The Sacred Ruins

Chapter 99: Headline Material

Panda Novel

Both ran away. They ran shoulder to shoulder, darting out through the door then vanished without a trace.

WHOOSH!

Ye Qingrou walked away as well. Even without the use of her wings, she was still nimble in movement and fast in pace. She vanished from her seat, and in the twinkling of an eye, she reappeared outside the diner.

"Oh my darling mistress! My sister Qingrou! Wait for me!" Du Huaijin the Clairvoyant cried. He and Ouyang Qing the Clairaudient immediately followed. Because they had realized things might have taken an ominous turn, and for the sake of their own life, they should better run.

"Is that… Jiang Luoshen?!" People in the diner started a riot. They had been encircling the place to spectate the drama, but those who were desperate to escape still managed to break up the crowd and ran away.

There were eighty-eight floors in Clear Sky Tower. This was a deluxe restaurant. Customers usually came in great numbers, but although the place was packed, normally, it was very quiet. Slow-paced music was played in the background, making the place full of exotic character.

However, the place was a mess right now. People all stood on their feet, craning their necks and looking around. Their eager eyes were searching for Jiang Luoshen.

"Did Jiang Luoshen come to this place just then?!"

"Yes, indeed! I saw her with my own eyes! It was our ‘national goddess’!" some people made a solemn vow that they had seen her just then; but at the same time, they were quite regretful too. Because by the time they recognized her, she was already heading out.

Had they known about her presence here a tad earlier, they would have all swarmed around her and asked for her signature. Some might even ask for a selfie together.

The silence at the diner was lost in people’s commotion.

"How is that possible? How come our ‘goddess’ was having lunch with another man? Was he dating her?" someone from the crowd wailed.

People who were sitting near that table brought "truth" to the light. They said that Jiang Luoshen was indeed having lunch with a man. It looked like they were dating.

This was an explosive news. Once it got circulated in the public, it would create a great stir throughout the country.

Jiang Luoshen had been in the movies since she was still a student. She graduated last year. She was a pretty young girl. There hadn’t been any scandals around her, and that’s why people called her a "national goddess". They praised for her intact virginity.

But everything seemed to change from today onwards. It was like a mine had suddenly exploded. Some people might wish for peace and calm after the incident, but the masses could not just rest in peace for something so sensational.

"Anyone took a photo? Oh my god! This is a news that can be sold at an exorbitant price! Someone, quickly, call the Press! This is a headline-worthy news!"

The diner was in turmoil.

While everyone else had made their escape, Xia Tianyu was left behind. She was not a mutant, and she was weak and slender, so it was hard for her to run for a timely escape.

How she wished that she could find a crack on the floor and hide herself in there!

Because as she tried to sneak away amidst all the mess there was in the diner, a waitress stopped her. The waitress politely asked her to pay for the dining.

At the same time, another horde of people poured in around her. They had confirmed that she was the girl with Jiang Luoshen, so they wanted to take selfies with her as well.

Xia Qianyu was scared sh*tless. In a hurry, she grabbed a plate to cover her face and quickly scurried on. She wanted to be out of this place as soon as she could. "This is so bloody shameful!" she cursed under her breath.

"Miss! You haven’t paid yet!" The waitress was quite persistent. Wherever Xia Qingyu went, the waitress was always close at heel. She was still asking her to pay in a courteous manner.

The manager of the diner had been startled. People had notified him of the turmoil outside as soon as the commotion broke out.

"Everyone, please! Make way for her! Show some respect, please." The manager was steady and calm. He brushed aside the crowd and made way for Xia Qianyu. He then kindly asked her to follow him to a quieter place.

Xia Qianyu had never felt so ashamed before. She blamed that lecher, Chu Feng, for all this embarrassment today. She gritted her teeth in anger.

At the same time, she was blaming Jiang Luoshen too. How could she just leave her behind like this?

"Manager, this lady had spent a total of…" The waitress came over and showed the bill.

Xia Qianyu grew dizzy when she heard the amount due. It was a great sum. In fact, it cost her a few-months-worth of wage, causing her face to grow pale.

She had neither cash nor savings in the bank. As a graduate, her career as an actress was only at a start. The days when she could spend money like water sounded like fairy tales to her.

"Goddamn it!" Xia Qianyu cursed under her breath. How did everything go so wrong? Why did she have to pay off everything? She had no clues, but she was damn angry about it!

…

Chu Feng and Jiang Luoshen ran like a gale. They darted into the elevator together then crazily smashed their fingers on the G button.

Jiang Luoshen ran because she was afraid that someone might take a photo of her dating with another man. She would kill to prevent that kind of scandal breaking out in the public.

"Why are you running?!" Jiang Luoshen raised her chin and glowered at him. She darted a fierce look as she glared with anger.

"How couldn’t I? After all, I’m someone shrouded in the halo of being the boyfriend of our ‘national goddess’. Do you think with that title on my head, I would stay at that place, letting them bomb me with questions about our privacies? You know, things that I feel too shy to speak out. Certainly not," Chu Feng casually answered.

Jiang Luoshen ground her teeth as she stood scowled at this man.

What privacies? He made it sound as if something had ever happened between them. Most importantly, what made him qualified as her boyfriend? "Shameless scrub!" Jiang Luoshen cursed.

But her anger didn’t vent itself in curses; she wanted to slap him in the face!

"Don’t get all jumpy and angry here. These are not my words; they are words from the mouth of those people in the diner. You don’t have to believe me now, but we’ll see tomorrow when all the news agents publish their papers with our story on the headline," Chu Feng said. He then whispered, "I wouldn’t mind if things would end like this, but I don’t think it will. I will get all the hate, envy and curse from people for no apparent reason… I’ll perhaps become the luckiest unluckiest man in the world for the next few days." Chu Feng shook his head.

That charming face of Jiang Luoshen suddenly screamed murder!

Her parents had always been strict with her. Coming from noble ancestry, she had learnt every form of social propriety since childhood. She was a woman of grace and elegance, a fine lady with dignified carriage.

But right now, she wanted to beat him up. However, even that might not be enough to vent her spleen!

Chu Feng looked at her in shock and said, "What’s wrong, milady? Are you feeling quite alright? Why are you fingers shaking like that?"

"I want to kill you!" Jiang Luoshen spoke between clenched teeth. The quivering of her hands was because of her anger. Her soft and delicate hand was now a fist that was about the size of a steamed bun.

A man could not be any more awful than this. Her mask was used to cover his mouth, and her shades were taken to hide the shape of his face. He stripped things off her while still making frivolous remarks to piss her off.

But soon, they arrived at the ground floor.

Just as Chu Feng was about to run, Jiang Luoshen caught him by his arm and said, "Don’t you run, you bastard. See how I’ll deal with you later!"

"Hey, hasn’t your father ever taught you that men and women shouldn’t be touching each other?" Chu Feng said through the mask.

"Come with me!" She dragged him with her while running at a great speed.

"Oh, come on! Too fast! Too fast! I can’t run… I can’t run… You… carry me on your back." Chu Feng panted and gasped on purpose.

Jiang Luoshen had it enough. "Carry you on my back? Why didn’t you ask me to carry you in my bloody hand?" Jiang Luoshen muttered curses. At last, she forcibly dragged Chu Feng into a convenience store on the roadside.

The two barged into the store; Jiang Luoshen made a snapping of her fingers in front of the owner’s eyes, and the owner immediately passed out.

She was now ready to deal with Chu Feng. "Go to Hell, you shameless lecher!" she cursed under her breath.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Jiang Luoshen was still graceful and elegant even as she launched an offensive on her opponent. She swung like a delicate swan, but her power was extraordinary. Perhaps only Chu Feng could stand the blows she delivered; the strength and the explosiveness that came with her boxing hands could knock down any mutants in seconds.

However, the result was not what she had expected. She thought that a lecher wouldn’t be capable of anything, but the truth was, in the end, she became the one who was at the disadvantage. Chu Feng subdued her with ease.

"What happened?"

Clairvoyant and Clairaudient were truly worthy of their names. They sensed the traces left behind by Chu Feng, and by simply following the trail, they found the convenience store in which the actions were taking place.

They pushed open the door and entered the shop right when Chu Feng had Jiang Luoshen captured in his hand.

"Oh my god! I’m blown away with admiration and respect right, chief! You’re a bloody legend, man! How come I never know that you and Jiang Luoshen have developed such a great relationship? Look at that intimacy between you two. Getting physical in a public place with a large crowd, huh? Ain’t this worthy of a headline?" Ouyang Qing, the man with a big ear, shouted and cried. He pulled out his communicator and crack! He clicked the camera.

Chu Feng and Jiang Luoshen immediately detached from each other.

"Oh goddess mine! Do you know how sad I am? Sigh!" Du Huaijin, the man with a sharp eye, sighed out his grievances. He no longer asked for signatures.

Jiang Luoshen was so furious that she almost passed out. What a bunch of disgusting fellows they were!

She wanted to be out of here as soon as she could. Chu Feng’s strength and power shocked her. It was beyond her expectation. She was planning to have her own people from Bodhi Genetics to conduct a thorough investigation on him first before… she went on for him again!

"Give me my stuff!" Jiang Luoshen stretched out her hand.

Chu Feng took off the mask and the shades and passed it on to her. He said, "I like the cologne you used. It’s quite sweet."

Jiang Luoshen immediately got goosebumps all over her. What cologne? She had never used one today. Looking at the things that were being held at the man’s hand, she cringed away.

She didn’t even want to touch them. Things that were stained by a lecher were sickening, but without them, she would be recognized by the passers-by. There was no way that she was going to bolt like a wild horse all the way back.

"Goddess! Let me buy you another one!" Du Huaijin offered.

"No!" she flatly refused. She had obsession with cleanliness. She wanted her own belongings to stay untouched by any men.

Ye Qingrou smiled. She said, "Let me buy you then."

…

On the eighty-eighth floor of Clear Sky Tower, the manager kindly offered to remove all charges that had incurred today. He didn’t want to make things difficult for the lady.

He knew that she was a friend of Jiang Luoshen. He would rather leave a good impression on her than to embarrass her friend for some bucks. He could easily get the money back in the future by claiming that Jiang Luoshen had taken a favor on this place.

In the end, the manager chose to personally escort Xia Qianyu down to the ground floor so that no-one would disturb her along the way.

"You’re so kind, Mr. manager! Thank you very much!" Xia Qianyu was grateful, then she immediately turned around and ran off.

Xia Qianyu rang up Jiang Luoshen as she ran.

"Jiang Luoshen! You’re a bad company today! Where are you right now? Why did you leave me there all by myself? When none of those fervent fans could find you, they came to me for photos. I was surrounded and watched by all these weird people… and the waitress…the waitress thought that I was one of those dine-and-dash sort of people… Toot, toot… do you know how much of a fool I made of myself today…"

A quarter of an hour later, she found Jiang Luoshen at a convenience store on the verge of this busy downtown.

Chu Feng was there as well. Beside him, there were those two noisy bastards. Everyone was here. No-one seemed to have gone missing.

"You bloody lecher! I will fight you to the bitter end!" Xia Qianyu pounced on Chu Feng without demur. She had been down on her luck since the moment they met.

"Hey, excuse me, young lady? Lecher? What did I do to you? You can choose to dine and dash, but you should at least choose your words carefully when you talk to others, young lady." Chu Feng was not being a virtuous person here. He was still poking fun at her sore spot.

Because he had eavesdropped on her conversation with Jiang Luoshen on the phone, he knew that she had been somewhat detained by the waitress at the diner.

Chu Feng’s sense of hearing was just as sharp as that boasted by Clairaudient.

Chu Feng’s words had indeed touched her sore spot. Xia Qingyu blushed at the thought of those embarrassing moment; she was furious too. Those watery eyes of hers seemed like they were about to jet out flames of rage to incinerate this shameless man. It had really been her great misfortune to meet this man.

"Take a chill pill, sister. I will settle your bill in just a sec. Just take it as my treat," Clairaudient came up to her and said. He tried to cozy up to her with those words.

"Get lost, you big-eared monster!" Xia Qianyu wanted to pound him on his back. If this weird-looking man with a big ear hadn’t been speaking so indiscreetly back at the diner, she wouldn’t have been so wretched right now.

Jiang Luoshen came up to her and brought her away from this lot. The longer she spent with these fools, the more infuriated she would be; so, it was for the best that she stayed away from them.

Jiang Luoshen deeply understood how her sister felt. Just then, Jiang Luoshen was engaging in a silent stand-off against Chu Feng, but those two fools who were watching from the sidelines just couldn’t shut their bloody mouths! They were so shameless as well! They could bear to say anything, no matter how taboo they might sound. The "national goddess", graceful as she was, was still so irritated in the end that she almost wanted to rip the face of those big-mouths.

The willowy Ye Qingrou gracefully walked in. There was a bag in her hand. Within it, there was a pair of shades and a facial mask. She passed this to Jiang Luoshen and said, "Here, I’ve got them for you."

Jiang Luoshen had never been so awkward before. She quickly put on the mast and the shades, and now she was finally able to go back to be her own "goddess".

She had decided to carry out an investigation on Chu Feng via Xia Qingyu’s auntie.

Of course, she wished that she could get to know his backing right now. She was keen on understanding what had actually made him so strong.

Jiang Luoshen sized up Gu Huaijing the Clairvoyant, because those fiery looks in his eyes didn’t seem fake to her when he was asking for her signature.

"What on earth do you guys actually do?" she asked Clairvoyant.

"What do we do? We’re actors! What do actors do? Act!" Chu Feng vied to be the first to answer the question. Although exposing himself for what he was wouldn’t cause any problems for him either, he was only too glad to have the chance to make Jiang Luoshen’s life a bit more difficult.

Du Huaijin immediately came back to his senses when he heard Chu Feng mentioning acting. Because they were indeed shooting for a film a few days ago. He came up to Jiang Luoshen and began jabbering on.

"Let me tell you, goddess mine. We were shooting for a blockbuster a few days ago. It claimed to have an epoch-making significance in our history. It is a film elaborating on the grandness of our age as we come towards the end of an era. It has a sense of mystery as well. It coupled ancient mythology with modern tales. The leading role is an all-conquering sage coming from the ancient time… I know this sounds exciting, and I know you can’t wait… but you don’t have to! Soon, the film is going to be on air. This movie is a must for people of all age, background, gender, culture, sexuality, political affiliation… We will do well at the box office, and you will see, this movie will make history!"

In fact, these are the director’s, Zhou Yitian’s, words.

Clairvoyant stood there, boasting about his movie. Meanwhile, Xia Qianyu was standing right next to him, wishing that she could give this man a good round of beating. These people were all tarred with the same brush. They were rogues cut from the same cloth! Even the lies they told were pretty similar to each other. Both had used film shooting as the butt of their boast.

Clairaudient cut in on the conversation and said, "Yes, goddess of mine. This movie will be sensational when it comes out. Let’s just wait and see. We all went shooting for the film, so from now on, we are pretty much people who belonged to the same circle." He was even more shameless.

WHOOSH!

Jiang Luoshen couldn’t stand this anymore. She brought Xia Qianyu with her and ran off.

Rarely had anyone managed to make the "national goddess" take to her heels and run off like this. Most importantly, it was because what the two said mostly sounded like impudent remarks spewed out by some drunkards on the street.

"Jiang Luoshen. Talk to your PR manager and get things settled! I don’t want to see my name on the headline tomorrow! I’m still single! I still need to find a girlfriend!" Chu Feng shouted to the fading silhouettes of the fleeing couple.

Jiang Luoshen staggered when she heard his words. She looked over her shoulder and scowled at him for a brief second. Then, with her hand in that of Xia Qianyu, the two ran off out of sight and disappeared without a trace.

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