“Huh?”
For a moment, Chu Yuan thought she was just imagining things.
Sister Yan just said she looked at my friends’ circle (Moments)!
So it wasn’t just a one-sided unrequited crush after all. Sister Yan actually had a bit of interest in her too! Otherwise, why would she bother looking through her Moments?
Chu Yuan felt as if she had suddenly been struck by a massive, pleasant surprise. Her mood was instantly more ecstatic than if she had won a mega lottery.
She tilted her head, her beautiful eyes brimming with a touch of mischief. The secret joy in her heart was so palpable that she could barely contain it from spilling right out. “Sister Yan, you actually looked at my Moments?”
Yan Dai could feel the delight in Chu Yuan’s voice, though she couldn’t quite understand why the girl had suddenly become so incredibly excited.
Could anyone really be this happy just because she mentioned glancing at her social media?
Sometimes, she really found it hard to understand girls of the younger generation.
“Yes.” Yan Dai’s voice naturally leaned toward the cooler, more detached side, but right now, it carried a hint of gentleness. “I browsed through it for a little while last night.”
Checking someone’s Moments was just a trivial matter, not something that required hiding. So, she simply stated it plainly.
However, when these words reached Chu Yuan’s ears, they instantly transformed into concrete evidence that Yan Dai cared about her and liked her.
One couldn’t really blame Chu Yuan for overthinking.
After all, that was exactly what it was like to like someone. It was just like having a schoolgirl crush, even passing by them in a random corner of the campus would make you wonder if it was a fated arrangement by heaven. Or if you happened to wear the same color clothes as your crush one day, you’d feel like the luckiest person alive…
In short, once you fell for someone, you just couldn’t stop your mind from running wild.
Chu Yuan suppressed a grin, but the mirth still managed to slip out through her eyes. “Sister, so you were secretly paying attention to me last night.”
Yan Dai remained silent, merely lowering her head to take a sip of water.
Did that count as paying attention to her? It felt more like she was just bored and casually took a couple of glances.
Still, if Chu Yuan said it counted, then so be it.
After a moment of deliberate silence, Yan Dai nodded. “Yes.”
The dishes were gradually being served. Setting the table took a bit of time, which happened to give the two of them a chance to keep chatting.
Chu Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly and asked, “Then doesn’t that mean Sister knows my hobbies pretty well by now?”
Since Yan Dai could figure out what food she liked from her Moments, she surely could have learned a few other things too.
Yan Dai replied, “More or less.”
With someone like Chu Yuan, who had such a strong desire to share her life, one could indeed learn a lot about her just by looking at her Moments.
Chu Yuan crossed her arms. “Then why did Sister ask me earlier if I had a driver’s license?”
She followed it up with a joke, “Was Sister Yan teasing me on purpose?”
She had posted some photos of herself racing cars on her Moments, though that was quite a long time ago.
When playing around with racing, getting injured accidentally was a very common occurrence. No matter how cautious one was, there would always be times when an accident slipped through.
Chu Yuan had been in a minor car accident back then. Fortunately, it hadn’t threatened her life, but her right leg had been fractured, forcing her to lie in a hospital bed for a full two months before recovering.
When Liang Mi first heard the news back then, she had nearly fainted from pure heartache.
And right after the surgery was completed, Chu Mingshuang had directly confiscated her car keys.
It was only recently, after she had finally graduated from university, that they finally allowed her back on the road.
Even so, there were still quite a few photos of her past racing days left on her Moments. If Sister Yan had looked through them, she ought to know that Chu Yuan knew how to drive.
Yan Dai said, “I just found it a bit surprising.”
“Huh?”
Yan Dai explained, “I just never pictured you participating in that kind of extreme sport.”
Chu Yuan’s appearance was indeed very deceptive. She had a sweet, adorable face, and no one would ever associate her with that kind of extreme sport.
People always say not to hold stereotypes about others, but sometimes it was simply uncontrollable.
Still, it was quite a charming contrast.
Chu Yuan took Yan Dai’s words as a compliment and took the opportunity to praise herself a little. “I was actually super handsome when I was out on the racing track.”
Back then, whenever she stepped onto the track, the crowd below would be filled with a bunch of passionate fangirls cheering wildly for her, all wanting to add her on WeChat. As long as she was on the track, her WeChat would basically explode with friend requests.
She had never rejected any of them; whenever a girl came up to add her, she would basically agree. After all, they didn’t have to become a couple, making a good friend was perfectly fine too.
Besides, who could possibly refuse a request from a girl?
One of her current die-hard best friends, Xue Qinghuan, had also been met during that time. Though back then, Xue Qinghuan was also one of the racing competitors.
It was only because of that accidental crash that left a lingering shadow on her, combined with the intervention from Liang Mi and Chu Mingshuang, that she eventually retired from racing altogether.
Even so, Chu Yuan still let out a casual boast. “I’ll take you out for a spin sometime if you’re free~”
In reality, it would at most be driving normally on the regular roads, she wouldn’t actually step onto a racing track again.
“Heh…” Yan Dai couldn’t help but lower her head and let out a soft laugh.
She rarely had moments where she felt this cheerful lately. Especially with how busy work had been before, running around constantly, her mood would inevitably turn irritable.
But after meeting Chu Yuan, her spirits had improved significantly.
Perhaps she was somewhat infected by the livelihood radiating from Chu Yuan, or perhaps she found the girl’s smug, cocky little attitude quite amusing in a endearing way. Of course, she meant that in a thoroughly positive sense.
Chu Yuan was caught off guard and struck by Yan Dai’s beauty all over again.
How can someone look so breathtaking when they laugh?
Every single frown and smile was so utterly captivating. Was it just because she liked Sister Yan that every single move looked like it had a filter applied to it?
But Chu Yuan preferred to believe that Sister Yan was just naturally that beautiful of a person, completely independent of whether she liked her or not.
Chu Yuan was never one who could hide her thoughts. Staring and staring at Yan Dai, she couldn’t resist letting her inner thoughts slip right out of her mouth. “Sister, you look so beautiful when you smile.”
Chu Yuan had grown up in an environment overflowing with love since childhood. Her Mother and Mommy would always express their affection and indulgence very directly, never holding back on praises and affirmation.
Consequently, Chu Yuan had developed her current lively, cheerful, confident, and straightforward personality.
To her, liking someone meant liking them, and not liking someone meant not liking them. Since she thought Sister Yan was beautiful, she was going to say it out loud. Even if she tried to hold it in, she wouldn’t be able to.
Besides, the fact that Sister Yan was beautiful was an absolute truth to begin with.
Yan Dai, however, always felt a bit at a loss whenever she faced compliments from others. Whether a person was beautiful or not was usually a highly subjective matter. But Yan Dai’s looks were undeniably the kind that perfectly aligned with mainstream aesthetics.
She was simply gorgeous.
Yet throughout Yan Dai’s upbringing, she had rarely been praised. Facing Chu Yuan’s incredibly direct offensive, she found herself momentarily at a loss for words.
Fortunately, all the dishes had been served by now. Taking advantage of the timing, Yan Dai smoothly shifted the topic, pointing at the dish placed right in the center. “The roast squab you like.”
This was also where Yan Dai differed from Chu Yuan.
If the person being praised right now were Chu Yuan, she would definitely say something incredibly smug like, “Of course, when has this Little Yuan ever not been beautiful?” or playfully fire back with, “Then am I the number one most beautiful person in your heart?”
She wouldn’t be like Yan Dai, whose first instinct was to immediately deflect the subject.
Luckily, Chu Yuan wasn’t the type to overthink things. The moment Yan Dai shifted the topic, her attention immediately darted right along with it, landing straight onto the roast squab.
If she hadn’t been mindful that the person sitting right in front of her was her ideal woman, she probably would have abandoned all restraint and started feasting heartily by now. But because Yan Dai was here, she forced herself to act a bit more ladylike.
In reality, she wasn’t actually all that ladylike, considering more than half of the roast squab ultimately ended up in her stomach.
There was no helping it, it was simply too delicious.
Halfway through the meal, Chu Yuan began bringing up the main business. “Can we talk about the marriage?”
Yan Dai replied, “Sure.”
The reason she had pushed aside her company meetings just to come out and meet Chu Yuan was because she knew this marriage topic would come up. After all, they currently shared an engagement. Their two families had already met once, and their very first meeting was to establish the arrangement between them.
So for this meeting, Yan Dai felt that the primary thing they could discuss was indeed the topic of “marriage.”
Chu Yuan said, “Regarding the marriage, I have a lot of things I want to say.”
There were way too many things she wanted to talk about. For instance, when they held the wedding, should they go with a traditional Chinese style or a Western style? What kind of wedding candies should they pick? Where should they go for their honeymoon after the wedding…?
As for her bridal party, she absolutely had to invite all of her best friends.
In short, there were too many thoughts; she couldn’t possibly finish listing them all in a single moment. But just thinking about it made her feel like she was going to die of happiness.
Yan Dai nodded, showing her understanding. “Me too.”
In her view, it was indeed necessary for the two parties to clear up certain matters before officially getting married.
Chu Yuan politely offered, “Then Sister, you go first.”
Maybe the things Sister wants to say are pretty much the same as mine~ After all, aren’t wedding topics always about those few things? If Sister Yan had any specific ideas regarding the wedding or the process, she would happily defer to her arrangements.
“Alright.” Yan Dai didn’t drag her feet either. Since Chu Yuan had brought it up, it was better to lay everything out clearly.
With that, she lowered her head and drew a document out from her bag.
Chu Yuan, who was currently eating her post-dinner dessert, watched with wide eyes as Yan Dai slid a document over to her. She didn’t even react in time.
Still, she obediently set down her dessert and picked up the document.
When she lowered her eyes to look at it, four large words immediately filled her vision.
PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENT.
Chu Yuan was completely stunned, her entire body freezing up. Right at that moment, Yan Dai’s naturally cool voice echoed beside her ear.
“I know ours is a business marriage, and there is no affection between us…”
Chu Yuan didn’t even hear the rest. Her heart felt as though someone had suddenly clamped down on it with a vicious grip, bringing an intense, sharp ache.
For a moment, she couldn’t quite believe her own ears. She squeezed out four words with great difficulty. “No… affection… between… us?”
No affection.
At first, Chu Yuan thought she was experiencing an auditory hallucination, that she had accidentally misheard.
But those words landed with absolute clarity into her ears. No matter what, she could no longer find a way to deceive herself.
Yan Dai had truly said it.
Chu Yuan stared blankly at the prenuptial agreement in her hands. Every single cold, printed word on it seemed to be mocking her for being sentimental, reminding her that she and Yan Dai shared no close bond whatsoever. They were sitting here right now purely because of a family alliance.
They weren’t in a relationship born of free will.
They weren’t out on a date right now either.
This was more like a negotiation where they sat down together because their identities were bound together.
The pink bubbles that had been floating between the two of them instantly shattered into nothingness.
But does Sister Yan truly not hold even a fraction of affection toward me?
Can she really bring herself to marry just anyone? Even if she doesn’t have a single drop of feeling for the other person, she’d still be willing?
If the person the Yan family wanted to arrange a marriage with wasn’t her, Chu Yuan, but rather some other wealthy socialite daughter from a corporation in the capital, would Yan Dai still agree just the same?
Agreeing to marry her.
Agreeing to let her pick her up from the airport today.
Agreeing to accompany her to dinner at this romantic restaurant.
As it turned out, Yan Dai showing up to this appointment and eating with her wasn’t anything exclusive to Chu Yuan at all.
The moment those possibilities crossed her mind, Chu Yuan felt as if she couldn’t take it anymore.
Although Chu Yuan maintained her posture of looking down at the prenuptial agreement, she couldn’t seem to process a single word written on it. Her entire brain had completely turned into a chaotic mess.
Meanwhile, Yan Dai hadn’t noticed anything amiss with Chu Yuan at all. She simply continued on her own, speaking in a matter of fact tone. “Since this is a commercial alliance, you don’t need to carry too much of a burden, nor do you have to deliberately try to foster a good relationship with me. After marriage, I won’t cause any trouble for you, and I will do my best to fulfill the role of a wife.”
Chu Yuan didn’t utter a single word, mechanically flipping through the pages of the agreement as she listened to Yan Dai continue.
Yan Dai took a sip of water. “After marriage, I won’t overly disrupt your personal life. You are free to do whatever you want. However, I also have one request: do not interfere too much with my private life. I require some personal space. What do you think?”
Her tone remained calm and gentle from start to finish, yet every word she spoke carried an intrinsic chill.
It was as if she was deliberately creating a distance between them.
To put it another way, she was explicitly drawing a clear line between herself and Chu Yuan.