Song Wang started and hurriedly tiptoed back into the house.
He finished dinner as though sitting on pins and needles.
Then he said he needed to go home.
The entire Wu family warmly saw him out again.
What could he say? The cold reception and arguments he had imagined never happened.
He wasn't sure whether he had actually helped Wu Tao Ying fend off that proposed marriage.
Mother Wu enthusiastically told Wu Tao Ying to walk Song Wang out of the courtyard.
Song Wang pushed his bicycle along. Only after the row of houses where the Wu family lived was out of sight did he summon the courage to ask Wu Tao Ying.
"Did... did I help?"
Wu Tao Ying said happily, "Of course you helped! Look how much my mother's smiling! Brother Wu! You're handsome, dependable, and you even have the Siheyuan Courtyard! You're so much better than that Fifth-Grade Fitter! My mother probably won't force me anymore!"
"About the Siheyuan Courtyard..."
"I know! I know the Siheyuan Courtyard isn't yours! But it's enough that my mother believes it! Thank you, Brother Song! You've done me a huge favor! If you ever need anything, just come to me. I'll help you too!"
Wu Tao Ying was talking animatedly when a woman unexpectedly hurried toward them.
It was probably too dark for the woman to see the pothole in the ground. She stepped wrong and fell straight toward Wu Tao Ying.
She knocked Wu Tao Ying to the ground, and the two went down in a heap.
Wu Tao Ying was pinned firmly beneath her.
Furious, Wu Tao Ying scrambled up and grabbed the woman.
"Don't you watch where you're going? I was miles away from you, and you still managed to knock me over! If you've ruined my new