Chapter 16: Love Arises Unknowingly and Grows Ever Deeper

"Happy birthday, Ying Zenan."

"Thanks."

Xiao Qinghe held a bouquet of flowers and, surrounded by the crowd, walked up to Ying Zenan to celebrate his birthday.

There were many people at Ying Zenan's birthday party.

Ying Jing sat in a corner. Someone took the opportunity to come over and strike up a conversation.

"Jingbao, why are you sitting here? There's good food over there. Want to go over?"

"Zenan ge is so popular; even Xiao Qinghe came."

"This Xiao Qinghe... she couldn't like your brother, could she?"

...

Ying Jing leaned against the sofa absentmindedly. Others thought she was staring intently ahead, but in reality, her thoughts had long since flown off to who knows where.

This is seriously weird.

Why would Xiao Qinghe be at her brother's birthday party right now? And with that peach-blossom complexion, that whole shy-girl look—anyone could see she had feelings for Ying Zenan.

Female Lead, wake up!

Your Male Lead isn't here.

Let go of my brother.

This didn't happen in the last life.

Anyone can be my sister-in-law, just not Xiao Qinghe.

She knew all too well how obsessive Lu Zishu became for Xiao Qinghe later on.

No way. She absolutely refused to let their family walk the same path as the last life.

Her brother was such an outstanding person; he should be shining in the business world.

She had clearly done everything possible to avoid contact with the original male and female leads.

Why? Why did it still circle back to the plot?

Ying Jing felt a bit irritable.

Suddenly, her hand was yanked, pulling her whole body up from the sofa.

All eyes in the room fell on her.

What happened?

She had no idea.

Ying Zenan dragged her by the wrist to the cake. This cake was the one Ying Jing had personally gone to buy.

Though it was bought with Ying Zenan's money.

Which led to Ying Zenan complaining about her all the way there.

He called her an ungrateful wolf cub who couldn't be tamed, forgetting to prepare a gift for her own brother's birthday.

Ying Jing had rushed out too fast and forgot her money, okay! And she didn't bring her usual phone.

When it came down to it, it was her brother's fault for dragging her out the door.

Among the attendees, Ying Jing wasn't the only one who bought a cake. A whole corner of the room had been cleared out, piled with all sorts of gifts. One didn't need to think to know they were expensive things.

In previous years, all these gifts ended up in Ying Jing's hands; she could spend hours unwrapping them.

When it came time to cut the cake, Ying Zenan directly picked out the one Ying Jing had bought from the pile.

Ying Jing distinctly felt the disappointed gazes of many women in the crowd.

She deliberately glanced at Xiao Qinghe. The other party was remarkably calm.

Standing quietly in the crowd, right next to the person next to Ying Zenan.

Ying Zenan didn't have a girlfriend, so he dragged his good-for-nothing sister Ying Jing to cut the cake with him.

Everyone present knew that Ying Zenan had a sharp tongue but actually cared deeply for his sister.

Jealousy was useless; that was just the luck of the draw in reincarnation.

Ying Zenan cut the piece with the most fruit, the one that looked the most delicious, and gave it to Ying Jing, keeping a piece for himself. The rest he handed over for them to divide. The other few cakes were also brought up and quickly devoured in a flurry of activity.

Ying Jing had eaten quite a bit at home, so she had no appetite right now.

Her brother was surrounded by a chattering crowd again; the room was a bit noisy.

Seeking quiet, Ying Jing ran outside.

She scooped a spoonful of cake into her mouth from time to time.

"How come you're here alone? Didn't you used to love the liveliness the most?"

Ye Qingyu walked up to her side, looking at the cream she had accidentally gotten on the corner of her mouth from eating too eagerly. He subconsciously raised a hand to wipe it off. Ying Jing was extremely wary, almost simultaneously dodging to the side.

His hand hung suspended in mid-air, neither up nor down.

"Dodging what? I just wanted to wipe the cream off your mouth." He spoke as if unintentional, as if this were just a trivial matter.

Ying Jing wiped it with the back of her hand. Sure enough, there was a small dab at the corner of her mouth.

"Still not clean."

Seeing Ye Qingyu's hand reaching out again, Ying Jing made a split-second decision. Without thinking, she shoved the cake in her hand into the man's hands. "Then trouble you to hold this for me. I'm going to the restroom."

Watching her back as she practically fled.

Ye Qingyu lowered his head.

Ying Jing only realized she had run in the wrong direction when she reached the top of the stairs. She simply went downstairs, walked out of the clubhouse, and sat on a roadside bench to cool off in the breeze.

Knowing Ye Qingyu's feelings for her, she had already tried her best to avoid contact with him.

Before, Ye Qingyu had still shown some restraint. Now, his blatant gaze could barely conceal his affection for Ying Jing.

But she wasn't the real Ying Jing anymore.

The Ying Jing Ye Qingyu liked had ceased to exist long ago.

Ying Jing tilted her head back, hanging upside down over the back of the bench, staring at the pitch-black sky.

She let out a long sigh.

"Miss Ying, Zenan was just asking where you went. Why are you sitting here all alone!"

Xiao Qinghe had to rush back to the set and left early. She hadn't expected to see a listless Ying Jing sitting here when she came out.

The beautiful girl sat there, posture sprawled and relaxed. She seemed unable to realize how much attention her beauty had already attracted.

The familiar voice made Ying Jing startle so violently she nearly fell off the bench.

Xiao Qinghe.

Every time she met this person, her hackles rose.

No helping it. The shadow from the last life was simply too large.

Xiao Qinghe came from a poor family. For money, she almost couldn't afford university. Later, it was said a mysterious person funded her education. The current Xiao Qinghe was still a small transparent figure in the entertainment industry. She acted in a web drama adapted from a popular novel IP and accumulated some popularity.

Acting was Xiao Qinghe's dream.

She struggled in the entertainment industry, but her start wasn't smooth. Because she refused to accept unspoken rules, she was shelved by her agency for over a year.

Later, she met Lu Zishu and slowly became popular.

"Is Miss Xiao very familiar with my brother?"

Mentioning Ying Zenan softened Xiao Qinghe's entire demeanor considerably.

"Not exactly familiar. President Ying helped me. I'm very grateful to him."

Ying Jing had no idea this had happened. Just how many changes in this life were unknown to her?

She suddenly realized something. Once she broke free from the plot's control, it also meant she could no longer predict the plot's direction.

The plot might change, it might not, or it might shatter completely.

"Didn't expect my brother, that big straight man, would actually help someone." Ying Jing tried hard to steady her emotions, wanting to pump Xiao Qinghe for information.

She never expected the other party had no intention of hiding it at all.

"Back then, I almost couldn't afford school because of money. It was President Ying who funded my education."

Ying Jing froze. Ten thousand grass-mud horses galloped through her mind. She had thought and thought, but never imagined that mysterious person was actually her own brother.

Wait, she seemed to recall that when she read the novel originally, she felt some content was too much of a waste of reading time, so she just skipped straight over it.

By the time she transmigrated in, she was following the latter half of the plot.

This led to her being a bit unfamiliar with the earlier plot.

The novel seemed to have outlined a few sentences about that mysterious person's identity. Xiao Qinghe later fell in love with the mysterious person who helped her. After confessing, she was ruthlessly rejected and was depressed for a long time because of it.

(End of Chapter)