Chapter 9: Thank You, Ah Yu…

Su Tian was extremely embarrassed, catching sight of Jiang Chiyu’s amused face from the corner of her eye. “Dad!”

Mrs. Su, still sitting elegantly in her seat, couldn’t help but gently rebuke, “Yunhong, what are you saying?”

Mr. Su, whose full name was Su Yunhong, responded with a simple “hmm” and obediently moved past the indelicate topic. “Let’s sit down, the food will be served soon.”

After catching up, everyone took their seats. Their private room had exactly six seats. Su Tian sat next to Mrs. Su, while Jiang Chiyu sat next to Mrs. Jiang, which placed the two of them right next to each other.

As they sat down, Jiang Chiyu gentlemanly pulled out the chair for her.

If the adults hadn’t been present, Su Tian would have rolled her eyes dramatically.

What an act! The Jiang Chiyu in front of adults was completely different from how he behaved around her!

Mrs. Su gently nudged her arm, “Thank your Brother Ah Yu.”

As her mother often prompted her about manners in other situations, Su Tian reflexively followed Bai Jing’s words, “Thank you, Ah Yu…”

Su Tian’s mouth remained open, the word “brother” stuck in her throat, unable to come out.

“Ah Yu” looked at her with disinterest.

Mrs. Su said gently, “What’s wrong? He’s your childhood Brother Ah Yu, don’t you remember?”

Mrs. Jiang added, “What a coincidence, when we were handling Ah Yu’s transfer procedures, he randomly chose a class and it happened to be Tian Tian’s class. Now they’re even deskmates.”

Mrs. Su was slightly surprised, “Is that so?”

“Ah Yu, you mustn’t bully Tian girl. Take care of her at school and help her when she needs it,” Mr. Jiang said.

Jiang Chiyu, being addressed, smiled slightly and agreed, “Of course.”

The topic of calling him brother finally shifted, and Su Tian felt relieved while secretly grinding her teeth, casting a sidelong glance at Jiang Chiyu sitting on her right.

What a hypocrite!

What nonsense!

Unexpectedly, Jiang Chiyu took a deep breath, glanced at her sideways, and slowly said, “Sister Su Tian is even the Chinese class representative. There are quite a few things I need her help with. Right, Tian… Tian?”

Su Tian felt uncomfortable just hearing the words “Sister Su Tian” from his mouth, and when she heard that deliberately drawn-out “Tian Tian” at the end, she felt like she’d been zapped by an electric fly swatter – goosebumps rising all over her body.

With all the adults looking at her, Su Tian forced a sweet fake smile, “…Brother Ah Yu… is joking.”

Jiang Chiyu raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Mr. Jiang laughed heartily and looked at Mr. Su, “Ah, the kids have grown up, they can’t even call each other brother and sister anymore. Back in our day, we used to call each other by single characters, right, Hong?”

Single characters… if it were still her parents’ era, wouldn’t she have to call Jiang Chiyu ‘Yu’…

Help, this was too terrifying. Su Tian’s goosebumps had barely settled when they immediately rose again.

Mr. Su also reminisced: “Yes, I used to call you ‘Jiang’ every day, and called Xiaojing ‘Bai’. Now it’s not fashionable anymore.”

Mrs. Su’s usually composed expression changed, her temple twitching as she took a sip of tea to calm herself.

Mrs. Jiang teased, “Tian Tian, if you’re embarrassed to say brother, you can just call him Ah Yu.”

Mr. Su nodded in agreement.

Under everyone’s gaze, and with the single-character naming precedent, Su Tian was much calmer this time. She tried her best to stay composed and said, “Okay… Ah Yu.”

Though she appeared calm on the surface, only Su Tian could hear the tremor in her voice.

Jiang Chiyu still said nothing, appearing overly mature in front of the adults, wearing a perfectly measured shallow smile.

During the meal, everyone chatted about other things. As the servers began bringing dishes, halfway through the meal, Mrs. Jiang suddenly slapped her thigh and pushed Mr. Jiang, “Oh right! I almost forgot, and you didn’t remind me. Where is it?”

Mr. Jiang looked taken aback. Then, as if he’d suddenly remembered something, he said, “Aiya, my mind! I left it in the car.”

Mr. Su was curious: “What is it?”

“You’ll see when we bring it up,” Mr. Jiang explained, then started calling the driver, asking him to bring up the black box from the trunk.

Su Tian hadn’t really been listening to what the adults were discussing. She had eaten too many appetizers and was already feeling full.

Suddenly, a lobster was tossed onto her plate. Su Tian froze for a moment, turned to face the culprit who was now putting down his chopsticks with a lazy expression, and said word by word, “What. Are. You. Doing!”

Jiang Chiyu seemed not to have gotten the reaction he wanted and made a slightly disappointed “yo” sound, asking in an incredibly annoying tone, “Not afraid of bugs anymore? I remember when you were little, you’d scream if any insect bigger than your fingernail came within three meters of you.”

The adults were engaged in lively conversation and hadn’t noticed their exchange. Su Tian knew he was up to no good and said angrily, “I can grow up too, you know! Did you think I haven’t made any progress all these years?”

“Your English is still just as bad.”

“You…!”

Su Tian was momentarily speechless, then let out a cold snort, “Even if I haven’t made progress, it’s better than someone who’s regressed. Becoming more and more childish, you childish fool!”

“Little Sister Tian Tian’s words make Brother Ah Yu unhappy,” Jiang Chiyu said lazily, then seemed to think of something, narrowed his eyes, and smiled ambiguously, “Speaking of which… Tian Tian, call me Brother Ah Yu one more time.”

Under the warm yellow lighting, the young man’s face appeared bold and unrestrained. His phoenix eyes, which usually looked sharp and cold with their upturned corners, were now filled with playful amusement, becoming warm and intense.

Su Tian gradually blushed under his gaze, turned away in defeat, and took several sips of tea in succession.

Before she could fully swallow the tea, she suddenly heard someone call “Tian Tian.” Su Tian was so startled she choked, covering her lips as she started coughing.

Mrs. Su quickly came over to pat her back, “Drink slowly, what kind of behavior is this?”

Jiang Chiyu calmly passed her two napkins, which made Su Tian cough even harder.

When she finally recovered, she saw Mrs. Jiang walking over, holding out an exquisite red velvet box to her, “Tian Tian, here, this is a welcome gift for you.”

Su Tian hadn’t expected a welcome gift and quickly stood up, accepting the box with sincere thanks: “Thank you, Auntie Jiang and Uncle Jiang!”

“Ah Yu helped choose this,” Mrs. Jiang said.

Su Tian caught her breath again, glanced at the expectant Jiang Chiyu, took a deep breath, and said, “Thank you, Ah Yu.”

Ah Yu smiled sweetly, “You’re welcome.”

“Quick, open it and see if you like it.”

So Su Tian sat down and untied the ribbon on the box. After pressing a mechanism on the outside of the box, it opened automatically, revealing a fountain pen inside.

It was a very artistically designed fountain pen. The pen was completely white, with a crystal swan carved into the cap.

She had to admit, Su Tian loved the fountain pen at first sight.

Never one to hold back her smiles, her lips remained curved upward as she sincerely thanked them again, “Thank you, Uncle Jiang and Auntie Jiang, I really love this gift.”

Mrs. Su pretended to scold them, “How could you prepare a gift? We didn’t prepare a welcome gift for Ah Yu in advance. Now it seems like we don’t like Ah Yu.”

“We’ve moved here from abroad, so as ‘guests from afar,’ we naturally should bring gifts for our friends here,” Mrs. Jiang said with a smile.