“It’s nothing. The back of my hand suddenly hurt a little, so I accidentally dropped the things.”
A gentle softness appeared between Chen Leyan’s brows and eyes. Seeing the items scattered on the floor, he looked apologetic. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s there to be sorry about? Does your hand still hurt now?”
“It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Only after seeing Chen Leyan shake his head did Qiao Qingman turn and instruct Aunt Zhuang, “Let Mr. Gu come in.”
Her heart was full of curiosity and anticipation toward the “Mr. Gu” outside.
Qiao Qingman was certain she did not know a second “Mr. Gu.” Other than Gu Qianshi, there was no one else.
But why had he come to her house? Even if he came, should he not have quietly climbed over the balcony last night?
She had closed the automatic sliding balcony door, but she had not locked it.
Wait, had she locked it?
She had been half-asleep last night, and this morning she had been in a bad mood. Qiao Qingman truly had not paid attention to that.
If she had locked the balcony last night and the male lead could not get in…
Then that would explain why the male lead had come to look for her on a weekday morning.
Looking at it this way, her “cooperation project” still had a good chance of moving forward.
“It’s good that you’re not angry.”
Chen Leyan’s warm voice interrupted Qiao Qingman’s thoughts.
She paused. Catching the trace of unhidden bitterness in his eyes, she suddenly realized she had seemingly ignored this chef teacher.
Seeing Chen Leyan crouch down to pick up the things on the floor, Qiao Qingman responded awkwardly, “Why would I be angry?” and crouched down as well.
Chen Leyan’s movement paused.
Noticing that he had stopped, Qiao Qingman looked at him curiously. “What’s wrong?”
Chen Leyan’s clear eyes suddenly brightened as if sunlight had been poured into them, filled with anticipation. “So you don’t dislike me, right?”
Qiao Qingman: “…No.”
Realizing that Chen Leyan had most likely misunderstood because she had refused to learn cooking, Qiao Qingman explained helplessly, “I didn’t want to learn cooking because I suddenly wasn’t interested anymore. It has nothing to do with you.”
Sure enough.
The tightly pressed corners of Chen Leyan’s lips lifted, and his brows and eyes were filled with gentle smiles.
Qiao Qingman: “……”
Why did she suddenly feel like a sinner?
What kind of ridiculous plot was this?
In the novel, was her chef teacher also Chen Leyan?
Unfortunately, the novel had not described this chef teacher at all. Otherwise, if she had known the teacher was Chen Leyan…
Forget it. Even if she had known, the plot still had to proceed.
There were not many items on the floor.
Qiao Qingman and Chen Leyan each picked up one thing. One took the iodine spray, the other picked up the medical gauze. Only the last adhesive bandage remained.
Both of their hands reached toward it at the same time. Their fingertips were so close that with just a slight extension, they would have touched.
“What are you two doing?”
A familiar voice, slightly suppressed, suddenly sounded from outside the kitchen.
It made Qiao Qingman, who had just managed to stop her hand in time, tense slightly.
Afraid of causing unnecessary misunderstanding for Chen Leyan, Qiao Qingman quickly stood up.
She walked lightly out of the kitchen and stood in front of Gu Qianshi with a bright smile.
“Gu Qianshi.”
Chen Leyan silently tightened his grip on the items in his hand. Recalling how, when Qiao Qingman stood up, a soft breeze brushed past the tips of his fingers, the brightness in his eyes dimmed, replaced by a trace of gloom.
It quickly shifted into loneliness.
He gazed at Qiao Qingman in front of him with deep affection.
As for Qiao Qingman, she deliberately ignored Chen Leyan behind her, unwilling to give him any meaningless hope.
Instead, her gaze burned brightly as she stared at Gu Qianshi.
“So it really is you? Why did you come to my house? Did you come to see me?”
The question was knowingly asked. The reason she said it so bluntly was simply to express her dissatisfaction with what had happened at the private club the evening before.
Why could the male lead kiss whenever he wanted?
Last evening had been such a good opportunity. She had even taken the initiative to reach out and cup his face to kiss him as a sign of sincerity, yet he had suddenly turned fierce.
Even though the male lead had done so to maintain his male lead persona, Qiao Qingman was still very displeased.
Of course, it also proved one thing from another angle: the male lead truly had a mission.
Otherwise, would he have been forced by the mission to come to her house in broad daylight to find her?
Not right. The male lead had not deeply kissed her for two days, had he?
This man could not possibly have weekends off, could he?
Gu Qianshi cast a faint glance at the disappointed Chen Leyan and the items in his hands, then looked heavily at Qiao Qingman.
“You haven’t answered my question. What were you two doing?”
Qiao Qingman: “……”
What could they possibly be doing? Of course, it was for the upcoming “delivering a loving lunchbox” plotline, practicing cooking.
At the mention of this, and seeing Chen Leyan’s sour expression, Qiao Qingman felt displeased.
If not for this “delivering a loving lunchbox” plot, she would not have had to interact more with Chen Leyan and give him unnecessary hope.
The smile on Qiao Qingman’s face faded slightly. “Why did you come to see me?”
Ahhh, why did the male lead get weekends off?
Why did she have to work a hundred days straight without a break?
Gu Qianshi, who had closed his eyes last night only to have the image of Qiao Qingman puckering her lips appear in his mind and had even had a nightmare about it: “……”
Was Qiao Qingman seriously putting on that expression as if she were forcing herself not to throw him out?
He had only asked a question.
Gu Qianshi’s gaze darkened as he glanced at Chen Leyan and clenched his fists quietly.
Qiao Qingman had puckered her lips at him for a kiss yesterday, and now she had shifted her target so quickly?
Of all people, she had to choose his cousin?
Qiao Qingman was definitely doing this on purpose.
Gu Qianshi restrained himself with great effort, his voice low and dangerous. “……Qiao Qingman, let’s talk.”
Qiao Qingman had no idea what Gu Qianshi was thinking.
She had originally been somewhat unhappy, but seeing that Gu Qianshi was clearly suppressing his anger and holding back as he called her name, and recalling the balcony that might have been locked last night, she suddenly felt better.
Perhaps Gu Qianshi only had one day off? Maybe he had tried to climb the balcony last night and been rejected, which was why he was so irritable this morning?
No matter what, if the male lead had really come to complete the deep-kiss mission, then Chen Leyan’s presence here was not appropriate.
With that in mind, and in the spirit of cooperation, Qiao Qingman smiled slightly. “Sure.”
“Where do you want to talk? I’m fine with anywhere.”
Gu Qianshi: “……”
Perhaps it was an illusion. Although Qiao Qingman was asking a perfectly ordinary question, Gu Qianshi somehow heard something else in it: Gu Qianshi, where do you want to kiss? I’m fine with anywhere.
Gu Qianshi closed his eyes deeply for a moment. When he opened them again, his cold gaze restrained the emotions that threatened to spill out. “In my car.”
Qiao Qingman: “?”
In the car?
She could not help recalling the scene from the night before last, when the male lead had pressed her against the car door and kissed her without explanation.
At that time, the night had been deep, and his dark suit had accentuated his tall, upright figure.
After kissing her, he had even said that she had been drinking “peach-flavored coffee.”
Infuriating.
Wait. Thinking carefully, it seemed that most of the times he kissed her, he was wearing a dark suit, except for the sleepwalking incident.
And when he did not kiss her, he wore suits of other colors.
For example, right now, Gu Qianshi is wearing a black suit.
He said they would talk in the car. Was he planning to go into the car, change into a dark suit, and then kiss her?
What kind of bizarre kissing setting was that? Or was it an essential mission rule?
Qiao Qingman nodded. “Sure.”
Then she looked at Chen Leyan. “Sorry, Chef Chen. Please wait for me for a moment.”
She walked toward the door first.
Gu Qianshi did not leave immediately. Instead, he looked meaningfully at his cousin. “Leyan, why are you here?”
Chen Leyan: “……To teach Miss Qiao how to cook.”
Gu Qianshi’s pupils tightened slightly. “Teach her how to cook?”
Qiao Qingman had asked Chen Leyan to teach her cooking?
If he remembered correctly, before that night at the bar, Qiao Qingman did not even know that Chen Leyan existed.
So how had this…
Could it be that what happened at the private club yesterday had struck Qiao Qingman, and she now wanted to use Chen Leyan’s identity as his cousin to retaliate against him?
Qiao Qingman—
He had truly underestimated her.
Believing he had sorted out the situation, Gu Qianshi looked at his cousin again and felt a headache coming on. “Leyan, Qiao Qingman won’t like you. Don’t fall in too deep. Take care of yourself.”
In Gu Qianshi’s view, if Qiao Qingman had used every possible method for his sake, then she naturally would not develop any feelings for Chen Leyan.
But the way Chen Leyan looked at Qiao Qingman was full of deep affection.
However, his cousin Chen Leyan did not accept his advice.
Chen Leyan tightened his grip on the adhesive bandage in his hand. After steeling himself for a long moment, he finally mustered the courage to speak:
“Cousin, Miss Qiao has already said it herself. She won’t like you anymore.”
Gu Qianshi dismissed it with contempt.
“You believe what she says?”
At the same time.
Qiao Qingman had reached the front yard and was walking toward the villa gate when her phone rang.
It was her mother, Shen Lan.
After the call connected, Shen Lan’s concerned voice came through the receiver:
“Manman, what are you doing?”
Qiao Qingman paused. Worried that Gu Qianshi might hear something when he came out, she stepped aside before replying,
“I’m at home. What’s wrong, Mommy?”
Shen Lan hesitated for a moment.
“…Nothing. I just missed my precious daughter.”
Qiao Qingman smiled.
“Mommy, I miss you too.”
On the other end of the line, Shen Lan seemed to want to say something more but stopped herself.
By chance, she had heard from Aunt Zhuang that her daughter had been unusually sleepy lately, sleeping during the day and still sleeping at night, as if she could never get enough rest.
Shen Lan felt worried, but it was not something she could probe deeply over the phone.
After chatting briefly and hearing that her daughter’s tone sounded normal enough, she ended the call.
After hanging up, Qiao Qingman felt a little puzzled but did not think too much about it.
She took a few steps forward and reached the villa gate, where she saw a man in a dark ink-colored suit standing beside a limited-edition ultra-luxury sedan.
The man had a tall, upright build, sharply defined features, and cold, severe brows and eyes.
The white shirt beneath his suit was buttoned all the way up. As the cool breeze brushed past him, his Adam’s apple rolled slightly, giving him an air of restrained propriety and abstinence.
Qiao Qingman glanced toward the villa, then back at the strikingly attractive man in front of her, clicking her tongue in amazement.
The male lead changed clothes that fast?
Looks like she really did close the balcony door last night. No wonder the male lead was in such a hurry.
She had to admit, the male lead looked better in the ink-colored suit.
Qiao Qingman walked slowly up to him, went to the passenger seat, opened the door, and got in.
Seeing that the man had no intention of getting into the car, Qiao Qingman rolled down the window, lifted her chin slightly, and spoke in a soft, lazy voice tinged with coyness:
“Didn’t you say we’d talk in the car?”
Qiao Qingman was convinced that the male lead was more anxious than she was.
After all, she only needed to kiss the male lead before twelve tonight. But if Gu Qianshi had a single day off, and last night he had been unable to kiss her, that would be a different matter entirely.
Unexpectedly, after hearing her words, the man casually glanced toward the villa gate before unhurriedly opening the car door and getting in.
Qiao Qingman asked curiously,
“What do you want to talk to me about?”
Inside, however, she felt quite nervous.
Did she really have a cooperative partner now? Were they really about to discuss cooperation?
Yes! She would no longer need to chase after the male lead and ask for kisses on her own.
Then she saw the man in the driver’s seat reach over, cup the back of her head, and press a warm kiss onto her without warning.
Qiao Qingman froze.
Wait. Hadn’t it always been her who kissed the male lead first, and only then did he return it with a deep kiss?
Why wasn’t he following the usual sequence?
And why hadn’t she heard the system announcement saying the kiss had been successfully checked in?
Did that mean when the male lead kissed her, it didn’t count toward her performance? Did she have to kiss him back for it to count?
Qiao Qingman was so preoccupied with this that she naturally failed to notice that behind the man holding her, the real male lead, Gu Qianshi, was walking out of the villa.
As he walked, he spoke coldly into his Bluetooth earpiece:
“Chen Leyan, listen carefully to what I’m about to say. The Qiao Qingman you think has already given up on me… what kind of person do you think she really is?”