"My agent is finally back." Lin Wanning's distinctive voice carried a hint of playful teasing.

She had already heard the details from her sister.

Though she understood her brother's reasons, deep down, she had hoped he would see her shining brightly on stage—her meticulous preparations had been almost entirely for him...

Catching the teasing tone in Lin Wanning's words, Long Aotian chuckled awkwardly. "Sorry, I promised to be your agent and bodyguard, but I didn’t keep my word."

Lin Wanning wasn’t actually angry. She was never one to act irrationally, and she never regretted her decisions.

"Come inside and eat. You’re making us something delicious tonight."

This was the harshest punishment Lin Wanning could think of for her brother: making him cook for the three of them.

Back in the sunroom, Hu Yuying and Li Qingxue were hunched over their phones, fingers flying across the screens.

Long Aotian knew what they were doing but pretended otherwise. "What’s up?" he asked.

The three girls exchanged glances before answering in unison, "Secret!"

"How did things go?" Seeing Long Aotian return without a trace of seriousness, they assumed the matter had been resolved.

Long Aotian recounted the events, though he omitted his suspicions about Shen Mengjie.

After all, for a woman, that was likely the kind of secret one would want to keep hidden. Besides, nothing was confirmed yet—it wouldn’t be right to blurt it out.

The trio’s reaction was completely different from Xu Shuai and Li Longlong’s.

When the plan had succeeded earlier, Xu Shuai and Li Longlong had been ecstatic, showering him with praise and calling him a legend.

But the three girls looked displeased, their gazes sharp enough to strangle him.

"Long Aotian, please don’t do something like this again," one of them said. What if the other guy had been a hothead? What if he hadn’t been intimidated and instead held a grudge?

"Long Aotian, you just had to show off, didn’t you? Have you forgotten—" Li Qingxue chimed in, smacking his back in frustration. Why did this man always have to meddle in everything?

Fine, with Wanning—it was the start of the semester, and she was a girl alone with no support. Helping her made sense.

But today, there were plenty of others around. Why did he have to play the hero?

Lin Wanning sighed softly, just relieved that everything had turned out alright, that no accidents had happened.

Even so, under the trio’s watchful eyes, Long Aotian delivered a thorough self-criticism.

He wasn’t ungrateful—he could sense the deep concern hidden beneath their scolding.

Their care was always this straightforward. They didn’t overcomplicate things.

Coming home every day, seeing each other, cooking together, eating together, chatting like family—to them, that was happiness.

And wasn’t it the same for him?

With the "criticism session" over, Long Aotian’s punishment was to prepare dinner alone.

The three girls tidied up before heading out to buy groceries.

On the surface, things seemed to have returned to normal.

At least for now.

That evening, Long Aotian showcased his culinary skills—or so he claimed.

He stir-fried tomatoes with eggs, sautéed some leafy greens, and braised beef with enoki mushrooms.

Well, to be honest, Long Aotian only handled the tomatoes.

The greens were Li Qingxue’s doing.

The beef and mushrooms were Hu Yuying’s masterpiece.

And the rice? Lin Wanning steamed it to perfection.

The phrase "actions speak louder than words" was personified by these three.

......

If you can’t find the book by title, try searching the author—maybe it’s just been renamed!

The next morning.

"We’re off!" Li Qingxue declared cheerfully as she hopped onto her electric scooter.

"Bye, Long Aotian!" Hu Yuying barely finished speaking before Li Qingxue twisted the throttle and zoomed away.

"Slow down!" Long Aotian shouted after her.

"Mind your own business! We won’t crash!"

Long Aotian sighed in resignation.

"Let’s go, brother." Lin Wanning, already helmeted, straddled her own scooter.

"Alright."

The two rode off, one after the other, their electric scooters gliding down the road.

The weather was warming, the breeze gentle, and the girls’ hair fluttered in the wind—a snapshot of youth.

"Yuying and Qingxue don’t have heavy schedules today, so come home early," Lin Wanning reminded him with a smile as they reached the campus pathways.

"Got it."

After parting ways, Long Aotian returned to school.

Walking across campus, he couldn’t escape the whispers about Shen Mengjie.

Back in the classroom, Xu Shuai and Li Longlong had arrived early, saving him a seat.

They waved him over the moment he entered.

"Where’s Huang Fei?"

"After you left yesterday, Huang Fei told us to go too. He didn’t come back to the dorm last night," Li Longlong explained.

"Ugh, day after day, it feels like there's always something going on!" Xu Shuai couldn't help but sigh.

Just as they were talking, sudden loud, chaotic shouts erupted from outside.

The noise was so intense that everyone in the classroom turned their heads toward the commotion.

Long Aotian and the other two were no exception.

They stepped outside and leaned over the railing to look down below.

There, they saw a middle-aged woman, ignoring the security guards' attempts to stop her, screaming and crying hysterically about something.

The moment they saw her, Xu Shuai and Li Longlong exclaimed, "That’s Shen Mengjie’s mother. She already came to make a scene yesterday. Now she’s back even though Shen Mengjie isn’t here—damn, having parents like that must be..."

More and more onlookers gathered around.

Long Aotian and his friends moved closer, thinking that since Shen Mengjie wasn’t present, the best they could do was try to persuade the woman to leave.

But as soon as they approached, they saw Shen Xiu raise a pregnancy test high in the air, wailing about who the hell had gotten her daughter pregnant.

The moment those words left her mouth, everyone around froze in shock before immediately breaking into hushed whispers.

Long Aotian and his friends stood rooted to the spot, their minds blank. They exchanged stunned glances, their expressions screaming disbelief.

Especially Xu Shuai and Long Aotian—just yesterday, they had wondered if it might all be a misunderstanding.

Now, Shen Mengjie’s own mother had confirmed it outright!

This time, the situation had truly blown up.

Pregnancy. School. A mother causing a public scene. It was the kind of scandal no institution could afford.

Soon enough, someone stepped in and escorted Shen Xiu into the office.

No one knew what was said behind closed doors.

But when Shen Xiu emerged, the smug grin on her face was a stark contrast to her earlier wailing.

Shortly after, the announcement regarding Shen Mengjie was released.

Expulsion.

In the crowd, someone quietly slipped their phone back into their pocket and hurried away.

......