Chapter 73: The Bet

“Hey, where’s Lili?” Cheng Du looked at Duan Qingyu, who had come alone, and couldn’t help but glance around to see if there was any sign of Ji Xueli.

“She twisted her ankle. I took her to her room to rest,” Duan Qingyu glanced at Ji Yanzhou, who was sitting nearby, and said.

“Ah, how did she twist her ankle? Is it serious? Where is she? I’ll go check on her,” Cheng Du started to stand up.

Ji Yanzhou caught the key words and looked in Duan Qingyu’s direction. Did he just hear ‘Lili’? Could it be Ji Xueli?

“No need. I’ve already applied some medicine for her, let her rest for now,” Duan Qingyu stopped him and looked up at Ji Yanzhou, flashing a faint smile.

Ji Yanzhou made eye contact for just a moment, then looked away, grabbing his glass of wine.

“Alright then, I was wondering why you two were gone so long. I thought maybe you had secretly eloped,” Cheng Du sighed in relief.

Someone nearby, forgetting that Ji Yanzhou was still present, joked, “The young master eloped with someone, with Xueli, right?”

Upon hearing this, Ji Yanzhou’s expression turned even darker.

“You shouldn’t use that term so casually,” Duan Qingyu took a sip of his drink and smiled, the corner of his eyes curving upward.

“Young Master Ji is still here. Watch your words,” Cheng Du patted the shoulder of the person who had spoken, reminding him.

“They’ve been broken up for years, right? I see that Ji Yanzhou has someone else by his side. Lili can find someone else too. I think she and the Prince are a pretty good match…” Cheng Du spoke casually, not caring. After all, they had broken up, so why keep holding on?

Xie Yujun pinched the webbing between her thumb and index finger. She knew her position was awkward, and among these young masters, she didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation.

Ji Yanzhou watched Duan Qingyu leisurely light a cigarette. He looked lazy, reclining on the sofa, as if he were an outsider.

His voice was cold: “She’s my assistant. And as for what she said about breaking up, I haven’t agreed to it.”

At his words, the room fell silent.

Duan Qingyu held the cigarette between his fingers, the white smoke swirling around him, making his expression hard to read, difficult to tell whether it was good or bad.

He flicked the ash off the cigarette, his gaze filled with arrogance, as if he had just heard an amusing joke.

Xie Yujun lowered her gaze in resignation. She had known this would happen…

“From what Young Master Ji is saying, does that mean you two will get back together?” Someone else chimed in, eager for the gossip. When they were together before, everyone thought they would be together forever…

Who knew that after the breakup, Ji Xueli had gone abroad for years and never returned.

“Who cares about whether they agree on breaking up? If you accept it, then it’s an unspoken breakup,” Cheng Du grumbled, feeling uncomfortable.

To him, Ji Yanzhou now seemed like the third party trying to interfere and destroy the relationship between the three of them.

“That’s true. It seems like Xueli doesn’t have any intention of getting back together,” someone else nodded, agreeing with Cheng Du’s comment.

“But I think Xueli and Ji Yanzhou were together for so many years, and their parents have met. Getting back together is just a matter of time,” another person expressed their support for Ji Yanzhou.

They whispered amongst themselves, voicing their opinions, while Ji Yanzhou stared intently at Duan Qingyu, who had just sent Ji Xueli to her room.

But why was Ji Xueli at the seaside ball?

Could it be because of Duan Qingyu?

But she had said that being with him was just to provoke Ji Yanzhou…

He took a deep breath. Fine, he’d give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

“Get back together? If they can get back together, I’ll drink all the seawater,” Cheng Du stood up, hands on his hips, making a bold statement.

At his words, the atmosphere immediately became lively. “Alright, Cheng Du, we’re taking your word for it.”

“I’ll bet 100,000, that Ji Yanzhou and Xueli will get back together.”

“I’ll bet 150,000, they’ll get back together.”

They found it interesting and quickly joined in, placing their bets. To them, money was nothing compared to the fun of it all.

In just a few moments, tens of thousands of yuan were on the line. Xie Yujun felt a bit sarcastic. The things that ordinary people would spend a lifetime working for, these people had from birth.

Cheng Du noticed most of them were betting on the couple getting back together. His eyes twinkled, and he dragged Duan Qingyu into the mix. “It’s not just me. The Prince is betting with me too.”

“Hey, I don’t have your kind of patience,” Duan Qingyu dodged, refusing.

Cheng Du pouted and muttered, “Do you really hope they’ll get back together?”

Duan Qingyu glanced at him, and smiled slightly, his eyes carrying a hint of mockery. “I’ll just wait for the day they get back together.”

Ji Yanzhou didn’t avoid his gaze. He would never let Ji Xueli be with anyone else but him.

“Looks like the Prince is betting they’ll get back together. Okay, right now, Cheng Du is the only one betting against it,” someone else summarized.

“They won’t get back together. Just wait. I’ll take all your money,” Cheng Du declared confidently.

“We’ll wait for you to drink all the seawater,” came the teasing response.

“Hahahaha.”

---

Meanwhile, Ji Xueli, who was resting in her room, had no idea that things were getting chaotic downstairs over her and Ji Yanzhou.

She was also unaware of the absurd bet that had been placed in her name.

She was lazily lying on the sofa, eating fruits one after another, scrolling through her Weibo.

Her original persona had quite a number of fans—over 20 million. However, she wasn’t very active, and the fans kept commenting for more updates.

Oh, looks like there are CP fans already. Ji Xueli continued browsing her related posts and accidentally stumbled upon the CP account with her and Fu Yunfan. Below it, Fu Yunfan’s fans were protesting.

Looking at the picture, they were saying that Fu Yunfan’s gaze towards her was full of deep affection. Ji Xueli couldn’t help but smile. This was the feeling of the real person looking at it. No wonder people always say everything in the entertainment industry is acting.

Fu Yunfan’s eyes—everything he looked at seemed full of deep affection.

She shifted slightly, feeling a little pain in her foot. She glanced at her ankle—it was a bit swollen, the medicine’s scent still lingering.

Looking at it, she couldn’t help but remember how Duan Qingyu had kneeled to massage her foot…

She couldn’t hold back a smile. She hadn’t expected Duan Qingyu to be like that. It was quite rare.

But then she remembered her current situation, which might still be a negative number, and her head throbbed.

She had considered just going with the flow, but in the end, the system would still declare failure.

No wonder her mother kept warning her to be careful of Xie Yujun, always trying to tie her up with Ji Yanzhou.

Ji Xueli turned over, feeling extremely heavy-headed. She couldn’t think about it anymore. For now, she just had to focus on showing her presence in front of Ji Yanzhou and try to salvage whatever she could.

As for Duan Qingyu… To avoid making things even more difficult, she couldn’t sever ties with him. And the situation with Ji Yanzhou couldn’t be discovered by him either.

She had to keep both sides in the dark, and slowly disengage from Duan Qingyu.

But, thinking about it, she almost felt reluctant. Being friends with him didn’t seem too bad.

Ji Xueli pulled the blanket over her face and decided to nap for a while, leaving things for later.