Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"I mean lunch. It's almost one o'clock now." Yang Ce pointed at the digital clock on the dashboard.

"Not yet, no." Lin Yanhe shook her head.

Yang Ce found it a little amusing. Every time Lin Yanhe answered him, it was in that same gentle, soft-spoken way. If it were Chen Shutang, she would surely have said, "I ate this morning—and now I'm starving to death."

"What do you feel like eating? Let's find somewhere to grab a bite first." Yang Shuoxuan had eaten at Wang Yanqiu's that morning and had skipped lunch as well. "What are you two in the mood for?"

"Hot pot. On the way over, Sister Jiajia said she was craving hot pot," Lin Yanhe suggested.

"Sister Lin, whatever you want to eat is fine—don't worry about me." Zhou Yanning was a little touched. Her original notion had been that the women around Yang Juehuan must all be secretly scheming against one another, each refusing to yield. But now it seemed that was not the case at all. Chen Shutang, Lin Yanhe—both of them were considerate of others' wishes and feelings, never letting anyone feel overlooked.

"I'm easy—anything works for me." Lin Yanhe smiled. "Besides, I've been craving hot pot too. I heard Zhao Sisi mention before that a 'strange-flavor' hot pot place opened near the school. She said it was good, and I've been wanting to try it."

"Then let's go to that hot pot place." Yang Yuting nodded. "It's close to home, too. After we eat, we'll go back and tidy up—school starts tomorrow."

Strange-Flavor Hot Pot was probably a chain restaurant, but this was its first branch in Songjiang. It specialized in a numbing-spicy broth built on Chinese herbs, and it was precisely that distinctive heat that drew in the crowds.

Fortunately, by the time Yang Ce and the others arrived it was nearly two in the afternoon, past the lunch rush. Otherwise they likely would have found no seats at all, just like that Sichuan restaurant.

Restaurants built around numbing-spicy flavors were especially popular in cold northern cities like this one. Come winter, nearly every one of them was packed to the rafters.

He parked the car in the lot. He had just gotten out with Lin Yanhe and Zhou Yanning when Yang Ce froze. A bright red Audi R8 pulled into the restaurant's parking lot and slid into the empty space beside his own. Sweat instantly broke out on Yang Ce's forehead. Wasn't that the car belonging to Sun Jie, that little vixen? What was she doing here? Sure enough, the Audi R8's automatic door swung slowly open and Sun Jie hopped down from the driver's seat, as sexy and fiery as ever. From the passenger side emerged a beautiful young woman of about thirty, elegant and poised—who else could it be but Xiao Qing?

How had those two ended up together? Surely she hadn't had a threesome with him and then taken up lesbian love with Xiao Qing? Heh heh, Yang Ce thought lewdly. But then he remembered this was no time for wild fantasies. Xiao Qing, now, she was reasonable enough—but Sun Jie, that sly fox, was another matter. If she said something inappropriate in front of Lin Yanhe and Zhou Yanning, and those two innocent girls went home and reported it to Chen Shutang, his household would instantly turn into a battlefield of world war.

"Sister Xiao Qing, Sister Sun Jie, hello there—what a coincidence!" Yang Ce decided to strike first and greeted them proactively, then frantically shot looks at Sun Jie and Xiao Qing.

Xiao Qing had of course noticed the two girls behind Yang Ce. She gave a faint sigh—every girl around Yang Ce was so outstanding. But unlike Sun Jie, she was Yang Juehuan's sworn sister from the start, and she had no desire to compete for anything, no other designs in mind. So her expression was perfectly normal as she nodded at Yan. "Yang Ce, school starts tomorrow, doesn't it? When will you have time to go see your godfather?"

"Tonight. I'll come find you tonight and we'll go together." Yang Ce thought of what was to happen that evening and felt a stir of excitement—but then he caught sight of Sun Jie beside him, watching him with a half-smile, and his heart lurched. How could he have forgotten about her? What a headache. "Yang Ce, what's wrong with your eyes? Are they broken or something?" Sun Jie looked at him with feigned concern. "Here, let sister take a look for you."

"N-no, nothing's wrong!" Yang Ce was sweating buckets. I'm giving you a look to tell you not to say anything out of line—don't tell me you can't understand that. You're just making trouble for me! But he couldn't call her out on it, so he could only say, "I just got some sand in my eye. A few blinks and it'll be fine."

With that, Yang Ce rubbed his eyes with great show.

Sun Jie glanced at Lin Yanhe with that half-smile, then at Zhou Yanning, and then whispered in Yang Ce's ear, "Not bad—swapped in two new ones. Planning to have a threesome with them?"

Except that when she said the word "threesome," her voice carried a little too far.

Dark lines instantly appeared over Yang Juehuan's head. He knew Sun Jie was getting back at him for that time he'd used Xiao Qing's QQ to chat with her.

"Sun Jie, what exactly do you want?" Yang Xu'Nai asked in a low voice.

"I'll let you off today. I'll settle the score with you another day." Sun Jie gave a cold humph, then her voice returned to normal. "Sister Xiao Qing and I heard a new hot pot place opened here, so we thought we'd come try it. You all go on ahead—we won't disturb you."

"Oh, oh—bye, Sister Xiao Qing, Sister Sun Jie!" Yang Ce waved with immense relief and hurried Lin Yanhe and Zhou Yanning toward the hot pot restaurant.

Zhou Yanning had never met Sun Jie or Xiao Qing and was puzzled by their relationship with Yan—it seemed unusual, yet perhaps not. Especially when Xiao Qing mentioned a "godfather"—the two of them were probably like siblings. But that Sun Jie was suspicious. At first glance she seemed like a very proud, aloof person, yet the tone she used with Yan was so ambiguous. Forget it, Zhou Yanning shook her head—none of this had anything to do with her anyway. Who cared?

Lin Yanhe, however, had some impression of Sun Jie. Back on Valentine's Day, when she and Yan had gone out together, they had run into Sun Jie. Of course, they'd been far away at the time, and Lin Yanhe hadn't gotten a clear look at Sun Jie or Xiao Qing. What she remembered was that Audi R8 sports car.

Actually, Lin Yanhe didn't know much about car models. The reason this car had left such an impression on her wasn't just because she'd seen it once on Valentine's Day—it was because on a trip to Donghai with Yan, they had driven this very car, and they had even gotten into a crash.

To be continued.

1043. After the Awkwardness, More Awkwardness

So Lin Yanhe was especially familiar with this car—she had even memorized the license plate number.

Being able to lend the car to Yang Ce, and bearing no grudge even after Yang Ce had wrecked it—that alone showed she and Yan shared a deep connection. And having met on Valentine's Day besides only made it clearer.

But Lin Yanhe was not the gossiping, jealous type. So even seeing Sun Jie appear before her, Lin Yanhe felt nothing much—instead she admired Sun Jie's noble elegance, and the charm and sexiness she revealed when speaking to Yan.

During this time at the company, Lin Yanhe would sometimes browse the internet in her spare time, visiting forums and message boards. She had once seen a post claiming that men all liked women with two faces—a lady in public, a wanton in private—and Sun Jie clearly fit that description. She was a mercurial woman, but Lin Yanhe did not envy her—she admired her deeply.

Of course, the biggest reason Lin Yanhe felt favorably toward Sun Jie was that although this woman was outstanding, she was not domineering. Twice she had encountered Lin Yanhe together with Yan, and both times she had made no demands of any kind.