Chapter 43: Two Hundred Thousand
Something flashed through Hua Mian’s mind, and she tentatively asked, “Ruan Tian?”
“It seems that’s her name. Do you know her?” This time, it was Yu Jin who looked puzzled.
Hua Mian hadn’t expected them to encounter the female lead so soon.
“Is this her home?” she asked, avoiding the question.
Hua Mian suspected that her butterfly-effect meddling had gone too far. The meeting, which should have been between the female lead and the prince on Ilika Star, had instead happened between these two.
Yu Jin nodded.
“Explain to me exactly how you met her.”
Seeing Hua Mian so animated, Yu Jin spoke helplessly.
“That day, I left the forest carrying you on my back, intending to find a doctor to get some restorative potions…”
Yu Jin and a passerby asked for directions to the hospital, but their conversation was interrupted by a female.
She stepped forward, claiming she could take him to the hospital.
Naturally, Yu Jin was cautious, but he didn’t expect that the female, being one herself, was willing to help.
In his urgency to reach the hospital, yet wary of any ill intent, he boldly asked to borrow 200,000 on the spot.
Hua Mian’s eyes widened. “How much?”
“Two hundred thousand,” Yu Jin replied.
Hua Mian recalled that, in the original story, the female lead came from a reasonably well-off family, but her timid father was disliked by her mother, who paid little attention to him and, in turn, hardly interacted with her.
Even with money at home, it rarely benefited her.
Though she was the only daughter, her mother showed little care and even less affection. While she wouldn’t let her starve, her father’s generosity was arbitrary and based on mood.
Yet, this female lead could nonchalantly lend 200,000 to a beastman she didn’t know, someone she had just met. It was odd to think about.
“I had her swipe an ID card, then obtained ten restorative potions and a light computer.”
“And then?”
“She offered that if we had nowhere to stay, we could rest at her place.”
Hua Mian could only think it was absurd.
“You said you felt she recognized you before?”
Yu Jin nodded. “Yes. The way she looked at me felt like she knew who I was. She lent us money without hesitation after just one meeting—it felt… a little overly attentive.”
He had found the right word to describe it.
Hua Mian frowned.
At this point, how could the original female lead possibly know who Yu Jin was at first sight? Could she have been reborn?
“Are you sure you didn’t misread it?”
Yu Jin nodded firmly.
“Do you know where her money came from?”
Yu Jin shook his head. After a moment of thought, he said, “This house seems to have been bought not long ago. The furniture shows little wear, and she’s the only female living in the building. Also, she appears to be of age, yet hasn’t been matched with a beast-husband.”
Hua Mian was momentarily stunned. True—but the original text didn’t explain this either. In the beast world, every adult female would normally be matched. How did the female lead slip through the cracks?
The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
“Madam, do you know her?” Yu Jin had investigated Hua Mian’s social connections—Ruan Tian was definitely not among them.
Yu Jin found her determined gaze at him odd. She seemed to have designs on a beast-husband with a female, which in his view made Ruan Tian both foolish and morally skewed.
Hua Mian said, “No, I don’t know her.”
Seeing Yu Jin’s inquisitive and suspicious gaze, Hua Mian forced herself to say, “A friend I used to chat with online mentioned her name. When you said it just now, I remembered.”
“Friend? Male or female?”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ve never met them, just chatted a bit.”
Yu Jin’s expression deepened. To casually chat online and then want to come to Ilika Star alone didn’t sound entirely innocent. If he hadn’t insisted on coming along, Hua Mian might have already met that online friend!
The thought set off alarm bells in Yu Jin’s mind.
Seeing Hua Mian with her pale little face and furrowed brow, he felt a pang of protectiveness.
“Don’t think about it for now. Rest a bit.”
Hua Mian suspected something was off with Ruan Tian, but she would need to interact more to know for sure. For now, she wasn’t feeling well, mentally or physically, so she obediently lay down to rest.
Yu Jin’s eyes narrowed. He liked to nip danger in the bud, so he planned to find a way to flush out this so-called online friend.
Hua Mian had no idea that her casual excuse would lead Yu Jin to scrutinize it, even planning to track the person down.
When she woke up again, it was already the next day.
The curtains didn’t block all the light. Yu Jin frowned as he leaned on her bed frame, looking restless.
Hua Mian saw the big guy struggling to get comfortable, and her amber eyes, warm with affection, nudged his shoulder.
“Awake? Want some water?”
After drinking half a cup of warm water, Hua Mian patted the side, “Come up.”
Yu Jin’s eyes flickered. He carefully removed his jacket and lay down beside her.
“Sleep a bit,” Hua Mian said, her cool fingertips massaging his brow.
Yu Jin felt Hua Mian’s gentleness and felt a tingling warmth in his chest. Even the sunlight that usually disturbed his sleep felt not so irritating.
After Yu Jin drifted off, Hua Mian began organizing the information she had.
The female lead, who should have been poor, could casually lend 200,000—and Yu Jin even said she seemed to recognize him.
The house was newly bought, and for such a long time, she had been the only occupant. This ruled out the possibility that the prince had bought it for her.
In summary:
Hua Mian now suspected that Ruan Tian had been reborn, or, like her, had crossed over from another world.
The top-tier energy stone that caused a stir on Ilika Star hadn’t been opened by anyone, so she suspected the female lead, knowing of its existence, had taken it for herself.
She may have already earned a large sum from energy journals.
Thinking of this made Hua Mian fume, and she couldn’t help puffing her cheeks.
What had happened to the gem auction?
She was about to ask Yu Jin, but seeing the dark circles on his jade-white cheeks, she abandoned the idea of waking him.
Ruan Tian had waited outside for almost a whole day, but the door hadn’t budged.
She had tried knocking several times but feared annoying the hot-tempered Yu Jin. After thinking it over, she restrained herself.
She needed to maintain a good relationship with Yu Jin, because she planned to go to the imperial capital—only the imperial capital, the power center, was her top choice.
And now she already had money!
Thinking of the eight zeros in her bank account, Ruan Tian couldn’t help but want to laugh out loud.
In her previous life, the women in the imperial capital mocked her as a “country bumpkin,” claiming she was shallow and lacked depth.
But this life was completely different! She would slap those women in the face!
Recalling Yu Jin’s meticulous care for Hua Mian, Ruan Tian couldn’t help but purse her lips.
She had heard from Chi Rui that Hua Mian had not treated them kindly, yet Yu Jin could still be so gentle to a female like that.
If it were her turn to treat him so tenderly, Yu Jin would probably care for her even more.
Ruan Tian’s round little face flushed.
As long as she could win over the hearts of Yu Jin and the other four beastmen, she would gain an imperial weapon, a top researcher, a business genius, a mechanical prodigy, and a culinary master.
Thinking this, Hua Mian—this damn female—really was lucky, claiming all the good things.
Yet she had heard from Nangong Zheng that Chen Xueji and others were constantly buying sedatives on the black market.
Hua Mian really wouldn’t seize an opportunity even if it was handed to her.
