Chapter 300: Lin Xiang, the Smart One! Susan, the One Who Got Intercepted!
Five million!
The number hung in the air like a guillotine blade.
Such a large sum was astronomical to an ordinary high school graduate. Not to mention him, even his parents—who were respected teachers—couldn't come up with it instantly unless they sold their house and emptied their life savings.
Lin Xiang was enraged. His face flushed red, not with shame, but with the indignation of someone who believed the world was unfair to him. He pointed a trembling finger at the calm, smiling man in front of him and indignantly said:
"Are you trying to extort me? This small scratch, at most, needs some paint touch-up. It's just a line! How could it possibly cost five million in repairs? You're robbing me!"
Susan looked at Shen Anyu with disappointment, her large eyes dimming. She hadn't expected this handsome, seemingly gentle big brother to be so greedy. Five million was indeed too much for a scratch. It felt like bullying.
Shen Anyu wasn't angry at the accusation. He didn't even frown. He maintained his elegant, unbothered posture, leaning against the car door. He smiled, pulled out his phone, opened the photo album, and displayed the car's official purchase invoice and price tag to Susan and Lin Xiang.
"Take a closer look. It's a global limited edition convertible Bugatti Veyron, the 'La Finale' series, top-of-the-line configuration. I spent 150 million Yuan to get it, including taxes and import duties."
He zoomed in on the figures, letting the zeros burn into their retinas.
"I just bought it yesterday and have only driven it once. It was pristine."
"The body is made of carbon fiber weave with a unique, custom paint job that cannot be replicated by ordinary shops. After the vehicle is repaired from damage, its value as a collector's item will be greatly discounted. It needs to be shipped back to the original factory in France for repairs, involving logistics, insurance, and the craftsmanship of master artisans."
"Is five million for repairs too much? I'm actually quoting you a friendship price."
"If you don't agree, we can call the police right now, go to a designated appraisal center, and have a professional assess the loss. By then, with the depreciation costs added..."
Shen Anyu paused, his smile widening slightly, looking like a devil whispering a contract.
"...The cost might be seven or eight million."
Through the nanometer monitoring robot, Shen Anyu found that Wen Feifei's side was temporarily fine; she was just filming scenes. So, he wasn't in a hurry to go there. He had plenty of time to play with this young, naive couple.
And he left a nanometer monitoring robot on both Lin Xiang and Susan as surveillance. These microscopic spies attached themselves to their clothes unnoticed.
This nanometer monitoring robot was truly useful. Although it had no offensive power, even a Heavenly Human expert would find it difficult to detect its faint signal, and every move they made was within Shen Anyu's sight.
Looking at the pale, sweating Lin Xiang and the flustered, teary-eyed Susan, Shen Anyu smiled and continued, his voice gentle but heavy with pressure:
"By then, the five million repair cost might even be more. And it will be on your permanent record."
"I'm in a good mood today, and seeing that you're still young and just starting your lives, I'm only asking for this price. It's a lesson fee."
[Ding! Child of Destiny Lin Xiang is panicking, plundering +9999 destiny value!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Lin Xiang feels powerless, plundering +9999 destiny value!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Lin Xiang's fate has significantly changed, plundering +50000 destiny value!]
...
Shen Anyu was in a good mood. The sound of the system notifications was music to his ears. With this destiny value, not to mention a five-million loss, even a five-hundred-million loss would be recovered instantly.
For Shen Anyu, worldly money and wealth no longer mattered much. He didn't even bother to know how much property he owned; the numbers in his bank account were just strings of data that grew automatically. In any case, the richest man in Yanxia didn't have as much liquid cash as him.
But destiny value was extraordinarily significant, transcending the mundane and incredible. It was the currency of power, of life, of altering reality itself.
If he had enough destiny value, he could even oversee everything, standing above the heavens, without worrying about any Infinite-Flow Child of Destiny or Immortal Emperor Returns Child of Destiny.
Of course, Shen Anyu would not back down just because he made a huge profit. He was a villain; he didn't do charity for protagonists.
Watching Lin Xiang's helplessness, seeing him freeze like a deer in headlights, a hint of disappointment and helplessness flashed in Susan's beautiful eyes. She realized that Lin Xiang, the boy she admired for his "free spirit," was completely useless in a real crisis.
She took a deep breath, suppressing her fear. She stepped forward, shielding Lin Xiang behind her, bowed deeply to Shen Anyu, and said pitifully, her voice trembling:
"Big brother, I... we are just prospective freshmen who just finished our exams. We haven't even started university. There's no way we can come up with five million for repairs. Our families are just ordinary working class. Can you... can you be a little more lenient? Please?"
As she said these words, Susan felt extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed. Her face burned. She felt that she was being a bit shameless, using moral blackmail, using her weakness to beg for mercy.
It was clearly Lin Xiang's fault for being too pleased with himself, showing off by taking his hands off the bicycle handlebars, which led to the loss of control and the scrape.
The big brother in front of her was just an innocent victim. He did nothing wrong.
But she couldn't just watch her childhood friend Lin Xiang go down a dead end because of this five million repair fee. It would ruin his life before it began.
"Big brother, we can pay you back later. We will work hard. How about installments? I can write you an IOU..."
Susan's eyes shimmered with tears, her long lashes wet. Combined with her unparalleled beautiful face, she looked like a fallen angel begging for redemption. She was truly endearing.
Even Shen Anyu was somewhat moved by her beauty and loyalty, let alone Lin Xiang.
When Lin Xiang saw this scene, his heart ached to the extreme. His fists clenched until his knuckles turned white. His beloved Susan, his heart's treasure, his goddess, had to bow and apologize with a smile because of the trouble he caused.
It was humiliating. It was a slap in the face of his masculinity.
This humiliation also ignited the unruliness and rebelliousness in Lin Xiang's heart. He refused to accept this reality.
He was not stupid; on the contrary, he was very clever and had a lot of small wits—the kind of street smarts that worked in school but failed in the real world.
Immediately, Lin Xiang's eyes darted around, scanning the surroundings. He noticed the desolate road, the lack of cameras, the distance to the nearest intersection. A plan formed in his mind.
He pulled Susan back and said to Shen Anyu, feigning composure:
"Big brother, this is a big matter. Let Susan and I discuss it for a moment, then we'll inform our families and give you a satisfactory answer, how about that? We need to call our parents."
Shen Anyu smiled faintly. He saw through the boy's clumsy acting instantly. He looked at Lin Xiang with a meaningful gaze, one that seemed to say 'I know what you're thinking,' and nodded.
"For the sake of this young girl Susan's plea, I'll give you time to discuss. Don't take too long."
[Ding! Detected destined heroine Susan's favorability +10, plundering +30000 destiny value!]
...
"Thank you, big brother! You are a good person! Lin Xiang and I will give you a satisfactory answer."
Susan breathed a sigh of relief, smiling sweetly in thanks. She wiped her tears and then walked aside with Lin Xiang, pushing their bicycles to the edge of the road, thinking they were going to call their parents.
"Lin Xiang, what do we do now? Should I call my dad first?" Susan asked anxiously.
As soon as these words fell, Lin Xiang leaned in close, his voice low and urgent:
"Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the best is to run away! Susan, listen to me. There are no surveillance cameras around here. I checked! So let's make a quick escape! Once we get into the small alleys, his car can't follow us!"
"What?!" Susan gasped.
As his voice fell, Lin Xiang didn't wait for her agreement. He jumped on his bike, pedaling furiously, beckoning Susan to follow. He veered off the main road and left towards a nearby small dirt path that cut through the woods.
Susan was completely stunned. Her mind went blank. She reflexively pedaled her bike to follow him because she trusted him, and by the time she realized what was happening, she had already ridden several miles. Shen Anyu and the black convertible Bugatti Veyron behind them were out of sight, left in the dust.
They stopped panting in a secluded park.
"Lin Xiang, you, you..."
Susan's small face turned red as she looked at the young man ahead. Lin Xiang was laughing wildly and unrestrainedly, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Her mind was filled with lingering fear and disbelief.
She hadn't expected Lin Xiang to simply choose to run away. It was... cowardly. It was wrong.
"Hahaha! Did you see his face? That fool! He must be dumbfounded by now, right? Waiting there like an idiot!"
Lin Xiang put one foot on the ground, stopped his bicycle, and his face was full of smiles, as if he had won a great victory against an evil boss.
He, Lin Xiang, was the campus bully, the number one on the truancy rankings. He lived by his own rules. How could he honestly pay compensation?
Not to mention five million. That was slavery!
"Lin Xiang, this is wrong..."
Susan bit her pink lips, her voice trembling. "We damaged his property. We should pay. Running away makes us criminals."
As a good girl raised with proper morals, she had never done such a bad thing. Scraping someone's car and then just fleeing—it weighed heavily on her conscience.
Lin Xiang was displeased by her lack of enthusiasm. He snorted coldly, justifying his actions:
"Susan, you're too naive. That rich man is simply heartless. For such a small scratch, he wants me to pay five million? He's clearly gone crazy for money! He's a capitalist vampire!"
"I fled with a clear conscience! He was trying to scam us! Anyway, there are no surveillance cameras around, and I noticed that his car didn't have a dashcam or anything. He was too arrogant."
"We fled, and he has no evidence at all. What can he do to us? He doesn't know our names or where we live. We are ghosts to him!"
He was extremely displeased with the rich and handsome Shen Anyu. Especially since his beloved Susan, his white moonlight, had just apologized repeatedly to that man, her eyes red and almost tearing up. Seeing her bow to another man made him sick with jealousy.
So what if he ran? It was a strike against the rich! What could be done to him?
The thought of Shen Anyu standing there dumbfounded next to his scratched car, like an idiot who lost five million, made Lin Xiang burst into laughter again.
"Lin Xiang, you've disappointed me too much!"
The good girl Susan, rarely angry, suddenly shouted. Her eyes were full of disappointment. She realized that Lin Xiang wasn't a "free spirit"; he was just irresponsible.
She got on her bike and tried to leave, turning her back on him.
Lin Xiang immediately became anxious, more anxious than when he had just scraped the luxury car. He blocked Susan's path with his bike, panic setting in.
"Susan, wait! Don't be mad! We still have to go to Riverside to watch the fireworks display. Don't you want to see it too? I planned it for weeks!"
Susan's pretty face showed a hint of anger, and she looked at Lin Xiang huffily, her tone cold.
"I'm not going! I'm going home."
Watching Susan walk away, Lin Xiang's face immediately fell. The joy of "victory" vanished.
He had originally planned to confess to Susan during the Riverside fireworks display, under the romantic lights, and perhaps even get a first kiss from his goddess Susan. It was supposed to be the start of their love story.
But now, it was all for nothing.
"It's all that bastard's fault! If he hadn't been there, if his car hadn't been in the way, Susan wouldn't be angry!"
At this moment, Lin Xiang even started to blame Shen Anyu for his own incompetence.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Lin Xiang's emotional line has significantly changed, plundering +50000 destiny value!]
...
What Lin Xiang didn't know was that his "escape" was entirely within Shen Anyu's calculations.
On the other side of the park exit, Susan was pedaling with tears in her eyes, wanting to go home and forget this terrible day.
Suddenly, a sleek black shadow glided silently out of the shadows, blocking the narrow path.
It was the Bugatti Veyron. The scratch on the side seemed to mock her.
Shen Anyu leaned against the hood, crossing his arms, looking at the stunned girl with a gentle, yet terrifying smile.
"Running away so soon? The discussion didn't seem to take very long."
Susan's path was blocked by Shen Anyu...
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