Wang Aitian was completely dumbfounded!
Scoring one basket might still have been luck.
But if she made all ten shots, every single one straight into the hoop, then it was no longer luck—it was skill!
Cen Yu’s eyes were filled with shock and admiration as well.
Even Ji Mingtian, who had been feeling extremely smug, obediently shut his mouth. He stared at Ji Liuyue with a complicated look, and it took him a while to find his voice again.
“Not bad, little sis. Are you a professional or something? If I didn’t know you were a model, I would’ve thought you played professional women’s basketball,” he praised.
Ji Liuyue turned her head toward them and smiled. “Then you might soon discover that I have quite a few professions.”
Wang Aitian blinked. “What do you mean?”
At the bowling lane, Ji Liuyue lightly rolled the heavy bowling ball forward.
The ball rumbled straight down the lane and quickly knocked over every single white pin.
At the same time, Ji Mingtian’s throw only knocked down four pins. He had just turned around, ready to show off, when he saw what had happened.
What?
She’d knocked them all down!
Wang Aitian had completely transformed into a devoted fangirl. Standing behind Ji Liuyue, she clapped enthusiastically and exclaimed, “Wow! Yueyue, you’re amazing! Oh my gosh, a perfect strike!”
Ji Liuyue turned around with a faint smile and looked at Ji Mingtian.
“How was that? Are you going to guess that I’m a professional bowler this time too?”
Ji Mingtian gave her a thumbs-up. “I admit defeat! If you were one of the male guests, what would the rest of us even be here for?”
His comment made all three of them burst out laughing.
There was no denying that Ji Mingtian had a great sense of humor.
Compared with the lively and laughter-filled itinerary of the sports group, the food group was utterly lifeless.
Ever since Lu Nanxun had fled to Xu Jinsi and the others’ group as though his life depended on it, Liu Qingye had been left all alone, rolling taro balls.
For a moment, she had the strange feeling that she hadn’t come on a dating show at all. Instead, she was more like a female laborer hired to roll taro balls.
After joining Xu Jinsi’s group, Lu Nanxun didn’t say a word.
Zhang Weiyi was silent too, quietly wrestling with the taro dough.
Xu Jinsi did want to talk. But when he glanced to his left and saw Lu Nanxun, who was irritating enough to look at, he lost the desire to speak to him. Then he looked to his right and saw the strange things Zhang Weiyi was rolling in her hands.
Forget it. Better not to look and not to worry.
He might as well quietly keep rolling taro balls.
The atmosphere in this group was far too strange.
Even the staff couldn’t help reminding them again, “You can chat a little and say something. Otherwise, there won’t be much footage for us to use in the final edit.”
The moment Liu Qingye heard that, she immediately perked up and called toward Lu Nanxun.
“Nanxun, go help Yiyi over there. I’m the only one here now.”
Lu Nanxun had initially thought she was calling him back.
Who would have guessed that Liu Qingye would suddenly change direction and say, “Or Jinsi, why don’t you come help me? I’m almost finished—there’s only a little cleanup left.”
After saying that, she looked at him expectantly.
But Xu Jinsi acted as though he had suddenly gone deaf. He didn’t seem to hear her at all and continued rolling the taro balls with his head lowered.
The atmosphere fell silent again for a moment.
Liu Qingye hadn’t expected Xu Jinsi to show her no consideration at all in front of so many people—not even giving her a simple response.
Her eyes reddened slightly, and she said in a muffled voice, “I really can’t finish this by myself.”
Xu Jinsi still said nothing.
Zhang Weiyi, however, took the initiative to raise her head and look at her. “Yezi, why don’t I come over and work with you?”
What?
If she came over, wouldn’t she just make things worse?
Liu Qingye shook her head repeatedly and said tactfully, “The teacher just said that we’re supposed to work in male-and-female pairs.”
Zhang Weiyi was a little unhappy too.
She had only felt sorry for Liu Qingye, seeing a girl left all alone with no one paying attention to her, and had wanted to kindly strike up a conversation. Who would have thought Liu Qingye wouldn’t appreciate it at all?
She silently shut her mouth as well.
The indoor atmosphere fell silent for another three seconds.
Even the cameraman carrying the camera couldn’t help wiping the cold sweat from his face. He was suffering from secondhand embarrassment on everyone’s behalf.
Liu Qingye knew that things couldn’t continue like this.
She gritted her teeth, picked up the finished taro balls from her table, and carried them over to their workstation.
She squeezed in beside Lu Nanxun and said, “Why don’t we all work together? That’ll make things go much faster.”
No one paid her any attention. She silently worked alone in the corner of the station.
In the end, Lu Nanxun was still a considerate man. He felt that treating a girl this way was a little too harsh, so he pointed to a spot and said, “You can stand here.”
“Okay.” Liu Qingye gave him a grateful look.
Finally, all the taro balls were finished. The teacher told them that they could take them back and cook them, adding milk or coconut milk along with sago for a delicious combination.
Xu Jinsi quietly packed up his own portion and thought to himself: She probably likes sweet things, right?
…
Unexpectedly, the food group was the first to return to the house.
The other group was still on the road.
As soon as Xu Jinsi entered the house, he went back to his room. Lu Nanxun thought for a moment, then went alone to the gym.
Zhang Weiyi glanced at Liu Qingye, took out her laptop bag, and went to work in the study.
That left Liu Qingye all alone.
After thinking for a moment, she ran to her room as well. A while later, she came out carrying a purple bag.
Then she hurried upstairs and lightly knocked on Xu Jinsi’s door.
Knock, knock—
The door didn’t open.
She knocked again.
Knock, knock, knock—
Still, no one opened it.
Just as she was preparing to knock a few more times, the door was yanked open. Xu Jinsi stood inside, looking tired and irritated.
“What do you want? I was resting.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had gone back to your room to take a nap. It’s just that I…” Liu Qingye awkwardly brought the bag from behind her back and held it out.
Then she added, “This is a little gift for you. They’re lavender-scented steam eye masks. They might help you sleep.”
Xu Jinsi looked at the bag without taking it.
Liu Qingye was just about to say something when she heard him ask, “Didn’t I see you give Lu Nanxun the same thing that day? Did you buy those steam eye masks wholesale?”
Oh no!
Liu Qingye had almost forgotten about that.
She had thought she’d moved quickly enough that Xu Jinsi hadn’t noticed. She never imagined that not only had he seen it, he even knew the bag contained steam eye masks.
So… had he seen her give Lu Nanxun a gift and gotten jealous?
Was he upset?
Was that why he had deliberately been so cold and distant toward her these past two days?
In an instant, Liu Qingye felt that she had figured out the reason.
After a moment of thought, she began, “Jinsi, you’ve misunderstood. The one I gave Nanxun was something I happened to pick up while passing by, because we had talked about his poor sleep when we went on a date before.”
“As for yours, I specifically went to the mall afterward to buy it. I even deliberately chose your favorite lavender scent.”
“I don’t know how you see me, but I truly cherish the fate that brought us together.” As she spoke, she lifted her head and gazed at Xu Jinsi with tender affection.
If this had been someone less experienced—someone like Ji Mingtian—he might genuinely have been fooled by those words.
But Xu Jinsi had met far too many people. He saw through the disguise in her words at a single glance.
To get to know someone, don’t listen to what she says. Look at what she does.
No matter how fancifully she tried to spin it, the truth was that she was stringing along Lu Nanxun while leading Ji Mingtian on—and even trying to get closer to Xu Jinsi.
All the while, she kept saying that she just wanted to get to know them all better.
In reality, she was simply an amateur at juggling multiple men—and she’d been caught red-handed.
