Chapter 27: "Sorry, You Are Not in My Heart.

"He asked me! He finally asked me!"

Although she didn't know why she was so excited, Su Siyun couldn't help but feel a tremor in her heart when Chen Ye asked about her. Even her small fists, hidden beneath the table, relaxed. She had held back for so long, pretending not to care, but in the end, his target was still her!

This reminded Su Siyun of what she had seen before coming here. She and Jiang Xin had opened the gift; it was a harmonica. The moment she saw the harmonica, Su Siyun knew it had to be a gift for her, because she had recently started learning to play it to relieve the stress of her senior year. Only a few of her close female friends in class knew this secret. Chen Ye must have secretly asked around to pick out such a perfect gift!

At the thought of this, she couldn't help but rise on her tiptoes, the smile on her proud face becoming a bit more natural.

"Of course I'm at home. Why?"

"You're at home?" A look of pity immediately appeared on Chen Ye's face. "It's so inconvenient if you're at home."

Before his words even faded, Su Siyun's expression froze.

"I-Inconvenient?! He actually finds it inconvenient that I'm at home?"

This caused Su Siyun, who had just regained her confidence, to gently lower her heels. Her relaxed fingers slowly curled back into tight fists.

Chen Ye paid no attention to her expression and continued to speak his mind. "Even though I know you treat Jiang Xin well, I always get the feeling that you're very guarded about me interacting with her. I'm not a bad guy. Is that really necessary? Jiang Xin deserves to have her own life too, doesn't she?"

Su Siyun stared blankly at Chen Ye, completely at a loss for words.

However, Chen Ye just kept talking. "I feel like you've fallen into a misunderstanding. You always think that I like you. But people change. Just because I liked you before, does that mean I still like you now? Even my young and ignorant self has to wake up at some point, right? Maybe my words are a bit hurtful, but I think it won't do either of us any good if you keep holding onto that mindset."

He set down his knife and fork, looking at Su Siyun, whose expression had already started to turn ugly. "Are you going to finish eating?"

Su Siyun gritted her teeth secretly and shook her head. She had lost her appetite.

"If you're not going to eat it, I will. Let's not waste food." Showing zero embarrassment, Chen Ye reached over, picked up her plate of steak, stacked it onto his own, and began to cut the meat with focused precision.

Seeing this, Su Siyun's previously pale face instantly flushed scarlet. Her entire body stiffened in her seat.

"I only said I wasn't going to finish it, not that I hadn't eaten any! A small piece is so obviously missing from the edge of the steak! Can't he see that?! Chen Ye is actually... eating something I've already eaten from! Doesn't this count as an indirect kiss?!"

But looking at Chen Ye, his actions seemed so... ordinary, as if it were a habit cultivated over years.

"Is he like this with everyone? Definitely not!"

Su Siyun recalled every interaction she had with Chen Ye over the past three years. Although he was frugal and had a big appetite, he had never eaten anyone's leftovers. No one had ever mentioned him doing such a thing either. If something like that existed, it would be impossible to hide in their class; rumors would definitely spread behind the scenes.

"Maybe... he thinks I haven't eaten any?! But how can I stop him?! No, I can't stop him. He doesn't know right now. If I point it out, we'll both be embarrassed. I might as well pretend I don't know and j-just let him eat it! It's just that... this is so incredibly humiliating!"

The emotional dive caused by Chen Ye's earlier words was entirely replaced by a profound sense of bashfulness at this moment. The young girl's hands, hidden beneath the table, gripped her skirt tightly, and soon her palms began to sweat. She didn't even hear a single word Chen Ye said while cutting the steak. She only remembered that he mentioned Jiang Xin seven more times.

Chen Ye naturally hadn't noticed the cut mark; he genuinely thought Su Siyun hadn't touched her silverware. Besides, in his past life, whenever he went out to eat with Su Siyun, he was often responsible for finishing off the leftovers. This was probably an instinct shared by every married man. However, it was obvious that, having been reborn for less than two days, he had let his instincts override his thoughts in that split second, prompting him to grab Su Siyun's plate.

By the time he realized he had been reborn and that Su Siyun no longer had any relationship with him, the steak had already been cut into bite-sized pieces. Left with no other choice, he could only pretend ignorance and continue to eat.

Meanwhile, Su Siyun, watching Chen Ye fall silent once again, decided to speak up first.

Who was she? She was a senior at Luzhou Sixth Middle School... no, she was the most popular and sought-after girl in the entirety of Luzhou Sixth Middle School. From her freshman year all the way to her senior year, any boy with a bit of courage, who thought himself somewhat handsome or capable, would come to confess his feelings and give her love letters. It had even affected her normal studies at one point.

It got to the point where, in order to maintain a normal learning environment on campus, the head of the senior grade had approached her. He asked her to hand over every love letter to his office, and then he would personally seek out the little punks who delivered them. After this series of events, she gained a formidable reputation, almost becoming the "Tigress" of Luzhou Sixth Middle School, and the number of people confessing to her plummeted drastically.

But for all this time, she had never encountered a single boy who dared to advise her not to fall into the illusion that 'he still likes me,' let alone say things like 'I've grown up, so I don't like you anymore.'

"Does that mean those boys liking me was actually just my illusion? Or that the ones who like me are all immature little brats?! Chen Ye! What gives you the right to invalidate me?!"

Having calmed her inner embarrassment, anger surged back into her heart. She glared fixedly at the young man eating his beef with his head bowed, her pearly white teeth biting her lip so hard it almost bled.

"Chen Ye! Do you... do you actually like me or not?!" Su Siyun asked, her voice trembling.

Chen Ye looked up for a moment before burying his head back down, replying vaguely, "Didn't I just tell you?"

"You just told me? I only heard you mention Jiang Xin's name thirteen times back and forth, but you only talked about me once!"

Su Siyun suddenly felt a pang of bitterness in her heart. However, she quickly recovered, wearing her signature sweet smile once again.

Taking a deep breath, Su Siyun forced a lighthearted smile and said, "Well, that just means I'm not suitable for you. We can still be friends. But I noticed you keep bringing up Jiang Xin. You don't actually have feelings for her, do you?"

Seeing Chen Ye's strange expression, she immediately changed her tone and explained, "Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not trying to meddle in your affairs. But I am her older sister after all, and she is quite naive, so it's only right for me to ask a bit more."

"That's true." Chen Ye nodded, then immediately replied, "But don't misunderstand either. I just like places that are a bit quiet, where I can use a computer. It just so happens that Jiang Xin fits the bill perfectly. I'm not freeloading either; I'll bring gifts next time I come over."

Naturally, it was impossible for him to tell his future sister-in-law, "I've got my eyes on your dad's money, so I'm going to pursue your younger sister." If he said that, Su Hongshan would show up right in front of him within an hour of Su Siyun returning home. This was just a tiny white lie.

"So he doesn't like Jiang Xin after all..." Su Siyun inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

But seeing that Chen Ye's gaze had never left his steak, not even looking her in the eye once, Su Siyun hesitated for a moment before she couldn't help but say, "Can't you look at me when you speak? Am I really less important in your heart than a piece of steak?"

"Sorry, you're not in my heart at all."