After Saving My Possessive Best Friend, I Couldn't Escape (GL) - Chapter 24

“Is it pretty?” Ye Yu asked softly. “If you like it, I’ll send it to you later.”

Fang Zhile stared for a long time before quietly saying, “I like it.”

No one dislikes seeing good photos of themselves, especially when the photographer is Ye Yu.

Fang Zhile felt her eyes warm up.

Heaven knows how painful it was when she first transmigrated, the moment she passed by the person she was most familiar with, only to be completely ignored.

Now, Ye Yu would pause for her sake when taking photos with her phone.

“Where’s your phone?” Ye Yu smiled. “We haven’t added each other as friends yet.”

Fang Zhile fumbled to take out her phone, scanned the code to add her as a friend, and immediately received a dozen photos of herself.

There were photos of her cutting fruit, smashing lemon slices, doing latte art, washing her hands, smiling at customers…

Ye Yu’s photography skills were truly out of this world. Unsurprisingly for an art student, her basic artistic and aesthetic sensibilities showed in every aspect…

“What are you thinking about?” Ye Yu called Fang Zhile several times. “You seem lost.”

“Ah? What did you just say?” Fang Zhile asked.

Ye Yu gave a helpless smile. “I said the boss is calling you.”

Wei Youqing mysteriously dragged her to the back kitchen, her smile cunning. “I’m giving you the rest of the day off. You can leave now.”

Fang Zhile didn’t fall for it, frowning. “It’s not time to get off work yet.”

“You’re really such a wet blanket,” Wei Youqing stared at her. “That pretty girl has been waiting for you all afternoon. I’m letting you off early so you can take her out to have some fun. You young people love to have fun, don’t you? And you’re not happy about it.”

“There are still three hours left until closing time,” Fang Zhile looked at the clock. “At thirty yuan per hour, leaving now means I lose ninety yuan in wages.”

Wei Youqing glared at her. “Now I believe you. You really are straight.”

Fang Zhile shrugged. “Anyway, Ye Yu likes peace and quiet. She won’t be bored alone. Besides, this place is close to the school. If she gets bored, she can go back to school or go out. She came out to play this afternoon anyway.”

Seeing Fang Zhile’s determined stance—refusing to leave for the sake of ninety yuan—Wei Youqing’s face turned livid with frustration. She shouted, “Fine, fine! I’ll pay you your wages as usual, okay! Go have fun with pay!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Fang Zhile instantly untied her uniform apron, lifted the curtain, and walked out. “Boss, you’re awesome!”

“Ye Yu, let’s go! We’re going out to play!” Fang Zhile called out loudly.

Ye Yu glanced at the time, stood up, and asked doubtfully, “It’s just five o’clock. Don’t you have a night shift?”

“The boss gave me time off.” Fang Zhile quickly tidied herself up and walked out with her, turning back to cup her hands and bow to the boss before leaving the door.

After getting on the back of the bike, Ye Yu said with embarrassment, “Did I hinder you from working by being here?”

Fang Zhile laughed loudly. “It has nothing to do with you. The boss’s wife is the jealous type. With a little beauty like you sitting in the shop all afternoon, she’ll probably be sleeping on the couch tonight, ha ha ha ha.”

“You’re enjoying this,” Ye Yu couldn’t help but laugh at her laughter. “You love to see drama.”

Fang Zhile pedaled the bike and turned her head. Her voice, slightly scattered in the wind, was filled with youthful vitality. “Don’t feel bad for her! She was the one who wanted my friend to leave. If I hadn’t insisted on staying, she wasn’t going to pay me for the remaining three hours.”

Fang Zhile recounted her conversation with Wei Youqing to Ye Yu. Ye Yu found it hilarious, giving her a thumbs-up. “You’re the best.”

“Where do you want to go?” Fang Zhile asked. “Your place, or mine?”

“Your place,” Ye Yu quickly replied, then hesitated, taking out her phone to check her messages. She then said tentatively, “Or, how about my place?”

Fang Zhile slowed down her pedaling.

The message on the phone was from her aunt, informing her that Ye Yu’s parents had gone on a business trip and the house was empty.

“My parents are away for a few days,” Ye Yu held her phone, looking down at the concrete ground that was quickly receding beneath them. “Do you want to come to my house to hang out?”

“Sure,” Fang Zhile didn’t immediately refuse. Knowing Ye Yu’s personality, she was only saying this to return the favor. “Let’s go see your place.”

Ye Yu’s sense of direction was poor, so the path she guided Fang Zhile on took a wide detour. The closer they got to Ye Yu’s house, the more the surroundings began to change.

If the area near the milk tea shop was just ordinary small streets—the ubiquitous veins of the city—then Fang Zhile’s home was a remote, cramped corner, a sclerotic capillary, a necrotic nerve ending.

In contrast, Ye Yu’s home exuded an air of freshness and health, symbolizing a bright future.

Ye Yu suddenly felt a flicker of hesitation.

“Your home is so beautiful,” Fang Zhile put on the slippers and exclaimed. “Spacious and bright.”

Ye Yu paused while changing into her slippers, then nonchalantly said after a few seconds, “Mom and Dad like it here. I’ve always felt the house was too big, empty and cold.”

Fang Zhile glanced at her clothes and sat on the living room bay window, looking outside.

“Why don’t you sit on the sofa?” Ye Yu brought over a plate of fruit.

“I just realized my clothes are dirty.” Fang Zhile was wearing a loose-fitting shirt tucked into white jeans. It looked quite clean, but the ordinary material was obvious. At that moment, there was a stain on her jeans; she didn’t know where she had picked it up.

Ye Yu said, “I have new clothes here. Do you want to change?”

Fang Zhile froze for a moment, then stood up, looked down at her pants, and smiled. “Well, okay.”

Ye Yu didn’t miss the momentary surprise in Fang Zhile, mixed with a fleeting hesitation and embarrassment.

“Forget it.”

Just as Fang Zhile walked toward Ye Yu, she was grabbed by the wrist and pulled onto the sofa.

Ye Yu’s lips were tightly pursed. “It’s too much trouble to change.”

Fang Zhile adjusted her posture and sat up properly.

“Eat some fruit,” Ye Yu said.

The fruit plate had a bunch of green grapes on top, with a layer of large cherries underneath. Fang Zhile silently plucked a few grapes, tossed them into her mouth, chewed, and then secretly looked at Ye Yu.

Fang Zhile had anticipated a scenario like this since Ye Yu invited her over. Before transmigrating, she also lived in a villa, so Fang Zhile was worried that acting too naturally would arouse Ye Yu’s suspicion.

She hadn’t expected that, wearing these simple clothes, Fang Zhile would sink into the character’s persona with almost no difficulty.

She remembered the first time she went to Ye Yu’s house after their reunion in the previous life: her worn-out sneakers, her faded white t-shirt. She stood outside the luxurious villa, dusty and gray, like an awkward mud stain, utterly out of place. Even after her parents made a comeback, the sharp sense of disparity she had experienced was clearly etched in her memory.

As the two fell silent, Ye Yu’s inner annoyance grew. She even began to think that perhaps she shouldn’t have brought out this plate of fruit. The price of this fruit was higher than Fang Zhile’s entire day’s wages. She should have replaced them with a few ordinary apples and oranges.

No, the apples at home are probably expensive too.

How could she have overlooked this? It would have been best if she had just given Fang Zhile a glass of plain water from the start.

Just then, the outer door was pushed open, and a displeased voice, filled with disgust, rang out like a sharp blade, violently shattering the delicate atmosphere.

“Why is she here? Why did you bring this kind of person home?”