"Xixi, over here!"
Outside Xingfuli Residential Area, where Chen Yanxi's family lived, Wang Ge waved at her from a distance.
The security guard outside the residential area seemed to know Chen Yanxi. He looked at her in surprise, then at Wang Ge.
"Young man, what's your relationship with Little Yanxi?" the guard asked curiously as he approached, smoking a cigarette.
"For now, we're just ordinary classmates." Wang Ge smiled.
The security guard was an experienced man. The moment he heard "for now," he understood everything. Grinning, he patted Wang Ge on the shoulder. "You're a handsome young man, with a bit of the style I had in my youth. Although Little Yanxi's family is strict, you're not without hope. Keep it up. Grandpa approves of you."
"Then thank you in advance, Grandpa. I definitely won't let you down!" Wang Ge laughed heartily.
The old man was delighted as well. He patted Wang Ge's shoulder and was about to share some more information with him, but when he saw Chen Yanxi approaching, he had no choice but to greet her instead.
"Little Yanxi, heading out to have fun with a friend?"
"Yes, Grandpa Liu. Please take care of yourself. If you've caught a cold, don't come in for your shift." Chen Yanxi nodded.
"Haha, it's fine. I'm as healthy as a horse." Grandpa Liu laughed. "It's good to go out and relax. It's better than attending those damn cram schools every day. This young man looks decent too. Go on and have fun—I won't tell your parents."
"Thank you, Grandpa Liu."
Chen Yanxi politely bowed slightly to Grandpa Liu.
Seeing this, Wang Ge imitated her and bowed to Grandpa Liu as well. "Thank you, Grandpa Liu."
Chen Yanxi gave him a helpless look. Wang Ge chuckled and waved at Grandpa Liu. "We'll be going now, Grandpa. We'll chat again next time."
Grandpa Liu was overjoyed. Laughing, he waved at them. "Go have fun, go have fun! Enjoy yourselves!"
"Got it~"
Chen Yanxi's gaze at Wang Ge became slightly strange. This guy's social skills are way too strong. Judging by how enthusiastic he is, anyone would think he was the one who lived in this residential area.
"Little Xixi, let's go."
Wang Ge casually hailed a taxi and called out to her.
Before long, the taxi stopped outside a bathhouse.
Chen Yanxi glanced at the enormous "Red Romance Bathhouse" sign, then turned to Wang Ge with a slight frown.
Wang Ge coughed, looking a little awkward as he explained, "This place belongs to my childhood friend's family. We agreed to meet here."
Chen Yanxi nodded without saying anything more.
The two walked forward side by side. As they went, Wang Ge said, "Actually, their business is pretty legitimate. They never do any of that flashy..."
As soon as they stepped into the bathhouse, the pretty young women in qipaos on both sides immediately greeted them in sweet, coquettish voices.
"Welcome to Red Romance. Please come in."
"We offer all kinds of services here. We hope you two have a wonderful time."
Chen Yanxi's gaze at him began to grow strange.
The corner of Wang Ge's mouth twitched, and he immediately explained, "Actually, I hardly ever come here. This is my first time, so I don't know what this place is really like..."
Before Wang Ge could finish, the receptionist saw his face and immediately giggled. "Oh my, isn't this Young Master Wang? You haven't been here in ages. The sisters here have missed you so much."
Wang Ge: "..."
His face went completely dark.
He still wanted to struggle a little longer, but Chen Yanxi shook her head slightly and stopped him. "There's no need to explain anymore. Explaining it to me is meaningless."
Only then did the receptionist realize that Young Master Wang had brought a female companion. Knowing she had misspoken, she immediately tried to slip away. "Ahaha, well, Young Master Wang, wait here for a moment. I'll go call our little boss..."
With that, she fled in a flash. Wang Ge could only glare resentfully at her back before trying to save himself and salvage the last shred of his image.
"I really don't come here often, Xixi. You have to believe me. I've only been here once or twice, and it was just for a normal bath. I didn't even let them touch me..."
Wang Ge looked at Chen Yanxi with pleading eyes, his tone even carrying a hint of grievance.
Chen Yanxi shook her head, finding him somewhat amusing. "I already said that explaining it to me is meaningless. I don't care about any of that."
"This concerns my personal chastity. Even if you don't care, I still have to explain it clearly. What if you secretly deduct points from me in your heart?" Wang Ge argued righteously.
Chen Yanxi thought for a moment, then said, "It's fine. Even if I deduct points, no one will surpass you."
"Am I really that important to you?" Wang Ge asked in surprise.
"You're overthinking it. It's only because I'm not familiar with anyone else, and using scores to evaluate people you aren't familiar with is rude." Chen Yanxi explained calmly.
"So I'm the only one who has a score..." Wang Ge pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "In other words, I'm the only one in your heart!"
"...Your imagination is quite impressive."
Just as the two of them were bantering, two men and two women came out from inside the bathhouse.
"Wang Lao Er! You're late again!" the man at the front shouted when he saw Wang Ge.
"Exactly! Men who aren't punctual are the least reliable." The girl beside him gleefully fanned the flames.
The other man and woman snickered beside them, looking like they were enjoying a show.
"Stop barking. You should be grateful I came at all." Wang Ge rolled his eyes at the man. "You actually chose your family's bathhouse as the meeting place. I can't believe you came up with that."
"What's wrong with that? We can take a bath before going out to have fun. How convenient is that?" the man at the front said matter-of-factly. Then he shifted his gaze to Chen Yanxi. "Aren't you going to introduce her?"
The other three also looked at Chen Yanxi curiously.
Wang Ge first introduced his friends to Chen Yanxi. "This is Zhou Liu. His family owns this bathhouse. This is his girlfriend, Chen Man'an.
"The other two—his family is in real estate. His name is Huang Wenyan, and the girl beside him is his girlfriend, Yang Songyue."
The four smiled and greeted Chen Yanxi, all of them friendly.
"Hello."
Chen Yanxi gave them a slight nod. She showed none of the restraint or shyness one might expect when facing strangers.
Her gaze was calm, and her tone carried no fluctuation. "My name is Chen Yanxi. I'm Wang Ge's girlfriend."
"Wow, your skin is so good! How do you usually take care of it?" Chen Man'an asked curiously as she moved familiarly to Chen Yanxi's side.
Yang Songyue came over too, exclaiming in amazement, "Wow, it really is! It feels almost like a newborn baby's skin. Chen Yanxi, what skincare products do you use? Share them with us!"
Chen Yanxi found their enthusiasm a little overwhelming. She took two steps back to create some distance before shaking her head. "I don't use skincare products."
"Natural beauty? I'm so jealous..."
Chen Man'an and Yang Songyue were both wearing light makeup and expensive skirts that were both beautiful and flattering to their figures.
Chen Yanxi, however, had made no special effort to dress up. She looked much as she usually did, wearing black, thick-framed glasses that covered most of her face, along with plain trousers and a jacket.
Even so, standing between the two of them, she was not inferior in the slightest. In fact, she even outshone them.
Watching the three of them standing together, Wang Ge suddenly realized that although a person's presence was intangible and elusive, it truly existed. Even though Chen Yanxi's clothes were ordinary and her appearance inconspicuous, whenever one looked toward the three of them, the first person one noticed would definitely be Chen Yanxi, not the more beautifully dressed Chen Man'an and Yang Songyue.
That wasn't to say Chen Man'an and Yang Songyue were unattractive. On the contrary, both girls were exceptionally beautiful to begin with, and makeup only made them prettier. At their respective schools, they were both considered campus beauties.
But unfortunately, they lacked presence.
Actually, that was perfectly normal. This sort of presence usually only appeared in people who had reached a certain age.
They possessed rich life experience and had weathered the unpredictable nature of fate, along with life's rises and falls. Their presence was the accumulation of everything they had experienced, the scars left behind after struggling against fate, like the wrinkles time carved into the corners of their eyes.
How could people who were too young possess such a thing? All they could do was shout things like, "My fate is mine to control, not Heaven's," before throwing their lives away.
Yet Chen Yanxi possessed that intangible presence. She was incomparably indifferent, as if she could abandon anything in the world at any moment.
One could only say that it wasn't that our side was too weak. It was that the enemy was too powerful.
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