"Why aren't you answering?" Tang Yun asked, puzzled, when she saw Wei Zhao pick up his phone without taking the call right away.

"It's Feng Xiaoxiao," Wei Zhao said.

"Oh..." The expression on Tang Yun's face visibly froze at the name, but she said, "Answer it, quick. What if something's happened?"

"Yeah." Wei Zhao nodded and picked up. "Xiaoxiao?"

"Wei Zhao, I'm back in Songshan City. Where are you? Did you miss me?" Feng Xiaoxiao's voice was as sunny as ever, a different person entirely from the melancholy Feng Xiaoxiao who had sat in the car chatting with her father.

If not for the fact that Feng Xiaoxiao truly did suffer from an incurable illness, no one would ever believe that such grief could live inside this giggling, mischief-making girl.

"I'm at school," Wei Zhao said. "If it's as a classmate, then I've missed you a little."

"Tch..." Feng Xiaoxiao was none too pleased. "Fine, then, Classmate Lin—is it all right for you to go around groping a classmate's breasts?"

Wei Zhao was startled. This Feng Xiaoxiao really did dare to say anything. Luckily her voice was low and Tang Yun hadn't heard. "Is there something you need?"

"Didn't you promise to take me out to eat? I'm a little hungry now. Come find me?" Feng Xiaoxiao didn't keep picking at that thread. Some things only needed an occasional mention to let Wei Zhao know they were there; harping on them would only spoil the point.

"Now?" Wei Zhao frowned slightly.

"Yes, I just got to Songshan City and I haven't eaten yet!" Feng Xiaoxiao said. "You promised me—beef noodles, and I get to choose when!"

"All right, then." Wei Zhao had no choice but to agree. He was a man of his word; what he promised Feng Xiaoxiao, he would do. And in his heart, he did feel somewhat indebted to her.

He didn't know what trick she was playing, but he had, after all, touched a girl's more private place. Even if only the two of them knew of it, if Feng Xiaoxiao chose to make a scene and brand him a scoundrel, he could only accept it. Back then, after all, he really had been momentarily possessed—and he had done it on purpose...

Besides, Feng Xiaoxiao had done him a great service at the auction, putting the Ten Thousand Springs wooden box into his hands.

"I'll drive to the school gate now. Meet me there," Feng Xiaoxiao said.

"Okay." Wei Zhao nodded in agreement.

After hanging up, Wei Zhao mulled it over for a moment, then said to Tang Yun, "I'm going out for a bit..."

"Oh... all right." Tang Yun nodded. She wanted to ask what he was going out for, but asking might seem like she didn't trust him and was meddling in his private affairs. Tang Yun was so torn! Yet now, with the young mistress standing before her as a rival, Tang Yun had grown cautious...

"While we were in Yanjing, Xiaoxiao did me a big favor, and I promised to treat her to a meal. Now that she's back, she called me," Wei Zhao explained, though Tang Yun had not asked for so much detail.

"Oh, then of course you should treat her." Tang Yun smiled and nodded. "It's fine, go on. I'll eat in the cafeteria by myself."

"All right. If anything comes up, call me anytime." Wei Zhao left Tang Yun with that instruction, then rose and walked out of the cafeteria, heading for the school gate.

Toward Feng Xiaoxiao, Wei Zhao harbored a tangled, hard-to-name emotion. To tell the truth, he had once taken her for nothing but a spoiled rich girl, but that business by the seaside had shown him it wasn't so—and after learning she was Feng Tianlong's daughter, his feelings toward her had grown even more complicated.

Honestly, Wei Zhao felt a measure of sympathy for the girl. Motherless since childhood, with her father always busy out in the world, she had been shaped into the person she was. In fact, once he knew her background, he understood her, and the dislike he had felt before was gone.

She was a bright girl brimming with passion for life. Only by drawing close to her could you catch, in small and easily overlooked details, the loneliness and sorrow inside her.

Feng Xiaoxiao was still driving her Audi TT. She pulled the car up beside Wei Zhao and leaned her head out from the driver's seat. "Wei Zhao! Get in?"

Wei Zhao said nothing, walked over, opened the door, and sat down in the passenger seat.

"Hey, what's with the sour face?" Feng Xiaoxiao was a little unhappy at his silence. "Did I interrupt your flirting?"

"I was just about to eat with Tang Yun in the cafeteria," Wei Zhao said.

"So I did interrupt your flirting. But you can flirt with me instead—who's prettier, me or Tang Yun?" Feng Xiaoxiao blinked her big eyes and turned to look at Wei Zhao.

"Tang Yun," Wei Zhao said.

"Hmph!" The smile on Feng Xiaoxiao's face turned to frost. She shot him a glare. "Don't you even know how to coax a girl? Can't you say something nice? Can't you even lie to me?"

"Fine. You're pretty," Wei Zhao said.

"Boring. Let's go eat." Feng Xiaoxiao looked at that face of his, written all over with "I'm lying to you," and her interest drained away. Why couldn't she seduce Wei Zhao? Was she really so far beneath Tang Yun?

Feng Xiaoxiao started the car, but they didn't go far; she parked in front of a beef noodle shop nearby.

Wei Zhao blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected her to bring him to a place like this. It wasn't expensive here. When Feng Xiaoxiao had first asked him to treat her, he had even thought she meant to fleece him the way she had Wu Chengtian.

Wei Zhao and Feng Xiaoxiao walked into the noodle shop together and found a table for two.

"Could you two wait a moment? I'll take your order right away!" The waiter was just then standing at the table of a mother and daughter not far away, taking their order.

"Sure, we can look over the menu first." Wei Zhao nodded indifferently and picked up the menu from the table.

"Excuse me... could we have... one bowl of noodles...?" Among the mother and daughter, the mother stared at the menu in her hand and asked the waiter, looking rather embarrassed.

Fastest updates, please read with no pop-ups.