Bai Mengling lay on the soft, large bed.
She took off her glasses and placed them on the nightstand.
“I have a boyfriend now!”
She murmured to herself.
She had some understanding of Liu Yan as a person—she knew very well that she hadn’t accepted his confession because she liked him.
To put it more bluntly, she felt she needed to catch her breath.
As the heir of the Bai Clan, she had always been questioned.
Since childhood, she had to be the best at everything.
For a family of the Bai Clan’s scale, marriage alliances weren’t always necessary—especially when her parents only had her as their sole daughter.
In this situation, marriage was almost equivalent to handing over wealth, power, and status to someone else.
In other words, her future partner could only be someone who “married into the family.”
A man marrying into her family… so what kind of person would be suitable for that?
Bai Mengling had considered this question before. She thought that since he would be marrying into her family, there was no need to consider business acumen or political skills.
He just needed to be dignified and graceful, gentle enough, and treat her well enough.
In other words, he needed to provide her with “emotional value.”
Even though the term “emotional value” seemed to have taken on a slightly derogatory meaning nowadays, for someone like her looking for a partner, this was indeed the aspect to consider.
So what exactly counted as emotional value?
First, the other person had to genuinely like her—not just approach her for money. Someone who came for money could respect her like a nanny or a butler, be deferential, take care of her daily life, but they could never truly move her heart.
Therefore, in the past, when Liu Yan was with Xia You, she had been quietly observing this man named Liu Yan.
To say he was with Xia You for her beauty… that didn’t seem right.
After all, Liu Yan had a childhood sweetheart who was no less attractive than Xia You, a girl named Chen Tang. If he were only after looks, he could have just gotten together with Chen Tang.
In fact, when Liu Yan pursued Xia You and was with her, he was completely devoted—though that might also be because Chen Tang had a terrible personality. But after meeting Chen Tang today, she realized this woman probably wasn’t just some troublemaker as rumors suggested.
The reason Liu Yan confessed to her—
One possibility was that breaking up with Xia You left him with some dissatisfaction.
Another was that his childhood sweetheart was school beauty level, his ex-girlfriend was school beauty level—this man’s aesthetic standards were so high that anyone below school beauty level wasn’t even in his consideration.
That might sound a bit ridiculous, but Bai Mengling felt it was only natural.
From this perspective, it was very natural for Liu Yan to pursue the number one school beauty—herself.
He didn’t truly like her.
She knew that very well.
But she was sure he would come to like her.
After all, she had her charm. As the Eldest Miss of the Bai Clan, her charm couldn’t be compared to someone like Xia You. More importantly, she had a superpower!
That’s right!
“I’m rich!”
As the saying goes, poverty makes everything difficult.
In Bai Mengling’s view, capturing the heart of a man like Liu Yan was very simple—give him a top-tier computer, a sports car, a house, and wouldn’t that be enough?
Was that hard?
Of course, she wouldn’t do it so bluntly—what would be the difference from a transaction? As gifts, given on special occasions… these men wouldn’t be able to resist.
She was the Bai Clan’s precious daughter, the Student Council President! A master of manipulating hearts!
Xia You only knew how to enjoy being pursued. For Liu Yan, who never got any reciprocation—someone like her, he definitely couldn’t refuse.
If she made him fall for her, would he then be like when he was with Xia You, his heart completely filled with her?
If that were the case, she could let him marry into the family.
Of course, if he couldn’t achieve that—then she would just tell him “we’re mismatched in social status” and dump him. Such a simple thing.
Sigh!
Sometimes I’m scared of my own intelligence. Bai Mengling, how can there be a woman as perfect as you in this world? Do you even want others to survive?
The Eldest Miss is once again proud of her beauty and wisdom today.
…
“You know what, if things really get out of hand, we’ll just get married, and then each do our own thing.”
Liu Yan’s eyes lit up.
Chen Tang’s face revealed a lecherous smile that a beautiful girl absolutely shouldn’t have, by any standard: “And think about it, as a beauty of my caliber, I could pretend to be making friends with other beautiful girls, then introduce them to you. I’ll trick them into coming home, and you just swoop in! Isn’t that great? We brothers will fight together! Make sure they can’t protect both ends!”
“Huh?”
Liu Yan was taken aback. His gaze swept over Chen Tang.
Can’t protect both ends?
Are you sure you’re not delivering yourself to me?
“Hey! You! What’s with that look?! I see evil thoughts in your eyes! Don’t tell me you’re interested in me?!”
Chen Tang shouted: “You bastard! I treat you like a brother, planning to help you pick up girls, and you give me that look?! What does that mean? Are you even human?”
Liu Yan coughed awkwardly and guiltily: “Cough, cough. You know how you look now. It’s hard for me to connect this face with your old face. Cut me some slack. And no matter how much of a beast I am, I wouldn’t touch my brother, right? You know what kind of person I am. I’ll fantasize a bit, but actually making a move? How would I dare?”
Would you really not dare?
Looking at the original novel, you switched girlfriends one after another, and it wasn’t like there was no bed action…
“Alright, let’s stop talking about useless stuff. You confessed to Bai Mengling, and she accepted. What are you going to do now?”
Liu Yan was stunned: “What do I do?”
“Exactly!”
Chen Tang said seriously: “Like I told you, she’s the Eldest Miss of the Bai Clan. I have to ask you first: have you ever thought about going all the way with her? I mean, even if it means marrying into the Bai family.”
“… Me? No, I haven’t.”
Liu Yan gave that answer.
“Then that’s great!”
Chen Tang looked very pleased: “So you need to adjust your mindset. You have to figure out what you want in this relationship. Do you want to have a sweet romance with her to get over being dumped by Xia You? Or do you want to make the Eldest Miss Bai cough up some gold coins to make your life more comfortable… I mean, you need to decide when you’ll break up with Miss Bai.”
“If I break up with her, won’t I be thrown into the river?”
“Be rational. I said her family might give you five million to get lost, but someone like the Eldest Miss Bai is proud. If you dump her, she definitely wouldn’t have the face to take revenge. That would confirm that you actually dumped her. So I’m leaning toward her dumping you if she finds out you’re not the ideal person she thought.”
“Then why am I dating her?”
Liu Yan was confused.
Chen Tang looked like she wanted to smack him: “To slap Xia You’s face! That woman’s only strength is her looks. Her brain is utterly useless. I don’t even know how she got into the same university as us.”
“Are you really going to attack her like that?”
“Don’t tell me you still care?”
“No, not really.”
Chen Tang continued: “Tell me, would a normal person break up with her boyfriend just because she had a chance encounter and thought it was fate?”
“Maybe she wanted to break up a long time ago, and just found an excuse. Maybe I did something wrong somewhere.”
“Holy crap! What a simp!”
Chen Tang said succinctly.
Liu Yan’s face instantly darkened.
But he couldn’t argue.
“In short, the goal of slapping Xia You’s face is basically achieved. Right now, Xia You is a clown. I bet that woman will come looking for you later. Then you’ll use the Eldest Miss Bai to slap her face hard! Don’t tell me it’s not necessary or something, and then let her step on your shell? If you do that, I’ll break off our friendship.”
Liu Yan really thought it wasn’t necessary—it seemed like he cared too much…
Well, he did care a bit, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten angry and confessed to Bai Mengling.
But he still felt this was a bit shady.
However, seeing how enthusiastic Chen Tang was, he figured, shady it is. Ever since they were kids, Chen Tang had dragged him into shady things. He thought she’d mellow out in college.
Turns out, she was just as shady, only the methods seemed more sophisticated now.
If it were before… by tomorrow, Xia You would’ve found a dead cockroach in her lunch—Chen Tang would definitely do something like that.
But come to think of it, although this person was shady, she never targeted him—he should count his blessings for their years of friendship.
Being targeted by Chen Tang was definitely not a good thing.
“You use Bai Mengling to crush Xia You! Then break up with Bai Mengling and find another girl you like—if you can’t find one, I’ll temporarily act as your girlfriend. We’re already set as childhood sweethearts in the story. When you tell Bai Mengling you realized the one you truly love is me, it’s reasonable enough. No one can argue. Bai Mengling isn’t unreasonable, right?”
Liu Yan rubbed his chin, feeling what she said kind of made sense.
“But isn’t it bad to make her cough up gold coins?”
“Hey! When you break up, you can give them back, right? If she doesn’t want them, that’s a different story. Anyway, our families aren’t exactly short on money. Take the money if you want, don’t if you don’t. A little gold coins to someone like the Eldest Miss Bai is just a number. Besides, your parents don’t give you much allowance.”
Liu Yan felt a bit embarrassed.
“In short! That’s the plan! The urgent thing is to win over the Eldest Miss Bai, then take her to crush Xia You in front of her! Mess with her mind! Then dump the Eldest Miss Bai and go back to your own life. Perfect!”
Well, aside from being a little shady, there didn’t seem to be any downside for him.
Of course, Liu Yan felt that being shady was often the biggest problem.
“Let’s play games! I’ll play Yasuo, you play Malphite.” Chen Tang made that decision.
A question mark instantly appeared above Liu Yan’s head: “Why don’t you play Malphite, and I play Yasuo?”
“You’re a dummy, so you play Malphite!”
“…”
As it turned out, although they were now living together, they seemed destined to disappoint their parents’ expectations—their hopes for grandchildren and marriage between the two families.
They chose to conquer Summoner’s Rift instead.
But as the saying goes, five friends at an internet café get quieter the more they play.
The same was true for Liu Yan and Chen Tang.
“You idiot! I think you don’t know how to play at all!”
“You’re the one who doesn’t know how to play! What do you expect from a tank Malphite?!”
And then they gradually fell silent.
“I’m done!”
Chen Tang pushed back her gaming chair, curled her legs up, and huddled into a small ball on the chair.
She looked tiny and cute.
Liu Yan glanced at the sight, and his frustration from the game instantly vanished. At that moment, he kind of understood why some people liked showing off that they had a girlfriend who gamed with them.
Speaking of which, Chen Tang really had turned into a slender, beautiful girl!
Liu Yan was once again keenly aware of this fact.
It was hard to connect this beautiful girl with the old Chen Tang.
So Liu Yan felt he should do something to lighten the mood.
“You want a late-night snack? I’ll cook some instant noodles.”
“Instant noodles? Why don’t you stir-fry some meat for me?”
“Bro, it’s midnight!”
Chen Tang grumbled: “Fine, midnight… then I want bamboo shoot noodles.”
“You still like bamboo shoots like that. Good thing I bought some yesterday.”
Liu Yan got up to cook the noodles.
Then Chen Tang followed him.
“Why are you following me?”
“I want to see if you’ll put an extra sausage in mine.”
Liu Yan looked at Chen Tang speechlessly: “If I don’t add a sausage, are you going to bite me twice?”
“That’s hard to say.”
Chen Tang grinned: “You start the noodles. I’ll fry two eggs on the other burner.”
“Can you finish all that?”
“! You underestimate me?! Brother, my appetite…”
Chen Tang stopped mid-sentence when she saw Liu Yan’s expression. He was staring at her seriously.
She coughed awkwardly: “You noticed?”
“I noticed a long time ago. Your appetite now is nowhere near what it used to be. You barely eat.”
“Haha~ After all, I became a beautiful girl. I can’t be a big eater like before!”
She scratched her head to show her embarrassment, then thought of something: “And look, hair like this is a pain to take care of. I’ve been learning from online tutorials.”
“I can help you.”
“Oh?”
“I used to help Xia You with her hair too.”
Chen Tang looked at Liu Yan with an ambiguous expression: “What’s this? You learned a skill from another woman and now you’re coming to me?”
“Do you see that condiment bottle over there?”
“Ah?! Bastard! You know I don’t eat vinegar when I eat! Put it down! If you pour vinegar in, everything is ruined!”