Seeing Gu Yan’s frighteningly dark face and his heaving chest, Yuan Lei’s lips curled ever so slightly in satisfaction.
The car drove straight toward the villa where Yuan Xihuo lived.
Only halfway there, Xiao Nanqing suddenly had the car pull over.
Gu Yan looked at Xiao Nanqing with a gloomy face.
Yuan Lei was surprised. "Third Brother, why are we stopping?"
Xiao Nanqing turned back to look at Yuan Lei. "I’ve got something to do, so I won’t go to Aunt Gu’s with you."
"Something to do? What is it?" Yuan Lei asked in confusion.
Xiao Nanqing didn’t say. "I’ll go to the villa to see you another day."
With that, Xiao Nanqing got out of the car.
"Third Brother..."
Bang—
Before Yuan Lei could finish, Xiao Nanqing slammed the car door shut.
Yuan Lei was struck dumb, staring in shock and doubt at Xiao Nanqing’s tall figure standing outside the car.
Xiao Nanqing gave Yuan Lei a look, then gestured to the driver.
The driver immediately started the car and drove on.
After driving forward for about ten minutes, Gu Yan told the driver to pull over again.
Yuan Lei watched Gu Yan nervously. "Cousin."
Ever since Nie Xiaoxing had taken a cab and left on her own, Gu Yan’s expression hadn’t looked good.
Hearing Yuan Lei call him, he only gave her a faint glance, then pushed the door open and got out, directly telling the driver to take Yuan Lei to the villa to find Yuan Xihuo.
Even more decisive than Xiao Nanqing, he simply didn’t give Yuan Lei a chance to ask anything.
...
Nie Xiaoxing suddenly coming back to the apartment actually startled Fu Ruyi.
Seeing that Fu Ruyi and Nie Fangsheng were both fine, Nie Xiaoxing didn’t say much to them. She went back to her room, took a shower, and was about to go to bed and sleep for a while.
But just as she lay down, a knock came at the door along with Fu Ruyi’s voice through the panel. "Xiao Xing, open the door."
Nie Xiaoxing lowered her eyes toward the door, her voice cool. "What is it?"
"Mm." Fu Ruyi responded.
Nie Xiaoxing got off the bed, walked barefoot to the door, and opened it.
Fu Ruyi walked in, closed the door, stood in front of Nie Xiaoxing, stared at her face for a moment, then lowered her head, picked up her bandaged hand, frowned and said softly, "I saw the injury on your hand as soon as you came back. Did you get hurt during the competition?"
"It’s nothing."
Nie Xiaoxing pulled her hand back, her attitude could only be described as cold. "If you have something to say, just say it. I’m a bit tired."
Fu Ruyi frowned helplessly, looking up at Nie Xiaoxing. "I don’t really have anything, I just saw you were hurt and couldn’t stop worrying, so I came in to ask."
"I’m fine," Nie Xiaoxing said.
Looking at her indifferent face, Fu Ruyi’s heart ached sourly, yet it was also full of helplessness and powerlessness. She could only draw a breath and sigh, "Go sleep then. Later your dad and I will go to the supermarket for a bit, buy a chicken back to make some soup for you to build you up."
Nie Xiaoxing didn’t say anything.
Fu Ruyi’s face dimmed. She turned and walked out of the room, looking lonely.
Nie Xiaoxing then closed the door, went back to the bed, lay down, and fell asleep.
She had no idea how long had passed.
In a daze, Nie Xiaoxing heard the sound of the door handle turning.
Her breathing grew a little heavier, but she didn’t wake up.
Maybe she thought she was dreaming.
...
Nie Xiaoxing slept for two hours.
When she woke up, Fu Ruyi had almost finished preparing dinner.
Sitting up in bed, Nie Xiaoxing blinked sleepily around the room, reached up to scratch her hair, then got out of bed and went to the bathroom to splash water on her face.
When she came out of the bathroom, she saw Fu Ruyi standing in the room.
Nie Xiaoxing froze.
She remembered that she’d locked the door from the inside before sleeping.
How did she get in?
Or else...
Nie Xiaoxing glanced suspiciously at the door. Had she remembered wrong and actually not locked it?
"Xiao Xing, dinner’s ready. Come out and eat."
Seeing Nie Xiaoxing come out of the bathroom, Fu Ruyi looked at her and smiled kindly.
Nie Xiaoxing blinked and nodded.
Fu Ruyi smiled with crinkling eyes, clasped her hands, and turned to go out.
Thinking it was just Fu Ruyi and Nie Fangsheng at home, Nie Xiaoxing went out in her pajamas.
The kitchen and dining room in the apartment were connected.
To get to the dining room, Nie Xiaoxing naturally had to pass by the kitchen.
And as she walked past the kitchen, she saw an extremely bizarre scene...
Nie Xiaoxing froze at the kitchen doorway as if someone had cast a spell on her, her big bright eyes going wide, staring straight into the kitchen at a certain Young Master, standing there in a floral apron with lace trim, wearing oven mitts, holding a ceramic soup pot...
That Young Master also saw Nie Xiaoxing at this moment.
Their eyes met, both of them equally stunned and...awkward!
What the hell, was this some kind of ghost sighting?!
Nie Xiaoxing stared at Gu Yan in utter disbelief.
Gu Yan was extremely unnatural; even the first words out of his mouth were full of undisguisable awkwardness. "The apron is, is Aunt Fu’s. I, I originally wanted a plain one, but, but she didn’t have any..."
Heh.
Nie Xiaoxing turned around and left.
Gu Yan pressed his thin lips tight and silently closed his eyes, looking more than a little "heartbroken"!
...
Dining room.
Dead silence!
Nie Xiaoxing, Fu Ruyi, and Nie Fangsheng stared unblinkingly at the dishes on the table.
Nice, huh!
You couldn’t tell what any of the raw ingredients were!
If you had to name one ingredient, it would probably be charcoal!
Honestly.
To make every single dish look like the same dish... only someone like Gu Yan could pull that off!
Gu Yan stared blankly at the three of them. "Well, yeah, the presentation is a bit tragic, but it should taste fine. Aren’t you going to try it?"
"I’m afraid of getting poisoned!" Nie Xiaoxing said bluntly.
Gu Yan: =_=
Fu Ruyi’s lip twitched.
Maybe afraid of hurting Gu Yan’s feelings, Fu Ruyi forced herself to pick up her chopsticks and grab a bit of "charcoal," like she was forcing herself to swallow poison, and with great difficulty put the food into her mouth.
Nie Xiaoxing and the others all stared at Fu Ruyi, their eyes full of "anticipation"!
Fu Ruyi really, really didn’t want to hurt Gu Yan’s self‑esteem.
She held it, and held it, but in the end she couldn’t. She suddenly stood up from her seat and rushed to the bathroom.
Then.
The atmosphere subtly shifted again.
Nie Fangsheng might usually seem slow on the uptake, but this time he was quick. He also stood up and said to Nie Xiaoxing, "I, I’ll go check on your... mom."
Nie Xiaoxing glanced at Gu Yan.
Sure enough, Gu Yan’s face was full of defeat.
Nie Xiaoxing pressed her lips together and swept another look over the dishes on the table. She’d originally planned to force down a bite to comfort him a little.
But the moment that thought appeared in her head, an intense feeling of "I must’ve done something terrible in a past life" surged up!
So... forget it!
She straightened slightly in her seat.
Nie Xiaoxing took a light breath, looked at Gu Yan, and said seriously, "This is your first time trying to cook, right?"
Gu Yan slanted her a look, so annoyed he didn’t even want to respond.
"...For a first time, this is already pretty good!" Nie Xiaoxing said, going against her conscience.
Gu Yan snorted, yanked the apron off his neck and flung it aside. He gave Nie Xiaoxing a gloomy look. "Go on then, tell me—what’s ’pretty good’ about it?"
Uh...
Nie Xiaoxing pressed her lower lip, bowed her head and carefully stared at the dishes for a long while, then raised her head and answered Gu Yan just as seriously, "At least they’re cooked, right?"
Gu Yan didn’t say a word. He stood up and headed out. "Aunt Fu, Uncle Nie, I’ve got things to do, I’ll get going."
Fu Ruyi and Nie Fangsheng, just coming out of the bathroom, didn’t dare try to keep him!
Keep him for what?
To make them force themselves to eat it bite by bite in front of him, or to dump it straight into the trash?
The former would be doing themselves dirty, the latter would hurt Young Master’s pride too much. Either way, they were stuck!
Nie Xiaoxing watched Gu Yan leave and didn’t go after him.
She turned back and stared blankly at the table full of dishes.
"You’d just fallen asleep when Xiao Yan came over."
Fu Ruyi walked over, sat down, and looked at Nie Xiaoxing as she spoke.
Nie Xiaoxing froze.
"I can see Xiao Yan really cares about you. Such a pampered young master, and he’s willing to step into the kitchen for you—that says plenty." Fu Ruyi said.
Nie Xiaoxing fixed her eyes on Fu Ruyi. "What are you trying to say?"
Fu Ruyi shook her head.
Nie Xiaoxing pressed her lips tight and sat there for a bit, then said, "This meal is a lost cause. You and Dad should go out and get something to eat."
"What about you?" Fu Ruyi asked.
Nie Xiaoxing paused. "I’m going out too... to see Mu Yan."
Fu Ruyi didn’t say anything.
After clearing the table, Fu Ruyi went out to eat with Nie Fangsheng.
Right after Fu Ruyi and Nie Fangsheng left, Nie Xiaoxing, now all dressed, emerged from her room and headed out as well.
...
Walking out of the apartment building, Nie Xiaoxing stood by the road trying to hail a cab.
She didn’t know if it was just bad timing, but after ages, she still hadn’t managed to flag down a single car.
Nie Xiaoxing thought maybe even the heavens were helping her save money.
So she decided to go take the subway.
But just as she turned to head in the direction of the station, a flashy limited‑edition Aston Martin suddenly slid to a stop right in front of her.
Nie Xiaoxing stopped, stunned..
...