Cheng Xi had built up quite a bit of repressed anger over these last two days, so regardless of how good her temper was, she became vexed upon hearing Lu Chenming’s offensive words. She squinted at him, smiled, and calmly asked, “You like my brother?”

Without saying another word, she dragged him outside by his collar.

“Aaaaa! Where are you ta- ta- taking me?”

“To see the person you like.”

Cheng Xi decisively dragged Lu Chenming all the way back to her place. Cheng Yang was slated to return home today, and the news of her suspension from work made him rush over to her place immediately.

Cheng Yang got home faster than Cheng Xi had expected, and he was already waiting outside when Cheng Xi arrived, with Lu Chenming in tow. However, he couldn’t get inside as he wasn’t able to get past Mr. Lu’s security measures, and was thus forced to stand outside the door and glare and curse at the lock.

When he saw the two of them, he didn’t even greet Lu Chenming. Instead, the first thing he said was, “Give me the passcode, or even the key to that apartment next door. Can’t you at least do that?”

Cheng Xi ignored his request and opened the door.

Only then did Cheng Yang glance at Lu Chenming. “Oh, not bad. You’re willing to walk with my sister now?”

Lu Chenming’s face was sullen.

Cheng Yang slung his arm around Lu Chenming’s neck. “Hey, since we’re getting along so well, tell me this. If I fight your brother, would you help me or him?”

Lu Chenming’s sullen expression morphed into shock, though his expression looked a bit funny.

It was so funny that Cheng Yang even started laughing, and was about to say something when Cheng Xi suddenly turned around. “If you guys get along so well, then why don’t you kiss him?”

“Hmm?”

Before Cheng Yang could figure out what she was saying, Lu Chenming had already…… collapsed into a heap on the floor.

Cheng Xi pointed at Lu Chenming, and then calmly said to Cheng Yang, “He said that he likes you, brother. Shouldn’t you kiss him? Otherwise, you’d be letting him down.”

Cheng Yang was speechless. “……”

“……”

Cheng Yang instinctively recalled the plot of a cheesy drama: the main character had fallen irretrievably in love with his older brother’s girlfriend, which angered the older brother so much that he broke up with his girlfriend. Then, in order to get revenge, the petty older brother even reported his girlfriend to her workplace. The girlfriend, who wanted to keep her job, had then coerced the main character into cooperating with her. She wanted him to officially state that the person he truly liked was his older brother’s ex-girlfriend’s older brother.

Yup, this situation was just as convoluted as a cheesy drama.

But now that Cheng Yang was ‘informed’ about what was going on, he removed the arm looped around Lu Chenming’s neck and looked at Cheng Xi, seriously trying to figure out if he had understood her words correctly.

Cheng Xi nodded.

She nodded.

She actually nodded!

Cheng Yang’s headache intensified even more, but when he recalled his parents’ commands, and then the mutual assistance that he and Cheng Xi had given each other over the years (which wasn’t actually that much), he resolutely said, “I’ll do it!”

He leaned in towards Lu Chenming, about to kiss him.

Lu Chenming was so scared by this turn of events that he turned pale with fright, covered up his mouth surprisingly quickly, and yelled out, “Nononononono-”

Only then did Cheng Xi separate the two of them. She calmly told Cheng Yang, “Brother, go wash up over there. I want to talk with Chenming alone.”

Without waiting for a response, she pushed Cheng Yang out the door, along with his luggage.

Cheng Yang was struck speechless by her actions. “……”

Had his kind and gentle little sister been replaced by an alien?

He rolled up his sleeves and was about to pound on the door when it suddenly opened up. Cheng Xi appeared again, and she handed him a ring of keys. “Go on.”

Her tone had a faint pleaing quality to it.

Cheng Yang sighed, touched his nose in capitulation, took the keys, and obediently went over next door.

Back inside the apartment, Cheng Xi led Lu Chenming to the living room. “Sit down. Do you want anything to drink?”

Lu Chenming was the living example of the saying, “Silence is golden.”

“I have water, coffee, orange juice, cola, and milk tea. What do you want?”

Lu Chenming finally responded, “……Milk tea.”

“Sorry, but it looks like I’m out. Is water alright?”

“……”

Cheng Xi started laughing, but in the end, she really did make him some milk tea. “I was just kidding. My milk tea isn’t very tasty, but you can still try it if you want.”

Cheng Xi’s little joke actually helped Lu Chenming relax a little. However, he was still very nervous, and he fiddled with his pants as he continued to sit there. It seemed that the longer he sat still, the more anxious he became.

Cheng Xi had always thought that Lu Chenming had had some sort of social impediment; this was made even more evident by his current behavior, although Cheng Xi could also tell that it wasn’t very severe yet.

She had made Lu Chenzhou arrange a job for Lu Chenming and also told Cheng Yang to bring him along on sales calls as a means to forcibly cure his impediment. Since he’d stopped hiding whenever she entered the room and was instead able to sit still in a room with her for this long, he’d clearly improved.

Cheng Xi began by casually bringing up a mundane topic that he was familiar with. “Do you still play ‘Escape from the Apocalypse?’”

“What level’s your base at now?”

“Doesn’t my brother suck at the game?”

She would usually have to ask Lu Chenming ten or so questions before receiving a response. However, today, just one was enough. When Lu Chenming heard Cheng Xi’s poor evaluation of Cheng Yang’s gaming skills, he instinctively started nodding fervently, clearly having suffered from Cheng Yang’s lack of skill.

“How many levels did you drop?”

“Three.”

“Oh, that’s not too bad.” Cheng Xi smiled as she recalled, “One time, he insisted that I play with him. However, our levels fell so quickly that by the end, I couldn’t use some of my weapons and special abilities anymore. Thus, the two of us ended up being surrounded by zombies, and I almost had to start over from scratch.” 

Lu Chenming nodded dismally.

“You had a similar experience?”

He nodded again.

“What happened? How many levels did you drop?”

Under Cheng Xi’s careful guidance, Lu Chenming slowly started talking about how he had been fighting mobs with Cheng Yang but ended up being surrounded by zombies. In the end, he had barely avoided having to restart from nothing. In the beginning, his speech was a bit slow and awkward, but as he continued to talk, he slowly sped up. By the time Lu Chenming noticed the change in his speaking habits, he was already able to recount the details to Cheng Xi at a fast and fluid pace.

Lu Chenming was quite surprised, almost as if he didn’t dare believe that he could talk so naturally with a female he had a crush on.

He actually did it.

Cheng Xi smiled at him.

“I…… I know that you like my older brother, and I…… I respect your choice.”

He didn’t sound particularly frustrated, just anxious.

“Thank you. I’m sorry that I couldn’t deal with this matter properly.” She didn’t intend on explaining that Cheng Yang had impersonated her, at least not right now. “But please don’t say that you like men out loud. My brother’s somewhat stupid, and I’m afraid that he might take it seriously and do something to hurt you.”

Cheng Xi was merely referring to Cheng Yang teasing him with some nonsense, but Lu Chenming clearly misunderstood her. He instinctively thought back to when Cheng Yang had almost kissed him, froze up, nodded, and then said particularly obediently, “Alright.”

Cheng Xi smiled, and then the conversation naturally shifted to Lu Chenzhou. “Actually, the main reason why I wanted to talk was to ask you about your brother. If you could, please tell me about it. If it’s not, then that’s fine too.”

Lu Chenming raised his gaze, levelling a careful look at her.

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