’s discomfort, Lin Wei had to ensure his anger wouldn’t be redirected at the lewd man. Although the disgusting act of lewdness against a waitress was revolting, it wasn’t punishable by death. He couldn’t let Ho Qijun handle the aftermath and was wary of suggesting calling the police at that moment.
Though the world appeared normal, only Lin Wei knew it was flawed. If Ho Qijun suddenly asked, “What is calling the police?”, it could risk their mission due to the bleak stereotype that a domineering male lead must be ignorant, leading to his failure.
Of course, this was an exaggerated pessimistic assumption. However, considering the original plot where the female lead was later confined and never once thought to seek police help, Lin Wei wasn’t willing to take chances.
He chose to play it safe by watching over Ho Qijun until the story wrapped up. Once the protagonist’s influence faded, the world’s consciousness would naturally rectify itself.
Therefore, before Ho Qijun could lash out, Lin Wei preemptively addressed Fu Xiaoqing: “You were startled, right? Go sit with Ah Qi over there. I’ll handle things here.”
Initially, Ho Qijun wanted to confront the lewd man right in front of Fu Xiaoqing. However, upon realizing that Lin Wei was creating an opportunity for him to be alone with the terrified Fu Xiaoqing, he didn’t object. After all, punishing the man didn’t have to happen immediately.
Fu Xiaoqing indeed felt unpleasant and was distracted from her work, hesitating, “But I’m still on duty…”
“I’ll speak with the manager here; don’t worry,” Lin Wei had no intention of letting the female lead continue working in such a risky environment. Otherwise, under script influence, such incidents would only escalate, no matter how cautious they were.
“Okay,” Fu Xiaoqing replied gratefully and then looked at Ho Qijun. After such an encounter, with Lin Wei and Ho Qijun supporting her, she couldn’t bring herself to show Ho Qijun any displeasure.
Ho Qijun controlled his expression to avoid revealing any smugness and gave Lin Wei a look that signaled, ‘Do not let this lewd man off easily,’ before leading Fu Xiaoqing back to their seats.
Once they had moved away, Lin Wei turned back, gently smiled at the hurried hotel manager, and said, “Could you please find a private room to deal with this?” He glanced again at the drunken lewd man sprawled over the bar and his companions, signaling for them to follow. This was far from over.
The two companions of the lewd man looked pained. Primarily because of Ho Qijun’s earlier intervention and Lin Wei’s current presence, their outfits and demeanor indicated that they were not mere ordinary people. Had they known the waitress had such connections, they wouldn’t have hesitated to intervene when things transpired. Unfortunately, it was too late to regret.
Lin Wei couldn’t help but feel a bit displeased at the thought of having to safeguard such trash from Ho Qijun’s potential retaliation. Once the group reached the manager’s designated back room, he took the water the manager handed him and splashed it directly on the face of the lewd man.
The manager and the two other people were stunned into silence by his abrupt actions. As the lewd man was doused awake and about to explode in anger, he was held back by his companions.
“Li Fu, the deputy manager of a subsidiary sales department at Qianhe’s medical machinery company, recently promoted,” Lin Wei sat calmly on the sofa, unhurriedly reading the information the system had retrieved. Because this character was merely an unimportant background figure in the original text, he hadn’t anticipated that this person was, in fact, associated with him—an employee of his family’s business.
It was just fitting for his stereotyped perception of the second male lead’s treatment; good deeds of rescuing the damsel in distress were not meant for him. When the hidden can of worms was opened, it was related to him ‘by blood’.
While Lin Wei remained composed, the other four in the room were soaked in cold sweat. In less than ten minutes since the incident unfolded, they had thoroughly investigated the name and job of someone they were meeting for the first time, even knowing the other party had just been promoted. The efficiency was alarming.