Spoiled rotten by you
Wang Tingting looked behind her. The cinema was very dark, and it wasn’t easy to make out features, but Shen Wanying and Huo Cheng both had incredibly distinctive looking faces, and with the two of them sitting together, it was much easier to find them.
She found them easily and turned back to Qiu Ziqing. “It’s really true. Why are the two of them watching a film together?”
The other girl responded, “How the hell should I know?”
Wang Tingting was silent, a man and a woman going out to see a film alone, no matter how you spun it, it looked like they were dating.
Is Shen Wanying really dating Huo Cheng?
Although she thought so, her mouth still reassured Qiu Ziqing: “Maybe it’s just a coincidence, I heard that the two of them have known each other since they were kids. They probably have a….familial relationship?”
Her friend didn’t reply this time. Wang Tingting handed her the popcorn in her hand and comforted her. “Don’t overthink it. Someone as pretentious as Shen Wanying definitely wouldn’t be the sort to date young. If not, she can’t maintain her facade of a good student!”
Qiu Ziqing silently grabbed a handful of popcorn and stuffed it into her mouth.
After the film ended, Wang Tingting and Qiu Ziqing stayed in their seats for a while, waiting until Huo Cheng and Shen Wanying walked by their row before they stood up and walked out.
Then Wang Tingting turned to them in surprise, with acting skills far exceeding Fang Yichang’s: “My Lady, Huo Cheng, you’ve come to see the film too?”
Shen Wanying did not expect to meet her classmates here. She smiled awkwardly. “Yes.”
“Is it just the two of you?” Wang Tingting pressed.
“Is that not allowed?” This time it was Huo Cheng who answered.
His expression and tone were both cold, and Wang Tingting had the good sense not to ask any more questions. Qiu Ziqing did step forward at this moment, smiling at them and asking, “Where are you going to go later? Tingting and I are just about to go for dinner, why don’t you join us?”
“No need.” He rejected her curtly, then he turned to Shen Wanying. “Let’s go.”
“Okay.” She followed Huo Cheng out, asking him uneasily, “Do you think Qiu Ziqing and Wang Tingting will run their mouths at school?”
“About what?”
“Just …… about us going to the cinema together.”
“Didn’t they go together too?”
She was speechless. Does he really not understand, or is he just feigning ignorance?
Seeing the expression on her face, he pursed his lips. “Don’t bother about them, if they really want to talk about it, we can’t stop them.”
Truthfully, she was less concerned about the gossip, and more worried about having to explain the situation to Mr. Song once he inevitably caught wind of it.
“Why don’t you think about what to have for lunch instead?”
It was a successful appeal to Shen Wanying’s taste buds. “Let’s have barbecue,” she suggested.
“Sure, at Lilith Grill?”
“Mmhm!”
The two went to Lilith Grill and had just sat down when Qiu Ziqing and Wang Tingting followed in on their heels.
Shen Wanying went blank on the spot. If I’d known this would happen, I’d just have let them come with us in the first place.
Huo Cheng looked at them with a less than friendly face, so the two of them found their own table to sit down.
When the food came, he took it upon himself to grill the meat. He cut the beef into small pieces and cooked them on the grill plate, before placing them into Shen Wanying’s bowl.
Looking at them, Wang Tingting became green with envy.
“Huo Cheng is too good, he’s really the whole package.” She said, completely forgetting to be sensitive to Qiu Ziqing’s feelings. At that moment, she just wanted a handsome man to help her roast meat like this. “Look at him. He’s normally so cold and icy, but he’s so gentle with her!”
Qiu Ziqing lost her appetite. She put down her chopsticks and stood up. “I’m full.”
Wang Tingting said nothing. She hurriedly ate a few more bites of meat and went out after Qiu Ziqing.
Shen Wanying glanced at them before turning her attention back to her food and continuing to eat: “Don’t give it all to me, you should eat some yourself.” She put some of the meat Huo Cheng had given her back into his bowl.
He then added new dishes to the grill plate and said to her, “You eat first. I’ll cook more for you.”
“No, you eat. I’ll do the grilling.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Huo Cheng paid for the meal, but Shen Wanying felt bad. He spent so much time and effort on her, it made her feel a little… parasitic.
“I don’t think we can go on like this,” she told him gloomily.
“Hmm?” He looked at her, puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
“I feel like I’ve been spoiled rotten by you,” she explained
With Huo Cheng, it seemed like she didn’t have to do anything, just …… eat and drink and sing.
A smile danced in his eyes. “Spoiled?”
Realizing what she had said, Shen Wanying was instantly bashful: “I mean, you do everything for me. I didn’t mean it in that way!”
“Mm.” The corners of Huo Cheng’s mouth curved up nicely. “Yes, this isn’t considered spoiling.”
She said nothing in response.
“You still have classes this afternoon, right? I’ll ask the driver to send you back first.”
“Okay.” When he mentioned the driver, something else occurred to her. All this time they had spent gallivanting around outside of school, the driver had been there the whole time.
“About that ……” She looked at Huo Cheng walking beside her.
He inclined his head and met her gaze. “What’s wrong?”
“Your family’s driver. Did he never tell your grandfather about all the times we went out together?”
“He has. My grandfather knows.”
Shen Ying : “……”
And?
“He doesn’t have a problem with it.”
Shen Ying: “……”
That’s good.
After Huo Cheng sent her home, he returned to the old Huo family residence. Shen Wanying couldn’t stop thinking about the day’s events. We went out to watch a film and have a meal together, was that considered a date?
Seeing that she was a bit distracted today, her speaking coach asked her teasingly, “Wanying, are you seeing someone?”
She blushed, but denied it. “No, we’re not allowed to date in high school. Here, it’s considered too early for our age.”
The teacher disapproved of this line of thinking. “I’m a foreigner, and we don’t have that rule where I come from. Besides, even if your school doesn’t allow it, there are probably plenty of students who date in secret, right?”
“Umm ……” she couldn’t deny the fact that every high school had its share of students who dated in secret.
“Ah – I suddenly understand why your school doesn’t allow students to date young.” The speaking coach looked at her, eyes twinkling. “Because that’s more exciting, isn’t it?”
T/N: Once again, my unending thanks to BrightEyes for her help with this chapter as well!! Ngl my heart SANK at Ziqing and Tingting’s presence. I also can’t tell if Ziqing is mad because she likes Huo Cheng or if she’s mad bc it seems like Wanying gets everything she can’t have. Guess we’ll find out. Either way, this still felt so oddly mundane in the middle of the big murder conspiracy. Oddly mundane, but cute. I’m rly interested to see how their relationship pans out from here! Thank you for reading, and see you in the next chapter! I have no idea what lies ahead of us :3