Inviting Her Archrival Home for a Meal
People around them were buzzing with discussion. For the first time, Shao Enci felt his face burn with embarrassment, wishing the ground would swallow him up.
But she had made the first move this time, and he didn't push her away. He simply let her kiss him, enduring the stares of passersby in embarrassment while unable to bear giving up the kiss.
He thought helplessly, Couldn't she have picked a time when there were fewer people around to get intimate?
Lu Jiayan's footsteps drew closer and closer, until he was only two steps away, yet Lu Xiaoxiao still hadn't heard the system notification. She urged it frantically in her mind: 037! Are we done yet?! My brother's about to hit him!
037's tone was so leisurely it made her want to punch it: [Hold on for another 23 seconds. Keep going, don't stop.]
Lu Xiaoxiao: "..."
She could clearly feel the boy's body tense. Shao Enci had heard the footsteps too and instinctively tried to pull away, but she grabbed the back of his head and kissed him even harder.
A crowd had already gathered around them.
Some were eating sunflower seeds, some had their phones raised, and others had started posting to their Moments.
If Lu Jiayan's face, black as the bottom of a pot, hadn't appeared in the picture, the scene would have looked just like an idol drama being filmed.
"Lu Xiaoxiao!" Lu Jiayan clenched his fists, veins bulging on his forehead. "Let go of him! Have you never kissed a man before?!"
No sooner had he spoken than 037's voice finally rang out: [Congratulations to Xiaoxiao on completing task 14.]
Lu Xiaoxiao practically sprang away, releasing him and taking a step back. The moment their lips parted, it felt as though they had just spent three hours kissing.
Shao Enci instinctively raised a hand to touch his slightly swollen lips, but before he could speak, a fist struck his left cheek. He staggered several steps before regaining his footing.
The crowd erupted, phone cameras all turning toward the three of them.
"Holy shit, holy shit, they're fighting!"
"What kind of plot is this? The official boyfriend beating up the other man?"
"What do I do? My morals follow my eyes. I kind of feel sorry for the one getting beaten up..."
Shao Enci reached up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He had just steadied himself when the second punch came. It landed hard enough to make the roots of his teeth go numb, and the tip of his tongue tasted rust.
With his skills, he could easily have dodged, or even turned the tables and pinned Lu Jiayan down. But he didn't. The boy simply stood there and took the blows head-on, without striking back once.
"Stop it, bro! I kissed him first!" Frightened by the scene, Lu Xiaoxiao rushed over and tried to pull Lu Jiayan away. "It has nothing to do with him. I'm the one who made the first move!"
The moment she said "bro," the onlookers finally understood.
"So he didn't catch them cheating..."
"It's a big brother catching his little sister dating too young. Tsk, that's even more exciting."
Before Lu Xiaoxiao could catch her breath, another line of text mercilessly popped up in her mind:
[Task 15: Invite your archrival home for a meal. Countdown: 4 hours and 59 minutes.]
"037, will you only be satisfied once you've seen me get beaten up in mixed doubles?"
037 happily disappeared and didn't respond at all.
In the few seconds she spent arguing with the system, Shao Enci took another kick. Lu Jiayan had put real force behind it. The boy dropped to one knee with a muffled grunt, but forced himself not to fall.
"Lu Jiayan!" Lu Xiaoxiao shoved her brother back as if she had gone mad, then crouched down to support Shao Enci, her voice trembling terribly. "Are you stupid? He hit you, and you didn't know to dodge? Is there something wrong with your brain?!"
Blood still lingered at the corner of Shao Enci's mouth, and his face was pale. He raised his eyes and looked at her intently, his voice low, hoarse and calm. "He's your brother."
Lu Xiaoxiao's heart trembled violently.
So because he was her brother, Shao Enci had just stood there and let Lu Jiayan hit him?
Lu Xiaoxiao's nose stung and her eyes grew hot. Her voice was urgent and hoarse. "Would you just take it even if he crippled you?!"
Shao Enci said nothing. He only raised his hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, then curved his lips slightly, as if to say he was fine.
His face livid, Lu Jiayan strode forward and seized Lu Xiaoxiao by the wrist. "Come home with me."
Lu Xiaoxiao stumbled as he yanked her away, letting go of the hem of Shao Enci's shirt. As she was dragged forward, she twisted around desperately and called to him, "Shao Enci, come with me! I'm scared!"
Her voice was thick with tears; it was impossible to tell whether she was pretending or meant it.
Looking at her reddened eyes, Shao Enci endured the pain in his body and pushed himself up from the ground, catching up to them in a few strides. But he didn't get too close, only walking silently behind them at a distance of several meters.
Lu Jiayan noticed and glanced back, giving him a cold glare. "Take one more step forward, and I won't mind hitting you a third time."
"Lu Xiaoxiao and I were high school classmates." Shao Enci's voice wasn't loud, but it was clear. "We're university classmates too. We met in our first year of high school."
Lu Jiayan couldn't be bothered to listen to any more. He shoved Lu Xiaoxiao into the back seat of a taxi, shut the door, and got in the front himself.
When the window rolled down, he pointed at Lu Xiaoxiao and said coldly, "If you call his name again, I really will hit him."
Lu Xiaoxiao shrank back and didn't dare make another sound, but she pulled her phone from her pocket and quickly typed out a message:
[You have to come to my house, or I really will die.]
A few seconds later, he replied:
[Okay.]
Another message followed immediately:
[Don't be afraid. I'll take care of everything.]
Lu Xiaoxiao stared at the message, reading the last line several times. At any other time, those words probably would have made her feel overwhelmingly safe. But now, all she felt was panic.
She lowered her voice and asked 037, "What do I do if Shao Enci confesses his feelings to me?"
037 replied coldly: [Reject him.]
"Then if I reject him, how am I supposed to complete my tasks in the future?"
037's tone was flat: [That's your problem.]
Lu Xiaoxiao took a deep breath, feeling that this system really did have a heart of stone.
The car turned onto the main road, and the veins on the back of Lu Jiayan's hand still hadn't gone down. He held back for a while, but finally spoke. "Lu Xiaoxiao, we haven't seen each other for half a year. How did you go this crazy? Is there anything in your head besides romance?"
Lu Xiaoxiao kept her head down and said nothing. She had planned to quietly sit through the scolding, but the corner of her eye accidentally caught sight of the sloppily woven bracelet on his wrist. She rubbed her nose and muttered, "I wonder who's love-struck, loving Sister Su Yin to death and back..."
Lu Jiayan had been wearing a stern expression, but when he heard that name, his entire body froze for an instant. He turned his head and stared at her intently. "I never mentioned her to you. How do you know about her?"
Lu Xiaoxiao stiffened. Only then did she remember that Su Yin was still studying abroad in the United States, and Lu Jiayan hadn't brought her home yet.
How was she supposed to explain something from her previous life?
All Lu Xiaoxiao could do was add stiffly, "...I guessed."
Lu Jiayan didn't press her further, but there was a hint of scrutiny in the look he gave her.
Guiltily, Lu Xiaoxiao turned her face away and looked out the window, her heartbeat still unsteady. Then a few scattered images suddenly drifted through her mind.
In the third year of university in her previous life, Lu Jiayan had slit his wrists in a suicide attempt because of a breakup text from Su Yin, using his life to threaten her not to leave. All he got in return was a red exclamation mark.
Lu Xiaoxiao had been only twenty-one when she died. She didn't know whether her brother had ever gotten back together with Su Yin, whether Meng Yuan had ended up with He Xi or Qiu Boye, or whether Shao Enci had broken off his engagement to He Xinyi.
(Author: The male lead wasn't engaged to anyone else in his previous life. The story is simply unfolding from the female lead's perspective.)