"This really is a great place!" Jian Anning sipped her tea, feeling a slight perspiration emerging from her pores, refreshing her entire body.
"The place is nice, and so are the people." Situ Xuan’s grey-blue eyes stared at her unwaveringly, the affection in them like a gentle, unending drizzle, weaving an expansive net that enveloped her.
For some reason, Jian Anning’s expression darkened upon seeing his gaze.
Even a man who had spent only a few short occasions with her could harbor such affection for her. Yet that bastard Yu Zexiao, despite pestering her day and night, was too stingy to even utter the word "like."
She would have been happy with a lie, just to know that he wasn’t the kind of heartless man who desired only a night of pleasure, to then cruelly ignore her from that point onward!
He harassed her every day, wanting only to sleep with her without offering a shred of emotion—what was that if not hooliganism!
Never mind, fortunately, she wasn’t too deeply entangled, nor had she been truly deceived by him.
Taking another gentle sip of her tea, she allowed the tea’s fragrance to dissipate the discontent in her heart, and as she gazed at the distant mountains and rivers, she felt a sense of tranquility.
As she was sitting and enjoying her tea, her phone rang. Jian Anning picked it up and saw it was Yu Zexiao calling!
She quickly pressed the end call button, then frowned in thought before she pressed the power button to turn off her phone.
With no more annoying sounds, her expression brightened considerably.
It wasn’t just her—Situ Xuan, who had been watching her all this time, also showed a trace of joy at the sight of her hanging up and turning off her phone. He lifted the purple clay pot, poured her another cup of tea, and with an act as if he knew nothing, he smiled faintly, "Tea cleanses the heart, a pot consumed, all worldly troubles will scatter."
"You’re right, it’s foolish of me to worry about people who are irrelevant," Jian Anning said with a carefree smile, sipping lightly from her cup of tea. When she looked up again, her expression had returned to its usual calm.
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On this end, Yu Zexiao dialed Jian Anning’s number again, but on the other end, all that came was a pleasant female voice—"I’m sorry, the number you’ve dialed is switched off."
He felt both anxious and annoyed, slamming his phone down on the table with force, then distractedly picking up a martini.
Ling Yichuan sat down next to him and patted his shoulder, "Xingxing, what’s wrong this time? Did you upset her?"
Qin Xian beside him shared a similar sentiment. Having witnessed the previous incidents, they had instinctively pinned the blame on Yu Zexiao.
Yu Zexiao didn’t speak, simply silently picking up a martini. Two measures of gin, one measure of Italian vermouth, not sweet, mixed with a pimento olive, poured into a mixed drink glass over ice cubes, stirred with a long bar spoon, the ice strained out, to create a truly exquisite drink.
There were still many drinks in front of him, but he clutched the stemmed glass, constantly spinning it in circles.
He heard his buddies’ questions but didn’t respond, just sat there in silence.
Yu Zexiao also felt an emptiness inside; in fact, as he watched Jian Anning walk away, he regretted it immediately.
He didn’t know what his feelings for Jian Anning were.