Zuo Hengyi and Second Young Master Fu shared similar personalities in some ways, both being rather casual and easygoing types.
When Second Young Master Fu expressed interest in seeing what was on the phone, Zuo Hengyi generously tilted his phone in his direction.
"Here, look at this."
Wanting to ensure Fu Zhanyang could get the full story, Shi Ruan scrolled back to the first page of the post, even though she had already read through all of it.
Second Young Master Fu, who had been wallowing in post-breakup gloom, found salvation in the joy of gossip. Since then, he had developed quite an appetite for drama of all kinds - he wasn't picky, any juicy story would do.
And relationship drama like this was definitely his favorite kind.
Seeing the explosive chat logs, he couldn't help but exclaim "Holy crap!" several times.
Everyone else present maintained their composure, pretending to be above such matters, though deep down they were all desperately curious about what was going on.
The prime examples were Zuo's Father and Feng Yunhe.
Zuo's Father, considering himself a man of status and the elder of the group, wouldn't stoop to asking directly about it, even though he wanted to know.
As for Feng Yunhe, putting on airs had become such a habit that he couldn't bring himself to show interest either.
Shi Li watched from the sidelines as Shi Ruan whispered discussions with Zuo Hengyi and Second Young Master Fu.
She calmly stated, "Actually, I knew about this long ago."
Shi Ruan and Fu Zhanyang: !!
Zuo Hengyi: Hmph!
Shi Ruan complained quietly, "You never told me about such juicy gossip, are we growing apart, sister?"
Shi Li had been waiting for this. "I tried to tell you."
Shi Ruan grew more plaintive, "Then why didn't you?"
Shi Li smiled, "Don't you remember? I called you one night wanting to share this, but you said you were busy and had no time for me, so I had to process it alone."
Shi Ruan thought back and recalled something like that, though she wasn't entirely sure.
Shi Li continued smiling as she reminded her, "Sister, you can check our call history if you'd like. You'll find a call that lasted less than a minute that day."
With Shi Li's reminder, Shi Ruan finally remembered that it had indeed happened.
So she couldn't blame Shi Li - it was her own fault.
Shi Ruan gave an embarrassed laugh, "Hehe, I'm sorry for doubting you, sis. It was all my fault."
Before Shi Ruan could finish her half-hearted apology, Second Young Master Fu earnestly said, "Little sis, next time you have such good gossip, don't bother sharing with your sister - she's too busy with her romance to pay attention to you. Tell me instead, I'm available anytime, anywhere."
Shi Ruan couldn't stand for this. Last time she hadn't known Shi Li was calling to share gossip - if she had known, she would have stopped even if she had been in the middle of kissing Ji Chunsheng!
Shi Ruan quickly pledged her loyalty to Shi Li, "No, no, no, I was wrong last time. We're family, you should always come to me with things like this."
The two then launched into an intense debate about who Shi Li should share gossip with.
Shi Li had originally intended to tease Shi Ruan, implying 'you used to ignore me, but now you can't reach my level.'
But unexpectedly, Second Young Master Fu had jumped into the discussion, earnestly debating with Shi Ruan about gossip-sharing protocols.
Who could have predicted such a turn of events?
Zuo Hengyi was also quite bewildered - weren't they discussing cheating and the grove incident? How did they end up here?
Zuo Hengyi: Are we still discussing the grove incident?
Everyone else: Wait, we haven't fully understood this gossip yet. Could you return to the previous topic instead of discussing irrelevant matters?
Finally, Liang Rongrong was the first to crack, trying to steer the conversation back.
"Did you mention something about cheating earlier? Did I hear that right? What happened?"
Zuo Hengyi, who always felt somewhat impatient with her, replied, "Go look on the school's forum. There's a timeline and the whole story there."
Liang Rongrong ignored his tone - the gossip was more important.
Feng Yunhe also wanted to check the forum at this point, but he was too proud. If he took out his phone now, wouldn't it prove his mind was full of trivial matters? So he suppressed his urge to check his phone.
Feng Yunhe thought to himself that he could check once he got home, when no one would be watching.
Thus, the number of people eager to go home evolved from just Shi Quan to two.
As they waited, Shi Quan suggested heading home.
Feng Yunhe's heart leaped with joy.
When Shi Quan proposed leaving, no one objected. The Fu brothers would naturally accompany him back to the Shi residence - since they were already in the area, they should properly greet the Shi family elders.
Zuo's Father didn't try to keep them, as he planned to have his wayward son share the gossip with him after the young people left.
With outsiders present, such talk would have been inappropriate and affected his image.
But when only family remained, it wouldn't matter.
However, to Zuo's Father's surprise, his wayward son left with the group.
After seeing the guests off with his wife and the butler, facing the empty living room, Zuo's Father asked in confusion, "Where's the young master? He was just here."
Madam Zuo wondered whether her husband's eyes were failing him, or if his eyes were failing him.
Considering he was still her meal ticket, Madam Zuo refrained from mockery and simply reminded him, "Young master left with the Shi children." He had walked out brazenly, without any attempt at concealment, right in front of everyone.
So for him to ask such a question, Madam Zuo suspected he might be unwell.
Besides, he had never paid this much attention to his son before - why would he suddenly need to question when his son went out with friends?
Zuo Hengyi went back to the Shi residence with Shi Ruan and Second Young Master Fu to continue their gossip discussion.
Feng Yunhe, wanting to get home to check the forum, suggested splitting up, and Liang Rongrong naturally went with him.
When the three Shi siblings returned home, their grandmother's nephew had already left, and new guests had arrived to pay New Year visits, making the house quite lively.
Second Young Master Fu and Fu Huixing paid their New Year respects to the Shi family elders.
With guests still in the house, Eldest Aunt, worried the young people might get bored, asked Shi Quan to take the guests upstairs.
Youngest Uncle Shi served as a sort of mascot while entertaining guests, occasionally speaking up to lighten the mood, saying things that his older brothers couldn't say appropriately.
Everyone knew he was a bit of a joker, so even if he said something inappropriate, it wouldn't be taken as representing the views of the Shi family's decision-makers.
This particular New Year visitor had come with a request, but since the eldest brother disliked him and wouldn't deal with him, the youngest uncle kept diverting the conversation to useless topics.
"There aren't any mosquitoes in this weather, so why is your neck red?"
"If you're injured, you should go to the hospital right away."
The man laughed awkwardly, "I just bumped into something, it's nothing."
As they were heading upstairs, they naturally overheard this conversation.
To be honest, a red neck quite easily brought to mind the thought of love bites.
As everyone's imagination began to wander, Shi Li casually remarked: [It's just a rash, what's there to hide?]
Zuo Hengyi: ! Oh my god!
