Chapter 59: Betrayal Worth Five Hundred Thousand

Wei Zi cast a calm and indifferent glance at the text displayed on the screen.

"Wei Zi, why haven't you been replying to me lately? Can we meet up and talk? I have something I want to tell you!"

"Who is messaging you?" Zhou Xiaoya asked casually from the side.

"Wang Ling!" Wei Zi smiled, completely unconcerned.

"That scumbag? What does he want with you? Let me see!" Zhou Xiaoya immediately leaned over with a righteous indignation. After reading Wang Ling's message, she spat and said, "A-Zi, don't believe him! Just look at this tone—isn't he trying to confess his love? Nonsense! Jin Xue'er's feed is currently full of pictures of the two of them together; they are definitely hooking up!"

"Is that so?" Wei Zi said very calmly. In truth, she already knew all of this.

Because back then, right after her face was disfigured and she had escaped from Xing Haotian, the very first person she thought of was Wang Ling.

Unfortunately, after going through untold hardships to find Wang Ling, all she saw was him sending Jin Xue'er off, the two of them being all over each other and acting as sweet as could be.

At that moment, she felt as though the sky had collapsed!

She had lost her peerless beauty, lost her most precious chastity, and even the boy she had a secret crush on had found a new love.

It felt as though the entire world had abandoned her.

However, Wei Zi had hoped that Wang Ling could take her in for a little while, because she was penniless and unable to survive on her own. She hoped Wang Ling could lend her some money.

Back then, Wei Zi's Xuan core had just awakened. As a Xuan practitioner, her perception was a bit sharper than an ordinary person's. Combined with the massive shock she had suffered, she was on edge and suspicious of everyone. Shockingly, she discovered that Wang Ling was secretly making a call to Wei Dongming.

Because Wei Dongming knew that Wei Zi had been auctioned off to some big shot, he was terrified that she might latch onto a wealthy patron and bring trouble to him later on. Therefore, he had warned these classmates in advance. Zhou Xiaoya was already dead, and the only person Wei Zi was close to was Wang Ling.

She remembered clearly that during the communication, Wang Ling demanded 500,000 from Wei Dongming before he would hand Wei Zi over.

Heh, 500,000—that was all it took to betray a young girl who had once shared mutual affection with him!

Back when she fled, Wang Ling even called upon the neighbors to chase after Wei Zi, claiming that she was a thief who had stolen things from his house.

Recalling how she had been chased and beaten by the mob back then, looking as wretched and pathetic as a street rat, Wei Zi felt no hatred in her heart—only bitterness and an endless sorrow that made her want to howl and cry out loud!

The reason she had liked Wang Ling in the first place was because he had taken meticulous care of her back in the primary initiation school. When she was abused by He Xiaohe, and sometimes even had to save her breakfast money or suffered from mild anemia, Wang Ling would always show up at the exact right moment to hand her a can of pure milk or a beautifully packaged bread!

Even though it was the tiniest of favors, it made Wei Zi feel immensely sweet inside.

Wei Zi was undoubtedly filled with self-doubt back then, and she had silently thought to herself that if she ever became wealthy and inherited her maternal grandfather's estate, she would definitely repay Wang Ling ten times, a hundred times, or even a thousand times over.

He was the only male who had ever broken into her heart.

Yet all that sweetness was cast into the abyss that day, transformed into a sword used by the other party to strike back at her.

The betrayal of only the closest person could cut to the quick and cause the most heart-wrenching pain.

Although that was a matter buried deep within Wei Zi's memories for a very long time, unearthing it now still made it feel raw and bleeding!

The events of her past life had not happened in this present life, after all. Wei Zi did not wish to see Wang Ling, but the current Wang Ling had not yet committed any wrongdoing. Even in the eyes of others, her present self probably still owed Wang Ling!

From Wei Zi's perspective, she and Wang Ling were now even; whatever kindness Wang Ling had shown her had been completely erased by his greed. In this lifetime, however, she did not want to have any entanglement with Wang Ling whatsoever.

Ideally, they would owe each other nothing!

"A-Zi, you must not go see him!" Zhou Xiaoya said.

"Mm, I know. Even if he wants to see me, I have no way of going back!" Wei Zi said as she quickly typed a response into her communicator. Although she was prepared to repay Wang Ling, she did not want to upset Zhou Xiaoya. In her eyes, if there was still one person in this world who was truly her closest confidante, that person was undoubtedly Zhou Xiaoya!

She could gladly pay with her life for Zhou Xiaoya's sake, because she owed Zhou Xiaoya that much.

"I'm not in the Imperial Capital right now; I'm inside the First Academy!" Wei Zi sent the message, feeling that this excuse was more than sufficient.

"That's perfect! I'm also at the First Academy, right at the Xinxin Coffee Shop by the academy gates. I really hope we can talk face-to-face!" Wang Ling quickly replied.

Wei Zi was stunned for a moment. Meanwhile, Zhou Xiaoya, who had been reading the messages over her shoulder, said fiercely, "It's a trap! This is definitely a trap! He's even ambushing us right at our doorstep. Wei Zi, don't go!"

"I don't want to go either, but perhaps he really does have something important to discuss!" Wei Zi was actually quite puzzled as well. Although Wang Ling had a favorable impression of her and would care for her, based on her memories from her past life, that kind of care was more akin to charity—much like seeing a pitiful yet pretty stray cat; if you had a couple of spare coins to spare, you wouldn't mind buying a fish sausage to tease it. The cat would let you stroke its fur and you could even take a picture to show off to your other friends.

As for Wang Ling, he was somewhat conceited and arrogant by nature. It was rather bizarre for him to go to such lengths to get Wei Zi to come out, and she genuinely wanted to see what he was up to.

"Xiaoya, since he's already at our doorstep, I'll just go take a look!" Wei Zi said.

"No way, I'm not comfortable with this. I'm going with you!" Zhou Xiaoya declared.

Wei Zi figured that since she intended to make a clean break with Wang Ling this time, she naturally had to fulfill the promise she had made in her heart back then. She would just give the guy 500,000 Xuan coins; after all, such a sum meant nothing to her now.

However, she certainly couldn't do this right in front of Zhou Xiaoya, so Wei Zi said, "Let me go by myself. If you tag along, it'll be very awkward. If Wang Ling really tries to say anything to me, I'll just reject him! The moment he pushed me away and ran off by himself, our relationship was completely severed!"

Wei Zi's expression was cold and distant. In truth, this incident was one of the reasons why Wei Zi could never forgive him. But she never failed to repay a favor, regardless of the mindset Wang Ling had when he cared for her back then. As long as Wang Ling did not harm her or Zhou Xiaoya in the future, she was willing to show this person a modicum of tolerance!

After all, it was her own poor judgment, her failure to see through the true nature of this scumbag, that had allowed her to incur such a massive debt of gratitude.

"Th-Then fine! How about this? Is it okay if I follow you secretly?" Zhou Xiaoya asked. She was actually afraid that someone with Wang Ling's personality might fly into a rage out of shame after being rejected by Wei Zi and end up doing something detrimental to her. Although Wei Zi had awakened her Xuan core, she had too; without Xuan runes and Xuan arts, awakening your Xuan core merely gave you sharper perception compared to an ordinary person—it was practically useless.

"Yanan, you go along with her too!" Zhou Xiaoya looked over at Sheng Yanan. The other girl nodded. She was extremely silent, but she radiated a strong sense of security!

And so, the three of them set off—one walking in front while two skulked stealthily behind—out of the gates of the First Academy and toward the Xinxin Coffee Shop.

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Special thanks to ╃Xiu Tribe's Lord Xi for tipping 588 book coins~ Mwah~