“Shen Ziyun, your Tan family really stoops low. You actually want to force a marriage this way!”
Mother Tang had her sleeves rolled up and her hands on her hips, standing in the middle of the Tan family’s reception room like she was ready to argue circles around the whole crowd.
Madam Tan knew she was in the wrong and didn’t dare say much. She just kept smiling apologetically at Mother Tang. “Juanjuan, didn’t you say before that you wanted to marry Xiaolizhi to our third son? We were just a little too eager…”
What could she do about the Old Madam’s idea?
“Pah! I was joking back then. Don’t tell me you couldn’t tell whether I meant it!”
Mother Tang was so angry she was just short of pointing at Madam Tan’s nose and cursing her out.
Tang Li quietly reminded her from the side, “Mom, your image. Think of your image.”
“Juan’er, let me explain it to you.” Madam Tan spoke as though patiently guiding her through a point. “The eldest and second sons are both married, and our family wants to become in-laws with yours. That leaves only our good-for-nothing third son.”
“I couldn’t care less about becoming in-laws with your Tan family!”
“Mom, you and Aunt Shen know each other?”
Mother Tang and Madam Tan said in unison, “We don’t!”
“We do.”
Tang Li stared blankly, looking from one to the other.
Mother Tang said irritably, “She used to steal first place from me all the time, and now she wants to steal my daughter too!”
“That’s not quite fair, Sister Juan. Just hear me out.” Madam Tan insisted on pulling Mother Tang onto the sofa.
After a long spell of earnest persuasion, Mother Tang really did agree to the marriage.
Tang Li: ?
Did nobody care what she, the person actually getting married, thought?
“Mom’s thought it over. You can marry him.”
“Go ahead, Mom. I’m listening.” Tang Li listened attentively.
“Rich dad, a sensible mom, a pretty wife, and a useless husband!”
Tang Li: “…?”
“If you marry into this family, you definitely won’t be mistreated. Your in-laws will be good to you, your husband won’t come home, and you’ll have money and free time. You can go back to your parents’ whenever you like and visit them.”
Tang Li blinked.
She had to admit, those terms were pretty tempting.
“Then… should I marry him?”
As soon as Tang Li finished speaking, the Third Young Master came back.
All in black: a hoodie and cargo pants.
He really did look like he’d just been released from the police station.
His jacket hung off one shoulder, and the eight black diamond studs in his right ear sparkled in the light, enough to blind anyone. He tilted his head, looking utterly nonchalant.
“Who’s getting married? Not me—”
The moment Tan Siyu saw who was sitting on the sofa, he fell silent.
“Tang Li?”
“Hmm?” The girl lifted her head and looked at the man in the doorway. “Long time no see?”
Tan Siyu ran.
He ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
Tang Li let out a startled, “Ah—”
Was she that scary?
**
“Holy shit, Jiang Ji! She—she—she’s Fairy Girl!”
In a private room on the top floor of Nevernight City, Tan Siyu downed a bottle of beer, but his racing heart still hadn’t settled.
If anything, it was beating faster.
The blue-gray tuft of hair on his head bounced around wildly, just as excited as his heart.
Lin Youqi poured him a glass of warm water. “Take it slow, Brother Yu. None of us understood a word of what you just said.”
Jiang Ji pretended he understood. “Brother Yu says she’s Fairy Girl. Got it?”
“Which ‘she’?” Lin Youqi shot him a withering look.
Tan Siyu said, “Tang Li.”
Jiang Ji: ?
Lin Youqi: ?
Tan Siyu repeated himself. “Tang Li is Fairy Girl!”
Jiang Ji said, “I know Tang Li. The one from Dewei High School, right? She was amazing at classical dance at the New Year’s gala. So many people confessed to her back then.”
“Then who’s Fairy Girl?” Lin Youqi asked.
Tan Siyu said, “Fairy Girl is Tang Li.”
Lin Youqi said, “That’s it. Brother Yu’s brain is broken.”
“The girl you had a crush on in high school?” Jiang Ji asked tentatively.
Tan Siyu didn’t answer.
Silence was as good as an admission.
The two of them exchanged a look—
Brother Yu had had a crush on the same girl for three years in high school, yet he didn’t even know her name or where she lived!
Lin Youqi’s mouth fell open wide enough to fit a fist. “Brother Yu, no way. You really had a crush on her for three years and still didn’t know her name?”
“This is something a womanizer could do?”
“Unbelievable. That’s fucking unbelievable.”
“That’s the kind of thing nobody online would believe, even if you posted it.”
Jiang Ji drawled, “That must be terrible news for Fairy Girl.”
Tan Siyu slapped him. “How is it terrible news? How is it terrible news? You’re saying she’d be wronged if she married me?”