BL - One Night In Pingjing 58 The Devil Would Take A Crash Course On How To Be Evil From Me

"Why did you want to see me?" Shen Rui asked after taking an order for a cake at the cafe.

"This is about Hua Zhendan." Qiu Dawei said.

"What about him?"

"I wanted to wish him a happy new year, so I called him several times over the last couple of days. He didn't pick up."

"Okay?" Shen Rui tilted her head at the waiter who placed her cake in front of her.

"I got worried and went over to his place to check up on him."

Shen Rui took a bite out of her cake. She moaned satisfactorily. Then asked, "And?"

"He was a complete mess."

Shen Rui took another bite out of her cake.

"He was depressed and didn't seem to have been eating. His eyes were swollen like he had been crying and his room smelled like a cigarette factory."

"I've asked him many times to stop smoking." Shen Rui said and wiped the corner of her mouth.

"I don't know about you and your puppet, but I can't stand to see Hua Zhendan in that condition."

"And my puppet would be?"

"Xuan Tianyi."

Shen Rui nodded. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to stop this. Because you can. Whatever it is you're playing at with Xuan Tianyi, you can stop it so they can fix their relations.h.i.+p."

"What do you mean whatever I'm playing at? I'm giving a kid who happens to be related to me an opportunity at a better life. What's wrong with that?"

"You tell me. Only you can turn a completely good deed into something evil."

"Excuse you? Who do you think you're talking to?" Shen Rui flared.

"Look, ma'am. I'm sorry, okay? But please, whatever your plan is, just please stop it so these two can fix their relations.h.i.+p. If you really want to help Xuan Tianyi, then, please just leave him alone."

"I'm done with this conversation. Never call me again unless it has something to do with your project." Shen Rui started to stand up.

"No ma'am, you're not done until I say you are." Qiu Dawei said forcefully.

"Excuse you?" Shen Rui said, surprised at Qiu Dawei's rudeness.

"If you don't stop your plan to drive a wedge between Hua Zhendan and his lover, then I'm going to make you pay for it."

Amused, Shen Rui laughed and sat down. "You'll do what?"

"You're not the only person in this world who's manipulative. I know Hua Zhendan like the back of my palm and if I want to, I can easily manipulate him. If you upset me, ma'am, I can make you lose the affection of your son."

Entertained, Shen Rui returned to her chocolate cake. "I'll like to see you do that. And just so you know, Xuan Tianyi is already halfway across the world by now. He won't step his feet into this Country for the next four years. And where he's going, he's going to be so busy that in the next couple of months, he won't even remember who Hua Zhendan is."

"So, you finally admit you had a plan?"

"Of course, I had a plan. You knew it, Hua Zhendan knew it. Only Xuan Tianyi is stupid enough to not realize he's not good enough for my son and will never be, and I'll never let them be together."

"You're really evil."

Shen Rui smiled. "When it comes to my son, I'm not just evil, the devil would come to me to take a crash course on how to be evil. And Hua Zhendan may cry all he wants right now, but in the future, he'll realize that everything I've ever done is in his best interest."

Qiu Dawei shook his head. "Shen Rui. I know what you did to me and Hua Zhendan when we were dating."

"I'm sorry, what did I do?"

"You took your time to study my personality. You knew I'd never accept money to break up with him, but you also knew I'd feel so insulted, I'll break up with Hua Zhendan. So you offered me money anyway."

Shen Rui smiled and took another bite out of her cake.

"You weren't worried he'd find out the truth because you know I'm so selfless, I'll put fixing you and Hua Zhendan's relations.h.i.+p over fixing me and Hua Zhendan's relations.h.i.+p. I know at the end of the day, you had nothing to do with our eventual fallout, but you had destroyed us up to the point that we'd never be able to put our relations.h.i.+p back on track."

Shen Rui pointed her fork at Qiu Dawei. "You know, I've always liked you, Qiu Dawei. You're very intelligent. Too intelligent. And when you love someone, you're so selfless, you always put them before yourself.

"But... The reason I like you is the same reason you aren't good enough for Hua Zhendan either. Goodness isn't a virtue, it's a weakness. It ensures you can't protect and fight for your lover when you should. I wouldn't let Hua Zhendan stay with someone who can't fight for him.

"And although intelligence can be a strength, sometimes, it's also a weakness. In your case, it is a weakness. When you were a student, I suppose in the exam hall, if you were asked to write down the name of a color with a reddish hue, instead of writing 'red' down, you'll while away the time trying to figure out the exact shade of red it is. Then, the bell goes and you have to turn in your answer sheet. Even though you'll eventually figure out it's dark-red, the time is far too gone and your knowledge is practically a waste."

"I can win Hua Zhendan back." Qiu Dawei said in a challenging tone.

Unperturbed, Shen Rui shook her head and replied. "No, you can't. When Hua Zhendan lets something go, he lets it go and never takes it back."

Qiu Dawei nodded. "Perhaps, there's something you didn't know about my personality. I'm very compet.i.tive. When I say I would do something and someone says I can't, I make it a point to try to prove that wrong."

"You know... Xuan Tianyi has a similar character trait. In his case, that is his weakness. He has low self-esteem and an inferiority complex. Although he's aware of the first, he's in denial of the second. He absolutely hates it when someone acts like they're superior to him and try to tell him what to do."

She chewed a forkful of cake and continued. "Looking at his personality, I'm sure he never wanted to be a model. Perhaps, his sister had told him she wouldn't let him model, so he had made it a point to become a model. I imagine she would do that because she had told me he was dead and she didn't want to risk me running into him."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"I'm getting there." Shen Rui took another bite of cake and moaned again. "I'm sorry, this cake is so good. Are you sure you don't want to order anything?"

"No, thank you." Qiu Dawei said politely.

Shen Rui nodded and continued. "I figured Hua Zhendan would support Xuan Tianyi going halfway across the world to get a higher education. To some extent, he's a reasonable person. I couldn't let that happen because then, my plan would never work as Hua Zhendan would create time to travel overseas to go see him.

"Now, this brings one of Hua Zhendan's biggest flaw into the picture. His distrust for me. I know that even though he says he wants to fix our relations.h.i.+p, he still doesn't trust me and would immediately get suspicious if he knew I was taking care of Xuan Tianyi's expenses. Of course, in that scenario, his support of Xuan Tianyi's plan would immediately turn into a strong objection.

"Actually, I imagine Hua Zhendan would say something like, 'No, you can't go. I won't let you go.'

"This would upset Xuan Tianyi so much that even if he had initially secondguessed leaving, he would make it a point to go against Hua Zhendan.

"And Hua Zhendan has gone through so much pain at the hands of Xuan Tianyi that he is possibly frustrated with him. If he is at his limit and says something like, 'You have to choose between me and leaving,' Xuan Tianyi would get even more upset because he would normally choose Hua Zhendan over anything else. But being asked to choose would be like he was being told what to do. He'd feel inferior and get defensive.

"And if Hua Zhendan adds something like, 'Keep it at the back of your mind that if you don't choose me, we'll never get back together,' then Xuan Tianyi would snap. His pride would be so wounded, he'd choose anything but Hua Zhendan no matter how much he'll hurt from it.

"And even if Xuan Tianyi comes back to his senses at some point in the future, it would be too late as Hua Zhendan has already given up on their relations.h.i.+p."

Qiu Dawei stared at Shen Rui with his mouth agape. She had laid out the whole scene exactly like Hua Zhendan had told him it happened.

"Do you see now how intelligence can be a strength?" Shen Rui took yet another bite of cake. "Perhaps..." She said thoughtfully. "Our intelligence aren't on the same level. I suppose I have what you would call G.o.d-level intelligence?"

Qiu Dawei's gaze was fixed on her. He still hadn't recovered his ability to speak.

"My emotional intelligence is so high that I didn't even have to do anything. All I did was study both of their characters, imagine a scenario and put a situation in place for it to happen. I was absent and couldn't possibly influence how that situation unfolded, but here we are. Xuan Tianyi is gone from my son's life.

"And do you know that his tuition, accommodation and flight expenses in total were less than all the money I offered you in the past?"

"..."

"Of course, I was willing to pay more to get rid of him. But well..."

"..."

"One more thing. I think back then, when you rejected the money I offered you, for what it's worth, it shows great strength of character and I really admire you for that."

"..."

"Are you speechless? Probably because you didn't expect me to be this intelligent, right? You can't do anything to me, Qiu Dawei."  She gave him the once-over and continued. "Perhaps, you came here with the intention of making me confess and you put on your phone recorder for the whole length of this conversation."

"..."

"You should know that even if you had done that, and you go ahead to play this whole conversation for Hua Zhendan, he still wouldn't go after Xuan Tianyi because Xuan Tianyi did make a choice to leave him."

"..."

"Even if he gets mad at me, he'll just forgive me a little later."

"..."

Shen Rui pushed the now-empty plate of cake away. "I really enjoyed this cake, since this bill is on you, can I order another one?"

Still wordless, Qiu Dawei got up and walked out of the cafe.