The farce ended when the white Rolls-Royce stopped at the door of the restaurant, and the person who was in charge of the event today belatedly arrived.

When everyone else’s attention shifted to the man who got out of the car, Ye Lang—as if he was blind or couldn’t read the atmosphere at all—stubbornly held the wrist of Young Master He, as if the latter would rush towards Gou An like a rabid dog if he let go.

But Gou An didn’t care.

Looking at He Jinxing in formal attire, approaching closer step by step, Gou An realized that this was a great moment: the men in the original novel were gathering together.

A cold and unfamiliar (and extremely stupid) fiancé.

A powerful young uncle.

A wolf bodyguard disguised as a loyal dog in sheep’s clothing.

Just like that, without any warning, the three people who wanted her dead suddenly showed up.

—— Of course, her stupid younger brother who hasn’t even fully grown his hair and was undoubtedly out of the competition didn’t count.

He Ran was humiliated and bared his fangs at Ye Lang, “Get your dirty hands off me!”

Instead of scaring Ye Lang away, it was Gou An who subconsciously took a step back.

The bodyguard’s face was expressionless, and at this time, the current head of the He family approached. His height of nearly 1.9 meters completely overwhelmed the other two. He stood about one meter behind Ye Lang and asked with a smile, “What’s going on?”

Ye Lang seemed to have just noticed that there was someone else here, and he slowly turned his head away.

In fact, his black eyes flashing with vigilance betrayed his inner thoughts. It was obvious that he had known all along that someone was approaching from behind.

He Jinxing was slightly startled when he looked at him. After a few seconds of silence, the man’s faint smile did not change at all, “Why is A’Lang here?”

It seemed that these two have known each other for a long time.

Ye Lang’s face was blank, “Work.”

As he spoke, the force in his hands increased. He Ran cried out in pain unexpectedly. Then, perhaps realizing that he was being completely suppressed and this whole thing was quite humiliating, he swallowed the sound in his throat. He settled for confronting Ye Lang gloomily—

The latter turned sideways, competing with him covertly, and stared at He Jinxing intently.

“Why are you working here? Is Master Hong Jiu here today too?” He Jinxing asked.

“He fired me,” Ye Lang said, as nonchalantly as if he was talking about someone else. “I didn’t handle the Jiang family’s affairs properly.”

He Jinxing raised his eyebrows.

“Now I work for Gou Yu.”

He finished adding.

“Ah, yes, I did hear some rumors that Master Hong Jiu was very unhappy with the chaos that happened a few days ago in Endless Night… Master Hong Jiu let go of A’ Lang because of his impulsiveness, this allowed those of us outside to take advantage of him. We really have to thank him.”

While He Jinxing was chatting, he raised his hand calmly and gently patted the back of Ye Lang’s hand, which was tightly gripping He Ran, causing veins to bulge.

“If Gou Yu hadn’t taken action so fast, the invitation from the He family would have been placed on the table in A’ Lang’s house tomorrow.”

The man’s tone of voice didn’t change much from beginning to end.

At this time, Gou An saw that He Jinxing’s hands were also wrapped with several bandages.

At the same time, she also noticed that when he touched Ye Lang’s hand, the bodyguard’s muscles tensed up, just like a cat whose fur had suddenly stood up and arched its back.

But it only lasted a few moments, and he soon relaxed again.

Staring at He Jinxing’s gentle face, Ye Lang was silent for two seconds, then let go of He Ran without warning.

He Ran was freed and immediately stepped back, staring at Ye Lang with vigilant eyes, and said in an ugly tone, “Are you the new bodyguard of the Gou family? Don’t you know who I am?”

No one paid any attention to him.

The moment Ye Lang let go of He Ran, He Jinxing stepped back and gestured to the people gathered at the door of the restaurant to head inside to the private room. This rather huge group of people began to move.

… …

Gou An huddled aside and watched the whole show. When most of the people have left, she slowly moved closer to Ye Lang, who was still staring at He Jinxing’s back.

“Are you afraid of him?”

It couldn’t be said that her tone had no gloating in it.

“His hand is injured, and you’re still afraid of him?”

It was like discovering a new world.

There was no response from him for a long time. 

She raised her head and tried to look at the person in front of her, and found that he had pursed his lips—others might not know, but Gou An knew the person in front of her very well. This subtle movement was the reaction he would have when he was unhappy and didn’t know how to deal with it.

… Her heart was instantly filled with immense joy.

It was difficult to control the corners of her lips from curling up like Doraemon. Gou An sighed happily, stood on tiptoe, raised her hand, and patted the bodyguard’s stiff shoulder quite unnecessarily.

“It’s okay. I understand.”

After throwing down these words that were totally adding fuel to the fire and hitting Ye Lang’s self-esteem like crazy, Miss Gou passed him by with a ( ///*v*///) face.

He was afraid of He Jinxing?

She was, too.

But the enemy of my enemy was my friend. This principle was eternal and always applicable.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Because of the little incident at the door of the restaurant, Gou An became particularly friendly towards He Jinxing today, so when everyone was arranging the seats and the parents asked her and He Ran to sit on He Jinxing’s left and right like door guardians, she did not resist at all.

Although, their ultimate goal was quite possibly to get her and He Ran to politely shake hands and make peace, and then part ways amicably.

Other than Old Mr. He who was absent from the dinner table, even Gou Xun was present.

Gou An didn’t know why he came here, but she saw Jiang Yuan standing behind him, frantically poking his back with her fingers and pushing him towards her. He frowned tightly and made impatient ‘hissing’ sounds.

Gou An took the initiative to walk in front of him and looked up at him—

Before she knew it, this brother of hers, who was two years younger than her, had grown so tall.

What a pity, the older he got, the more annoying he was.

This tall but brainless kid suddenly lost his voice at this moment because of his older sister’s approach. The arrogance on his face disappeared, and his hands and feet became stiff.

“An’an,” Gou Xun’s throat tightened. “I’m sorry about Jiaojiao. I shouldn’t have said that to you.”

Gou An: Do you forgive him?

[Jiao Jiao: QwQ Meow!]

“Oh, Jiaojiao doesn’t forgive you.”

Gou Xun: “…”

“Relax and continue to feel guilty. After all, not every ‘I’m sorry’ will be forgiven.”

Gou Xun: “…”

“By the way, do you have to invite Lu Wan to your coming-of-age ceremony?”

Gou Xun was stunned and didn’t say anything.

So his older sister, who was a head shorter than him, raised her hand and tore off the Band-Aid on his chin. Gou Xun was caught off guard and shrieked ‘Ah!!’, covering his chin, looking at her with panic and grievance.

“Now I say that I don’t forgive you either,” Gou An shook the Band-Aid in her hand. She looked at the scabbed wound on his chin caused by He Ran’s beating and sneered, “It wasn’t me who did it, why are you showing off your pitiful face to me?”

Gou Xun’s expression changed again and again.

Gou An stuffed the Band-Aid back into Gou Xun’s stiff hand with an expressionless face, then turned around and left.

Behind the two of them, He Ran was leaning on a crutch. His own miserable state did not prevent him from watching coldly and sneering, as if he was mocking Gou Xun: Look, you’ve work so hard to be pitiful but what benefit did you get from her?

“What are you looking at? Do you still want to fight?”

He Ran, who was also in a bad mood, threw away his crutches again and hopped forward on one foot, “Wanna go?”

Then Jiang Yuan slapped the two young men on the back at the same time.

As Gou An took her seat with stiff steps, she could still hear Jiang Yuan continuing to poke her son’s back, “I’ve already told you, your sister is really angry, she really hates that Miss Lu… Don’t think you can get away with it this time.”

Gou An sat down; the area around He Jinxing was very quiet.

The only people sitting at the table were the parents of the two families. They had been neighbors for many years and had long since given up on hypocritical etiquette. They each found someone to chat with and chatted about this and that.

Gou An thought about it, then tilted her head to secretly look at the man next to her. Well, after changing into formal clothes, he became the decisive Mr. He sitting in the office again.

The only thing that reminded her of that moment which lasted for about twenty minutes yesterday—when the whole art style seemed to have been seriously thrown out of whack—was the bandage on his hand.

“… your hand.”

He Jinxing lowered his eyes.

“What’s wrong with it?”

Gou An looked at him and swallowed. Under her nervous gaze, the man raised his hand and said, “Secretary Liu is just making a fuss.”

“Oh.”

… …

Over all, the atmosphere was too peaceful, and the theme of ‘breaking off the engagement’ suddenly became unclear.

Only Jiang Yuan and He Ran’s mother sat together and talked about things that would allow each family to back down—

“My son is ignorant.”

“An’an is a little willful sometimes.”

…

“It’s our He Ran who is unlucky.”

“Don’t ever say that.”

…

“The old master has instructed the male members of the He family to compile a roster for An’an to select from. Even our little nephew who is studying at an Ivy League school in the United States was forced to send in his daily life photos.”

“Oh, hahahaha, this must be a lot of trouble for the old master. Please thank him for me.”

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

---

T/N: The title refers to people’s behavior (especially children) who like to stir up trouble and are constantly mischievous.

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Chapter 30.2 — Teasing Cats and Dogs
Chapter 31.1 — The First Open Provocation to the Heroine
Chapter 31.2 — The First Open Provocation to the Heroine