Chapter 67: Are You the Black Mountain Old Demon?**
Wu Yifan had figured Ye Xiwen would toss him a few packs of instant noodles and call it a "thank you," but he was proven wrong. She'd hauled in a mountain of groceries—over a dozen types of vegetables, slabs of meat, a plump carp, fresh seafood, and ribs. The spread looked like she was planning a feast, a real "thank you" for how he'd pulled Infinity out of its crisis.
"Ms. Ye, you're not actually gonna cook all this yourself, are you?" Wu Yifan helped heave the bulging bags into the trunk, his face etched with disbelief. Could he really blame himself? These days, most young women couldn't boil water without burning the pot, let alone whip up a proper meal. Scrambled eggs or instant noodles were their culinary peak. A full feast? It sounded more impossible than climbing to the moon.
Ye Xiwen wore a warm, inviting smile, hands planted firmly on her shapely hips as she met his gaze. "If you want to help, be my guest. I won't stop you."
"Ahem. It's getting late—let's get going, shall we?" Wu Yifan quickly steered the conversation elsewhere. No way was he volunteering for kitchen duty.
Ye Xiwen hid a laugh at his obvious evasion, then slid into the driver's seat. The car purred to life, speeding toward her apartment complex.
Wu Yifan lounged in the back, eyes fixed on Ye Xiwen's profile as she navigated the road. *What man doesn't dream of having it all?* he mused. The fantasy of surrounded by beauty, living the good life—it had once been just that, a fantasy. But ever since the 智能夹持器 (zhìnéng jiāchíqì, intelligent clamp device) had turned his luck around, things felt different. Even if that stunning woman from this morning hadn't worked out, winning over someone like Ye Xiwen? That would be幸福 (xìngfú, happiness) enough.
"I'm only treating you to dinner to repay you for helping Infinity," Ye Xiwen said, catching his grin in the rearview mirror. Her tone was defensive, but there was a flicker of something softer. "Don't get any ideas."
"Me? Ideas? Never," Wu Yifan chuckled, though his eyes twinkled.
Ye Xiwen shot him a sideways glance, then sighed, letting the subject drop.
Wu Yifan knew roughly where Ye Xiwen lived but had never visited. As the car glided into a leafy, upscale neighborhood, he let out a low whistle. *Rich people really do live differently.*
The complex was Beitian's crème de la crème—wide, tree-lined streets swept clean, lush gardens bursting with flowers, and architecture that screamed "luxury." The air smelled like fresh grass and jasmine, not the exhaust and garbage of the downtown he was used to. No wonder people obsessed over status, he thought. Money *did* change everything. A pang of ambition hit him—maybe it was time to stop coasting, to plan for a future that didn't involve security guard uniforms.
He'd grown so quiet that Ye Xiwen glanced back, surprised. Normally, he was cracking jokes or bickering. Now, he stared out the window, a thoughtful frown on his face—like a philosopher pondering life's mysteries, calm and profound, with a quiet confidence that made her heart skip a beat.
*Who is he, really?* she wondered.
In her years running Infinity, she'd met every type of man—rich, powerful, handsome, charming. None had left her feeling this… curious. He acted like a lazy security guard, but there were moments—tiny, fleeting—when he carried himself like royalty. If he was truly wealthy, why waste his time at Infinity? What had happened to him before he'd lost his memory?
"Ms. Ye! Watch the road!" Wu Yifan's shout jolted her back to reality.
She looked up to see half a dozen luxury sports cars roaring toward them, engines howling. They were way over the speed limit, swerving like drunken wasps.
"Ah!" Ye Xiwen paled. Years of driving experience kicked in—she swerved hard to the curb, tires screeching.
But the sports cars, whether by accident or on purpose, kept veering toward her. Even after she'd hugged the edge of the road, they wobbled closer, forcing her to jerk the wheel again.
The lead car—a sky-blue BMW—slammed on its brakes. The sudden stop sent a teenage girl in the driver's seat lurching forward, her seatbelt straining. With a sickening *crunch*, the BMW nuzzled Ye Xiwen's car.
"Bang!"
Both Wu Yifan and Ye Xiwen jolted in their seats. The impact wasn't catastrophic, but it was enough to make their teeth rattle.
Ye Xiwen's brows furrowed as she glared at the girl in the BMW. She wasn't one of those billionaires who bought mansions on a whim, nor a trophy wife with a closet full of designer bags. She'd scraped and saved for years to buy this apartment, and her Magotan? It was her pride and joy, hard-earned. Seeing it dented—over some rich kid's reckless driving—made her chest ache.
Wu Yifan was fuming. He'd been looking forward to a nice evening, maybe even inching closer to Ye Xiwen. Instead, this. He threw open his door and stalked over—only to be cut off by the BMW's driver, a teenage girl who'd stormed out, hands on hips.
"Can't you drive?!" she shrieked, pointing at her car's bumper. "You scratched it! Do you even *know* how much this costs? You two look like trouble—we're not leaving till you fix this!"
Wu Yifan checked the damage: a few dents on both cars, nothing a mechanic couldn't fix. He scoffed. "I was gonna ask who's driving like a maniac, turning a sports car into a fighter jet. Turns out it's you—the Black Mountain Old Demon (a fearsome demon from Chinese folklore)." He eyed her wild hair—half red, half blue, sticking up like a porcupine—and her face caked in makeup, eyes ringed in black, lips a garish red. "Dressed like that, driving like a lunatic—you're polluting the air and scaring the neighbors. Do us all a favor and crawl back to Lion Camel Ridge (a demon-infested mountain from *Journey to the West*). The human world's too dangerous for you. What if you run into Sun Wukong?"
"You—you *what*?!" The girl sputtered, eyes wide. No one had ever dared call her that. She looked ready to explode.
She was skinny for her age, but her style screamed "rebellious teen"—the kind that called themselves "new humans" online. Wu Yifan had thought Mu Xiaoyao was edgy, but compared to this girl, Xiaoyao was a model student. Her arrogance only made his mood worse.
He clutched his chest, feigning terror. "Oh no! Good thing it's still light out. If it were dark, I'd swear I'd seen a ghost. Fancy neighborhood like this, and we've got spirits haunting the streets? Is the apocalypse here already?"
"You—you…!" The girl was no match for his sharp tongue. She stood there, red-faced, sputtering, while her friends—piling out of a Porsche and a Lamborghini—stomped over. They were just as weirdly dressed, just as cocky, eyeing Wu Yifan like he was a bug.
"Bao'er, this old guy's got a death wish," one guy sneered. "Let's teach him a lesson."
"Hey, there's a chick in the car," another snickered. "Bet he's her sugar baby."
"Looks like a pair of lowlifes," a girl added. "Who do they think they are?"
Bao'er—apparently that was her name—perked up at the backup. "He called me the Black Mountain Old Demon! Told me to go back to Lion Camel Ridge! What do you say we do?"
Her friends erupted.
"Who the hell are you, dissing Bao'er? You wanna die?"
"Let's trash their car! Then strip 'em and hang 'em from the tree!"
"Let everyone in Beitian see these two lovebirds!"
Wu Yifan crossed his arms, unimpressed. Ye Xiwen, finally climbing out of the car, placed a hand on his arm—calm, but her jaw was tight.
This was about to get messy.