The young man stood tall and straight, dressed in the most fashionable floral shirt and bell-bottom jeans of the time. The top two buttons of his collar were undone, revealing a slender neck and collarbone, with a hint of well-defined pectoral muscles subtly visible. His broad shoulders and narrow waist created an exceptionally striking head-to-shoulder ratio.

He was undeniably handsome and stylish, but Song Shixi still felt that military green suits were more fitting for him.

This outfit was a bit too flashy, like a peacock flaunting its feathers.

Song Shixi’s lips twitched slightly as she raised her wrist to check her watch. There were still over ten minutes until the agreed-upon time. She hadn’t expected him, despite his carefree appearance, to be quite punctual—even arriving early.

This improved her impression of him considerably. Just as she was about to approach him, Gao Xunian noticed her. Waving enthusiastically, he walked toward her with a smile and called out, “Comrade Song!”

When he smiled, the small mole on his right cheek lifted along with the curve of his lips, radiating warmth and brightness.

“Comrade Gao.” Seeing him so polite and courteous, Song Shixi reciprocated with a greeting.

Gao Xunian was tall and took large strides, closing the distance between them in just a few seconds. His light brown eyes sparkled as they fixed intently on her fair, delicate face.

Still so beautiful—even more so than yesterday!

He was about to say something when his gaze fell on Wu Qiu-hong standing beside Song Shixi. His brows furrowed abruptly. “And this is…?”

“My friend.”

Eager to resolve the matter of the Walkman, Song Shixi offered only a brief introduction before getting straight to the point. “Let’s go. Turn right here, and there’s a repair shop about five hundred meters ahead. We can check it out there.”

With that, she linked arms with Wu Qiu-hong and led the way forward.

Seeing this, Gao Xunian took a deep breath, experiencing for the first time what it felt like to be “a dumb person tasting bitter herbs”—unable to speak of his bitterness.

He had originally thought today would be just the two of them, a disguised date of sorts. He had been excited all night and even woke up early to meticulously groom himself.

But now, all his plans had gone up in smoke.

Watching the two chatting and laughing ahead, Gao Xunian gritted his teeth. Unable to bear wasting this opportunity, he quickened his pace to catch up, walking alongside them. With a smile, he initiated conversation, “Are you two classmates?”

Song Shixi and Wu Qiu-hong nodded in succession.

“What’s your major?”

Gao Xunian pressed on, hoping to gather more useful information. Unfortunately, the two seemed to have conspired beforehand—their lips were tighter than a turtle’s shell, and he couldn’t pry anything out of them.

Left with no choice, Gao Xunian switched tactics and began introducing himself.

Only then did they learn that Gao Xunian was a native of Beijing, born and raised. His father worked at a government unit, his mother ran a restaurant, and his older brother was in the clothing business. His family was well-off, and he himself had always excelled academically, with no bad habits. In his free time, he enjoyed running, playing basketball with friends, listening to music, hiking…

At first, Song Shixi and Wu Qiu-hong listened with interest, but as he went on, they began to sense something off. His self-introduction sounded increasingly like a vendor boasting about their own goods—he might as well have laid out his entire family history.

If they hadn’t known the purpose of this trip was to repair the Walkman, they would have thought they were here for a matchmaking session.

Song Shixi hurriedly interrupted him, and only then did Gao Xunian drop the topic. He shifted to discussing Beijing’s various scenic spots and local delicacies. Upon learning that neither of them had yet visited the Great Wall, he kindly suggested that if the opportunity arose, they could go together—he, as a local, would gladly serve as their free tour guide.

Song Shixi and Wu Qiu-hong neither agreed nor refused, glossing over the topic with vague responses.

After all, they wouldn’t see each other again after today. What was the point of exchanging pleasantries? It would only be a waste of breath.

This was the first time Gao Xunian had encountered such unyielding female comrades. His confidence took a hit, and though he continued to try steering the conversation, his efforts were noticeably less enthusiastic than before.

By the time they reached the repair shop Song Shixi had mentioned, the trio fell completely silent, waiting for the technician’s inspection results. Fortunately, the Walkman wasn’t badly damaged—only some paint had been scratched off the body. A touch-up would suffice, and it wouldn’t cost much.

It was only then that the heavy weight in Song Shixi’s heart finally lifted.

“There’s no need to repaint this scratch,” Gao Xunian declared with a wave of his hand, taking the Walkman back from the repair technician.

He had never intended to make her pay for it in the first place; he had only said so yesterday as an excuse to get closer to her. Now that his goal was achieved, he certainly wouldn’t let her cover the repair cost.

Besides, what kind of man would let a girl spend money on him?

Hearing this, Song Shixi was taken aback. “That won’t do,” she insisted.

But Gao Xunian stood firm. Since the owner of the Walkman had made his position clear, Song Shixi had no choice but to relent. Instead, she said, “Then let me reimburse you for the transportation fee.”

This had been agreed upon yesterday.

“I—”

Before he could respond, Song Shixi stuffed the yuan she had prepared earlier into his hand. “Take it. Consider us even now.”

Even? Gao Xunian felt like the yuan was a hot potato, but seeing the earnest gleam in her eyes, he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue. Raising an eyebrow, he said, “Alright. Since we’re fated to meet, how about we become friends?”

After their earlier interaction, Song Shixi also found Gao Xunian somewhat interesting, so she didn’t refuse.

Gao Xunian knew when to stop while he was ahead. He escorted them to the school gate before taking his leave.

“Looks like we worried for nothing,” Wu Qiu-hong shrugged. None of the bad scenarios they had imagined had come to pass. On the contrary, they’d gotten a free bottle of soda and made a new friend.

Hearing this, Song Shixi also smiled. “True, but it’s always better to be cautious. You can never be too careful when dealing with people or situations.”

Wu Qiu-hong agreed wholeheartedly and nodded in approval. After chatting for a while longer and seeing that there was still time, Song Shixi decided to set up a stall on Back Street to see if she could sell the few remaining pieces of clothing.

For several days in a row, Song Shixi busied herself with selling the clothes. Fortunately, the results were quite good, and soon only one or two items were left. When Deng Cuixia showed interest, Song Shixi bundled them together and sold them to her at a discount, as a way of thanking her for helping find a rental house during this time.

Additionally, Song Shixi specially set aside a dress that suited Wu Qiu-hong and a matching hair clip. Wu Qiu-hong had helped her a lot during this period, and Song Shixi kept these kindnesses in mind.

Worried that Wu Qiu-hong might feel awkward accepting the gifts and insist she keep them for sale, Song Shixi waited until everything was settled before giving them to her.

At first, Wu Qiu-hong absolutely refused to accept them, but Song Shixi used all her persuasive skills to finally convince her.

With everything settled, the wonderful weekend arrived.

Early in the morning, Zheng Huilan was busy preparing to return to the Zheng family. In between, she found a moment to give Song Shixi her allowance for May and offered a few symbolic words of advice, reminding her to be careful while home alone. Then, she and Qin Boyuan left with Qin Zhiyi.

Song Shixi stood at the doorway, watching until the taillights of the car disappeared from view. Then, her face lit up with excitement as she opened the envelope containing the money. After counting the amount inside, she couldn’t help but click her tongue in astonishment.

The money she had worked so hard to earn selling dresses over so many days was actually less than the pocket money the Qin family casually gave her. It was truly frustrating how some people had it so much easier.

After silently grumbling to herself for a few moments, Song Shixi put the money away and turned back into the house.

They wouldn’t be back until Monday. As the saying goes, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” For the next two days, this little Western-style house was her kingdom!

Thinking of this, Song Shixi couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smile. She casually tied up her hair, sent Aunt Yang home, and then headed into the kitchen. She found the ingredients she needed from the fridge and cabinets and prepared to make herself a beautifying, skin-nourishing dinner.

Since arriving in this world, she hadn’t done any cooking. At first, she was a bit rusty, but she soon got the hang of it again.

When the Qin family was home, she hadn’t felt comfortable experimenting like this because it was troublesome to prepare. Making just a single portion was annoying enough, let alone cooking for the whole family.

Even though the Qin family might not necessarily want to eat her cooking, what would it say about her if she ate alone?

So, she had simply put aside her desire to cook.

This was the difficulty of living under someone else’s roof. If she were in her own home, she could do as she pleased without considering others, focusing only on her own happiness.

She really wanted to move out quickly, but finding a rental wasn’t that simple. She had already looked at over a dozen places and wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Either there was a problem with the house or with the landlord—she hadn’t found one that met both criteria.

They say you get what you pay for. Now that she had the money from selling clothes and the allowance from the Qin family, Song Shixi decided to increase her budget. She could compromise on anything except her living situation.

First, for safety, and second, for peace of mind.

But this also meant her expenses would increase. She needed more money. Setting aside the monthly allowance from the Qin family, she needed a stable source of income herself. Otherwise, if the Qin family ever cut her off, she’d end up homeless.

After all, the ambiguous relationship between the original host and Li Yanxing was a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment. She needed to leave herself a way out.

Setting up a stall to earn money wasn’t bad—the profits were decent—but it was too exhausting. Just carrying two suitcases around for the past half-month had nearly worn out her arms, and that was with Wu Qiu-hong helping her a lot. She didn’t even dare imagine how hard it would be if she were alone.

Moreover, during this time, she had spent almost all her free time on setting up stalls and earning money, leaving no time to digest what she learned in class. If this continued, she’d likely end up failing her finals like the original host.

If only there were a job that only required working on weekends.

Song Shixi sighed, temporarily pushing these thoughts aside and focusing her attention on the ingredients in front of her.

She simmered snow fungus, red dates, and longan in water until the mixture thickened, then added goji berries and milk, stirring until well combined. Finally, she sprinkled a few rose petals on top. The result was a soft, sweet, and glutinous dessert that moistened the lungs and nourished the skin.

Next, she mashed taro and purple sweet potatoes into a paste, added an appropriate amount of flour, and kneaded it into a dough. After steaming it for thirty minutes, a delicious, non-greasy little dessert was ready. Low in calories, she could eat more of it at night without worrying about gaining weight.

Song Shixi loved purple sweet potatoes, so she added extra. She even used the dough to shape little noses and eyes, arranging the adorable purple dumplings neatly on a plate.

She was about to try one when she suddenly remembered a small jar of osmanthus honey she had bought on Back Street yesterday, which was still upstairs in her room. It would probably taste great added to the snow fungus soup, so she headed upstairs to get it.

But when she returned, more than half of the plate of charming purple dumplings had disappeared.

The culprit was now poised to dig into her small bowl of snow fungus soup. Song Shixi’s eyes widened in shock. This was the fruit of her labor after one or two hours of work! Even if the King of Heaven himself showed up today, she wasn’t going to let it go.

She immediately lunged forward to snatch it back.

But the other party reacted even faster than she did. Before Song Shixi knew what was happening, she felt the world spin around her. By the time she regained her senses, she was already pinned down on the dining table.

Her chest slammed against the solid wooden table, sending a sharp pain through her that made her gasp. Then, her hands were twisted and pinned behind her back, and her legs were forced apart as the man’s lean waist pressed in between them. His knee and calf firmly pressed down on her legs, like a thousand-pound weight, rendering her completely immobile.

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes almost instantly.

Half from the pain, and half from sheer embarrassment.

What kind of absurd position was this!