*

Ji Fanling finished her meal and played on her phone for a while on the sofa, but she couldn’t help recalling the earlier conversation.

— “Rest assured, I will be able to keep you very soon.”

— “Quite an ambitious goal.”

Indeed, it was ambitious. 

Eating his food, living in his place, using his things, she was directly fantasizing about a meteoric rise, turning from a peasant to a landlord in one step.

Ji Fanling absentmindedly looked at her phone, her face burning with embarrassment. She rubbed her face in frustration, giving up on herself, and got up, intending to take a shower.

However, on her way to the bathroom, she was stopped by Fu Yingcheng.

Ji Fanling turned around and found that, surprisingly, Fu Yingcheng was not working but was instead standing at the door of the study.

The tall man with long legs stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the door frame. He was wearing a soft-textured black sweater that made his sharp and chiseled features appear even colder and more defined, his arm muscles tightly showing their attractive lines.

He had naturally cold and indifferent eyes, with slightly upturned, narrow corners. When looking down at others, he gave off a distant yet sharp aura.

She didn’t know why.

There was also a… subtle sense of danger.

Ji Fanling, like a small animal with its fur standing on end, instinctively wary of external threats, replied stiffly, “What’s wrong?”

Fu Yingcheng asked, “Where’s the rabbit?”

Ji Fanling hesitated and said, “I took it to my bedroom.”

“Your bedroom?”

“Where else?”

“I did tell you to take it, that’s true.”

Fu Yingcheng stared at her, his voice slightly deeper, “But it seems like… I never said I was giving it to you, did I?”

Ji Fanling: “…”

A huge pot of self-delusion fell from the sky.

The girl pouted, her face falling, and said dryly, “At that time, your expression clearly meant…”

“What expression are you talking about?” Fu Yingcheng looked at her calmly.

Ji Fanling took a deep breath, incredulously emphasizing each word, “So you bought a plush rabbit… for yourself?”

“Why, is that not allowed?”

Of course, it’s allowed.

You spend your money to buy something for yourself, can I say it’s not allowed?

Ji Fanling clenched her fists tightly, and said with a cold tone, “I did put the rabbit in my bedroom, but I never said I was treating it as my own, did I?”

“That’s for the best.” Fu Yingcheng glanced at her, “Take it to my bed.”

Without another word, the girl turned around, went into the room, picked up the rabbit, and carried it with her arms held high, delivering it to his bedroom, where she tossed it onto the bed.

It was infuriating that, for a moment, she actually wondered why Fu Yingcheng was being so nice to her and even thought he was easy to get along with.

Nice, nice, what a joke!

This man had, at most, a bit of kindness, a touch of cleanliness, and a measure of arrogance.

The remaining ninety-four percent were all just asking for a beating.

…

Could it be that because she said she wanted to keep him, it hurt his pride and made him very upset?

Despite her frustration, the girl still ran around the bed, adjusting the rabbit’s position. When she finally looked up, she realized that she had unknowingly entered Fu Yingcheng’s bedroom.

She had been staying at Fu Yingcheng’s place for a week, but aside from spending time in the guest room, she stayed in the living room.

Even when Fu Yingcheng wasn’t home, she never wandered around or snooped through things, not even glancing into other rooms.

His bedroom wasn’t particularly special; the dark curtains were clean and tidy, with a somber and cool tone. The air held a faint scent of ebony agarwood, similar to the scent on him.

The rabbit on his bed seemed as out of place as a 1.9-meter-tall, abstinent male model wearing a Lolita dress on the runway.

Ji Fanling didn’t look around much and turned to leave, but her sharp eyesight still caught sight of a small, inconspicuous hole in the wallpaper, revealing the white wall behind it.

The small hole was above the bedside table, with an irregular shape, about the size of half a fingernail.

It looked like something had been stuck there for a long time, only to be hurriedly torn off, leaving behind a trace.

*

The next day, Ji Fanling got up before seven to prepare for her interview.

However, Fu Yingcheng had woken up even earlier, leaving her as the only one at home.

The girl, with half-closed eyes, walked into the living room and was startled, her eyes widening in surprise.

—That giant rabbit was sitting conspicuously on the living room sofa.

Ji Fanling walked over, patted the rabbit’s head, and asked softly, “What’s this, did he abandon you again?”

The rabbit sat obediently, looking at her.

Ji Fanling let out a small laugh.

Fu Yingcheng, what an unpredictable, fickle, and inconstant man.

The 7-Eleven convenience store had informed her that the interview would be at eight o’clock. When Ji Fanling arrived, she found the store surrounded by a long line of applicants. She had no idea where all these people had come from.

Ji Fanling endured the cold wind for four hours, only getting her turn close to noon.

Fortunately, the interview questions were simple, and Ji Fanling answered them smoothly.

That was until the store manager glanced at her A University student ID and casually asked, “So, you’re a German major?”

Ji Fanling: “…Um.”

She had just asked the seller to randomly pick a major for her.

The store manager, intrigued, said, “Then can you give a self-introduction in German?”

“…”

The girl spoke with a calm and composed demeanor: “Abobotuwa si Ji Fanling mare fak tulutulu pi…”^[1]The phrase “Abobotuwa si Ji Fanling mare fak tulutulu pi…” is not a real language; it’s a made-up string of sounds that Ji Fanling uses to pretend she’s speaking German. LOL

“That sounded pretty fluent,” the store manager said, looking puzzled. “But it doesn’t quite sound like German, does it?”

The girl kept a straight face. “Do you speak German?”

The manager replied, “No, but…”

Ji Fanling asserted confidently, “What I just spoke is German.”

The store manager let out a hesitant “Oh,” seeming like he wanted to say something but stopped. After a moment, he looked up again and asked, “How do you say ‘hello’ in German?”

Ji Fanling replied firmly, “Holla ziwa.”

The store manager: “…”

After a pause, the manager mused, “If ‘hello’ is ‘Holla ziwa’… then what does ‘Hallo’ mean?”

“It means…”

Ji Fanling reached out her hand. “Give me back my resume, I’ll see myself out.”

Her second interview was at 1 p.m., this time for a tasting promoter position at Yongle Supermarket.

As she hurried on her way, Ji Fanling frantically memorized a German self-introduction from a translation app, while also finding time to curse the fake ID seller from afar for not picking an easier major for her, like postpartum care for sows.

The interview process went smoothly, and the interviewer didn’t suddenly ask her to speak a few words in German.

The HR person who escorted her out smiled and said, “Once the interview scores are out, we’ll conduct a background check. You’ll receive a text message with the interview results within about a week.”

Ji Fanling politely asked, “What is the background check?”

“Oh, it’s very simple,” the HR person replied with a cheerful smile, “we just check your academic credentials on the Xuexin website to see if there are any falsifications.”

Ji –Fake– Fanling: “…”

The smile on the girl’s face vanished, and she calmly extended her hand. “Give me back my resume.”

As Ji Fanling left the supermarket, a cold wind hit her face, and she felt a chill in her heart as well, thinking that today was probably not a good day for interviews.

She walked slowly back toward Fu Yingcheng’s place, habitually slipping her hands into her pockets, intending to touch the bead bracelet on her wrist.

…

But she didn’t feel it.

Where was her bracelet?!

---

Author’s Note:

The other party was so jealous that he took back the rabbit.

---