Yan Ming never expected to receive meals delivered by Yu Tian again.

Even after he had taken the lunch box back to his office and finished eating, he was still staring at the stacked food containers in a daze.

Yu Tian’s cooking skills were indeed excellent. The meal was very delicious, the best Yan Ming had eaten recently, making him even start to look forward to the next time.

But Yu Tian did not need to continue trying to build a good relationship with him to facilitate getting through to his father, since the breakup had been initiated by Yu Tian’s mother.

So why was Yu Tian still being so proactive and enthusiastic now, and expressing her intentions so directly? Did she have those kinds of thoughts?

She had said that their parents’ current romantic breakup status might be a catalyst for their relationship.

The meaning was already as direct as it could be.

But Yan Ming still found it hard to believe.

He had been pursued by many people, but had never encountered someone who could be so straightforward and confident, too lazy to even disguise her intentions, saying it to his face after only meeting a few times.

This was simply too direct.

However, while Yan Ming was astonished, he suddenly felt somewhat enlightened.

Yu Tian’s enthusiasm, which he had found difficult to understand, now seemed to have legitimate reasons.

She had those kinds of thoughts about him.

Perhaps before, she had been constrained by the possibility that both sets of parents might become a blended family, so she could only suppress her emotions. But now that there were no ethical concerns, Yu Tian’s offensive had become more direct.

She had not only delivered meals to him, but also insisted on making dinner plans after work without taking no for an answer.

Yan Ming should have refused, but he didn’t want to owe anyone favors.

He would treat Yu Tian to dinner tonight, and when she confessed so directly again, he would reject her, and that would be the end of it.

Yan Ming felt that Yu Tian probably wouldn’t be too upset either, because she didn’t seem particularly sincere. Otherwise, yesterday’s incident of giving the meal meant for him to Qi Sihao wouldn’t have happened.

But her cooking was indeed quite good.

And she was indeed very beautiful.

Just a bit too beautiful, like the femme fatale in TV dramas. Although her expression seemed harmless, because she was too stunning, it always felt like she harbored ill intentions.

Yu Tian was completely unaware of the twists and turns in Yan Ming’s mind.

She was rummaging through boxes and drawers, not looking for clothes, but for notebooks.

Besides doing cooking recipe livestreams as supplementary content to boost engagement, Yu Tian also planned to create several themed educational series on her medical knowledge science popularization social media account, including common daily disease diagnosis and how to provide self-rescue during emergencies or cooperate with treatment during recovery.

This was the main content production direction she had planned for her social media account.

Ophthalmology was a category that people encountered problems with quite frequently in daily life. However, most people lacked awareness about eye hygiene, and also lacked consciousness about early intervention and treatment for some eye diseases. They often let problems drag on until they became more serious, always feeling that as long as their eyes could see things normally, it didn’t matter. When their eyes felt uncomfortable, they would most likely casually buy some eye drops from small clinics.

With modern people’s increased use of electronic devices, problems like dry eye syndrome have become more frequent, and myopia is also becoming more common among younger people.

After comprehensive analysis, Yu Tian felt that medical science popularization on topics like eye hygiene, common eye disease identification, and myopia prevention and treatment for minors would be excellent entry points – both down-to-earth and genuinely helpful to everyone.

Such ophthalmology topics shouldn’t be wasted. Medical science popularization alone could make an entire ophthalmology series.

She had previously written a rough outline for the ophthalmology topic in her notebook, along with several questions. Tonight would be perfect to bring them along to consult with Yan Ming, and at the same time, improve the outline and further subdivide the subtopics within each themed episode.

Additionally, she had previously watched several videos of Yan Ming performing surgeries. Although due to her hand injury, she could never operate in the future, Yu Tian always believed that her medical career hadn’t completely ended.

After all, once she had accumulated some money from entrepreneurship, once she overcame the psychological trauma from her hand injury, once she truly let go of the hurt in her heart, she might still be able to return to school and pursue an academic path. Therefore, Yu Tian was interested in discussing some of Yan Ming’s surgical operations that were not conventional in domestic ophthalmology and were even considered radical.

By the time Yu Tian had found all these scattered notes and questions, there wasn’t much time left before Yan Ming got off work.

Yu Tian almost hurriedly threw on a T-shirt, put on a denim skirt, slipped on canvas shoes, and rushed out.

The restaurant where she had arranged to meet Yan Ming was a very popular, internet-famous restaurant. The prices weren’t low, but the food was excellent, and they used a blind box style ordering method that was very interesting.

The restaurant’s interior decoration was elegant, and because they limited capacity and only provided fixed seating each day, the environment wasn’t noisy, and privacy was very good. Previously, even celebrities had come to check it out.

The price was a bit expensive…

But Yu Tian gritted her teeth and felt it was still manageable. However, since her social media account was still far from the profit-making stage, it would be a lie to say it didn’t hurt.

But what Yu Tian didn’t expect was that when she arrived at the restaurant and was waiting at the front desk to confirm her reservation information, the server brought her some money-saving good news.

“Miss, if you’re dining with your boyfriend, I recommend you try our restaurant’s special couples’ blind box launched tonight.”

The server smiled: “This blind box menu has richer content than our usual dinner blind box dishes, but the price is only half of the regular menu.”

“Because our boss just successfully pursued the girl he likes, as a celebration, he’s launched this couple’s blind box half-price promotion. It’s only available this week.”

The server smiled as she introduced it to Yu Tian: “You just need to provide a photo of you two together to prove your couple relationship, then leave a love message in our guestbook. Our boss also wants to keep it as a memento.”

Yu Tian was initially hesitant, but after glancing at the price list, she decided to take the risk for potential gain, since these requirements weren’t difficult to fulfill.

She immediately opened her phone and sent a message to Qi Sihao.

[Little Fish]: Thinking about our friendship suddenly made me emotional, want to look at photos to reminisce. Send me a photo of us together, something intimate.

[Qi Sihao is Nice]:? No time, I’m working!

[Little Fish]: Also want to show off to my new friend how handsome my good friend is.

Sure enough, Qi Sihao immediately had time.

A few seconds later, Yu Tian received the group photo he sent.

Yu Tian pulled up the photos of Yan Ming she had secretly taken earlier from her phone album, then selected a photo from what Qi Sihao sent that had a suitable angle for Photoshop editing.

In that photo, Qi Sihao’s arm was carelessly draped over Yu Tian’s shoulder.

Yu Tian had no memory of when this was taken.

But this was good – it looked very intimate.

Yu Tian quickly cut out the image and pasted Yan Ming’s face onto Qi Sihao’s neck, barely covering Qi Sihao’s face.

Although the Photoshop job was somewhat crude and the traces were obvious, if you didn’t look carefully, it could pass.

An intimate “couple photo” of herself and Yan Ming was thus created.

The server was just going through the motions and barely glanced before approving Yu Tian’s photo: “However, please scan this QR code and upload according to the mini-program requirements. Our backend needs to keep statistics, because we also have a daily limit on couples’ blind boxes, so we need to match them up and keep a backup copy.”

Ah… why was there such a requirement…

Seeing Yu Tian’s expression, the server understood and explained somewhat helplessly: “Because previously there were incidents where intern staff internally reserved these half-price couple meals and then resold them, our boss requires backup archived photos to verify identity to prevent staff from exploiting loopholes.”

Although this explanation was understandable, Yu Tian was still somewhat hesitant: “Will this photo be used for other purposes?”

“No, please rest assured. Although we do allow uploaded photos to be used for non-commercial marketing promotion by default, as long as you specifically request not to authorize usage, I’ll help you make a note in the backend system to protect your privacy.”

That sounded acceptable…

Other customers were already starting to queue behind Yu Tian. She didn’t want to keep others waiting, so she quickly scanned the QR code as the server requested and rapidly uploaded the couple’s photo.

“You also need to leave a love message in this book.”

Although it was somewhat troublesome, since she could get half price, Yu Tian managed to scribble down something resembling doggerel as a “love message” to fill the requirement, even though her mind was completely blank.

After she finished writing and left her message, sitting down at the reserved table, the timing worked out perfectly.

Yan Ming had also arrived.

However, this internet-famous restaurant was good in every other way, but the one problem was that the food service was slow.

Of course, this was also one of the important reasons Yu Tian had chosen this restaurant.

She decided to find a safe topic to break the ice and get closer to Yan Ming.

“Brother Yan Ming, you look quite good in that outfit. That color suits you very well! That’s also my favorite color! What a coincidence!”

Unfortunately, Yu Tian’s flattery was misdirected.

Yan Ming slightly raised his eyelids to glance at Yu Tian, then said expressionlessly: “Quite a coincidence indeed. This is my most hated color. My mom bought it for me.”

“…”

Yu Tian laughed awkwardly: “Well, Auntie still cares about you a lot. It shows she loves you very much, buying you clothes. In her heart, she probably still thinks of you as a child. But their generation has different aesthetics from us young people, so the color might not suit your taste…”

“She completely mixed up my favorite and most hated colors, thinking this was my favorite color. She didn’t buy this shirt because she thought of me – it was just because she was 2,000 yuan short of spending 50,000 to get 3,000 off, and this shirt happened to cost exactly 2,000.”

“…”

Yu Tian tried several other topics, but unfortunately, Yan Ming seemed to be on guard against something. Whether it was Yu Tian’s imagination or not, she felt like Yan Ming was defending like a goalkeeper trying to prevent goals, guarding against her saying something strange.

But clearly, all her conversation topics were very safe and normal…

However, Yu Tian didn’t know that what she considered safe and normal was completely different in Yan Ming’s eyes.

Yu Tian’s rambling small talk, in Yan Ming’s view, all seemed like groundwork for bringing up other unsafe topics.

Trying to get closer first and ease the atmosphere.

Then would come the confession.

Yan Ming had indeed decided to directly reject Yu Tian during this meeting, but not at the beginning of the meal.

Because if Yu Tian confessed before eating, his rejection would make it impossible to continue the meal, creating an awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere.

Yan Ming hoped Yu Tian could at least hold it in until the end of the meal.

That would be more in line with proper etiquette, and at that moment, Yan Ming could naturally refuse her politely, putting a perfect end to this relationship.

Therefore, when Yu Tian started talking about those relationship-building, pointless conversation topics, Yan Ming became alert. He tried to interrupt Yu Tian and hoped this restaurant could serve food earlier.

Unfortunately, Yu Tian completely failed to receive Yan Ming’s signals.

She was still trying those awkward relationship-building topics.

Because of Yan Ming’s intentional interference, Yu Tian visibly became somewhat restless. She seemed like she couldn’t hold it in anymore, but unfortunately, she hadn’t given up her original intention. She stopped those cover-up topics and decided to get straight to the point—

“Brother Yan Ming, while the food hasn’t arrived yet, I…”

Yan Ming wasn’t surprised, but still pressed his lips together and interrupted her: “Some things, you should think clearly before saying them, especially some serious topics. I’m afraid the pre-meal time isn’t enough for serious communication.”

Yu Tian indeed paused, then looked somewhat embarrassed and shy: “You already know what I want to say?”

Yan Ming took a sip of his drink, nodded, his tone knowing: “I hope you confirm that you’re already prepared.”

Yu Tian’s face showed expectation, then she nodded solemnly: “I’m prepared!”

Of course, she was prepared – she had been preparing all afternoon!

Originally, Yu Tian was still somewhat hesitant, feeling that asking these questions during pre-meal time might make Yan Ming uncomfortable. But Yan Ming was indeed her idol – he had even seen through what she wanted to ask, and thoughtfully indicated that the pre-meal time might not be enough for serious communication.

Yu Tian was filled with gratitude: “Although it’s indeed not enough for serious, in-depth discussion, we shouldn’t waste time. I want to seize every minute and second. If we can’t finish talking, after we eat, if you have time, we can continue…”

Whether it was her studious spirit that infected Yan Ming or not, Yu Tian noticed that after she finished speaking, Yan Ming’s face showed a complex expression.

“I think we probably won’t need to continue discussing this after dinner…”

Yu Tian nodded vigorously, feeling somewhat excited and nervous inside.

What Yan Ming meant was probably an affirmation of Yu Tian’s comprehension ability.

He must think that with her professional capability, after he gave her a few pointers, she would understand, not needing to spend too much time.

Having come this far, Yu Tian stopped being coy. She gathered her courage and pulled out her notebook from her bag, then handed it to Yan Ming.

“Brother Yan Ming, everything I want to ask is written in here!”

Yan Ming indeed showed a surprised expression: “This whole notebook? When did you…”

“I record a little whenever I think of something.” Yu Tian had indeed been accumulating this question collection for a long time. She explained, “Several years now, it’s accumulated little by little.”

Probably not having expected her to be so studious, Yan Ming might have been moved, because Yu Tian felt his gaze toward her became more… indescribable, like it contained some pity and sympathy?

But medical students were inherently hardworking, and studious medical students like her weren’t rare.

Since studying medicine was her own choice, there was nothing pitiable about it.

Yu Tian didn’t want to waste more time, so she hinted: “If you don’t mind, could you open it and take a look?”

Yan Ming stared at the notebook, not moving for a long time. Only when prompted by Yu Tian did he seem to steel himself and open the notebook as if facing a great enemy.

Then Yu Tian saw his expression become astonished, then bewildered, then incredulous.

After a moment, he looked up from the notebook and back at Yu Tian.

“This is what you wanted to discuss?”

Yu Tian was somewhat puzzled, but still nodded: “Yes.”

She felt somewhat uneasy: “Is it not appropriate? I’m sorry, Brother Yan Ming. I thought since I had the chance to have dinner with you, I didn’t want to waste the opportunity. I’ve been accumulating these questions for a long time, hoping to take this chance to ask for your guidance.”

Looking at Yan Ming’s unpleasant expression, Yu Tian was genuinely anxious.

Most of the questions recorded in her notebook were difficult problems for which she still couldn’t find answers even after exhausting internet searches, discussions, and academic paper consultations.

Was it that even for Yan Ming, they were… so that’s why he showed this expression…

Yu Tian asked carefully: “Brother Yan Ming, are they too difficult even for you?”

“…”