Jiang Li had only taken a few bites of her barbecue when Mother Wang called, bombarding her with messages.
Seeing 99+ notifications, she quickly called back.
“Miss, Mr. Jiang and the young master are about to come to blows! You need to come back and put out the fire!” Mother Wang sounded frantic on the other end.
“What’s the reason?”
Mother Wang: “Mr. Jiang said the young master spends all his time playing games, that he’s wasting his life on idle pursuits, and then…”
“Alright, hold them off for now. I’m on my way back.”
Jiang Li looked at the packed meal box and glanced toward the kitchen area several times, but Shen Muran never came out.
In her past life, Jiang Li had met Xu Ge, a close friend and agent Shen Muran trusted deeply.
Pressed for time, she could only entrust the meal box to his junior.
Xu Ge excitedly pulled Shen Muran into a corner. “Hey, bro, where’d you go earlier?”
“That beautiful customer at table A27 waited for you forever.” He stealthily pulled a meal box from a bag. “She said she couldn’t finish it and left it for you to handle.”
Xu Ge wore a gossipy expression, waiting for Shen Muran to explain their relationship.
He truly hadn’t expected that even a quiet, reserved guy like him could have a spring romance.
Indeed, good looks are everything.
As they say, with a face like that, who cares about his grumpy personality?
He felt a bit guilty for teasing the girl earlier.
Shen Muran glanced down briefly, his expression indifferent. “If she hasn’t left, return it to her.”
“She just left.”
“Then throw it away.”
“Huh?” Xu Ge was speechless. “This meat is crazy expensive, and she barely touched it—almost all of it’s in here.”
He knew Shen Muran wasn’t interested in advances from the opposite sex, but this was taking it too far, wasting food like that.
Shen Muran picked up a rag and went back to the dining area to clean the grills and dishes.
Xu Ge stared at the box full of meat—the most tender cut of beef, no less.
He’d only had a vegetable dish for dinner, and the aroma made his mouth water.
Xu Ge followed him out and whispered, “If you don’t want it, can I have it?”
Hearing this, Shen Muran paused while wiping the table. Though his lips tightened, his voice remained flat. “Suit yourself.”
Working at the barbecue restaurant was tough, but at least the pay was weekly.
After transferring thirty thousand to Uncle Guan, Shen Muran’s wallet was down to just five hundred.
He still had four hundred and sixty thousand in debt to repay…
Back home, he lay on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling for a long time.
In the end, he opened the school website and clicked the registration link for the provincial championship.
Since this competition consisted entirely of doubles events and didn’t allow individual entries—only club teams or university squads could apply—Shen Muran filled out the form and clicked submit.
Unsurprisingly, the page kept spinning, stuck on “under review.”
He knew his student ID had been tampered with.
Every time he tried to enter an open competition, his registration would fail for one reason or another.
For the past year, he hadn’t exposed it.
But for the first time, Shen Muran messaged his academic advisor, asking to meet tomorrow to discuss the competition registration in detail.
He mentally prepared himself to be scolded, but it didn’t matter.
If thick skin could keep him fed, that was enough.
The road was a bit congested. By the time she arrived, night had seeped into the living room, from which intense arguing spilled out.
“Have you finished memorizing your texts? Glued to your phone all day—what future do you think you’ll have!”
Jiang Lintian’s voice was full of anger, perhaps from having yelled for a while, as it was starting to grow hoarse.
“Did you ever care whether I finished my homework or not? You spend more time abroad than at home each month. Have you ever cared about my grades?” Jiang Fan’s voice suddenly rose, his youthful tone filled with rebellion.
With a loud bang, he stormed upstairs and locked his bedroom door.
“You…” Jiang Lintian was so angry his blood pressure spiked. He slumped onto the sofa, needing a long while to recover.
Seeing Jiang Li changing her shoes, the man’s tone softened slightly. “You’re back so late. Have you eaten? Don’t tell me you’re starving yourself like those celebrities just to stay slim!”
“Your failed fitness test last semester was because you didn’t eat enough, leading to low energy and low blood sugar!”
“A man is iron, food is steel…”
The man was wearing a suit, his tie askew. Though he appeared dignified and aloof outside, only in front of Jiang Li would he show such a domestic side.
Jiang Lintian rambled on for a while, but seeing Jiang Li frozen in place, he could only sigh helplessly.
“What, won’t you even let your brother say a few words?”
The next moment, Jiang Li kicked off her high heels and, without even putting on slippers, rushed toward Jiang Lintian and threw herself into a big bear hug.
“Brother, I missed you so much!”
That man who once only appeared in her dreams, the one who made her wake up in tears.
Jiang Li was hugging him now.
The girl tightly wrapped her arms around Jiang Lintian’s shoulders—her strongest support.
When she was young and foolish, she used to find Jiang Lintian annoying and nagging. To avoid being controlled, she even secretly prayed to Guanyin, wishing her brother would stay away on business trips forever.
Her words came true. Jiang Lintian died in that plane crash.
Regret churned endlessly in her heart.
Late at night, Jiang Li had kowtowed before the statue of Guanyin more than once, but that wish couldn’t be taken back, and her brother couldn’t return.
Jiang Lintian was startled by his sister’s sudden tears. The man’s large hand gently wiped them away. “What’s wrong? Did Jiang Fan bully you, or is your allowance not enough?”
Jiang Li looked at the person before her, his features both familiar and strange. A thousand words clogged her throat, but in the end, she only managed to squeeze out one sentence: “No, I just suddenly missed you.”
These words left Jiang Lintian pleasantly surprised.
In the past, he was the one who said sentimental things, but Jiang Li would always brush him off with a casual remark: “Men, don’t be so clingy. I’m just your sister.”
Jiang Li rested her head on Jiang Lintian’s shoulder, curled up on the sofa like a kitten that hadn’t returned home in a long time.
Jiang Lintian had to temporarily set aside disciplining Jiang Fan to comfort his sister.
Her brother’s embrace was warm. Jiang Li didn’t care about her smudged foundation, burying her face in his shoulder.
Jiang Lintian was fourteen years older than her, acting as both an elder brother and a father figure.
“Can you stay home a little longer, brother? Work will never be finished.”
The man was surprised, his large hand stroking his sister’s head. “Isn’t earning more money a good thing?”
“Our family has plenty of money.” Jiang Li poked Jiang Lintian’s chest with her finger. “But the fatherly love Jiang Fan deserves hasn’t been given much.”
“He’s been really well-behaved these past few days. He only plays games after finishing his homework and getting my approval.”
“I know.”
Jiang Lintian was strong-willed outside, but in the role of a father, he still couldn’t humble himself enough to apologize to his child.
The topic shifted abruptly.
“The smart rehabilitation assessment app recently developed by the Xu family is quite good. I plan to collaborate with Hengtian. Let’s arrange for the two families to meet at the golf course someday.”
A suffocating feeling welled up in Jiang Li’s heart.
She lowered her gaze, her fingers mechanically twisting the ends of her hair.
The matter of the marriage alliance was something the Xu family kept pushing for.
That olive branch wrapped in a project proposal was nothing more than an attempt to tie the Jiang family down completely.
Jiang Li was utterly unwilling in her heart.
What kind of person did Xu Jiarang think he was!
But Jiang Lintian valued this project highly, so Jiang Li could only suppress her annoyance. “Alright, then let’s just talk business.”
The girl met her brother’s eyes, which were filled with gloom, and suddenly thought of something.
“Brother, you really need to take care of your health. The board members only care about whether you can make money for them—they’re shrewd. You must be careful.”
Jiang Lintian saw the concern in his sister’s eyes and felt a warmth in his heart. “Our little housekeeper has grown up.”
Jiang Li curved her lips into a smile. The ripples stirred up by the barbecue shop incident gradually settled as she immersed herself in the happiness of her brother’s return.