Proving Innocence

"Fuck!!"

Caught off guard, Alistair stumbled back two steps before steadying himself, rubbing his face in confusion.

"What the hell are you doing??!!"

Edmond shook his hand, unsatisfied with the punch. He began unbuttoning his coat, slowly advancing towards Alistair.

"You made Lily angry. I need to beat you up to vent her anger."

It was also to prove his own innocence.

By hitting Alistair, he showed that he had nothing to do with tonight's events and genuinely didn't know what was happening.

Alistair: "..."

Lily led Aria back to the private room.

The room had already been tidied up. Yu Cheng and Jiang Jing were inside, chatting and snacking on sunflower seeds.

They had initially followed outside but returned when they saw Edmond looking for Alistair and Lily staying with Aria.

In such situations, too many people often complicate things.

Jiang Jing was the first to see them enter and waved.

"Come sit down. It's cold outside, have some hot water to warm up."

After Lily and Aria sat down, Jiang Jing handed them two cups of water. Glancing at Aria, she leaned towards Lily and whispered, "I've called her over. She should be here soon."

Just as she finished speaking, the door opened from the outside.

Someone had moved the screen aside, so Lily could see Mi Shan as soon as she entered.

Dressed in a tight-fitting red strapless dress that accentuated her curves and long, sexy legs, she had changed from a black dress as Jiang Jing mentioned earlier.

She had a beautiful, almond-shaped face with a thin scratch on her left cheek, about the length of a pinky finger—not serious but noticeable.

"Mi Shan, long time no see. Do you remember me?" Lily greeted her with a smile.

They had met once last year. That day, Lily and Aria were leaving a beauty salon when they ran into Mi Shan.

At that time, Aria and Alistair had just gotten engaged, and Mi Shan approached them, speaking in a sarcastic tone, implying that Alistair would never marry Aria, behaving quite arrogantly.

It happened that Lily was in a bad mood because of Royce, and seeing Mi Shan provoking Aria, she couldn't hold back her anger and ended up fighting with her.

She even pulled out a small clump of Mi Shan's hair.

Naturally, Mi Shan remembered that fight.

Having a chunk of her hair pulled out, almost tearing her scalp, was unforgettable. She knew who Lily was, the youngest daughter of the Jian family, and Aria's best friend.

This Lily was quite capable. After causing such a big scene, she ended up marrying Edmond.

"Miss Jian, long time no see."

Mi Shan responded with a smile, but Lily corrected her, "I'm Mrs. Zhou now, please call me Mrs. Zhou."

Mi Shan complied, "Mrs. Zhou."

Lily responded with a bright smile, then stood up, affectionately linking her arm with Mi Shan's and leading her outside.

"I have something to ask you, let's talk outside."

Mi Shan found Lily's behavior odd and tried to push her away, but Lily held on tightly, not letting go until they reached a corner.

Lily looked around, then asked her, "This is where you stopped Aria, right?"

Mi Shan's eyes showed wariness, but she maintained her smile, "What do you want to say?"

Lily took off her coat and threw it at Mi Shan's face, sneering.

"The surveillance cameras here must be broken, right?"

Mi Shan shook off the coat, instinctively stepping back, "What do you want?"

Lily started rolling up her sleeves. As Mi Shan turned to leave, Lily grabbed her hair and smiled eerily.

"You think you're the only one who can make up stories? Let me tell you, I've seen childish tricks like yours since high school!"

When Edmond arrived with Alistair as Lily had instructed, the fight between Lily and Mi Shan had just ended. Both women were lying on the ground, panting.

It was a miserable sight... Aria had always known that Alistair didn't love her.

Over the years, she had felt distressed, sad, conflicted, and disappointed... various emotions almost consumed her.

But she had never cried as heartbrokenly as she did today.

At least, Lily had never seen her like this.

"He took Mi Shan inside, and I felt so uncomfortable that I said I was going out to find you. I hadn't gone far when Mi Shan called me from behind."

"She said this restaurant was bought with Alistair's money. She said she was afraid I'd get angry and fight with Alistair, so she wanted to give the money back to me. How ridiculous, I didn't even know about this."

"She said Alistair always gave her whatever she wanted, no matter what. During the New Year, Alistair took her on a trip abroad. She showed me their photos—holding hands, hugging, kissing."

"I know Alistair. He might have had many girlfriends, but he never fooled around during relationships. He respected all his ex-girlfriends."

"But he treated me differently. Our engagement hasn't been called off, yet he kissed another woman. Lily, he must hate me so much..."

"I went back to get my bag to leave, but Mi Shan wouldn't let me go. I really didn't push her hard. I just wanted to pull my hand back, and she suddenly fell."

...Lily had encountered such fake falls from two people before.

The first was Zoya.

When she was seven, her grandmother knew she liked swinging and had one installed in the yard. She would swing on it every day.

On her birthday, she was in her room opening her grandmother's gift and came out late to find Zoya on the swing.

Zoya had been with the family for a year. Lily thought she was pitiful for having no family, so she shared all her toys and everything with her.

Zoya said she liked swinging too, so Lily let her and even helped push.

Then Zoya fell and scraped her knee.

When the adults came out and asked what happened, Zoya said pitifully, "I won't play anymore, Lily, don't be mad."

Lily was inexplicably scolded by Brooks and Layla, who blamed her for pushing Zoya.

But Zoya had let go herself.

Lily was reaching into her pocket for a lollipop at the time, not even touching her. She was going to give Zoya the first lollipop too, her favorite Lily flavor, and it was the last one.

After that, she often got blamed for things she didn't do and scolded by Brooks and the others.

She realized that being meek didn't help, so she started fighting back.

If Zoya provoked her, she'd hit back. If Brooks scolded her, she'd argue back tenfold. Though it strained her family relationships, she felt better.

The second person who dared to scheme against her was Nadia.

Nadia was unlucky to encounter Lily at her peak madness.

For fake falls like Mi Shan's today, Lily would go berserk. If Nadia dared to stand and fall, she'd kick her legs until they bled with her high heels.

Nadia was fortunate to meet Lily during her unyielding phase.

The stronger Lily acted, the more Royce distanced himself, changing his words from "Lily, stop making trouble" to "Lily, you're so vicious."

Aria and Franklin sometimes advised her to be less aggressive, to soften her personality, and not to speak so harshly, to stay calm...

But it didn't work at all.

Every time she tried to brainwash herself to be like the two-faced Zoya or the patient Nadia, another voice in her head would say,

"Why should I? I'm not wrong! I never start trouble, I never harm anyone, I do charity work every year, donate wherever there's a disaster, and have funded several hope primary schools..."

"People like me should be learned from, not bullied. Should I tolerate that? Absolutely not, why should I? I'm not wrong."

Of course, there were times she could bear it.

Like now, when her friend was the one being bullied.

If she herself were bullied, she could retaliate without hesitation because she could take responsibility for her actions.

But it was different with Aria.

According to Aria and Jiang Jing, Mi Shan seemed quite important to Alistair.

If Lily directly beat up Mi Shan and angered Alistair, it didn't matter to her, but what if Alistair blamed Aria for it?

She had to leave a way out for Aria.