I was rich, but I wasn't a sucker

Lin Fengmian remained composed. As the girls introduced themselves one by one, he finally identified the girl who had been pushed to the back to introduce herself last.

She was the most plainly dressed of them all, wearing a white dress and a mismatched pair of jade peace-buckle earrings. Her hair hung loose, and she was quiet, her voice soft even when she introduced herself.

"I-I'm Huang Yachu." Tears were already gathering in Huang Yachu's eyes, and her voice trembled. "I-I'm your blind date."

"Hello, Huang Yachu. I'm Lin Fengmian, your blind date today." Lin Fengmian smiled, hoping to ease the girl's nerves.

Xia Qinghe shot him a sidelong glance. Frost began to settle over his face, even threatening to spread to his surroundings.

Unfortunately, Lin Fengmian was long used to his foul temper and paid no attention to his displeasure.

Huang Yachu nervously wiped her hands on her dress. "Hello. These are all my close friends. They wanted to come along and check you out for me."

"That's fine. I brought my best buddy to check things out for me, too." Lin Fengmian took in everyone's reactions without commenting.

At their exchange, displeasure appeared on several of the girls' faces.

Xia Qinghe scoffed. You can bring a whole crowd to a blind date, but my Mianmian can't bring one person? What kind of unreasonable rule is that?

"Mianmian, are you hungry? I'll have them serve the food."

Xia Qinghe had no interest in the cold leftovers on the table. Resting his chin on his hand, he swept his gaze over the leftover bones in front of each girl without a word. Yet somehow, under the scrutiny of those sharp eyes, the girls felt uneasy in their seats, even ashamed.

It was as though those eyes had seen straight through every thought in their hearts, stripping them completely bare.

Xia Qinghe couldn't care less what these girls were thinking. Right now, nothing in the world mattered more than feeding Lin Fengmian.

He often ate here and knew which of the hotel's dishes suited Lin Fengmian's tastes. When he learned that Lin Fengmian was having his blind date here, he had already told the owner which dishes to prepare.

The dishes on the table that hadn't been finished were soon cleared away, and fresh dishes began arriving in a steady stream.

Not one of them had appeared on the menu. They looked tastier, smelled better, and were even more mouthwatering. Someone couldn't help swallowing.

Xia Qinghe raised his glass, the champagne glittering brilliantly under the lights. "Help yourselves."

The girls reined in their earlier ravenous eating and sat up straight. They occasionally picked up a morsel, taking only from the dishes directly in front of them, and covered their mouths as they ate to make themselves look elegant and refined.

Xia Qinghe sipped his champagne. Its light, elegant taste was very much like the feeling Lin Fengmian gave him. He turned to his right. Lin Fengmian wasn't eating slowly, but he was a pleasure to watch-at least more so than these affected girls pretending to be elegant.

Huang Yachu made her movements as gentle as possible as she stirred the bird's nest soup in her bowl. "I heard from Jian Yi that you graduated with a law degree?"

Xia Qinghe picked up a sea cucumber and dropped it into Lin Fengmian's bowl. "Unemployed straight out of college. Sits around at home all day, jobless, and lives off his best buddy full-time."

Huang Yachu and her friends were speechless. How were they supposed to respond to that? Surely they couldn't say they hadn't come for him, but for the Lin Family behind him?

There was absolutely no way they could speak the truth.

And what did living off his best buddy full-time mean? Didn't people usually live off their parents? What kind of buddy would let his friend mooch off him?

He had to be joking, right?

One girl had already covered her mouth lightly and laughed. "You're such a joker."

Xia Qinghe lifted his eyelids and swept his gaze around, even more dissatisfied. The quality of this blind date was so poor that even going through the motions felt like an insult to himself. "Anything else you want to ask? Get on with it."

As he spoke, he tossed another chopstickful of sauna-steamed chicken into Lin Fengmian's bowl.

Huang Yachu forced herself to continue. "Mr. Lin, what do your parents do for work?"

A layer of mockery surfaced in Xia Qinghe's eyes. "Do you really not know, or are you pretending? Didn't Jian Yi tell you? That's impossible. There's no one in all of Shengjing who doesn't know the Lin Family."

Lin Fengmian glanced at Xia Qinghe and ladled him some sea cucumber and chicken soup. Why are you being so aggressive? I'd already left. You were the one who insisted on coming, and now you've gone and worked yourself up. Here, have some soup and cool off.

Xia Qinghe picked up the bowl and downed it. It tasted pretty good. He stretched out his arm and ladled a bowl for Lin Fengmian too. "This is nice and savory. Try it."

Lin Fengmian ignored him and tried to salvage some dignity for the girl across from him. "He's just blunt like that. Don't take it to heart."

"But could you ask some questions you don't already know the answers to and actually want to know?"

The girl beside Huang Yachu shot to her feet. "Is that any way to talk? Are you the one on the blind date, or is he? He's been answering for you this whole time. If you're not interested, just say so. Be direct. There's no need for this performance."

Xia Qinghe threw down his chopsticks, and Lin Fengmian swiftly shielded his bowl. What are you doing? You nearly knocked my pork knuckle onto the floor.

Xia Qinghe let out a heavy breath. "I'm talking to you the way you've behaved. What, you're allowed to bring a whole crowd to freeload on food and drinks, but I'm not allowed to answer questions for someone?"

"Who's freeloading? We're just here to vet you for our friend, and now we have. You're nothing but a bunch of ignorant, good-for-nothing rich boys."

"Vet us? Since when did you get to pass judgment on the Lin Family and pick them apart?" People could look down on Xia Qinghe, but absolutely not on Lin Fengmian. More than anything, he couldn't stand anyone making Lin Fengmian suffer.

"I'm rich, but I'm not a sucker. You started ordering and eating before everyone had even arrived. You've got no manners, yet you're blaming other people first."

"I bet you've never had a meal this good in your lives."

The girls rushed over, ready to tear that man's foul mouth apart.

Xia Qinghe stood in front of Lin Fengmian, facing nine opponents alone. Lin Fengmian kept his head down and ate, trying to get more food down before they started fighting.

Huang Yachu was rather embarrassed. She tried pulling back one girl, then another, but ultimately couldn't stop any of them. In a fit of anger, she flipped the table. Bowls and chopsticks crashed to the floor, and sauce and scraps of meat spilled everywhere.

Lin Fengmian held up a plate. Luckily, he'd been quick enough to fill it.

"Enough." Huang Yachu sniffled and gave Lin Fengmian an aggrieved look. "Let's go."

Once they left, only the mess on the floor remained.

Xia Qinghe pushed his tongue against his cheek, looking exasperated with him. "You're so damn hopeless. She brought a whole crowd, and they started eating before you got here, and you were just going to let it slide with 'wrong room'?"

His Mianmian couldn't be subjected to that kind of injustice. It would hurt his heart.

When his heart hurt, naturally he was in a bad mood. Whoever bullied his Mianmian, he would bully right back. Anger couldn't be bottled up; that was bad for both physical and mental health.

Lin Fengmian swallowed the roast duck in his mouth. "What else was I supposed to do? I had to spare my third brother-in-law's feelings, and I didn't want my mom nagging me when I got home, so I left both sides some dignity."

Saying he'd come to the wrong room and making a quick escape was all the dignity he could leave everyone.

But then he'd run into Xia Qinghe. The moment Xia Qinghe stuck his ass out, Lin Fengmian knew what shape of shit he was planning to take.

There was nothing for it. Since his best buddy let him mooch off him, he could only let him do what he wanted.

After all, those girls really hadn't behaved decently. If his best buddy wanted to stand up for him, of course he supported it wholeheartedly.

"And did they leave you any dignity? They knew you were rich, so they treated you like a sucker and brought a whole crowd to eat and drink. I, Xia Qinghe, have plenty of money, but I won't let people take advantage of us so blatantly. And every one of them was all dolled up, looking prettier than the actual girl on the date. They know perfectly well what they were after."

Not one of them was any good, even Huang Yachu, who'd been squeezed to the back to introduce herself last. Her greatest fault was her poor judgment of people. Instead of distancing herself from friends like these, she'd brought them to her blind date. Ha.

Xia Qinghe took out his phone and transferred ten million to Lin Fengmian. He had to send Mianmian some money to soothe his nerves. "Next time you meet a blind date who shows you so little respect, hit back directly. Got it?"

Lin Fengmian finished the food on his plate, dusted off his hands, and answered unhurriedly, "Got it. I just couldn't be bothered to make an issue of it."

"You have to make an issue of it. You have to let these people know Fourth Young Master Lin isn't someone they can mess with. Don't let everyone start thinking you're an easy target. I worry myself sick over you. Even with something like this, I have to stand up for you. What are you going to do without me?" Xia Qinghe was worried to death.

"But you're always here, aren't you? Why wouldn't I have you?" Lin Fengmian suddenly remembered what Lin Sui had said. "Don't tell me you'll stop caring about me once you get married?"

Xia Qinghe froze for a moment at those words. "I'm not getting married."

Lin Fengmian didn't believe him. "My mom said your blind date last night was seriously wow."

At that adjective, Xia Qinghe couldn't maintain his cold expression and laughed. "Ten times more wow than yours today. So tell Auntie Song to learn from my mom and screen them properly. She shouldn't dump just any trash on you. You're not a garbage can."

Seeing that Lin Fengmian had grown thick-skinned and wasn't listening at all, Xia Qinghe hooked an arm around him and leaned heavily on him. "I turned the date down. Didn't feel anything."

Lin Fengmian raised an eyebrow. He could already imagine how Xia Qinghe had made the other person back off. That was Xia Qinghe for you-utterly shameless and living so freely.

Unlike him, with a family burden weighing dozens of tons: his dad, his mom, two sisters, a brother, a sister-in-law, and brothers-in-law. A quick count already gave him more than a dozen people, and the infuriating thing was that the weight kept increasing every year.

He was a little envious.

With an arm around Lin Fengmian, Xia Qinghe headed outside. "I'll take you home."

"Hello, could you please settle the bill?" Seeing the girls who had ordered the food storming out of the hotel, a server hurried over.

They had ordered ten servings of the abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, and fish maw dish alone, at 9,999 yuan each, never mind everything else. If she let them skip out on this bill, she'd be working for nothing for five years.

Remembering the prices they'd seen when ordering, the girls exchanged glances before finally looking at Huang Yachu.

Huang Yachu's expression turned rather ugly, and she glanced at the girl to her left.

That girl immediately stepped forward and snapped at the server. "What bill? We're here for a blind date. Of course the man pays."

"Exactly. If he wants a wife, how can he not show some sincerity?"

The server inwardly curled her lip. You've got the nerve to talk about sincerity? They ordered champagne worth millions a bottle for you, and you flipped the table. They've already shown plenty of sincerity by not making you pay for the damage.

But she showed none of it on her face. "Here's the situation. The dishes the gentlemen ordered afterward have already been paid for. But you'll need to pay for what you ordered before they arrived, since they didn't eat any of it."