Chapter 566: Li Ruobing’s Dark Past

Chapter 566: Li Ruobing’s Dark Past

Li Ruobing’s reaction was extraordinarily extreme, and not merely because there was something genuinely “off” about this woman named Xia Jinyu. Xia Jinyu was tied to a “dark chapter” in Li Ruobing’s past. Back then, Li Ruobing had come within a hair’s breadth of meeting her.

Just a tiny sliver away!

Had Li Ruobing not resisted with such absolute fury at the time—nearly triggering a major catastrophe—the two of them really would have met face-to-face.

Standing on the sofa, Li Ruobing’s expression shifted through a storm of shadows, clearly dragged back into a memory that brought her profound displeasure.

“Thinking about your high school days again?” Wu Chen tilted his head back with a smile, looking up at her and gently caressing her calf.

Li Ruobing’s eyes remained wide as her expression steadily darkened, her demeanor growing increasingly glacial.

She even clenched her fists!

That year, Li Ruobing was seventeen, and Xia Jinyu was twenty-three.

Li Ruobing was in her second year of high school. Back then… like other teenagers navigating puberty, she had been somewhat rebellious under the sway of surging hormones.

Yet Li Ruobing’s “rebellion” was distinctly different from that of her peers. She had been fiercely independent from early childhood. As the eldest granddaughter of a powerful family, and with her domineering personality, she had been the “big sister” from the very first day she stepped into school!

Even so, she never bullied anyone.

Her academic performance was likewise stellar. Driven by a ruthless competitive streak, she refused to allow herself to place second in her class! Originally, she had merely been the quiet, aloof “cool big sister” with long, straight black hair. That state of affairs lasted until high school.

Then, Li Ruobing began getting into fights far more frequently.

She had fought before. To protect her younger brother, Li Ruotai, she had even led a group to fight boys—student conflicts should be settled among students, without running home to drag adults into the fray. The Li siblings were hardly the only scions of powerful clans in the school.

Yet Li Ruobing had never gone so far as to try to kill anyone.

Not until high school, when her entire demeanor turned downright ferocious! And that ferocity had persisted all the way to this very day! Li Ruobing’s viciousness was not the cruelty of a villain; it was an unbending doctrine of absolute retaliation, utterly devoid of compromise!

If you left her alone, she left you alone. Trivial mistakes didn’t matter, accidental slights could be pardoned without fuss, and casual acquaintances were treated with impeccable courtesy. She never threw her weight around.

She wouldn’t fly into a rage simply because a classmate bumped into her while running and failed to apologize; even if an accidental clash escalated into a brawl, the outcome would be limited to minor scrapes and bruises.

In that regard, she maintained a sharp sense of proportion.

Everyone had a temper.

Sometimes harsh words were exchanged in the heat of the moment and fists flew; it was nothing worth making a major scene over.

Yet the instant someone truly provoked her with deliberate malice, she possessed no concept of letting bygones be bygones! She wouldn’t even grant the teachers an opportunity to mediate. For a teenage girl who was still a student, that was terrifying!

Especially in a school environment!

Once, a classmate talked behind her back, claiming she was putting on an act. Without a second thought, Li Ruobing grabbed a chair and smashed it into the offender, nearly beating the person to death before other students dragged her away. In the end, she never once admitted she had been in the wrong.

When a close female classmate suffered heartbreak, Li Ruobing stepped in to stand up for her. She beat the scumbag so savagely that he was hospitalized with severe injuries, eventually dropping out of school entirely!

Another time, a scion from a rival clan bragged and spread slanderous rumors about her behind her back. That time, she stabbed someone, triggering a massive brawl among the students.

In truth, Li Ruobing could have found far better solutions for many of those situations.

She simply preferred using her fists!

Taken as a whole, throughout her student days, she was practically the model child other parents dreamed of having: quiet, completely uninvolved in messy entanglements, studying like a demon to maintain first place, devoid of the teenage romance parents fretted over, and so formidable no one dared bully her! She required no supervision whatsoever, returning home punctually, never arriving late, and never skipping classes.

Even her hairstyle… the long, straight black hair she had worn back then remained the same today!

Fiercely independent, and nearly flawless!

There was only one tiny blemish: during her high school years, Li Ruobing had exhibited distinct violent tendencies!

Yet looking back in hindsight, that was hardly an anomaly. Countless students underwent drastic personality shifts in high school. Formerly stellar students saw their grades plummet overnight, their temperaments warp, and began running with delinquent crowds; others grew utterly unhinged over teenage heartbreak, threatening suicide at every turn.

That was simply the nature of that phase of life.

It was all hormones run amok! A critical transition from “child” to “adult.” Naturally, it was undeniable that some youths truly went astray during that period.

Fights in high school… if a boy engaged in them, nobody even batted an eye!

In terms of sheer frequency, Li Ruotai had fought far more battles than Li Ruobing!

Yet Li Ruobing struck far harder than Li Ruotai, and she was a girl. Somehow, that magnified the issue into a catastrophic problem! It was permissible for boys to behave that way, but for a girl, it seemed entirely abnormal! After all, women didn’t produce nearly as much testosterone; they weren’t meant to be that violent by nature!

That was precisely how the Li family viewed the matter at the time.

“Xia Jinyu! Xia Jinyu! You’re going to seek out that fraud?! You actually believe her? You think she possesses real ability?!” Li Ruobing jumped down from the sofa, pacing barefoot at a distance while keeping her gaze locked on Wu Chen, her voice chillingly quiet.

“She does possess genuine ability. You can’t write her off as a fraud,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

“So you’re saying I was the one with the problem back then? Is that it, my dearest Mr. Wu?!” By the end, Li Ruobing was practically speaking through gritted teeth.

She looked as though she had been severely triggered.

It wasn’t just a resemblance; she had been!

In Li Ruobing’s twenty-seven years of life, the individuals whose names alone provoked acute psychological or even physical nausea could be counted on one hand.

If one drew up a ranking, the undisputed top spot belonged to Ding Ruilong!

The mere name “Ding Ruilong” was enough to set off Li Ruobing’s trauma response.

Hearing it made her utterly sick!

God damn it, it was beyond intolerable!

Across her entire life, all the profanities Li Ruobing had ever directed at other people combined didn’t equal the amount she had hurled at Ding Ruilong alone! Before meeting Wu Chen, every single time Ding Ruilong harassed her over the phone, she would curse him out! And under ordinary circumstances, she never used foul language.

And occupying second place… was Xia Jinyu!

“No. The problem wasn’t you back then. You were entirely right not to meet Xia Jinyu!”

“You haven’t grown into some murderous maniac today; you’ve become an extraordinarily brilliant, powerful woman. If you had met her back then, she likely would have altered your personality and your operational methods.”

“And then, the person you are today wouldn’t be you!”

“You, Li Ruobing, ought to be exactly as you are now. Everything about you—including your personality—is something I, Wu Chen…” He offered her a warm smile. “…admire.”

Wu Chen crossed his legs on the sofa and took another bite of the apple, appearing utterly relaxed, as though settling in for an intimate heart-to-heart with Li Ruobing.

Li Ruobing’s expression softened considerably.

She loved his choice of words. He hadn’t said “love”; he had said “admire”!

Love was multifaceted and capable of tolerating flaws… For instance, I find you beautiful, but your personality is terrible, yet I still say I love you; though I despise your foul temper, I can still say I love you! Thus, I tolerate you!

Admiration was entirely different!

That was genuine, unreserved appreciation, springing straight from the depths of the heart!

With the simplest words, Wu Chen swiftly pacified Li Ruobing’s turbulent emotions. Even though she knew he was likely manipulating her psychological state once again, she found it intensely comforting!

“Then if I was in the right, what was she if not a fraud?” Li Ruobing stood with arms crossed, her expression once again settling into glacial detachment.

“Your personality is innate! With the hormonal shifts across different life stages, you may experience brief fluctuations, but you possess the self-discipline to correct your own course.” Wu Chen looked at her. “I know this!”

“Xia Jinyu, however, did not! She had been back in the country for less than six months at the time and knew nothing of your background. Relying solely on fragments provided by your family, she could only assess you as an ‘ordinary girl.’ To truly understand you, she would have needed to meet you face-to-face and talk in person… but you never met.” Wu Chen gave a light shrug.

“So that gave her the license to spout nonsense and claim I had psychological issues?!” Li Ruobing’s tone turned frosty again, her gaze sharpening as it pinned Wu Chen.

She was genuinely incensed!

Beyond the old grudge of being branded mentally flawed by a “psychologist,” she was angry at Wu Chen. At a moment like this, why was he still maintaining this “objective and fair” display of logic? Shouldn’t he be taking her side unconditionally? Li Ruobing was not an unreasonable woman, but when an issue struck at a wound she cared about so deeply, absolute rationality was nearly impossible!

She wasn’t a machine!

Crunch. “Her mistake!” Wu Chen said casually around a bite of apple. “That is precisely why I made another decision. Seeing as you are my girlfriend, I will make her apologize to you. I will also call your grandfather and have her explain to the old patriarch in person that she was the one in the wrong back then!”

This time, it was Li Ruobing’s turn to freeze.

Given Xia Jinyu’s current stature, if she offered such an apology, the fallout could easily deal a fatal blow to her entire career! Xia Jinyu practically lived for her profession—not for the money, but because it served as her spiritual anchor!

How could she possibly destroy her own spiritual anchor with her own hands?! That was her entire world!

She would rather die!

Li Ruobing suddenly stepped forward, spun around, and sank into Wu Chen’s lap. Hooking her arms around his neck, she fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Darling, can you really make her apologize? You’re not lying to me? You won’t go back on your word?”

In that instant, Li Ruobing was actually attempting to act coy again, her eyes practically glistening with moisture!

She didn’t give a damn whether Xia Jinyu lived or died!

She wanted to clear her own name!