If WeChat Moments had trending searches, then Miss Gou tonight would probably be considered a champion—

Hot search 1: Poof, Gou An is willing to downgrade and calmly accepts the scraps stuffed by the He family as her marriage partner.

Hot search 2: Gou An scored twice and humiliated Xu Ke with champagne again.

Hot search 3: Withdraw hot search 1.

Hot search 4: Gou An and He Jinxing.

Leaving aside the previous ones, the fourth hot search photo could, at the minimum, be described as overwhelming. In the picture, a little miss in a black dress was dancing with a tall and handsome man, his arm around her waist as she looks up at him with her pretty face.

Even in the photo, one could see the tension in her sparkling almond-shaped eyes, the tips of her ears and cheeks a beautiful blood-red, a strand of her long, soft hair accidentally brushing against the man’s suit sleeve…

The man who usually acted high and mighty and rarely appeared in the same news pages with any member of the opposite sex of the right age seemed to not care about this at all. His big hands were pressing down the smoky pink bow tied at the back of her waist, his fingertips causing it to wrinkle.

——They seemed to have an inexplicable atmosphere of entwined, lingering affection.

“Is it my illusion? You don’t seem to care much about the negative influence He Yuan may have on you.”

“Maybe it’s because I already have a bad reputation, so I don’t think anyone can drag me down.”

“Hmm, the angle is quite novel.”

An insincere tone of praise.

Then her waist was grabbed, and her feet were lifted off the ground as she was placed down at the appropriate rhythm. Gou An couldn’t help but look up at the man who was holding her waist: it was completely easy for this man to lift her around. He seemed to have amazing arm strength.

“Don’t think like that next time.”

After a few seconds, the man sounded like he couldn’t help but want to say a few more words of education.

“This kind of thinking will make us uncles, who are protecting you and think that we are doing a good job, feel very sad.”

His tone was half serious, half joking. The raised corners of his lips made him look lazy, and his voice also slowed slowed to a drawl.

Gou An was stunned. “Protecting me?”

“Yes.”

The topic has come to this point. If she didn’t climb up the pole¹, she would have lived in vain.

“…What if I make a mistake?”

“Punishment, and then self-punishment for my poor supervision.”

The answer was given without much hesitation, and the tone was still extremely calm.

“Punishment? And here you keep talking about ‘protection’. I thought you would protect me—”

“Cover it up, you mean? Maybe the first time, but I suspect that will only make you dare to do it again. And the severity of your next mistake might even worsen, to the point where neither your father nor I can handle it… That would be quite troublesome.”

Gou An was silent for a moment. It might just be a lucky guess that he thought of her as being too arrogant and would dare to do it again, but he did guess her personality a little correctly.

So Gou An chose to change the topic to a safer one.

“Let’s get back to the topic. He Yuan is doing fine. You don’t have to worry too much about us.”

She was being sincere and wasn’t lying about this at all.

She originally thought that He Jinxing would be satisfied with her answer, but she didn’t expect that the relaxed curve on the man’s lips disappeared a little.

After two seconds of silence, he said, “Are you being fooled by all this? Do you really think that any action the He family takes right now is aimed at resolving the matter of your engagement?”

Gou An had danced two dances in a row and was already a little out of breath. Her cheeks, which had been red from nervousness at the beginning, were now flushed from exertion, lending her a healthy glow and making her black eyes look particularly bright. 

She tilted her head and looked at him. “Isn’t it?”

As the dance ended, the man stood firmly and his hand left her waist politely, without any lingering attachment.

“No.”

A categorical denial.

A brief, invisible pressure spread out in all directions; the reason for it was unknown.

In the center of such a high-pressure tornado, Gou An instinctively looked around, only to find that there was no one within a two-meter radius of their small dance space. Her peers dancing around them were terrified and had stayed away from them, or they simply stood at the edge of the dance floor to watch the excitement.

No wonder she felt the surroundings were so spacious when they were dancing just now.

At this moment, standing at the front of the crowd and staring at them with fierce, glowing eyes, was Gou Yu.

“Your father looks horrible.”

The man’s light voice came from behind her head, and the momentary low pressure just now disappeared without a trace…

It was so fast that Gou An almost thought it was an illusion.

There seemed to be a hint of nonchalant ridicule in his voice.

“He looks as if a wolf has carried off his precious daughter.”

Despite these nonsensical words, He Jinxing still politely handed Gou An back to Gou Yu, “Stop glaring at me. I’m giving her back to you.”

Gou Yu grabbed his daughter’s hand and immediately drew her behind his back, like a hen pecking an eagle to protect its chicks. He didn’t forget to scold her either, “She was being disrespectful to her elders.”

“I just turned 28,” He Jinxing reminded him good-naturedly. “Isn’t that a bit too much?”

Gou Yu had a look on his face that said, ‘I don’t care about you.’ “There are many ways to stop rumors.”

He Jinxing was stunned, a little surprised that Gou Yu clearly understood his intention, yet he still came up to scold him…

How rude.

The man chuckled, “But this is the most direct and effective way.”

After tonight, no one would ever say that the daughter of the Gou family was a victim of the He family’s scrap disposal.

The engagement has not been finalized, so He Yuan was certainly a possibility. But now it seemed that if it was He Jinxing instead… it didn’t seem to be absolutely impossible.

On this side, Gou Yu has already pushed Gou An and urged her to find ‘people your age’ to play with. He Jinxing, who was inexplicably attacked again, said nothing this time and let her go with a tolerant smile.

Three minutes later, a servant came to Gou An with a large tray of colorful, freshly squeezed juices…

Amid the barrage of questions from people around her, she hurriedly chose a glass of apple juice, forgetting that her favorite and what she actually wanted was orange juice.

… …

When Gou An finally finished the press conference on ‘The Few Things Between Me and He Jinxing Are Simply as Pure and White as Paper’, she went to find He Yuan and discovered that this kid was quite sociable. In such a short time, he became familiar with Tang Xinjiu, Zhou Yutong and the others. They were now gathered together and chatting happily.

When this group of daughters from wealthy families saw Gou An coming back, their eyes lit up. However, before they could ask any questions, she took the initiative to hold up hand in a ‘stop’ gesture and directly forbade them from asking. “Don’t ask, I’m tired!”

Zhou Yutong certainly wouldn’t give up. Her white dress fluttered like foam as she jumped in excitement. She pulled Gou An’s arm and asked with a grin, “Are Uncle Perky Butt’s pecs warm?”

Gou An’s ears felt like they were burning, and she immediately reached out to cover her mouth.

“The moment President He held your hand, no one dared to say anything bad about you anymore!”, Zhou Yutong exclaimed. “He Yuan, am I right?”

He Yuan was also good-tempered. He stood aside with a smile, listening to everyone teasing Gou An about her comeback. He didn’t seem to think that his dance partner being taken away by an elder was anything worth worrying about…

In truth, his social circle was not in Jiangcheng, so his reputation here didn’t really matter to him.

Besides, there was nothing at all shameful about being outshined by He Jinxing.

After all, no matter who that man was compared with, he was obviously the ‘better one’.

Just look, at the same age, this little lamb of the He family with excessive sugar content was many times more mature than some naive teenagers who cared a lot about rumors and thought they could save the world.

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

---

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 41.2 —Let’s Play the Borrowing Game!
Chapter 41.3 —Let’s Play the Borrowing Game!
Chapter 42.1 — The Bow at Her Waist
Chapter 42.2 — The Bow at Her Waist
Chapter 42.3 — The Bow at Her Waist
Chapter 43.1 — Missing Button
Chapter 43.2 — Missing Button

FOOTNOTE:

1. ‘Climb up the pole’ means to push your luck and take advantage of the situation. ↩︎