The car stopped at the small square. He called him, found the restaurant he mentioned, and he was waiting downstairs.
"Trying to look cool today? Why aren’t you wearing a jacket?"
Gu Qimiao just said, "It’s a bit hot now."
Gu Moming didn’t delve into it and held her hand, leading her upstairs to the restaurant where a few dishes were already set on the table.
He raised an eyebrow and said, "I asked you here to pay the bill."
Gu Qimiao pouted and glared at him. Only then did he notice the oddity on her face. His expression changed instantly, and he asked with a slight frown, "Where did you go this afternoon?"
Gu Qimiao paused, wondering why he suddenly asked this. Under his scrutinizing gaze, she answered, "... Went to the Art Academy to assist Teacher Fang."
"What happened to your face?"
Gu Qimiao raised her hand to touch her face, pretending to be clueless, "What do you mean? Is there paint?"
Furiously, he brushed her hand aside, "Who the hell hit you?!"
Gu Qimiao lowered her head, handed chopsticks to him, trying to steer the topic away, "Let’s eat, I’m hungry."
But he insisted, "Who hit you?" refusing to let it go without an answer.
Gu Qimiao didn’t dare to tell him. Due to a previous similar incident, although he usually bullied her, if anyone else touched her, he would stand up for her. Back in Italy, a boy once touched her face, and it blew out of proportion; he almost beat that boy to death and got himself badly injured in the process.
"It’s really nothing..."
Before she finished, he abruptly stood up from his seat, left a line, "You eat by yourself; I’ve paid the bill," and walked out.
Gu Qimiao quickly stood up, "Where are you going?"
He didn’t answer, just pulled out his phone. The door cut off his silhouette, but she faintly heard him say to the other end of the call, "Get me today’s surveillance from the Art Academy."
Gu Qimiao had no mood to eat; she grabbed her clothes and chased after him.
By the time she got downstairs, his dazzling red Ferrari was already a long way off.
Gu Qimiao waited anxiously by the roadside, but there was no empty taxi.
In a nearby Range Rover, He Ye took a closer look and said to the man with eyes closed in the passenger seat, "Brother Yan Chen, isn’t that your Miaomiao?"
Hearing the name "Miaomiao," Shen Yanchen opened his eyes, saw the girl standing by the road, and said indifferently, "Drive over."
He Ye steadily parked the car in front of Gu Qimiao, and Shen Yanchen rolled down the window, looking at her anxious expression, "Why are you here?"
"Brother Yan Chen?" She leaned over to the window, urgently saying, "Can you take me to the Art Academy now?"
Shen Yanchen looked at her face, didn’t ask much, and said lightly, "Get in."
He Ye nearby said, "... But Brother Yan Chen, President Zhang’s people have already arrived."
Shen Yanchen slightly shifted towards the driver’s seat and told He Ye, "You go, get out."
He Ye, a bit embarrassed, got out of the car, "If I go, at least give me a car."
Seeing that Gu Qimiao was seated in the back, Shen Yanchen started the car and tossed a line to He Ye, "Take a cab."
In the car, Gu Qimiao still looked worried. Seeing her swollen face, his expression wasn’t good either but he didn’t ask anything, driving as fast as possible to the Art Academy.
In the Art Academy’s surveillance room, Gu Moming was standing in front of a screen, watching Gu Qimiao being taken into the girls’ restroom by a girl, coming out more than ten minutes later with her white clothes stained with blood.
He paused the footage, fixing it on the girls who came out before Gu Qimiao, and asked the school administrator next to him, "Which department are these students from?"
The administrator adjusted his glasses, leaned in to look closely at the footage, and sighed, "Why is it them again?!"
"Which department?!" Gu Moming’s patience was evidently thin.
"The Calligraphy Department, Wei Xiaoxiao."
Receiving the information, Gu Moming turned and walked out of the surveillance room, heading to the girls’ dormitory entrance to have the dorm supervisor call Wei Xiaoxiao down...