Fu Shuyue stared at the photo on her phone with great difficulty.
Her friend Li Jialin approached and asked, “Yueyue, what’s wrong?”
Fu Shuyue hemmed and hawed for a while before saying, “We probably can’t play here today.”
“Ah? Why?”
Fu Shuyue sighed, “How should I put it? My cousin is probably stealing your brother’s partner.”
Li Jialin was shocked, “…Your cousin? Stealing what?”
Fu Shuyue sighed again, “A child without a mother is like grass. My cousin is quite pitiful too. What do you think I should do?”
Ahhhhhhh! Fu Shuyue screamed wildly in her heart.
Li Jialin stared blankly, “Your cousin, Fu Huaizhou? He actually needs to steal someone’s partner?”
It had to be said, this girl had missed the point entirely.
Fu Shuyue pretended to be profound, “Who says otherwise? In matters of love, everyone is equal.”
Li Jialin suddenly shook her head, “Wait, he’s stealing my brother’s partner? No way, I need to go in and see.”
“No, my cousin will…” Fu Shuyue grabbed her and made a throat-slitting gesture, “kill us.”
Remembering Fu Huaizhou’s cold, sharp gaze, Li Jialin swallowed hard, “Is he following some law-ignorant domineering CEO script?”
Fu Shuyue pulled her outside and appealed to her emotions while explaining the reasoning, “Everyone in our circle knows your brother doesn’t treat your future sister-in-law well. Wouldn’t it be better if…”
“No.” Li Jialin snorted, “I really like Sister Pei Yan.”
Fu Shuyue let out a loud, dismissive sound, “What does your liking matter? It’s your brother who needs to like her.”
Li Jialin’s small face scrunched up, “Hmph, I’ve told him so many times, but he always does whatever he wants. Serves him right that someone’s stealing his partner now.”
Fu Shuyue put an arm around her shoulder, “Don’t worry, no matter what happens between them, our friendship will remain evergreen through all seasons.”
Li Jialin nodded, moved, “Yueyue, you’re the one who treats me best.”
“You’re my friend, of course I treat you well. But a love triangle is always crowded. Since you like Sister Pei Yan, shouldn’t you want her to be happy? We women should naturally support each other.”
Thirteen-year-old “little woman” Fu Shuyue said this with her hands on her hips.
The Fu and Pei families had little interaction, so she only had a vague impression of Pei Yan.
Fu Shuyue knew about Li Yueting and Pei Yan’s situation mainly because Li Jialin often complained to her about it.
Saying her brother didn’t know how lucky he was.
Fu Huaizhou and Pei Yan had no idea that these two chuunibyou girls had been there.
They had imagined an entire dramatic soap opera in their heads – and the key point was, they had imagined it correctly.
Pei Yan picked up the panda plush toy, almost shoving it in Fu Huaizhou’s face.
The woody floral scent on her body wafted out with her every movement. Fu Huaizhou looked at her for a moment, then took half a step back and said,
“Want to try again?”
Pei Yan nodded happily, “Okay, I haven’t played this in so long.”
When she was studying abroad, she used to love going to play with her classmates.
Catching one would make her happy for half the day, never caring how much money she’d put in.
Since returning to China, she’d been busy with her studio every day. Forget claw machines – she hardly had any days off.
Li Jialin returned home full of worries.
As soon as she entered the main building, her father’s booming roar came from the living room, “Kneel down!”
Li Jialin froze. She’d only skipped class – was kneeling necessary?
Before she could kneel, her brother’s voice came from inside, “I won’t break up.”
“You pull this stunt without breaking up, your Uncle Pei called, and the underlying message was to call off your engagement with Xiaoyan. You’ve completely humiliated me.”
Li Jialin patted her chest in relief—at least she wasn’t being told to kneel.
“Dad, things aren’t at all like what’s being said online,” Li Yueting argued vehemently. “Nothing happened between me and that woman.”
“Even ghosts wouldn’t believe that. Even if nothing happened between you and that woman, do you think those who saw the video will believe it?”
Li Yueting: “Dad, I was set up. Before leaving, I went through that woman’s entire phone and deleted the hotel surveillance footage. If you don’t believe me, investigate her. I’ll confront her in front of Xiaoyan.”
“Confront her?” Mr. Li snorted coldly. “That woman has long disappeared. You think she’d wait around for you to confront her?”
Li Yueting froze: “What do you mean?”
“It means you were played by that woman. The goal was to break up the marriage alliance between the Pei and Li families. That woman was just a tool—the real mastermind is someone else.”
As soon as Mr. Li finished speaking, Li Yueting naturally suspected their business rivals.
The only one capable of rivaling Blue Sail was Clear River Entertainment.
But Clear River Entertainment’s young CEO Gu is Fu Huaizhou’s childhood friend. If Fu Huaizhou had gotten wind of this, he would have warned him.
Admittedly, Mr. Li’s speculation was correct, but he overthought it.
Although the goal was to break off the engagement, Fu Huaizhou did it for Pei Yan, not to target Blue Sail.
Li Yueting clearly realized the severity of the situation and pleaded, “Dad, I really don’t want to call off the engagement.”
“We can’t call it off,” Li Yueting’s mother said. “Xiaoyan and Yueting grew up together, and the wedding is in just one month. If we cancel it now, both families will become the talk of Sui River. Do we still want to save face?”
Most importantly, without the Pei family’s support, her son would be completely overshadowed by the illegitimate child.
“Yueting, come with me to the Pei family tomorrow to apologize. No matter what, you must win Xiaoyan back.”
Li Yueting: “Okay.”
Li Jialin entered the living room and sighed: “Brother, you’d better not go.”
Seeing his sister return, Li Yueting quickly stood up. “You’re just a kid, don’t worry about these matters.”
“You’re about to have someone stolen from you,” Li Jialin dropped a bombshell.
Li Yueting frowned: “What are you talking about?”
“Yueyue’s brother,” Li Jialin took half a step back, frightened by her brother’s furious expression.
Li Yueting: “Fu Huaizhou? What about him?”
“Well… I, I…” Li Jialin didn’t know how to say it.
Li Yueting: “Spit it out, you’re going to worry your brother to death.”
Li Jialin avoided the question: “Brother, do you like Sister Pei Yan or not?”
Li Yueting froze, his lips moving slightly, but no words came out for a long time.
Did he like Pei Yan?
He didn’t, but… why did he panic so much when Pei Yan wanted to break up with him?
When Ning Ran broke up with him back then, he was filled with anger, but he never felt this panicked.
“What nonsense are you spouting, child,” Mrs. Li frowned. “Your brother naturally likes your Sister Pei Yan. Don’t leave us hanging—what about Fu Huaizhou?”
Even Mr. Li stared intently at Li Jialin.
After all, Fu Huaizhou wasn’t someone just anyone could get close to.
Under the intense gaze of three pairs of eyes, Li Jialin swallowed hard and slowly said:
“This morning I went to the amusement park at her house with Yueyue and saw Brother Fu, and… Sister Pei Yan. Yueyue said Brother Fu was holding Sister Pei Yan while they played the claw machine, and she said… she said he’s trying to steal you away.”
Li Yueting froze, his expression shifting several times before he turned and strode away.
Fu Huaizhou and Pei Yan?
Li Yueting felt restless. He needed to go ask them in person.
The amusement park gates slowly opened as Pei Yan finally had her fill after playing for half a day.
Fu Huaizhou was about to drive her home.
The bad mood from their breakup had mostly faded, and she belatedly realized she had been somewhat rude to Fu Huaizhou.
He had even accompanied her through all this playtime.
Pei Yan forced a smile: “Um… thank you for today. Also, I might have sounded a bit harsh before, I-I’m sorry.”
Fu Huaizhou let out a light chuckle: “You mean when you said I’d hold hands with any girl I see?”
Pei Yan awkwardly smiled back: “Haha, I didn’t mean—”
Her words abruptly cut off as she stared blankly ahead.
Fu Huaizhou hit the brakes, his slight smile stiffening.
Blocking their path right in front of the Cayenne’s hood was Li Yueting’s sports car.