Chen Yiran didn’t leave after the recording ended. He heard from the staffs that Li Linlin still had to go into the interview room to choose between the male guests.

In order to get the news as soon as possible, he purposely stayed behind.

In the interview room, after Li Linlin finished choosing Du Yanwei, one of the staff asked her, “Why?”

Li Linlin gave the same answer as in the initial interview, “Because he’s a proper guy about the same age as me.”

Staff: “……”

So Little Sister Linlin was so principled!

The staff continued to talk, “Do you think Chen Yiran is older and has nothing in common with you?”

“No, it’s just that someone told me before that when looking for a boyfriend, I need to find a proper guy about the same age as me. “

Staff: “……”

“Is it your father?” She asked.

“No, it’s a brother of mine.” Li Linlin answered, then added, “A person who’s very similar to President Chen.”

Staff: “……”

Wait, you’re not talking about President Chen, are you??

If it’s really President Chen, you’re deliberately trying to piss him off?

“Then do you think Du Yanwei will choose you?” The staff asked.

Li Linlin hadn’t really thought about it. “He’s also with a challenger?”

“Yes.” The staff said, “We didn’t tell you because we don’t want you to be influenced by this. We want to see you follow your heart.”

“……” What your show wants is to make good TV.

Li Linlin said, “I really haven’t thought about it, but it’s a two-way choice. It’s not a big deal if he chooses the female challenger. Anyway, there’ll be a new male guest.”

“Of course it’s best if you think so.” The staff deliberately paused for a while before announcing to Li Linlin, “Unfortunately, Du Yanwei chose the female challenger.”

Li Linlin was still a little surprised. Of course, she hoped that Du Yanwei would choose her, after all, they were old colleagues and a new guest meant they had to readapt to the other person.

But since he had made his choice, she could only give him her blessings. Finally, she didn’t forget to ask who would be the new male guest.

The staff said mysteriously, “We’re keeping it a secret for now. You’ll know next time we record the show.”

Li Linlin probed, “Can’t you reveal anything at all?”

The staff said, “We can only say that the new male guest we’ve chosen is definitely good. He might not necessarily be a celebrity and can also be a normal person.”

“Oh……” Li Linlin nodded. “He’s not going to be another domineering president, right?”

“I don’t know about that.” The staff didn’t want to reveal anything more.

Li Linlin didn’t continue to pursue the matter and walked out of the room after the interview ended. As soon as she opened the door, she saw Chen Yiran standing in the corridor as if he was waiting for her. His face didn’t look too good.

Uh…… he’s not waiting there specifically to censure her, was he?

Chen Yiran did want to ask her why she chose Du Yanwei, but with so many staff members there, it wasn’t convenient to talk. He looked at Li Linlin and said, “Let’s go together, I’ll drop you off on the way.”

Li Linlin refused, “No, my car is outside.”

Chen Yiran’s face turned ugly again. “Just now your assistant said your nanny van broke down.”

“……Ah?” She wanted to call Xiao Xi and the others but she was pulled away by Chen Yiran. Assistant Wu stood by the car waiting for them. When he saw them coming over, he took the initiative to open the car door.

Li Linlin pursed her lips. Finding that her nanny van was nowhere to be seen, she lowered her head and got in.

Forget it. It’s just a free car ride.

Assistant Wu sat in the front and drove, while Chen Yiran and Li Linlin sat in the back seat, saying nothing for a while. Li Linlin simply lowered her head and played with her phone. Anyway, if Chen Yiran didn’t speak to her, she wouldn’t do so as well. In the end, Chen Yiran couldn’t hold himself back and asked, “Why did you choose Du Yanwei? You don’t really like him, do you?”

Li Linlin was playing a game. After hearing what he said, she replied, “Even if I pick you, you don’t have time to come to every recording. I’ve done it for your own good.”

“……” Then I really want to ‘thank’ you for your thoughtfulness. “So you were going to choose me?”

“I didn’t say that. “Li Linlin replied to him while still playing. “My goal is very clear, I just want to choose a proper guy my age.”

Chen Yiran: “……”

Is this what people call digging your own grave?

“But he didn’t seem to have chosen you.”

“……” Li Linlin was silent for a moment, wondering which busybody leaked the news to Chen Yiran. “It doesn’t matter, there’ll be a new male guest anyway.”

After saying so, she deliberately changed the subject, “Didn’t you say before that you’re going to go back to the company after the recording?”

Chen Yiran loosened his tie and leaned gently on the back of the chair. “Since it’s already this time of the day, it’s easier to work at home.”

He lowered his eyes and glanced at the game Li Linlin was playing. It seemed to be the one she’d been sharing to him before. “You’re still playing that game?”

“Yeah.”

“How come you haven’t sent me a link to chop wood lately?”

“……” Was President Chen addicted to chopping wood? “I sent one to you last time but didn’t you not help me? I’m a very sensible person and never force others.”

Chen Yiran: “……”

“I was busy with work back then.” Chen Yiran made an excuse for himself. “When I clicked in later, I found that the task has already expired.”

“Oh, it’s fine, no need to dwell on it.” Li Linlin continued, “Anyway, we have a trade union group with lots of buddies who mutually help each other out.”

Chen Yiran pursed his lips slightly and said no more. Assistant Wu, who was driving in front, listened to the conversation and silently lit a candle for his boss.

After returning to Yinwan, Assistant Wu didn’t follow them up and only made an appointment with Chen Yiran to pick him up tomorrow morning. Li Linlin and Chen Yiran stood at the ascending elevator together. Upon reaching the 23rd floor, Chen Yiran held down the elevator door and didn’t go out right away. “Wait for me here, I’ll go get something for you.”

“What is it?” Li Linlin asked.

Chen Yiran said, “The stuff toys I previously got for you. I left them here.”

As soon as he said so, Li Linlin remembered that today at Xinguang Farm, he had also gotten several stuff toys for her. She gave them to her assistants but she had no idea where those two people had run off to.

She followed Chen Yiran out of the elevator and waited for him in the corridor for a short while before she saw him come out with three dolls. “It wasn’t convenient to get too many at that time so I only picked the three cutest ones.”

Li Linlin took the stuff toys and looked at them. The ‘cutest’ ones in Chen Yiran’s mouth were two rabbits and a little black cat, which look quite cute.

As if to cover up something, she coughed lightly and pressed the elevator button again. “Thanks. I’m going up.”

“Mm.” Chen Yiran watched her walk into the elevator before returning to his home.

Chen Xi and Wu Hui’er were both at home at the moment. When they heard the sound of the door opening, they both turned around to take a look.

“Linlin, why do you still have stuff toys in your hands?” Chen Xi looked at the things in her hand and became a little restless. “Are those still given to you by Brother Yiran?”

“Ah…… He said he got them before.” Linlin put on her slippers and walked in. “Are the other ones here?”

“Xiao Xi and Xiaoxiao sent your stuff over and there’s a whole bunch of stuff toys. It’s all in your room.” Chen Xi said.

Hearing her words, Li Linlin walked towards her room and opened the door to take a look. The stuff toys Chen Yiran had gotten for her that day were piled on the bed.

Chen Xi also followed her. She leaned against the door frame with an ambiguous smile on her face. “I heard that you went on a date with Brother Yiran?”

Li Linlin corrected her wording seriously. “It’s a show recording.”

“Oh please, you think my brother is interested in recording a show?”

“……What else?”

“It’s obvious he’s interested in you.”

“……” Li Linlin glanced back at Chen Xi. “I think you’re thinking too much.”

“Oh, then how come he only gets stuff toys for you and not me? If you keep adding more, you can even set up a stall.”

Li Linlin indeed had a dozen or two of them on display in this room, and there’s no need to mention that they look quite nice.

“You’ll have to ask him about that.” Li Linlin put the new stuff toys neatly into the cabinet and told Chen Xi, “If you ask him to get some for you, he will definitely agree.”

“Heh, what’s the point if I have to ask for it on my own?”

“……”

Wu Hui, holding a bag of potato chips in her hand, also walked over from outside. “Linlin, I heard that you didn’t choose President Chen?”

Chen Xi smoothly commented, “My brother is so miserable.”

Li Linlin said, “I’m miserable too, okay? Du Yanwei didn’t choose me!”

“I specifically asked the program team about that.” Wu Hui put a potato chip into her mouth, producing a crunching sound. “Your challenger is his ex-girlfriend. The two of them still have feelings for each other. After today’s disturbance, he definitely won’t be able to hold back.”

Li Linlin instantly got nosy. She walked forward very naturally, reached out and grabbed a handful of potato chips, and leaned against the door frame as well. “Ex-girlfriend? So exciting? The program group is quite good at making things happen.”

“That’s not necessarily true.” After Wu Hui said so, she realized that Li Linlin was actually eating potato chips and hurriedly stop the hand that Li Linlin was extending again. “Quit while you’re ahead.”

Li Linlin pouted. She wouldn’t eat then. Anyway, she could now take advantage of the opportunity of being on shows to eat big meals every day.

“Then have you asked the program group who my new partner is?”

“They won’t say, but if you look at President Chen’s quality, I won’t be surprise who the program group invites next.”

“My brother is really miserable.” Chen Xi sighed again. “As soon as the show aired, people all over the country will know that he, the president of a multinational group, was rejected in a dating show.”

Wu Hui thought even deeper than Chen Xi. “Don’t feel bad for President Chen. Linlin will definitely be scolded as well when the time comes.”

Li Linlin was unhappy. “Why will people scold me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Whenever a woman rejects a man with good conditions, there’s bound to be someone on the sidelines who’ll say, ‘You still don’t like someone like him? No wonder you’re single yada yada’.”

“……” She’s already angry hearing about it!

“Alright, alright, it’s getting late. You guys should go back to your rooms and sleep. Wu Hui’er, stop eating!” After saying this, Li Linlin grabbed the bag of potato chips from Wu Hui’s hand and then slammed the door shut.

Wu Hui, who was locked out, still maintained the posture of holding the potato chips. After a moment of silence, she shouted towards Li Linlin’s door, “Li Linlin! You’ll increase the intensity of your exercise tomorrow!”

Li Linlin just stuck out her tongue. She then ate the potato chips one piece at a time, then wiped her hands with a tissue and prepared to go to the bathroom to take a bath.

After coming out of the bath, Li Linlin blow dried her hair. She sat on the small sofa and picked up her phone to look at it. Chen Yiran actually sent her a message.

【Chen Yiran: There’s a pet expo this weekend. Do you want to go and see it?】

Pet expo? Li Linlin had been working a lot these days and hadn’t paid attention to these things. When Chen Yiran asked her, she indeed felt tempted.

【Linlin: Not going. It doesn’t sound like much fun.】

Chen Yiran sent her several photos which were the promotional pictures for the pet expo. 【There will be a lot of animals there as well as well-known pet bloggers with their celebrity pets.】

Li Linlin followed several pet bloggers on Weibo. Although she didn’t dare to keep pets now, it didn’t prevent her from raising them online. Li Linlin was even more tempted when she saw that two of the pet bloggers she followed were bringing their pets to participate.

【Chen Yiran: Wu Hui said you don’t have work on the weekend, let’s go together.】

“……” Li Linlin deleted the words ‘I have work on the weekend’ that she had already typed in the dialog box. Wu Hui’er had no integrity at all in front of Chen Yiran!

Seeing that there was no movement on Li Linlin’s side, Chen Yiran made another fierce attack and sent a long list of promotional pictures for the pet expo, all of which were super cute cats and dogs.

Li Linlin: “……”

This was too despicable.

【Linlin: I can go by myself.】

【Chen Yiran: Have you bought a ticket?】

Li Linlin searched for the pet expo and bought one online on the spot. She showed the screenshot to Chen Yiran. 【I did.】

Chen Yiran looked at the screenshot she sent, chuckled, and replied to her, 【Alright.】

After buying a ticket, Li Linlin asked in her friend group if anyone wanted to go to the pet expo this weekend. Wu Hui and Chen Xi didn’t want to go. Li Linlin pouted. She would be going alone.

Translated by Pocketrobbin

———pr

Please only read this translation at S h a n g h a i f a n t a s y . c o m to support the translator

On the weekend, Li Linlin meticulously put on a casual outfit. Masks and hats were must-haves. This time she picked a granny gray wig, braided it, paired it with T-shirt and jeans, grabbed her bag and went out.

Many people came to the pet expo and there was a queue at the entrance. Li Linlin subconsciously pulled up the mask on her face and went to queue to check in. The mask she’s wearing wasn’t the kind used by celebrities, which looked very fashionable, but an ordinary medical mask. After wearing it, her presence dropped by 80%.

After successfully entering the exhibition hall, Li Linlin followed the guide map and went to the celebrity pet meeting area first. The pet expo was a three-day event. These big V bloggers wouldn’t come every day and Li Linlin specially chose the day when they were there when she bought the ticket.

The pets of these bloggers have a large number of fans on Weibo and the amount of people going to see them was especially a lot. Li Linlin waited in line for a while before she was able to come over and saw the cats and dogs she was raising online.

Because of the large number of people, the staff didn’t allow them to play with animals. They could only take photos or buy a book and ask for an autograph. Li Linlin bought the book but didn’t ask for autographs because she still had to queue up for it. She took a few photos with her phone, and then wanted to find a passerby to help her take a photo of herself with the animals.

She was looking for someone to help her when a man walked over and said to her, “Let me take pictures for you.”

“……” Li Linlin looked at Chen Yiran in front of her and the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

She could go by herself, and so was Chen Yiran.

Li Linlin didn’t want to attract attention to herself so she handed him her phone. Chen Yiran took a few photos for her and then they left the exhibition hall together.

As Li Linlin walked, she checked the photos Chen Yiran had just taken for her. She had seen a lot of posts on the Internet complaining about the photos taken by straight men, but when she saw the ones taken by Chen Yiran, she thought they were pretty good. Not only did the animals look cute, but she also didn’t appear like she had short legs.

Just as she was thinking of this, Chen Yiran suddenly reached out to stop her, pulling her back just in time as she was about to bump into a passerby. “Don’t just look at your phone while walking.”

Chen Yiran’s voice fell from above her head. Li Linlin was half wrapped in his arms and still hadn’t regained her senses. The passerby who was almost hit by Li Linlin didn’t say anything and just walked away. Li Linlin smelled the faint fragrance of Chen Yiran and was momentarily distracted.

“Did you got hit anywhere?” Chen Yiran frowned slightly and brushed her bangs aside to take a look, but didn’t see any redness on her skin.

Only then did Li Linlin left his arms and gave a dry coughed. “I’m fine. But you’re even wearing perfume. Too coquettish!”

“……” Chen Yiran was silent for a moment, then said, “I didn’t spray perfume, but I took a shower before going out, so it might be the residual smell of the shampoo.”

“Oh.” Li Linlin responded awkwardly. “That seems to be a pet dating corner over there. I’ll go and check it out.”

She walked over quickly after saying so. Chen Yiran followed behind her and they went together.

There were also many people in the pet dating corner, all of whom come to matchmake their pets. Every time a pair was successfully matched, they would take a photo on stage and receive a small prize, just like how a male and a female participant would hold hands at shows.

Li Linlin joined in on the fun at the blind date corner and found that many people not only came to matchmake their pets, but also to matchmake themselves! Some pets weren’t paired, but the owners were chatting and laughing together, which was much more efficient than Chen Yiran’s blind date.

There was also a photo wall in the blind date corner, which displayed some of the successful matches from these pet expos. Li Linlin curiously checked it out and Chen Yiran followed her the entire time.

“These two dogs are so beautiful! They look like Marshmallow!” A pair of snow-white samoyeds on the photo wall attracted Li Linlin’s attention. She stopped and looked at them. They really resemble Marshmallow that Chen Yiran had given her.

Chen Yiran asked her, “Is Marshmallow still there?”

“Of course.” Li Linlin gave him a look. “I only severed ties with you, what does it have to do with Marshmallow?”

Chen Yiran chuckled lightly and looked at her. “Then that’s good, I was worried you’ll throw it away.”

“I won’t.” As Li Linlin said that, she saw a woman leading over a samoyed, which also looked similar to the two dogs in the photo. Seeing Li Linlin looking at her, the woman smiled.

The samoyed she was leading over looked relatively young, probably not yet old enough for a matchmaking. Li Linlin bent down to pet the dog and asked the woman opposite, “Are you bringing it here for matchmaking this young?”

The woman smiled and said, “No. I took her here to show her where her parents met each other.”

Li Linlin was stunned. She raised her head and looked at the other person. “Her parents met at a blind date corner?”

“That’s right.” The woman pointed to the photo on the background wall. “That’s the two of them.”

“Wow, no wonder they look so much alike!”

Chen Yiran commented next to her, “Samoyeds all look the same in your eyes.”

“……” Li Linlin glared up at him and the woman holding the samoyed laughed gently.

“Not just the dogs, my husband and I also met at this blind date corner.” The woman said.

Li Linlin looked at her with bright eyes. “Let me just say, I think many owners come here to date under the guise of matchmaking their pets.”

The woman covered her mouth and laughed, telling Li Linlin, “My husband and I genuinely came here to match our pets and also solved our own problems in passing.”

Li Linlin smiled as well and asked her curiously, “Then why didn’t your husband come with you today?”

The woman looked at the picture on the wall and the smile in her eyes seemed to become more profound. “My husband passed away at the beginning of the year from cancer.”

Li Linlin was stunned. She never expected that things would be like that, otherwise she wouldn’t have talked so much. Chen Yiran, who was standing next to her, was also stunned for a moment. He opened his mouth to say to the woman, “Apologies.”

“It’s nothing.” The woman smiled at them. “I knew about his illness from the very beginning. He felt that he didn’t have much time and that’s when he came up with the idea of ​​finding a partner for Fluffy. Oh, Fluffy is the samoyed he raised.”

Neither Li Linlin and Chen Yiran said anything. The woman looked at the photo on the wall again and said with a slight curl of her lips, “You must be wondering why I still want to marry him when I know he doesn’t have much time, right? It’s precisely because he doesn’t have much time left that I want to marry him.”

Li Linlin was touched by her words. Looking at the woman, although she was petite, her heart was very strong and warm. “You’re very brave.”

The woman looked over at Lin Linlin and smiled. “Everyone says so, but it’s also because of him that I have such courage. At the beginning, he didn’t agree to my proposal and I had to pester him.”

Li Linlin originally came to the pet expo just to see the cute animals, but she never expected to hear a touching love story there. As if sensing the change in its owner’s mood, the samoyed, who had been led by the woman, raised its head and rubbed against her calf.

The woman squatted down, touched the dog’s head, and said to Li Linlin and Chen Yiran, “It’s indeed the bravest decision I have made in my life, but I’ve never regretted it. Although he’s no longer here now, the traces he left in my life will never be erased. Now I’m raising three samoyeds by myself. If I don’t work hard, I won’t be able to afford food.”

After walking out of the pet dating corner, Li Linlin’s mood was obviously not as high as before. Chen Yiran walked beside her and looked down at her. “Still thinking about earlier?”

“Hmm.”

Chen Yiran raised his hand and rubbed the top of her head, telling her, “That woman doesn’t feel miserable. Just as she said, although her lover is gone, he has left traces in her life that will never disappear, and those traces have also changed her. It was her own choice. Perhaps that’s what love looks like.”

Li Linlin raised her head and looked at him in surprise. “You actually understand love?”

Chen Yiran raised his eyebrows slightly. “Why won’t I understand?”

Li Linlin exclaimed, “Has someone also left traces in President Chen’s heart?”

Chen Yiran looked at Li Linlin. “Otherwise, why do you think I’ll come at a pet expo?”