"Spare me your sorrows!!! Li Juanjuan was internally breaking down; Luo Qianqian must have had a grudge against him, making it impossible for him to show off in front of his own little sister."
In Luo Qianqian’s twinkling eyes, she confirmed it for him: Yes, that was exactly the case.
Was it just a little suspicion? Ignorance is not a sin.
Li Juanjuan called the waiter and had everything on the table cleared away, then he resolutely ordered anew, deliberately avoiding ordering any drinks, fearing another mishap.
Luo Qianqian looked at the sky outside, the sun at its peak, a whole afternoon still left until dinner. She turned to Chu Ci and suggested, "Shall we visit the bookstore later? It’s time to buy some new reference books."
Chu Ci nodded, then looked at Li Juanjuan, "Then, Master..."
"What Master? Call him bro, cousin bro," Luo Qianqian interjected.
Li Juanjuan looked at Luo Qianqian with gratitude: It seems you’re not that bad after all; your words have really won me over.
Luo Qianqian knew from a past life that it was very likely that Chu Ci would leave with the Li family, so she was happy to see Chu Ci getting closer to the Li family. After all, with such a dad, a sister, and a stepmother, it was better for her to return to her maternal family where at least there would be no baseless accusations from her closest kin.
"Cousin bro, what about you?" Chu Ci’s face instantly turned a bit red, and she asked shyly.
Li Juanjuan quickly responded, "I’ll go with you guys. After all, I just went through high school; I can give you some pointers."
"Sure," Chu Ci said, smiling as she sipped her milk tea.
Luo Qianqian rolled her eyes. Who needs your advice? After all, she had Xu Tianyi and Luo Shufan as her supporters. Xu Tianyi? Luo Qianqian’s eyes lit up: "I’ll call someone else." Then she quietly sent a message, and after receiving a reply not long after, she immediately sent the address and continued sipping her juice with a cheery smile.
"What are you doing?" Seeing Li Juanjuan’s somewhat evasive gaze and even a piece of tissue in his hand that seemed somewhat concealing, Luo Qianqian asked curiously.
"... Nothing much, just a mosquito." It’s not like he could say it was to protect against any sudden remarks that might spray over, right? Li Juanjuan muttered to himself.
Mosquitoes in the restaurant? Are you insulting the cleanliness of this place?
Luo Qianqian and Chu Ci exchanged glances, then looked away, trying hard not to burst out laughing.
"Qianqian." As soon as Xu Tianyi entered the shop, he saw the girl turning her head to look out the window, but he also noticed her classmates and that young man, and his face darkened instantly—had she run out to meet some guy?
"Tianyi~" Luo Qianqian was delighted to see Xu Tianyi had arrived, waved at him, and then introduced, "This is my good friend Chu Ci, and this is Xiao Ci’s cousin bro, Li Juanjuan." Then she turned to her friend, "This is my crush, Xu Tianyi."
Li Juanjuan sighed; the tissue in his hand finally came in handy, stopping his sister’s milk tea from spraying out.
"What? Crush?" Chu Ci stared at Luo Qianqian, dumbfounded.
Luo Qianqian nodded matter-of-factly: "I’m clinging to my crush, and you can’t compete with me for him."
Upon hearing Luo Qianqian’s introduction, Xu Tianyi’s complexion instantly improved a lot, slightly blushing but still without a smile. He extended his hand to Li Juanjuan: "Hello, I’m Xu Tianyi."
"Li Juanjuan." Li Juanjuan smiled politely, even Xu Tianyi’s arrival couldn’t change the fact that he was the most significant relative.
"Gu Yanzhi will be heartbroken, such a formidable rival," Chu Ci muttered quietly, but Xu Tianyi caught it, his eyes flickered, yet he said nothing.
"Let’s get going then." Li Juanjuan had already settled the bill and followed the three, "I’m new here, so you guys lead the way, and I’ll pay."
Luo Qianqian twitched the corner of her mouth, "No need, it’s already embarrassing enough to have you treat us." Chu Ci nodded repeatedly as well.
Seeing her sister’s refusal, Li Juanjuan did not insist further. Watching Luo Qianqian holding hands with Chu Ci and tilting her head to talk to the boy beside them, Li Juanjuan felt quite envious. She quickly caught up with the three, "How are your grades? Is military training fun?" Actually, she had thought about these topics before meeting them, but who knew this meeting would turn into recognizing relatives? The prepared topics were of no use whatsoever.
Luo Qianqian rolled her eyes and did not answer, while Xu Tianyi looked down at Luo Qianqian’s expression and almost laughed. Chu Ci, feeling sorry for Li Juanjuan’s awkwardness, said kindly, "We are in Class One at Experimental High School, our grades should be pretty good. The military training isn’t tiring, it’s quite nice, actually."
Xu Tianyi looked away, not tiring? That’s because you two aren’t tired. Just look at He Wenyu’s miserable appearance to know how exhausting it is, and look at those classmates’ complexions to see how lucky you are. However, thinking of the red marks on Luo Qianqian’s face, his expression darkened, wishing her skin would darken rather than her suffering any injustice.
"You should ask if anyone has bullied your lovely sister and if you would help by beating them up," Luo Qianqian reminded him, looking like she was enjoying the drama from the sidelines.
Chu Ci’s face changed color for a moment but soon returned to normal as she said to Luo Qianqian, "Who would bully me with you around? You bully me every day." Her tone was coquettish, but Luo Qianqian could hear the reluctance in it and pouted.
"Then you would let your brother beat me up?"
"Of course not, so let’s go look at some books instead," Chu Ci suggested, pointing to a bookstore that was within sight.
With Xu Tianyi’s help, as long as Xu Tianyi said the books were good, Luo Qianqian embraced them all. Most of what Xu Tianyi selected were for intensified training, and Luo Qianqian did not consider herself very smart, she was already planning to improve her grades through sheer volume of practice.
"Qianqian, those are for senior year review..." Chu Ci pointed at a workbook Luo Qianqian was looking at, "And it’s for science subjects."
Luo Qianqian chuckled lightly, "I’ve always been in science anyway."
Chu Ci was taken aback, she had not considered that before.
"It’s too early for you to be thinking about this now," Li Juanjuan said, looking at the workbook in her hand, "Wait until you’ve attended a semester of classes, then you’ll know how you’re doing and can decide whether to study arts or sciences."
Chu Ci nodded. She just hadn’t thought about being separated from Luo Qianqian, that’s all.
"You’re interested in fine arts, naturally you should study arts," Luo Qianqian observed Chu Ci’s melancholy and chuckled lightly beside her, "You did promise to draw lots of pictures for me."
Chu Ci was startled, yes, her favorite was fine arts, painting.
"I didn’t know you also studied fine arts?" Li Juanjuan was a bit surprised and delighted, "In Grandpa’s house, there’s a room filled with many paintings; Dad said those were painted by my aunt."
Chu Ci was stunned, did her mother also like it? Was her hobby genetic? Chu Ci touched her left chest where her heart was beating wildly. She heard her soul screaming, heard her mother’s expectations from deep within her soul, heard the sound of flowers blooming.
Luo Qianqian arched her eyebrows and pulled Xu Tianyi away from the siblings, letting them stare into space.
"Will you join us for dinner later?" Luo Qianqian suddenly asked, giving Xu Tianyi a start.
"Is today’s big event just having dinner with them?" Xu Tianyi recalled the earlier message.
"With you here, we can eat alone; let them talk. We just need to take Xiao Ci home in the evening," Luo Qianqian winked, not wanting to be a third wheel.