"Y-you... why are you suddenly joking about this?!"
Chu Xingye scooped the aggrieved, yowling puppy into his arms and stroked its fur so fast he nearly rubbed sparks out of it.
Sangbiao kept flailing those short little legs, trying to escape the human's clutches, the yowls growing even more aggrieved.
Jiang Xun rescued Sangbiao from Chu Xingye's hands, a bashful smile appearing on his fair face. "I'm serious. I'm not joking."
His expression was so calm, it was as though he were talking about eating or drinking rather than getting engaged.
Chu Xingye was still dumbstruck, unable to process it for a long moment.
Jiang Xun absentmindedly stroked the puppy in his arms, his eyes involuntarily sneaking toward the man diagonally ahead of him.
Fu Yanli sat in an armchair, dressed in comfortable, loose-fitting loungewear.
His posture was casual, his long legs leisurely crossed, his broad back sinking into the cushions. His left hand rested on the armrest, while his right held a magazine.
Fu Yanli tapped his fingertips against the armrest, but his attention wasn't on the magazine. His eyes, deep and still as an ancient well, remained utterly unruffled as he stared openly at Jiang Xun.
No one could tell what lay hidden beneath that calm.
Few people could withstand being pinned beneath a gaze like that. Jiang Xun looked away, pretending nothing was wrong.
The sooner he got engaged, the sooner he could finish his mission. Maybe it would even make Fu Yanli give up.
Right now, he and Chu Xingye had no actual relationship, only the empty title of prospective fiancés. Once they were engaged, things would be different. Surely Fu Yanli wouldn't actually steal his nephew's fiancé.
As for what came afterward, he would take it one step at a time.
Whatever Chu Xingye was