Chapter 44: Jealousy – The Young Man: I don’t like him being so close to you…

The three of them standing together formed a stunning sight in the mall, like a landscape that made people marvel. Some even thought they were celebrities and started taking photos with their cameras.

The dazzling camera flashes made Li Yipeng turn his eyes. He looked at the young woman taking their photo and said with a gentle smile, “Taking photos without the subject’s consent is illegal. So, madam, please delete the photos you just took.”

The man’s polite attitude and gentle tone made people feel comfortable. You wouldn’t even think of opposing someone like this. Many people sided with him, giving reproachful looks to the photographer.

The young woman stared at him blankly, only reacting after a moment, hurriedly apologizing, “S-sorry! I’ll delete them right away!”

“Thank you.”

Li Yipeng turned his gaze back to the young woman’s face. “Summer vacation is coming soon. Doesn’t Miss Fang plan to prepare in advance?”

Prepare?

Prepare for what?

Fang Chuning didn’t understand his meaning.

Li Yipeng reminded her, “Chairwoman Fang constantly hopes Miss Fang can come to the company earlier to ‘help out’.”

If he hadn’t mentioned it, Fang Chuning would have almost forgotten! She pretended to remember and nodded, “I know, you don’t need to remind me.”

“It’s best if Miss Fang remembers naturally.” Li Yipeng’s gaze shifted slightly, landing on the young man’s face. He seemed not to have heard the two’s conversation, eating his cotton candy in small bites, appearing obedient and well-behaved, not speaking out of turn.

“If that’s the case, I won’t disturb you two any further.”

As the man turned to leave, Fang Chuning called out to stop him. She reluctantly let go of the young man’s smooth, delicate hand and walked over to whisper, “Can you not tell my mother about today?”

Li Yipeng’s phoenix eyes turned slightly, glancing at her: “From your earlier behavior, I thought you weren’t afraid.”

“I’m not afraid of my mother, I just don’t want trouble!”

The young woman defended herself like a child.

“Well…” The low, gentle voice carried a hint of indulgence. Li Yipeng tightened her somewhat loose tie, his lips curving in an alluring smile, “That might depend on my mood.”

After the man had walked away, Chuning clicked her tongue in annoyance. She returned to the young man’s side, “Is there anything else you want to buy? The mall will close soon if we’re any later.”

Xu Muzhou stared at the red tie on her school uniform, reaching out to loosen the tie that had just been properly tied. He turned his face away without speaking, visibly unhappy.

He had been fine just now, could it be that he overheard her conversation with Secretary Li?

“Don’t misunderstand, I don’t want my mom to know not because I don’t like you, but because it’s not appropriate for them to know about us two right now. When we find a suitable opportunity in the future, I’ll tell them.”

Fang Chuning carefully explained to him, never realizing before that liking someone could make you care so much about their thoughts.

She didn’t think in Li Yipeng’s direction at all, given the age difference between them. Although he was good-looking, she had always seen him as someone in Hong Jie’s age group.

At home, she was used to being served, with most of her dressing done by the housekeeper who helped her put on and arrange her clothes. So every time Li Yipeng adjusted her clothes, it felt natural.

Xu Muzhou looked at her again, “You’re going to help at the company during summer vacation?”

“Yes.”

The young man’s eyelashes lowered, “But then we won’t be able to see each other often…”

“We can, why not? As soon as I’m done with work, I’ll come find you, or you can come to the company to find me.”

He still seemed unsatisfied. The cotton candy in his hand had melted, dripping syrup onto his hand. Fang Chuning helped him throw the half-melted cotton candy into the trash bin and thoughtfully took out a tissue to wipe his hand.

The young woman’s thoughtful gesture still couldn’t completely dispel the gloom in his heart. The man’s words and actions kept flashing through his mind like a provocation, a suffocating feeling stuck in his chest.

He had lost interest in continuing to shop: “Let’s just go back, we still have class tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll take you back.”

On the way back, Xu Muzhou ignored her one-sidedly. No matter what Fang Chuning said, he just looked at the night scenery outside the window, not responding to her at all.

Fang Chuning felt deflated but still sent him back to his doorstep.

“You… rest early.”

The young man’s eyes were downcast, the hallway light falling on his face, his long eyelashes casting a shadow beneath his eyes.

Suddenly, he stepped forward. Before Fang Chuning could react, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her neck, burying his face deep in the crook of her neck.

“I like you so much…”

As if compromising, Xu Muzhou said muffled in her embrace, his straight nose tip nuzzling against her neck as if in weakness.

Fang Chuning, who had been a bit at a loss before, now frowned, dissatisfied and muttering softly: “Then why were you ignoring me just now.” She really couldn’t understand him, one moment ignoring her and the next hugging her, making her feel unsettled. The feeling of being neither here nor there was truly uncomfortable.

Xu Muzhou stayed still in her arms for a while, his voice extremely soft: “I felt uncomfortable… I don’t like that uncle.” Uncle?

Fang Chuning was slow to react for a second before realizing who he meant, instinctively asking: “Why?” Did these two have some grudge?

“Because he’s very good-looking, I don’t like you being so close to him.” The young man’s straightforwardness was amusing, that pure and childish jealousy was impossible to dislike.

Fang Chuning found it fresh and novel, looking down at him with bright eyes: “Are you jealous?” Xu Muzhou hugged her tighter, his eyes full of gloom where she couldn’t see, “If I say yes… will you dislike me?”

“No.”

She answered extremely quickly, and explained: “Secretary Li is my mother’s capable assistant, he likes my mother’s type. Besides, I think you’re much better looking than him.”

Xu Muzhou greedily breathed in the fragrance at her neck, slowly guiding: “But even so, I still don’t like him being close to you. You must think I’m very petty, right?”

Fang Chuning thought he was indeed a bit too sensitive, but even so it was very cute, “Then I promise to stay away from him in the future, okay?”

He seemed satisfied, nuzzling against her neck.

After a while, he raised his head, his eyes full of undisguised longing: “Will you hug me?”

Fang Chuning didn’t hesitate, gently embracing his slender waist.

The person in her arms still seemed a bit unsatisfied, “Hug me tighter…”

“……” Fang Chuning squeezed tightly.

A strange blush spread across Xu Muzhou’s fair face, he closed his eyes in satisfaction, his expression intoxicated.

By the time Fang Chuning returned to the Fang residence, it was already eleven at night. The servants had all retired, and the living room was quiet with only one lamp left on.

Feeling a bit hungry, she took out a piece of cake from the refrigerator while looking at her phone. She opened her photo album and clicked on the first photo.

In the photo, the beautiful young man was wearing an adorable pink cat ear costume. The delicate lines of his collarbone were even more eye-catching than the two cat ears on his head. He seemed to have noticed the sneaky photo, his alluring large eyes looking towards the photographer, his lips curled in a shy, bashful slight arc.

Fang Chuning set the photo as her phone wallpaper, closed the refrigerator door, and walked towards the living room.

Just as she reached the living room, she caught sight of someone standing at the foot of the stairs out of the corner of her eye, startling her with their silent presence.

“Qiqi?” Fang Chuning was a bit surprised. Why was he still here so late?

Su Qi was wearing pajamas, his fingers nervously fidgeting together, “Sister Ningning…”

“It’s so late, aren’t you going home?”

“Lili asked me to stay tonight to keep him company…”

Fang Chuning nodded, “It’s very late then, you should hurry up and go to sleep.”

“I… can’t sleep…” Su Qi’s gaze fell on the cake in her hand, gathering his courage as he squeezed his hands, “If Sister Ningning is hungry, would you like me to cook a bowl of noodles for you?”

Noodles?

Fang Chuning swallowed, “Do you know how to cook?”

The boy nodded vigorously.

“Then thank you for the trouble, please add more spice for me.”

As if granted permission, a delicate smile spread across Su Qi’s face as he happily went to cook noodles.

About ten minutes later, a steaming bowl of fragrant scallion noodles was placed in front of Fang Chuning. She picked up her chopsticks just about to eat when she noticed the person across from her staring intently at her, “Why are you looking at me, you should eat too.”

Su Qi lowered his head, picking up a few strands of noodles with his chopsticks and eating in small bites, not making a sound.

In contrast, Fang Chuning ate heartily, downing several mouthfuls of the hot spicy noodles, a thin layer of sweat forming on her forehead. Before she finished eating, her phone on the table began to vibrate.

She glanced at it and saw it was a video call from Xu Muzhou.

Fang Chuning hurriedly wiped her mouth with a tissue and picked up the phone to accept the call.

On the other end of the video, Xu Muzhou seemed to have just washed his hair but hadn’t dried it yet. His slightly messy hair made him look more lively and vivacious. He was hugging a pillow, his face flushed like a peach blossom, “I wanted to see if you got home safely.” He seemed to notice the bowl in front of her, “Are you eating something?”

“Mm, I’m eating noodles. I’ll take a shower and go to sleep after I finish eating.”

“Then rest early, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

After sweetly saying goodnight to each other, the call hadn’t ended yet when Xu Muzhou heard another faint voice through the video. It wasn’t there at the beginning. His brows furrowed imperceptibly as he asked curiously: “Is someone else eating with you?”

In the video, the young woman quickly glanced across from her, her tone hesitating for a second, “Ah, it’s my brother, he’s eating with me.”

Xu Muzhou’s hand holding the pillow slowly tightened, his smile unchanged, “Your brother is still up so late?”

“He’ll go to sleep after he finishes eating too.”

Fang Chuning felt a bit awkward. She mainly thought that if she directly said it was Su Qi, he would likely get angry, given that he could even be jealous of Secretary Li. He was quite the little jealous one.

The young man lowered his head, burying his face in the pillow. After a moment, he raised his head again, “Then… does your brother know about us dating… will it cause you any trouble?”

Fang Chuning’s lips curved upwards, “It’s fine, I have it under control.”

“Then… I’ll go to sleep first, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

The two bid each other goodnight once more, and the video call ended. Fang Chuning finished her noodles, “Just leave the bowl here, they’ll clean it up tomorrow. Go rest early after you finish eating, I’m heading up first.”

“Sister Ningning.”

Fang Chuning, who was about to go upstairs, looked back at him puzzled.

The boy timidly asked, “That brother just now… was he the one who came here last time?”

Fang Chuning admitted it frankly.

Su Qi looked very dejected, “That brother is so lucky to have such a good girlfriend like Sister Ningning.”

He seemed to remember something and said to the young woman softly but urgently: “Sister Ningning, can you wait here for me for a moment?”

Fang Chuning hesitated a bit but still nodded.

The boy ran upstairs, and soon came back down with a piece of drawing paper, presenting it to her like a treasure, “This is a new drawing I made for Sister Ningning. It took me a long time, can Sister Ningning take a look to see if you like it?”

The drawing was already colored. In the picture, she was playing with Wangcai. The details were vividly depicted, even down to the accessories she wore that day.

Fang Chuning glanced at it briefly, casually praising, “It’s drawn very well, thank you.”

After thinking for a moment, she still said to him: “Don’t tell Lili about my relationship with him, okay?”

Su Qi lowered his eyes, “I won’t say anything.”