Chapter 48: The First Meeting and the Testing (1/7)

On the other side of the dessert shop.

“Yichen-gege, try it~”

Tong Ya scooped up a spoonful of milky-white pudding with the spoon she had just used and held it close to Su Yichen’s lips. “This ice cream is super delicious.”

Her eyes shimmered with affection, full of hope and anticipation, without a trace of impurity.

Yet deep within those eyes, there lingered a faint, barely concealed greed, fixed on the boy’s soft, rosy lips.

Such an enticing shape…

If I bite them… they must taste wonderful, right?

The imagined sensation of his lips exploded on the tip of her tongue, like an electric current racing through her nerves straight to her brain—only to be quickly suppressed by the girl’s sense of reason.

She knew that no matter how many improper thoughts she had, she couldn’t reveal them now.

Even if, as they spent more time together, she increasingly wanted to make him hers alone…

She still couldn’t show it at this moment.

Su Yichen looked at the spoonful of pudding before him. His throat moved slightly, but he still said, “Xiaoya, I’ll just order another one.”

That spoon…

It had just been in Tong Ya’s mouth. Looks like Xiaoya couldn’t hold back anymore and wanted to try something a little bold…

Tong Ya noticed everything in his expression, but her voice remained as sweet as ever. “Ordering another one is too expensive. I can’t even finish this one…”

“Wouldn’t it be better if we shared this one?”

You clearly want to eat it~

Yichen-gege, do you know? Your face is red.

An indirect kiss.

Don’t you want to taste a girl’s lips?

Sweeter than ice cream~

Lizi definitely wouldn’t give you this kind of sweetness, right?

But Xiaoya can~

“Mr. Su, I also really want to try that ice cream…”

“Why don’t you take a bite? Just think of it as eating it for me~”

Just from her voice, Su Yichen could already imagine Huohua drooling.

“Take a bite?”

“If I eat this, Tong Ya’s love value will increase by at least five.” Su Yichen’s eyes curved into a charming arc. “She’s testing my obedience.”

“A test of my loyalty to Luo Yueli, and her position in my heart.”

“If I eat this ice cream she’s offering, her next move will come quickly. Didn’t she invite me to go swimming this morning?”

“Huohua, believe it or not… if I eat this now, tomorrow she’ll tell me she’s gained several pounds because of the breakfast I took her to this morning.”

“Then she’ll cling to me and ask me to go to the swimming pool with her.”

“And during that time, she’ll take every chance to get close to me.”

“After swimming, her love value will probably shoot past fifty.”

“And in less than a month, I’ll be completely captured by her and fall into a relationship.”

“But I still haven’t even met my other two capture targets. I don’t even know what kind of people they are.”

“If their character persona is difficult, I’ll probably mess everything up.”

Then what’s the point of playing at all?

So he couldn’t accept Tong Ya’s ice cream—but he couldn’t outright refuse either.

Refusing would dampen her enthusiasm. Accepting it would give her a signal—a sense of partial success.

It would also make Tong Ya feel that he wasn’t that hard to win over.

The process of pursuing love… how could it be without a few setbacks?

Otherwise, it wouldn’t feel real.

Xiaoya, you think so too, right?

“Mm… ordering another one would indeed be wasteful.”

Su Yichen nodded and placed his empty cup beside Tong Ya. “Split half for me.”

Tch…

Test failed…

Rejected.

But not completely rejected.

Damn it…

Tong Ya pouted slightly, but given her current relationship with Su Yichen…

She couldn’t really do anything.

If Yichen-gege had used my spoon to eat the ice cream, I could’ve gotten him to go swimming with me tomorrow.

In that case…

The swimming plan will have to be delayed for a few days…

I wanted to speed things up…

She’s starting to want him more and more.

“Okay~ Yichen-gege, Xiaoya will listen to you.”

The girl smiled innocently, as if nothing awkward had happened at all—despite being rejected when she tried to feed him.

On one hand, Su Yichen’s tone and actions hadn’t made her feel awkward.

On the other, her hidden motives seemed to vanish along with the crescent shape of her smiling eyes, perfectly concealed.

As Tong Ya slowly poured the ice cream into the glass, Su Yichen subconsciously raised his hand and gently pinched his chin with his thumb and index finger.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Su?”

Huohua, who had been watching him the whole time, immediately recognized this as his habitual gesture when thinking.

“Nothing.”

Rarely, Su Yichen didn’t explain.

Because even he hadn’t figured it out.

There were many things in this world that Su Yichen couldn’t understand, even with his unusually rich life experience.

But when it came to women…

There were very few things he couldn’t figure out.

Tong Ya was too obedient—so obedient that she resembled an ideal girlfriend.

A cat-like girl shouldn’t be like this, shouldn’t be this obedient.

After all, if you pet a cat the wrong way, it scratches you.

Even with a green tea attribute mixed in, she shouldn’t be like this.

Like last time, when he stood her up, she gained hatred value.

That was normal. That was how a girl should react.

But the current Tong Ya…

Beautiful, outstanding, reasonable; obedient, frugal, and even romantic.

She was practically a hexagon warrior.

This kind of “perfect girlfriend” almost only existed in novels and movies.

The kind men would worship, saying they’d give up years of their life just to marry her, while women found her hard to tolerate.

Just like how men dislike those overly perfect male characters—handsome, rich, aloof, flawless.

Because these ideal personas only exist in fantasies.

Their traits are all “selfless,” not “self-serving.”

But “self-serving” is the selfish instinct buried deep in everyone’s bones.

So this overly obedient Tong Ya now seemed slightly strange in Su Yichen’s eyes.

As for why, he couldn’t tell yet.

“Alright, Yichen, I’ve split it for you.” Tong Ya placed their cups side by side.

Perfectly even—exactly half.

She lifted her eyes slightly, her tone carrying a hint of meaning. “Yichen, how did you help Lizi out that day? Can you tell me?”

“That day…”

Just as Su Yichen was about to continue, the corner of his eye caught something at the other end of the dessert shop. His lips pressed tightly together, and he fell silent.

What’s wrong?

Tong Ya, whose attention was entirely on him, clearly noticed the change in his expression—the flash of tension hidden within his complicated gaze.

She watched as he hurriedly picked up the glass of ice cream, dipped his spoon in, scooped a bite—

And put it into his mouth.

The distance between them suddenly felt vast.

Tong Ya found this version of Su Yichen strangely familiar.

Like…

Like during military training, when Luo Yueli was nearby.