As soon as they stepped through the door, Liu Ye and the doctor froze in unison.  

In the not-so-spacious single room, Zheng Jiaojiao was kneeling.  

And facing her, Xu Xiaoyue was also kneeling steadily, the two of them looking as if they were in the middle of a traditional wedding bow.  

“What are you two doing?” Liu Ye frowned and asked.  

Zheng Jiaojiao had originally planned to kneel and submit before Liu Ye entered, to highlight Xu Xiaoyue’s aggressiveness.  

But she never expected Xu Xiaoyue to suddenly drop to her knees as well. Zheng Jiaojiao opened her mouth, about to speak, but Xu Xiaoyue beat her to it.  

“Aunt Liu, it’s nothing. Jiaojiao and I were just playing around.”  

The doctor nearby, seeing the situation, quickly tried to lighten the mood. “Director Liu, are these the two children staying at your place? Young girls are certainly more lively than folks our age, haha.”  

“Get up now. What kind of behavior is this, kneeling on the ground?”  

Xu Xiaoyue moved swiftly, dusting herself off as she stood up.  

Zheng Jiaojiao beside her wasn’t so fortunate. She had knelt down eagerly earlier, but now her foot was throbbing with a sharp, piercing pain.  

“Aunt… Auntie, I can’t get up,” she said, her eyes welling with tears.  

Just as Liu Ye was about to step forward to help her, the door of the hospital room was pushed open again.  

“Jiaojiao, Mom, what’s going on?”  

Yan Shuli had just stormed out of the hospital in anger after his argument with Xu Xiaoyue. But thinking of Jiaojiao in the room, he worried that Xu Xiaoyue might bully her again in his absence. After some hesitation, he decided to come back and check. To his surprise, he walked in on this scene.  

His furious dark eyes locked onto Xu Xiaoyue as he demanded, “Did you make Jiaojiao kneel to you?”  

Zheng Jiaojiao had initially intended to stand up, but upon seeing this, she lowered her eyes and stayed silent.  

“Yan Shuli, watch your tone.”  

Liu Ye’s face darkened. She truly didn’t want to admit that she had raised such a foolish child. The moment Zheng Jiaojiao was involved, he lost all rationality, and his IQ seemed to plummet into the negatives.  

“Mom, even now, you’re still taking her side?”  

Yan Shuli’s anger surged. He couldn’t understand what kind of spell Xu Xiaoyue had cast on his mother to bewitch her like this.  

He helped Zheng Jiaojiao up. “Let’s go. At worst, we won’t stay in this hospital anymore.”  

Liu Ye stepped forward to block them. Her eyelids twitched, her face tense. “Yan Shuli, even if you want to throw a tantrum, you’ve gone far enough.”  

“No one bullied Jiaojiao. You’d better apologize to Xiaoyue.”  

Yan Shuli laughed as if he’d heard the most ridiculous joke. His gaze turned icy as he stared at Xu Xiaoyue.  

“Apologize to her? Not unless I die.”  

Zheng Jiaojiao clutched the man’s collar. The situation had escalated far beyond what she had anticipated.  

She wasn’t stupid. If Yan Shuli continued to clash with Liu Ye, it would only further damage her image in the woman’s eyes.  

In a weak voice, Zheng Jiaojiao spoke up, “Brother Shuli, I’m fine. Don’t argue with Auntie.”  

Hearing this, Yan Shuli felt even more convinced that Zheng Jiaojiao had been wronged but was too afraid to speak up.  

He glared at Xu Xiaoyue, his tone dripping with barely suppressed rage. “I don’t care where you came from. The Yan family doesn’t welcome you.”  

Liu Ye, unable to take it any longer, snapped, “Enough! The Yan family isn’t yours to rule. If you want to leave, fine—you go.”  

“Fine. I’ll go.”  

In all his years, Yan Shuli had never been scolded like this by his mother. He grabbed Zheng Jiaojiao’s hand and said stubbornly, “Jiaojiao, let’s go.”  

Zheng Jiaojiao’s forehead was beaded with cold sweat. She didn’t even dare to meet Liu Ye’s gaze.  

If she really left with Yan Shuli today, her already poor image in Liu Ye’s mind would likely plummet even further.  

Thinking this, she stayed rooted to the spot, her expression conflicted. Hesitantly, she looked at Yan Shuli and said,  

“Shuli, actually… you misunderstood today’s situation. With Aunt Liu here, Sister Xiaoyue didn’t bully me.”

Xu Xiaoyue almost laughed out loud at the explanation—what kind of excuse was that? It might as well have been left unsaid.  

Did it mean that without Liu Ye around, she would bully Zheng Jiaojiao?  

Xu Xiaoyue glanced at Yan Shuli’s expression—it was as dark as ink.  

“Jiaojiao, you don’t have to cover for her when I’m here.”  

“If you want to leave, then hurry up and go,” Liu Ye interjected sharply.  

An eighteen- or nineteen-year-old boy was at the peak of youthful arrogance. Hearing this, Yan Shuli stormed out in a rage.  

The three of them exchanged glances, and Xu Xiaoyue was the first to break the awkward silence.  

“Aunt Liu, I’ll head back first.”  

…

Wang Jianhua had been suspecting for the past two days whether their cold-blooded regimental commander had been replaced by someone else.  

The evidence? This man kept spacing out at random moments, and no one knew what he was thinking about in broad daylight. But that icy face of his actually looked somewhat… tender?  

“Commander, are you really letting that kid stay here?” Wang Jianhua whispered, glancing at Yan Shuli, who was sitting on the steps sunbathing.  

If Yan Ye was cold and ruthless, then Yan Shuli was just a silent gourd.  

Whoever had pissed him off a few days ago had driven him straight to the military base in the middle of the night. And now, it seemed like he had settled in with no intention of leaving.  

Yan Ye set down the newspaper in his hands and glanced lazily in that direction. “Let him be.”  

As it happened, he had been planning to return to the Yan family to give the boy a stern warning—to stay away from that fiancée of his.  

But now, it seemed unnecessary.  

Yan Jianguo only found out about Yan Shuli’s “running away from home” the next day.  

Even though Liu Ye had been the one to tell him to leave, now that he was really gone, she couldn’t help but worry.  

“Old Yan, maybe you should go bring him back.”  

Yan Jianguo didn’t even lift his eyelids, replying calmly, “Shuli probably just went to Xiao Ye’s place. Don’t worry. It’s good for him to spend some time training in the military during his break anyway.”  

Yan Jianguo didn’t think it was a bad thing. He’d heard about the situation between Zheng Jiaojiao and Yan Shuli.  

The two kids were too young, living under the same roof, seeing each other day in and day out—it was inevitable that they’d develop some misguided feelings and mistake it for love. Now that they were separated, some time apart might help them see things clearly.  

Zheng Jiaojiao’s foot injury had mostly healed, and these days, she had been going to work at the supermarket with Xu Xiaoyue.  

But recently, Zheng Jiaojiao was so anxious she felt like her eyebrows were on fire.  

She and Xu Xiaoyue had already been working for over half a month. In another two weeks, it would be Mid-Autumn Festival.  

Manager Yan had specifically pulled her aside to discuss it. In terms of counter skills, Xu Xiaoyue was on par with her.  

So, Manager Yan wanted to test their planning abilities. He asked her to design the supermarket’s decorations and activities for the Mid-Autumn Festival.  

Zheng Jiaojiao barely knew how to read—how could she possibly come up with an event proposal?  

If only Yan Shuli hadn’t run away. At least he was a college student—he must know a thing or two.  

As the days passed, Zheng Jiaojiao had absolutely no ideas for the proposal.  

Her gaze drifted to Xu Xiaoyue’s desk. Lately, she often saw the woman hunched over, writing intently.