“Did you sleep with him?”
Lin Mo’s words were like a bolt from the blue, catching everyone off guard.
Much like Su Ran, Su Qingwan was quite sensitive to such explicit language.
She froze instantly, her legs tensing and pressing together almost imperceptibly. It wasn’t that she had any particular fetish; it was a purely instinctive physiological reaction, yet it could still be considered a loss of composure.
“What are you saying?”
Su Qingwan’s gaze grew increasingly sharp, and even the temperature in the room seemed to drop.
However, Lin Mo didn’t flinch or look away. He even repeated himself: “I asked, Mrs. Su, did you sleep with Zhou Muyuan? Do you really know him?”
The moment he finished, the atmosphere plummeted to an absolute freezing point.
Su Qingwan was clearly enraged. Her eyes were like daggers, piercing Lin Mo and making his heart race. The two of them stared each other down, neither changing expression, as if the first person to look away would be devoured.
Ultimately, it was Su Qingwan who regained her calm first. She slowly folded her arms and crossed her legs, radiating an even more oppressive, regal aura.
“No, I don’t know him well,” she answered succinctly. Then, she added, “And?”
Although they were sitting at eye level, Lin Mo still felt as if she were looking down on him. Her meaning was clear.
Su Qingwan wanted an explanation.
If he couldn’t explain why he was asking such things, he probably wouldn’t see Su Ran again for the rest of his life.
Lin Mo didn’t panic, nor was he in a hurry to explain himself. He pulled out his phone, placed it on the table, and continued, “Since you don’t know Zhou Muyuan well, Mrs. Su, why do you trust him unconditionally?”
Unconditional trust?
Su Qingwan’s fingers tapped lightly against her arm as she considered his words. She didn’t recall any intimate dealings with Zhou Muyuan, nor could she remember ever covering up for him or indulging his behavior.
Without any of that, how could he misunderstand and think she trusted him unconditionally? How could he even jump to the conclusion that she had slept with him?
Su Qingwan couldn’t figure it out, and her brow furrowed slightly. “I do not have unconditional trust in him.”
It was another blunt, clear answer.
Lin Mo, however, was not satisfied. He shook his head and got to the heart of the matter. “If that’s the case, why didn’t you take it to heart at all when Su Ran told you that Zhou Muyuan was touching her?”
“You even said… that he was just cherishing her talent?”
Su Qingwan finally remembered. There had indeed been such an incident.
And because of that, he assumed she was intimate with Zhou Muyuan?
Her frown deepened. She clearly didn’t accept this explanation, and the anger in her heart reached the brink of eruption. “If this is all you have, then you’ve deeply disappointed me.”
Lin Mo chuckled. “Then please, enlighten me, Mrs. Su.”
Su Qingwan said impatiently, “Have you ever taken piano lessons? You haven’t. I used to be a piano teacher myself. Correcting a student’s posture and fingering involves a certain amount of contact. That’s perfectly normal. Do you have any other questions?”
“Of course.”
Lin Mo asked back without hesitation, “Then do you think Su Ran is an idiot?”
This style of negotiation, dominated by pointed questions, was like repeatedly stepping on landmines at the gates of hell.
Su Qingwan’s face was now as dark as it could possibly be. First, he had insulted her, and now he was talking about her daughter. If it weren’t for the fact that Lin Mo had acted completely fearless—suggesting he had a reason for all this—she never would have swallowed this insult. But since it concerned her daughter, she endured it.
“Su Ran is not an idiot. She is very smart.”
“Exactly. I’m relieved to see that you have such a clear understanding of your daughter, Mrs. Su.”
‘Screw you!!’
Su Qingwan cursed furiously in her mind, but on the surface, she only gave a cold warning: “One last time.”
Lin Mo noticed her fingers tapping faster and faster. She was clearly so angry that her composure was slipping. If he continued to bait her, she might just pull off her high heels and shove them in his mouth.
“Since you know Su Ran isn’t stupid, have you ever considered that she also knows some physical contact is normal when practicing the piano?”
The moment Lin Mo finished, Su Qingwan’s finger stopped mid-tap, frozen in the air. Her pupils constricted almost imperceptibly as she finally realized what he was getting at.
Seeing this, Lin Mo decided to spell it out. “Exactly. Precisely because physical contact during practice is normal, it was incredibly abnormal for Su Ran to bring it up to you.”
“Since Su Ran isn’t an idiot and is actually quite smart, the problem wasn’t her. Yet you still trusted Zhou Muyuan unconditionally…”
Lin Mo paused, a hint of mockery in his eyes. “Mrs. Su, are you sure you didn’t sleep with him? I find that hard to believe.”
The same words, but double the rudeness and offense.
However, this time Su Qingwan couldn’t find the strength to be angry. She didn’t even know how to respond.
From beginning to end, Lin Mo only wanted to express one point. His buildup had been like a martial arts master throwing hundreds of feints, only to suddenly deliver a devastating kick to the gut. It was a dirty tactic, but it was incredibly effective.
Su Qingwan understood him perfectly.
Lin Mo was saying that Zhou Muyuan was up to no good, and he was calling her a fool. Someone was harassing her daughter, and she had completely ignored it.
“What evidence do you have…”
Su Qingwan’s voice was no longer cold. In fact, she found it difficult to even ask.
Lin Mo looked at her deeply, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
“What are you looking at?”
For a rare moment, Su Qingwan felt flustered. She couldn’t believe she was actually a little afraid of a teenager’s gaze.
Lin Mo picked up the phone from the table and said thoughtfully, “Mrs. Su, some things should be prevented or closely monitored, not compensated for after the fact. If you need evidence for something like this… if something really happened to Su Ran, what good would all the evidence in the world do?”
As he spoke, he stood up and very, very slowly pushed the phone toward Su Qingwan.
Su Qingwan was already dazed. Every word Lin Mo spoke hit the mark, stabbing into her heart. Even the simple action of pushing the phone across the table managed to pull her attention toward it as if by magic.
She was about to ask another question when Zhou Muyuan’s voice came from the phone.
Lin Mo had started recording the moment he stepped into the conservatory earlier that day.
Su Ran’s frantic, messy piano playing.
Zhou Muyuan’s malicious badgering and scolding.
Su Ran’s resistance.
Zhou Muyuan’s outburst.
“What can he give you? Can he make you an international pianist? Can he let you stand on the world stage? No! Only I can!”
“…Tell your mother to bring money and hire me later. I’ll curse her to her face!”
“Su Ran!! If you dare leave today, don’t ever call me your teacher again!”
“Su Ran, you’ll regret it without me. Without me, you are nothing!”
As she listened to Zhou Muyuan’s absurd rants in the recording, Su Qingwan’s expression shifted through a dozen different emotions. She even glared at Lin Mo once during the process.
Lin Mo simply pretended not to see her, busying himself with examining the room’s decor.
Finally, having heard the entire recording, Su Qingwan could no longer remain seated. She stood up and walked to the side, trying to avoid Lin Mo’s gaze to hide her embarrassment. Unfortunately, Lin Mo was already in a state of hyper-awareness, taking in every shift in her emotions.
From their encounter in his past life, Lin Mo knew this woman was a refined egoist. She was proud, stubborn, and wore her sense of superiority on her face. Her control over Su Ran had been so intense that he once suspected she was the mastermind who hired the killer to end his life.
But now, Su Qingwan was completely cleared of suspicion.
Lin Mo saw clearly that her face was as pale as paper. It looked as if something inside her eyes had shattered. This normally refined and arrogant ice goddess, who was usually so indifferent, didn’t dare show her face at this moment. She looked as fragile as any other woman.
At the same time, she seemed a bit warmer, more like a mother.
Lin Mo didn’t stay to enjoy her humiliation. Seeing that she had taken it to heart, he stood up to leave. Just before walking out the door, he turned back to look at her silhouette.
“Mrs. Su, I imagine things haven’t been easy for you. Because of that, there were a few things I felt I had to say, and I wanted to make sure you listened.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I put it so harshly.”
Hearing the door close behind him, Su Qingwan’s eyelashes trembled, and she felt a sense of relief. She looked toward Su Ran’s room but suddenly lacked the courage to face her daughter. Ultimately, she walked back to the sofa and sat there alone for a long time.
During that time, Lin Mo’s words echoed in her mind like a haunting melody. Specifically, what he said about how useless evidence would be if something had actually happened to Su Ran.
Fortunately, her daughter was still okay.
Fortunately, Lin Mo had the courage to explain the situation to her.
Fortunately, Lin Mo had been able to make her listen.
Suddenly, Su Qingwan looked at the table, and the image of Lin Mo slowly standing up and pushing the phone toward her flashed in her mind. It was obvious that Lin Mo had done it on purpose. He had controlled every detail just to ensure she was focused and would take his words to heart.
‘This kid… doesn’t act like a high schooler at all.’
Su Qingwan sank into the sofa like a deflated balloon. She rubbed her brow, thinking about how much she had seen and how many high-status people she had dealt with over the years. Yet, in front of Lin Mo, she had felt completely out of control.
A sense of defeat washed over her, followed by a reluctant sense of conviction. Finally, her anger flared up again.
Only this time, her rage wasn’t directed at Lin Mo. It was directed at Zhou Muyuan.
—
Inside her room, Su Ran sat with her back against the door, hugging her knees. She had heard everything Lin Mo said.
Especially that line about whether her mother had slept with him—it had nearly sent her charging out of the room. Much like Su Qingwan, she had a strong reaction to hearing those words, but it actually helped her calm down. She knew that when something this strange happened, there had to be a reason.
Lin Mo was a top student and certainly wasn’t a delinquent. He wouldn’t have made such an unprovoked attack without a cause.
As it turned out, he did it all for her.
Su Ran felt that today was probably the happiest day of her life. She couldn’t help but think back to earlier in the alley, when she had been sitting on his face. Or the moments in the stairwell where he had played with her so boldly.
And now, for her sake, he had actually asked her mother if she had slept with someone. How was that different from taking a bullet for her?
Su Ran lifted the hem of her skirt and looked at the stockings on the floor, the corners of her mouth curling into an involuntary smile. She scrambled onto her bed and grabbed her phone to type a message.
On the other side, Lin Mo had just stepped out of the elevator. He pulled out his phone, planning to check in on Su Ran, when her text message arrived first.
It was a very short sentence.
Lin Mo couldn’t help but laugh, thinking that this girl was getting more and more daring.
Su Ran’s message said: “I want to sleep with you.”