Music from 《You’re the Most Precious^[1]by Francesca Kao and Jacky Cheung》 began to play inside the car, and the romantic, slow-tempo love song flowed gently through the air.

Although Lu Jingdu had just turned the steering wheel with one hand in a move that looked undeniably cool and stylish, in reality, he wasn’t driving fast at all.

Despite driving a top-tier sports car, his current speed did not live up to the prestige of those four words.

Some cars overtaking them from the side even deliberately rolled down their windows to sneak a look at the sports car.

However, Lu Jingdu didn’t open the windows, so no passing vehicle could see the two people inside.

【They say a man is most attractive when he’s focused on driving. Xiao Yu, give us the girlfriend’s perspective!】

【Yes, yes, the girlfriend’s view!】

【I really want to see! Xiao Yu, please show us!】

Girlfriend’s perspective?

Ning Xiaoyu instinctively turned the camera toward Lu Jingdu. “Like this?”

【That’s it! This is the girlfriend’s view! Maximum beauty impact at close range!】

【Damn, the movie king’s side profile is ridiculously handsome.】

【It’s just a change in hair color, but somehow he feels completely different!】

【With platinum blond hair, he instantly looks five years younger. So handsome and adorable.】

Lu Jingdu had naturally pale skin, and after dyeing his hair, his complexion appeared even fairer.

Seen from the side, his eyelashes looked long, and his skin was flawless. If someone said he was a 21-year-old junior in college, no one would have doubted it.

At that moment, they happened to hit a red light. The supercar came to a stop, and Lu Jingdu rested his left elbow on the window, his left hand propping up his cheek slightly, while his right index finger tapped rhythmically on the steering wheel.

There were still over forty seconds left on the red light countdown.

He turned to glance at Ning Xiaoyu beside him and asked with a smile, “There’s a milk tea shop nearby. Want one?”

【Ahhh! Why is the movie king suddenly so smiley?!】

【Still the same person, but completely different! He’s even more charming now!】

【Damn it! The only one who can attract me…… is an even more irresistible Lu Jingdu.】

【Xiao Yu, say yes, say yes!】

Ning Xiaoyu shook her head and answered honestly, “No.” She didn’t like overly sweet things.

A chorus of wails erupted in the livestream chat.

But the next second, Ning Xiaoyu’s lazy voice came through again, “But I do want stinky tofu.”

【???】

【……Well then. What else can we even say?】

【No wonder she’s the salted fish queen. Facing such a stunning face, and she just wants stinky tofu!】

【To be fair, stinky tofu does smell bad, but it tastes amazing.】

Lu Jingdu gave a slight nod, the platinum hair against the snowy scene outside the window making him look like the brightest streak of color in winter.

“Okay.”

Just then, the red light countdown ended. Lu Jingdu turned the wheel with one hand and drove slowly and steadily to a nearby stinky tofu shop.

This stinky tofu place sells a variety of other foods and they also sell Chinese flatbreads.

One could eat stinky tofu inside a flatbread.

Ning Xiaoyu happened to be craving it, so she ordered a flatbread stuffed with stinky tofu.

In her mind, no matter how good foreign food was, it still couldn’t beat a good flatbread with stinky tofu.

While frying the tofu, the shop owner asked, “How much stinky tofu do you want in the flatbread, Miss?”

Ning Xiaoyu held up two fingers.

Then she turned to Lu Jingdu and asked, “Do you want some?”

Lu Jingdu glanced at the menu and said, “Just give me a scallion oil flatbread.”

“Alrighty, two yuan gets you six pieces of stinky tofu, and the flatbread is five yuan each. You’ve got two flatbreads, so that’s twelve yuan total.”

“Beep.”

It was the sound of Lu Jingdu scanning the QR code with his phone.

【The salted fish queen is truly easy to please.】

【Lu · Rich Second-Gen College Student · Jingdu: Wealthy, but with nowhere to spend it.】

【To be able to eat stinky tofu in front of such a gorgeous face, only the salted fish queen can do it.】

【If it were me, no way I’d eat stinky tofu. Ever.】

Ning Xiaoyu had no idea what the viewers were thinking. After receiving the flatbread from the owner, she added some sauce herself.

The sauce was the key.

Whether a flatbread tasted good or not depended entirely on how the sauce was mixed.

Customers could add it themselves.

Ning Xiaoyu added a little sweet sauce, then a touch of chili sauce, and started eating.

Even though stinky tofu looked unappetizing and smelled bad, it tasted truly delicious.

At that moment, the scallion oil flatbread was also ready.

The two of them stood in the cold wind, eating their hot flatbreads together.

Maybe because Lu Jingdu was so good-looking, a few pedestrians instinctively slowed down nearby, pulling out their phones and openly taking photos.

Since he’d changed his hair color, no one recognized him as the national movie star. They assumed he was just a student from a nearby university.

Bits of conversation drifted by.

“What school is he from?”

“No idea. But it looks like he has a girlfriend.”

“Wuuwuu, good-looking guys are rarely single. Just enjoy the view.”

【Perfect. The first ‘date’ between the salted fish queen and the rich college boy ends with eating flatbread.】

【I’m dying laughing. Why does this feel so funny?】

【Our salted fish queen really doesn’t treat the college boy like a stranger at all.】

Ning Xiaoyu happily finished one flatbread. Just as she was about to grab a napkin from her pocket, Lu Jingdu reached out naturally and wiped a bit of sauce off the tip of her nose with his finger.

After wiping it, he smiled calmly and said, “All done.”

【This warm and proactive college boy is way more charming than the movie king version!】

【I don’t want to fangirl, but his smile is seriously too good.】

The viewers were stunned by how sweet the movie king had become. The only ones not surprised were Ning Xiaoyu and the love system.

Ning Xiaoyu didn’t care much about anything and paid no mind to the movie king’s change in behavior.

The love system, however, had already expected this.

Liu Shuyi had clingy admirers all around her?

In the future, the salted fish queen would only have more.

Just like that time at the previous birthday banquet. If Ning Yuwei hadn’t deliberately tried to draw attention to herself and spoiled Old Master Ning’s mood, he would’ve already introduced several outstanding young men from his circle to Ning Xiaoyu, letting her make a few more male friends.

If the movie king didn’t start working harder, there might really be no place for him beside the salted fish queen in the future.

As for the movie king’s thoughts, the love system, now running with slightly more memory capacity, had its own guesses.

A beautiful girl who had saved you once, helped you out of trouble more than once, showed no interest in you whatsoever, and when by your side, either munched on melon seeds or dozed off— falling asleep in seconds, no less.

She was more interested in stray cats and dogs on the street than in you.

She drank a spiked drink in your place and showed no reaction at all. She was cool-headed and untouched by desire, with not even a hint of physical interest in you.

Would you not be curious about her?

And curiosity was the beginning of every story.

Once curious, you’d want to know more about her.

To speculate on her thoughts, her motives, her preferences.

And in that process, stories would unfold unknowingly.

To sum it up in one sentence— the love system was still useful! It’s not entirely useless!

If you didn’t take the initiative, there would be no story.

With Ning Xiaoyu’s personality, she definitely wouldn’t have stepped up to help Lu Jingdu out of trouble on her own.

But after taking on a love mission, she saved him once— and not long after, she’d use a Misfortune Rebound talisman to save him again.

She helped him out several times, resolving multiple crises for him.

Come on!

Ning Xiaoyu was the first person to treat Lu Jingdu so well without expecting anything in return.

Even if the love system had nudged things along, the salted fish queen’s intentions were plain as day.

Even when the movie king promised to grant her any request, all she wanted was a piece of cupcake.

If it were someone else, would it be that easy to satisfy them? Would they not ask for the moon?

This kind of pure, straightforward kindness— Lu Jingdu had never experienced it in his life.

For the first time, someone didn’t care about his family background or his looks.

Only cared about him as a person.

Even for the movie king, it must have been hard to stay unmoved.

Especially when he’d had so little warmth growing up.

So, the love system thought, it was perfectly normal for the movie king’s attitude toward the salted fish queen to change.

But that change in attitude was only the first step.

Next would come liking, then deep love.

The love system thought sweetly that if his attitude had already started to shift, then all the sugar in the world couldn’t be too far behind, could it?

────ρя


By the time Ning Xiaoyu and Lu Jingdu arrived at the German restaurant, an hour had passed.

The other guests all knew they had gone off to eat street-side flatbreads, so no one rushed them.

Lu Jingdu pulled out a chair for Ning Xiaoyu. Only after she sat down did he take his own seat.

Before long, the table next to them filled up too.

Familiar faces, no less.

It was Ning Yuwei and her group.

On the surface, both parties were still friendly. After greeting each other, they went about ordering their meals.

When the food arrived, the guests were already quite hungry and finished the meal quickly.

After eating, Shen Yueyue wiped her mouth and asked, “What should we do this afternoon?”

Xi Rui glanced at Lu Jingdu and suggested, “Why don’t we go visit the university campus?”

Shen Yueyue immediately caught on. “Ah, good idea! How about we rent a few bikes on campus and ride around while sightseeing?”

“Xiaoyu, what do you think?”

Ning Xiaoyu had no objections. She nodded and said, “Sure.”

Liu Shuyi, sitting nearby, chimed in with a smile, “What a coincidence, we were planning to go to the campus this afternoon too. How about we all go together?”

Ning Xiaoyu glanced at her and replied, “Whatever.”

The university campus gates were open and anyone could go in. There was no need and no valid reason to stop Liu Shuyi and her group.

────ρя


While the group was planning their campus visit, Zhang Xue was hysterically dialing Shen Ke’s number.

Unfortunately, the line was always busy.

She had been blocked.

All the bank cards under Zhang Xue’s name had been frozen.

That meant, aside from the jewelry, bags, and shoes Shen Ke had previously given her, she had not a single cent of liquid assets left.

She didn’t even have the cash to buy herself a meal.

She wanted to beg Shen Ke not to be so ruthless, but she had forgotten that these past years, everything she ate, wore, used, and lived in had been provided by him.

The moment Shen Ke discarded her, she no longer had the ability to survive.

After these seven years— no, ever since she married Ning Zhen— she had lost the ability to survive on her own in society.

She could only rely on her husbands.

Before they got married, she and Shen Ke had signed a prenuptial agreement.

But life had been too comfortable over the years. She had completely forgotten that agreement even existed.

Once they divorced, she wouldn’t be able to take any of the shoes, bags, or jewelry with her. Which meant her life as a wealthy housewife would soon vanish like a soap bubble.

No!

She couldn’t accept that outcome. She was so used to living the good life that she couldn’t go back to hardship. She really couldn’t.

Once Shen Ke became ruthless, he showed no mercy.

However, she still had an ex-husband who had once loved her deeply.

If she lowered her head to Ning Zhen, would there be a chance for them to start over?

With that thought, Zhang Xue instantly perked up.

She didn’t know which hospital Ning Zhen had been transferred to, but Ning Xiaoyu definitely did.

After all, Ning Xiaoyu is her daughter. If she went to look for her, Ning Xiaoyu would tell her, right?

Thinking that, Zhang Xue rummaged through drawers, found a few dozen yuan in change, grabbed a bag, and called a rideshare car, heading determinedly toward Ning Xiaoyu’s location.

────ρя


Ning Xiaoyu didn’t know that Zhang Xue had watched her livestream and was on her way to find her.

At that moment, a stylish bicycle stood in front of her.

Lu Jingdu sat on the bike wearing black sunglasses. He had one foot on the ground, his smile was bold and dazzling. In a breezy, youthful voice full of energy and a hint of mischief, he asked, “Wanna hop on? I’ll take you flying.”