Scrambled eggs with chives, chilled okra, pan-fried oysters in a honey glaze, soft-shelled turtle braised with yam, stir-fried yam, and a bowl of black chicken soup with goji berries.
Good grief. Not a single one of these dishes was innocent.
This made Gao Yuan wonder if she was genuinely trying to help him 'recharge', or if she had something planned for tonight.
Forty minutes later, the two left the restaurant, named Jiangsu and Zhejiang Families. Gao Yuan walked slowly, rubbing his stomach, while Lin Wanyu giggled and flitted around him like a butterfly.
The meal had taken so long because Lin Wanyu, using the excuse of not letting food go to waste, had insisted Gao Yuan eat more.
In the end, when Gao Yuan truly couldn't eat another bite, she cajoled and pestered him into downing two more oysters.
Now, even his burps tasted of oyster.
Sitting in the car, Gao Yuan wanted to recline his seat all the way back but discovered the luxury car's seats couldn't be adjusted. He sighed, buckled his seatbelt, and tried to get as comfortable as possible before refusing to move another inch.
"Do you have any plans for this afternoon?"
Gao Yuan shot Lin Wanyu an annoyed look. "In this state? Do I look like I can have plans?"
"I'm going home to sleep!"
With that, Gao Yuan opened the Qidian app on his phone, found the novel he often listened to, *Who inherits the family wealth when everyone is reborn?*, and hit play on the audiobook. Then he tossed his phone onto the seat and closed his eyes to rest.
Lin Wanyu wasn't the least bit angry at Gao Yuan's reaction. In fact, her smile only grew wider.
Being with an older man like Gao Yuan, while not as bright and energetic as younger guys, made her feel incredibly comfortable. She hadn't even been this happy in her past relationships.
She started the Porsche 718 and drove straight toward Jianglan Bay.
...
Lin Wanyu parked the car steadily in the underground garage. Seeing Gao Yuan already snoring in his seat, she didn't rush to wake him, instead just watching him quietly.
...
"Ah, we're home!"
Gao Yuan only realized he had fallen asleep when he shivered violently and his eyes slowly fluttered open.
He turned to look at Lin Wanyu and found that she too had fallen asleep at some point, slumped over the center console. Luckily, a window was cracked open; otherwise, Xuanyin might have been flooded with news tomorrow about a couple who'd died in a suicide pact in their car.
Gao Yuan slowly got up, exited the car, and walked over to the driver's side. Just as his hands reached under Lin Wanyu to lift her, she woke up.
"You're awake!"
"Aren't you afraid of catching a cold sleeping in the car?"
"You could have just woken me up when we got here."
Gao Yuan grumbled as he lifted Lin Wanyu out of the seat, closed the car door, and carried her directly toward the elevator.
Lin Wanyu was nearly five-foot-seven, but she wasn't very heavy, weighing only about 120 pounds.
Gao Yuan had no trouble carrying her, but he suddenly realized this meant he wouldn't be going back to his own place tonight.
'Could it be that lunch was all part of Lin Wanyu's plan?'
Lin Wanyu, however, wasn't thinking about that at all. Lying in Gao Yuan's arms, she gazed at the handsome man, who seemed to be glowing at that moment.
She couldn't resist leaning in and kissing his neck.
"Don't mess around, there are cameras in the elevator."
"I don't care."
By the time he managed to carry the struggling Lin Wanyu into the apartment, his neck was already covered in lipstick marks.
Fortunately, once they were inside, Lin Wanyu stopped clinging to him and went to the dining area to pour two glasses of warm water.
Gao Yuan was thirsty after his nap, but just as he was taking a drink, his phone rang. He glanced at it, saw it was a call from Zhang Ke, and immediately hung up.
"Why didn't you answer?"
Gao Yuan put down his glass and leaned back on the sofa. "You saw her today. She's already found someone else. What's there to talk about?"
But the words had barely left his mouth when his phone rang again, this time with a WeChat voice call.
Before Gao Yuan could grab the phone and hang up, Lin Wanyu excitedly shot up, snatched the phone from the coffee table, and asked, "Should I answer it for you?"
Seeing the eager look on her face, he immediately knew this little minx was probably up to no good again.
'If she wants to play, then let her play.'
After Gao Yuan nodded, Lin Wanyu immediately nestled back into his arms, rejected Zhang Ke's voice call, and then initiated a video call back to her.
In a studio apartment somewhere in Hang City, Zhang Ke saw her voice call get rejected again and angrily threw her phone onto the sofa.
Ever since Gao Yuan had said that thing to Qiao Qing this morning, Qiao Qing had stopped answering her calls. To prove her innocence, she had even gone to the hospital for a full check-up.
When she walked out of the hospital with the report in hand, Zhang Ke was practically exploding with rage.
She couldn't believe Gao Yuan had played her like that, and on top of it all, she had gotten a slap from Qiao Qing for no reason.
She had taken the medical report to Qiao Qing's company to explain, but she couldn't even get inside. After waiting until noon without seeing him, her only option was to take a picture of the report and send it to him.
She returned home on an empty stomach, growing angrier the more she thought about it. That's when she started frantically calling Gao Yuan, only for him to hang up every single time.
Just as Zhang Ke was venting her anger on a sofa cushion, her phone rang unexpectedly.
She thought it was Qiao Qing calling. After fishing her phone out from between the sofa cushions where she'd thrown it, she was shocked to see it was a video call from Gao Yuan.
"Fine, fine, fine!"
'A video call is even better. This way, I can really let him have it.'
Zhang Ke immediately accepted the video call.
"Gao Yuan, you son of a bitch! After freeloading off me for three months, you dare to slander..."
The video connected, and Zhang Ke started yelling immediately, only to trail off when she realized the person on the other end wasn't Gao Yuan at all, but that stunningly beautiful woman from the morning.
"Where's Gao Yuan? Tell him to get his ass out here."
Lin Wanyu glanced at Gao Yuan, who shrugged with a speechless expression, then turned back to Zhang Ke with a sweet smile. "Big Brother is resting!"
Before Zhang Ke could fly into another rage, Lin Wanyu continued, "And guess what, Big Sister? Big Brother took me shopping at Hang City Mansion today!"
"Tch!"
"He's just tricking a naive little girl like you."
When Zhang Ke heard that Gao Yuan had taken Lin Wanyu shopping at Hang City Mansion, a look of scornful mockery immediately appeared on her face.
Gao Yuan had taken her to Hang City Mansion too, but all he'd bought her was a small Louis Vuitton bag that cost just over ten thousand yuan. He hadn't bought her anything else, and they'd even gone somewhere else to eat.
"Big Brother would never trick me!"
"Big Sister, look..."
Then, Lin Wanyu flipped the camera and pointed it at the pile of large and small shopping bags on the floor by the door.
"This is a Chanel Classic Flap. Isn't it a timeless classic?"
"And this Louis Vuitton Petite Boite Chapeau. Big Brother insisted it suited my style."
"I didn't even want this outfit, but what could I do? Big Brother liked it!"
"..."
Zhang Ke watched as Lin Wanyu showed off the gifts. Of all those things, the only one she also had was from La Mer, and even then, it wasn't a complete set with the toner, lotion, and essence.
Suddenly, she spotted a Van Cleef & Arpels shopping bag in the video. Thinking of the watch on her own wrist, worth over sixty thousand yuan, she regained a bit of her confidence.
"That's nothing. Let me show you the watch President Qiao bought for me."
"It's worth over sixty thousand!"
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