“I didn't say anything, why are you getting impatient already - has Miss Qiao felt Mr. Qin's feelings yet?” Lin Cheng looked at Qiao Ying.
Qiao Ying: “People's mouths are soft, but I’m not one to stand on ceremony. I don’t mind letting Chairman Lin feel my ‘feelings’ for a bit.”
Lin Cheng smiled: “Don’t get me wrong, I just wanted to ask if I should arrange for you two to be in the same room later, or...separate?”
Qiao Ying: “Tsk.”
Lin Cheng: “You’ll hurt Mr. Qin’s feelings like this.”
Qin Hanyue: “No need for you to worry on my behalf, Duke.”
Lin Cheng realized he had said too much. He pouted: “Alright, I talked too much.”
They were willing to fight each other, happy to take the punches.
“Mr. Qin will have to try harder. But I’m afraid this may be a case of the flower having meaning and the flowing water being heartless. I wish you success in embracing your beauty sooner.”
Qiao Ying's wrist moved slightly, barely able to restrain the urge to fling the spoon in her hand at him.
Qin Hanyue calmly said: “I do need to try harder, but feelings are voluntary after all. No matter the outcome, I’d be willing from my heart. But thanks for your blessings anyway.”
Making Qiao Ying hold back the urge to hit Lin Cheng with the spoon.
He was single-minded, yet had to butt in excessively. Lin Cheng had gotten the worst of both worlds. The cat in his arms seemed to be hungry, tapping its small paws on the dining table and meowing. Lin Cheng gently patted the furry head of the cat.
“Really no sense of appropriateness.”
It was unclear whether he was talking about the cat or himself.
He then shut up and ate his meal.
After the meal, Qiao Ying handed her new phone to Qin Hanyue for him to help log into her WeChat account. As soon as he logged in, the phone rang with messages for half a day.
Qiao Ying: “Summarize the main points.”
Qin Hanyue glanced through them roughly - there were messages from Cheng Jinyan, Ye Si, White Eagle Huo Chengdong, their class group chat, Principal Zhang, Older Ming, and many more.
He picked out the key ones to tell her: “Xiao Yi wants to see Sack. I’m going to check on him too anyway.”
Qiao Ying: “Then let’s go.”
Qin Hanyue: “Do you know which room we can find him in?”
Qiao Ying: “Sack can guide us.”
The dog Sack got to be useful again, immediately leading the way.
Qin Hanyue held Qiao Ying by the arm to bring her upstairs. This castle was truly enormous with winding stairs and corridors like a maze.
After walking for over ten minutes, they finally arrived at Sack’s room.
As soon as Qin Hanyue opened the door, the dog Sack charged in and kept wagging its tail enthusiastically at the Sack on the bed, being much more excited compared to Qin Hanyue. Even though Sack still had a black look on his face towards it.
“Third Young Master.” Qin Yan who was standing by the window watching the scenery immediately turned around.
Qin Hanyue: “Didn’t I ask you to help decoct medicine? When did you run over here?”
Qin Yan: “The medicine finished decocting. I just followed the servant to send it to Miss Qiao’s room. I was passing by Sack’s room here and thought we’re all family, so I came in to take a look.”
Family? Qin Hanyue didn’t say anything more to Qin Yan.
Upon hearing about video calling with Qiao Yi, Sack immediately turned his face away: “I won’t watch. What’s there to see.”
Qin Hanyue made a video call to Qiao Yi on Qiao Ying's phone. The other end quickly picked up.
Sack: “I said I don’t want to look.”
Sack directly pulled up the quilt to cover his own head.
Qin Hanyue held up the phone helplessly and told Qiao Ying: “He hid under the quilt.”
Qiao Ying: “Not cute at all. Dog Sack is more obedient - let's look at it then, it’s also called Sack.” Qiao Ying squatted down on the ground and stroked dog Sack's head.
Qin Hanyue turned the camera towards the dog.
Qiao Yi was very worried about Qiao Ying and Sack earlier, but felt much more assured now upon seeing that Qiao Ying was still in the mood to play with dogs.
Under the quilt, hearing Qiao Ying tease the dog, Sack was angered nearly to death.
After staying for a while, Qin Hanyue reminded Qiao Ying to return to her room to drink medicine.
Qiao Ying needed to have shots at least once a day. Also, since Sack wasn’t able to move around, they decided to stay at Lin Cheng’s for a period of time before going back.
Lin Cheng arranged for Qin Hanyue to stay in the room next to Qiao Ying’s.
After Qiao Ying drank the medicine, she said: “We rushed on the road for so long, rest early.”
Qin Hanyue brought warm water over for her to rinse her mouth, worried: “You haven’t showered yet. Can you handle it yourself?”
Qiao Ying raised her brow, no hesitation: “You plan to help?”
Even silver-tongued people would be easily stumped when met with Qiao Ying’s such blunt way of speaking. Qin Hanyue: “Cough... I meant help with fetching clothes, running the bath water and such.”
Qiao Ying: “There are servants.”
Qin Hanyue sat down on the sofa: “I’m not tired yet and it’s still early. I’ll stay a while longer.” He looked at Qiao Ying.
The two of them were wordless for a moment, seemingly blind to each other yet staring intently at one another at the same time, so neither felt there was any awkwardness.
Qin Hanyue just quietly watched her, worried she might feel bored, so he found a conversation topic: “Saved my number to your new phone?”
Qiao Ying handed her phone to him.
Qin Hanyue took it over, opened contacts, and recalled something.
He asked: “Then yesterday when you called me...you still remembered my number?”
Qiao Ying directly admitted: “Yeah.”
Qin Hanyue smiled silently. He started saving his number and saw the notes column. He asked: “What about the notes column? Was it ‘Mr. Qin’ previously? Keep the same as before or change it now?”
Qiao Ying: “Since you asked in this way, then change the name.”
A corner of Qin Hanyue’s lips turned up slightly as he typed: “Alright.”
He then took out his own phone and found Qiao Yi’s number in his contacts to save onto Qiao Ying’s phone too.
And coincidentally, in his contacts list, one of the people previously noted as “Miss Qiao” had at some unknown point long changed the notes.
Right after saving the numbers, Qiao Ying received another WeChat message.
Qin Hanyue: “It’s from the class advisor.”
Qiao Ying casually responded: “What did it say?” She didn’t actually care in her heart.
Only now did Qin Hanyue open WeChat to check the message: “It’s about assignments. And you’ve already missed quite a few group assignments beforehand.”
Qiao Ying: “I can’t see, so can’t do them.”
Qin Hanyue: “Let me do them for you then.”
Qiao Ying turned her face towards him: “You’ll do my assignments?”
Qin Hanyue: “You understand it all anyway. For you, assignments are just to ensure you don’t fail the course, not really a task, right?”
Qiao Ying: “Then go ahead.”
Free labor, why would she refuse.
Qin Hanyue took out a laptop and started doing PPT slides for Qiao Ying’s assignment.
Qiao Ying sat to the side, listening to the keyboard sounds, chatting casually to ask: “What was your university major?”
Qin Hanyue: “Economics, also did a dual degree in Law.”
Qiao Ying: “Did you study hard?”
Qin Hanyue: “I had already learned all this knowledge by the time I was 15. When I studied at Peking University, I only went to campus a few days each month.”
Qiao Ying: Just as expected.
Qin Hanyue: “Compared to you, you are indeed the better student.”
Qiao Ying laughed scoldingly: “Oh shut up.”
The sounds of typing on the keyboard continued. Qiao Ying: “After graduating so many years ago, did you expect there would come a day you’d do assignments for college freshmen?”
Qin Hanyue: “My four years of college, other than one graduation thesis, I basically didn’t know what assignments were. Experiencing this now is quite interesting.”
The class advisor sent another message, asking when she could return to school and that assignments must be completed.
Qin Hanyue replied on her behalf.
Qiao Ying: “If the class advisor knew the person on the other end of the phone was you, Third Young Master Qin...doing assignments, I wonder what her reaction would be.”
Connecting these two phrases...
Qin Hanyue: “What about it?”
Qiao Ying: “Quite funny.”
The servant came to help her shower, only assisting with removing clothes, running bath water and the like before standing guard outside the door awaiting further order.
Qin Hanyue remained in the living room continuing to do her assignment.
Qin Yan sent a message needing Qin Hanyue to start a video conference call. The conference content had already been sent over, quite important and urgent too.
Qin Hanyue replied: 【No time, doing homework】
