I’m warning you, don’t even think about getting any ideas about her, or I’m not finished with you.
Yuan Yue finally snatched her phone back while Yuan Xi was off guard. She quickly glanced at the WeChat chat window and saw that Yu Xi hadn’t sent anything compromising yet. She let out a sigh of relief in her heart, and only then did she leisurely answer Yuan Xi’s question, “What are you so worked up about? ‘Dear’ is just Yu Xi.”
“Yu Xi?” Yuan Xi squinted his eyes, half-believing and half-doubting. “I think you’re more worked up than I am. You have a guilty conscience, don’t you? Trying to use Yu Xi as a shield. Come on, confess. Who have you been dating behind my back lately?”
So what if Yuan Xi saw it? A simple two-line conversation couldn’t prove anything. Yuan Yue had nothing to fear now. Composing herself, she said with full confidence, “You just wait. I’ll have Yu Xi send a voice message right now.”
She spoke into the phone’s microphone, “My dear Xiao Xixi, I’m at my gege’s1 house right now, and my gege insists on suspecting you’re my boyfriend. What do you think?”
Yuan Yue deliberately made her tone very ambiguous. She looked at Yuan Xi smugly, awaiting Yu Xi’s reply.
Yuan Yue believed that Yu Xi would be able to understand her underlying meaning2; she was betting on the tacit understanding between the two of them.
A few seconds later, Yu Xi replied with a voice message.
Yuan Yue tapped to play it, and Yu Xi’s gentle, smiling voice immediately came from the phone, “Hello, Dage3. I’m Yu Xi. I think unless I take a trip to Thailand4, I’m afraid I won’t be able to become Yueyue’s boyfriend in this lifetime. But that’s alright, even without changing my sex, I can still continue to be Yueyue’s girlfriend. Right, Dage?”
After listening to this short voice message of just over ten seconds, Yuan Yue was so scared she broke out in goosebumps all over. It was obvious that Yu Xi had received her hint, but wasn’t this message a little too full of hidden meaning? Calling him girlfriend and Dage… Yu Xi was truly audacious.
Yuan Xi still wasn’t quite convinced. He snatched Yuan Yue’s phone and looked at it again and again. Confirming that Yuan Yue wasn’t faking it, he disdainfully handed the phone back to her and said with disbelief, “This is how you two normally talk? Two women discussing who’s going to have a baby for whom? What kind of messed-up topic is that?”
Yuan Xi looked at her like a curiosity baby5.
Yuan Yue pretended to ignore his question. To prevent Yuan Xi from pestering her further, she quietly exited WeChat and said with a triumphant look, “You can believe me now, right?”
Yuan Xi made a sound of dismissal. Something suddenly occurred to him, and he asked hesitantly, “Does Yu Xi have a boyfriend?”
Yuan Yue’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at him warily. “Why are you asking that?”
Yuan Xi said impatiently, “Just tell me if she does or not.”
She doesn’t have a boyfriend, but she does have a girlfriend, and she’s right in front of you. Yuan Yue only dared to say this in her heart. She didn’t want to lie to Yuan Xi either. After some thought, she said with extreme reluctance, “Not at the moment.”
“So she doesn’t have a boyfriend either.” Yuan Xi was delighted to hear this. “What do you say we just introduce my high school classmate Xu Ming to her?”
“What?!” Yuan Yue hadn’t expected Yuan Xi to pull a move like this at all. She shrieked, “You dare!”
Yuan Xi had a nonchalant expression. “What’s there to not dare? It’s not like you’re interested in Xu Ming anyway. Since you don’t want him, why shouldn’t you let someone else have this great opportunity? Besides, Yu Xi just called me Dage. Is there a problem with a big brother worrying about his little sister?”
“There’s a huge problem!” Yuan Yue raised her voice, pointing at Yuan Xi. “I’m warning you, don’t even think about getting any ideas about her, or I’m not finished with you.”
Yuan Xi smacked her hand hard, pushing aside the hand that was nearly poking him in the nose. He said, displeased, “Is that how you talk to me? No respect for your elders.”
Yuan Yue realized she had lost control a bit just now. She tactfully lowered her voice and said, “I’m sorry.”
“Shouting at your own big brother and pointing at his nose to warn him, is that proper?” Yuan Xi’s anger hadn’t subsided.
“I said I’m sorry,” Yuan Yue said in a muffled voice, her head bowed, feeling unwilling to submit. “You can scold me, but don’t just go trying to introduce someone to Yu Xi at the drop of a hat.”
Yuan Xi calmed down a bit, asking with confusion, “And why is that? I just don’t get it. I’m your brother, could I possibly harm the two of you? I’m not bragging, but Xu Ming’s character is really good, he’s decent-looking, and he’s a public school teacher6. His family gets along well with our parents, too. We know their roots and backgrounds. I only suggested introducing him to you guys because I thought it was a good match, but now you’re both unhappy about it.”
Yuan Yue thought, Even if that Xu Ming is great, he’s not their dish!7 Yuan Xi just knows how to worry blindly.
Yuan Yue didn’t dare to anger Yuan Xi any further. She softened her tone and said, “I know you’re just worried about me and want to find someone to take care of me. But ge, I really don’t want to find a boyfriend right now. Yu Xi and I have an agreement to take care of each other for now, until we each find our respective right person in the future.”
Yuan Xi frowned and took out his phone, scrolling through it quickly. After searching for a long time without finding it, he muttered to himself, “Strange, why didn’t I save Yu Xi’s number before?”
“What are you looking for her for?” Yuan Yue’s heart tightened.
“To chat about life and talk about ideals, of course. Quick, give me her number.”
Yuan Yue quickly hid her phone and backed away repeatedly. “Chat about what? Yu Xi is really busy with work right now.”
Yuan Xi paused, then seized the opportunity to ask, “Right, what does Yu Xi do? Where does she work?”
If this were in the past, Yuan Yue would have told him everything. But now that her and Yu Xi’s future happiness was at stake, how could Yuan Yue sell her out? She said without blinking, “I don’t know.”
“You two are so close, how could you not know?” Yuan Xi would be a fool to believe her.
Yuan Yue’s mind raced. She stuck her neck out and said, “Yu Xi was raised abroad, after all. Foreigners really value their privacy. How could I casually give you important information like her phone number and workplace?”
In truth, Yuan Yue herself felt this reason was quite high-sounding, but she was afraid she couldn’t withstand Yuan Xi’s repeated questioning and just wanted to muddle through for now.
Yuan Xi was taken aback. He thought for a moment and said uncertainly, “Didn’t she just call me Dage? Would she still be so distant with me?”
Seeing him waver, Yuan Yue added fuel to the fire, “Yu Xi’s temper is hard to say. I’ve known her for so long and still can’t figure her out. I asked her what she did for a living before, but she was really vague about it and wouldn’t say clearly. If I hadn’t bumped into her by chance, I’m afraid she would have kept hiding it from me.”
Yuan Xi came to a sudden realization. “I didn’t expect her to be that kind of Yu Xi.”
Yuan Yue nodded her head vigorously in agreement, while in her heart she was saying, I’m sorry, my dear, I didn’t mean to blacken you8. You must forgive me.
“Then let’s just forget it. I’ll talk to her later when we’re more familiar,” Yuan Xi finally gave up.
As for what he wanted to talk about, Yuan Yue didn’t dare to ask. Feeling guilty, she was about to sit back down when she suddenly heard a knock on the door.
Yuan Yue thought it was Wang Shasha returning from grocery shopping. She used it as an excuse to escape Yuan Xi’s difficult questions and rushed to open the door. She pulled the door open abruptly, but was stunned when she saw the person outside. “Why is it you?”
“Yes, it’s me.” Guo Xiangyuan retracted the hand that was suspended in mid-air and smiled at her.
“What are you doing here? Is the restaurant not busy right now?” Yuan Yue frowned.
“I…” The smile on Guo Xiangyuan’s face froze, and he was stuck, unable to advance or retreat.
“I asked him to come over.”
Yuan Yue followed the voice and looked behind her, only to see Wang Shasha walking over quickly with a bag of fruit. She caught her breath and added, “The new batch of chili sauce is ready. I asked him to come and pick it up today.”
Yuan Yue’s brow smoothed out, and she moved to help Wang Shasha with her things.
But Wang Shasha deliberately avoided her. “Help Xiao Yuan, he’s carrying too much.”
Only then did Yuan Yue notice that Guo Xiangyuan was carrying the largest size of supermarket bag, and she could vaguely make out vegetables and daily necessities inside.
This time, before Yuan Yue could make a move, Guo Xiangyuan said, “It’s fine, I can manage on my own.”
Wang Shasha’s gaze darted between the two of them. She saw Yuan Yue’s cold expression and Guo Xiangyuan’s look of unease. The atmosphere was very strange. She quickly tried to smooth things over, “Let’s go inside first.”
Yuan Xi came out from the children’s room again after checking on his son. He was also stunned to see Guo Xiangyuan. “Why is Xiao Yuan here?”
Wang Shasha chimed in first, “I asked him to come get the chili sauce.”
“Didn’t I already deliver the chili sauce to the restaurant a few days ago?” Yuan Xi said, looking at his wife.
Wang Shasha didn’t expect Yuan Xi to expose her on the spot. A flash of embarrassment crossed her face. “Oh, right. Look at my memory.”
Guo Xiangyuan was also abashed, feeling like he had shown up at a bad time. He quickly said, “In that case, I’ll head back to the restaurant now.”
Yuan Xi stopped him. “Who’s watching the restaurant right now?”
“It’s Xiao Min.”
Yuan Xi glanced at the time, then at his wife, who was desperately trying to give him signals with her eyes. He thought for a moment and said, “It’s rush hour if you go back now anyway. Since your biaojie9 has already bought the groceries, just stay and have a meal before you go.”
Wang Shasha quickly added, “That’s right, it’s tiring running back and forth. Eat first. Besides, Yueyue is here today too. I bought a lot of food, so there’s more than enough for you.”
Guo Xiangyuan was a hundred percent willing in his heart. Overjoyed, he couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Yuan Yue.
But Yuan Yue deliberately turned her head away and went into the children’s room to see her little nephew.
In the living room, Yuan Xi and Guo Xiangyuan started drinking tea, and nine out of ten sentences they spoke were about the hot pot restaurant’s business operations. Yuan Yue was afraid the noise from outside would disturb little Xiao Xi, so she was about to close the door when something occurred to her. She turned around, left the room, and went to the kitchen, pulling the door closed behind her.
Wang Shasha was inside scaling a fish. Yuan Yue appeared behind her and said carefully, “Saozi10, could you make an extra portion?”
Wang Shasha turned to look at her and teased, “Still worried you won’t get enough to eat? Don’t worry, I’m making a lot of dishes today.”
Yuan Yue touched her neck and said sheepishly, “No, it’s just that I was thinking Yu Xi doesn’t have anything to eat for lunch. If you make an extra portion, I can bring some to her after I finish eating.”
As soon as she heard it was for Yu Xi, Wang Shasha was naturally happy to oblige, readily agreeing, “No problem. I’ll pack it up for her first when it’s done.”
Yuan Yue’s eyes immediately curved into a smile. “Thank you, saozi. Saozi, you’re the best.”
Yuan Yue felt bad eating a free meal, so she chose to stay in the kitchen to help Wang Shasha out.
While the two men outside were chatting enthusiastically, Wang Shasha suddenly leaned over and said in a low voice, “Yueyue, Xiao Yuan has always liked you a lot. You should know that, right?”
Yuan Yue, who had been engrossed in peeling garlic, abruptly looked up, staring at Wang Shasha in a daze.
Seeing her silence, Wang Shasha continued, “There’s nothing really wrong with Xiao Yuan. He’s ambitious, and he’s devoted to you. Do you really not have any feelings for him at all?”
Yuan Yue thought it was truly bizarre. On the same day, this husband and wife pair had both tried to act as matchmakers for her. Were they that desperate for her to get married soon?
Guo Xiangyuan was Wang Shasha’s cousin. Over the years, Wang Shasha had done a lot to try and set the two of them up, but the more she did, the more Yuan Yue deliberately distanced herself from Guo Xiangyuan.
Yuan Yue could understand Wang Shasha’s feelings of worrying herself sick over her cousin, but she didn’t want to wrong herself. She said bluntly, “I’m sorry, saozi, I really don’t have any feelings for him at all. Please don’t waste your efforts anymore.”
Yuan Yue turned her head and continued to peel the garlic.
Seeing her resolute attitude, Wang Shasha sighed helplessly but couldn’t say anything more.
Over an hour later, the meal was ready. Wang Shasha thoughtfully packed a portion for Yu Xi first before letting everyone start eating.
Yuan Yue was very moved to see this, but she could only say “thank you.”
Perhaps because Yuan Yue had just rejected Wang Shasha’s kind intentions, the meal was eaten in some silence. With Guo Xiangyuan present, Yuan Yue felt a bit uncomfortable. She hastily shoveled a few mouthfuls of rice and was the first to put down her chopsticks. “I’m full. You all take your time.”
Wang Shasha asked with confusion, “How come you ate so little?”
Yuan Yue smiled at her, wiped her mouth, and said, “Yu Xi is still hungry, I have to hurry and bring her food. Don’t worry about me, keep eating!”
With that, Yuan Yue stood up, took the bag Wang Shasha had packed earlier, and left in a hurry.
The moment she was out the door, Yuan Yue couldn’t wait to open WeChat. She said excitedly into the chat window, “My dear, I am now rushing over to bring you a delivery of love, without stopping the horse’s hooves11. You absolutely have to wait for me oh~”
She didn’t wait for Yu Xi’s reply. Once in the car, she tossed her phone aside and slammed on the accelerator, heading towards Ludong Fitness Gym.
Half an hour later, Yuan Yue parked the car and got out with the delicious food. She wanted to give Yu Xi a surprise, so she didn’t call her after arriving.
Yuan Yue strode into the gym. At that moment, a burly man came out to meet her and blocked her way, asking politely, “Hello, miss, are you here to work out?”
“No, I’m looking for someone. Is Yu Xi here?” Yuan Yue stated her purpose directly.
“You’re looking for Nina12? Sorry, she’s with a client right now.”
No wonder Yu Xi hadn’t replied to her WeChat. She was still busy even though it was lunchtime. Yuan Yue felt a pang of heartache for her. She said to the large man, “It’s fine, I can wait. I’m here to bring her food.”
“Bring her food?” The man noticed the bag in her hand, then his gaze returned to Yuan Yue’s face. After scrutinizing her for a few seconds, he suddenly said, “I remember now, you’ve been here before, right?”
Yuan Yue nodded hastily, “Yes, yes, yes! I’ve been here before. Yu Xi, the one you call Nina, she lives with me.”
The man had some impression of her. He gestured for her to come in and sit down, kindly explaining, “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a long time. Nina’s client today is a bit special, there’s no telling when she’ll be done.”
Yuan Yue couldn’t help but ask with concern, “Has she eaten lunch then?”
“I don’t think so.”
How could this be? No matter how important work was, she couldn’t go hungry.
Yuan Yue asked tentatively, “Don’t you guys normally have fixed work hours?”
The man said, “Usually we do, but Nina’s situation is special today.”
“How is it special?”
The man didn’t hide anything, saying with a proud expression, “A big celebrity suddenly showed up. Do you think we could afford not to provide good hospitality? There’s nothing to be done, the person specifically requested Nina, so you can only wait.”
“A big celebrity?” Yuan Yue’s heart jumped, and she subconsciously blurted out, “Could it be Jie Ran?”
The man looked at her in disbelief, slowly giving her a thumbs-up. He said in amazement, “Impressive, you even managed to guess that.”
The author has something to say:
I’m truly sorry, everyone. For the last two weeks, I’ve been so busy I could fly. I have absolutely no time to write during the day, and when I write too late, I can’t find the right feeling. I want to write more, but my eyes can’t take it anymore.
These next few chapters will advance the plot a bit. Tomorrow, I’ll let the two of them be lovey-dovey and give everyone some sugar13.
Thank you all so much for your support. Group smooch~ nua~14
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