Chapter 507: Encounter with a High School Classmate

Watching Hawk and his companions scurry away in embarrassment, Yu Xin curled her lip and turned back around.

“What a letdown. Complete waste of our time. I actually thought he had the guts to hit me.”

Liu Yutong glanced in the direction the foreign youths had disappeared, offering a simple, dismissive assessment: “Nothing but buffoons.”

Though these foreign men were tall and broad, the three women had little reason to fear them.

After more than a year of training under the guidance of several masters, Liu Yutong’s martial skills had become quite impressive—though she’d never actually fought anyone, nor had she needed to.

The training was for self-defense, not for competing against others.

Though Yu Xin had trained less than Liu Yutong, she could still hold her own in a fight—to say nothing of Lan Die, who remained constantly ready to spring into action.

What’s more, their age and appearance were highly deceptive, easily lulling others into letting their guard down.

One moment of carelessness and they’d be eating dirt.

This minor incident didn’t affect the three women in the slightest.

Yu Xin took out her phone and made a call. “Teacher Su will be here soon,” she said to Liu Yutong.

Liu Yutong nodded, then asked the server for another iced Americano.

Not long after.

A waitress who had just come on shift brought over an iced Americano.

“Miss, your iced Americano.”

“Thanks!”

The waitress had just set down the coffee and was about to leave with her tray when she glanced up and froze.

“Yu Xin?”

“Liu Yutong?”

Liu Yutong and Yu Xin looked up simultaneously at the girl in the cap and apron.

“Fang Yaqiong?”

“What a coincidence. Do you work here?”

Fang Yaqiong was a high school classmate of theirs. They’d even attended a reunion after graduation.

Back then in Wushui County, they’d clashed with a thug called Mad Dog and nearly gotten into serious trouble at a KTV.

A year had passed in the blink of an eye, and everything had changed.

Now, Liu Yutong was the chairwoman of multiple corporations, commanding billions in capital, while Yu Xin had become a senior executive at Wanlong Society.

Though only nineteen, they were far more mature than their peers—unlike their high school classmate Fang Yaqiong, whose face still bore the innocence of youth.

Fang Yaqiong seemed a bit embarrassed, instinctively tugging at her apron emblazoned with the café logo. “Yeah, I work here part-time to support my studies. I attend Nanda Normal University—it’s close by.”

As she spoke, her gaze swept over Liu Yutong and Yu Xin.

The two former classmates before her were the same age, yet they exuded a completely different feeling.

Yu Xin, once an extremely introverted girl, now appeared confident and poised—especially in those obviously expensive clothes.

Liu Yutong was even more striking. She carried a powerful, impossible-to-ignore aura—calm, detached, as if everything were under her control.

She’d never seen such a presence in any of her classmates before.

“What about you two? Are you here in South City for fun?” Fang Yaqiong asked curiously.

Yu Xin and Liu Yutong shared a knowing glance. “Something like that,” they said. “We’re here on business, and to meet a friend.”

Fang Yaqiong uttered an “oh,” and as she looked at these two remarkable women, then at herself working her part-time job, she felt a strange sense of distance.

She felt that both Yu Xin and Liu Yutong had changed so much. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly how, but she sensed they were no longer living in the same world as her.

“Well, enjoy your coffee. I’ve got to get back to work.”

“Mm, go ahead,” Liu Yutong said with a nod and a smile.

Watching Fang Yaqiong hurry away with her tray, Yu Xin took a sip of her coffee, her tone carrying a subtle hint of emotion: “Fang Yaqiong seems so… innocent.”

As she said this, she seemed to recall her high school self—that timid, cowardly, fearful, shy girl.

Everything changed only after Liu Yutong taught those school bullies like Zhao Zhu a lesson, and after Yu Xin had… died once.

Hearing this, Liu Yutong turned to Yu Xin with a teasing smile. “We’re only nineteen. Why are you talking like an old woman?”

At Liu Yutong’s words, Yu Xin pouted, then burst into laughter.

“I am not!”

Then she gathered her expression and looked at Liu Yutong seriously, finally saying what she’d long wanted to say: “Thank you, Yutong. Truly.”

That thank you carried so much within it.

Thanks for standing up for her back in school, for helping her escape that darkness, for giving her a completely different future filled with limitless possibilities.

Without Liu Yutong, she might still be that timid, introverted girl who let others push her around—never could she have become who she was today.

Liu Yutong naturally understood what she meant. She simply smiled gently and said nothing more. Everything was understood without words.

Lan Die sat quietly to the side, watching the genuine bond between Liu Yutong and Yu Xin. A strange ripple unexpectedly stirred in her heart.

It was a strange feeling, like someone who’d lived in darkness for years suddenly glimpsing a warm bonfire. Knowing it wasn’t meant for her, she still instinctively wanted to draw near.

After all, she’d grown up in an environment of constant scheming, survival of the fittest, and absolute obedience, never having experienced anything like friendship or family. It had forged her current cold personality.

She couldn’t fully grasp how such bonds were formed, but this scene before her seemed to confirm what Liu Yutong had once told her.

“I don’t just need a bodyguard. I need a partner.”

Perhaps this was what partners should be like?

The thought flashed through Lan Die’s mind briefly before she quickly collected herself, once again minimizing her presence.

Meanwhile, not far away, Fang Yaqiong—perhaps excited from seeing old classmates—kept stealing glances at Liu Yutong’s table despite her busy hands.

Then, as Fang Yaqiong carried a tray of coffee toward a table inside, an accident occurred.

The customers at that table were none other than Hawk and his companions, back again.

Fang Yaqiong carefully held the tray as she prepared to set it down. The short brown-haired boy deliberately shifted his position, his arm “accidentally” swinging back.

“Aah!” Fang Yaqiong cried out as coffee spilled from the tray.

At the same time, she could clearly feel a wandering hand grope her backside.

“Ah!”

Fang Yaqiong jumped back like a startled rabbit, her face flushing crimson as she stared at the foreign exchange students in humiliated fury.

“Oh, sorry. We didn’t mean it.”

Hawk and his friends offered the apology with smirks and laughter on their faces—completely insincere.

By the time Liu Yutong and the others noticed what was happening in the café, the situation had already escalated.