Ruan Sixian stood up and walked toward Fu Mingyu.

She was tall with long legs. This two or three-meter distance only required a few strides, but she walked extremely slowly.

The few people behind her assumed she was just shy and watched her back with interest.

Only Fu Mingyu, sitting on the sofa, clearly saw Ruan Sixian’s gaze.

She stared directly at him. Her decorated eyelids revealed tiny sparkles under the dim light, giving off a golden glow that complemented the glimmer in her eyes.

She looked beautiful, but not exactly gentle.

As she approached and leaned forward, their eyes met, clashing in that instant.

Ruan Sixian’s gaze seemed to say, “If you dare try any tricks today, you’ll find yourself on a grass boat tomorrow.”

A moment later, Fu Mingyu raised his arm, displaying the chips in his palm.

“Go ahead.”

Ruan Sixian smiled as she grabbed the chips from his hand and said, “Thank you, President Fu. I feel bad taking them for free. If I lose, just deduct it from my bonus.”

Fu Mingyu glanced at her and chuckled lightly.

After all that circling, it was still his money in the end.

Ruan Sixian turned around with the chips. “Let’s continue. It’s still early. Who knows who’ll come out on top.”

“…”

Everyone suddenly felt somewhat gleefully schadenfreude, glancing back and forth at Fu Mingyu.

They had thought this “friend” Fu Mingyu brought was practically his girlfriend, just missing the title, but now it seemed they were far from it.

After sitting down, Ruan Sixian had just touched the cards when she suddenly stopped.

“Wait, I need to use the restroom.”

She stood up and pointed at Fu Mingyu, “Don’t touch my cards. Wait for me to return.”

The private room had its bathroom. After Ruan Sixian closed the door, Zhu Dong and Ji Yan smiled meaningfully at Fu Mingyu.

See that? She’s not buying what you’re selling.

Among those present, only Yan An laughed out loud, though it was a cold laugh.

He arranged the cards neatly and turned to ask Fu Mingyu, “President Fu, isn’t this the benefit of being wealthy?”

Fu Mingyu ignored him, stood up, placed the remaining chips from the tray onto Ruan Sixian’s table, and then returned to the sofa.

In card games, interruptions mid-game were sometimes considered taboo.

For instance, when Ruan Sixian went to the bathroom, everyone suspected she went to swap her hands upon return.

In just one hour, she staged a “comeback against the odds” for everyone.

Like an emotionless money-harvesting machine, she won hand after hand, decisive and merciless.

Each time they saw her gleaming eyes as she collected money, Zhu Dong and Ji Yan vaguely felt she was seeking revenge.

When the game ended, Ruan Sixian settled accounts and proudly announced, “I won it all back.”

Fu Mingyu raised his eyebrows slightly and said, “Impressive.”

After he spoke, the room fell into an awkward silence.

Zhu Dong and Ji Yan hadn’t expected things to develop this way, and Zhu Dong’s girlfriend even had a vague feeling that her self-perceived help today might have been counterproductive.

Everyone stood up and walked toward the restaurant together.

Zhu Dong asked Zheng You’an if she wanted to join, and she didn’t refuse.

She just felt increasingly confused.

On the way to the restaurant, she turned her head and whispered to Yan An, “What exactly is their relationship?”

Yan An tilted his neck while looking at his phone: “Just what you see.”

“What do I see?”

Yan An looked up at Fu Mingyu ahead and said coldly, “When have you ever seen Fu Mingyu bring a woman out to play cards and let her lose freely?”

This statement cleared up all of tonight’s confusion, explaining everything clearly to Zheng You’an.

She looked at the two walking side by side ahead in disbelief.

All men were supposed to be scoundrels, but someone was enjoying it more than anyone else???

How could there be such a person? Was this some modern tactic to defeat a love rival?

Yan An glanced at her sideways, seeing her collapsed expression and even her steps slowing down.

Thinking about her history with Fu Mingyu, and her insistence on coming along today to sit with him for a while, Yan An immediately understood her current psychological state.

“Feeling unhappy?”

Zheng You’an forced a smile, “What do I have to be unhappy about?”

She just felt a sense of betrayal, that’s all.

Yan An narrowed his eyes, “But I’m unhappy, damn it.”

After playing cards all afternoon, it might not have been physically exhausting, but it was certainly a mental exercise. The atmosphere at the dinner table was much more relaxed.

Once everyone realized Fu Mingyu’s progress with Ruan Sixian wasn’t what they had imagined, they stopped teasing the two.

While they chatted about work matters, Ruan Sixian didn’t participate in the conversation, focusing entirely on eating.

But she could still feel Zheng You’an’s death stare from time to time.

Ruan Sixian genuinely felt nervous under her gaze and pretended not to notice.

However, when she was about to pick up a piece of braised pig’s trotter, the cold gaze from across the table was so intense that it killed her appetite.

Just as she put down her chopsticks, Zheng You’an rested her chin on her hand, looked at her, and said, “What’s wrong? Don’t the pig’s trotters suit your taste? I just saw you eating quite happily.”

Ruan Sixian shot her a heavy look and replied, “It’s fine. I’m full.”

Fu Mingyu turned to look at her, “Don’t you want to eat a bit more?”

Ruan Sixian forced a smile, “No need, thank you.”

Seeing this, Ji Yan had the server bring some desserts for Ruan Sixian.

He was the oldest among them and had always played the role of an older brother looking after everyone. Noticing that Ruan Sixian had finished eating, and remembering that Yan An hadn’t said much all day and was drinking silently during dinner, he asked, “By the way, Yan An, how are things going with that female pilot from World Airlines? Did you win her over?”

Ruan Sixian choked on an expensive coconut water and bird’s nest dessert.

Fu Mingyu glanced at Ji Yan inconspicuously, but the latter remained completely oblivious to any awkwardness.

He hadn’t attended Zhu Dong’s girlfriend’s birthday party last time and didn’t know the situation, so he was genuinely concerned about his friend’s romantic status.

“What’s the situation?” Zheng You’an asked casually, “You pursued a female pilot from World Airlines?”

Hearing them ask this, Zhu Dong didn’t think much of it, as there was nothing to hide about such questions. He just felt it was a bit cruel to reopen Yan An’s wounds, so he answered for him: “It’s all in the past, let’s not bring it up.”

Yan An was quite helpless at being suddenly mentioned, so he took a big gulp of alcohol and pretended to be too drunk to hear.

But reality taught Ruan Sixian that money wasn’t so easily earned.

Just as Zhu Dong finished speaking, his girlfriend asked, “By the way, Miss Ruan, where do you work?”

Ruan Sixian: “…”

For the first time in her life, she was ashamed to mention her profession.

“Oh… I work at World Airlines.”

“What do you do there?”

Zheng You’an suddenly blinked and jumped in with an answer: “She’s the female pilot from World Airlines.”

“…”

The atmosphere froze instantly because of Zheng You’an’s words.

Several gazes shot toward Ruan Sixian and Fu Mingyu.

She covered her mouth and made an “Ah” sound, directly exposing the awkwardness hidden in the air.

Ruan Sixian smiled stiffly, while under the table, her hand pinched Fu Mingyu’s thigh hard.

Fu Mingyu held her hand, but his face remained calm as he looked toward Zheng You’an.

“Yes, she’s the female pilot I worked hard to recruit. Is there a problem?”

His implied meaning was very clear, the subtext was firm, and Zheng You’an suddenly didn’t know what to say.

Finally, this topic came to an abrupt end when Yan An, red-faced from drinking, collapsed onto the table with a “thud.”

The dinner ended early amid everyone’s forced smiles.

When Ruan Sixian walked out of the hall, a cold breeze blew over her, and she finally felt alive again.

Meanwhile, Bian Xuan and Si Xiaozhen were asking in their group chat how her day went. She replied with one sentence:

“Making money isn’t easy. Let’s all be more frugal in the future.”

In the car, Ruan Sixian and Fu Mingyu sat on opposite sides, as if there was a 38th parallel between them.

She stared gloomily out the window, not saying a word.

She shouldn’t have been bewitched into accepting Fu Mingyu’s invitation to this dinner. She could have done anything else with her time but instead chose to experience this human purgatory.

Fu Mingyu saw Ruan Sixian’s expression in the window’s reflection and asked, “Tired?”

“Tenfold.”

“What?”

Ruan Sixian suddenly turned her head and stared at him, “Tenfold quarterly bonus!”

“That expensive?”

Expensive?

Ruan Sixian wanted to bash his head in right there.

Originally, she wasn’t asking him for money, she just wanted to express how atrocious her suffering had been today. On a scale of quarterly bonuses, it would be worth ten.

And he thought it was expensive?!

Ruan Sixian seriously suspected his fortune was accumulated by being stingy.

She couldn’t be bothered with this penny-pinching man and turned back to watching the streetlights outside.

Half a minute later, Ruan Sixian’s phone dinged.

She took it out and saw it was a WeChat transfer from Fu Mingyu.

It was ten times her quarterly bonus.

[Fu Mingyu]: Thank you for your hard work today, Miss Ruan.

After returning it all to him, Ruan Sixian typed:

[Ruan Sixian]: Since Mr. Fu is quite generous, I’ll give you a 0% discount.

[Fu Mingyu]: Will Miss Ruan turn around and talk to me now?

Ruan Sixian looked up and saw her reflection overlapping with Fu Mingyu’s in the window, but she could also see him smiling.

She felt inexplicably flustered, sensing that turning around would plunge her into some abyss.

[Ruan Sixian]: I’ll take a nap.

After sending these words, she leaned her head against the car window and immediately closed her eyes.

Since Warner Manor was in the western hills, the road wound and twisted, making the driver go slowly. The car’s speed had a very soporific effect.

About ten minutes later, Ruan Sixian truly became drowsy, her head swaying left and right with the curves of the road.

Suddenly, a warmth approached her.

In her foggy consciousness, she instinctively moved toward the warmth. Her head tilted and rested on the shoulder of the person beside her.

Fu Mingyu’s hand slowly slid through the gap between her back and the seat, securing her in his arms so she wouldn’t sway with the road anymore.

The car gradually descended the mountain, entering the bustling city with its colorful lights.

Fu Mingyu lowered his head and found her face close to his. The multicolored neon lights shining through the car window danced like tiny sparkles on Ruan Sixian’s face.

He smelled the orange fragrance on her, with a few strands of her hair curling around his neck, tickling him.

It seemed like some primitive driving force was at work. By the time he came to his senses, he had already placed a kiss on her forehead.

Though it was just a fleeting kiss, it still gave him a feeling of stolen intimacy.

Thinking of this, Fu Mingyu smiled self-mockingly.

He raised his head, trying to shift his attention and dispel that self-mocking feeling, turning to look outside.

He didn’t notice the pounding heartbeat of the person in his arms.