Chapter 517: My former beloved
"Turn it off! Enough already!" Tan Qingling suddenly yelled without any heed for her image whatsoever, "Enough already! Turn it off!"
When the scene of knitting a woolen sweater and that song appeared, Tan Qingling realised that something was wrong before everybody else. Naturally, she was clearest on what she had done.
Therefore, she could not let the broadcast continue.
Still, the images did not stop despite the fact that the one yelling was tonight"s female lead.
The one in charge of broadcasting seemed to have received instructions from a higher authority as he fully ignored Tan Qingling"s cries, paying them no heed.
The uncomprehending emcee got up, wanting to ask what the matter was, but somebody pressed him back down.
As the video continued playing, a frantic Tan Qingling ran towards the stage, looking a bit overwhelmed as she did so in her gown.
Two men in black suits obstructed her, saying expressionlessly, "Sorry, Miss Tan. Although you are...Boss Huang has instructed that this video be played in its entirety today regardless of whoever tries to stop it, whatever their means. We can do nothing about it too. Please understand."
Although they were speaking politely and ceremoniously, their att.i.tudes were firm and unyielding.
These two security guards were Huang Yaming"s right-hand men in Bright Brilliance and were absolutely loyal to him. This was clearly a deliberate move on Huang Yaming"s part.
And Huang Yaming had specifically instructed: Regardless of whom, whatever their means.
Without question, this referred to Tan Qingling. It was equivalent to Huang Yaming telling her through the security guards: Today, it won"t be of any use even if you cry, make a scene, and attempt to hang yourself.
Tan Qingling"s face was deathly ashen as she recalled with a start how Huang Yaming would use the same line previously every time she had desperately tried to get him to give in: Don"t force me.
Did this line of rejection mean don"t force me to love you? ...But how could love be forced?
So, Huang Yaming"s don"t force me...it was really: Don"t force me to take revenge on you.
He had desired to forget about that earlier relations.h.i.+p, love and hatred, happiness and betrayal all returning to nothing as they became strangers forevermore. This was actually magnanimity on his part. And yet Tan Qingling had come looking for him, wracking her brains and exerting countless means.
Realisation suddenly dawned upon Tan Qingling. Sadly, it was already too late. She slumped defeatedly to the ground. While there was resentment on her face, more of it was despair and derision as there was self-mockery in her smile.
She had been overestimating herself all along, having underestimated Huang Yaming too.
She actually did not understand the current Huang Yaming at all. She only saw his glory and fame, his authority and his rule...yet had forgotten to think about what this entailed, how Huang Yaming would have qualitatively changed alongside that.
How could the current Huang Yaming who was able to laugh and chat with the Binzhou Thirty as they all privately schemed against one another still possibly be the silly boy from back then?
Her intelligence had been her own undoing?
She had schemed and schemed, yet…
Just like the meaning behind Huang Yaming"s "don"t force me", Tan Qingling knew that she had brought his vengeance upon herself.
……
The expression of the joyful female lead had suddenly changed so drastically. Everyone was inevitably bemused as they stared at her in puzzlement.
Actually, only a very short time had pa.s.sed, and the images on the screen still gave off warm, happy vibes. The girl was secretly knitting a woolen sweater for the boy in her dorm. The boy was clearly aware of this yet pretended not to know, happily and silently awaiting her present…
"Even if the accompanying music is too thoughtless and the joke"s a bit too much...there"s no need for such a big reaction, right? Can"t she just lecture him back home later?"
This was what some people thought as they saw how Tan Qingling was acting. Then, their thoughts were immediately interrupted by shocked exclamations and murmurs all around…
Their gazes returned to the screen. Soon, everyone could tell that something was up.
"The sweater wasn"t for Huang Yaming?"
"It seems so."
"A s.h.i.+fting of affections?"
The images on the screen answered them. The girl got on somebody else"s car and gifted it to another.
The guy received a call and slumped limply to the ground…
"Clinging to a rich guy?"
"Looks like it! The girl"s a senior high student, but just look at that other guy. He isn"t young, right. And that car too! It"s a Don"t (B) Touch (M) Me (W)!"
"So, something"s definitely wrong…"
Everyone understood that if he truly was playing the romantic and reminiscing...this scene would definitely not have appeared.
Much less the following scenes.
On a winter night, the boy stood at a corner of the school"s main gate, waiting. The female lead got off that BMW and glanced at that corner. Then, she turned and kissed the person in the car goodbye, smiling sweetly as she waved farewell.
"The heck, b.i.t.c.h!" A youngster present was infuriated by this as he growled angrily.
Perhaps he was simply unable to help himself as this tale was narrated to him. Yet, right here, right now, these words were clearly a bombsh.e.l.l on Tan Qingling"s reputation.
The images continued to unfold. The boy"s dispiritedness and period of gallivanting were not avoided as they were shown in their entirety.
Song Ni tugged at Xu Tingsheng and Fu Cheng, questioning, "You"re not going to mind this?"
"Mind what?" Xu Tingsheng asked, "We can"t stop it either. Huang Yaming never told us anything about this. By that, he clearly means for us not to get involved in this matter."
"Could something happen to her?" Song Ni pointed rather worriedly at Tan Qingling, "Didn"t she try to kill herself twice before…"
"Well...actually, I don"t think she"s the sort of person who would kill herself," Fu Cheng said.
The implied meaning was: Somebody who can be so besotted with status and wealth from such a young age, who can abandon a person for money and shamelessly go back to look for that person, exerting all means for the sake of again money...how would this sort of person who loves themselves so much possibly bear to kill themselves?
So, those two events should only have been performances and nothing more. She had merely been a bit harsher on herself.
Tan Qingling had only invited one of her cla.s.smates today, and that was the one who had helped her make those two phone calls...this seemed to perfectly substantiate this point.
Xu Tingsheng and Fu Cheng had actually already thought of this beforehand. It was just that they had no way of telling it to Huang Yaming. After all, as Huang Yaming had just said he would be getting engaged, Tan Qingling would soon be his fiancee. Meanwhile, both Xu Tingsheng and Fu Cheng were well aware of how much he had once loved Tan Qingling.
Towards the end of the video clip, a row of words appeared on the screen for the first time.
"I gave my conscience to a woman once. She threw it on the ground and stomped on it repeatedly. It hurt a lot. Still, that was fine. It was in the past. We would simply be strangers forevermore. After all, before I hated her, I once loved her.
Still, you just can"t treat me like a fool, my former beloved…
Since you forced me to be a sc.u.mbag, how could you still dare to trust me? Play me as a fool? I"m a sc.u.mbag now, my former beloved…"
After a sea of exclamations came silence.
In showing others these past affairs, while Tan Qingling would indeed lose her reputation and fall into despair, how would Huang Yaming himself have it good too?
Tan Qingling"s handphone buzzed.
"For our parents and relatives not to be present is really my final leniency. Leave. Henceforth, we"re strangers forevermore…"