Chapter 15

Bai Manruo motioned toward her phone to Xu Huanxin, then picked it up and headed toward the balcony.

Watching her treat the call with such importance, Xu Huanxin stared at the silhouette on the balcony, lost in thought.

“Miss Ji, have you had dinner yet?” The first thing Bai Manruo said upon answering was a worried inquiry about whether she had eaten. She remembered holding her that night; that thin body had felt a bit bony.

Hearing the clear, bright voice coming through the phone, Ji Yingqing looked down at the dishes on her table, which were almost untouched. She watched them for a few seconds before asking, “Have you eaten?”

Bai Manruo turned her head to look at the table full of snacks in the living room and nodded. “Mm, I’m eating. Miss Ji, you have to eat well during the few days I’m away.”

Hearing her words, Ji Yingqing subconsciously picked up her chopsticks and took a bite of the food on the table.

Bai Manruo noticed the silence on the other end. After a few quiet seconds, she asked, “Miss Ji, is there a reason you called?”

The phone rested on the cool glass table as the pleasant voice filtered through. Ji Yingqing listened to her question, her thoughts unreadable. It seemed she was stumped by the question. For a moment, she herself didn’t know why she had made this call.

Suddenly, a strange woman’s voice came from the other end: “Manruo, if you don’t eat now, the stinky tofu is going to get cold.”

Then she heard Bai Manruo’s cheerful reply: “Okay, coming right now! Just a second.”

Ji Yingqing’s brow furrowed slightly, and her hand holding the chopsticks paused. She stolen content spoke slowly, “Is it inconvenient for you?”

“Ah, no. It’s just a new friend I met; she bought me some food, so I invited her in to eat together,” Bai Manruo explained. Wait, why am I so nervous? Why am I explaining this in such detail?

Ji Yingqing’s brow remained slightly furrowed, her tone carrying a hint of frost: “Go eat your dinner then.”

The boss, who had been gentle just a moment ago, suddenly shifted. Bai Manruo was stunned for a moment, but she obediently replied, “Okay. You should get some rest early too, Miss Ji.”

As she hung up, she marveled once again: A boss’s heart is truly a needle at the bottom of the ocean…

Bai Manruo stared at the call log for a few seconds, then sighed and walked back to the living room. Xu Huanxin saw her return but didn’t ask anything, even though she was very curious about who this person was that Bai Manruo treated with such regard.

By the next day, Bai Manruo had packed her luggage and set off for the recording site.

This dating show had an interesting setting: among the three of them, two were “Observers,” and among the other three guests, two were also “Observers.” This meant that out of the six people, only two were truly there to find love—the other four were there to observe.

It was only on the way to the “Heartbeat Cottage” that Bai Manruo learned she was an Observer. Her only regret was that she’d studied that Love Guide for nothing—though she figured she could use it whenever she eventually had a real relationship.

The show was a real-time livestream; the broadcast began the moment they stepped toward the cottage.

Furthermore, someone had leaked a “paparazzi” shot from the night before, showing another guest bringing snacks to Bai Manruo’s room and staying for the evening. The savvy netizens were already “shipping” them, guessing that the person from that night was Xu Huanxin.

The bullet chat was entirely focused on Bai Manruo and Xu Huanxin, speculating whether they were Observers or Lovers.

The “shippers” were spamming the chat: A petition signed in blood—these two MUST both be Lovers!!!

Bai Manruo was also trying to guess the others’ roles. She first ruled out Xu Huanxin being a “Lovers” participant, as she didn’t look like someone who came here to actually date. Bai Manruo wasn’t looking at her phone, so she had no idea that the video of her and Xu Huanxin’s late-night snack had been reposted across the entire internet.

Inside the castle, Butler Li was momentarily dazed when she saw the Young Mistress at the dining table. It had been a long time since she had seen her come downstairs for breakfast. The Young Mistress had been sickly since childhood and had a poor appetite, but her paranoid personality meant no one could persuade her otherwise.

Excited, Butler Li hurriedly served the breakfast. Standing to the side, she watched the Young Mistress taking a sip of porridge. Suddenly, the spoon was set back down, the porcelain clinking with a distinct sound.

Butler Li immediately asked with concern, “Is the porridge not to your liking? I’ll have them make—”

Before she could finish, Ji Yingqing irritably tossed her phone onto the table. Her thick lashes flickered as her deep grey eyes drifted to the screen. With a pensive look, she stared at her hand and remained silent for a few seconds before standing up and heading upstairs.

At that moment, the phone discarded on the table was still popping up gossip about Bai Manruo, playing a fan-edited video with sweet background music and ambiguous scenes of the two “rendezvousing” over snacks.