“Attorney Cheng, have you all decided when you’ll be paying back my money?”

Lu Juan had no idea what she was about to face. Cheng Junliang looked at the young woman in front of him and finally gathered his courage, once again solemnly and sincerely apologizing to Lu Juan for having lost the original IOU—

“I’ll take responsibility for my mistake, Ms. Lu. I want to do everything I can to make up for my error. First of all, for this loan dispute case, I won’t charge you any fee. As for my supervising attorney’s portion, after discussion, he won’t be charging you either—so we’ll represent you free of charge. I’ll do my best to win the case and then file for enforcement. But if we lose the case because the original IOU was lost, I’ll personally cover that hundred-twenty-thousand in damages.”

What Lu Juan wanted to hear clearly wasn’t Cheng Junliang’s apology, and she had no interest in winning the case either—it was only that last part, about covering the damages, that finally made her expression settle.

“There’s just something, before we go any further, that I think you should know.” Cheng Junliang didn’t hesitate any longer. He took out the recording of Pan Zhendong’s affair, along with the photocopy of the lease agreement Pan Zhendong had signed for himself and his mistress to live together, and briefly laid out the facts of his infidelity.

Because she thought she was about to get the hundred-twenty-thousand from Cheng Junliang, Lu Juan’s expression had actually looked quite pleasant at first, but as the recording played, her face slowly darkened. By the time the recording finished, Qi Xi noticed that Lu Juan’s expression had turned ugly, her lips trembling slightly, her eyes taking on a dazed, unfocused look.

Her face pale, as though she hadn’t quite processed it yet, she sat frozen for a moment before finally gathering her thoughts, looking toward Qi Xi with unfocused eyes, as if searching for an answer: “How could he be with her… She might be younger than me, but she’s not even as pretty as I am. Why? Why?”

Cheng Junliang, Qi Xi, and Gu Yan had no idea who this mistress was, but Lu Juan clearly understood immediately.

She bit down hard on her lip, until it began to bleed.

The blow of Pan Zhendong’s infidelity was clearly unprecedented for Lu Juan—the girl’s eyes turned red, and unable to hold back any longer, she immediately called Pan Zhendong—

“Pan Zhendong, you’ll die a horrible death! You cheated behind my back, spending my money to support some other little tramp! Are you even human?!”

Lu Juan’s emotions completely spiraled out of control, and she unleashed a barrage of curses at the other end of the line.

At first, Pan Zhendong still tried to smooth things over, but once he realized he couldn’t talk his way out of it, he stopped hiding it, and it turned out he’d clearly had grievances of his own against Lu Juan for a while: “Sure, she’s not as pretty as you, but her temper is a hundred times better than yours! She’s sweet-talking, knows how to handle things, understands me, knows I’m out there working hard on my own as a man starting a business, she can comfort me, and she knows how to look up to me.”

Once Pan Zhendong started fighting back, he had plenty to say: “And you? When I hit a little setback starting my business, what did you do? You just complained at home every day, fought with me, didn’t encourage me one bit. Who succeeds at starting a business right out of the gate? You just didn’t believe in me, looked down on me, so the moment I hit a little bump, you told me to go crawl back to some factory job. Didn’t you secretly think I wasn’t good enough? So damn overbearing, not gentle at all—I’ve put up with you long enough. Women like you, honestly, I never wanted to marry you in the first place. We’re not even married yet and you’re already like this—if I actually married you, wouldn’t you climb even further on top of me? Who’d dare marry a tigress like you?!”

Lu Juan’s hand trembled uncontrollably as she gripped the phone. “Didn’t you say before that it was just the pressure of starting your business that made us fight and break up, and that you’d decided to make up with me and save up to marry me?”

Once exposed, Pan Zhendong tore off the last of his mask entirely: “And you actually believed that? Let me be honest with you—I will absolutely never marry you. Anyway, since your IOU is lost now, don’t come bothering me anymore. Go ask that little lawyer for your money. I can’t be bothered to sweet-talk you anymore!”

With that, Pan Zhendong hung up without waiting to hear whatever else Lu Juan wanted to say.

Lu Juan listened to the dial tone on the other end, her expression full of bewilderment and helplessness.

It took a long time for her emotions to process before pain and despair finally began to show through.

“He can’t do this to me… He can’t…”

She held it in for a long while before finally, this time, breaking down into loud, uncontrollable sobs.

Qi Xi and Gu Yan exchanged a glance—sure enough, their earlier guess had been entirely correct.

Lu Juan really had conspired with Pan Zhendong, trying to shift this hundred-twenty-thousand debt onto Cheng Junliang, who’d been negligent enough to lose the original document.

Lu Juan’s emotions completely fell apart: “I… I never meant to look down on him. It was exactly because I cared about him, wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, that I worried so much about his job, his business progress. It was exactly because I wanted to build a family with him, have a son and a daughter someday, that I hoped he’d get a more stable job to make sure we’d have the financial foundation to have and raise children in the future…”

Lu Juan’s words were filled with immense grievance and bitterness: “When we were dating, especially at the very start, all I wanted was to just be boyfriend and girlfriend and enjoy each other’s company. Back then I didn’t care whether his job had prospects, because I never thought about the long term—I didn’t care what he did, and I never nagged him about any of it. Looking back now, that was the time he used to praise me most for being understanding, considerate, and gentle. But later…”

What happened later, Qi Xi could easily guess. Later, Lu Juan must have grown increasingly invested in Pan Zhendong, wanting a long-term future with him, and so she began holding higher expectations for his job and every other aspect of his life. Naturally, conflict followed.

Some men remain boys until the day they die—sweet and loving with their girlfriends while dating, but the moment the woman brings up marriage or responsibility, these boys run faster than anyone, immediately drawing a hard line and declaring they’ve suddenly fallen out of love.

Pan Zhendong was more or less the textbook example of this kind of irresponsible man, longing for a carefree freedom unburdened by any responsibility. So the moment Lu Juan began placing demands and restrictions on him, he started to feel stifled, began to feel like Lu Juan was nagging him like a parent, grew to resent her for being domineering, lost his affection for her, and started looking for a replacement—someone who’d look up to him without ever holding him accountable.

A man like that needed a mindless woman who worshipped him unconditionally, or a scheming woman who pretended to worship him just to extract money—not any steady, grounded woman who genuinely wanted to settle down and build a life.

Lu Juan was still crying, but by this point, Qi Xi understood that her alliance with Pan Zhendong had collapsed for good.

**

After making such a scene, Lu Juan now looked embarrassed facing Qi Xi, Gu Yan, and Cheng Junliang: “Attorney Cheng…”

Pan Zhendong’s shouting had been loud enough for Cheng Junliang to hear every word clearly.

Lu Juan lowered her head. “Forget the case. I was blinded by greed. I’m sorry for what I did to you—if it weren’t for you, I’d have been sold out and still been counting the money for the person who sold me…”

Lu Juan had been navigating the world long enough, and her earlier attempt to extort Cheng Junliang had been carefully calculated—it was unrealistic to think she’d suddenly, in this very moment, genuinely and wholeheartedly feel remorse the way she was now claiming. Saying this now was really just instinctive self-preservation.

Pan Zhendong’s betrayal had hit her emotionally hard, and in her overwhelming anger, wanting to punish and take revenge on the man who’d cheated on her, she’d immediately switched strategies and allied herself with Cheng Junliang and the others—a purely calculated, opportunistic decision.

But regardless, even if Lu Juan’s apology wasn’t entirely sincere, and was tangled up with her own self-interest, at the very least, things were now moving in the direction Qi Xi and the others had hoped for.

What’s more, Cheng Junliang really had made a professional error in losing the original IOU.

As a fellow woman, Qi Xi felt it was her turn to step in now. She took hold of Lu Juan’s hand and offered her a face-saving way out: “For the part where Cheng Junliang was in the wrong, he’ll still take responsibility for that. We can still represent you for free, and we’ll all help you together—but we’ll need your cooperation.”

Gu Yan, who had been silent all this while, finally spoke up: “Even though the original is lost, as long as you can provide other corroborating evidence to prove this loan existed, and cooperate by pulling your bank transfer records, the court will recognize the loan.”

“I have evidence.” This time, Lu Juan finally told the truth. “I had my old phone repaired a while back. Pan Zhendong assumed our chat records had been lost, but I’d actually backed them up long ago. In those chat records, he clearly admits it was a loan.”

At this point, Lu Juan skillfully put on a show of shame: “I’m sorry. I kept hiding this from you and never provided it—that was because I had bad intentions myself, and in the end I got played for a fool. I deserved it.”

Whether Lu Juan had truly come to recognize her wrongdoing or was just putting on an act, everyone let the matter drop and move on, for appearance’s sake if nothing else.

**

In the end, Cheng Junliang’s sincere apology won Lu Juan’s forgiveness, and Lu Juan, at least verbally, admitted her own wrongdoing to Cheng Junliang, and cooperated by submitting evidence to prove the debt.

Looking it over, Qi Xi saw that with Lu Juan’s evidence added in, even without the original document, it was now entirely possible to establish that a loan relationship existed between Lu Juan and Pan Zhendong. Cheng Junliang’s case should now be a solid win.

Whether it was Lu Juan’s case or Cheng Junliang’s predicament, both had finally been resolved satisfactorily.

“Gu Yan, Qi Xi, thank you so much for your help this time—I really wouldn’t have known what to do without you.” Now that things had finally reached a happy ending, Cheng Junliang finally set down the huge weight he’d been carrying, his expression turning relaxed and at ease. “You two not only saved me from that hundred-twenty-thousand debt, you also kept me from ruining my own career—you basically saved my life. You helped me so much and didn’t even charge me a cent, so no matter what, let me treat you to a meal. It’s a rare chance for us to get together after graduation anyway.”

Qi Xi was thrilled that things had been resolved so smoothly, and quickly agreed to Cheng Junliang’s suggestion. Naturally, Gu Yan had no objections either, so the three of them found a nice Cantonese restaurant nearby and decided to properly celebrate.

Although both Qi Xi and Gu Yan said any casual place would do, Cheng Junliang, wanting to show his sincerity, still found a fairly upscale Cantonese restaurant: “Don’t try to save money on my behalf. They say you have to learn to spend money before you can learn to earn it—the more you two spend, the more determined I’ll be to go out there and earn.”

Because he was in such high spirits, Cheng Junliang even ordered drinks during the meal, insisting that Qi Xi and Gu Yan drink a toast with him.

Perhaps because good fortune puts people in high spirits, Cheng Junliang toasted Qi Xi and Gu Yan round after round, and successfully got himself, someone with rather poor tolerance, quite drunk.

His face flushed red from the alcohol, Cheng Junliang grew far more talkative than usual, pulling Qi Xi aside and rambling on about his hopes and plans for the future, even reporting to her in exhaustive detail exactly when he planned to pay back the money he’d borrowed from classmates.

Qi Xi knew Cheng Junliang was probably just a bit tipsy and overly emotional, without any ill intent, so even though she felt somewhat uncomfortable being talked at so closely and at such length, she didn’t have the heart to push him away. Fortunately, Gu Yan, who normally didn’t drink much either, seemed to be in an unusually good mood that night too, and pulled Cheng Junliang aside to match him drink for drink, rescuing Qi Xi from her awkward situation.

What Cheng Junliang talked about with Gu Yan was different from what he’d been telling Qi Xi. He started reminiscing about college life, rambling on about where various dormmates had ended up for work and how they were doing now, until he brought up Zhang Jialiang—

“Oh right, Gu Yan, why did you corner Zhang Jialiang in the men’s room and beat him up that day at graduation? I heard you really went at him hard—his face was all bruised and swollen afterward.”

Cheng Junliang was clearly drunk, his words starting to slur, but his gossiping spirit was still going strong: “I heard you ended up paying his medical bills afterward, and then Zhang Jialiang had to go back to his hometown, so in the end he figured it wasn’t worth pursuing further and just let it go, didn’t cause any more trouble for you. Weren’t you two normally just, like, lukewarm with each other but fine? How did it suddenly blow up into something that big? Beating him up like that?”

Cheng Junliang hiccupped. “You were way too impulsive. Whatever the reason, you shouldn’t have done that—what if Zhang Jialiang had held onto it and never let it go, it could’ve messed up your future career down the line. And beating him up, paying all those medical bills—didn’t you just waste all that money for nothing?”

Cheng Junliang’s words were just drunken carelessness, completely unintentional, but Qi Xi froze regardless.

What he’d just said carried far too much information, and it took Qi Xi a good moment to fully process it.

After the graduation ceremony, when Qi Xi couldn’t find Gu Yan to apologize, she’d cornered Zhang Jialiang instead, and after confirming that Zhang Jialiang really had been the one who started it all, she had reported it to the police—though because it didn’t meet the threshold for opening a case, the police hadn’t been able to take action. Qi Xi had been holding onto so much pent-up anger back then, and had originally wanted to find Zhang Jialiang again to reason with him and warn him, to at least make him pay some kind of price, to make sure he understood he could never harass another female student like that again in the future.

Except, strangely enough, that day, Qi Xi had ended up unable to find either Gu Yan or Zhang Jialiang again, so…

So the reason she hadn’t been able to find either of them was because Gu Yan had cornered Zhang Jialiang in the men’s room and beaten him up?

Qi Xi couldn’t help but stare at Gu Yan in complete shock.

Gu Yan, who could practically pass as the model student, the pride of the school—he’d hit someone?

Qi Xi simply couldn’t believe it.

Perhaps her stare was too obvious, because Gu Yan looked a little irritated under the weight of it, and he shot Cheng Junliang a glare: “Go drink something to sober up, and stop talking.”

Unfortunately, a drunk person has no sense of restraint—Cheng Junliang’s mouth didn’t stop, it only kept going more. He glanced at Gu Yan, then turned back to stare at Qi Xi: “Oh right, what’s actually going on between you two? I never dared ask or say anything before, but what was that whole graduation ceremony thing about anyway? Gu Yan, do you like Qi Xi? And Qi Xi, why did you…”

At this point, Cheng Junliang, apparently getting a headache from the alcohol, rubbed at his brow, but there was no closing the floodgates now: “You know what? After graduation, everyone was talking about the two of you. Some people said Gu Yan got rejected and took it out on poor, innocent bystander Zhang Jialiang who just happened to be passing by; others said, after seeing Qi Xi’s clarification and apology, that it was all just one big beautiful misunderstanding, and that actually the person Gu Yan liked wasn’t Qi Xi at all, but Zhang Jialiang, and beating him up afterward was because love turned to hate…”

“…”

This was getting more and more absurd!

Even though Cheng Junliang was drunk, Qi Xi still felt she needed to set the record straight for Gu Yan: “Don’t listen to that nonsense. Zhang Jialiang is just a total scumbag—Gu Yan beating him up was absolutely doing a public service, righting a wrong on behalf of the people! It was definitely not because he had feelings for Zhang Jialiang—stop spreading that ridiculous rumor! Rumors like that could hurt Gu Yan’s chances of getting a girlfriend!”

Cheng Junliang’s eyes were already a bit hazy, but his gossiping spirit pushed him to keep asking: “So you and…”

Qi Xi answered with righteous indignation: “Gu Yan definitely does not have feelings for me! Gu Yan has absolutely no inappropriate thoughts about me whatsoever! This whole thing was Zhang Jialiang causing me to misunderstand Gu Yan!”

Whether it was because the old matter had come up again, Gu Yan’s face took on a rather subtle expression, something that looked like a mix of displeasure and a certain bewildered helplessness, which even Qi Xi found hard to describe.

Cheng Junliang quickly lost his fight against the alcohol, clamping a hand over his mouth and rushing off to the bathroom to throw up, leaving just Qi Xi and Gu Yan at the table.

For some reason, whenever Qi Xi found herself alone with Gu Yan outside of work these days, she often felt her heart racing in a chaotic, unsettled way—she wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol.

Qi Xi tried hard to shake off the feeling, so she reached for her glass again, wanting another sip, but just as the cup reached her lips, Gu Yan took it away from her, and something else was placed into her hand in its place.

She looked down to find it was a carton of yogurt.

Gu Yan’s expression was remarkably unruffled. With one hand he’d handed the yogurt to Qi Xi, while the other was pouring himself tea, giving absolutely no indication of what he’d just done.

Faced with Qi Xi’s stare, the man finally explained, somewhat reluctantly: “Stop drinking.” He glanced briefly toward the bathroom. “You’re a girl—do you really want to end up throwing up like Cheng Junliang later?”

“Drink some yogurt. It helps reduce the irritation alcohol causes to the stomach lining.”

Whether it was because of the alcohol, Gu Yan’s face looked a little flushed too. He glanced at Qi Xi, then looked away, explaining with what seemed like some effort: “Cheng Junliang’s already drunk like that, and I’ll obviously be responsible for getting him home safely afterward. I don’t want you getting that drunk too—if I have to take both of you home one after another, how much of a burden do you think that’d be for me?”

Fair point.

Qi Xi didn’t dare push her luck and drink any more, obediently deciding to drink the yogurt instead. But for some reason, the straw seemed determined to fight her—no matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t get it through the seal.

Finally, seemingly unable to watch any longer, Gu Yan reached over and, somewhat exasperated, took the yogurt out of Qi Xi’s hands, poked the straw through for her, and handed it back.

But Qi Xi had barely taken a few sips of the yogurt when Gu Yan, for some reason, came up with a new request. He stared at her: “Switch seats with me.”

“Huh?”

Qi Xi thought she’d misheard.

But Gu Yan’s tone was resolute: “Switch seats.”

Qi Xi had had a bit to drink, and while she wasn’t drunk, she was a little slow to react. For some reason, Gu Yan’s instructions just felt completely safe to her, so almost without thinking, she obediently stood up and switched seats with him.

Was there some kind of feng shui thing going on with the seating?

Once Qi Xi sat down in Gu Yan’s old seat, she didn’t notice anything different.

Cheng Junliang, meanwhile—who knew what state he’d thrown himself into—still hadn’t come back.

Qi Xi looked at Gu Yan, feeling a bit nervous and a bit awkward. She picked at some food with her chopsticks, partly to fill the silence, and partly out of genuine curiosity: “Were you really, really angry back then?”

Gu Yan blinked. “What?”

“You know, when I falsely accused you at graduation.”

Qi Xi bit her lip and apologized again: “I’m sorry, Gu Yan. I really was too impulsive back then. You didn’t even acknowledge me afterward, didn’t sue me, didn’t take any action demanding I pay for what I did, and I just assumed you were being incredibly magnanimous, that it wasn’t something you cared about that much. I never imagined there was actually this whole side story of you beating up Zhang Jialiang.”

For Gu Yan to have actually resorted to violence, it must mean he’d really been pushed nearly to his limit back then, and because of this, Qi Xi once again realized just how significant the harm and impact her actions must have caused him—otherwise Gu Yan wouldn’t have taken the risk of Zhang Jialiang pursuing legal action against him just to beat him up.

Except, unexpectedly, Gu Yan thought it over for a moment and then rejected Qi Xi’s assumption entirely. He pressed his lips together. “I didn’t hit Zhang Jialiang because of the misunderstanding he caused between us.”

Gu Yan lowered his gaze, staring at his plate as though he could stare a hole through it. After a moment of silence, he added, “I really was extremely, extremely angry when I hit him, but it was for a different reason.”

Qi Xi stared at Gu Yan, her expression practically begging to hear more.

Unfortunately, Gu Yan didn’t continue. He looked up and met her eyes instead: “I don’t want to talk about that reason.” He looked away, his voice growing soft. “It’s my secret.”

Well, fair enough—who in modern society doesn’t have a secret or two!

Qi Xi understood, and didn’t press any further, though inwardly she just felt like she needed to be even better to Gu Yan going forward.

Perhaps because of the whole graduation ceremony incident, Qi Xi had noticed lately that even though Gu Xuehan had long since stopped holding it against her, and Gu Yan didn’t seem to hold it against her either, she still found herself wanting to be good to Gu Yan on her own.

Qi Xi’s mind was drifting off into all sorts of thoughts when her train of thought was suddenly cut off by a sharp female voice from a young couple at the table behind them—

“I’m breaking up with you! You total garbage of a man! You don’t treat me well at all! Every time you ask me out, it’s just for that kind of thing! You spent all afternoon sleeping with me today, and now you bring me out to eat and won’t even let me order a few pricier dishes. I’m even coming down with a cold today, and while you were eating you were only focused on yourself, not caring at all whether I lived or died!”

Following the girl’s tearful voice came the boy’s furious response: “Are you not embarrassed? Bringing up the hotel room thing out in public like this? What, was I the only one enjoying myself over there? If you didn’t want to, you could’ve just not come every time I asked! Isn’t this just what being boyfriend and girlfriend is about? Did you think I found you some kind of princess? You need to read fewer novels and watch less TV—that whole ‘pampering your girlfriend like a princess’ thing, that’s all fake! In the real world, what woman acts as delicate and high-maintenance as you? What man is as attentive as the ones in TV dramas? Can you please get a little more in touch with reality? Don’t I give you money to spend every month?”

Since this table was seated right behind Qi Xi and Gu Yan, even though Qi Xi had no interest in hearing all this private information, she couldn’t help but have it forced on her.

Except, somehow, this argument between a couple that originally had absolutely nothing to do with Qi Xi suddenly escalated into involving her.

The girl was clearly too furious to hold back—she slammed her hand on the table and stood up immediately: “Who says there’s no man in real life who’s warm and considerate like that? There’s one right in front of you!” As she spoke, she pointed toward Qi Xi and Gu Yan. “That guy right there, look how good he treats his girlfriend. Earlier when the girl wanted to drink, he handed her yogurt; when the girl couldn’t get the straw in and was struggling with it, her boyfriend didn’t mind at all, patiently poked the straw in for her; earlier someone at the table to their left was smoking, and the girl’s seat was downwind, getting hit with secondhand smoke, so the guy immediately had her switch seats with him.”

…

Qi Xi didn’t even bother paying attention to whatever else the couple behind them was arguing about anymore. She just sat there, momentarily stunned.

So earlier, when they switched seats…

Qi Xi couldn’t help but look at Gu Yan.

Gu Yan’s lips stayed flat as he explained: “That’s not true at all, don’t listen to their nonsense. I just felt like my seat was a bit stuffy, and your seat had a breeze, so I wanted some fresh air.”

Gu Yan wasn’t looking at Qi Xi as he said this, and the moment he finished, he very deliberately changed the subject: “Why isn’t Cheng Junliang back yet? I’ll go check on him in the bathroom.”

With that, Gu Yan left rather hastily, almost in a fluster.

The couple behind Qi Xi had already made up by now, but Qi Xi’s mind still wasn’t at ease. She felt like she’d been a little off lately, like a lot of her emotions had started acting up for no clear reason.

And also… what did she mean, “struggling with the straw” like she was being coy? That was pure slander! She hadn’t been trying to act cute at all, she genuinely just couldn’t get the straw in!

The more Qi Xi thought about it, the more wronged she felt, so she simply grabbed another leftover carton of yogurt off the table, determined to have another go at it.

As it turned out, her luck really was bad that day—she fumbled with the straw for a good while and, once again, failed to get it through.

Then, once more, the yogurt was taken right out of her hands, the straw smoothly poked through in one motion, and handed back to her.

“Such a princess.”

Qi Xi looked up to see Gu Yan, supporting Cheng Junliang, had already returned to the table. He took a sip of tea quite naturally, his gaze seemingly not even on Qi Xi—if it hadn’t clearly been Gu Yan’s voice, she might have thought she’d imagined what she just heard.

Qi Xi felt a little indignant. So what if she was a princess? Was being a princess against the law? What was even wrong with being a princess?

**

After throwing up, Cheng Junliang was noticeably much more sober. In the end, he gamely went to pay the bill, while Qi Xi and Gu Yan stayed at the table, planning to box up the excessive amount of food Cheng Junliang had ordered but hadn’t touched.

Once the two of them finished packing everything up, they realized there were as many as six takeout containers. Gu Yan couldn’t carry that many alone, so he glanced at Qi Xi: “Help me carry a few of these.”

The containers weren’t heavy, and it wasn’t as though Qi Xi had any intention of refusing to carry them, but remembering how Gu Yan had “attacked” her as a princess earlier, she said, a bit petulantly: “Aren’t I a princess, though? I can’t carry that. My hands must’ve fallen off automatically from being too high-maintenance.”

Qi Xi was just venting, and after saying it, she reached out to pick up the containers anyway, but Gu Yan didn’t let her carry them after all. He set the containers back down on the table, pulled a napkin from the table, and before Qi Xi could even react, gently wiped at the corner of her mouth with it.

Because it happened so suddenly, even after Gu Yan’s hand pulled away, Qi Xi was still stunned, staring blankly at him in a daze.

Though her reactions had slowed, the feeling in her chest hadn’t—Qi Xi had absolutely no control over it, and she felt her face starting to flush red.

She glared at Gu Yan: “What was that just now?”

Gu Yan, meanwhile, remained perfectly calm and composed: “Wiping your mouth. You had some yogurt on it.”

Qi Xi raised her voice slightly, putting on a show of bravado: “I have hands of my own!”

Gu Yan’s manner was, as usual, unbothered, though perhaps because of the alcohol, his face had a faint flush to it. He glanced at Qi Xi: “Didn’t your hands already fall off from being too high-maintenance?”

With that, Gu Yan picked up all six takeout containers by himself and walked off toward where Cheng Junliang was paying the bill, leaving Qi Xi standing there, utterly speechless.

Why did it feel like, even though it sounded like Gu Yan had generously done something to help out his princess-like self, Qi Xi somehow ended up feeling like she’d been the one bullied by him instead?