Chapter 33: Chapter 33 - 33 "I think I saw your dad.

Lin Xu was forcefully pressed into Ji Zeqiu’s embrace, struggling to breathe, and twisted a handful of flesh around his waist.

Ji Zeqiu released Lin Xu only when the pain hit him.

Deprived of oxygen, Lin Xu’s face flushed as she glared at Ji Zeqiu, “Are you being childish?”

She wanted to deliberately make Ji Tingyang angry.

“I do what I want,” Ji Zeqiu straightened out the wrinkles on his clothes, dissatisfied that he hadn’t managed to provoke Ji Tingyang. “Seeing me with you, Ji Tingyang didn’t react at all. He even dared to leave you with me. Seems like he doesn’t like you that much.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re just a brat, not at all threatening,” Lin Xu casually remarked.

In her eyes, Ji Zeqiu was nothing but a child.

“A brat? Not at all threatening?” Ji Zeqiu laughed out of exasperation, “Do you know that for the past two years, I’ve been voted the number one boyfriend to date on the women’s magazine rankings?!”

Which woman wouldn’t be head over heels for him? And she said he’s not a threat?!

She must be blind!

Lin Xu looked at him with a faint gaze, “…In my view, only a brat would argue over such a thing, wouldn’t they?”

“You!” Ji Zeqiu wanted to retort, but that would only prove her point even more.

Biting back his anger, he swallowed his words and showed his mature side, magnanimously saying, “I am magnanimous enough to forgive your poor judgment.”

Lin Xu smiled.

On TV, she always saw Ji Zeqiu with a gentle and simple demeanor, but in private, he was the complete opposite.

Once again, she sighed, realizing that the personas celebrities present on screen are deceiving.

“Are you hungry? Do you want to go grab something to eat?” Lin Xu pointed to the table laden with desserts.

“I don’t want to.”

“There are your favorite small cakes.”

Lin Xu remembered, when she took little Zeqiu out, and they passed by a pastry shop, he would always drag her in to buy a small cake to take home.

Ji Zeqiu’s face suddenly turned red, “Who… who told you I like small cakes?! That’s what little girls like; I don’t like them at all!”

“Okay, you don’t like them. It’s me who wants to eat, can you accompany me over?” Lin Xu said.

“Well, alright then,” Ji Zeqiu agreed reluctantly.

Lin Xu hadn’t eaten much for dinner and felt quite digested by now. She walked over and chose a few small bread rolls to fill her stomach.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Ji Zeqiu glancing stealthily at the small cakes and chuckled silently.

She thought his tastes had changed as he grew up, but it seemed he still liked them.

“Do you want to have one?” Lin Xu offered him the one with the most cream.

“I really don’t like them,” Ji Zeqiu refused quickly, his expression becoming conflicted a moment later, “But if you insist on me eating, I’ll have one just to please you.”

“Oh, I didn’t say I insisted. It’s too painful to make someone eat what they dislike; I wouldn’t do that, don’t worry.”

As if to prove she wouldn’t force him, Lin Xu took a bite of the creamy small cake.

This made Ji Zeqiu even more irritated.

This woman!

Not gentle or considerate at all; what on earth did Ji Tingyang like about her!

“You…” he began furiously, but before he could speak, a small cake was stuffed into his mouth, the taste of cream filling his senses.

“There, there, just eat it,” Lin Xu looked at him with a beaming smile.

Looking at the appeasing smile on her cheeks, most of Ji Zeqiu’s anger dissipated. He took the small cake from Lin Xu’s hand and started eating it, not forgetting to threaten her.

“If you dare tell anyone about this, you’re dead meat!”

After turning twelve, in an effort to show his manliness, he had resisted and never eaten a small cake again.

A grown man who actually likes to eat cream cake, if others knew, they’d definitely mock him.

Especially Ji Tingyang!

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” Lin Xu assured him.

Ji Zeqiu snorted and turned his head away.

Well, this woman did have a tiny bit, an almost negligible amount of consideration.

Once he had calmed down, Ji Zeqiu brought up the old topic again, “What about that thing I asked you last time? How have you considered it?”

“Huh? What thing?” Lin Xu puzzled.

“The matter of leaving Ji Tingyang and coming with me!” Ji Zeqiu’s temper rose again.

Had she even taken his words to heart at all?

Claiming she didn’t care about him, yet she sent a long list of caring messages to the agent every day; claiming she did care, yet she was so cold when they met, showing no intention of playing up to him at all.

“Oh, that.” Lin Xu suddenly realized, then refused, “That won’t do.”

With Ji Tingyang’s temperament, who knew what madness would ensue if she wasn’t at home to manage things.

Ji Zeqiu wasn’t surprised, just somewhat disheartened.

Where exactly did he fall short compared to Ji Tingyang? Last time, Wen Li even left the Ji Family with him, but in the end, she ran back. He had been unable to leave the film crew at the time and could only watch helplessly as she went back.

And now, even Lin Xu was rejecting him.

“Why don’t you come back to the Ji Family? That way, I won’t have to leave, and you could live with me as well. How nice that would be.” Lin Xu suggested.

“I’d rather not go back.” Ji Zeqiu said coldly.

Lin Xu wanted to persuade him further when she heard an even colder voice from behind, “Even better that he doesn’t come back, so Aunt Zhang won’t have to cook an extra portion of food, saving her the trouble.”

Lin Xu turned her head and saw that Ji Tingyang had finished talking with the partners and had come back.

Ji Zeqiu’s expression was indifferent, “Then you should fast, Aunt Zhang would have an even easier time.”

Ji Tingyang glared at him, “Sorry, I’m not a celebrity who needs to fast all day, getting as skinny as a monkey’s kin.”

Ji Zeqiu cursed, irritated, “Do you know nothing about being ‘thin in clothes, good in flesh’?”

The moment the two brothers met, the air was filled with gunpowder.

Lin Xu’s head was spinning, and she mentally sighed, interrupting the two who were about to continue arguing.

“I’m a bit thirsty, Tingyang, could you get me a glass of champagne?”

The argument halted abruptly, and Ji Tingyang left. In no time, he returned with a glass of water.

“Drinking alcohol is bad for your health, just have some water.” Very considerate.

“Okay.” Lin Xu accepted the water.

It didn’t matter what she drank, as long as the two of them stopped arguing.

Ji Zeqiu snatched away the water and handed Lin Xu a cup of coffee, “Only a straight man would make someone drink plain water, have mine instead.”

Ji Tingyang took back the coffee, scornfully saying, “Drinking coffee late at night, do you want her to have insomnia?”

The two stood their ground, both turning to look at Lin Xu.

“You tell us, do you want water or coffee?!”

Lin Xu: “…”

It seemed like whichever choice she made would lead to a storm of trouble.

Feeling emotionally drained, Lin Xu’s gaze drifted into the distance, her eyes catching a glimpse of someone in the crowd, and she suddenly froze.

A familiar face passed fleetingly through the crowd.

After a long moment, she snapped back to reality and said blankly, “I think I just saw your dad…”