“Oh.” Yun Qingwu hadn’t expected him to genuinely be coerced into this. Truly, every family had its own difficult scriptures to chant!
“I was forced by my family too, just going through the motions.”
“Consider today as never having seen me, I’ll be leaving first.”
As Yun Qingwu stood up to leave, she paused after two steps and turned back. “Your fountain pen fell in our family car yesterday. Give me an address, and I’ll have a courier service drop it off to you in a bit.”
Hearing her address him formally with “you,” Ji Siming found it rather grating.
Yet he also knew that in her eyes, they were still strictly professor and student, so keeping her distance was only natural.
He had deliberately left the fountain pen in the pocket of her coat yesterday to create an opening for their next meeting, only for this girl to think of nothing more than calling a courier to ship it back, showing zero interest in seeing him again.
After a moment’s thought, he stood up. “I’ll drive you back now, and you can just hand it to me in person, alright?”
Yun Qingwu nodded on the spot. “Sure!”
Waiting by the entrance for a brief moment, she watched a black Cullinan glide over and halt right in front of her.
Instinctively moving toward the back seat, she found it piled with various items and ultimately had no choice but to slide into the front passenger seat.
“Seatbelt,” he gently reminded her.
“Mm.”
As Yun Qingwu clicked her seatbelt into place, she heard him add, “There are books in the glove compartment right in front of you. Feel free to read if you get bored.”
“Read books?”
She wasn’t exactly the type fond of hitting the books.
Yet staying silent made the atmosphere suffocatingly strange, so she opted for reading after all.
Reaching out to flip open the storage console, she instead found a few comic books inside—all from her favorite series, no less.
Ji Siming was into this style of manga too?
Turning her head to glance at him, she caught him casually brushing his hand against the vehicle’s control panel as soft illumination flickered to life.
“Thank you.”
Offering a polite word of thanks, she heard a light tap on the car window.
He lowered the glass, accepted a cup of milk tea from his assistant, and placed it right into the cup holder beside her.
The assistant’s eyes bulged as he tried to catch a glimpse of the sacred deity occupying his boss’s front passenger seat. But since their boss was notoriously cold and aloof, the window shot back up in a heartbeat and he drove off.
Goodness gracious, not even Ji Yaran was ever allowed in the boss’s front passenger seat, and now there was actually a woman sitting there!
On top of that, the boss had specifically instructed him to buy a hot milk tea and bring it over. Since the boss didn’t drink milk tea himself, it could only be for that girl!
Holy cow, the iron tree was finally blooming!
Yun Qingwu hadn’t expected Ji Siming to buy her milk tea, let alone in her favorite flavor—half-sugar.
Tilting her head, she asked, “Professor Ji, how did you know I like this flavor?”
Ji Siming: “You posted it on your Moments.”
“You have me on WeChat?!!”
“Mm, I do.”
Yun Qingwu was stunned. She indeed had a habit of sharing snippets of her life on her Moments.
That wasn’t even the main point, though. The real question was: when on earth had she ever added Ji Siming?
She had zero recollection of it whatsoever, right?
Cradling the warm milk tea, she was utterly baffled.
Choosing not to explain, Ji Siming simply focused entirely on driving.
What should have been a thirty-minute trip was deliberately dragged out by Ji Siming to nearly fifty minutes just so he could spend a little extra time with her.
Fortunately, Yun Qingwu was completely absorbed in the manga and never noticed he was taking the long way around.
“We’re here.”
“Alright, please wait a moment, I’ll go grab your pen right now.”
With that, before he could say a word, she popped the car door open and bolted out like a gust of wind.
Looking somewhat amused and helpless, he wondered just how desperate she was to draw a clear line between them.
Yun Qingwu dashed inside at top speed, then, amid Lin Lan and Gu Jian’s bewildered expressions, sprinted right back out the door.
Spotting her exit, Ji Siming stepped out of the vehicle and waited by the car door.
The roads were a bit slick following the snow, and seeing her rush about in such a flurry made him a shade uneasy.
Right then, another car pulled up directly behind Ji Siming’s.
Just as Yun Qingwu caught sight of Gu Yi and Zhuang Wan stepping out of the vehicle, her foot slipped on a patch of ice and she pitched forward!
Seeing this, Ji Siming strode forward in long strides, sweeping his arms out to haul her straight into his embrace. “Watch out!”
Stepping out of the car, Gu Yi saw from his vantage point what looked like Yun Qingwu throwing herself straight into another man’s arms, her hands clinging tightly around the man’s waist.
His eyes frosted over, and his lips compressed into a rigid, thin line.
“Professor Ji, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. After all, it’s not the first time—one time makes you strangers, twice makes you old friends.”
The man’s voice carried an unhurried, lazy cadence, laced with a faint trace of amusement.
Realizing he was referencing how she had crashed into his arms the previous night, Yun Qingwu felt a flush of embarrassment and pushed him away. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Noticing the tips of her ears glowing crimson, Ji Siming nodded. “I know. Go on inside, it’s cold out here.”
“Okay.” Watching Ji Siming climb back into his car and giving him a quick wave, Yun Qingwu turned around only to find herself staring straight into Gu Yi’s icy gaze.
“Qingwu, who is that?”
Plopping her hands into her pockets, Yun Qingwu retorted, “Brother, how old are you to already be getting cataracts?”
“Isn’t this the marriage candidate you handpicked for me yourself?”
A marriage candidate?
Gu Yi furrowed his brows.
He had run into that goofball Ji Xingchuan plenty of times and couldn’t possibly mistake him. Even if he hadn’t seen the guy’s face, that build definitely didn’t belong to Ji Xingchuan.
A wave of relief washed over Zhuang Wan.
The fact that Gu Yi had personally picked out a marriage candidate for Yun Qingwu proved that she must have been overthinking things earlier.
If he truly harbored feelings for Yun Qingwu, how could he ever bear to ship her off to marry someone else?
“Gu Yi, it looks like your sister really likes the match you found for her.”
Tacking on a casual “Yeah, I like him a lot,” Yun Qingwu scurried back inside the house.
Watching her perpetual whirlwind of motion, Lin Lan couldn’t help scolding her affectionately, “Sweetie, the roads are slippery in this snowy weather. If you keep running around all reckless like this, how am I supposed to leave the country with a peace of mind?”
Gu Jian took a sip of tea. “Why don’t you just pack her up and take her with you? She’s a senior anyway, her classes are practically non-existent.”
“I was actually just thinking about that. Sweetie, why don’t you come abroad with Auntie? Your brother is dating now, and he and your sister-in-law won’t be back most of the time. I’d worry sick leaving you all alone in this house.”
Walking over, Yun Qingwu wrapped her arms around Lin Lan’s arm and rested her head on her shoulder. “Auntie, I’m already all grown up, I can’t just keep clinging to you forever.”
“Besides, I’ve got my own things to take care of. Don’t worry, I can take good care of myself.”
Dinner went by harmoniously for everyone else, with the sole exception of Gu Yi, who remained thoroughly distracted throughout the meal.
Once Zhuang Wan was seen off, Gu Yi should have headed back to his own apartment, but the thought of that man drew him right back inside the house.
Standing by the second-floor landing for a long while, he finally walked up and knocked on her door.
Moments later, Yun Qingwu opened it. She had a facial mask on, and her laptop was glowing, suggesting she was in the middle of writing her thesis.
“Brother, need something?”
Gu Yi looked her over. “Who was that man today?”
“Told you, the marriage candidate you set up.”
His face darkening, Gu Yi snapped, “He wasn’t. Qingwu, since when did you learn to lie?”
Gazing at the man before her, Yun Qingwu knitted her brows in displeasure. “Brother, the only reason you forced me into an arranged marriage was to give your girlfriend peace of mind, right? As long as I went through the motions of meeting a candidate, Zhuang Wan could rest easy—isn’t that the whole point?”
“As for who he actually is, what difference does it make?”
The mocking edge in her tone pierced straight to Gu Yi’s heart, causing his hand resting against the doorframe to clench into a tight fist.
The feelings he had spent the last few days struggling to suppress came flooding back to the surface. “Qingwu, you know that wasn’t what I meant. I was just afraid you’d get taken advantage of.”
“Gu Yi, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” With that, Yun Qingwu slammed the door shut right in his face.
Gu Yi was acting more and more like a total jerk! He was the one who rejected her and pushed her away!
Yet the moment he found out she was interacting with other men, he rushed over to meddle and interfere. What was the game here—he was allowed to date freely, while she, despite being rejected by him, was expected to remain celonibate for his sake?
What kind of twisted logic was that?
Out of his mind! Utterly out of his mind!
Pulling her thoughts back together, she resumed typing out her graduation thesis.
By the time she wrapped up, it was already pushing past one in the morning. Stretching her arms, she prepared to head to bed.
That was when she noticed a message pop up from an unknown WeChat number she’d received a few hours ago: “I’m home.”
Casually, Yun Qingwu tapped out a reply: “Who even are you?”