How Was This Any Different from Dating?

They had dinner at Su's.

By the time Wen Ning and Bo Yan arrived, Xie Luping was already there.

Seeing the two walk in chatting and laughing-even if Wen Ning was doing all the chatting and laughing-left Xie Luping stunned for a good long while!

He wondered when Bo Yan had gotten so close to the young miss. If he normally chattered and laughed like that around the guy, Bo Yan would have long since lashed out with that poisonous tongue of his and told him he was annoying.

What shocked him even more was that the two actually sat together during dinner!

Not only did they sit together, but halfway through the meal, when the young miss asked if he wanted anything else, Bo Yan didn't stand on ceremony with her and ordered a bowl of plain noodle soup.

When the noodles arrived, Bo Yan ate in silence. The young miss suddenly asked him, "Honey, what kind of noodles are you having?"

Bo Yan looked baffled. "When did you go blind?"

Wen Ning gave a coy, affected wave. "Oh, stop it. I just wanted-a little face-to-face time with you."

Bo Yan: "..."

A little later, Wen Ning propped her face in her hands and asked, "Honey, what do your noodles taste like?"

Bo Yan moved faster than he could think. The moment she finished speaking, he pushed the big bowl of noodles in front of her without even looking up. "Help yourself if you want some."

Only after saying it did he seem to realize something was wrong. He looked up and cast a suspicious glance at Wen Ning.

Sure enough, the next second, Wen Ning smiled until her eyes disappeared into crescents and said sweetly, "I don't need to taste them to know-they taste like loving you~"

Bo Yan: "..."

Xie Luping really couldn't take it anymore!

What he found even harder to take was, Bo Yan, why the hell were your ears turning red?!!!

Xie Luping held his forehead. He had only gone on one business trip. How much plot had he missed?

Weren't these two supposed to be a couple bound by pure hatred? But look at this, just look at it! How were they any different from a pair of newlyweds?

Xie Luping didn't know what was going on. He just felt as though the sky had fallen. Even eating left him feeling that life held nothing worth living for, the food like wax in his mouth.

Only when Wen Ning took her clutch to the restroom to touch up her makeup did Xie Luping seize the chance to ask, "Holy shit! What the hell is going on with you two?! You... she... you guys..." He gritted his teeth. "How is this any different from dating?!"

At the word "dating," Bo Yan froze for a moment. Then he lowered his head and carefully wiped his hands with a tissue, saying flatly, "Go see an eye doctor if you've got nothing better to do. Which eye of yours saw me dating her?"

Xie Luping nearly choked. "This doesn't count as dating? You two were practically kissing just now! No, seriously? I... you... she... you guys..." He closed his eyes helplessly. "You must really be starving. Of all the people you could like, you had to fall for a lunatic."

Bo Yan tossed the napkin back onto the table, his gaze indifferent. "I don't like her."

A few seconds later, he added coldly, "I'm not sick."

If not for that last remark, Xie Luping might almost have believed him!

Xie Luping couldn't even be bothered to explain what a double negative meant. Even if Bo Yan hadn't reached the point of liking the young miss yet, she had definitely become someone special to him.

Xie Luping really couldn't figure it out and wanted to ask what exactly had happened between them while he was away. Before he could speak, however, Bo Yan suddenly looked at him. After staring for a long while, he asked, "You really haven't noticed?"

Xie Luping was utterly confused. "Noticed what?"

Bo Yan's heart suddenly beat a little faster. His thin lips moved. "She's not-"

Halfway through his sentence, the door opened.

Wen Ning, finished touching up her makeup, sat down beside Bo Yan again. Noticing the silence, she asked, "What were you talking about?"

Bo Yan pressed his lips together.

Xie Luping paused, then quickly smiled. "We were talking about how you played the beauty saving the hero at noon, young miss."

Wen Ning raised an eyebrow, looking from Xie Luping to Bo Yan.

Clearly, that wasn't what they had been discussing.

Still, she didn't press them and naturally picked up where Xie Luping had left off. "Then you should ask me, the star of the show. My battle record is there for you to check."

Xie Luping breathed a sigh of relief when Wen Ning didn't pursue it.

But a moment later, his pupils jolted!

Normally, this young miss would definitely have demanded answers. And that incident at noon today had shocked him when he heard about it. It wasn't her style at all!

Even with tonight's dinner, Xie Luping had initially assumed it would be a Hongmen banquet-a feast concealing a trap. He hadn't expected that, by the end, he would actually be chatting happily with her...

Was this still that lunatic?

Wait, what Bo Yan had left unfinished just now-

In a flash, Xie Luping thought of a possibility that was utterly absurd, yet explained everything before him.

He abruptly looked at Bo Yan.

Bo Yan gave a slight nod.

He had known Xie Luping wasn't stupid.

Now, the sky Xie Luping had only just painstakingly patched back together came crashing down yet again!

When he looked at the young miss before him again, he felt that everything about this Wen Ning was different from before...

Wen Ning hadn't expected the two men to have already realized that the original owner's inner core had been replaced.

Rebirth and transmigration into a novel were so contrary to common sense, so absurd, that few people would ever think of them, and even fewer would believe them.

But she had forgotten that Bo Yan wasn't remotely normal!

After dinner, Wen Ning returned to the Bo Family home with Bo Yan.

As they approached the coffin, they saw Jiang Tingwan waiting in front of it.

Wen Ning paused in surprise.

Jiang Tingwan, standing at the door, was also taken aback.

Wen Ning had never come back to Bo Yan's place to rest before. She always slept in the main building, so why tonight...

A little flustered and afraid Wen Ning was about to go crazy again, Jiang Tingwan hurriedly said, "I made some little cakes this afternoon and thought I'd bring some over for you two to try."

After saying that, Jiang Tingwan gradually steadied herself. Having lived her life over again, she couldn't possibly let Wen Ning bully and humiliate her at will anymore.

She had already had someone spread the news that afternoon. Thinking that Wen Ning would soon get her just deserts, Jiang Tingwan's lips curved slightly. Her smile gentle and apologetic, she said, "A-Xu was in the wrong this morning. I'd like to apologize to you both on his behalf."

Wen Ning thought this female lead really was no simple character. She played the wife in the Bo Family while keeping both the big villain and Wen Ning's younger brother on the hook.

Later on, of those three men, one would defy the father he had respected for years for her, one would take a knife for her in a crisis, and that great idiot Wen Jing would even fall to his death saving her daughter...

Perhaps Wen Ning was carb-dazed after dinner, because she completely forgot to play the simp. Turning her head, she said to the indifferent-looking Bo Yan, "Your romantic debt has come calling."

Seeing how plainly she was waiting to enjoy the show, Bo Yan clicked his tongue softly. She really wasn't even pretending anymore.

He walked over and accepted Jiang Tingwan's cakes. "Thank you, Sister-in-law."

With Wen Ning there, she clearly couldn't farm any affection points tonight. Jiang Tingwan had no choice but to leave after delivering the cakes.

Wen Ning frowned at the box of little cakes in Bo Yan's hand.

Didn't he refuse to eat food other people gave him?

At lunch, he'd even made her act like a maid testing his food. Ha.

It seemed Bo Yan had quite a bit of affection for Jiang Tingwan after all.

Well, that made sense. After all, Jiang Tingwan had been the only person to help him during the most miserable period of his life.

Wen Ning didn't particularly care. She wasn't actually planning to date a big villain who wanted to kill her at the drop of a hat. Wasn't being alive nice?

But then-

As soon as Bo Yan returned to the coffin, he tossed the box of little cakes into the trash.

Wen Ning: "..."

Excellent. The big villain's characterization was rock solid, without the slightest collapse.

At bedtime, no matter what Wen Ning said, Bo Yan wouldn't say a single word in response and insisted on sleeping on the sofa.

Unable to persuade him, Wen Ning happily took the big bed for herself.

The next day, Wen Ning gave Bo Yan a car key.

It was for yesterday's Ferrari.

"Drive this one from now on. If you get tired of it, just tell me, and I'll get you a different one." Wen Ning went straight into domineering CEO mode.

Bo Yan lowered his gaze and stared at the key in her hand for a while, then glanced at her, caught up in her urge to act. Speechless, he accepted it anyway.

Wen Ning had arranged to meet the original owner's best friend at noon. After seeing Bo Yan to the door, she said, "Work hard, honey. I'll bring you a lunch made with love at noon."

Bo Yan reflexively wanted to say there was no need, but swallowed the words at the tip of his tongue.

Forget it. Whatever. It didn't matter.

Once Bo Yan left, Wen Ning went back to get ready. In the middle of that, she went through the original owner's chat history with this best friend again, as well as the friend's WeChat Moments.

Once she had more or less familiarized herself with everything, Wen Ning headed out.

It was ten thirty in the morning when she left.

She had arranged to meet the original owner's best friend at a Hunan restaurant, over an hour's drive from the Bo Family home.

Playing soothing music in the car, Wen Ning drove toward the restaurant, completely unaware that a van was following her some distance behind, neither too close nor too far away.

The Hunan restaurant was busy at lunchtime. By the time Wen Ning arrived, all the parking spaces were full, so she could only drive to a nearby supermarket's underground parking lot.

After finally finding a space, Wen Ning had barely gotten out when a hand suddenly reached toward her from behind!

Wen Ning's pupils widened, and she reacted quickly, dodging to the side. But there were too many of them, and she still couldn't escape having her mouth and nose covered!

In the second before she passed out, Wen Ning cursed inwardly: Fuck your great-uncle and this fucking kidnapping plot! I'm your great-granny, the vicious supporting female character, not the female lead!!

Crash.

Bo Yan was in the break room looking at his phone. Someone had promised to bring him lunch at noon, yet she still hadn't sent him a WeChat message.

While he was silently feeling displeased, the glass beside his hand suddenly fell to the floor.

Shattered glass scattered everywhere.

Bo Yan was a little startled too.

Looking at the shards on the floor, he felt his heart tighten for no reason.

The last time he'd had a reaction like this had been when his birth mother became critically ill and died.

Bo Yan's right eyelid began twitching uncontrollably, and panic rose in his heart.

Just then, someone suddenly called him-