Chapter 35: Whose Jealousy Was Stirred After the Date

Lu Zhou and Qi Jiajia were the last couple to return to the Pink Cottage.

“Does anyone want some late-night snacks? We brought back some barbecue,” Qi Jiajia lifted the takeout box in her hand and asked the other guests, who had already come back and were sitting in the living room.

“How nice! I want some!” Ye Fangfei was quite interested. She was the first to come forward and take the food.

Zhang Chen raised his eyebrows when he saw this and asked, “Did you not get enough to eat tonight?”

Hearing this, Xu Junze touched the bridge of his nose awkwardly, feeling as if these words were somehow directed at him.

Meanwhile, Ye Fangfei had already quickly opened the food box and said, “I just simply want to eat.”

Li Jiayan also came over to join the fun. “I’d like some too.”

Gradually, everyone joined in, grabbing a bite of the late-night snack.

Wen Yiming leaned back on the sofa, his eyes flitting back and forth between Lu Zhou and Qi Jiajia. He teased with a smile, “Lu Zhou, Jiajia, it looks like you two had such a good time on your date tonight that you only just managed to come back now.”

Perhaps Qi Jiajia had eaten too much barbecue and gotten thirsty; she was tilting her head back, gulping down cold water. Hearing this, she wiped the corner of her mouth and glanced at Lu Zhou, feeling the need to explain:

“I had to work overtime unexpectedly tonight and it delayed me by more than two hours. I almost missed the music festival, but Lu Zhou was really sweet and waited patiently for me all that time.”

The others all looked surprised when they heard this.

As she spoke, Qi Jiajia took out her phone and showed it to everyone.

“Did you guys know Lu Zhou danced on stage tonight? He was so cool, all the girls in the audience were screaming…”

“Really?” Li Jiayan was the first to lean in to watch the video. The way the man shone on stage felt both familiar and unfamiliar to her.

Wen Yiming exclaimed, “Oh, finally, Lu Zhou’s showing off his professional skills!”

Lu Zhou gave an awkward smile. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but Wen Yiming’s tone always seemed a bit sarcastic.

Ye Fangfei watched the dance in the video attentively, gnawing on some grilled corn, and looked over at Lu Zhou. “Freestyle?”

A professional eye caught the detail right away.

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Yes.”

Ye Fangfei nodded and praised, “Very cool, your sense of rhythm is impressive.”

Beside her, Zhang Chen frowned slightly, glancing at Lu Zhou with indifference.

Annoying—why was Ye Fangfei suddenly communicating with this loser on the same wavelength? So what if he could dance? Not fair! He decided he’d find a teacher and learn a few moves himself someday.

Meanwhile, Li Jiayan watched the video with mixed feelings she couldn’t quite name.

“Wow! Lu Zhou, was that dance just for Jiajia? So romantic!” she said with a bright, smiling exclamation.

Lu Zhou was speechless. That wasn’t the case at all! He’d just gotten bored waiting, so he went up and did a freestyle dance. How did it suddenly become a special dance for Jiajia?

“No, no! It wasn’t especially for me…” Qi Jiajia hurriedly waved her hands to deny it.

But the shy smile on her face sent a different message, which made Wen Yiming gnash his teeth in secret.

“All your dates were so sweet. Looks like only Jiayan and I had a scare tonight!” Wen Yiming deliberately steered the conversation toward himself.

“You were the one who got scared, not me.” Li Jiayan covered her mouth, laughing in that familiar, delicate manner.

“Oh, there’s a story here. Tell us more,” Zhang Chen’s interest was piqued at once.

With the topic now shifted to their pair, Wen Yiming perked up.

“You guys have no idea—Jiayan is so brave! I thought I’d be the one protecting her in there, but she stayed perfectly calm, even when we ran right into a ghost. She didn’t even scream, I was the one who freaked out!”

At the mention of “protecting,” Zhang Chen immediately pictured it in his mind: the first date, and he chose a haunted house… All men understood the little schemes behind that.

He couldn’t help but joke, “Let me guess, you thought Jiayan would get scared and hold on to you, but it was you who got scared and clung to her instead?”

Wen Yiming laughed sheepishly, “That’s exactly what happened…”

Lu Zhou just watched in silence.

Everyone pictured a grown man hanging on to a woman, and couldn’t help but laugh.

Qi Jiajia’s smile looked a bit forced. She shot Wen Yiming a sidelong glance, cursing in her heart:

Ha! Pretender! Back then, when you went to the haunted house, you weren’t scared at all. You just wanted to take advantage of people! Shameless!

“So, what about the courthouse date? Tell us about that?” Zhang Chen was more interested in what Ye Fangfei and the other man did tonight.

Lu Zhou was momentarily confused about who went to the courthouse.

“Who went to the courthouse?” he asked curiously.

“Me and Junze,” Ye Fangfei replied, swallowing her mouthful of meat and wiping her hands with a napkin. “We attended a divorce hearing as observers and picked up a lot of legal knowledge. It was pretty meaningful.”

Wen Yiming, who was drinking water, almost spat it out when he heard that.

“A divorce hearing?” He patted Xu Junze, laughing. “You’re something else. First date and you take a girl to listen to a divorce case? Are you planning to get anywhere with her?”

The corner of Xu Junze’s mouth twitched, but he laughed. “Legal education about marriage is everyone’s responsibility.”

That got everyone laughing.

“You don’t even know if you’ll become a couple, and you’re already teaching her about divorce law? That’s bold, Junze!” Wen Yiming was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. What a silly guy, he thought.

Xu Junze shrugged, unconcerned, not bothering to explain that it was just coincidence that only this case was scheduled at that time.

Zhang Chen, however, was quite pleased with Xu Junze’s approach to the date. He relaxed completely, his impression of Junze improving notably. As long as he wasn’t after his woman, he was a good brother.

“And what about you two? Dinner on the mountaintop must have been romantic, right?”

Qi Jiajia looked at Chu Yao, curiosity in her eyes. By process of elimination, she now knew exactly who Zhang Chen had gone out with tonight.

“Thanks to Zhang Chen, I had a wonderful date tonight,” Chu Yao replied, tucking back her bangs, her cheeks tinged pink.

“The view from that mountaintop restaurant is stunning at night. You can see the whole city’s dazzling lights. Zhang Chen went all out—he booked the entire place so we could enjoy the scenery undisturbed.”

“Eating western food, listening to music, with the evening breeze…”

Chu Yao painted a vivid picture of their romantic evening, and by the end, she was laughing a little shyly.

Qi Jiajia and Li Jiayan exclaimed in unison, their eyes shining with envy.

The other male guests fell silent as soon as they heard “booked the entire restaurant.”

Isn’t splurging to win a girl’s favor kind of cheating? Wen Yiming grumbled inwardly.

With such high praise, she must have been very moved by tonight’s date, Xu Junze thought, taking several deep breaths to steady his emotions and keep his feelings from showing.

Lu Zhou, meanwhile, glanced instinctively at Ye Fangfei, only to see her still calmly enjoying the barbecue he’d brought back.

Zhang Chen hadn’t expected Chu Yao to describe their date like that and felt a bit awkward. He cleared his throat and couldn’t help glancing at Ye Fangfei.

But Ye Fangfei didn’t even spare him a glance…

Crap, is she mad?

At that moment, everyone’s phones buzzed with a text from the show’s producers—

[Who made your heart flutter today? Send them a message with what you most want to say right now!

If no one moved you today, reply: No one.]

The laughter in the living room faded as the guests stared at their screens, expressions shifting subtly.

Lu Zhou and Ye Fangfei were the first to send their answers to the production team: [No one].

Li Jiayan stared at her phone for a minute before finally replying: [No one].

Several minutes passed, and the guests pretended nothing had happened, resuming their chatter.

Soon, amidst the laughter, Ye Fangfei’s phone vibrated twice. She picked it up to see a message relayed by the production team—

[During tonight’s date, you were still the one on my mind.]

[Your ex chose you.]

Ye Fangfei glanced at the messages, then slipped her phone back into her pocket with a blank expression.

A moment later, Zhang Chen’s phone chimed. He shot a look at Ye Fangfei, then eagerly read his messages—

[I had a great time tonight. Next time, let me choose the place, okay?]

[Your ex did not choose you.]

The absence of the person he’d hoped for made Zhang Chen’s smile freeze slightly.

At the same time, Wen Yiming received his own texts.

[Have you fallen for her?]

[Your ex chose you.]

Wen Yiming frowned, reading the two messages over and over.

What the heck?

Why was his ex messaging him? What was that supposed to mean?

Wen Yiming was thoroughly confused.

As messages continued to arrive, the atmosphere in the living room grew subtly tense.

Next, among the female guests, Li Jiayan received a message from the production team—

[Tonight I saw a different, surprising side of you.]

[Your ex did not choose you.]

Reading the messages, Li Jiayan’s delicate brows lifted and relaxed. She glanced at Wen Yiming from the corner of her eye.

So, he’s definitely interested in her now?

Soon after, Chu Yao, sitting beside Li Jiayan, also received two messages.

She waited a moment before picking up her phone, feeling a little nervous as she read—

[Every day you ignore me is agony.]

[Your ex chose you.]

She had expected a message from her date tonight, but instead… her ex had sent something like this.

The word “agony” stung Chu Yao’s heart. Her face darkened, and she turned off her phone. After sitting on the sofa for a while, she finally excused herself, saying she needed to use the restroom, and left the living room.

Xu Junze watched her retreating back, his own expression growing uneasy.

Lu Zhou quietly observed all of this, thinking: Tonight, someone is destined for a sleepless night!

He suddenly felt a sense of relief that he and his ex had long since parted ways, and now he could focus solely on his career. It was the only way to stay calm during activities like this—otherwise, this show would drive him mad!