About ten minutes later, as Gou An was drifting off again to sleep in the afternoon sun and lulling waves, the Crayon Shin-chan eating bread avatar finally lit up.

[HJX: You took this back.]

[GOU CAN WIN: Why shouldn’t I take it back? Are you just going to throw away a shirt worth tens of thousands of yuan?]

[HJX: ?]

[HJX: Just take it back to the store.]

Perhaps realizing that this answer was as cold and hard as a three-day-old steamed bun in the refrigerator, and that it was really inappropriate to be so cold to a junior, the other person added, half-jokingly—

[HJX: I have no objection if you want to sew it back on yourself.]

Given Zhou Yutong’s teasing remarks last night, this statement couldn’t even be described as creative enough to scare her.

Without a second thought, Gou An replied: [Okay.]

Perhaps it was because her answer was too frank and confident, and she didn’t seem to think that there was any technical gap between her skills and those of the artisans of a century-old brand—there was a silence on the other end of WeChat for about half a minute.

Then.

[HJX: ……]

He actually replied with six dots.

Gou An: “…”

[GOU CAN WIN: To avoid further embarrassment, let me ask this awkward question now—were you mocking me with your message above?]

She asked very sincerely.

[HJX: No.]

[HJX: I’ll bring you the shirt later.]

[GOU CAN WIN: Why later?]

[HJX: …]

[HJX: Just woke up, need to rest a bit more.]

Gou An: [Oh.JPG.]

She had absolutely no idea how someone could so naturally report their itinerary, but what followed was a photo taken from an angle that clearly showed them to be lying in bed—a view of the window.

The windows were wide open, the curtains fluttering in the wind. This upper-floor suite offered a panoramic view of the blue skies and white clouds. Several overweight seabirds perched on the windowsill, tilting their heads and staring at the camera.

Gou An laughed out loud, replied: [Got it], then turned over, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

It was not yet five o’clock in the afternoon, and the sun was already showing signs of setting.

Inside a private room in the bar on the second floor.

He Jinxing’s phone lit up without warning, catching everyone off guard.

At this moment, a group of bored uncles were playing a pointless game. They put their phones together in the center of the table, circled around a bottle of liquor. Whoever’s phone screen lit up first got to drink the whole bottle.

Before the game started, everyone posted on their WeChat Moments saying ‘Don’t bother me unless it’s important.’

He Jinxing didn’t usually have such a messy social life, and most of his friends were sitting in the private room right now, so of course he wouldn’t post anything on WeChat Moments. He really didn’t expect anyone to contact him.

After a moment of stunned silence from the group, Jiang Yi, the third son of the Jiang family, was the first to exclaim, “Oho!” 

Chen Jinli thoughtfully brought over a large beer mug filled with ice, which was intended to be used to drink the entire bottle of foreign alcohol in front of him—

“It’s not even dark yet.”

He Jinxing smiled and said, “Does it really have to be this way?”

“Why didn’t you say this when you first suggested playing this game?” Jiang couldn’t stop laughing as he watched He Jinxing stumble in this situation. “Don’t try to cheat, you’re a grown man!”

He Jinxing poured the alcohol into the glass, casually picked up his phone to check it, and thought that if some clueless senior executive from the He Group caused him this trouble for no reason, he would find a way to deduct his year-end bonus to distract himself from his suffering—

He glanced at his WeChat, froze, then raised an eyebrow a few seconds later, instantly dismissing the idea.

Jiang Yi muttered, “His expression is off.”

Chen Jinli agreed, “This kind of slightly annoyed yet slightly happy look is disgusting.”

Jiang Yi called out, “I’ve never been in a relationship, so I wouldn’t know. What do you think, little brother?”

Jiang Zaiye, who was called out from the corner, stretched out his long legs and said, “You’re asking me? Where would a stinky biker like me know anything about love?”

Chen Jinli lamented that Gou Yu was not around. Gou Yu was the best at dating. He heard that back in his school days, he probably acted out every trope imaginable in campus romance novels in his quest to win over his girl…

Jiang Yi, quite self-aware, replied, “Don’t you know why he’s not here?”

The wife’s control was indeed a bit strict.

The bar on the ship was being run by Jiang Yi. From the drinks to the people, it was basically the entire Jiang Yi establishment transported to the ship. Right now, all the important figures were sitting inside the bar, along with quite a few currently popular third- or fourth-tier celebrities whose careers were on the rise.

The private room was large, and there were other people from circles familiar to Jiang Yi. Everyone seemed unconcerned about being complete strangers before today, and they all enjoyed themselves immensely.

Amidst all that, He Jinxing, Chen Jinli, and Jiang Zaiye—three people who claimed they weren’t monks but lived strictly according to the standards of monks—formed an iron triangle in a corner, drinking and chatting by themselves.

All the women in the private room had little to do with them.

Even if they might be the primary targets of some of these women.

At that moment, no one noticed that when Gou Yu— who was not present—was mentioned, the person holding the phone paused for a moment and glanced over casually.

But his attention quickly returned to his phone.

[GOU CAN WIN: I accidentally fell asleep again, where are you? Are you awake?]

He Jinxing turned his head and saw the young lady sitting on Jiang Yi’s lap, hugging the third young master of the Jiang family’s neck, giving him a loud kiss on the cheek—

Jiang Yi protested, “Yingying, please don’t do this!”

The young woman said, “My name is Miaomiao.”

He Jinxing: “…”

With a headache, the man rubbed his temples with one finger. After hesitating for three seconds, to avoid unnecessary trouble and to avoid having to explain— which was neither necessary nor his obligation—he replied with a single word: [Mm.]

The other party had asked him where he was; he simply pretended not to see it.

The reason, he convinced himself, was simple: although it wasn’t really related to him, describing the scene in the proper context would be too complicated and might even corrupt the child.

The very responsible elder stood up while pondering how to protect the younger generation’s pure heart.

Jiang Yi, who was standing nearby, caught a glimpse of his actions out of the corner of his eye. He rested his chin on the shoulder of the young lady in his arms and lazily looked at He Jinxing, “Where are you going?”

“Toilet.”

Jiang pointed to the bottle of foreign liquor. “Finish the drink before you go.”

Under the watchful eyes of his friends, He Jinxing tilted his head back and finished the entire bottle of alcohol. He then smoothed his hair and was now genuinely preparing to go to the restroom to wash his face and sober up.

He needed to meet the younger generation later, so he couldn’t be too undignified.

Exhaling a breath of hot air thick with the smell of alcohol, the man opened the door of the private room. His tall figure had barely taken a step when he nearly bumped into someone outside who was also heading to the restroom.

The person was nearly thrown a meter by the suddenly opened door, hopping backward on one leg and crashing into the corridor wall. Looking up, she saw the man standing in the doorway, and her eyes widened in shock.

He Jinxing and Zhou Yutong stared at each other in silence for more than ten seconds.

Just then, a pleasant female voice came from the private room behind He Jinxing. “President He, are you leaving already? Don’t be in such a hurry. Would you like to sing a song? Let me request one for you.”

He Jinxing: “…”

President He didn’t know why someone who hadn’t said a word to him all night would suddenly call out to him at this time. He didn’t even know who it was.

As his face grew increasingly expressionless, Zhou Yutong, triggered by the sounds coming from inside the private room, reflexively craned her neck to look inside. Then, through the open door, she saw the situation inside the room and let out a brief ‘Ah!’

This ‘Ah! startled at least two people—

Chen Jinli, who was chatting with Jiang Zaiye with his head tilted to the side, paused, put down his wine glass, and turned his head.

He Jinxing, who stood like a door god blocking the entrance, didn’t make any big movements. He simply lowered his eyelashes, then raised them again, his gaze calmly meeting that of the girl in front of him. 

“You didn’t see me here.”

Zhou Yutong: “…”

Hey, hey, hey, big boss, I’m not blind!

He Jinxing continued, “I can let bygones be bygones about the nickname I was given.”

Zhou Yutong: “………”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you and Chen Jinli were saying on the deck last night.”

Zhou Yutong: “……………”

“Otherwise, I’ll tell your dad everything.”

Zhou Yutong: “????????????”

The door to the private room slammed shut. 

The girl, huddled in the corner, was completely bewildered. She was just passing by to pee and had been inexplicably hit with a death threat.

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

---

A note from the Author:

Mr. He: The first step towards reclaiming youth is bullying eighteen-year-old girls.

===========

T/N: I’m going on a limb and say the bet was to drink a big bottle of foreign beer, one of those 750ml or 1 liter ones meant for sharing. Because Chen Jinli specifically handed over a beer mug with ice. Otherwise, chugging down one full bottle of any liquor would lead to alcohol poisoning….

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