"Perhaps there were other reasons I didn't know about?"
Meng Chenyu remained silent.
Zuo Xiaonian pressed on. "Are you still going to insist you didn't notice Mu Yunfeng?"
Meng Chenyu slowly lowered the hand resting against her cheek. Suddenly, she smiled, her smile utterly radiant, and said languidly, "Senior Sister, I'm just puzzled. My brother is so outstanding. Why don't you like him?"
"You clearly promised me you would meet my brother alone once, so why did you bring a third wheel? You were the one who broke our agreement first. Have you forgotten what a price I paid for this meeting of yours?"
"Don't you think that's terribly unfair?" Meng Chenyu said bitterly. "Your little brother's so-called breakthrough was built entirely on my family's resources!"
"You're wrong! Completely and utterly wrong!"
"First," Zuo Xiaonian said coldly, "what Xiao Duo used that day could no longer be considered your family's resources. I asked Master for help with this. Master agreed, and then Master directly arranged for Xiao Duo to go."
"From beginning to end, I never dealt with you directly, much less asked you directly for any favors. So I owe your family no debt of gratitude. The only person I owe is Master. Correspondingly, the person who owes your family a favor is also Master. Surely you understand the distinction as far as your family is concerned? A debt of gratitude is certainly the hardest debt to repay, but I do not owe you, or your family, any favors!"
Meng Chenyu bit her lip. Only after a long while did she say, "That's right. You don't owe me."
"Yes, I don't owe you, much less your family, any favors. If you insist that I owe you something, at most, it was asking you to put Xiao Duo through his