From then on, in addition to hunting for nice-looking stationery and cutting out idol celebrity photos from magazines, Cheng Lele’s schedule added another item: reading the Taixi Daily. The newspaper would publish current movies, and with one look she would know the showtimes and film titles. When the weekend came, she would arrange with classmates to go watch together.

The local classmates at the town middle school were more worldly than Cheng Lele. When they came to watch movies, they had to bring their secret crushes along, but asking them out alone seemed too deliberate. Cheng Lele made a perfect cover, so when Cheng Lele invited one female classmate, she would receive an additional unfamiliar male classmate in return; invite two female classmates and she’d receive two male classmates—like a supermarket buy-one-get-one-free promotion.

After arranging things this way twice, Cheng Lele’s schedule spread throughout the school without being promoted. At the town middle school, Cheng Dong’s deterrent power wasn’t that great anymore, but Cheng Lele was very much school-belle material, so naturally people had their eyes on her. Thus, some borrowed the light of the classmates Cheng Lele invited and came along to watch movies too.

This time, it was buy-one-get-two-free.

It wasn’t until the fourth week that Chen An discovered something amiss, because Cheng Lele had been lying all along that she was going swimming with her girlfriends. But by the fourth week, her period should have come, yet Cheng Lele still unwaveringly went out carrying her toiletries. Chen An grew suspicious and secretly followed behind Cheng Lele for a stretch of road until they reached the swimming pool. He saw Cheng Lele, as if performing a magic trick, place her toiletries in the pool’s storage area, then head straight for the bus stop and take a bus to Taixi Theater.

Cheng Lele had really made progress! She had learned to graft flowers onto trees and deceive heaven and cross the sea!

Chen An followed with a belly full of anger to the theater and took a look—he was even more furious. Well now, she was also secretly crossing Chen Cang. Standing next to Cheng Lele was a lean, bespectacled male student. Just looking at that person’s shifty-eyed gaze at Lele, you could tell he had no good intentions.

Actually, Cheng Lele was also seeing him for the first time. When she arrived at the scene, she was told that the classmate originally scheduled suddenly had something come up and couldn’t make it, so she found a friend to come in her place. If she couldn’t come, then she couldn’t come—was this matter even worth finding a substitute for?

Having been educated since childhood to be polite in dealing with people and things, Cheng Lele said courteously: “Sorry to trouble you to make this trip.”

The male student shyly touched his sticking-up hair: “Hello, my name is Tong Huanhuan.”

Cheng Lele beamed with joy: “Oh my, your name is Huanhuan, mine is Lele. Our names combined together have quite a New Year’s flavor.”

The male student nodded: “Yes, it’s fate that brought us together.”

At the tender age of thirteen or fourteen, they liked to keep fate, melancholy, and forever on their lips.

Cheng Lele laughed foolishly: “It is quite fateful.”

From afar, Chen An saw the two of them looking so intimate with each other. This scene couldn’t help but remind him of that day at the movie theater when he stumbled upon the indecent images between that couple. With such an association, his heart immediately became blocked up tight and solid.

How could she casually come to this kind of place with others? What if they ran into morally offensive images again—could others protect her the way he did? Even if they protected her—Chen An thought of how Cheng Lele had writhed around in his arms like a little snake—that was just waiting to be taken advantage of!

He didn’t care about Cheng Lele’s face anymore and directly shouted at her: “Cheng Lele!”

Cheng Lele, who had been smiling warmly just a moment ago, was startled by the sudden shout. She looked toward the sound and discovered Little Brother was not far away, with dark clouds above his head practically ready to devour someone.

Oh no! She’d been exposed!

As if caught in bed with an affair, Cheng Lele’s legs went weak and she practically wanted to kneel down right then and there.

“Little Brother—listen to my explanation—I just—oh why did you come—no, I originally really did want to go swimming—suddenly felt like watching a movie—” Cheng Lele said in panic. Blabbering incoherently, her words not matching before and after.

Chen An pulled Cheng Lele’s hand and walked outside, his expression even more displeased. Death was imminent yet she still dared to lie and make excuses!

“Should I take the swim card and check the consumption records at the pool for the past two weeks?”

When Chen An was about to produce evidence for court, Cheng Lele didn’t dare babble nonsense anymore. She turned around and mouthed “I’m sorry” to that classmate behind her with whom she had fate but no connection.

This silent apology appeared to Tong Huanhuan’s eyes as nothing less than a distress signal. Seeing the beauty being taken away by an evil dragon, the knight holding a sword stepped forward bravely, blocking Chen An’s path and saying: “Who are you?”

“I’m her brother.”

That boy thought the other person was a rival in love. Hearing he was the little brother-in-law, his attitude immediately improved: “Oh, so you’re our brother. Bro, let’s watch a movie together. My treat.”

With a dark face, Chen An only spat out one word: “Scram.”

The boy was also pampered and spoiled growing up. Originally he’d been polite and courteous, but the feedback he received was anger, so he raised his eyebrows horizontally and said: “Even if you’re her brother, you have no right to restrict her freedom, right?”

Tong Huanhuan’s academic performance was probably pretty good—his speech had quite a cultured color, attacking Chen An from moral and legal heights.

Chen An didn’t directly address the issue. His gaze drifted to Cheng Lele: “You tell me, are you coming back with me or not?”

At this kind of occasion requiring taking sides, could Cheng Lele’s elbow bend toward a stranger with whom she’d exchanged fewer than one hundred forty words? If she dared bend it even one degree, how many days would she have to coax Little Brother afterward? Without Chen An, she’d lose her chauffeur for getting to and from school, have no one to bring lunch, nowhere to copy homework, no ghostwriter for writing self-criticisms, and her continuously flowing small treasury would also be cut off. In short, she’d be reduced to a useless dessert. Speaking of desserts, Little Brother took her every few days to eat Huaiyang dim sum at Fulongxuan—that lingering fragrance on lips and teeth, how could she just abandon it?

Cheng Lele, who was extraordinarily clear about the pros and cons of gains and losses, immediately became submissive: “Going, going, going.”

The boy looked at Cheng Lele with the anger of disappointed expectations: “How can you be so weak? He doesn’t have three heads and six arms—what are you afraid of?”

Cheng Lele followed behind Chen An’s bottom like a soft-legged shrimp, saying as she walked: “Oh, I’m afraid my Little Brother will get angry. Leaving, leaving, bye-bye.”

Then like a little wife, she was pulled out the door by Chen An.