Chapter 61: Caught in the Act

At night, the bustling street…

At night, the crowds on the bustling street were like tides, with neon signs flickering like jewels adorning the night’s attire, colorful and dazzling, making this prosperous and lively city appear full of vitality.

In the fruit section of a 24-hour supermarket, Fang Chuning, wearing an employee uniform, was picking out fruits that didn’t look good or fresh.

Although wasteful, these were all going to be thrown away.

Suddenly, a slender hand reached out from beside her, taking an apple with poor appearance that she had just put into the box she was holding. Immediately after, there was a “crunch” sound beside her ear, and Fang Chuning turned her head.

Li Yipeng chewed slowly, and only after swallowing completely did he speak: “This apple is quite good.”

“Even if it’s good, you can’t just take it to eat. If you want to eat, buy it yourself,” Fang Chuning said irritably. This person had nothing better to do than come and interfere with her work all day.

“Don’t be so stingy. They’re going to be thrown away anyway. Eating one or two, they won’t know.”

As if they wouldn’t know. What were the security cameras for?

Li Yipeng took another bite of the apple, his narrow eyes revealing a hint of pleasure. He held the apple with two bites taken out of it in front of her, “This apple is very sweet, you should try it too.”

Fang Chuning turned her face away, continuing to pick out bad fruits, “No, I’m working. Don’t disturb me.”

Li Yipeng walked to the side, leaning against the fruit rack, slowly eating the apple, his gaze following her movements.

After picking out the fruits, Fang Chuning still had to cut various fruits into several pieces for customers to taste and buy.

She lowered her head, carefully cutting pears into blocks and carving flowers, then cutting strawberries half the size of a palm into several pieces, as well as mangoes, bananas, and honeydew melons. These skills were taught to her by an uncle who had worked in the fruit section for several years, saying it would better attract customers’ attention.

Li Yipeng watched with great interest from the side, his thin lips curving up sensually, “You’ve learned this skill quickly. You could find a job specializing in carving in the future.”

“You’re so annoying, go away!”

Not only did the man not leave, but he also used a toothpick to pick up a strawberry she had just cut and put it in his mouth, “It seems to have gone bad.”

“Huh?” Fang Chuning stopped what she was doing and looked up. Then a piece of strawberry was forcefully fed into her mouth. She was stunned for a moment, and Li Yipeng said with a smile: “Taste it and see if it’s gone bad.”

After instinctively chewing, Fang Chuning frowned: “It’s not bad.”

“Then maybe my tongue is temporarily malfunctioning.”

In short, he was just bored and came to make trouble for her. Fang Chuning gave him a white eye and ignored him. More than ten minutes later, she looked at her “masterpiece” with satisfaction, feeling more proud than when she won her first ball game.

“Doesn’t it look good?” When in a good mood, even the man became pleasing to the eye.

Li Yipeng’s eyes were like water, and he curved his lips in approval under the girl’s expectant gaze, “Mm, you have talent.”

Perhaps the variety of fruits really could attract more customers. Soon a group of people gathered around them, but while other tasting points were full of uncles and aunties, hers was filled with young and energetic youths.

As they sampled in a proper manner, their eyes kept stealing glances at the girl. Li Yipeng shook his head helplessly. This supermarket probably recognized her “commercial value” and deliberately arranged for her to be at the tasting area for expensive imported fruits.

After tasting the fruits, not many people bought them. Fang Chuning brought new fruits to continue cutting. Li Yipeng couldn’t bear to watch, “At this rate, the fruits won’t be sold out, they’ll be tasted out.”

“There’s nothing I can do about that.” She was only responsible for her assigned work; whether people bought or not wasn’t something she could control.

Li Yipeng held his forehead, “If you talked more and introduced them more, they would buy.”

Fang Chuning thought this made sense and went back to cutting fruits. Suddenly, a warm presence approached her ear, and the man whispered: “Look over there, who’s that?”

Who?

Fang Chuning glanced casually, and when she saw the figure she hadn’t seen for a few days, her eyes suddenly brightened. She put down the fruit knife and waved, “Muzhou, over here, over here!”

Xu Muzhou stood at a distance, looking at the two of them, his face showing no pleasure.

Fang Chuning wiped her hands and quickly went over, “Muzhou, did you come to see me?”

Although he had returned, because she spent all her time working part-time jobs, leaving early and returning late, the two hadn’t seen each other since their meeting at the restaurant.

Now that he had come to see her on his own initiative, Fang Chuning was very happy.

Xu Muzhou’s cool eyes lingered on her face for a second before moving away. He pressed his crimson lips together, “I was just passing by with Shaoqing.”

Only then did Fang Chuning notice Qin Shaoqing behind him. She felt a bit disappointed but quickly returned to normal, “What do you want to buy?” She took his hand and walked to the fruit section, “I’ll pack some fruits for you to take home.”

Qin Shaoqing followed behind with a look of disdain, “Seriously, Fang Chuning, did your family go bankrupt? Aren’t you embarrassed to be working in a place like this?”

“It’s not your face that’s being lost, so you don’t need to worry about it,” Fang Chuning retorted.

“You should at least consider Muzhou, you know. You’re just here attracting bees and butterflies, leaving him aside. Is this how you act as someone’s girlfriend?”

“Shaoqing,” Xu Muzhou looked a bit unhappy, “Everyone has their own things to do, you can’t force others.”

He then turned to the girl with a faint smile, “Shaoqing and I have something to do, we won’t disturb you.”

Fang Chuning opened her mouth, wanting to keep him, but just then the supermarket supervisor noticed them, “Hey you, no chatting or fooling around with customers during work hours.”

So Fang Chuning could only watch him leave.

Li Yipeng pretended to comfort her: “School is starting soon anyway, you’ll have plenty of time to stick together then. Just hang in there for a few more days.”

That made sense. She had endured for so long, just two more days and she could get her salary. It would be too painful if she got a pay cut now.

Fang Chuning calmed down and went back to cutting fruits.

At the supermarket entrance, Xu Muzhou stopped. After waiting for more than ten seconds without seeing anyone come out after him, he slowly clenched his fist, his fingers turning white from the excessive force.

Qin Shaoqing was still feeling indignant for him, “That Fang is really too much! She’s probably just here for fun and novelty. Women really can’t be relied on!”

Seeing Xu Muzhou not saying anything, he became even more unrestrained in expressing his blame towards the girl, finally blurting out: “Someone like that isn’t worth liking at all, you might as well break up!”

Xu Muzhou’s sinister eyes suddenly pierced towards him.

Qin Shaoqing was startled and immediately shut up.

It was always like this. Whenever it involved that woman, Xu Muzhou would become abnormally different, sometimes even frightening him.

It was all because of that Fang girl. What was so good about her? That woman…

…

On the last day of work, Fang Chuning received her half-month salary at the supermarket, which was 1,200 yuan. Adding the 5,000 yuan from her internship at the company, she had a total of 6,200 yuan. Although not much, compared to when her purse was empty before, at least she had some confidence now.

In the evening, she sent a message to Xu Muzhou, wanting to invite him out for dinner tomorrow.

But he refused, citing that he had already made plans with friends.

With only three days left before school started, having finally gotten some free time, Fang Chuning didn’t want to miss the opportunity for a date.

Unfortunately, the other party didn’t seem to share her enthusiasm.

Her originally excited mood deflated. On the other hand, Gao Qiong, who had just returned from traveling, also invited her to go out tomorrow, and Fang Chuning agreed.

The next day at noon, they went to a dessert shop they used to frequent for milk tea. In the scorching summer, the dessert shop was full of air conditioning, not feeling a bit of heat.

Gao Qiong took a sip of milk tea, chewing while looking at her, “So what do you plan to do? Constantly going against your mother won’t do you any good.”

Fang Chuning leaned back in her chair, tilting her head to look outside, saying nonchalantly, “What’s the big deal? Even without the Fang family, I can still live well on my own.”

“That’s the difference in quality of life. Do you want to be like those people in the slums? Where sunlight can’t even penetrate where they live. Besides, without money, it’s easy to get dumped by men.”

Fang Chuning glared at her, “Don’t compare Xu Muzhou with the men you know!”

Gao Qiong shrugged, “I’m just making a comparison.”

“But, I originally thought I wouldn’t be able to meet up with you, since you two are always inseparable.”

Mentioning this made Fang Chuning a bit depressed. She picked up the hot cocoa on the table and took a sip, saying gloomily, “I feel like he doesn’t like me as much anymore.”

“Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know, just a feeling.”

Gao Qiong looked at her for a while, then looked away and scratched her eyebrow, seeming to have something to say but struggling whether to say it or not.

“If you want to say something, just say it. You making that expression makes me even more anxious.”

“It’s like this,” Gao Qiong adjusted her sitting posture, glancing at her expression, hesitantly saying, “Yesterday… I think I saw the vice president with that new girl…”

Fang Chuning’s eyelids twitched, “Lin Yuechan?”

“Yes, I’m not sure if I saw wrong, but I think I saw them drinking something in a restaurant…” Seeing the girl’s expression getting worse, Gao Qiong quickly changed her words, “Actually, I might have seen wrong. I had just gotten off the plane, maybe it’s easy to have hallucinations after being at high altitude!”

“Bang” The chair was kicked back violently. By the time Gao Qiong reacted, Fang Chuning had already disappeared from the dessert shop.

She felt a bit regretful, not knowing if speaking up was a good thing or a bad thing.

Fang Chuning took a taxi to the apartment where Xu Muzhou lived. Arriving at his door, she rang the doorbell. After pressing several times with still no one opening the door, Fang Chuning went downstairs to wait at the main entrance of the apartment building.

Having come in and out of here many times, the security guard recognized her, “Little miss, are you waiting for someone?”

Fang Chuning nodded, “Am I disturbing you?”

“Not at all. Come in and wait, it’s hot outside.”

“No need, I’m fine here.”

“You should still come in. I know who you’re waiting for. That young man won’t be back so soon.”

Fang Chuning was slightly stunned. She looked at the female security guard, “Does he go out every day?”

“That I don’t know, but when he does go out, he doesn’t come back until the afternoon. A while ago, he seemed to have gone abroad, and only recently returned.”

Fang Chuning suddenly felt a bit nervous, “Does he always come and go alone?”

“Not always. Sometimes he comes back with a boy.”

A boy? That should be Qin Shaoqing.

The female security guard continued, “Once or twice, it was a girl who sent him back, but she didn’t enter the community, just dropped him off at the gate and left.”

Her heart, which had just relaxed, sank again. Around 3 PM in the afternoon, Xu Muzhou did indeed return, and with him was Lin Yuechan.

So this was what he meant by having plans.