As soon as Yu Qian typed those words, the group chat fell into dead silence for a second, and then the screen was instantly flooded with messages.

【Yuyuyu: Who?】

【Gorgeous Lady: Pic or it didn’t happen!】

【My Husband is Lei Shen: Is it the upper half or the lower half?】

【Yuyuyu: ……】

【It’s Yu, Not She: ……】

Fang Yan’s focus was truly unique, making Yu Qian’s lips twitch uncontrollably. As for those demanding a picture…… she simply pretended not to see them.

【My Husband is Lei Shen: Wild guess— it’s that guy surnamed Jiang.】

Seeing Fang Yan’s message, Yu Qian was so startled she almost dropped her phone. Could it be that Jiang Zheng had already been showing signs, and she just hadn’t noticed?

【Yuyuyu: Is it really Jiang Zheng?】

【Gorgeous Lady: Did I miss something? Why does it feel like you all know?】

After some hesitation, Yu Qian decided to explain the situation to her friends in the group chat. After all, she had been single since birth, and now that love had suddenly appeared, she was feeling nervous and desperately needed strategists to analyze the situation for her.

But she had overestimated this group of singletons. After watching the chat flood with messages for ages, yet seeing no useful advice, Yu Qian sighed in disappointment. As expected of childhood friends.

In her previous life, everyone except her had had boyfriends, yet now, she was the first to face relationship troubles, and there was no one to consult.

Feeling a bit melancholic, Yu Qian exited the group chat and unconsciously opened the photo again.

“Hiss……” She suddenly felt something wet at the corner of her mouth and her face flushed red in an instant. Quickly, she shut off her phone, burrowed under the covers, and closed her eyes in self-deception. And just like that, she actually lulled herself to sleep.

────ρя

This translation is by Pocketrobbin at S h a n g h a i f a n t a s y . c o m

Meanwhile, on the other end, Jiang Zheng, who had been waiting for Yu Qian’s reply for a long time, angrily poked at her profile picture. Then, after a moment of silence, he opened the search engine.

He was still an innocent young man. He needed to learn how to flirt with a girl.

As a flood of cheesy pickup lines appeared on the screen, Jiang Zheng rubbed his chin in contemplation. Did girls really like this kind of sweet talk?

With a mindset of giving it a try— who knew, maybe Yu Qian would fall for it— he quietly typed out a message, 【In the future, I want to hold your hand and toast to the wedding guests.】

The moment he sent it, Jiang Zheng regretted it. They weren’t even dating yet and he was already thinking about marriage. Would she think he was moving too fast? Delete, delete!

【Since meeting you, I’ve been so happy. What about you?】

No, no, too sappy. Delete, delete!

【Even ten thousand stars can’t outshine you.】

Was this too much of a simp move? No way. Delete, delete!

After sending and retracting several messages in a row, Jiang Zheng furiously closed the search engine, thinking the internet was full of nonsense.

His finger hovered over WeChat for a long time before he finally settled on a simple message, 【Good night. Sweet dreams.】 My Little Fish.

────ρя


The next morning, when Yu Qian woke up and checked her phone, she saw a long string of retracted messages. Instantly, she felt an itch of curiosity. What had Jiang Zheng sent while she was asleep?

Seeing the final ‘Good night’, Yu Qian couldn’t help but smile with squinted eyes.

Alright, she had to admit that Jiang Zheng was different to her. If any other guy sent her a ‘Good night’, she’d assume he was just trying to flirt. But since it was Jiang Zheng, she found it rather sweet.

No, no, she couldn’t fall for him too quickly. Otherwise, wouldn’t it seem like she had harbored ulterior motives all along?

After washing up, Yu Qian went downstairs feeling refreshed.

Uncle Bai and her mother had already gone to work, and Bai Qiming had disappeared early in the morning. Alone, Yu Qian leisurely enjoyed her breakfast while watching Heihei and Baibai playfully wrestling.

The two dogs chased each other in a playful scuffle. But suddenly, Heihei let out a miserable yelp and lunged at Baibai in retaliation.

What had been a harmless game instantly turned into an all-out fight. Seeing the situation spiral out of control, Yu Qian quickly put down her chopsticks and ran over to separate them.

“Baibai! Heihei is the wife— I mean the little brother you personally picked! How could you bully him?”

Yu Qian scolded Baibai in exasperation, pinching its ear. But Baibai didn’t mind, instead nudging its head closer into her hand, clearly enjoying the attention.

Disgusted, Yu Qian pushed it away, patted Heihei comfortingly, and was just about to return to her breakfast when she turned to see a certain someone swaggering into the Bai family’s house.

“Little Fish, wanna come to the aquarium later?” Jiang Zheng casually sat down at the dining table, watching Yu Qian eat her breakfast.

“Nope, I just want to stay home.” Yu Qian rejected him without hesitation. She finally had a weekend to herself, so of course she was going to be a happy couch potato. What was so fun about going outside?

Hearing her refusal, Jiang Zheng frowned. Without some alone time together, how was he supposed to cultivate feelings with her?

He had even gone out of his way yesterday to get concert tickets for Lin Niannian and Bai Qiming, successfully getting rid of the two third wheels. But what was the point if the leading lady refused to show up?

Jiang Zheng insisted, “You can’t just stay cooped up at home all day. At least go outside for some fresh air.”

Yu Qian replied, “The air at home is just fine.”

Watching her determined to stay indoors, Jiang Zheng took a step back. “Fine, if you don’t want to go out, how about this— there’s a new Senling animated movie that just came out. Want to come over to my place and watch it?”

He had seen Yu Qian post about this animation on her Moments, saying she wanted to watch it. If she refused again…… well, we’d see about that.

Senling? Yu Qian hesitated, tempted.

“My house has a private theater, great for watching movies.” Jiang Zheng added, luring her in like a wolf sweet-talking Little Red Riding Hood.

Clearly, attacking her weakness worked. Jiang Zheng smugly led Yu Qian to his home’s basement.

The home theater was about forty square meters— not too big, not too small. His mother had designed it on a whim. The entire room had a gray color scheme, with several floor lamps scattered around.

Jiang Zheng turned on the lamps and the soft yellow glow created a warm, slightly ambiguous atmosphere.

He led Yu Qian to the seats and asked, “Where do you want to sit?”

The theater had two massage chairs lined up on one side and a couch on the other.

Jiang Zheng specifically brought her to the couch, his intentions obvious. Unfortunately……

“I’ll sit in the chair.” Yu Qian excitedly plopped onto the massage chair. She had never watched a movie in a seat like this before!

Jiang Zheng’s smile froze for a moment, and he took a deep breath. Fine, fine. Step by step.

He turned on the air conditioning, then, worried Yu Qian would get cold, grabbed a blanket for her. After asking the housekeeper to prepare some snacks, he adjusted the volume and got everything set up.

Once everything was in place, Jiang Zheng sat beside Yu Qian, used the remote to turn off the lights, and in an instant, the movie-watching atmosphere was set.