Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 518: Every Villain Has Their Match

Taking advantage of the early hour, Zhou Yuwen took a two-hour nap in his room. For Minmin, however, these two hours were incredibly busy. She ran downstairs to buy honey, then hurried back to boil hot water. Suddenly, she realized she looked a bit disheveled. Wouldn't it be a bad look to serve Zhou Yuwen in such a state? Since he was sleeping anyway, she decided to take a shower, wash her hair, put on some makeup, and change into clean, alluring clothes.'If someone like Qu Jing could catch Zhou Yuwen's eye, then why couldn't I?'

Harboring such thoughts, Minmin busied herself all afternoon. After meticulously dolling herself up from head to toe, she finally steeped the honey water, carefully testing both its temperature and sweetness.

It wasn't that Minmin was naturally attentive; she simply wanted to lie flat and be taken care of. This mentality was especially strong after losing her job. Perhaps only recent university graduates entering the real world could truly understand the crushing reality that every waking moment required money. Being suddenly fired and left with absolutely no income naturally bred deep anxiety.

On one side, her future prospects were confusing and bleak. On the other, her two roommates were completely free from financial worries, casually tossing around Hermes and LV bags that she could never afford.

To say Minmin did not covet that kind of lifestyle would be an utter lie.

After her shower, Minmin slipped into nothing but a white slip nightgown. The upper half featured a plunging V-neck, with her beautiful snow-white shoulders and arms supported by only two thin spaghetti straps, leaving a vast expanse of flawless skin exposed. The hem of the skirt was pitifully short. While looking in the mirror, even Minmin wondered if this was a bit too excessive.

But on second thought, this was home anyway, so wearing something like this wasn't entirely unacceptable.

'Whatever, I'll just take the gamble!'

Steeling her resolve, Minmin carried the honey water and knocked on Zhou Yuwen's room door.

"Knock, knock, knock."

There was no response the first time. Minmin wondered if she had knocked too softly for him to hear.

So, she knocked three more times.

The bedroom remained silent. At that exact moment, however, the main front door suddenly clicked open.

Qu Jing had just gotten off work. The moment she stepped inside, she caught sight of Minmin dressed in that incredibly provocative outfit.

Qu Jing's brows instantly furrowed together. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Ah, I..."

Minmin panicked, suddenly feeling very guilty. She knew full well her outfit was outrageously revealing. Her original plan had been to take a shot while Qu Jing and Tao Tian were still out. Being caught red-handed by Qu Jing was disastrous.

"I, I..."

Minmin stammered for quite a while, completely at a loss for how to explain herself.

Qu Jing immediately sensed that something was wrong. Plus, Minmin was carrying a tray clearly meant for someone else. Minmin was notoriously lazy, so since when did she ever serve anyone?

"What are you holding?"

Qu Jing interrogated her directly, not even pausing to take off her high heels.

Minmin lowered her head and remained dead silent.

Right at that moment, Zhou Yuwen opened his door, looking highly irritated.

"What are you all whispering about? Don't you know I'm trying to sleep in here?"

Zhou Yuwen was genuinely annoyed. He had been enjoying a perfectly good nap when someone suddenly started knocking. Bad enough as that was, now there was chattering right outside his door.

As the door swung open, he realized it wasn't just Minmin; Qu Jing was back as well.

Qu Jing was slightly surprised to see Zhou Yuwen at home. Her stern, confrontational expression toward Minmin instantly softened into something much meeker the second she laid eyes on him.

Minmin kept her head bowed.

Seeing that Qu Jing was back, Zhou Yuwen's irritation faded considerably. "When did you get back?" he asked.

"Just now," Qu Jing replied.

Zhou Yuwen grunted in acknowledgment, then asked if Tao Tian had come back with her.

Qu Jing explained that Tao Tian had run an errand at the Commerce Bureau that afternoon and was taking a different route home.

"Oh. What were you guys arguing about just now?"

Zhou Yuwen asked, noticing the tray in Minmin's hands.

Minmin thought to herself that since things had already reached this point, she might as well go all in.

Gritting her teeth, she began, "Zhou—"

Seeing that Minmin was about to speak, Qu Jing smoothly interrupted her. "Oh, it's like this. Minmin told me you were resting inside, so I specially made a glass of honey water for you."

Without a single ounce of hesitation, Qu Jing lifted the honey water right off Minmin's tray and offered it to Zhou Yuwen.

Zhou Yuwen looked at Qu Jing in surprise. "Since when did you become so considerate?"

Qu Jing's face flushed slightly at the remark. Acting coy, she purred, "You're so mean. When am I not considerate?"

Zhou Yuwen had drank alcohol at noon, and after his nap, he really was quite thirsty. Seeing the honey water presented to him, he mused that keeping so many women around was indeed beneficial.

He took the glass and had a sip, finding it surprisingly delicious. Both the sweetness and the temperature were absolutely perfect. This prompted Zhou Yuwen to praise Qu Jing generously, telling her he had no idea she possessed such skills.

It clearly took a lot of thought and effort.

Showered with Zhou Yuwen's praise, Qu Jing naturally beamed with joy. Smiling brightly, she offered, "If you like it, I'll go make you another glass."

"Forget it. It's getting late. Is it time for dinner?"

"Mhm."

"Then I'll rest a bit more. We can all eat together once Sweetie gets back."

"Okay."

With that said, Zhou Yuwen retreated into his bedroom, pulling the room door shut behind him.

In truth, Minmin was incredibly unwilling to let this slide. She had spent two whole hours showering and dressing up, specifically putting on this slip nightgown, only for Qu Jing to swoop in and steal all the credit.

What infuriated her the most was when Zhou Yuwen praised the honey water, Qu Jing actually had the sheer audacity to shamelessly offer to make another glass.

Minmin had been so angry just then that she nearly cried. She had desperately wanted to speak up and expose her.

But Qu Jing had instantly silenced her with a vicious glare.

It wasn't until Zhou Yuwen was safely back in his room that Qu Jing finally dropped the act and hissed a low warning at Minmin. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to pull. Dressing like a slut and specially making honey water?"

"Hmph. Sweetie might not know what goes on in your head, but do you think I'm blind?"

"I'm warning you, behave yourself. If you ever dare try something like this again, watch me throw you out onto the street!"

Qu Jing shot Minmin one last venomous glare before ordering her to the kitchen to cook dinner.

At that moment, Minmin felt overwhelmingly wronged.

Once Qu Jing turned and walked away, two streams of clear tears finally escaped Minmin's eyes. She wiped her tears away, completely failing to understand why Qu Jing was targeting her so ruthlessly.

What gave her the right to boss her around like a common servant?

What difference was there between the two of them, anyway?

Deeply aggrieved, Minmin cast a resentful, toxic glare at Qu Jing's retreating back as she headed to her bedroom.

She swore to herself that she would climb over Qu Jing's head one day. By the time Tao Tian returned home, the sky had already turned dark. She was somewhat surprised to see Zhou Yuwen back and took the opportunity to explain to him why Minmin was staying at their place.

Zhou Yuwen did not care about such trivial matters. "It's fine, you can decide these things," he told her.

"The three of you were roommates anyway, so living together is no big deal."

To Zhou Yuwen, this really didn't matter. Besides, from his perspective, Minmin was actually quite hardworking. At the very least, she had prepared the entire table of food. Zhou Yuwen took a few bites and found the taste entirely acceptable.

Hearing Zhou Yuwen's words, Tao Tian felt a warm flutter in her heart. Compared to the others, she could clearly feel that Zhou Yuwen pampered her the most.

During dinner, the four of them sat around the table. Zhou Yuwen took the head seat, while the three girls sat in their respective places.

The topic of conversation naturally shifted to Minmin losing her job.

Qu Jing bluntly stated that she had been fired. In Qu Jing's eyes, the front desk job held practically no value to begin with.

Minmin surprisingly did not object to this assessment.

She looked cautiously at Zhou Yuwen and asked, "Zhou, Zhou Yuwen, is your company hiring right now? I've been out of work for a while."

Before Zhou Yuwen could even open his mouth, Qu Jing chimed in. "Do you think Zhou Yuwen's company is a place you can just stroll into? The people we hire nowadays are from Project 985 and Project 211 universities at the very least. With your educational background, you'd be filtered out in the very first round."

Minmin was left speechless by this remark. 'We have the exact same degree!' she thought bitterly. 'If you weren't relying on Zhou Yuwen, do you really think you'd be in management?'

She pinned all her lingering hopes on Tao Tian.

Tao Tian pondered for a moment and mentioned that the company's front desk receptionist had resigned recently.

Since they needed to hire someone anyway, it could be an option.

"Hubby, what do you think?" Tao Tian directly called Zhou Yuwen Hubby right in front of Minmin.

Zhou Yuwen thought about it briefly and felt it was feasible. He was just about to agree.

But Qu Jing hurriedly interjected, "Wasn't the front desk position already finalized? We're having Han Qian do it. She was working part-time at our company before she graduated, and she just happens to be unemployed right now. I already told her about it earlier today."

Zhou Yuwen glanced at Qu Jing, then back at Tao Tian. "Oh," he said. "Since you already promised her, there's nothing we can do."

"Let's find another position for her then." These matters were trivial to Zhou Yuwen. Hearing him say this naturally made Minmin ecstatic.

Unfortunately, Qu Jing was guarding against Minmin as if she were a thief.

Qu Jing said, "Isn't it perfectly fine for her to stay at home right now?"

"Don't you just want an income? I see your cooking is decent. Why don't you just stay home and cook for us full-time? We'll pay you a salary of two thousand yuan a month." Qu Jing looked down at her with an air of absolute superiority.

Minmin felt a surge of discomfort upon hearing this. "Two thousand?"

"Yeah, isn't two thousand enough? You eat and sleep at our place for free. Do you know how much money you're saving compared to renting a place outside?" Qu Jing stated, as a matter of course.

"What do you say, Sweetie?" Without waiting for Minmin to agree, she turned to ask Tao Tian.

Tao Tian, however, looked toward Zhou Yuwen.

Taking a small bite of his food, Zhou Yuwen said, "Senior Sister Minmin's cooking is indeed decent, but two thousand is a bit too low, isn't it? Senior Sister Minmin is a university graduate, after all. We should at least provide the Five Social Insurances and One Housing Fund."

Qu Jing immediately agreed. "That's no problem. We can just list her under the company payroll to handle her social security."

Zhou Yuwen nodded. "You girls can discuss and sort out the details."

"What do you think, Senior Sister Minmin?" Zhou Yuwen even bothered to ask for Minmin's opinion afterward.

At this point, Minmin had no idea what to say. She stammered for a long while before finally managing, "I... let me think about it."

"What's there to think about? A job like this is hard to find even if you searched with a lantern."

Qu Jing scoffed.

Minmin remained silent.

The conversation at the dining table came to an abrupt halt at this point. No one said much else as they all focused on their food.

After finishing his meal, Zhou Yuwen went to the living room to watch TV for a while.

The moment Qu Jing finished eating, she quickly rushed over to cling to Zhou Yuwen.

While they were simply watching TV, Qu Jing would latch onto Zhou Yuwen's arm, chattering about random things and giggling happily.

Zhou Yuwen rarely understood the thought processes of girls, but he still chuckled along a few times.

Having finished dinner like this, with Qu Jing hugging his arm and resting her long, slender legs across his lap, Zhou Yuwen found the experience quite enjoyable.

They continued watching TV for a while.

Soon after, Tao Tian finished her meal and came over as well.

Minmin actually wanted to come over too, but the moment Qu Jing saw her, she immediately challenged her. "You're just going to come over here like that?"

Confused, Minmin asked what was wrong.

Qu Jing looked at her with malicious amusement. "Are the bowls and chopsticks left over there for us to wash?"

This single sentence stabbed right into Minmin's heart. At that moment, she truly despised Qu Jing to the core. She wanted nothing more than to slam the door and storm out, screaming at Qu Jing, 'Who the hell do you think you are? I'm out of here!'

But on second thought, it was already eight o'clock at night.

She really had nowhere else to go. After a brief moment of hesitation, she suppressed the deep humiliation in her heart and muttered, "I'll go wash them."

Watching Minmin retreat, Qu Jing struck the pose of a triumphant victor.

Seeing this scene unfold, Tao Tian looked at Qu Jing reproachfully. "You're being a bit too much."

"Am I? Even after I treated her like that, she still swallowed it down. Isn't she just asking for it?" Qu Jing snorted.

Tao Tian reminded her that Minmin was their roommate, after all.

"Why do you have such massive hostility toward her?"

Qu Jing told her she completely misunderstood the situation.

"Let me tell you, the only reason she's staying here is to try and seduce Zhou Yuwen behind our backs. Do you honestly think she lacks a place to stay?" Qu Jing sneered coldly.

"When I got back from work just now, do you know what I saw?"

Qu Jing asked. Tao Tian remained silent.

Qu Jing proceeded to tell Tao Tian that she had caught Minmin wearing one of those crotch-skimming miniskirts, shamelessly flaunting herself in front of Zhou Yuwen.

"She's just trying to seduce him!"

Qu Jing spoke with absolute conviction. Tao Tian glanced over at Zhou Yuwen.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yuwen was busy flipping through channels with the remote control, completely ignoring their conversation.

Seeing this, Tao Tian decided not to push the issue any further. She let out a soft sigh and said, "I'll go check on her."