NOVPUBThe next morning, Fang Ren had woken up early, dressed, and begun to wash up.
Actually, he really didn't want to get out of bed so early, since cuddling with his wife was so much more comfortable, but Bai Qi, that girl, must have been down with something this morning, bombarding him with more than a dozen phone calls.
Fang Ren suddenly regretted turning his phone back on and sending a message to Jiang Ling last night, forgetting to switch it off again afterward.
When Bai Qi started calling, he was going to simply set his phone to silent and not answer, but seeing her call so incessantly, he thought she might have something urgent to say.
However, after picking up the call, the girl actually said that it wasn't anything important, and she just wanted to go out for a meal with him. Fang Ren was about to shut his phone off right then, annoyed at being disturbed just for a meal when he should be spending time with his wife.
Yet, helplessly, the girl pressed on as if she was obsessed, insisting on coming over to find him, relentlessly asking where he was and threatening to send Chen Cheng after him if he didn't tell her.
When Fang Ren heard this, he got a headache, realizing that if Chen Cheng found out about him being with Mu Huanqing, he would definitely report back to the Bai Family. Who knows what the old master of the Bai Family would do? Whether it's the Central Area forcing Mu Huanqing into marriage or the Bai Family forcing him to marry Bai Qi.
Just thinking about it made his head hurt terribly. With no cure, he had to tell Mu Huanqing about it and get out of bed, and fortunately, Mu Huanqing also had to head to the army group, planning to leave the same way she had come in the previous night.
...
"Hey! Where the hell were you last night?"
As soon as Fang Ren met up with Bai Qi, she confronted him with an unhappy face.
"Where could I have gone? Just stayed at a random hotel," Fang Ren waved his hand nonchalantly.
Seeing his indifferent attitude, Bai Qi's initial intent to apologize vanished instantly. In reality, she hadn't called Fang Ren this morning because of the meal—they did offer breakfast at the hotel—her main intention had been to apologize.
But after calling Fang Ren over ten times with no answer, the apology she'd spent over an hour preparing that morning turned abruptly into angry complaints.
"Which hotel? Were you with another woman?" Bai Qi, still in a bad mood, blurted out a frivolous comment.
"Hey, hey, hey, there's a problem with what you're saying. You're not my woman, you know," Fang Ren slapped his forehead in exasperation.
"Well, I'm your fiancée now! If you had another woman out there, I'd be really embarrassed! Think about it, with so many people in Tianjiang, what would they say about me?" Bai Qi said earnestly.
"Yes, yes, let's just get breakfast, I have some things to do later," Fang Ren replied as he started walking down the street.
Seeing Fang Ren's nonchalant demeanor, Bai Qi didn't bother to nag him any further, instead stepping beside him as she had grown somewhat accustomed to his ways.
On the way, Fang Ren kept looking at his phone, which would occasionally beep with a new message notification, and he'd occasionally compose and send out a message.
Bai Qi couldn't help but be curious, as it was rare to see Fang Ren like this. He was the type of guy who wasn't particularly interested in the internet; he would either be writing, closing his eyes and practicing in the classroom, or sometimes bustling about in the laboratory doing who-knows-what.
"Who are you chatting with?" Bai Qi asked.
"Just those two troublemakers from class," Fang Ren answered casually.
In fact, he was discussing with Jiang Ling a proper time and venue for their next meet-up, which had to be changed because it was too close to their current location. Additionally, since her Realm wasn't very stable, he had to help her stabilize it, and he didn't want to risk exposing her.
Arriving at a breakfast shop, both Fang Ren and Bai Qi entered wearing hats to avoid being recognized, which would draw a crowd, and to escape the owner's possible insistence on giving them a free meal—a waste of time.
During the meal, Bai Qi became markedly quiet, having vented some of her frustration. Now, she was pondering how to apologize to Fang Ren, but upon seeing his indifferent face across from her, she didn't know how to start.
"You really don't care about yesterday's incident?" Bai Qi finally spoke up.
"What incident from yesterday?" Fang Ren was momentarily confused.
"It was those words I said at the hotel, in front of so many people, that must have embarrassed you. Besides, I'm sure they will gossip about you," Bai Qi said.
"Is that what you're talking about?" Fang Ren asked. "I thought you were referring to dinner with Madame Xuan yesterday."
Bai Qi frowned, "I'm talking about something serious, don't change the subject. Do you have any idea how the hotel staff would talk about our relationship after I said those words?"
Fang Ren chewed on an egg and said, "At most they'll say I like you, you don't like me, and then that you like Song Mobei, right?"
"Don't you care about these things, or are you just pretending not to care?" Bai Qi asked.
Fang Ren glanced at her, "What's there to worry about? Don't think too much, let them say whatever they want to say."
He truly didn't care about that. His child with Mu Huanqing was about to be born; he had no mental energy to fret over the gossip about him and Bai Qi.
When Bai Qi heard him say this, her gaze slightly dimmed, and she couldn't help thinking, was she worrying too much? Or was it because Fang Ren simply had no feelings for her, so he didn't care how others might wildly speculate about their relationship?
Fang Ren finished his meal quickly, sent a message on his phone, and then paid the bill.
"I've got something to take care of on my end, finish your meal at your own pace," Fang Ren said as he prepared to leave the restaurant.
"What is it?" Bai Qi asked.
"Family matters."
Fang Ren gave a cursory reply and left.
Bai Qi sat alone at the dining table, looking at the leftover food, and felt a sudden complexity in her heart. If Fang Ren mentioned even a minor issue, she would instinctively want to get to the bottom of it.
"When did I start to care about him this much?"
Bai Qi muttered to herself, feeling she might be overthinking to the point of being presumptuous.
She had thought Fang Ren liked her, but it turned out that he liked Mu Huanqing. He didn't care about what others said about him, while she cared deeply about how others talked about him.
She had even tossed and turned in bed the night before, unable to sleep peacefully after hearing the waiters gossip about Fang Ren.
"Ding-dong~"
Suddenly, Bai Qi's phone lit up.
She picked it up and saw a message from the class group.
The message was from Jing Haichuan, who in the group @Fang Ren, asking if he was up since their entire class was about to arrive at Tianjiang.
After reading the message, Bai Qi was startled. She wasn't surprised that the entire class was coming to Tianjiang, but that earlier Fang Ren had told her he was chatting with Jing Haichuan and Li Xingwang, yet now Jing was asking if he had gotten up.
Clearly, Fang Ren had lied to her earlier. The people he was chatting with weren't the two masters from their class...
But who exactly was Fang Ren chatting with that he had to hide it from her? Moreover, he had just said he had something to deal with, and it was obviously connected to the person he had just been chatting with.
"A woman?"
Bai Qi felt a sinking feeling in her heart, as if she had been betrayed.
