Chapter 104: How Did You Know I Had a Girlfriend?

Chen Shujie was sitting at the outdoor dining table when he spotted Cheng Xingye coming down the stairs from a distance. He immediately pushed through the crowd and lunged over to him.

“Where were you just now? Why did it take you so long to come back?”

With a noisy flourish, Chen Shujie threw an arm around his shoulder, looking as though he would not rest until he got an answer.

Cheng Xingye let out a meaningful sigh, a teasing smile tugging at his lips as he answered lazily, “How did you know I’ve got a girlfriend?”

Chen Shujie froze.

He had not asked that at all.

But what had he just heard? A girlfriend?

He stood there, stunned beyond speech, and after a long moment finally found his voice again. In disbelief, he asked in a low murmur, “You’re really together?”

The man opposite him gave a casual hum, but the corners of his mouth rose with unmistakable smugness.

“How could it be fake?”

He had already been kissed like that by her. If he still had not earned an official title, that would be far too stifling.

At the thought of that little troublemaker just now, hanging around his neck with such clumsy, reckless innocence, Cheng Xingye’s heart turned soft to the point of helplessness.

So this was what it felt like to fall in love with a younger girl. So sweet.

Pressing his lips together, Cheng Xingye suddenly felt that being caught by her hand did not seem like a loss at all.

Chen Shujie was so shocked he could not speak. He gaped at him for ages, unable to say a single word.

He felt that this damn man had truly changed since falling in love.

On the surface he was still cool, arrogant, and infuriating as ever, but the tenderness in his eyes was nearly spilling over.

Truth be told, seeing a man fall headfirst into love and grow a lovesick brain right before your eyes was rather eye-opening.

Chen Shujie clicked his tongue, studying him with a look of disbelief, just about to say something else, when he suddenly heard light footsteps behind him.

Turning around, he saw Xu Qian approaching at some point, standing gracefully behind them.

Today she wore an elegant beige dress. Her entire presence was understated and refined, carrying all the bearing of a young lady from a good family.

Seeing that they had noticed her, Xu Qian pressed her lips together and walked over.

“Xingye, may I talk to you?”

Cheng Xingye did not know what she had to say to him. Still, since he had something to settle with her as well, he nodded.

“Fine.”

Chen Shujie assumed he was about to deal with some old romantic mess and immediately said tactfully, “You two talk! You two talk! I’ll get out of the way and come back later!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he was gone without a trace.

Seeing that there was no third person around, Cheng Xingye lowered his head to check his phone and asked offhandedly, “What do you want to talk to me about?”

Xu Qian stepped a little closer. Looking at his cool, indifferent manner, she felt equal parts love and hate, and hated even more that she was so hopeless she could not let go of a man like this.

She drew a breath, organizing her thoughts several times over before softly asking, “I heard that you and Ye Zixuan never got married later on because of Lu Yi’s little sister?”

Cheng Xingye did not even lift his head. He admitted it plainly.

“Mm.”

Xu Qian’s heart tightened. She arranged her words again and again in her mind before trying to persuade him.

“Actually, I think she isn’t suitable for you. She’s too young, too playful...”

Before she could finish, the man who had been looking at his phone suddenly raised his head and let out a faint, disdainful laugh.

“You think so?”

Xu Qian stiffened. Seeing the coolness deepen in his eyes, she instinctively tried to explain.

“I’m not saying she’s bad...”

Cheng Xingye curved his lips and cut her off.

“Who do you think you are to me? Did I ask for your opinion?”

His tone remained courteous and polished as ever, but the question itself was clearly meant to embarrass.

Xu Qian clenched her teeth, forcing back the burning sting in her eyes. She did not want to lose her composure in front of him.

Cheng Xingye put away his phone and flicked a distant glance over her shoulder before saying coldly, “My girlfriend does not need your judgment, and my private life does not need your concern.”

His words were utterly unkind, severing even the last thread of former classmate courtesy.

Xu Qian went rigid. Her face flushed scarlet. Only after a few seconds did she finally realize he had said girlfriend.

Her chest tightened in wave after wave; bitterness surged up inside her, yet she still forced a smile and asked once more, “Girlfriend? You’re together?”

This time Cheng Xingye did not answer.

He straightened, hands in his pockets, and looked at her with detached indifference.

“Go back. This is Dot’s home. From now on, anyone she does not welcome should not come here again.”

Xu Qian’s face reddened, but she had no power to argue. In the end, she could only stand there dumbly and watch him turn away without the slightest hesitation, walking toward Lu Qingyue behind her.

Night deepened little by little.

The birthday banquet was nearing its end, and many guests had already departed. The little garden gradually returned to silence.

From a distance, Lu Qingyue had seen Cheng Xingye speaking with Xu Qian.

She knew he had no feelings for Xu Qian and that the other woman was the one doing all the clinging, so she could not be bothered to join the excitement. Instead, she simply stood outside with a bottle of Rio in hand and waited.

Soon enough, Cheng Xingye walked over to her.

He took the bottle from her hand. Standing tall and long-limbed in front of her, he lowered his eyes to look at her.

“What is a child drinking alcohol for?”

Lu Qingyue sniffed and folded her arms on purpose.

“I’m in a terrible mood, so I’m drinking!”

If not for the sly glint in her eyes, Cheng Xingye might actually have believed her.

He discovered that dating a little troublemaker like Lu Qingyue really did require keeping one’s guard up at all times, or she would easily lead him straight into her little trap.

He looked at her with amused exasperation and followed her lead.

“And why are you in a bad mood?”

She was not still so pleased with herself a moment ago when she kissed me, he thought.

Lu Qingyue, believing he had taken the bait, instantly slipped into performance mode. She lifted her brows and deliberately said, with perfect sarcasm, “Because I saw my boyfriend talking to another girl!”

Cheng Xingye: “...”

So that was what she had been waiting for.

He knew she was not necessarily truly jealous, but the words boyfriend still pleased him. He gave a low laugh, then let out a helpless sigh, reaching out to pinch her cheek as he explained very consciously, “I’m only classmates with her. Not even friends, let alone anything else.”

Lu Qingyue of course knew that. Otherwise she would not have let the two of them talk in there for so long.

Spoiled and shameless, she tipped up her chin and lightly poked his chest with her fingertip, stressing with mock seriousness, “You need to recognize your own position. You’re not allowed to talk alone with girls again.”

Cheng Xingye felt that this person had practically carved the words get away with everything into her very bones.

And yet, for some reason, he fell for it every time. He loved the way she displayed her possessiveness so vividly, and he loved even more the direct, unhesitating way she declared her claim.

With a low laugh, Cheng Xingye hummed in response, then tilted his head and kissed her brow and eyes.

Lu Qingyue was kissed into complete docility, though she remained perfectly clear-minded and practical.

After letting him kiss her twice, she finally hooked her arms around his neck and looked up at him with bright eyes, asking with obvious anticipation, “By the way, it’s my birthday today. You didn’t come empty-handed, did you?”

Cheng Xingye glanced down at her, thinking, Of course not.

He had started preparing two months before her birthday.

Without a word, he slipped an arm around her waist and took a small box from his pocket with the other hand.

Inside was a delicate silver necklace, the pendant shaped like a crescent moon, with a few stars set around it.

The meaning was a vast starry night, surrendering all its tenderness to moonlight.

He had prepared this gift last year, originally intending to give it to her on her seventeenth birthday, but because of an accident he had missed the chance, leaving one year’s regret behind.

He took the chain out of the box and carefully fastened it around her slender neck, while saying as if it were nothing at all, “This is your seventeen-year-old birthday gift. Happy birthday to seventeen-year-old Dot.”

Lu Qingyue raised a hand to touch it. The silver pendant was cool against her skin, resting in her palm as though it were also placing him firmly in her grasp.

Her heart was bright with delight, but she still pretended to be calm, looking up at him coquettishly to ask, “And what about eighteen-year-old Dot?”

Eighteen-year-old Lu Qingyue stood before him, her little face full of youthful softness tilted slightly upward. Only then did he vaguely realize that much of the innocence on her had already faded, and she now carried a touch of ripening charm.

Cheng Xingye drew the sweet, delicate girl into his arms and teased her with a low laugh.

“Didn’t eighteen-year-old Dot already get me? Isn’t that enough?”

Lu Qingyue immediately struggled in his embrace.

“Wow! What kind of gift is that? Can I refuse this present?”

Cheng Xingye reacted quickly and pinned down the little troublemaker as she was about to escape. Still laughing helplessly, he lowered his head and, in a teasing kind of revenge, gave her lips a light bite.

“Why didn’t you say that when you were kissing me just now? Too late now.”