Chapter 57: Next, please welcome Qian Heng to perform a grand “I really like it” moment for us.

Cheng Yao read the messages and felt a wave of despair. The sycophantic atmosphere in this group chat really needed to be dealt with properly.

But… what exactly had Qian Heng broadcast using her account? How did Bao Rui say that a huge wave of anonymous viewers had suddenly flooded the room?

Curious, Cheng Yao exited WeChat and opened the live-streaming app.

She had set her account to record while streaming, so she could easily find the video of the recent broadcast in the backend.

She clicked on the segment where Qian Heng had been “drinking porridge.”

Without any warning, Qian Heng’s handsome face—magnified and in high definition—suddenly filled her phone screen.

He was staring straight into the camera. Clearly, he had zero experience with live streaming: one moment he’d pull the phone closer to fiddle with it, the next he’d adjust the angle again. From his flustered movements, Cheng Yao could tell that her esteemed, all-powerful boss genuinely didn’t know how to stream. He had probably tried very hard to set a room password the way she’d taught him, but unfortunately, he’d failed.

Yet his consistently excellent self-confidence likely convinced him that he couldn’t possibly have failed at something as simple as setting a password. So, completely unaware, he ended up conducting a public live stream.

And Qian Heng’s “drinking porridge” stream was truly just… drinking porridge. Nothing more.

Once he finally adjusted the camera to his satisfaction, he began slowly and gracefully spooning the porridge in the car, one elegant scoop at a time.

It was just an ordinary bowl of pig stomach porridge, yet because it was Qian Heng eating it, even the porridge seemed to glow with an aura of luxury and refinement.

That face of his, as always, effortlessly attracted admirers. Some girl must have stumbled into the room by accident; the moment she saw Qian Heng’s face, she immediately started spamming the bullet screen and sending gifts like crazy.

“Little brother is so handsome! Even watching him drink porridge live is so cool! What kind of immortal face is this?!”

Nobody knew which divine being that girl was or where she had posted Qian Heng’s room number and screenshots, but soon afterward, all sorts of sightseeing tour groups began pouring into the room nonstop.

“Drooling over this face! prprprpr!”

“For real! A golden age of beauty! sobs Little brother, are you single?”

“Little brother, I’ll send you 100 yachts—can I add your WeChat? Sending them now!”

…..

“Oh my god, I want to be the porridge in little brother’s mouth! There actually exists someone in this world who’s this handsome! He completely crushes all those homogenized pretty-boy idols these days!”

Cheng Yao stared at the screen full of “Please date me” messages and the endless stream of gifts, feeling as though she’d swallowed a hundred lemons—her heart was overwhelmingly sour.

She thought indignantly: What do you all even know? Does being good-looking help anything? If you have the guts, try talking to him. Even if you downed a whole bottle of Niuhuang Jiedu pills, I bet you wouldn’t last fifteen minutes.

Although Qian Heng’s accidental live stream had suddenly blown up, attracting hordes of onlookers, Qian Heng himself didn’t quite understand what was happening. He looked at the constantly scrolling bullet comments on the screen and assumed it was some deliberate effect created by the streaming platform, even muttering a complaint under his breath.

That little action, of course, sparked another wave of adoration from the crowd.

“So cute! Does he not realize people can actually see his stream?”

…

Cheng Yao thought: Is this kind of double standard okay? If it were someone ugly doing the same thing, you’d all tear them apart in seconds for pretending to be cute and trying to go viral, right? Ugly clown, take your dog and get lost!

Still, though she hated to admit it, Cheng Yao knew that the Qian Heng in the video really was… a tiny bit adorable.

He was genuinely, earnestly sipping his porridge one spoonful at a time. Head slightly lowered, eyelashes gently cast downward—he looked almost obedient.

Throughout the entire stream, Qian Heng was focused solely on drinking his porridge and didn’t say a single word. Apart from glancing at the camera a few times while fiddling with the app at the very beginning, he barely lifted his head again afterward, just quietly drinking with his head down.

Only when the porridge was nearly finished did he unexpectedly raise his head.

In the video, Qian Heng’s brows and eyes were still as strikingly handsome and sharp as ever. Like always, he looked coldly at the camera with a hint of impatience.

“It’s all gone,” he said grumpily, frowning. Then he held up the empty bowl toward the camera and shook it a little. “There. I finished everything you bought.”

Qian Heng’s eyelashes in the video were long and thick, and his tone was as harsh as ever, but his face was simply too perfect. Whether it was the lighting or the angle, even that harshness somehow looked captivating.

Qian Heng’s expression was a little unnatural. After placing the empty bowl in front of the camera, he didn’t look at the lens again. He rubbed his temple as if he had a headache and warned in a lowered voice, “If you push your luck like this again next time, you’re really done for.”

It was clearly a slightly threatening remark, yet when Qian Heng said it, there was something oddly subtle about it.

And because of that one sentence, the bullet screen went completely wild again.

“Oh my god! So indulgent!”

“I want to push my luck with little brother too!”

“I’m unilaterally declaring him my new husband!”

…..

Although Cheng Yao didn’t want to admit it, when Qian Heng looked straight at the camera and said those words just now, even she couldn’t remain as unaffected as she’d like—she wasn’t immune like she wished she were.

It hit her right in the heart.

That was probably the only feeling left at that moment.

She did, however, grumble inwardly: How exactly had she been pushing her luck? All she did was make him drink a bowl of porridge.

Fortunately, while Cheng Yao was lost in her random thoughts, the elevator finally arrived. She stepped out into the basement, phone still in hand.

Unfortunately, Qian Heng’s Bentley wasn’t parked in its previous spot. Cheng Yao looked around for a moment and was about to call him when she spotted the familiar license plate driving back in from the entrance.

Qian Heng was focused on driving and didn’t notice Cheng Yao standing near the elevator looking around. He simply drove past her and returned to his original parking spot.

It was getting late, so Cheng Yao hurried over to the Bentley and tapped on the window.

Almost the instant she climbed into the car, Qian Heng tossed a bag onto her lap.

“Huh?”

His lips were pressed tightly together, his voice betraying little emotion. “Just now someone walked by selling freshly baked bread. They stood in front of my car and wouldn’t leave—it was annoying, so I bought it.”

Cheng Yao: ???

Qian Heng continued his lie without so much as a blush: “You haven’t had dinner either, right? I don’t like bread. Since I already bought it, it’s yours.”

“…”

Cheng Yao thought for a moment, then couldn’t hold back anymore. She stared at him. “So you’ve been parked here the whole time? You definitely didn’t go out specifically to buy this for me?”

Qian Heng let out a scoff and raised an eyebrow. “Me—someone whose every minute is worth an infinite 166.666 RMB—would go out of my way to buy bread for you? Cheng Yao, when are you going to start thinking clearly? Of course I didn’t leave. I was parked here resting…”

“Boss, I saw it.”

“The salesperson just wouldn’t stop pestering me…”

Cheng Yao repeated herself: “I saw your car just drive back in from outside.”

“…”

His own lie had clearly been exposed, yet Qian Heng somehow managed to get angry first, as if he were the victim. “Since you already saw it, why even ask? You’re wasting my extremely valuable time!”

“…”

After saying that, Qian Heng unnaturally turned his head away. His expression remained calm, as though nothing had happened. Worthy of the title “toxic tumor of the industry”—Qian Heng’s mental fortitude was truly impressive. Even now, he drove with perfect composure, looking so confidently righteous that you’d think the one caught lying in public was Cheng Yao, not him.

“Boss…”

“Say one more word.” Qian Heng’s voice was still calm, but if you listened closely, there was a faint hint of gritted teeth. “And you can kiss your year-end bonus for both this year and next goodbye.”

“…”

Cheng Yao didn’t dare say anything else. After exposing Qian Heng’s lie, he might appear calm and collected on the surface, but inside he was clearly furious with embarrassment.

For safety’s sake, Cheng Yao wisely kept her mouth shut. She also decided it was best not to tell Qian Heng that he had failed to set a password for the live stream and it had ended up being public. Even without that incident, just having his lie about buying the bread exposed was enough—although his face remained perfectly composed, his ears had already turned bright red. Cheng Yao stole glances at him from the corner of her eye and noticed that his beautiful eyes were also slightly reddened. She wasn’t sure if it was from anger or something else, but it somehow made Qian Heng look like a rabbit.

In the midst of the silence, Qian Heng was the first to speak again.

“Don’t overthink it.”

“?”

“I don’t like owing favors. Since you treated me to porridge, I reluctantly bought you some bread in return.”

Cheng Yao took a bite of the fragrant, soft, freshly baked bread and couldn’t help but grin widely.

Suddenly, she felt that her highly toxic boss seemed to have lost his venom all at once.

Regardless, the two of them maintained absolute silence afterward and drove home just like that.

Cheng Yao ate some of the bread Qian Heng had bought in the car, but unfortunately, it wasn’t very filling. Since she hadn’t had a proper dinner, she still felt like the day wasn’t over.

At this hour, though, most restaurants were already closed, and the few that remained open had very limited options. Cheng Yao thought about it and decided that in the middle of the night, she didn’t want to go out again, order food, and wait eagerly for it to arrive. She had stocked up on a ton of Shin Ramyun during the Singles’ Day sale, and now she finally had a chance to eat it.

“Boss, do you want some too?” Before cooking the noodles, Cheng Yao enthusiastically invited Qian Heng to join her. “It’s really super delicious! Cook it in a pot, and the noodles are incredibly chewy and satisfying. I’ll add a fried egg and some ham sausage for you—guaranteed to be good!”

Unfortunately, Qian Heng wasn’t having any of it. “Shin Ramyun? Isn’t that just instant noodles?” He sat on the sofa flipping through a magazine and said disdainfully, “Do I look like someone who’s easy to please? That kind of junk food doesn’t match my image at all. I’d rather die than eat it.”

Cheng Yao ignored him. The first few times she heard Qian Heng say things like this, she always felt like she was on the verge of dying from his poison. But after a while, she had surprisingly built up near-immunity to his extreme toxicity. She went ahead and prepared a serving of Shin Ramyun, simmering it gently over low heat.

Soon, the rich, savory aroma of the Shin Ramyun wafted out from the kitchen.

Cheng Yao fried an egg, diced some carrots and vegetables, added slices of ham sausage, and arranged it all into a bowl of Shin Ramyun that could rival the presentation in a Korean restaurant. Without saying anything more, she carried the steaming, fragrant bowl over and sat down right next to Qian Heng, then blissfully and single-mindedly began slurping it up.

…..

As expected, although Qian Heng maintained the posture of reading his magazine, he still stole glances at Cheng Yao from the corner of his eye.

Perfect.

Cheng Yao ate even more enthusiastically.

She was completely focused on her food, paying no attention to Qian Heng’s intentions. And the more she ignored him, the more it bothered him, just as expected.

He sneaked a few more glances before finally speaking up.

“Is it really that good?”

Cheng Yao didn’t say a word. She just kept eating and nodded vigorously, as if it tasted so amazing she couldn’t bear to pause and speak.

Qian Heng set the magazine down and said casually, “It does smell pretty decent.”

Cheng Yao continued silently devouring her noodles, showing no intention of inviting him to try some.

Yet her silence didn’t deter Qian Heng at all—it only made him more eager.

Qian Heng glanced at the rich, thick Shin Ramyun broth. “The way you made it doesn’t look half bad.” He cleared his throat. “If you feel like cooking some Shin Ramyun for me, I suppose I could try it. It’s not exactly befitting my style, but every now and then a person should try new things and embrace the unknown.”

Heh.

Cheng Yao gave an infuriating little smile. “Boss, I’ve thought about it, and you’re right—Shin Ramyun really doesn’t match your refined image. If I cooked it for you, it would practically be an insult to your dignity!”

“…”

Being tsundere, huh? Cheng Yao happily continued eating her noodles while thinking smugly, Let’s see if I can’t annoy you to death!

Qian Heng pressed his lips together but still refused to back down. “Cheng Yao, reciprocity is important. I bought you freshly baked bread—don’t you think you should return the favor?”

Cheng Yao’s eyes widened. “Huh? Wasn’t the freshly baked bread already repayment for my stomach-warming porridge? Didn’t we just complete one round of reciprocity?”

“…”

Cheng Yao kept eating, and finally, Qian Heng couldn’t take it anymore.

“Cheng Yao.” His voice was still a little cold, but there was a hint of awkwardness in it. “Are you trying to piss me off today?”

“Boss,” Cheng Yao mimicked his tone, “are you never going to tell the truth in your entire life?”

…

Cheng Yao finished her Shin Ramyun. Resigned to her fate, she stood up to go cook noodles for this difficult man in the kitchen. Just when she thought Qian Heng wouldn’t respond anymore, his voice rang out—

“I want to eat Shin Ramyun.”

His voice sounded stiff and dry. Cheng Yao turned around and saw that he had switched to his usual avoidance mode—looking off to the side.

Cheng Yao stared at him blankly for a few seconds. Finally, unable to bear her gaze, he lifted his head and said gruffly, “Fine, Cheng Yao. This time, you win.”

Then his tone became confident and righteous again: “I want to eat Shin Ramyun.”

Cheng Yao suddenly couldn’t hold back her laughter. How could this famous big-shot partner in the legal world—who could summon clouds with one hand and rain with the other—be so childish?

“I want two fried eggs.” The childish one himself, completely unaware of Cheng Yao’s inner mockery, continued making demands with perfect confidence. “Extra ham sausage too. No carrots—I hate carrots.”

Fine. Cheng Yao suddenly felt her mood lift, sweeping away the gloom she’d felt earlier because of Li Mengting and all that. She returned to the kitchen, cooked another serving of Shin Ramyun, added two fried eggs and plenty of ham sausage as requested, and left out the carrots.

And just like that, the same Qian Heng who moments ago had declared he’d “rather die than eat that junk food” now held his bowl and put on a full-scale “true fragrance” performance.

It was a day of sharp temperature drop in City A, yet as Cheng Yao sat on the sofa watching Qian Heng quietly and earnestly eating his Shin Ramyun in front of her, she somehow didn’t feel the cold at all.