Xuan Yanyu tilted his head slightly toward the staircase, then asked offhandedly, “Oh? She’s not home?”

“She should be — at this hour she’s probably in her room.” Yan Jingzhi helped the housekeeper tidy the side table.

The man pressed his lips together, swirled his teacup idly, and made conversation from thin air. “When does your sister usually come downstairs?”

“When it’s time to eat.” Yan Jingzhi answered without looking up.

“And when does your family usually eat?” Xuan Yanyu pressed.

“Our family——”

“Ahem.” Xie Yan cut in with unmistakable implication, his gaze drifting in a leisurely arc toward Xuan Yanyu. “Yuge, why do you care what time Jingzhi’s family eats?”

“Oh.” Xuan Yanyu took a sip of tea, his tone mild. “I didn’t have lunch. A bit hungry. Was thinking of mooching a meal.”

“Is that so?” Xie Yan hooked the corner of his mouth, smiling with thinly veiled mischief.

Xuan Yanyu met his gaze without inflection, his eyes dark and steady.

Xie Yan glanced away, cleared his throat. “Now that Yuge mentions it, I’m a bit hungry too.”

“Then I’ll book a restaurant — we can go out.” Yan Jingzhi retrieved his phone from somewhere in the sofa cushions, but before he could begin browsing, Xuan Yanyu frowned. “Let’s eat here. Ningning may not want to go out with us.”

“You don’t need to worry about Ningning.” Yan Jingzhi leaned back, sinking languidly into the sofa, and studied Xuan Yanyu with probing eyes. “It’s barely past one o’clock — we just finished lunch. Whether we eat here or go out, Ningning won’t be eating.”

Xuan Yanyu went quiet.

“Ha ha ha.” Xie Yan tried to hold it in. He failed, and collapsed forward with laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Xuan Yanyu’s eyes narrowed, the handsomeness of his features doing nothing to conceal his irritation.

Xie Yan startled, hastily rearranging his expression into one of rigid seriousness as he faced Xuan Yanyu.

Xuan Yanyu: “……”

“Are we still eating?” Yan Jingzhi held up his phone.

His sister was being paid attention to by precisely the person who should not be paying her any attention. He needed to think of something.

“Yes.” Xuan Yanyu’s elegant, finely-jointed fingers turned his phone lazily in hand — then his eyes caught something on the screen, and his expression cooled.

Yan Jingzhi was about to ask what they wanted to eat, but when he looked up, he saw the vein at Xuan Yanyu’s temple pulse and his face turn cold. It was unmistakably clear: he was furious.

“Where is Yan Yunning?” The man rose to his feet, his smile a mask over something far more dangerous.

Yan Jingzhi’s brow furrowed. “Yuge, what’s happened?”

Xuan Yanyu unlocked his phone and thrust the screen directly in front of Yan Jingzhi’s face. Yan Jingzhi swallowed, took two reflexive steps back to get the image in focus, and went momentarily blank.

It was a high-resolution photograph. In the image was a very large delivery box. Affixed to it was a sticky note, and the words written on that note sent Yan Jingzhi’s vision spinning.

“I would sooner collect dog droppings than accept gifts from Xuan Yanyu!!!”

Below, in neat and deliberate strokes, were three large characters: “Yan Yunning.”

Yan Jingzhi glanced at the shipping label. The delivery address read: “Xuan Group.”

Which meant any number of employees had seen this.

No wonder Yuге was this furious. In Ningning’s eyes, a gift from Yuge was worth less than dog waste.

He didn’t need to think of a plan anymore. Right now Yuge probably wanted to throttle Ningning — any notion of being drawn to her had evaporated entirely.

“Give me an explanation from Yan Yunning.” Xuan Yanyu was genuinely angry.

From childhood to now, no one had ever humiliated him like this.

“Yuge, she’s young and doesn’t know any better. Don’t take it too personally.” Not knowing the full story, Xie Yan still offered a word in Yan Yunning’s defense.

Xuan Yanyu threw the phone onto the sofa toward Xie Yan, his voice colder than it had ever been. “Read it out loud.”

Xie Yan looked at the screen, eyes going wide, and then said with genuine admiration, “She’s got guts, this girl.”

Yan Jingzhi: “……?”

Realizing this was heading somewhere difficult to walk back, Yan Jingzhi steeled himself and offered an apology. “Yuге, this was Ningning’s fault. I apologize on her behalf.”

“An explanation.” Xuan Yanyu’s temper had well and truly ignited, and beneath it was an odd, smothering heaviness in his chest that he couldn’t account for.

Yan Jingzhi looked toward the housekeeper standing nearby. “Go and call Ningning down.”

“Yes, sir.” The housekeeper acknowledged and jogged up the stairs.

Three minutes later, footsteps echoed from the staircase landing. Xuan Yanyu unclenched his fingers — and, visibly, some of the fury in his eyes began to subside.

“Sir, Miss Ningning isn’t in her room.” The footsteps belonged to the housekeeper. Upon hearing that, Xuan Yanyu’s brow creased.

“Yuге, how about this,” Yan Jingzhi said, negotiating carefully. “In five days, Zhibai, Zhijing, An’nian, and Ruoyi are coming back from abroad for the gathering to celebrate your recovery. I’ll bring Ningning along then, and she can apologize to you properly in person. Would that work?”

With that many people around in the private room, he refused to believe Yuge would make things overly difficult.

Xuan Yanyu’s eyes shifted slightly. He gave a single nod. “That works.”

Yan Jingzhi exhaled with relief.

Xuan Yanyu’s real intention had never been to visit Yan Jingzhi. Not having seen who he actually wanted to see, he didn’t linger, and left the villa with Xie Yan.

The moment Xuan Yanyu was gone, Yan Jingzhi dialed Yan Yunning. The moment the call connected, he shouted, “Yan Yunning, get back home right now!”

On the other end, Yan Yunning stared blankly at the call that had just ended, said a quick word to He Qingxia, and had her driver take her back to the West City Villa.

She pushed open the door, kicked off her heels, slipped on a comfortable pair of house sandals, and walked into the living room — only to find Yan Jingzhi’s frosty gaze fixed on her the moment she entered.

She crossed to her usual spot on the sofa, settled in, gathered her stuffed animal into her arms, and blinked at Yan Jingzhi.

“What do you mean, you’d sooner collect dog droppings than accept Yuге’s gifts?” Yan Jingzhi said through gritted teeth.

Yan Yunning paused, and didn’t answer.

That had been written on a day when she had gone online and seen photo after photo of Xuan Yanyu and Shiyao going abroad together, and in a fit of anger and heartache, the words had come pouring out.

Yan Jingzhi’s expression darkened. “Are you out of your mind? How could you be bold enough to insult him like that — and then send it to his company, of all places? What were you thinking?”

“You know how much his dad dotes on him. And you sent it to the company. Did you think even once about the consequences?”

“Do you have any idea how many companies are falling over themselves to partner with the Xuan Group? One line — ‘I’d sooner collect dog droppings than accept gifts from Xuan Yanyu’ — and if CEO Xuan Senior sees that and loses his temper, there are a lot of companies that won’t risk offending the Xuan Group. They’ll pull back from any cooperation with us.”

“Ningning. If you were the president of a company and had to choose between offending the Xuan Group and offending the Yan Group — which would you pick?”

“……”

“……”

Yan Jingzhi went on for quite some time. Yan Yunning didn’t even lift her gaze, her chest so full it felt like it might overflow.

Was there anyone who could think about things from where she stood? About what she was supposed to do?

She loved Xuan Yanyu so much — and she had been pulled back at the very moment she least wanted to return.

When she came back and found out that the Xuan Yanyu here was real and not just a character in a novel, she had been happier than she could say. It didn’t matter that he didn’t remember her. They could start over from the beginning. But…

But he had Shiyao.

She had seen the photos of them at the airport and, in a surge of anger and hurt, had written those words without thinking once about what they might cost.

“Ningning, go apologize to Yuge.” Yan Jingzhi softened his voice.

“Alright.” Yan Yunning tightened her grip on the stuffed animal.

And while she was at it, she would confirm once and for all — whether he was truly her Xuan Xixi.

“Don’t be scared. It’ll be fine. Whatever happens, your brother will be in front of you to take the hit.” Yan Jingzhi ruffled her hair.

Yan Yunning gave him a sidelong look. “Then go apologize in my place.”

Yan Jingzhi: “……?”

Didn’t he already — wasn’t that what he had done?