How to make a woman fall for you? To be honest, Liu Yan didn’t really understand that subject.
If he understood, he wouldn’t have been dumped by Xia You.
He only believed in exchanging sincerity for sincerity—even though, before the world line changed, Chen Tang had mocked him for that.
But he wasn’t lying.
He really did feel happy.
He wasn’t an idiot. Wasn’t he sad when Xia You dumped him? Of course he was. In fact, any person has feelings. If he had no feelings and felt no sadness, that would mean he didn’t care at all about this matter—and then he would be a fake person.
People online always say sunk costs shouldn’t factor into major decisions.
Is that right?
Yes.
But it still hurts inside; emotionally, there’s still something that weighs on you.
He had to admit that—even now, while dating Bai Mengling, he couldn’t just completely forget about Xia You.
However, just as he couldn’t instantly forget his past with Xia You, Chen Tang’s actions were also reflected in his eyes.
He knew Chen Tang was comforting him.
Whether it was going out to eat with him that night, playing games, or goading him into confessing to Bai Mengling, or even provoking Bai Mengling these past two days… in the end, she did all of it for his sake.
As the saying goes, a gentleman dies for his intimate friend.
If this were ancient times, he’d probably say, “If you don’t reject me, I’d like to take you as my adoptive father.”
Honestly, if Chen Tang had been in the same situation, he doubted he could have been as thoughtful and devoted as she had been.
Chen Tang was a Demon Pill, but she was absolutely worthy of being his brother.
So he couldn’t just pretend nothing had happened and let Chen Tang, who had been shot down by Bai Mengling, stew in her anger alone—even if they were tight enough that a few words could clear things up… they still needed to talk it out.
Talking about it would be embarrassing, though.
Just like Chen Tang had immediately fled to hide her shyness.
In reality, he, Liu Yan, was also pretty nervous.
Fortunately, there was no one else in the kitchen at the moment, or else his shameful expression would have been exposed.
But…
To be honest, Chen Tang really looked good today.
He tried to control his gaze, but his eyes had already unconsciously wandered several times to that patch of thigh skin between her skirt and white knee-highs, that spot called the absolute territory—more glossy and radiant than the white socks.
Even though he comforted himself internally with “Confucius said: ‘Eating and sex are part of human nature,'”
it still felt a bit like betraying his brother.
How to put it?
This body of yours is also too attractive. If this continues, you’ll really be “no longer a brother.”
It bothered him.
A hot drop of oil suddenly splattered, landing on his arm.
It snapped him back to reality.
He realized he had been spacing out and had stopped stirring, which was why the oil had splashed on him.
Stir-fry! What are you thinking about!
He quickly focused back on cooking.
A poached fish in chili oil, a plate of sweet and sour ribs, a bitter melon scrambled eggs, and a pot of winter melon and crispy pork soup.
That was all the dishes for lunch today.
They didn’t look extravagant, but the portions were generous—total cost: one hundred twenty yuan.
For home cooking, that was already a pretty luxurious meal.
But since they had a guest, and the three of them couldn’t finish it all, he would be eating leftovers with Chen Tang in the evening.
“I can smell the aroma!”
Bai Mengling was genuinely surprised now. She hadn’t expected Liu Yan’s cooking to be this good—not fancy or refined, but the scent in the air didn’t lie.
Liu Yan clearly had solid skills.
Chen Tang then opened the refrigerator: “President Bai, what would you like to drink?”
“What do you have?
“Oh, soy milk and soda.”
“Then I’ll have soy milk.”
Chen Tang took out the soy milk from the fridge, along with a can of ice-cold cola, and placed it at Liu Yan’s seat.
Liu Yan naturally took it, popped the tab, and chugged a big gulp.
“Ah! Refreshing! Having an ice-cold cola every time after cooking is the best feeling ever. That’s the mood to truly savor the food.”
“Mengling, try my cooking.”
Chen Tang didn’t pay much attention; she started eating the ribs on her own.
Sweet and sour ribs was her favorite dish.
The poached fish was what Bai Mengling had ordered, so she naturally tried that first.
“Spicy, numbing, fresh, and fragrant! Your cooking is way better than the restaurant I took the Student Union to for a team dinner last time.”
She was genuinely impressed.
“Commercial restaurants prioritize efficiency; they simplify some steps,” Chen Tang immediately explained. “For example, stir-fried seasonal vegetables. At home, you stir-fry them. In a restaurant, they boil them first, then toss them in the wok for ten-plus seconds, add a bit of oil and seasoning, and serve it to you—the whole process takes less than thirty seconds. But the taste isn’t as good as normally stir-fried, and the texture suffers. Still, that’s not bad—at least they aren’t using pre-made meals.”
Since Chen Tang had grown up with Liu Yan and visited his family’s restaurant many times, she knew the tricks.
Liu Yan himself wasn’t good at saying these things, so she just said them directly.
“Today’s meal was specially prepared by Chef Liu to welcome his girlfriend for the first time. I’m even benefiting from your presence, President Bai. Otherwise, I bet this guy would just fry me some egg-fried rice for lunch.”
“Cough! You’re talking too much!”
Liu Yan was satisfied at first, but then she started tattling? As if he abused her? He’d seen how happy she was when eating his egg-fried rice.
That bastard Chen Tang… he couldn’t completely consider her an ally!
Bai Mengling just smiled. She planned to back off today—Chen Tang saw her as an opponent.
But she hadn’t been completely thoughtless. Earlier words from Chen Tang echoed in her mind.
What exactly were her feelings for Liu Yan?
Was Liu Yan really that important to her? Did she absolutely have to have him?
She was Bai Mengling. If she wanted a partner, she could find any number of outstanding young men. And her feelings for Liu Yan… honestly, they weren’t very deep. She was indeed curious about this man.
But if she thought about the distant future…
She hadn’t considered it.
Marriage and such—she always felt it had nothing to do with her.
But this girl named Chen Tang had already prepared to marry Liu Yan.
She herself had other choices, but for this girl, Chen Tang, maybe… Liu Yan was her only one?
So did she have to compete with Chen Tang?
Perhaps that wasn’t the right thing to do.
Eating the food, Bai Mengling’s mood became a bit complicated.
“Want to go to an internet cafe?”
After Liu Yan and Chen Tang cleaned up the dishes, he asked Bai Mengling.
“No, I was planning to play games with you guys, but the Student Union suddenly has something.”
She pulled out her phone, showing the Student Union group chat.
Someone was @-ing her.
“I see. I’ll walk you downstairs.”
As Liu Yan escorted Bai Mengling out, Chen Tang went into their gaming room and turned on the computer.
About ten minutes later, Liu Yan returned home.
“I thought you’d be cuddling with her for a while.”
“Her driver was already waiting downstairs. I couldn’t waste too much of their time.”
Chen Tang tucked her legs up and curled into the gaming chair—Liu Yan thought she looked really petite right now… even though she wasn’t short.
She seemed thinner.
“By the way, are you really not going to join the Student Union?”
Chen Tang asked while logging into the game.
Liu Yan glanced at her, then logged into his own account while saying, “Of course not. First of all, I never really liked the Student Union. Even though Mengling offered to pay me, it’s not a real job. If I wanted a job, I could work part-time at my dad’s restaurant. Why bother? Plus, I’d be seen as a kept man, and Xia You is in the Student Union too.”
“So what? Haven’t you moved on? Or have you not?”
“…As the saying goes, a qualified ex should be as good as dead. If I joined the Student Union and she was in front of me every day—we broke up on decent terms, but we’d end up as enemies for no reason. No need for that, right? You said she was seen helping her boyfriend to the hospital after he got into a fight with a stranger. What if one day he decides to pick a fight with me?”
“Then we’ll take him down! It’s not like you can’t fight!”
Right.
As the male lead of a regret novel, Liu Yan’s character was actually quite exaggerated. In short, in the original story, Liu Yan would encounter three dangerous situations: in his junior year, when he entered society, and just before he disappeared.
The first time, in his junior year, was to help the new advisor—another beautiful girl, of course.
But she hadn’t appeared yet, so that was beside the point. To sum up, when faced with a dozen thugs, Liu Yan was stabbed six times and survived, even driving them away—even if it was an exaggeration in terms of setting.
After all, in this era depicted in the novel, such thugs logically shouldn’t appear in a group. But under the Hand of Heaven’s Will, those thugs did appear, surrounded that advisor, and Liu Yan intervened.
And despite being severely injured, Liu Yan only lay in bed for three days before rushing off to trigger the next plot point, bandaged all over, to solve his cousin’s storyline.
Honestly, it was hard to imagine why this person would eventually suffer so much and die.
But regardless, before the story reached that point, there was no doubt—Liu Yan had the stats.
This was a tough guy who could wander around with bandages after being stabbed six times and spending three days in the hospital.
Although part of that superhuman combat power might be due to the Hand of Heaven’s Will, then again…
Chen Tang had never seen Liu Yan lose a fight.
Even though he never started fights.
But as everyone knows, Chen Tang was a Demon Pill.
Back in the day, whenever she caused trouble, she’d run to Liu Yan, and the two brothers were invincible.
Now she had turned into a beautiful girl, though.
But that didn’t change much. After all, for one hundred, adding one or two made no difference. Even though for one, becoming two was a doubling of strength.
In terms of combat power, Chen Tang compared to Liu Yan was roughly like that.
“Come on, fighting is pointless, right?” Liu Yan shot Chen Tang a glare. “Am I the kind of person who goes looking for trouble?”
“Up to you~ In the end, it’s your business.”
Chen Tang didn’t want to say too much. “But what are you planning to do next week?”
“Next week?”
“The debate competition.”
“I’ll just go watch and cheer or something… What’s the problem?”
Liu Yan didn’t start the game; he stared at Chen Tang. “You sound like you have something to say…”
Just as Chen Tang knew Liu Yan, Liu Yan also knew Chen Tang. Like how one sentence from him had restored her spirits at noon.
If Chen Tang didn’t have something to say, she would already be yelling, “Hurry up and get in the room! What are you dawdling for?”
Instead of going on about seemingly useless stuff.
“I looked into that debate contest. It’s posted on the school’s promotional website. The opposing team is from another school. The prize money is twelve thousand, and according to what you said, ten thousand was sponsored by Miss Bai.”
“What’s the problem?”
“No problem at all. The problem is Miss Bai’s opponent—they’re from the neighboring College of Arts and Sciences.”
Liu Yan stared at Chen Tang. “Care to elaborate?”
Chen Tang then took out her phone, opened a webpage, and showed it to him. “The key is this participant list and their contestant declarations. Their school’s official website has related videos. I’m guessing Miss Bai hasn’t seen them. The others probably haven’t either; they’re all busy preparing their own debates. Want to take a look?”
Liu Yan opened those promotional videos—only three minutes long, and he finished them quickly.
“W-What does this mean?”
“I mean, even though the prize money was sponsored by Miss Bai, in the end, even if she wins, she won’t feel very satisfied. I think this matter will eventually reach Miss Bai’s ears anyway.”
Participating in the debate competition for a sick classmate.
Also to gain more public attention, hoping good-hearted people could offer some help, etc.—those things were mentioned in the promotional video.
Obviously, it was also approved by the school.
It mentioned that the school had organized a donation.
Now that was…
“You actually investigated all this?”
“If you weren’t dating Bai Mengling, I wouldn’t have bothered.”
Liu Yan said awkwardly, “But I never expected her to agree.”
“Who would’ve thought? I never thought she’d agree either! I should’ve stopped you from messing with her. Now we can’t just break up easily—we can’t afford to offend Miss Bai.”
Both were silent.
After a long moment, Chen Tang asked, “So, what are you going to do?”
“You’re so sure I’ll get involved?”
“If you don’t, then forward that video to Miss Bai. Since you’re her boyfriend, she’ll watch it. She’ll figure out how to deal with it herself. But I get the feeling you’re not planning to do that.”
“You know me a little too well, bro. I feel like I have no privacy.”
Chen Tang opened the game. “What you do is your business. Hurry up and get in the room! Stop dawdling! Today, watch me carry you with my Lee Sin! You pick Soraka—later, watch me Insec kick all five!”[fn]In League of Legends, “Insec kick” is a technique named after the player Insec, using Lee Sin’s ultimate to kick an enemy champion. Soraka is a support champion; the speaker is joking about the mismatch.[/fn]
“Okay!”
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