What Kind of Ordinary Friendship Involves Stretching Your Foot Under the Table?

"Where are we going later?"

After Jiang Qiuyi fed him a sip of milk tea, Chen Wen swallowed and asked.

"Just wander around~"

With her arm around Chen Wen's, Jiang Qiuyi dragged him around Tianjie aimlessly. Whenever she spotted something pretty or interesting, she went into the store to take a look.

But after wandering around for more than an hour, the two of them had not bought a single thing.

"Not buying anything?"

"No." Jiang Qiuyi shook her head. "I already bought stuff when I went shopping with Mengmeng before."

"And I'm seeing my dad tonight. If he sees that I bought things, he'll definitely lecture me again."

As she said that, they happened to pass a hair salon.

Jiang Qiuyi caught sight of it from the corner of her eye and immediately stopped.

"What's wrong?" Chen Wen asked, puzzled.

"Come with me~" Jiang Qiuyi smiled and pulled him toward the salon.

"You're getting a haircut?" Chen Wen asked.

"No, you are." Jiang Qiuyi giggled.

"No." Chen Wen immediately refused. "This place is too expensive. The barbershop by my apartment only charges twenty yuan."

Although Chen Wen's family was not short on money, he did not like wasting it.

As far as haircuts went, he thought anyone with hands could handle them. Those elaborate, stylish hairstyles people pursued did not fit his practical way of thinking.

"Oh, come on. Your hairstyle is painfully ordinary. Let's get you a new one and give our parents a surprise." Jiang Qiuyi refused to let go and dragged Chen Wen into the salon.

Chen Wen still wanted to refuse, but Jiang Qiuyi quickly added, "For however much more this haircut costs than twenty yuan, I'll save it for you by not eating snacks for the next few days, okay?"

"..." Chen Wen sighed helplessly and sat down in one of the salon chairs. "That won't be necessary."

"Hehe." Seeing Chen Wen obediently sit down, Jiang Qiuyi leaned over and kissed his cheek with a "Mwah~." "Such a good boy~"

The hairstylist draped a cape over Chen Wen and, at Jiang Qiuyi's request, slowly began trimming his hair.

Since he was already here, Chen Wen no longer felt like resisting. If he was spending the money, he might as well enjoy it properly.

As time slowly passed, the already handsome young man in the mirror gradually revealed an even more strikingly masculine charm beneath the hairstylist's hands.

Just as Chen Wen's haircut was nearing its end, Jiang Qiuyi's phone rang.

"Hello?" Jiang Qiuyi answered the call. "You're here already?"

"Then go wait at the restaurant on the fifth floor first. Chen Wen and I will be right over."

"Mhm, okay, got it. You go ahead first."

"No~ We didn't buy anything today. We just wandered around."

"Whatever it is, we can talk over dinner. I'm hanging up now."

After hanging up, Jiang Qiuyi returned to Chen Wen's side. The moment she saw him in the mirror, her eyes lit up.

Chen Wen had already been outstanding-looking to begin with, and with the new hairstyle accentuating his features, his whole temperament and appearance instantly rose to another level, making it hard to look away.

After washing Chen Wen's hair again, the hairstylist set his hairstyle in place, and the haircut was finally complete.

Jiang Qiuyi paid, then walked out of the shop with Chen Wen. She circled around him, looking him over from every angle, before finally shaking her head and sighing.

"What is it?" Chen Wen asked, confused, instinctively touching his hair. "Is there a problem?"

"There really is a problem." Jiang Qiuyi stared at him with a frown. "I'm starting to regret this."

"If you go to school looking like this, I really won't feel at ease..."

"You'll attract way too many other girls."

"..." Chen Wen fell silent and did not respond.

He himself had never felt much about his appearance. He usually did not make a point of grooming himself, so he had no idea just how tempting he looked to girls now.

"Forget it." Jiang Qiuyi wrapped herself around Chen Wen's arm, took out her phone, and gestured in front of them a few times. "Let's take a selfie to commemorate this~"

"Aren't your parents here already..." Chen Wen suddenly felt inexplicably nervous, as though Jiang Qiuyi's parents might pop out from some corner at any moment.

"You're only getting worried now?" Jiang Qiuyi rolled her eyes at him. After quickly taking the photo, she put some distance between them. "All right. From now on, we're back to being ordinary friends."

"...Mm."

Chen Wen nodded and followed behind Jiang Qiuyi toward the fifth floor.

Without the close contact of Jiang Qiuyi holding his arm, Chen Wen really did feel a little unaccustomed to it.

Watching Jiang Qiuyi skip along in front of him, Chen Wen shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

The two of them made their way up to the restaurant on the fifth floor.

Following Aunt Lu's directions, Jiang Qiuyi quickly found where her parents were seated and waved for Chen Wen to follow.

"Dad, Mom~" Jiang Qiuyi greeted them with a smile. She sat beside a woman who looked fairly young and threw her arms around her.

"Hello, Uncle Jiang. Hello, Aunt Lu." Chen Wen greeted them, then stood beside the table and looked it over.

It was a table for four. The two elders sat facing each other, and Jiang Qiuyi was now seated beside Aunt Lu, which meant Chen Wen could only sit beside Uncle Jiang, whose face was stern and unsmiling.

"Have a seat, Xiao Chen. Take a look at what you'd like to eat. We haven't ordered yet," Aunt Lu warmly invited.

Chen Wen nodded and sat down, his expression unchanged.

If an outsider saw them, they might even think Uncle Jiang and he were father and son.

Jiang Qiuyi scanned the code and began ordering, her fingers tapping without pause. Chen Wen, across from her, simply waited quietly, so Aunt Lu said again, "Xiao Chen, order a couple of dishes you like too."

I already ordered everything he likes... Jiang Qiuyi thought, nearly blurting it out. She then shot Chen Wen a guilty glance.

Chen Wen scanned the code and looked over the ordered dishes. They were mostly foods he liked, so he added sweet-and-sour ribs and spicy diced chicken.

When Jiang Qiuyi saw that from across the table, a smile immediately appeared at the corners of her eyes.

Once the dishes had been ordered, Aunt Lu pulled Jiang Qiuyi into some casual conversation. Uncle Jiang remained silent throughout, taking out a document to review and not wasting a single moment.

"Xiao Chen, you have another half month before summer vacation?"

"Yes."

"Qiuqiu said she'll be going back with you then. Please keep an eye on her for Auntie during that time. Don't let her fool around."

"Mm."

"Mom~ Who's going to fool around?" Jiang Qiuyi protested. "I'm very well-behaved, okay?"

"Well-behaved, my foot." Aunt Lu retorted. "Have you forgotten? When you were in elementary school, you secretly ran off to play by the river, fell over the railing, and couldn't climb back up. We had no idea."

"In the end, it was Xiao Chen who found you by the river in the middle of the night, in the pitch dark."

"You need someone sensible like Xiao Chen watching you all the time. Otherwise, who knows what trouble you'll stir up again!"

Jiang Qiuyi pouted sulkily. "That was ages ago..."

As she spoke, she shot Chen Wen a covert glare.

Clearly, from childhood to adulthood, Chen Wen had always been the child Aunt Lu held up as an example.

If Jiang Qiuyi had not liked him herself, she would have hated him long ago.

That incident had happened more than ten years ago, yet her mother still brought it up all the time. It was practically an unbeatable weapon in any argument.

Every time her mother mentioned it, Jiang Qiuyi remembered how Chen Wen had pulled her up from the riverbank. Feelings of gratitude and joy would surge up in her heart, and she could never keep fighting with her mother.

Thinking that, Jiang Qiuyi secretly slipped off one of her high heels and quietly stretched her foot over, placing it on Chen Wen's thigh.

Chen Wen felt the strange sensation on his leg and instinctively looked beneath the table.

?!

Uncle Jiang was sitting right beside him, okay!

[Pu Jie Ri Ji]: I went home today to pick up some autumn clothes. By the time I got back to school, it was already past four. I ate lunch, took a nap, got up after seven for dinner, then started writing. Whether there'll be a second update depends.