Chapter 301: Peace and Joy

Zhu Niao didn’t admit to sniffling.

But in everyone else’s eyes, it was as if this had already been settled.

Even now, with tears still hanging in her eyes, Zhu Niao insisted she hadn’t been crying, which made everyone else smile.

Especially Ye Qingchang and Liu Xie, who, despite Zhu Niao’s protests, continued recording videos and taking photos to capture the scene.

The two of them teased Zhu Niao cheekily, turning her emotions from touched to embarrassed and annoyed.

“Haha, you’re crying at your age?” Liu Xie mocked, as if wanting to engrave Zhu Niao’s expression and emotions onto a pillar of shame.

Then Liu Anran, sitting beside her, spoke softly: “But before, when I hid it from you and you thought I didn’t want you, didn’t you cry then?”

Liu Xie’s face stiffened. She turned to look at Liu Anran, whose expression was calm but with a hint of a mischievous smile at the corner of his mouth.

She felt like her good little brother was increasingly not putting her, the older brother, in his eyes, completely disregarding any elder authority.

“Bullshit. When have I ever done anything that embarrassing? Aren’t you just slandering me?” Liu Xie said, sticking her neck out, apparently intending to stay stubborn to the end.

“Really not?”

Liu Anran said, then suddenly looked at Ye Qingchang, who was sitting on the other side of Liu Xie, sorting through the unflattering photos of Zhu Niao she’d just taken.

“Isn’t your roommate in on it too? Go ask her, and the truth will come out.”

Liu Xie directly reached out and covered Liu Anran’s mouth, a few cold drops of sweat trickling down her forehead.

If she hadn’t said anything, fine; Ye Qingchang might have already forgotten. But if asked, the relationship between her and Liu Anran would start to look a little ambiguous.

“Why ask about such a small thing?” Liu Xie said. “As your older sister, I’ll let you have this one. This time, whatever you say goes. But you should know, it’s not because it’s true—it’s because I’m letting you. Understand?”

Liu Xie’s repeated insistence only made her seem more strangely guilty.

But Liu Anran also knew when to stop, not wanting to burn bridges.

“So, big sister, who can’t bear to be apart from her little brother, do you want to get even closer to him?”

Liu Anran’s right hand suddenly wrapped around Liu Xie’s slender waist from an angle no one else could see.

Liu Xie realized something very bad.

When Liu Anran hadn’t won her over yet, he’d always been a bit serious about it.

Every time Liu Xie brought up their sibling relationship, he’d emphasize that they weren’t really siblings and had no blood relation.

Then, until now, after he’d won her over, Liu Anran started frequently bringing up the sibling relationship between them again.

This didn’t mean that Liu Anran was no longer cherishing her after getting her—it just meant it was his twisted sense of humor.

He seemed to treat that former layer of their relationship as a small romantic spice between them.

Especially when faced with Liu Xie’s shyness, he liked to pull out that old relationship even more.

It was as if he wanted to grind the two things Liu Xie used to have—the authority of an older brother and the dignity of a man—into the ground.

So Liu Xie increasingly felt that her good little brother had some bad intentions.

Yet no matter how much chaos they stirred up on their side, Ye Qingchang didn’t notice a thing.

She just thought Liu Xie was pretty impressive.

In a situation where her adopted little brother clearly had designs on her, not only had she not let him seize the reins, but their relationship hadn’t faded at all.

It seemed the authority of the older brother was doing its job.

Ye Qingchang just felt that the unflattering photos of Zhu Niao she’d saved on her phone weren’t easy to deal with.

That’s just how it was with people whose appearance modeling was too high.

Even the tear-streaked, sniffling shots actually had a certain unique beauty when you looked through them one by one.

She couldn’t even make a single meme out of them, so she might as well just send them to the dorm group chat as a keepsake.

As soon as she sent them to the dorm group, Ye Qingchang hadn’t even had time to close the chat app or turn off her phone when a message suddenly came in.

It was from Xiao Yi’an.

【Peace and Joy: Do you like Chinese food or Western food?】

Incidentally, Peace and Joy was Xiao Yi’an’s current screen name.

This guy even had a lotus flower in a pond as his profile picture now. No idea what was wrong with his head.

Ye Qingchang thought for a moment, opened her camera, and took a photo of the feast on the table.

Then she sent a message.

【Bad Luck: I like food like this.】

Then the name “Peace and Joy” above changed to “Typing…”

Just as Ye Qingchang was about to put down her phone and take a bite, the message arrived.

She even started to wonder if Xiao Yi’an had timed it on purpose.

【Peace and Joy: Okay, but if you can’t finish it, take it back to the dorm yourself.】

【Peace and Joy: Are you at some kind of banquet?】

Ye Qingchang thought for a moment, raised her phone, and took a picture of Zhu Niao and Gou Yu across from her.

Zhu Niao, who’d just had many photos taken of her, reacted immediately, diving into Gou Yu’s arms and using him to block her face.

But Ye Qingchang didn’t care. She sent that photo straight to Xiao Yi’an.

【Bad Luck: My roommate got engaged.】

Then she saw the name at the top change to “Typing…”, then suddenly change back, then change again.

Looks like Xiao Yi’an was also shocked by this news, just like she had been.

At first, she’d only had some doubts about whether Zhu Niao and Gou Yu’s relationship had been pure.

But even letting her imagination run wild, she wouldn’t have dared to think the two had already reached the stage of discussing marriage.

Human imagination was actually limited. For example, she couldn’t make such a huge leap.

She put down her phone, casually picked up a piece of meat, and tasted it.

It really was delicious—no wonder it was a rich person’s banquet.

She took another sip of her drink. This table was probably the only one without any alcohol.

Gou Yu seemed to be able to hold his liquor well.

He’d downed several cups when toasting earlier, but his face wasn’t even as red as Zhu Niao’s, pressed against him.

Ugh, damn lovebirds.

Two rings sounded, and Xiao Yi’an seemed to have finally squeezed out a message.

【Peace and Joy: Then give my gift money on my behalf. Since we’re friends after all, I couldn’t make it, but the gift should still be there.】

Then came a transfer of five hundred yuan.

Well, well.

Ye Qingchang frowned at the increasingly suspicious lotus flower profile picture.

She felt like the guy was now acting with a flavor of worldly wisdom that she couldn’t quite figure out.