What Wu Xiaoxia cared about most was Xie Fangzhu.
So Shen Yingying was determined to use Xie Fangzhu to provoke her. If she could make Wu Xiaoxia heartbroken, even better!
Back when Shen Yingying had first transmigrated into this novel, she had nearly gotten her legs broken by that lunatic Xie Fangzhu.
And the root cause of everything was Wu Xiaoxia’s ulterior motives. She had encouraged the original host to get acquainted with that outsider “factory director,” which led to the original host impulsively eloping.
If the original host hadn’t eloped, maybe she wouldn’t have ended up inside this book.
Now she was stuck in this godforsaken place with no phones, no Wi-Fi, no air conditioning—none of life’s joys existed here. On top of that, she had to flatter this crazy “Dog Xie,” who could snap at any moment.
Wasn’t her life hard enough already?!
Given how miserable she had it, merely making Wu Xiaoxia upset and cry a few tears was already extremely generous of her!
While she was internally praising her own magnanimity, Xie Fangzhu had already pushed the bicycle to the doorway.
He kicked down the stand and steadied the bike, his gaze falling on her.
“Come on. Time to eat.”
After saying that, he walked straight toward the small room.
Shen Yingying snapped out of her thoughts and craned her neck inside.
“You’re not going to help me?”
Xie Fangzhu came out carrying a fully wooden folding table. As he stepped outside, he glanced at her again, his handsome brows knitting slightly.
“You really can’t walk?”
Shen Yingying: “…”
She’d thought her acting was pretty convincing. Who knew this fox had already seen through her long ago?
Since she’d been exposed, Shen Yingying stopped pretending and simply stood up to follow him.
“I just wanted to get your attention.”
Xie Fangzhu looked back at her. Seeing her completely shameless, face not even reddening as she said it so confidently, he couldn’t help shaking his head.
He unfolded the table beneath the large tree beside the wooden hut, then took the food out of the bicycle basket and placed it on the table.
Opening the small cloth sack containing the meals, he took out one aluminum lunchbox and pushed it toward Shen Yingying.
At this time, there were no plastic lunchboxes. Anyone taking food from the cafeteria had to bring their own containers.
The moment Shen Yingying opened the lid, the aroma of food rushed toward her. Right on top were the stir-fried beans and eggplant she had specifically asked Xie Fangzhu to order.
Normally, Shen Yingying was extremely picky. She wasn’t used to eating food cooked in giant cafeteria pots like this.
But today she hadn’t eaten anything all day. After running for her life and being tormented nonstop, she was starving to the point her chest practically stuck to her back. Everything smelled delicious now.
The soft eggplant soaked in savory sauce tasted better than any delicacies she had ever eaten.
Just as she was eating with complete satisfaction, she suddenly heard the man across from her ask:
“You had a falling-out with her?”
Even though he didn’t say a name, Shen Yingying instantly knew who “her” referred to.
She thought to herself that he was surprisingly observant—and kind of gossip-loving too.
Setting down her chopsticks, she asked,
“You want to know?”
Xie Fangzhu opened his own lunchbox, his voice calm and indifferent.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to say.”
His expression matched his tone—flat and emotionless, without even a trace of the excitement people usually had when listening to gossip. It was as if he weren’t interested at all.
If it had been anyone else acting like this, Shen Yingying wouldn’t even bother responding.
But the man across from her was the crazy tyrant who currently controlled both her legs and her freedom.
That made him different.
He needed to be pampered.
“I realized she seems to like you,” Shen Yingying said. “But you’re mine. You’re my man. How could I possibly keep a ticking bomb like that around me? So I had no choice but to choose my man over my friend.”
Hearing this, Xie Fangzhu paused slightly and looked up at her.
Meeting his gaze, Shen Yingying smiled brightly and sweetly, her eyes curving like crescent moons.
“You’re my man. Unless you’re the one who abandons me first, nobody else gets to take you away.”
Though she was smiling, the seriousness in her eyes was impossible to ignore.
Xie Fangzhu’s heart abruptly pounded hard in his chest.
The expression that had been steady and composed cracked for the first time, revealing genuine bewilderment.
He had never expected Shen Yingying to say something so outrageous.
For a moment, he was completely speechless. In the end, he could only cough awkwardly.
“Eat your food.”
His voice unexpectedly sounded a little flustered.
Shen Yingying noticed every subtle change in his expression and knew she had achieved her goal. Completely satisfied, she lowered her head and continued eating.
But Xie Fangzhu still hadn’t recovered.
Unable to resist, he looked at her again. After hesitating briefly, he picked up a piece of braised pork lying on top of his lunchbox and placed it into her bowl.
Seeing the sudden piece of braised pork, Shen Yingying instantly remembered that the original host loved fatty meat.
She paused.
This morning, Dog Xie had wanted to break her legs.
Now he was not only buying her food, but even主动 giving her the things “she” liked to eat.
It was only a tiny gesture, but to Shen Yingying, this was progress.
This was the fruit of all her hard work!
Even though she personally disliked braised pork, she was so moved by her own success she nearly cried.
The moment filled her with tremendous confidence, inspiring her to continue showering him with heartfelt praise.
“Xie Fangzhu, you’re so good to me! At home, all the meat was always saved for my brothers. Only you constantly think about me. I’m really so touched! Meeting you must be the blessing I cultivated over eight lifetimes!”
Her eyes reddened faintly, tears glimmering in her dark pupils as though she were deeply moved.
“I used to care about you too, but I used the wrong methods. I treated you so fiercely and made you suffer so much grievance. Thinking about it now, I was really stupid! From now on, I’ll pay attention to how I treat you. I’ll definitely be super, super good to you.”
As she spoke, she blinked her tearful eyes, stood up, leaned across the table—and quickly kissed him on the cheek.
Instantly, Xie Fangzhu’s heartbeat skipped not just one beat, but seven or eight. Even the tips of his ears turned red.
When his heartbeat finally steadied again, wave after wave of softness and sweetness flooded his chest, leaving his entire body floating dreamily.
For a moment, in the heat of emotion, he almost wanted to dump all the dishes from his lunchbox into Shen Yingying’s bowl just to see her smile happily.
But Shen Yingying didn’t give him the chance.
After sitting back down, she picked up one of the pieces of braised pork from her bowl and placed it back into his.
Lowering her eyes shyly, too embarrassed to look at him, she murmured:
“I stay at home all day, so I don’t need that much meat. But you work so hard down in the mines every day. You should eat more. Otherwise, I’ll feel heartbroken.”
Looking at the piece of pork she had returned, and feeling the lingering softness from her kiss still on his cheek, Xie Fangzhu only felt warmth spreading through his chest.
For perhaps the first time in his life, he found himself at a loss for words.
An unprecedented sense of fulfillment lingered in his heart, as though he were lying atop clouds—light, floating, intoxicating.
And the aftereffects of that intoxication were powerful.
They lasted all the way into the night, when Shen Yingying coquettishly told him that she had been sleeping alone for so long that she wasn’t used to sleeping beside someone else yet, and wanted more time to adjust.
Staring at her sweet smiling face, Xie Fangzhu’s mind heated up and he agreed without thinking.
Only after returning to his small room did he suddenly come back to his senses.
He immediately felt annoyed with himself.
Not because he hadn’t slept with her—after all, he wasn’t some beast ruled by desire.
No, what irritated him was that after only a single day, she already had him wrapped around her finger.
Was he even a man anymore?
No.
Tomorrow, he absolutely had to pull himself together.
He couldn’t let her ride all over him!