Zeng Rou's gloating might as well have been written across her forehead.
[Look how badly you scared our baby! His little face has gone completely pale!]
Yao Tao felt so, so sorry for him-so sorry that she joined in the gloating.
[Surely his eyesight's fixed now?]
[No! As the gentle second male lead, He Zhen should be beyond saving!]
[Don't be afraid. Mommy will stay with you to the bitter end!]
[Oh, my poor baby!]
[He's only a nineteen-year-old baby!]
[You bunch of twenty-year-old bullies!]
[Nicely done! Play with our He Bao more often when you have time!]
[Hurry up and shatter that heart of his that was always meant to end up broken and incomplete!]
[Growing up is full of heartbreak!]
He Zhen: ...
His ears were filled with Yao Tao's inner voice.
He understood every word, so why couldn't he make sense of them when she put them together?
"Not happy?" Zeng Rou couldn't care less about He Zhen's feelings. She'd been itching for a chance to rub his face in it. "That sweet, obedient girlfriend of yours is only sweet and obedient on the surface. Oh, right, are you still bringing her little care packages every day?"
Ever since middle school, He Zhen had taken it upon himself to provide
two meals a day for Fu Xin. Everything she liked and disliked eating might as well have been engraved on his bones!
Zeng Rou felt that not even Fu Xin's own father could do as much as He Zhen did!
She wasn't trying to guilt-trip anyone, but if Fu Xin didn't like He Zhen, she shouldn't string him along!
[Ouch, right in the heart! She was never He Bao's girlfriend, from beginning to end!]
[Oh, wait!]
Yao Tao propped her chin in her hand.
[He got to skip straight to being a dad-he was the stepfather of Fu Xin's child for a while!]
[Sob, sob. He was even willing to do that.]
[Let me think. What did I like about him again?]
He Zhen's grip on the plastic cake knife tightened. "She isn't my girlfriend. She won't be in the future, either. She never will be."
The change in He Zhen's tone surprised everyone again.
[Holy shit, he sounds so serious! Should I believe him?]
[Something's wrong. Seriously wrong.]
[Did I transmigrate into the original story, while the one I read was fanfiction???]
Yao Tao began doubting herself.
[No, everything matched pretty well before!]
[Both the forum posts and what I observed myself.]
[The first part matched perfectly!]
[It all started changing that day Wei Fang invited me to eat with them!]
[Am I actually some kind of genius sorceress???]
[Did I break the spell on He Zhen?!?]
[Oh my god, is that part of my character setup too?]
After that, He Zhen heard her frantically trying a hundred different ways to summon a system in her head.
"I used to be blind. My vision's improved lately." When He Zhen said he'd been blind, he sounded as though he were stating a fact.
"Uh..." Now Zeng Rou didn't know how to respond. "You don't have to put it that way. Who hasn't been blind at some point in their youth?"
"Exactly, He Zhen," Zhao Yixiao comforted him. "You were just blind for a tiny bit longer than most. You're doing great now!"
As far as everyone was concerned, anyone would do as long as it wasn't Fu Xin.
Only after falling silent did He Zhen realize that none of his friends had thought he and Fu Xin were a good match.
If one person disapproved, he could chalk it up to different personal preferences. But what if everyone disapproved?
"Let's stop talking about this. We're here to have fun today, so let's play some cards!" Han Qinglu changed the subject.
She'd originally wanted to suggest the King's Game, but she was afraid Zeng Rou might say something outrageous again, so she switched to cards.
"Sure!" / "Sounds good."
Zhao Yixiao and Cheng Yu both readily agreed.
Meanwhile, Yao Tao was still rather disappointed that her attempts to summon a system had failed. Hearing that they were going to play cards barely interested her.
[In Fight the Landlord, you can only watch three ads to revive, and you get four rounds per account. Switching between seventy or eighty accounts has put me off cards!]
[I lost so badly even my underwear wouldn't recognize me!]
"How about we pair up?" Zhao Yixiao's intentions were painfully obvious.
At least Cheng Yu and Han Qinglu understood without needing to say anything.
Zeng Rou had wanted to refuse, but she was afraid He Zhen's newly restored eyesight might fail him again, so she readily agreed.
The teams were already decided before anyone asked He Zhen or Yao Tao.
"Whoever loses gets a paper strip stuck to their forehead, and they can't take it off until they leave the karaoke place!" Zeng Rou suggested.
"Okay!" Zhao Yixiao declared that he definitely wouldn't let any paper strips end up on Zeng Rou's forehead.
"He Zhen, you're not going to spoil the fun, are you?" Zeng Rou raised an eyebrow at him.
He Zhen looked at Yao Tao. "Want to play?"
[Yes! Of course I want to play!]
[You shallow college students!]
[As long as we're not gambling for money, stick on as many paper strips as you like!]
[You think I'd be scared?]
"Sure." Yao Tao had plenty to say in her head, but only one word came out of her mouth.
[Round it up, and that's another date card collected!]
[I'll call it the Card-Playing Date!]
[Ooh!]
[I'll sit in front of He Zhen, and he'll wrap his arms around me from behind while we play doubles with his friends!]
[I can already picture him resting his chin on my shoulder and chuckling!]
[Bring me my drawing tablet! My hands are itching!!!]
So when ten paper strips had been stuck to her forehead, Yao Tao was dumbfounded.
[Damn it.]
[The seating arrangement I imagined belongs to Cheng Yu and Han Qinglu!]
[And these lousy card skills belong to me alone!]
That was right.
The seating arrangement she'd imagined was actually the couple showing off their affection.
It was sweet, but that sweetness came with a sour shot of jealousy straight to Yao Tao's forehead.
"Little Peach, your card skills-hahaha! You shouldn't call landlord with a hand like that! Hahaha!" Zeng Rou was practically dying of laughter.
[Hah, you shallow woman. Where's the fun if you don't become the landlord?]
[I!]
[The landlord!]
[Am the uncrowned king!]
[Even if I lose, the crown stays on my forehead!]
"Why don't you let He Zhen take over?" Zeng Rou was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes. "Ten rounds, and you got a strip on your forehead every single time. Don't go saying your seniors bullied you!"
He Zhen watched her clutch her cards tightly and give him a long look, her eyes full of wariness, as though he were about to rob her.
One card game, and the gallant Zeng Heroine, her bestie, had become a shallow woman. Honestly, He Zhen really wanted to laugh.
Yao Tao was so utterly shameless about her two-faced behavior that he found it funny.
"Let me try a round?" He Zhen tilted his head.
His loose strands of hair swayed to one side with the movement.
In the dim lighting, the way he propped his chin in his hand and asked with smiling eyes looked like a portrait shot under warm light, so beautiful it was dazzling.
Yao Tao nodded instinctively.
*[!]*
[Damn it!]
[Beauty leads people astray! I handed over my cards!]
[Sob, sob. What if He Bao is even worse at cards than I am?]
[Sob, sob. Remember that Mommy loves you, but if you lose too much...]
[A mother's love can turn sour!]
Yao Tao didn't know whether a mother's love would turn sour. All she knew was that He Zhen had seriously good luck with his cards!
After he played the joker bomb, Yao Tao needed no prompting. Swish, swish-she slapped a little paper strip onto Zeng Rou's and Han Qinglu's foreheads, one each!
[Hahahaha! My revenge is complete!]
"Little Peach, I didn't expect that. You've got pretty quick reflexes." Zeng Rou touched her forehead.
The slaps had been especially loud!
[Of course!]
[No true gentleman leaves a grudge unavenged!]
[And I'm no gentleman to begin with!]
[Your petty little villain is now online!]
"Hehe." Yao Tao played dumb and smiled shyly.
[You don't hit someone who's playing dumb!]
[All I have to do is smile!]
Before you continue