Gou An now suspected whether she looked too pitiful in this man’s eyes, which was why she was able to raise He Jinxing’s favorability level to [30] without doing anything.

It was probably like seeing a wet cat in a tattered cardboard box on the roadside on a rainy day. Even if the cat was ugly, at that moment, people would only think that it was a poor, harmless, little creature.

At least, people wouldn’t walk up to it and kick it to make it go away.

The man holding the umbrella walked in front of Gou An, so close that she could see the brand logo on the zipper of his sports jacket. He stopped and looked down at her condescendingly.

Then he actually pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket—but not a stupid business card. It was a handwritten note. He handed it right under her nose.

… Gou An had no doubt that he just remembered about this when he was about to go out, and then he casually picked up a note pad from the shoe cabinet and wrote it then and there.

It was just a simple string of numbers.

“My WeChat is the same.”

He Jinxing explained with rare patience, and his tone was just like a good elder who always kept his word and was very responsible to his juniors.

Gou An took the note, looked at it, and put it in her pocket, all without changing expression. Her mind was blank, but she still said ‘thank you’—like a conditioned reflex. She was really raised to be polite.

Her silly, dazed look made the man in front of her curl his lips silently. Regardless of whether he was really entertained or not, he still gently reminded her that if she was not preparing to go out, she should not stand in the yard.

“The autumn rain is chilly,” he said, “and you’ll catch a cold.”

Leaving behind these ten simple words, he passed by Gou An and climbed the steps to the Gou’s porch.

Gou An turned around when she heard Ade call out “Mr. He,” in surprise, and watched as the man put away the big black umbrella then raise his hand to brush away the rain drops that had fallen on his shoulders.

Then he handed the umbrella to Ade, thanked her politely, and when he straightened up again, his expression has changed—

For someone like He Jinxing, it was not an exaggeration to say that he was a smiling tiger. No one knew what was really going on in his head. This person was extremely good at downward socializing. For example, just a moment ago, he could gently say ‘thank you’ to the neighbor’s maid, being all humble and polite.

Gou An suspected that he could maintain such an expression even when he was really angry, which was actually a bit scary.

But what was even more disturbing was—at this moment—that look of smiling relaxation has completely disappeared from this man’s face and has been replaced by a look that made people feel they should tread with absolute caution. His dark pupils were so deep who knew what he was thinking.

With such a serious expression on his face, He Jinxing turned and entered her house.

Until his back disappeared from her sight, he never looked at her again, not even once.

It was as if the brief conversation between them just now was just Gou An’s own illusion.

“…”

What on earth was he here for?

Gou An blinked, temporarily forgetting the negative emotions caused by her quarrel with Gou Xun just now, and actually followed He Jinxing back to the porch obediently, put away the umbrella, and sneaked back to the living room.

Jiang Yuan was the only one in the living room. She was saying things like, “If you don’t go home tonight, don’t come back in your life,” and “You don’t have to apologize to your sister if you don’t want to,” and also “Do you think I still have the energy to have another child?” to someone on WeChat. 

Who else could it be but Gou Xun?

She was talking happily when she was caught off guard and made eye contact with her daughter who had just returned to the living room. She pointed in the direction of the study upstairs and made a ‘be quiet’ motion to Gou An.

Gou An came over and asked, “Is our family going to go bankrupt? Or is the He family going to go bankrupt?”

As soon as she finished speaking, she was slapped on the back in a reproachful manner.

Gou An sniffed and said, “I met He Jinxing in the yard. He looked so serious that he seemed to be here to borrow money.”

Although she really couldn’t tell who would borrow from whom.

Jiang Yuan: “…”

Jiang Yuan was just about fed up with her daughter’s outspokenness, but since she seemed to have regained some of her spirit and now knew how to joke, she did not blame her too much. She just slapped her lightly again and said, “Don’t talk nonsense. Also, don’t address your elders by their full names.”

Gou An: “…”

What elder? He’s just a few years older than me!

… … advance chapters available @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

The elders in the study upstairs were discussing something, all very mysteriously, and no sound could be heard.

But after a long time, they heard a loud ‘plop’ sound, as if a stack of papers was thrown forcefully on the table.

Gou An and Jiang Yuan turned their heads at the same time and looked towards the study upstairs. Jiang Yuan frowned slightly and looked a little worried, while Gou An looked worried to the extent that her father might have been killed by He Jinxing.

But after this suspicious noise sounded, the second floor returned to its original tranquility.

… …

Gou An sat on the sofa, thought for a while, and found nothing to do. So she took out the note from her pocket, entered the number into the address book, thought about it some, and used the cold ‘Mr. He’ as the display name. Then searched for the number and added it on WeChat.

[Jiao Jiao: Wow, you really added him on WeChat—are you not afraid of He Jinxing anymore?]

Gou An: Who did you learn this gangster tone from, fat cat?

Gou An: Compared to other people, haven’t you noticed that the person who has launched the least evil sorcery against me is He Jinxing? People are afraid of comparison just like pigs are afraid of getting fat. I’m not really an ungrateful person.

[Jiao Jiao: I’m afraid you’ll be sold and still count money for the people who sold you.]

Gou An: What’s wrong with you now? I’m a little less afraid of the male protagonist now. Shouldn’t you be excited?

[Jiao Jiao: Based on my cat’s sixth sense, I keep feeling that the male protagonist is a bit dangerous… To be honest, I stayed up late last night to finish reading the main plot of the original novel—as much as I can read with my current authority anyway. According to the general routine for these types of novels, after the female protagonist is tortured in the first half of the story, it comes time to torture the male protagonist in the second half, right? ]

[Jiao Jiao: But this author’s partiality is as deep as the Mariana’s Trench. Let me put it this way, if the first one million words were all about torturing the heroine, then the last fifty thousand words just lightly gave the hero a little trouble. It made him go almost bankrupt—]

Gou An pricked up her ears: No way! The He family is really bankrupt!!

[Jiao Jiao: No!]

[Jiao Jiao: It was just a plot set up by the male lead. He pretended to be poor for three or four chapters, just a little writing to show the female lead’s loyalty to the male lead, and the male lead seemed very moved (who knows if he was actually moved), and then the story just ended casually at that point.]

[Jiao Jiao: Wow, let me tell you, there were so many negative reviews. The readers who were waiting for the crematorium portion of this wife-chasing novel¹ read more than one million words and only saw this. The author was scolded to death!]

[Jiao Jiao: Some people questioned what the author wrote, because in the end it never said whether the hero loved the heroine or not!]

The fat cat was spitting all over the place, as if he was talking about some fresh gossip.

[Jiao Jiao: I also think that He Jinxing might actually be heartless, not as good as that noisy He Ran. Although He Ran is a moron, his struggle over who to choose between you and Lu Wan was at least genuine—]

Gou An: …

[Jiao Jiao: This domineering CEO novel is really a bit strange. The male protagonist is very cold and aloof. It seems that he loves the domineering CEO job more than all these messy things… For example, the vicious female supporting character drugged him right? And yet he didn’t react immediately. Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t he have cremated her the very next day and scattered her ashes overnight? ]

Gou An: …Why do you sound so excited when you imagine me being urgently cremated?

[Jiao Jiao: I just want to know—what exactly does He Jinxing want to do??]

[Jiao Jiao: You did so many bad things but he didn’t care about it at all until you did something as outrageous as attempted murder. Only then did he come forward like a tool for the heroine and sent you to jail.]

Gou An: …Don’t remind me of the stupid things I will do!

[Jiao Jiao: Hehehe!]

[Jiao Jiao: You’re willing to do it, yet you’re still afraid of what others will say! ]

[Jiao Jiao: Speaking of which, compared to you—a very competent tool and a natural vicious female supporting character—He Jinxing is really unprofessional as a domineering CEO. Other domineering CEOs become love-brained like Lin Daiyu² in the later stages of their careers. For example, when the heroine rejects the domineering CEO, the domineering CEO would smoke, drink, not sleep, and have to put himself in the hospital. The worst case scenario is that he even gets leukemia…]

[Jiao Jiao: He Jinxing has absolutely no such attitude. In fact, his attitude about all these is so casual, so casual that it is not normal at all.]

Gou An: What exactly do you want to say?

[Jiao Jiao: For safety reasons, stay away from things that you cannot control.]

[Jiao Jiao: As for increasing the male protagonist’s favorability, you… ahem, just take a few sips.]

Gou An: Do you think he is a juice bottle?? I can open it, drink a few sips and put it back in the refrigerator?!

From the Day the Engagement was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi and get access to advance chapters as reward. Thank you for your support! ☺️
Chapter 25.2 — Once the Engagement Was Broken, It’s Back to ‘Mr. He’
Chapter 26.1 — 3-Way Fight. A Midnight Gathering at the Police Station
Chapter 26.2 — 3-Way Fight. A Midnight Gathering at the Police Station
Chapter 27.1 — Use Lu Wan to Exchange for Gou An
Chapter 27.2 — Use Lu Wan to Exchange for Gou An
Chapter 27.3 — Use Lu Wan to Exchange for Gou An

FOOTNOTES:

1. wife-chasing crematorium is short hand for that genre of stories where the arrogant ML hurts and emotionally abuses the FL at the beginning only to realize he loves her after she leaves him. He chases her but she has already put him in a crematorium and love is all burnt to ashes. Usually the FL forgives him and they end up back together. If they don’t, the story would be tagged with ‘broken mirror‘—which is from the saying ‘a broken mirror cannot be mended’ referring to failed relationships/marriages.
   Novel Updates should really have a crematorium tag. ↩︎
2. Lin Daiyu is a well-known character from 18th century Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She was involved in a love triangle with Jia Baoyu (who loved her) and his fiancee/her cousin Xue Baochai. ↩︎