"Ying Jie, were you raised in a philanthropical family?" Alex asked.

"Aish, what\'s with that fancy word ah? I was just born poor. That\'s why I know the struggle, ahahaha!"

"… then you\'ve grown to be a fine and good-natured woman, Ying Jie," Alex said sincerely.

My face turned beet red due to Alex, who was actually praising me genuinely. Then I tried to brush the awkward atmosphere off, "Aish, what\'s with you being so goody-goody right now? Let\'s just enjoy our dinner ah! Hahaha~"

Alex smiled at me, but he said nothing and continued eating.

We were busy with our own food for a while until Tian Lifeng suddenly came and put two glasses of iced tea and a plate of sesame balls on the table.

"This is for you two. I\'m sorry ah, I can\'t give much. I\'m short of workers right now," Tian Lifeng said..

"Aiya, why are you giving this to us? No need, Lifeng!" I tried to refuse, but Lifeng tried to distance herself away.

"No, no, that\'s my treat! You\'re going to be twenty seven soon, right?" Lifeng said.

"W—Well, yeah, I\'ll be twenty seven soon…"

"It\'s good ah! I hope you\'re blessed with good health and prosperity! Come here when it\'s your birthday. I will celebrate it with you!"

I wanted to refuse again, but Tian Lifeng turned her back and walked away, giving space for Alex and me.

Alex glanced at the sesame ball and then asked confusedly, "Why is she giving us so much free stuff easily? You told me that she\'s currently struggling with her restaurant."

"Eh? What do you mean?" I frowned at his question. "It\'s quite normal, don\'t you think?"

"Normal?" Alex got even more confused. "She is struggling financially. It\'s better for her to save a lot, right?"

"Ah, that\'s what you mean…" I just remembered that Alex didn\'t exactly understand the collective nature and family above all ideology here. The way he grew up and the way I grew up was vastly different, after all.

"You see, Tian Lifeng and I knew each other for years. I knew her since the first time I worked in this city. She was just a teenage high school girl by the age of sixteen. Uncle and Aunty Tian were still alive back then."

"Uncle and Aunty Tian helped me a lot when I first came here. Even at some tough times, they helped me by giving me lunch or dinner for free. Because they said that I worked so hard every day to help my family in the village."

"They are good people, so after I got a job as Mr. Yang Zhuhuo\'s secretary, I want to pay my debt for them, but they said they already treated me as their daughter and Tian Lifeng\'s Jiejie, so they don\'t need me to repay anything."

"So instead, I helped Tian Lifeng for everything she needed, just like how I treated my little sisters. She\'s a good girl, but she made a mistake by marrying a slag man. All is well now though, she\'s much happier these days."

I stared at Tian Lifeng, who was greeting a customer. She was beaming with a smile whenever there was a new customer. Most of them were returning or regular customers.

I knew these old faces because some of them were regulars since seven years ago. And I was glad that Tian Lifeng could manage the restaurant left by her parent\'s legacy.

"Just like Shi Qiang, I\'m always happy to see my little sisters doing well on their own. I don\'t need them to repay me or whatsoever, but as long as I can see them living a good life, that\'s enough reward for me."

"Ying Jie…" Alex called me.

"Hm?"

"… I just want to say that you\'re a good person."

…

We finished the dinner and walked towards Lifeng to pay, but Lifeng refused my money as usual.

"Ah, Jie. Why are you paying? You\'re my big sister! Just treat this as a good dinner for you!"

"Aish, don\'t do this. I ate a lot, you know!"

Alex sighed and then put a thousand yuan bill to Tian Lifeng\'s table, "Thank you for the meal, it\'s really good." Alex said before he dragged me out.

"W—Wait, I don\'t need—"

"Just keep it, Lifeng! I will visit again tomorrow. Say hi to my nephew Xiaobo!" I waved my hands and left Lifeng\'s noodle restaurant.

—

We drove through the city after dinner. Alex said driving aimlessly, companied by the evening light on the street, was an excellent way to relax.

"Ehhh, I didn\'t know that you can be a bit more romantic, ahaha," I joked as I continued watching the street lights.

I suddenly felt a big and warm palm covered my hand. I darted my eyes at Alex immediately and saw him smiling while holding my hands.

"W—What?" I asked.

"Nothing, I just feel like holding your hand," Alex said. He raised his brow and grinned mischievously, "What? We\'re on a date, remember? Do you want to reject your own date\'s advances?"

"But—" I wanted to say that I just hired him as a rental boyfriend because I wanted to mess around with him, making him do errands with the grocery.

But it failed because he was too attractive and attracting way too much unnecessary attention. I didn\'t want to be put in the trending in Weibo page with a bad headline like,

\'An average-looking woman dates a handsome celebrity in the supermarket, so envious!\'

Thus, my previous plan to avenge what he did to me in the morning failed miserably. And now, I might\'ve accidentally introduced Alex to part of my family, Tian Lifeng.

I stared at his hand, who slowly twined his fingers with mine and his other hand on the steering wheel. I sneered in doubt.

"Mr. Alexander Priest, it\'s so easy for you to hold a woman\'s hand. Are you doing this to every woman that you met?"

"More or less," Alex replied with a small grin on his face. "But the intention might differ from one woman with another."

"Hmph, it\'s so easy for you to say something like that. It shows that you\'re a promiscuous and frivolous man," I said and then looked away.

"Oh, didn\'t I just say that the intention might differ from a woman to another?" Alex asked.

"And what of it? I know a man like you only want that thing," I tried pulling my hand, but Alex suddenly grabbed my wrist instead, and he replied with another question.

"What if I tell you that I might\'ve wanted something more than just a physical intimacy?"

"Physical intimacy? Wait, you\'re actually thinking about having sex with someone like me?" I gawked. I would be genuinely shocked if Alex actually wanted to do it with me.

"Wait, why are you surprised? Isn\'t it obvious that I was attracted to you at first because of your sexy body?" Alex said unscrupulously.

"WHAT?!"

"Do you really think that you\'re not good-looking? Seriously? Did you get your eyes checked at least once?"

"… what are you talking about, seriously," I tried dodging his hot gaze, especially when we were reaching the traffic light, so he shifted his full attention at me.

"Ying Jie, when I said that you\'re gorgeous, I truly mean it," Alex said. "At first, I saw you as a gorgeous mature lady with a beautiful hourglass figure. That\'s totally my type, I mean, physical type."

"But maybe you\'re just my type in general," Alex said. "That\'s why my intention might change after I know you better."

"D—Don\'t bluff. We\'ve only known each other for few days. Besides, this is just our first date with you as my rental boyfriend. You still don\'t know my real personality."

"True, maybe I still don\'t know the true you. So that\'s why you should let me know you better."

"Know me better? Aish, this is just a rental boyfriend thingy ah. You know it\'s good to keep things professional."

\'Besides, I have Meng Bao, who is definitely more than a handful. This cursed app really messed around with my life.\'

"Just rental boyfriend thingy? How about we take it further than just rental stuff. It\'s fine if you don\'t want to rush it. I can always wait and learn about each other slowly."

"But—"

I was silenced when I felt soft and hot lips kissed the edge of my lips, just like the first time Alex met me in the lift.

"I want to know you better, Shi Ying."

**

Yang Menghuo was busy sending texts and calling his Ying Jie for a while to no avail. He was standing in front of Ying Jie\'s apartment door with a grocery bag that she requested because he expected them to have dinner together.

But Ying Jie hadn\'t replied to his text since five in the evening, and her phone was inactive.

It made him crazy anxious that something had happened to Ying Jie. He wanted to break his own promise not to pry on Ying Jie\'s private information because of his worry.

\'Jie… where are you?\'