“Sure. I eat both beef and mutton. As for vegetables, anything except chives is fine.” Ji Liuyue was answering Ji Xizhou’s question.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past them.
Someone had walked over. Lu Nanxun placed two bottles of strawberry milk directly on the table in front of her and said softly, “Yueyue, the barbecue won’t be ready for a while. Have some milk first.”
Ji Liuyue hesitated as she glanced at him, then looked over at Liu Qingye in the distance.
Was this for real?
Lu Nanxun had bought strawberry milk again, but this time, the person he was giving it to wasn’t Liu Qingye. It was her.
Seeing that she didn’t respond, Lu Nanxun didn’t seem embarrassed at all. He simply continued, “You really liked the strawberry milk we bought at the supermarket last time, so I bought some on the island too. I just couldn’t find the same brand.”
Ji Liuyue smiled.
Actually, she didn’t like it all that much. One reason she had drunk it was to annoy Liu Qingye.
The other was that she had paid for it herself. Why wouldn’t she drink something she had bought with her own money?
But from Lu Nanxun’s perspective, the conclusion was simple: Yueyue really loved strawberry milk.
Fine, fine, fine!
Liu Qingye had failed to establish her image, and Ji Liuyue had ended up with it instead.
“Thank you.” Ji Liuyue picked up one of the bottles.
Ji Xizhou shot Lu Nanxun a hostile glance, then asked, “Yueyue, I didn’t know you liked strawberry milk. Why don’t we buy more when we go shopping tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure,” Ji Liuyue replied vaguely.
Lu Nanxun caught the key phrase and asked, “You’re going to the supermarket tomorrow?”
Wang Aitian explained from the side, “The refrigerator in the Island House was empty. If it weren’t for the production team, we would have gone hungry tonight.
“So we were just discussing going to the supermarket on the island tomorrow to stock up. Ji Xizhou said he could drive us there.”
In a gentle voice, Lu Nanxun said, “How many of you are going? I can drive too.”
Ji Xizhou said, “There’s only one SUV provided outside the house. One driver is enough.”
Lu Nanxun smiled and said in an utterly calm tone, “There are two more cars parked at my house here. I’ll just have my assistant drive them over tomorrow morning.”
Wang Aitian looked surprised.
“Dr. Lu, aren’t you a doctor? How do you have a house here—and an assistant?”
Oh my god.
Could he secretly be a billionaire?
Lu Nanxun gave a faint smile and continued in that same calm tone, “My family gave me the house here as an eighteenth-birthday gift. As for my assistant, everyone in my family is assigned a personal aide and an estate manager.”
Dr. Lu was different from ordinary doctors. His family had been a medical dynasty for generations.
By now, they had been wealthy for four or five generations.
Liu Qingye had just hurried over to ask about the strawberry milk when she heard what Lu Nanxun said. Her heart gave a painful lurch.
What?
You’re telling me that the male guest I had missed out on—a seemingly ordinary male doctor—was actually a secret billionaire with an unfathomable family background and wealth he had been free to enjoy for years?
When Ji Xizhou noticed that Liu Qingye had arrived, he hurriedly asked, “You’re here. What about the barbecue?”
“It’s over there.” Liu Qingye nodded numbly.
At a time like this, who cared about the barbecue grill? Was eating barbecue really that important?
What mattered was that she had missed out on a diamond bachelor.
And not just any diamond bachelor—one who had never been in a relationship.
Ji Xizhou glanced at Lu Nanxun, but in the end, his concern that the meat skewers he was grilling for Yueyue might burn won out. He hurried back over.
Liu Qingye looked at Lu Nanxun with a complicated expression. She wanted to say something, but couldn’t think of what.
In the end, her gaze landed on the strawberry milk Ji Liuyue was drinking, as if she wanted to burn a hole straight through the carton.
Ji Liuyue noticed and found it rather amusing.
She picked up the other bottle of strawberry milk on the table and held it out. “Do you want it? There’s still one left.”
A flicker of anger rose in Liu Qingye’s heart.
Oh, so Ji Liuyue really was a wicked woman. She had already won, yet she still had to humiliate her in front of everyone.
This was provocation!
“No, thank you. I don’t like strawberry milk.” Liu Qingye ground out the words through clenched teeth.
She had completely forgotten that, not long ago, she had announced in front of the cameras that strawberry milk was her favorite, hoping to cultivate the image of a cute, sweet girl who loved it.
“Oh.” Ji Liuyue slowly withdrew her hand and was about to put the bottle down.
But Liu Qingye suddenly reached out and snatched it from her. Irritated, she said, “I may not like it, but I’m a little thirsty. Besides, you already offered it to me, so I can’t very well refuse.”
She tore open the carton and tipped her head back, guzzling down a mouthful.
Wang Aitian was stunned.
Wait.
What happened to her delicate, innocent-seductress image?
The cameras were still rolling. Was it really appropriate to drink strawberry milk like that?
Lu Nanxun was stunned too.
He realized that perhaps he had never truly known Liu Qingye. Why did she seem as though someone else had taken over her body today?
It wasn’t until Liu Qingye finished the milk, lowered the carton, and saw everyone staring at her in shock that she realized what she had done. She wiped the corner of her lips with the back of her hand.
Awkwardly, she said, “I really was thirsty!”
Ji Liuyue nodded sympathetically. “Right. You were just thirsty.”
Liu Qingye fled in embarrassment and humiliation.
As she came face-to-face with Ji Mingtian, her devoted simp, Ji Mingtian’s expression turned somewhat complicated as well. He asked cautiously, “Yezi, are you still thirsty? I can go get you some water from the house.”
“No need! I can get it myself!” Liu Qingye didn’t even have the courage to look at Ji Mingtian. She hurriedly ducked into the Island House.
The atmosphere was awkward for a moment.
Wang Aitian hesitated before saying, “Looks like she really was thirsty.”
Before long, the conversation shifted to another topic.
More than ten minutes later, the barbecue Ji Xizhou was preparing was finally ready. The production staff called out to Xu Jinsi, who was still working inside the house, as well as Liu Qingye, whose hiding place remained unknown, and summoned them all outside.
The footage being filmed that evening was a camping-night conversation.
Once all the cameras had been set up, the camping tables were arranged in a neat, long row. The guests sat in camping chairs, with freshly grilled skewers and some fresh, ready-to-eat fruit laid out in front of them.
Ji Liuyue casually chose a seat near the middle.
Lu Nanxun immediately and assertively took the seat to her left. When Ji Liuyue looked over, he put on an honest-looking smile and nodded at her.
Ji Xizhou had already set his sights on the seat to her right and was just about to sit down.
At some point, Xu Jinsi had silently appeared behind him. He looked as ominous as a shadow as he lightly pulled the chair away.
Ji Xizhou nearly fell.
Fortunately, Ji Liuyue quickly reached out and caught him. “Are you all right?”
“Yueyue, I’m fine.” Ji Xizhou raised the corners of his lips, his smile bright and dazzling.
But from the corner of his eye, he looked at Xu Jinsi, a hint of provocation in his gaze.
It was as though he were saying: I knew you were going to do that. I even played along on purpose. Look—Yueyue is holding my hand now.
