A few minutes later, Mujin and Zhou Ruiyang sat across from each other on the sofa while Director Luo pressed a hot towel against his swollen eye socket.

Zhou Ruiyang suddenly stood up. "That..."

Director Luo flinched back against the sofa cushions, terror flashing across his face. "Don’t you dare come near me!!"

"I won’t. I just wanted to remind you—don’t use heat on fresh wounds. It’ll spread the bruising and ruin your appearance. For the first two days, you should use ice to make it clot."

Luo dropped the towel and checked his reflection in his phone’s front camera. Sure enough, his slightly swollen eye had bloomed into a large purple bruise.

"Why didn’t you say that sooner?" Luo shot him a glare.

"Sorry. I didn’t realize you had zero experience getting beaten up."

"What... exactly happened here?" Mujin’s lips twitched, her tone carefully neutral. She’d stormed in expecting Zhou Ruiyang to be the victim—only to find Director Luo and his men battered instead. It left her completely baffled.

"Ask him. I need to go ice my knuckles." Zhou Ruiyang shrugged.

Mujin turned to Zhou Ruiyang. He scratched the back of his head. "They forced me here. I was looking for a chance to escape when those two goons tried to rough me up. I had to take them down. Then Director Luo stood up and reached into his pants—I thought he was grabbing a gun, so I moved to stop him..."

"Who the hell carries a gun? I’m a legitimate businessman!" Luo blurted out, clutching his injured eye.

*Legitimate businessmen don’t kidnap people.*

Mujin pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine. What *were* you reaching for?"

"Just a walkie-talkie." Zhou Ruiyang held up his palms to show her.

"*Just*? You attacked me the moment I tried to call my men! You elbowed me square in the eye socket!"

"It was an instinctive counterattack."

"And choking me was instinct too?"

"To prevent your *counter*-counterattack instinct. Besides, I let go the second I saw it was just a walkie-talkie." Zhou Ruiyang explained calmly, without a hint of remorse. His principle was simple: avoid violence whenever possible—but when forced to fight, commit fully and never regret it.

So that *thud* she’d heard was Zhou Ruiyang’s elbow meeting Luo’s eye socket.

Mujin cleared her throat softly. "Ahem. I think we should just let this matter drop."

"Drop it? Who even *are* you?" Luo finally registered the unfamiliar girl who’d barged in and joined their conversation. "How’d you get in here?"

"Director Luo, she says she knows you. She came to take Zhou Ruiyang home," the lead thug whispered urgently in Luo’s ear. He’d noticed Luo didn’t recognize her and rushed to explain before Luo blamed *him* for letting a stranger in.

"Knows me?" Luo frowned, studying Mujin with his uninjured eye. His gaze traveled from her delicate features to her designer clothes—Chanel jacket, Hermès crossbody bag. He took a subtle sniff; the faint, elegant fragrance in the air had to be high-end perfume. Even her accessories screamed luxury. That Patek Philippe watch alone was worth over a million.

*Strange. She’s clearly some heiress... but when did I meet her?*

"Yes, Uncle Luo," Mujin smiled warmly. "We haven’t met, but my father’s told me about you."

"Oh! I see." Luo forced a smile. "And your father is...?"

"Surname Ye."

She chose the name deliberately. In Q City, the Ye surname dominated the billionaire lists—over a third of the city’s richest families shared it, though unrelated. Mentioning it would surely trigger recognition.

But Mujin miscalculated.

"Could you... be more specific?" Luo pressed.

*Too many Ye’s,* he thought. He knew several Ye tycoons with daughters. Which one was she?

Mujin froze internally. *Seriously? Where’s your adult discretion?!* Outwardly, her smile never wavered. "I... can’t be more specific."

"Why not?"

"My situation is... sensitive. Revealing my father’s identity could harm his company’s stock."

"*Sensitive*?" Luo’s eyes narrowed, then lit up with understanding. *Ah. An illegitimate daughter. Probably from Dongchang Group’s Chairman Ye.* He’d only met the man a few times, but rumors painted him as a notorious playboy. Finding a filthy-rich man who *wasn’t* a womanizer was rarer than finding a three-legged toad. And of course she couldn’t risk leaks—this villa might have bugs. Given her luxury-brand aura and presence in this gated community, Luo would never believe she was "ordinary." Context shaped perception.

"May I ask your name, Miss?"

"Mu... Mumu. Just call me Mumu." She nearly slipped.

"Mumu. Lovely name. And what brings you here today? Your father didn’t mention you’d be visiting."

"I wouldn’t have come," Mujin said, taking Zhou Ruiyang’s hand, "but when Uncle Luo took my boyfriend here, I had no choice but to fetch him myself."

"*Boyfriend*?" Luo gaped at Zhou Ruiyang, who remained utterly composed. *Of course,* Zhou thought dryly. *After being called ‘husband’ in front of the whole class last time, ‘boyfriend’ feels like a demotion.*

"Yes. We attend the same university."

Luo’s gaze flicked between them. His desire for Sparrow warred with his bruised pride. He hadn’t expected this nobody to have such powerful connections.

*Do I dig in for pride’s sake? Or back down for survival?*

Seeing his hesitation, Mujin slipped off her Patek Philippe and placed it gently on the coffee table. "This was all a misunderstanding. I’m so sorry for your injuries, Uncle Luo. Please accept this as a small apology." She didn’t know brands, but Luo’s earlier stare had confirmed its worth.

His eyes gleamed as the watch landed with a soft *clink*. "Oh my! You shouldn’t have!" he exclaimed, snatching it up. "This is far too generous!"