The President Comes Knocking -

In response to Qingyi’s accusation, Mu Han felt the need to clarify, “What do you mean by a ‘bug’? There were several times when my bowl didn’t have any coins either!”

“That’s because you swapped your bowl with mine, and the bowl you swapped always had coins in it!” Qingyi’s voice was choked with emotion as he spoke, pouting and looking utterly wronged, like a delicate little soul crushed by injustice.

Faced with this solid accusation, Mu Han was at a loss for words. All he could do was rub his temples helplessly. He truly had no idea how to console his incredibly unlucky younger brother.

The bowl-swapping incident arose because Qingyi envied Mu Han’s streak of good fortune and had proactively asked to trade bowls. As a caring older brother, Mu Han couldn’t possibly refuse such a small request, could he?

Before this incident, Chu Qianqian only knew Qingyi’s luck was abysmal when it came to games. She never expected his real-life luck to be just as heartbreakingly unfortunate.

After pondering for a moment, Chu Qianqian tried to comfort him, “Don’t worry. When we make dumplings for Winter Solstice, I’ll put coins in every single one of the dumplings meant for you. I’ll make sure no one else gets a coin except for you!”

While removing the element of surprise did take away some of the excitement, Chu Qianqian’s words still struck a chord with Qingyi. Rubbing his nose, he murmured in a low voice, “Well, thanks in advance, Qianqian… But maybe you can also put a few coins in Mu Han’s and Ziyu’s dumplings too, just not more than mine.”

“Deal!” Chu Qianqian nodded decisively in agreement.

Only these two could make such blatant favoritism seem so reasonable. Mu Han chuckled but offered no comment on their scheme. After all, traditions like this were just for fun-why take them so seriously?

After everyone had finished eating the dumplings, Chu Qianqian assumed that Mu Han would leave. To her surprise, he announced that he planned to stay overnight at the villa. It wasn’t an unusual matter, yet for some inexplicable reason, it made her feel slightly uneasy.

“Why isn’t Mu Han going back today? Doesn’t he have work to handle tomorrow?” As soon as the words left her mouth, Chu Qianqian regretted them and quickly clamped her lips shut. What kind of question was that? Tomorrow’s affairs were tomorrow’s problem, and they didn’t have anything to do with today.

Besides, the two villas weren’t far from each other. Even if he was in a rush, he could still make it back in time tomorrow.

Qingyi didn’t immediately respond to Chu Qianqian’s question. Instead, he gave her a knowing smile and looked at her until she felt so self-conscious that she had to avert her gaze. Only then did he answer, “Tomorrow’s my first day off since joining the film crew. Mu Han wants to spend some time with me, so he worked extra hard over the past few days to clear his schedule. He made himself a two-day break to… spend time with me.”

Although Qingyi said “spend time with me,” his eyes remained fixed on Chu Qianqian, and the subtext of his words was crystal clear. The time Mu Han had freed up was not just for Qingyi-it was also for Chu Qianqian.

And while Mu Han had always doted on Qingyi, based on Qingyi’s observations, if he could, Mu Han would likely spend this entire break with Chu Qianqian. After all, she’d been avoiding him as much as possible lately, going out of her way not to cross paths with him. In fact, today was their first meeting in over a week.

“Qingyi, you… You…”

Chu Qianqian stammered for a while, unable to finish her sentence. She shot Qingyi a fierce glare before abruptly turning to head toward her own room.

But she had barely gotten halfway down the hall when Qingyi called out behind her, “Qianqian, Mu Han’s room is also on the second floor. Uh… it’s the one right across from yours.”

This villa, which Qingyi received as a gift for his eighteenth birthday, had been designed with the idea that he might host parties here or invite close friends over to hang out. As a result, the entire second floor was laid out with several guest rooms.

In other words, there was no shortage of space. There was absolutely no need to assign Mu Han a room so close to Chu Qianqian’s. The arrangement was entirely Qingyi’s little scheme to create opportunities for the two of them.

Chu Qianqian had been walking in a daze, her mind blank, until Qingyi’s words startled her so much that she nearly twisted her ankle. Once she steadied herself by holding onto the wall, she turned around to shoot him a look, but Qingyi had already dashed off somewhere, leaving only his lingering voice in the air: “Qianqian, make sure you don’t bump into Mu Han when you open your door in the morning~”

On the third floor, Qingyi was leaning against the wall, laughing to himself for what felt like ages. Only then did he finally realize the potential downside of his own room arrangement…

“Wait… Mu Han and Qianqian… they wouldn’t actually do that, would they?” Qingyi’s face turned beet red as the possibility belatedly dawned on him. It took him quite a while to shake the thought out of his head. Finally, he muttered to himself, “No way, it’s impossible. Mu Han and Qianqian aren’t those kinds of people. This is all because I’ve been corrupted by Mu-Ge’s bad influence…”

Of course, neither Chu Qianqian nor Mu Han had any idea about Qingyi’s wild imagination.

Nonetheless, as if responding to his thoughts from afar, Mu Han sneezed a few times in a row, clearly a victim of someone’s incessant mutterings.

When Chu Qianqian returned to her room, she coincidentally bumped into Mu Han stepping out of the room directly across from hers. She froze on the spot, completely speechless. Mu Han appeared equally startled for a moment. “Which room are you staying in?” he asked, his voice tinged with curiosity and surprise.

That simple question made Chu Qianqian’s ears go bright red in an instant. Her hands, which were hanging by her sides, instinctively twisted a corner of her blouse as she lowered her voice, mumbling with deliberate vagueness, “I… the one opposite you…”

“What?”

Those three letters alone made Chu Qianqian feel like sinking into the earth. What she didn’t expect, however, was that her voice had been so soft Mu Han genuinely hadn’t heard her.

She screwed her eyes shut tight as if rallying all her courage, blurted out at high speed, “The one opposite yours!”

Truth be told, Mu Han had already heard her the first time. He had only repeated her words out of sheer disbelief at an answer so unexpected. He couldn’t help but ask again. But his second question caused the flush that had been confined to Chu Qianqian’s earlobes to spread rapidly-across her cheeks, down her neck, and finally over her entire face. Now, she looked like a fully ripened tomato.

“Heh.”

Mu Han’s soft laughter echoed down the hallway, a sound that felt as warm as the man himself. It reached Chu Qianqian’s ears and stirred her nerves. When she opened her eyes, the image of Mu Han smiling filled her entire field of vision. His face, alight with mirth, was so captivating that it made her feel hot all over, even without having taken a shower yet.

“What are you laughing at?!” she asked, the red in her cheeks deepening even further.

Mu Han cleared his throat, his chuckles fading into a low hum. “Cough-sorry, it’s just… doesn’t this feel so familiar to you? Same city, same room arrangement. It’s just like when you were taking care of me back in City B.”