“What? You didn’t pass her parents’ test?”
Chen Tang looked at Liu Yan with a rather gleeful expression. “Ah, you poor guy. A perfectly good chance to live off a woman’s wealth, and it just slipped away like that. Looks like you weren’t cut out for that kind of life.”
Liu Yan sighed. “Who says I wasn’t? I wanted to enjoy the good life too. It’s a pity my stomach’s fine, and the doctor said I don’t need soft food.”
As he said this, he glanced at the obedient Liu Mengmeng beside him. “Mengmeng, you visited our school today. How did it feel?”
“Hmm… how should I put it? I’m pretty satisfied with everything else, but the dorm conditions… I heard it’s six people to a room.”
Liu Mengmeng’s face fell. “Six people in one room is way too troublesome.”
Chen Tang and Liu Yan exchanged a look. Then Liu Yan spoke up. “If you don’t mind, you can stay with us. There’s an empty room, just right for you. I’ll talk to my uncle and aunt about it later and see what they think. Our school doesn’t enforce mandatory boarding. If your grades are good enough and you happen to apply to our school, you can come live with us.”
Liu Mengmeng’s face immediately lit up. “Really? Cousin! Awesome! My parents will definitely agree!”
At that moment, Chen Tang realized that her and Liu Yan buying a house together was itself an unexpected major change in the plot.
After all, in the original novel, following the original timeline, although the two families were indeed close, considering that both of them would eventually find girlfriends, they wouldn’t have bought a house together. They would definitely have bought separate houses.
But in the current timeline, both sets of parents thought the two were a couple and destined to get married, so they bought a house together. That led to them living together, which in turn triggered a plot that wouldn’t have appeared in the original novel?
In other words, events that happen in this house could serve as…
Twisted Points?
She didn’t dwell on the thought any further.
Instead, she handed Liu Yan the milk tea she’d already taken a couple of sips from.
“Hm?”
“I didn’t buy one for you earlier, but you probably won’t mind drinking mine, right?” she said with a grin. “After all, it’s a beautiful girl’s imported ingredients. You should be grateful for the indirect kiss.”
If she hadn’t said that, Liu Yan might have already taken a drink. But as soon as she brought it up, he made a disgusted face. Instead, he directly took off the lid and, without using the straw, took two big gulps straight from the cup before handing it back to Chen Tang.
“Your reaction is totally not fun. You’re supposed to be a little shy, a little embarrassed, and then stubbornly drink it anyway. This is boring.”
“Have you been watching too many青春 romance animes lately?”
Liu Yan rolled his eyes. “What exactly are you trying to do?”
“Hey, I’m just afraid you’re feeling hurt after getting dumped.”
Liu Yan immediately defended himself. “Who says I got dumped! I dumped her! Let me show you… ah, I already deleted her as a friend. Never mind. Long story short, I’m the one who broke up with her! Got it?”
“Fine, fine, you’re the best. You’re the one who broke up with her. You couldn’t even be bothered with Miss Bai of the Eldest Daughter.”
Chen Tang didn’t bother arguing with him further.
She noticed Liu Mengmeng secretly snickering on the side.
She could tell with her toes what that girl was giggling about.
Either she was happy that Liu Yan broke up, or she was happy that Liu Yan didn’t get an indirect kiss from Chen Tang.
Do you have to be that obvious?
“So what now?”
Liu Yan thought for a moment, then said, “Since Mengmeng is here today, and to celebrate me being single again, let’s go eat at Hai Di Lao tonight. My treat.”
“Yay~ I love their pork belly soup.”
Chen Tang raised both hands in agreement.
Liu Mengmeng looked a bit embarrassed. “Cousin, you don’t have to… isn’t that too much?”
“Hey, it’s fine.”
Chen Tang leaned in and whispered in Liu Mengmeng’s ear, “Uncle Liu and the others think your cousin is dating me, so they gave him a special ‘dating fund’ for our outings. But you know how it is. So just freeload off the big spender! When he treats me to a meal, he can get reimbursed by Uncle Liu.”
“Huh?”
Aren’t you two basically conspiring to scam living expenses?
Liu Mengmeng was a bit speechless.
“What do you mean ‘scam’? For scholars, can you call it scamming? Besides, that money is meant for him to take me on dates. Me eating with him is a date, isn’t it? If worse comes to worst, I’ll give him a little benefit. I won’t be shortchanging him.”
“Huh? Really? Is that how it works?”
“Yes, yes.”
Liu Yan frowned. “What are you two whispering about over there?”
“Discussing whether to give you some benefits.”
Chen Tang blurted it out straightaway.
“Huh?”
Liu Yan’s interest was piqued. “Benefits? What do you mean?”
“You just got dumped, right? I figured since a woman caused you pain, a woman can also soothe it. Me and Mengmeng count as beautiful girls, don’t we? I was thinking about whether we should wear maid outfits or bunny girl outfits to cheer you up and soothe your wounded heart.”
“That… that’s not good…”
“If you can manage to wipe that grin off your face, I might believe you’re a gentleman.”
“Ahem!”
Liu Yan coughed twice. “Anyway! I told you, I dumped her! There’s no wounded heart. If anyone’s sad, it’s her. I’m doing just fine.”
“Fine, fine~ Whatever you say, Master Liu~”
Chen Tang didn’t plan on offending the person who was treating them to a good meal tonight.
She looked at Liu Mengmeng, who was blushing from her earlier words. “Alright, stop daydreaming! You weren’t actually planning on wearing them for him, were you?”
“Huh? We’re not wearing them?”
Liu Yan shot her a look. “You little rascal, keep dreaming. Where are we going after this? We’ve pretty much seen the school. At most, I can show you the shops around here.”
“Do you guys have anything to do this afternoon?”
Chen Tang looked at Liu Yan, who gave a slight nod.
She said, “Nothing much. I was planning to go home and play games. Do you have plans this afternoon?”
“I don’t either. Let’s go have some fun together!”
“Sure~”
Liu Yan and Chen Tang then accompanied Liu Mengmeng to the mall. They found a DIY craft shop and made a few bracelets together.
One for each person.
“Alright, no one is allowed to take them off, okay~ You have to wear them.”
Liu Yan looked at his bracelet. “The quality of these isn’t great. If you wear them while showering or something, they’ll probably break quickly.”
“Then take them off when you shower.” Chen Tang shook the light blue beads on her right wrist.
The right hand seems a bit inconvenient… but men wear on the left, women on the right. Would wearing it on my left hand feel too deliberate?
In the end, she put it on her right hand anyway.
Then the three of them went to Hai Di Lao for a meal. Nothing particularly special happened in between.
After dinner, they finally sent Liu Mengmeng home.
After that, Chen Tang and Liu Yan walked home together.
“So even now, she still hasn’t contacted you.”
The sudden remark didn’t surprise Liu Yan. If anything, he was surprised that Chen Tang—this Demon Pill—hadn’t brought it up until now, except for a mention when they met in the afternoon.
It actually moved him a little… Chen Tang had finally grown up a bit.
If it were the old days, he felt she would have mocked him the entire afternoon.
But today, waiting until Liu Mengmeng was sent home to talk about it was a sign of maturity… Not that there was anything between him and Chen Tang that needed hiding anyway.
“It makes sense she doesn’t contact me, right? From my perspective, I felt uncomfortable. From hers, she definitely feels uncomfortable too. The fact is, I didn’t choose her.”
Chen Tang asked, “So what exactly happened this afternoon?”
Liu Yan told her what happened.
Even Chen Tang couldn’t help but sigh.
It could only be blamed on that shitty author.
Why did he have to give Bai Mengling the background of being the eldest daughter of the Bai Group? What was the point? If the novel actually had serious business-war content, it would be one thing, but from what I saw in the original, the business-war parts were absolute trash.
Just a time skip for a line.
“Two years later, Bai Mengling had already swept through the X City business world and became a young female entrepreneur famous throughout the entire Xia Kingdom.”
Where’s the process?
Are you sure that wasn’t just a joke?
In short, it was one sentence in the book, but in reality, it became an extremely heavy weight. The Bai Group really could do whatever they wanted in X City.
People from families like Liu Yan and Chen Tang’s couldn’t afford to provoke them.
Unless they were truly prepared to emulate that Japanese guy with a gun, they had no capital to fight back.
There was no need to go that far anyway.
At the end of the day, it was just a test by Bai Mengling’s parents, and Liu Yan didn’t pass. Choosing to end the relationship in a relatively dignified way wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
As for whether this would offend Bai Mengling personally?
Probably.
But if she wanted revenge, she’d have to wait until she graduated from university and took over the company, then, according to the author’s description, swept through the X City business world in two years.
Even so, so what?
She had a good pair of hands and feet. Liu Yan did too. She’d saved up some money, and both of their grades were decent. At worst, they could study a foreign language in their junior or senior year and then just head abroad. Even if the Bai Group had their ways, they could just go to some obscure little European country and live in peace.
There was no need to pick a fight with Bai Mengling.
Why bother?
So she patted Liu Yan on the shoulder. “Sigh! There’s really no way. These rich folks are insane. What’s going on in their heads? Who even comes up with tests like that? If they don’t want their daughter to have a boyfriend, just say so. I bet all these rich people are living wild lives. Could it be that old man Bai has designs on his own daughter?”
“…You don’t have to slander and spread rumors like that.”
“Hey, I’m just venting for you, bro.”
Liu Yan shook his head. “Like you said, I never expected her to agree in the first place. Didn’t you tell me to break up as soon as possible?”
“That’s true, but I didn’t think it would be so fast. So what are you going to do now? You’ve lost all your girlfriends. You messed them all up. Not that you ever slept with any of them.”
“…You’re crossing the line.”
“How am I crossing the line?”
Liu Yan didn’t want to continue this discussion. He felt his blood pressure rising.
They chatted like this all the way until they reached their doorstep.
Liu Yan noticed a package by the door.
Chen Tang picked it up and held it in her arms. “It’s something I ordered. Don’t worry about it. You go cook first.”
“Okay.”
Liu Yan started cooking.
About ten minutes later, Chen Tang slipped into the kitchen.
“!”
The spatula in Liu Yan’s hand dropped.
“Chen Tang! Are you serious!”
“Oh my~ you’re so bad, landlord~”
She played along with the classic scene.
Because at that moment, Chen Tang was wearing exactly the maid outfit she’d mentioned earlier. And it wasn’t a proper one—it was the kind that often appeared in anime, packed with all the fan-service elements.
Black knee-high bubble socks, a miniskirt, a form-fitting bodice, lace trims, a large opening at the chest, and a maid headband on her head.
“How do I look?”
She twirled around in the skirt.
“You… when did you buy that?”
“I bought it this afternoon. I was hoping it would arrive by tonight. If it didn’t, I would have worn it tomorrow to show you. Luckily, it came just in time.”
Liu Yan turned off the stove, picked up the spatula, rinsed it clean, and finally calmed down.
“Seriously, you’re actually wearing it!”
“I said I’d give you a little benefit and soothe your heart. Did you think I was joking?”
Liu Yan gave a wry smile. “No, that’s not necessary.”
“It is necessary!”
Chen Tang’s firm tone surprised him.
She said it again. “It is necessary! Liu Yan, it’s necessary. You deserve it.”
“What are you even talking about…”
“It hurts, doesn’t it?”
Chen Tang took two steps forward and suddenly hugged Liu Yan. “I know it hurts. I understand. If the roles were reversed, I would have punched Du Zitang in the face, then rushed out to find Bai Mengling’s parents who hadn’t gone far and slapped them twice!”
“Chen Tang, I…”
“I know. We’re brothers. I know how you feel. They say Han Xin endured the humiliation of crawling between someone’s legs—but there’s only one Han Xin. How can anyone stay calm when something like this happens?
If it were before, I wouldn’t have known how to comfort you. I would’ve just dragged you out for a drink. But now…”
Her tone was very gentle. “Look at me now. At least I’m a beautiful girl. With this beautiful girl’s body, thanks to the timeline change, I can at least give you… a little comfort. Don’t you think?”
Liu Yan finally placed his hands on Chen Tang.
Just as Chen Tang was hugging him, he hugged her back.
And Chen Tang could feel the strength in his arms.
It was as if he wanted to crush her into his body. The force was almost suffocating—but Chen Tang didn’t find it painful.
Instead, it felt like entering a warm, isolated little world.
She had never experienced this before.
So this is what Liu Yan’s embrace feels like?
Was it because she was so petite now?
Why did it feel… kind of nice?