Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi Face Off

Liu Chang'an was slightly surprised that the man's name wasn't Xie Guangkun. He was quite astonished that he had actually misremembered the man's name. This was a very rare occurrence, considering that he was always gentle and polite. To have forgotten someone's name was a sign of his good manners and made him feel ashamed.

"When I went to Lin'an with An Nuan last time, we ran into these people. They seemed to know you. They even showed An Nuan your photo." Liu Chang'an sat down and looked at Qin Yanan, who was sitting next to him with her legs crossed and casually flipping through a newspaper.

As soon as she got out of the car, she changed into high heels, which made her calves look especially long and slender. Unlike An Nuan, whose hamstrings were stretched so long that her calves seemed to have no calves at all, Qin Yanan's legs had a softer feel that was more suitable for being wrapped in black stockings, which was more in line with most men's preference for female figures.

She usually likes to pretend to be pregnant, but when it comes to looking pretty, she selectively forgets that pregnant women shouldn't wear high heels.

"What did they ask, and what did An Nuan answer?" Qin Yanan looked up with a hint of interest.

Women always focus on different things. Shouldn't you be checking to see who seems to know you?

"They showed An Nuan the photo and asked if she recognized the person in it. An Nuan said, 'This is my boyfriend's cousin.'" Although Liu Chang'an was looking through a book that detailed the transactions between men and women behind the prosperity of early 20th-century cities, he still overheard the conversation.

Qin Yanan's lips curled slightly as she adjusted her elegant, ladylike posture, gently swinging her left leg across her right. Looking at her toes, she tapped her fingers on her knee, a knowing smile appearing on her face. "That little brat has nothing but a jumble of thoughts."

"What's on your mind?" If it were someone else, Liu Chang'an certainly wouldn't care what kind of messy thoughts they had on their mind, but he was still very willing to understand his girlfriend, as well as his sister who was also very close to him emotionally.

"Isn't it obvious?" Qin Yanan suspected that in Liu Chang'an's eyes, An Nuan was truly as pure as a delicate little lotus flower folded from a blank sheet of paper, completely oblivious to An Nuan's ever-present scheming. "She first clarified that you are her boyfriend, explained your identity and belonging, and your relationship with her, then clarified your relationship with me, meaning that you shouldn't misunderstand, this woman and my boyfriend have no ambiguous relationship, so don't overthink it."

"You're overthinking it. They don't even know me, and they don't even know if I know you. How could An Nuan suspect they'd misunderstand our relationship?" Liu Chang'an genuinely didn't catch that underlying meaning. Was it really necessary to imply these things to complete strangers?

"I didn't overthink it. Normally, if someone asks her if she knows me, she can just say yes or no, right? Is it really necessary to explain the relationship between her boyfriend and the person in the photo to a stranger?" Qin Yanan shook her head. "You're overthinking it. An Nuan is just a girl with a lot of thoughts. She just wants as many people as possible to know that you're her boyfriend, and that you're just her boyfriend, regardless of whether it's useful or not. That way, maybe when people see you and me together, they'll think: 'Look, that's An Nuan's boyfriend from last time, and the person next to him is his cousin, not his girlfriend. They have no ambiguous relationship.'"

Liu Chang'an opened his mouth slightly, lost in thought.

"You see, her little schemes weren't useless; they came in handy today. She told those three people last time, and you ran into them again today, didn't you?" Qin Yanan then looked up at the three people at the other end of the waiting room. "What they were thinking about was the message An Nuan conveyed to them: 'Oh, we ran into that guy again. His girlfriend didn't come, and although the woman next to him is very pretty and has a great figure, she's just his cousin.'"

Liu Chang'an cupped his hands in a gesture of respect, fully expressing their admiration.

"I understand, and I have ways to retaliate against her, but I won't do it." Qin Yanan tugged at his sleeve, leaned down to look at him, and said sweetly, "Am I good?"

The charm of a young girl and the shyness of a mature woman have always been Heartbeat beauties. In fact, coquetry is not the exclusive domain of young girls. When a mature woman maintains a refined and elegant image, occasionally revealing a coquettish side is always particularly pleasing to the eye. Moreover, Qin Yanan is Ye Sijin, a beautiful woman whom Liu Chang'an considers to be on par with An Nuan.

"Good girl, good girl." Liu Chang'an raised his hand and pressed it against Qin Yanan's head, recalling for a moment, "You've been good today, but you never seemed to give in as much before. I just remembered something, it was that day you deflated..."

"I didn't!" Qin Yanan's cheeks flushed. He was referring to the day he brought wild boar meat over, An Nuan, that tagalong, also came. Qin Yanan put in a little effort to successfully get An Nuan to stay overnight, while trying to use his stunningly mature figure to overwhelm An Nuan. However, something went wrong later, and he suddenly experienced an abnormal condition, becoming much thinner.

Even so, she's still much better than An Nuan, who's just an ordinary girl.

Most importantly, Qin Yanan thought everyone tacitly agreed not to remind each other of what happened that night, because he wanted to suddenly run into the hot spring room while she was playing in the water.

It was Ye Sijin who played in the water, not Qin Yanan. This was the consensus everyone reached at the time. Liu Chang'an himself said: It was Jin'er who did it, not Xiao Nan.

Whether he believed it or not, she believed it anyway!

"Okay, you didn't. The next morning, An Nuan got up to make breakfast and found steak, Korean cold noodles, thawed instant buns, stir-fried toppings, bone broth and rice noodles, and yogurt and milk in the refrigerator. She thought you were mocking her, did you really mean that?" Liu Chang'an felt that since An Nuan had so many little schemes, and Qin Yanan, who was so aware of An Nuan's little schemes, must also be an expert in this area, and he wanted to test it out.

When An Nuan saw so much breakfast in the refrigerator that day, she immediately became furious.

Qin Yanan's cheeks were still rosy. It was unclear whether he had simply brought up the breakfast incident or had also casually recalled seeing her playing in the water the previous night... no, seeing Ye Sijin playing in the water.

"Tell me, why are you blushing and peeking at me? The night before that morning, everyone agreed that it was my Jin'er ran away. Why are you blushing and feeling guilty?" Liu Chang'an said with a smile. In fact, even if they are not in a romantic relationship and do not have that kind of thought, men still find it pleasing to the eye to see a beautiful woman blushing shyly.

"You, you still dare to say that!" Qin Yanan quickly raised her hand to cover one cheek, hastily answering his question to divert attention from the embarrassment and shame, "Of course it's to show off my cooking skills, to demonstrate my domestic abilities, to let her know that she still has a lot to learn... Otherwise, even the most hospitable host wouldn't need to prepare so many kinds of breakfast."

Liu Chang'an shook his head with a self-deprecating smile. He could be naive at times. Back then, he thought An Nuan was overthinking things. These women, when you talk to them about serious matters, reason with them, do work, life, and study, their abilities might not be that strong. But once two of them get together and start scheming against each other, Liu Chang'an couldn't help but suspect that his sister and girlfriend were like Zhuge Liang and Manager Sima Yi going up against each other.

-

-

I'm just a little short of enough donations to update the extra chapter. I've already started writing it, and I'll release it once I have enough. At the same time, I'll also update chapter 17.