After visiting several stores, Chu Luyu bought about a dozen sets of seasonal clothing and two pairs of pajamas.
She hadn’t brought the card Jiang Hezhou had given her, so he ended up paying for everything each time.
Watching him swipe for over a hundred thousand yuan in total, Chu Luyu really felt a bit embarrassed.
She thought for a moment, then turned to Jiang Hezhou and said: “You’ve bought me so much stuff—let me treat you to a meal.”
There should be restaurants on the top floor of the mall, though at a place like this that only housed high-end brands, even a meal probably wouldn’t come cheap.
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, can you check which restaurant in this mall is the cheapest? I want to treat the male lead to a meal, but I’m afraid it’ll be too expensive.]
System Cuihua: [Sure, I’ll scope it out for you. But you’re being way too cheap. He just bought you all that stuff, and you’re going to pick the cheapest place to treat him?]
Chu Luyu: [No, it’s not that—you know the original owner’s situation as well as I do. Her WeChat balance, Alipay, and bank cards combined might not even add up to ten thousand yuan… When it’s time to pay, I’ll have to pool all the remaining balances together first.]
The original owner hadn’t really worked since graduating—she’d survived entirely on handouts from her family.
The system said Chu Luyu’s mother’s pension card had always been kept with her. It had about ten thousand yuan a month deposited into it. The original owner spent money carelessly, and that amount was never enough. Whenever she overspent, she’d immediately text her mother to transfer more.
She’d get an extra few tens of thousands from her mother every month, and still couldn’t save a dime.
Thinking about this, Chu Luyu hesitated for a moment, then asked the system: [What did the original owner major in during college again? And after graduation, she really never worked a single day?]
System Cuihua: [She went to some third-rate art school and picked a random fine arts major just to coast through. After getting her diploma, she briefly worked as a receptionist at her stepbrother’s law firm.]
The original owner’s stepbrother was a partner at a law firm—young and accomplished.
Chu Luyu: [Her stepbrother even arranged a job for her? That seems pretty nice of him.]
System Cuihua: [What do you mean “arranged”? She begged and badgered him for that job. She’d set her sights on one of her stepbrother’s friends, and since they were close and that guy was always at the firm, she insisted her stepbrother get her in there too. She made a huge scene about it. The family had no choice—she couldn’t do any other position—so they let her be a receptionist.]
That took Chu Luyu by surprise.
Chu Luyu: [I thought she didn’t have any other romantic interests before meeting the male lead.]
System Cuihua: [That’s hardly a romantic interest. She just liked how he looked and thought he was rich. But he never gave her the time of day. He kept himself clean and proper the whole time—until the female lead showed up.]
Chu Luyu blinked: [What do you mean? What’s that got to do with the female lead?]
System Cuihua: [Because the guy she was chasing back then is the second male lead—a wealthy heir from a prominent family, and also the mysterious benefactor who’d been funding the female lead’s education.]
Chu Luyu was stunned, her mind reeling with shock.
She wanted to ask the system more, but Jiang Hezhou spoke up beside her: “Are you hungry? There are a few restaurants upstairs. The Japanese and Thai places are the most authentic. Which would you prefer?”
He paused, then added: “You don’t have to pay.”
“Thai food, please.” Chu Luyu figured it’d be cheaper than Japanese.
Then she insisted earnestly: “I’m paying. It has to be me—with my own money.”
Chu Luyu had never been the type to take others’ kindness for granted. She couldn’t control what the original owner had been like before, but now that she was here, she believed in give and take.
Jiang Hezhou was a bit surprised by her insistence.
She looked up at him with those bright, almond-shaped eyes, stubborn and determined. Her gaze was still soft, but it carried a firm resolve.
It was a small matter, and Jiang Hezhou wasn’t about to argue with her.
Seeing her so insistent, he nodded.
“Alright. You pay, then.”
As they headed toward the restaurant area on the top floor, Chu Luyu had the system check the average cost per person at the Thai place—about a thousand yuan each. Well within her remaining balance.
When they got out of the elevator, Jiang Hezhou received a phone call.
He apologized and asked Chu Luyu to wait for him for a moment, then stepped aside to a corner to take it.
Chu Luyu, not one to waste time, took out her phone and started transferring money from her Yu’e Bao and several bank cards into her WeChat balance.
Total: 9,879.30 yuan—every last penny, down to the cent.
System Cuihua: [Those bank cards charge a monthly SMS alert fee, you know. Three yuan per card per month. If you leave nothing behind, how are they going to deduct the fees?]
Chu Luyu: [It’s fine. I’ll cancel all those useless services when I get back. Without money, who needs transfer alerts?]
Just then, a group of people slowly approached from the distance.
At the head was a young, handsome man in a tailored black suit, wearing an expensive watch on his wrist. Even from afar, his aristocratic air was unmistakable.
Chu Luyu figured he must be some CEO out on an inspection—he clearly wasn’t ordinary.
Her curiosity piqued, she took a couple of extra glances. But then, unexpectedly, the man looked over in her direction too. Their eyes met in midair without warning.
Uh… Chu Luyu still felt a little embarrassed being stared at by a stranger. She quickly averted her gaze, pulling out her phone and pretending to be very busy.
After a while, however, she still felt a gaze—faint but persistent—lingering on her from that direction. She didn’t dare look up again and could only ask the system.
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, why do I feel like someone over there keeps staring at me?]
System Cuihua: [Yep, someone’s definitely looking at you.]
Chu Luyu: [Is it that guy in the black suit? Does the original owner know him?]
System Cuihua: [She does. He’s the friend of her stepbrother that I mentioned earlier—the one she pursued so desperately. He’s also the second male lead in this drama, Qi Mubai.]
Upon hearing this, Chu Luyu’s first instinct was to run.
The original owner must have made a complete fool of herself in front of this second male lead. By extension, that meant she had made a fool of herself in front of him… Just the thought made her grab her things and duck around the nearest corner to hide.
Not far away, Qi Mubai had stopped and remained still.
The executives around him were all sharp cookies. Seeing that he wasn’t moving forward, they all halted as well.
His assistant, puzzled, glanced in that direction and asked quietly: “Mr. Qi, is there a problem?”
Qi Mubai casually withdrew his gaze.
“No, I just mistook someone for someone else.”
The girl just now, though she bore some resemblance to Chen Zhou’s stepsister, probably wasn’t her.
That woman always appeared dressed like a gaudy peacock. But that girl just now…
Qi Mubai’s mind flashed back to the brief moment their eyes had met.
Such clean eyes—there was no way they belonged to that woman.
With that thought, Qi Mubai no longer hesitated in his steps. “Let’s go.”
—
Chu Luyu had no idea when Jiang Hezhou found her. She was still pressed against the wall, peeking out to see if the second male lead had left.
He discreetly glanced in the direction she was looking—only saw a few business-types who looked like corporate executives.
After a moment, he tapped her shoulder from behind.
Afraid of startling her, he used little force. Chu Luyu instinctively turned around, and when she saw it was him, she seemed to let out a breath of relief.
“What are you doing over here?” he asked.
There was no way Chu Luyu could say she was hiding from a man she’d once chased and failed to catch. Her mind spun quickly, and she blurted out a lie: “Someone was trying to sell me a beauty membership card. They were way too pushy, and I didn’t want to be their sucker, so I came over here to hide.”
High-end brand malls usually didn’t allow salespeople in. Jiang Hezhou knew she was probably lying. He watched her in silence for a moment but ultimately didn’t call her out.
“Let’s go eat.”
It wasn’t quite peak meal time yet, so while the upstairs restaurants were busy, there wasn’t a wait for tables.
Chu Luyu and Jiang Hezhou were led by a server to an empty spot near the corner.
The restaurant’s overall decor leaned toward the darker side, with warm amber light spilling from above. Scattered decorative greenery surrounded them, and the air carried the faint aroma of Thai spices.
After sitting down, Chu Luyu pushed the menu the server had handed her toward Jiang Hezhou.
“You order.”
He didn’t refuse. After flipping through a couple of pages, he ordered a few of the restaurant’s signature dishes.
While waiting for the food, Chu Luyu got up to use the restroom. When she returned, she was surprised to see three young people now seated at their table.
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, what’s going on? Are these people the male lead knows?]
System Cuihua: [They’re his graduate students.]
Chu Luyu: [Ah… Would it be awkward if I went over there now?]
He was only reluctantly engaged to her. In this kind of situation, he probably wouldn’t want outsiders—especially his students—to know about their relationship, right?
As she hesitated, Jiang Hezhou seemed to sense that she’d come out. He turned his head and looked her way.
The warm light above fell straight down, casting shifting shadows across his already exceptionally handsome features, making them even more striking. Behind his lenses, his eyes were calm and gentle, yet they fixed on Chu Luyu without wavering.
She had no choice but to walk over.
There were three students in total—two young men and one woman. As Chu Luyu approached, she gave each of them a quick once-over. They all seemed like the bright, upright, good-kid type.
One of the young men, with a livelier personality, spotted an unfamiliar pretty woman beside their professor and immediately perked up with curiosity.
“Professor, who’s this beautiful lady?”
Jiang Hezhou’s voice was a bit cool, but his tone was natural and composed: “My fiancée.”
The three young people’s eyes lit up with gossipy excitement, especially the one who’d just spoken—he seemed almost thrilled.
“Nice to meet you, Professor’s wife!”
The other two, seeing him greet her, chimed in together: “Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!”
Chu Luyu was a little reserved, responding with a slightly shy smile: “Hello, hello to you all too.”
Soon after, the servers began bringing out the dishes.
They’d ordered just enough for the two of them, but now there were more than twice as many people. Chu Luyu thought for a moment, then tugged on Jiang Hezhou’s sleeve and leaned in to whisper quietly.
“Should we order a few more dishes?”
Her action was rather casual, but from the perspective of the three across the table, they couldn’t help but think their professor’s fiancée was just so adorable and likeable.
Their hands were busy beneath the table, firing off messages in their group chat one after another.
[Huang Shanjun]: Why is the professor’s wife so cute? And she’s so pretty too!
[Zhang Qi]: For real. That face is almost too beautiful. Remember how everyone used to speculate about what kind of girlfriend a model-faced professor like Jiang would end up with? Now that we’ve seen the answer, it’s way beyond expectations.
[Feng Yiyi]: She looks so perfect with our professor… I really want to take a photo and post it in the big group for everyone to see.
Chu Luyu had no idea they were buzzing with excitement over her. After saying her piece, she simply looked up at Jiang Hezhou with wide, expectant eyes, waiting for his response.
Jiang Hezhou caught that familiar sweet orange scent again. She was standing close, and when he lowered his gaze, it landed right on her pink, delicate lips.
A faint, ticklish sensation stirred in his throat.
He looked away without making it obvious, letting her stay close, and took a sip of the lemon water on the table. His prominent Adam’s apple rolled slightly against his pale, slender neck.
“I already added more dishes when they first arrived.”
The students across heard this and quickly chimed in.
“Yeah yeah, don’t worry about us, Professor’s wife! We’d be fine even just eating leftovers from you and our professor!”
“Hey, that’s going too far. You can eat leftovers yourself—I’m not having any.”
“What’s the matter? At a restaurant that costs over a thousand per person, eating leftovers is somehow beneath you?”
Chu Luyu watched their lively banter and found her spirits lifting.
After the students got past their initial curiosity about Chu Luyu, they went back to chatting with Jiang Hezhou about professional matters, as usual, while they ate.
Chu Luyu enjoyed both the food and the conversation.
At one point, they brought up the infamous “human meat dumpling” case.
“Professor’s wife, back then, seven or eight people went missing in that county, and none of them shared any common traits—gender, age, nothing. The provincial team was at a loss, so they borrowed officers from our city bureau. Our professor happened to be on leave and went along. Good thing he did too—anyone else wouldn’t have spotted a cooked human finger bone among a pile of dog bones in a single glance.”
Huang Shanjun had brought up this case not just to discuss past events but also with a bit of personal intent—to let the professor’s wife see just how brilliant their teacher was.
But Chu Luyu completely missed the point. Her attention was entirely captured by the case itself.
“Why was a finger bone mixed in with dog bones?”
“Because the killer was the owner of a dog meat restaurant. After killing his victims, he minced the human meat, mixed it with dog meat, and sold it as regular dog meat dumplings. As for the bones, he’d toss them all into a huge soup vat—over a meter tall—and sell it as dog meat broth…”
Huang Shanjun’s tone grew heavy as he repeated this: “Several living people, just like that, were turned into filling and bones under his cleaver. If he hadn’t been careless when disposing of the bones after making the broth—accidentally leaving behind a small finger bone—maybe even more people would have died.”
When Chu Luyu had watched dramas before, she’d always thought the male lead’s professional plotlines were just there to highlight his charm. But now, standing beside him in real life, listening to others talk about the cases he’d actually experienced, she suddenly felt a weight settle on her heart too.
Jiang Hezhou seemed to sense her shift in mood. Without a word, he placed a mango dessert in front of her.
“Have something sweet.”
“…Okay.”
Chu Luyu obediently took a bite, but her mood still wasn’t great. Her eyes dropped, her dark lashes pressing down, and her expression looked a bit heavy and unsettled.
The students’ group chat buzzed again.
[Huang Shanjun]: Ugh, if I’d known hearing this would mess with her mood, I shouldn’t have said anything.
[Zhang Qi]: It’s fine. The professor didn’t stop you when you were talking, so he probably doesn’t mind her hearing it either.
[Huang Shanjun]: But seriously, I could cry. Not only is the professor’s wife drop-dead gorgeous, but she’s also this kind-hearted! Lots of outsiders treat our case recaps like entertainment. I once dated a girl from the art department, and over dinner I told her about a few cases. She treated it like a midnight horror show, kept pestering me for more bizarre cases, listening with such enthusiasm, as if I was making up stories instead of talking about real things…
[Zhang Qi]: I remember that girl. After you stopped pursuing her, she made a scene outside your dorm, calling you a heartless player.
[Huang Shanjun]: Don’t even mention it.
[Feng Yiyi]: Anyway, no matter how you look at it, our professor’s wife is one of a kind! From now on, we need to stand firm with our professor and protect her!
[Huang Shanjun]: Yeah, yeah! There are way too many people at school eyeing our professor. We’ll be the guardians of their love!
Chu Luyu had no idea that they’d already become die-hard shippers of her and Jiang Hezhou. She’d only managed half the mango tart before she couldn’t eat anymore. The case details that student had described kept circling in her mind.
Minced human flesh. Bones crushed and boiled into the soup base…
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, I can’t handle it. I feel like throwing up.]
System Cuihua: [Hang on a second. Now’s not the time to puke.]
Chu Luyu: [Huh? What do you mean?]
The system didn’t answer, but another voice chimed in instead—
[Ding, new mission. In front of the male lead’s students, ask him to go buy you sanitary pads, and say the key line: “Sofy 420, extra-long, nighttime use.”]
Chu Luyu: …
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