After returning to his room, Jiang Hezhou went to the bathroom and took another shower.
Except the first one had been clean—this one was not.
Earlier, Chu Luyu’s skin temperature had completely betrayed her. He didn’t understand why the girl always started off so boldly, only to become shyer and shyer as things went on.
……
After he finished, Jiang Hezhou skillfully reached for a tissue.
By now, he’d grown very familiar with this routine.
In the beginning, he’d felt a sense of shame—thinking it was filthy to do such things while thinking of Chu Luyu.
But now, he didn’t feel that way at all anymore.
It was as if he’d been a castaway struggling at sea, desperately swimming toward the light. Back then, he had despised the darkness and all the unknowns lurking beneath the surface.
But then Chu Luyu came along, reached out her little hand, and pulled him down to the ocean floor. And once he got there, he discovered it wasn’t as dark as he’d imagined—there were colorful shells and shimmering pearls.
Suddenly, he didn’t want to struggle anymore. He wanted to stay at the bottom of the sea—to stay in that treasure-filled place where she was.
·
When they woke up the next morning, Jiang Hezhou took Chu Luyu and the others to have breakfast.
The resort’s restaurant was located on the first floor. By the time they arrived, the others were already waiting there.
Zhang Jiting, having bottled up his frustration all night, finally had an outlet.
“Someone said they’d come right back to hang out with us after taking their girl to the room—and then they were gone all night! I called you so many times, and you didn’t pick up a single one!”
Ji Chen chimed in: “I told you—’I’ll be back’ was just a lie. You wouldn’t believe me.”
“I was a bit tired, so I didn’t feel like going out again.” Jiang Hezhou answered calmly, pulling out a chair for Chu Luyu and settling her into it as he spoke.
Chu Luyu was still preoccupied with the system’s sudden departure the night before.
It had left too quickly without explaining anything. She’d been tossing and turning all night with worry, and this morning, there were faint dark circles under her eyes.
It was already past eight, and Cuihua still hadn’t come back! Something couldn’t have really gone wrong, could it?
Her mind was in turmoil. When Xiao Yan sat across from her and greeted her softly, Chu Luyu could only manage a perfunctory smile in return.
Since this was the first time Jiang Hezhou had brought someone, Zhang Jiting wanted to make sure everything was perfect. He’d even had the kitchen prepare an exceptionally lavish breakfast.
Besides Western options like milk, coffee, and sandwiches, there were also steamer baskets of soup dumplings, fried dough sticks, and pan-fried dumplings. Seeing that Chu Luyu seemed to like shrimp the day before, Zhang Jiting had the chef make two more plates—one boiled, and one butterflied and drizzled with garlic sauce…
The table was piled so high with food it hardly even looked like breakfast anymore.
But with so much on her mind, Chu Luyu ate with little enthusiasm.
Thankfully, the system finally returned just then.
Hearing that familiar Northeastern accent, Chu Luyu’s eyes lit up.
Chu Luyu: 【Cuihua! You’re finally back! Where did you go all night?!】
System Cuihua: 【Save the questions for later. Hurry up—there’s a task in this scene.】
Chu Luyu was taken aback and was about to say, “Didn’t we just do one yesterday?” when the task notification suddenly sounded in her mind—
【Ding, new task! Have the male lead pick out all the red beans from your bowl of red bean soup, and say the key line: “Jiang Hezhou, if you won’t even do something this small for me, then you don’t love me!”】
Red bean soup? What red bean soup? This was just breakfast—how could there possibly be red bean soup!
Chu Luyu took a closer look at the table—and sure enough: …
Who on earth serves such a wild mix of Chinese and Western, hot and cold, sweet and savory dishes for breakfast?! And what was that pile of peeled shrimp in her bowl all about?
She glanced sideways at Jiang Hezhou, her expression hard to read.
He happened to be wiping his hands at a leisurely pace. Seeing her look over, he naturally leaned in.
“What’s wrong? Is one plate of shrimp not enough? I can peel a few more for you.”
“…No, thanks.”
Chu Luyu scanned the rest of the table more carefully and finally spotted the red bean soup in a corner.
Her vision went dark. Great—it was actually there.
Xiao Yan, sitting across from them, had been observing the couple ever since her brief greeting. She watched, envy swelling in her heart, as Jiang Hezhou attended to the girl’s every need at breakfast.
After a moment’s thought, she made up her mind—she would follow Chu Luyu’s advice and start making trouble!
She had a bowl of beef noodles in front of her, topped with scallions and cilantro—neither of which she ate. So she used that as her excuse.
“Zhang Jiting, what’s the meaning of this? You know I don’t eat scallions or cilantro—why did you have the chef put them on?”
Zhang Jiting looked baffled. “Huh? You wanted beef noodles? I didn’t know you wanted that. Hang on, I’ll have the chef make you a fresh bowl.”
“What, you can’t even guess what I want to eat anymore?” Xiao Yan felt her performance wasn’t intense enough, so she tried to act angrier by throwing her spoon onto the table.
But she put too much force into it. The spoon missed the table and landed right in a bowl of soup in front of her.
The spoon fell with a heavy clatter, sending soup splashing everywhere. By the time Xiao Yan realized she might have overdone it, the atmosphere had already gone dead silent.
Everyone around the table exchanged awkward glances, clearly caught off guard by her outburst. Zhang Jiting wasn’t the type to be overly prideful, but even he felt a flash of embarrassment at his girlfriend making a scene.
The table had fallen into an eerie, awkward silence—when suddenly, a small hand reached across from the opposite side and retrieved a bowl of red bean soup from the corner.
A moment later, a sweet, demanding voice rang out. Everyone saw Chu Luyu turn to Jiang Hezhou and say, somewhat bossily: “Jiang Hezhou, pick out all the red beans from this bowl of red bean soup for me.”
She lifted her chin, putting on a deliberately unreasonable expression: “If you won’t even do something this small for me, then you don’t love me!”
Holy crap… Sister! Savior! A living bodhisattva sacrificing herself for others!
Xiao Yan was on the verge of tears, mentally praising Chu Luyu over and over. The men at the table also blinked in surprise.
Ji Chen said to Li Yuebai: “What’s Jiang Er’s girl up to? Redirecting the fire? Sacrificing herself to defuse the tension?”
Li Yuebai nodded in agreement. “Probably.”
Chu Luyu, however, had no idea what had just happened at the table. She’d been completely absorbed in figuring out how to complete the task, even discussing with Cuihua whether to use a softer tone that the male lead couldn’t refuse, or to go with a bossier, more overbearing approach.
In the end, she decided it was better to stick to the original owner’s persona and maintain her image as a vicious, troublesome fiancée.
Thus, her unreasonable display just now.
Chu Luyu: 【Cuihua, how was my acting? Super unreasonable and bratty, right?】
After returning, the system still seemed somewhat distracted and in a hurry: 【Yeah, yeah, unreasonable. Hurry up and finish this task—I have something important to tell you!】
Hearing that, Chu Luyu immediately sat up straighter and shot Jiang Hezhou what she thought was a fierce glare: “What are you staring at? Why aren’t you picking them out yet?”
Even when she said that, her voice came out soft and sweet—more like a playful whine than actual anger.
The men across the table couldn’t hold it in anymore. They huddled together and whispered.
Ji Chen: “Little sister-in-law is way too adorable. Does she actually think she’s acting tough? That she’s fooling us?”
Zhang Jiting: “I’ll have to tell Jiang Er later—he should thank her. If she hadn’t stirred things up just now, I would’ve been really embarrassed.”
Ji Chen: “Do you think Jiang Er will actually do it? Picking all the red beans out of red bean soup with chopsticks? That’s so tedious… But little sister-in-law really went all out to ease the tension, even at the cost of her own image. Anyone who didn’t know the full story would definitely think she’s crazy.”
Li Yuebai: “I don’t think Jiang Er looks like he’s going to refuse.”
And indeed, he wouldn’t refuse.
After all, in Jiang Hezhou’s eyes, the girl was desperately using her own willfulness and unreasonableness to help someone else save face…
It was utterly adorable.
Clumsy and not very clever, maybe—but it still melted his heart.
Without a word, Jiang Hezhou pulled the bowl of red bean soup toward himself.
The red beans had mostly sunk to the bottom. Normally, the easiest way to pick them all out would be to pour out the liquid, pick out the glutinous rice balls, and simply discard the remaining beans.
But for some reason, Jiang Hezhou just wanted to indulge her. So, under her urging gaze, he picked up his chopsticks, stirred the bottom of the bowl, and began picking out the red beans one by one.
The others across the table were surprised. Chu Luyu was also caught off guard.
Chu Luyu: 【Uh, Cuihua, don’t you think the male lead’s temper has been way too good lately? He didn’t even hesitate before agreeing to such an unreasonable request! And he’s not even using a spoon! Picking them out one by one with chopsticks—that’s so time-consuming!】
The system was silent for a few seconds, then spoke in a more serious tone: 【That’s exactly why I went back to headquarters yesterday. I felt something was off with the male lead, so I brought back a testing program.】
Chu Luyu: 【A testing program?】
System Cuihua: 【Yeah. The testing program can monitor the male lead’s favorability and disgust values in real time. Normally, for a simple transmigration task like yours, headquarters doesn’t provide this kind of equipment. But I really felt something was wrong, so I went back to headquarters…】
Chu Luyu: 【To ask for one for me?】
System Cuihua: 【To steal one for you.】
Chu Luyu: ?
Chu Luyu: 【You stole something? Won’t headquarters punish you?】
The system let out a sly little chuckle: 【Hehehe, it’s fine. I left the IP trace pointing to the Japan region. The administration will definitely think it was their system, so if they get mad, they’ll go after them instead.】
Chu Luyu: 【…6.】
System Cuihua: 【Enough chatter—hurry up and check! Let’s see what’s really going on with the male lead. Up until now, everything could still be explained, but what happened yesterday with the body lotion was way too abnormal—it feels like it’s beyond his original character settings!】
Chu Luyu was taken aback: 【What do you mean? Are you saying the male lead might not actually hate me like the original plot says—and that instead… he might like me?】
System Cuihua: 【I don’t know. We’ll have to see the data first.】
With that, the system raised its hand and waved. A new information panel lit up in midair.
Chu Luyu immediately tensed up. She couldn’t quite describe what she was feeling at that moment. Her small hands, hidden beneath the table, clenched nervously.
The numbers on the information panel flickered and jumped—flickered and jumped—until, after more than ten seconds, they finally settled.
Chu Luyu stared at the numbers on the screen, her eyes wide with shock—
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