Xu Jiarang’s expression stiffened.
The two had grown up together, and Jiang Li had never shown him the arrogant, cold personality she displayed to the outside world.
“What… what are you talking about?”
“Are you Er Duolong?” Jiang Li pointed at the small cake. “This side was crushed by your pig-hoof of a hand. You broke someone else’s things; don’t you need to pay for them?”
Her voice was quite loud, attracting several members of the badminton team.
“Captain Xu, what’s going on?”
“It’s nothing, just a young girl having a little disagreement,” Xu Jiarang explained to his teammates.
The man had a refined and scholarly appearance, his tone of voice like spring sunshine, and a gentle smile always lingered in his eyes.
Others called him a gentleman.
But only Jiang Li knew that when they were alone, Xu Jiarang was a smiling tiger who would shed that protective layer of warmth.
The man pursed his lips, his tone sincere. “I’m sorry. If you’re angry because I didn’t invite you to dinner when my mother returned to the country last time, then I apologize to you.”
“Fine, I accept.”
Jiang Li pointed at the small cake again. “Now, can you pay for it?”
She had made Ji Chengyu run across half the city to have a master pastry chef specially make these small cakes; why should she let him ruin them like this?
“Five hundred.”
She thrust the QR code toward him quite brazenly.
Because of the previous incident, Lu Zheng’s impression of Jiang Li had changed.
She actually dared to snap at Xu Jiarang this time?
However, he didn’t mind adding fuel to the fire.
“Why are you throwing a spoiled brat tantrum? It was just one meal! Are you really that greedy? Or are you just desperate to marry into the Xu family and making up excuses to get close!”
Xu Jiarang glanced at Lu Zheng, signaling him to stop.
He was always so considerate.
He was terrified that his teammate would provoke Jiang Li, leading the young miss to target them.
“Brother Lintian said you failed your physical test and was worried you’d be in a bad mood, so he asked me to come check on you. Lu Zheng doesn’t know the full story; he didn’t mean anything by it.”
Xu Jiarang’s gentle and considerate demeanor was a complete contrast to his attitude from a moment ago.
Jiang Li felt like vomiting from disgust.
How could she not see in her past life that this man was such a fake?
Speaking of which, she and Xu Jiarang were only betrothed halfway.
The marriage contract between the Jiang and Xu families had been settled by their grandfathers’ generation, but the granddaughter-in-law the old man had chosen was Jiang Li’s twin sister, Jiang Qi, not the rebellious Jiang Li.
Jiang Qi had congenital heart disease and had been frail since childhood. She always felt that her existence in the world was a burden, but Xu Jiarang never treated her as a nuisance.
Her sister said they always had endless things to talk about, and that Xu Jiarang’s kindness toward her was never superficial.
Becoming Xu Jiarang’s bride was Jiang Qi’s greatest wish.
If not for the accident ten years ago, Jiang Li would never have agreed to be the substitute for this marriage.
Because Xu Jiarang loved badminton, Jiang Li had urged Jiang Lintian to use every resource available to support him and help him get into the national team as soon as possible.
But when the Jiang family went bankrupt, Xu Jiarang heartlessly pushed her into a man-eating abyss.
The moment she was sent onto a capitalist’s bed, Jiang Li’s throat felt as if it were filled with gravel from panic; she wanted to scream for help but couldn’t make a sound.
If not for Shen Muran, her previous life would have been completely destroyed.
Thinking of everything that had happened, Jiang Li felt a whirlwind of emotions.
“Stop being narcissistic. I didn’t want your help.”
“Also, my brother is very busy. I don’t think he would proactively ask you to help me pass my physical test, so stop harassing him for no reason.”
The Xu family had built their fortune on a sports brand; they were a small enterprise with big ambitions, but their actual strength lacked staying power.
To maintain close collaborations with major sports stars and build their brand name in the market through celebrity endorsements, they had to cling tightly to the great tree that was the Jiang family.
The Xu family was a clan that prioritized profit above all else.
Choosing the frail Jiang Qi in the beginning was perhaps because she seemed easier to control.
Otherwise, Jiang Li truly couldn’t imagine why Xu Jiarang could so decisively cut off their past affection and heartlessly trade her for his own future.
Now that she truly saw through Xu Jiarang, she didn’t want such a person to have contact with her brother.
Lu Zheng clicked his tongue. “How can you talk like that? It’s because you’re such a handful that your brother asked Captain Xu to look after you.”
“Oh, then there’s no need to trouble him in the future.” Jiang Li didn’t want to look at his arrogant face. She glanced toward the entrance of the sports academy and then checked the time on her phone.
It was already 3:10 PM. Why hadn’t Shen Muran finished class yet?
For the overtime, she would definitely make him make it up to her.
Jiang Li picked up the small cake and walked past Xu Jiarang. For a moment, the man felt an inexplicable sense of panic.
There were many males in the Xu family, and he was just an unremarkable one.
Dominating the badminton world had given him a rare amount of attention from his father.
Although Xu Jiarang had joined the provincial team early, he had been stuck at a bottleneck for five years. He spent training fees like water, but his strength didn’t increase, and he was still far from the requirements to join the national team.
Clinging to the Jiang family was his only advantage in his father’s eyes.
“A-Li, if you can’t grasp the key points of running, I can spare an hour after the badminton team’s training to help you practice.”
Xu Jiarang grabbed Jiang Li’s wrist, speaking softly with an extremely gentle smile on his face, tolerating all of Jiang Li’s impatience and bad temper.
Those puppy-dog eyes gazed at her affectionately.
In the eyes of outsiders, although the Xu family wasn’t as rich as the Jiang family, Jiang Li was incredibly lucky to have a top-tier man like Xu Jiarang.
After a 3,000-meter endurance run and ten sets of pull-ups, there wasn’t a single dry spot on Shen Muran’s clothes.
He stood by the water dispenser, gulping down several cups of water, while the gossip from the cafe continued to drift into his ears.
The fact that Jiang Li had a fiancé had been dug up by classmates as dinner-time gossip when she first entered university in her freshman year.
At that time, the girl was beautiful with an outstanding temperament. On her first day of registration at school, she wore a blue long dress, standing out vividly in the crowd.
The second he brushed past her outside the music building, Shen Muran almost forgot to breathe.
Jiang Li was still the same as in his memories, but she didn’t remember him.
Indeed, a vibrant girl without worries was a perfect match for a golden boy like Xu Jiarang.
A perfect couple in both talent and beauty.
He looked toward the cafe again. Today’s sunlight was a bit piercing, making his eyes feel slightly stinging.
“Help me practice?”
Jiang Li’s expression was flat, and she rejected Xu Jiarang’s proposal without hesitation. “If there’s something wrong with your ears, you can go to the infirmary. I never said from beginning to end that I wanted you to help me practice anything.”
She pulled her hand away, her gaze clear. “I have my own sports assistant; there’s no need to trouble you.”
“I cannot take responsibility if I waste your precious training time.”
Hengtian currently had several commercial projects tied up with the Xu family; now was not the right time to have a falling out with Xu Jiarang.
Furthermore, that engagement was a nuisance; it wasn’t something that could be dissolved immediately just by saying she didn’t like him.
Although she couldn’t do anything right now, Jiang Li didn’t want to see this man again for a while.
After speaking, she walked straight into the sports academy.
As the door opened, the air conditioning inside was as freezing as a morgue, and the air was filled with the heavy scent of sweat. She looked down and sent a message.
[Are you out of class yet? I’ve been waiting for you for a long time (▼ヘ▼#)
The girl looked around, muttering softly, “Where was the tennis team lounge again?”
A kind voice came from behind her: “Third floor, turn right, second room.”