The Cannon Fodder Appears, and There's Gossip to Be Had

"Do you two think we're idiots? There's no such thing as hearing people's thoughts!"

"You two aren't joking."

One of their friends waved a hand and laughed in disbelief. The others laughed too, but when the pair remained serious, their smiles slowly froze.

A sober voice spoke up. "This is too strange. Do you have proof? How are we supposed to believe you without it?"

Bo Zhe and Bo Miao's friends all nodded. For all they knew, it was a prank.

Bo Zhe and Bo Miao exchanged a glance. It looked like they had no choice but to use that trick.

[Sigh, men these days are such fools for love. They believe anything a woman says. No wonder they're so easy to fool.] Fang Yao stood upstairs, watching the guests below.

Why did Fang Yao say that? As luck would have it, she was standing directly above Wu Yuan and Yang Qi, so she had heard every word of their conversation.

Fang Yao hadn't meant to listen, either. But when heaven chased her down to feed her gossip, she couldn't even slack off.

(๑¯㉨¯๑)

The sudden voice wiped the smile from Yang Qi's face.

Truthfully, Yang Qi still wasn't used to hearing Fang Yao's thoughts. When he went to the restroom earlier, he had searched online and learned that hearing what someone said in their mind was called hearing their inner voice.

Yang Qi looked up toward the voice and saw Fang Yao sprawled on a sofa on the second floor, secretly listening in on them.

Wu Yuan looked up. "Yang Qi, what's wrong? Is someone up there?"

The instant Wu Yuan raised her head, Fang Yao felt a pain in her foot and bent to take off her high heel, missing Wu Yuan's gaze entirely.

Yang Qi frowned. "No. I thought I heard someone calling me."

"Yang Qi, have you been working too much overtime lately? You must be exhausted. The work will never end, so you need to rest. Otherwise, I'll worry about you."

[That's right. Keep working yourself to the bone. Pull all-nighters, even. Then she can inherit your share of the estate, fake her death, and live under a new identity.]

Yang Qi's mouth twitched. Not far away, a man suddenly fell to the floor. People rushed over to help him, and once he was back on his feet, he began asking the people he knew around him about something.

Then Yang Qi heard more: [Is she going to say, "Yang Qi, if you don't listen to me, I'll get angry. So angry you won't be able to coax me out of it"?]

"Yang Qi, if you don't listen to me, I'll get angry. So angry you won't be able to coax me out of it. If something happened to you, what would I do? I'd have no choice but to follow you... into the next life." Wu Yuan suddenly felt a chill and rubbed her arms.

Yang Qi: That wasn't just close. It was word for word.

Yang Qi felt as though he didn't know the Wu Yuan standing before him. She hadn't been his parents' choice for a daughter-in-law, but he liked her, so they had agreed. They had never made things difficult for her.

Three years. It had been three whole years. Even a block of ice would have melted after all that time. How could Wu Yuan's heart still be so hard?

Crack!

Something shattered.

[Sigh, there aren't that many stories about heroes saving damsels and winning their hearts. It's all just human desire. Why do I keep running into cannon fodder these past couple of days? Come to think of it, why haven't the male and female leads shown up yet? Am I too insignificant a cannon-fodder character?]

[Should I tell Yang Qi that neither Wu Yuan nor Wu Chan saved him? It was a young woman, and she really was beautiful and kind. She saved him, took him to the hospital, and only left after making sure he was all right. Wu Yuan just happened to show up there and find him badly injured.]

[When Yang Qi woke up, he assumed Wu Yuan had saved him. Wu Yuan realized he didn't know who had rescued him, and with no one else around, she simply kept quiet. That fool Yang Qi even made up a nice excuse for her silence: she was a good girl who helped others without seeking praise.]

The torrent of thoughts left Yang Qi reeling. His mind went briefly blank, unable to process so much at once.

Yang Qi wanted to roar, to demand answers. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, telling himself not to rush. He would listen to what else Fang Yao had to say.

The guests noticed a line of people huddled along the wall, listening to who knew what. One guest spotted his son among them and nearly ground his teeth to dust. You little brat. I'll deal with you when we get home.

"Hey, why did she stop?"

"No idea. Maybe I'm too far away."

"Oh, come on. We heard her loud and clear just now. There's no way we suddenly can't."

"Bo Zhe, go over to her and steer the conversation around to Wu Yuan and Yang Qi." A friend shoved Bo Zhe forward. None of them knew Fang Yao, and approaching her out of nowhere might tip her off.

Bo Zhe said, "You little punk! I only made you test it once. Do you really have to kick me while I'm down?"

"You call that a test? I saw my great-grandmother!"

"Quiet. I think this is his cue to show up." Bo Miao's ears were full of their chatter. She couldn't hear Fang Yao anymore, and her gaze happened to land on someone.

"Who?"

Bo Zhe and the others spoke in unison. They followed Bo Miao's pointing finger and all drew a sharp breath.

What? Him?

After making a circuit of the room, Bo Hanmo found Fang Yao upstairs on a beanbag chair. It hadn't been there before. Fang Yao had once mentioned that it would be nice to have one on the second floor. Bo Hanmo hadn't known what a beanbag chair was, so he had asked Assistant Fang and had him prepare one.

"Tired? Have some dessert and take a break." Bo Hanmo handed her the dessert he was holding.

He had never sat on a beanbag chair before. The moment he sank into it, he looked a little dazed.

"It's cherry cake! Mmm, so good. Hey, hey! What are you doing?" Fang Yao's eyes lit up. How did he know she liked it?

Being suddenly lifted startled Fang Yao. Luckily, she stopped herself before kicking him.

"I'll massage your feet."

"No need. We're not close enough for... Oh! Right there. Keep going."

Bo Hanmo watched Fang Yao narrow her eyes in comfort as he massaged her feet. She had meant to say they weren't close enough for him to do that, but after a while, she relented.

Oh, we're married. It's perfectly normal to have my husband massage my feet, right?

Fang Yao: (❁´◡`❁)✲ﾟ

Bo Hanmo: ヽ(￣▽￣)و

Yang Qi: ...Could you stop massaging her feet for a moment?

Yang Qi grew restless as the voice stayed silent, especially with Wu Yuan talking in his ear about what had happened back then.

Wu Yuan hadn't expected Yang Qi to understand the hints he had never picked up on before.

"Yang Qi, Wu Yuan, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out mingling?" After all, the people attending the banquet hadn't come solely to meet Mrs. Bo. It was also a chance to make connections.

"Didn't you say you weren't coming?"