Chapter 79 Luo Xing knew that Gu Shiyan had fought with Ke Yu because of her.

Xu Yan’s lips twitched. “I give up. What kind of comparison is that?”

“Gu Shiyan is the Monkey King, and his father is Bald Qiang. They could never be on the same page, not even tuned into the same frequency. But his father wants to chop down the forest, while Gu Shiyan just happens to be the king of the monkeys living in that very forest.”

When Luo Xing finished her explanation, everyone burst out laughing, even Shen Que was amused by her oddly humorous analogy.

The exhaustion and pressure on their shoulders seemed to melt away in an instant.

With the mood lightened, the group got back to work, refreshed and energized.

As they were about to leave that afternoon, Xu Yan pulled Luo Xing out of the lab.

“What’s up?”

“Is Ke Yu still bothering you?”

Luo Xing hadn’t thought about that person for a while. She shook her head. “Maybe because he was called in for a talk, now he runs the other way when he sees me—doesn’t dare even speak to me anymore.”

“There’s another reason,” Xu Yan said, grinning and looking at Luo Xing with a bit of gossip in his eyes. “Didn’t that video of Gu Shiyan and Ke Yu fighting go around? If Ke Yu isn’t pestering you anymore, Gu Shiyan deserves some credit for that.”

Luo Xing laughed at him. “You’ve got it wrong. Gu Shiyan got into that fight with Ke Yu the night Ke Yu blocked me. I only told my brother about it at the time—how could Gu Shiyan possibly have known?”

She waved him off. “Stop following the gossip, or your brain will turn to mush and you won’t be able to compete.”

“Huh?” Xu Yan started to doubt himself for a moment.

But then he insisted, “No way. Gu Shiyan used to be the first one out of the lab building. But after I told him Ke Yu was bothering you, from that day on, he was always the last one to leave.”

Luo Xing, being the hardworking type in the team, almost always stayed in the lab late. Her tasks required searching through a mountain of papers and references. Once she got home, she’d relax and lose that focus, so she preferred to finish everything before leaving.

Thinking back, it did seem as Xu Yan had said. She couldn’t tell when it started, but Gu Shiyan had become the last one to leave the lab.

That day!

Luo Xing’s eyes flashed with realization.

The day Ke Yu blocked her, she happened to be on her period and needed to buy sanitary pads. Her stomach hurt badly, and as she went downstairs, she remembered the lights in the third-floor lab were still on.

Xu Yan showed her the photo he’d taken of Ke Yu and sent to Gu Shiyan. “It was that day, right?”

A nameless irritation surged in Luo Xing’s chest. “Why did you send him that photo? We’ve broken up. When you do this…”

She let out a breath. “Don’t do that again. I can handle my own problems.”

Xu Yan nodded. “Alright, alright.”

He slung his bag over his shoulder and left, unable to help feeling a bit sentimental: the couple he’d shipped was about to fall apart!

But Luo Xing was just irritated by Xu Yan’s words. After packing up, she slung her bag over her shoulder and headed home.

Passing by the supermarket, she stopped in to buy a cold drink.

“My shot was amazing!”

She caught a familiar voice nearby.

Turning, she saw Yao Xiangming and Ke Yu buying water. The store was crowded, but the two of them stood out in their sweaty sleeveless jerseys.

Luo Xing’s mind replayed Xu Yan’s words.

Carrying her cold drink, she walked over.

She stopped in front of Ke Yu. “Ke Yu.”

Ke Yu turned and saw her, jumping in surprise and even stepping back. After the last run-in with Gu Shiyan, he’d spent half a month nursing a strained ligament!

Luo Xing looked at him. “I have something to ask you.”

Ke Yu, having failed to get anywhere with her, now seemed only annoyed. “What? I’m not bothering you anymore, so now you’re after me? You women are really…”

Before he could finish, Yao Xiangming kicked him. “Show some respect.”

Ke Yu gave Luo Xing a helpless look. “Go ahead. Ask. Right here. So you can’t accuse me of harassing you again.”

“What did Gu Shiyan say to you when you played basketball that day?” Luo Xing asked.

Ke Yu smirked. “Why are you digging into that now? What could he have said? Didn’t you know all along? If you hadn’t tattled to him, would he have come running to the court to find me? First he deleted you from his contacts, then made me change my phone lock screen. You must be something, to get Gu Shiyan to go that far.”

Luo Xing pressed her lips into a thin, straight line.

Ke Yu gave a small, mocking laugh. “But as a fellow man, let me give you a piece of advice—someone like Gu Shiyan, at best, is just playing around. If you take it seriously, that’s just pathetic.”

The stench of sweat coming off him made Luo Xing wrinkle her nose and take a step back. “You, getting completely trounced by him, are the pathetic one.”

She glanced at Yao Xiangming. “You really don’t have standards in choosing friends—pick up any trash off the street.”

With that, she paid for her drink and left.

Ke Yu swore under his breath, but there was nothing he could do about her.

It wasn’t just Gu Shiyan—afterwards, even Luo Xing’s brother and father came to have a word with his parents. They said it was an invitation to dinner, but really it was just pressure.

Because of this, Ke Yu got a scolding from his parents and his allowance was cut in half. Life had been tough for him lately.

From the school gate all the way home through the lively crowds, Luo Xing’s mind was a muddle.

One minute she was thinking about research papers, the next about what Ke Yu had said, looping endlessly.

Her phone buzzed in her hand—it was a message on VB about Qi Zhi.

He was trending in the top three searches.

The hottest topic: Qi Zhi was apparently terminating his contract with his company!

Luo Xing instinctively thought it was a rumor. She knew Qi Zhi’s situation; there was no way he’d break his contract.

But the topic was burning hot—it didn’t seem fake.

She clicked in to check.

It turned out… he really was preparing to terminate the contract?

Luo Xing stopped in her tracks, Gu Shiyan’s words echoing in her mind.

“He signed a twenty-year indenture. He’ll never escape Lu Yuanyi’s grasp in this lifetime.”

Still unable to believe it, Luo Xing messaged Yun Cai.

Yun Cai scolded her for only just seeing it—Qi Zhi had been trending all day.

Then she explained the whole saga she’d pieced together after a day on VB.

Listening to it all, Luo Xing could only come to one conclusion—

Qi Zhi was terminating his contract.