“Bro, you posted on Moments?” Qiao Maimei pushed through the crowd to sit beside Li Jinyu.

Li Jinyu wore loose white sportswear, clean and eye-catching. It caught the attention of several young women, whose eyes never left him as they eagerly probed Qiao Maimei about whether Li Jinyu had a girlfriend. Qiao Maimei, whether bribed by Ye Meng or not, gave a unified response—he had an extremely beautiful, wealthy girlfriend who adored him like a heavenly fairy. The young women looked envious, disappointed yet unwilling to give up, some even harboring the not-so-virtuous thought of approaching him to at least add his WeChat.

—”Qiao Maimei’s brother is so handsome.” “You can’t just use ‘handsome’ to describe him. Those hands, that Adam’s apple. Is that a hickey? Damn, I’m dead, so attractive.”

The young women exchanged whispers with relish.

Meanwhile, the human embodiment of attractiveness had his sportswear zipper pulled all the way up, chin tucked into the collar, resting with closed eyes at one end of the sofa, giving a faint “mm” in response to Qiao Maimei.

“Don’t you know you can post nine photos at once in Moments?” Qiao Maimei scrolled through his posts and advised, “Posting one by one like this will get you blocked.”

“Oh.” The human embodiment of attractiveness picked up his phone and lazily glanced at it.

At that time, Ye Meng had gone upstairs to put down her luggage. Not rushing to unpack, she took off her coat and casually hung it on the sofa, then grabbed a bottle of wine from the cabinet to entertain Tai Mingxiao. After half a day of not finding the corkscrew, she was on her knees aimlessly searching when Tai Mingxiao laughed and pulled her up, saying: “Enough, you’re getting dust all over yourself. I’ll find someone to clean up tomorrow. Just sleep like this tonight. You need to meet that Chinese collector tomorrow, so get some rest early. We’re not in a hurry. I just came by today to show my support—no matter what, I’m very happy to have you back.” He finished with a gentlemanly hug.

Ye Meng smiled, slid the wine back at an angle, and said thanks. The two leaned against the wine cooler, chatting casually about recent events. When it was getting late, Tai Mingxiao got up to leave, but at the door, he seemed to remember something and said: “Ye Meng, although we met through Gou Kai, I genuinely consider you a friend, and I sincerely hope you’ll stay in Beijing.”

Tai Mingxiao was a bright and cheerful person. He had many excellent women around him, and Ye Meng was far from his only female friend. But he was very open and clear about relationships, not as calculating as Gou Kai. Ye Meng wasn’t his type, but she was one of the women he admired.

They were particularly similar in one way—they could joke around with anyone, maintaining perfect boundaries without offending. Gou Kai said that even if they were thrown into an African tribe where they couldn’t communicate, they’d probably quickly become minor chiefs. Because they understood the weaknesses of human nature. Tai Mingxiao was a vice president responsible for maintaining client relationships, and Ye Meng was someone he had personally promoted. Maintaining interpersonal relationships was a major study; neither of them claimed to be experts, at most they were halfway there, but together, while they couldn’t turn the world upside down, they could certainly confuse people enough. Tai Mingxiao and Ye Meng were considered the top in client relations, with an industry couple nickname—”Night Snack Stand.”

If it hadn’t been for Gou Kai’s interference, after Ye Meng resigned, many companies would have extended offers to her. But Ye Meng, with her unremarkable educational background, suddenly began to shine, which infuriated Gou Kai. He always felt that Ye Meng had just gotten lucky. Unless she left Beijing altogether, she had to stay by his side. So Ye Meng had silently returned to her hometown.

After Tai Mingxiao left, Ye Meng couldn’t be bothered to move and leaned against the sofa smoking, relieving the fatigue from her journey. She didn’t smoke regularly and her addiction wasn’t strong; sometimes she wouldn’t think of smoking for ten days or half a month, but occasionally when she had nothing to do, she would smoke one cigarette after another.

The woman’s fingers holding the cigarette were as slender as spring onions. Her features were beautiful, not exactly enchanting, but mature and clean. When wearing a suit, she looked especially reserved and cool. However, while smoking, her eyes showed weariness, like a world-weary rose. Everything she did was listless, permeating with travel-worn dejection.

Li Jinyu’s bluff, in Ye Meng’s view, was just a child acting out when denied candy. She never quibbled with children. To be honest, having dated several younger men, she had never really been jealous of a boyfriend. After navigating so much social politics, the world of adults with healthy relationship perspectives didn’t go for that sort of thing, and she was highly tolerant—as long as it wasn’t too excessive, she could endure. The disadvantage of dating younger men was their low tolerance and strong possessiveness.

But if Ye Meng ever did get jealous, it usually meant the relationship was facing a breakup. Ye Meng could be that ruthless—everyone can live without someone else, and the next one might be even better behaved. So when younger men acted out too much, Ye Meng had no patience and would just walk away.

So after smoking two cigarettes, Ye Meng’s mood was quite calm, and she sent Li Jinyu a WeChat message as if nothing had happened.

[Meng: I’ve arrived, very tired. Goodnight, baby.]

Li Jinyu felt as if his heavy iron fist had rusted, punching into cotton. At least hitting water would make a splash, but now it fell silently into emptiness. He sat in the corner of the sofa, tossed his phone with a “thud” onto the coffee table, took a breath, leaned forward slightly to grab a pack of cigarettes, took one out, casually picked up a lighter, and said to the brother beside him who had been offering advice: “She’s asleep.”

“Not jealous?”

He took a drag of his cigarette, “No.”

“Damn,” his friend cursed, his eyebrows raised in an impressively high arc, as if surprised enough to split his face, “What kind of sister is she?”

Li Jinyu, hand holding the cigarette propped on the sofa, smiled, “The wild kind.”

“How about you go hug one of these girls, and I’ll take a photo of you two. Then have Qiao Maimei send it to her. If you send it directly, it would just provoke her. Even if she gets jealous, she’ll hold it in.”

“No.”

Those girls hadn’t taken their eyes off him, watching him smoke, watching him chat with his friend. Li Jinyu wasn’t oblivious.

His friend suggested again: “Then how about hugging Qiao Maimei? I won’t show her face. Let Qiao Maimei nestle in your arms, covering her face. That should work, right? Like a sister.”

Li Jinyu felt like a thousand alpacas were running through his mind again. He stretched lazily and kicked his legs.

After taking the photo, Qiao Maimei looked at him uncertainly, “Bro, are you sure you want to be this self-destructive?”

Li Jinyu, smoking his cigarette, wasn’t too sure either, but his friend beside him spoke convincingly: “This isn’t self-destruction. This is Li Jinyu’s first relationship, it’s normal for him to feel insecure. Based on my deep experience from two unforgettable relationships, a woman who truly loves you will be vigilant and watchful of any female who appears within five meters of you, assessing whether they pose a threat. If they could be your ideal type, she’ll observe with 8x magnification and be ready to eliminate them at any moment.”

“That extreme?” Li Jinyu listened with envy.

His friend wore an expression that said ‘you haven’t seen the world’: “When women get jealous, they can instantly evolve from single-cell organisms into Sherlock Holmes, with an IQ over 180, beyond humans. If she’s not jealous, either she’s too lazy to evolve, or she just doesn’t like you.”

…

Ye Meng woke up early the next day and instinctively checked Moments on her phone. She was stunned.

This little beast had posted a selfie. And what a Playboy selfie it was! Li Jinyu’s lips already had a slightly playboy shape; when not smiling, he looked extremely cold, and when smiling freely, his mouth corners were sharp and thin, like a sunny youth. But when his lips were pressed together with slightly upturned corners like now, he had a bit of a playboy’s mischievous air. Combined with this mysterious angle, it seemed to be taken from below. It was completely and utterly a playboy’s thirst trap. At least he didn’t use a filter, but the raw camera pixels made him look even more arrogant.

Ye Meng couldn’t help wanting to comment: “See, this is what a playboy looks like.”

Li Jinyu, let alone taking selfies, when Ye Meng tried to steal photos after their kiss photo and inadvertently scrolled through his album, she discovered that apart from the kissing one, the rest were all unobstructed, artistic landscape photos. Not to mention posting selfies on Moments—this was unprecedented, drawing likes and comments from many zombies in his friend circle. Before the likes, she hadn’t realized, but after seeing them, she was shocked to discover how many mutual friends she and Li Jinyu had, though most were female friends. Seems like he had added quite a few from the bar.

Yang Tianwei, Qiao Maimei, Fang Ya’en, Jiang Luzhi, Liu Yiyi, and various other mutual friends had already liked his post. Below were comments she could see—

[Little Yang’s Fried Buns: Bro, join our team. You don’t need to do anything, just roll your face on the keyboard, and we’ll go viral.]

[Liu Yiyi: Very handsome. Hehe.]

[Jiang Luzhi: ?]

[Fang: Do you have any male relatives around your age?]

[LJY replying to Fang: @Yang Tianwei]

[Fang replying to LJY: Get lost.]

[Liu Yiyi: …]

[Little Yang’s Fried Buns replying to Fang: Why am I getting dismissed?]

Even Ye Meng’s grandmother had left a comment:

[Yushan123: Looking energetic, young man.]

[LJY replying to Yushan123: Thank you, Grandmother.]

The old lady was quite adept at using WeChat, with Ye Meng’s student-era selfie as her profile picture. The old lady particularly loved using WeChat’s “Shake Nearby People” feature, often connecting with men who would ask: “Is that you in your profile picture?” The old lady would reply: “My granddaughter.” Most men didn’t take it seriously: “You’re joking, little sister is so beautiful.” The old lady took it as a compliment for Ye Meng: “She’s been pretty since she was little.” At first, the subtle old lady didn’t quite understand and would respond casually, but later as conversations deepened, she realized what they meant, and cursed as she turned off the “Nearby People” feature, calling them new types of toads trying to eat swan meat.

Things were progressing more smoothly than Ye Meng had imagined. A younger man like Li Jinyu who knew how to act well-behaved could truly win the old lady’s heart.

Ye Meng also posted two comments:

[Lemon Leaf: Brother’s hands aren’t just hands, they’re the gentleness of the spring breeze by the riverside.]

[Lemon Leaf: Brother’s shoulders aren’t just shoulders, they’re the peaks of the Alps. ❤️]

Ye Meng had only intended to tease him a bit and leave it at that, sure that Li Jinyu wouldn’t respond. Who knew that while she was brushing her teeth, her phone on the sink suddenly showed a Moments notification? Her eyelid inexplicably twitched, and she instinctively opened it:

[LJY replying to Lemon Leaf: Brother’s legs can also be a swing.]