As they reached the second floor.

The light shifted, and the golden carved jade decorations were nothing less than elegant. Each expensive ornamental item was a masterpiece, with an apparent high value.

Ye Jiuliang habitually surveyed the surroundings with indifferent eyes and brows, exuding an air of "Don’t mess with me."

"Lingchen, where are you going?" Xiao Mengxue turned her head to see her younger brother standing up and asked subconsciously.

Xiao Lingchen said nothing, put down his glass, and walked away without a word.

"Lingchen." Following his departing figure, Xiao Mengxue saw, beneath the brilliant lights, a girl with a strikingly delicate and cool beauty.

She quickly searched around for Li Mochan and, seeing that he wasn’t there, felt a slight sense of relief.

She put down her glass and got up to follow him.

"Care to join in?" Feng Yi took a glass of red wine, glanced at the gambling table not far away, and asked with a smile.

Ye Jiuliang shrugged, "I’m broke."

Upon hearing this, Feng Yi chuckled, "Your Li Mochan has money."

And plenty of it, at that.

Ye Jiuliang glanced at him nonchalantly, "Why don’t you lend me some first, then go and get reimbursed by Li Mochan later."

"Can I charge interest on the reimbursement?" Feng Yi asked with an expectant face.

Ye Jiuliang hooked her lips up slightly, "You can try. If Mohan is willing to pay, I have no objections."

Feng Yi, "..."

With Li Mochan being such a miser, if he started charging interest, Feng Yi probably wouldn’t even get his principal back.

He sipped his wine and then saw the Xiao siblings approaching them. He unobtrusively stepped forward to position himself in front of Ye Jiuliang.

With his brother absent, the duty of warding off any unwanted advances naturally fell on him.

"Feng Yi, are you up here to play too?" Upon seeing Feng Yi, Xiao Mengxue greeted him with a bright smile.

Feng Yi responded lukewarmly with a hum, his gaze falling on Xiao Lingchen, "Quite the coincidence, Mr. Xiao."

Xiao Lingchen’s eyes moved past him to land on Ye Jiuliang standing behind him, his usually cold voice softened with a trace of warmth.

"Jiuliang."

Ye Jiuliang, who was peeling the wrapper off a lollipop, frowned slightly at the sound of the Xiao siblings.

"Sorry, we’re not close. It’s better if you call me Miss Ye," she said calmly, with a lollipop in her mouth, her tone distant.

Xiao Lingchen slightly furrowed his brows, "Our families are old friends, and the dinner we had at the hotel was arranged by our fathers as a blind date. Doesn’t that count as being acquainted?"

A blind date?

Feng Yi’s eyes widened slightly, and he almost couldn’t hold his wine glass steady.

What the hell?

His eyes shifted to Ye Jiuliang, oddly. This was probably something Mochan didn’t know about.

Ye Jiuliang casually kneaded the lollipop wrapper and then tossed it into the trash bin.

She turned her face, her lashes shadowed with a touch of chill, "If you count a meal as a blind date, Mr. Xiao, you must have some misunderstanding about words. Please be careful with your statements. Li Mochan would not be pleased to hear that."

She paused, her lips curling up slightly, her thin smile piercing with bone-chilling coldness, "Anyone who displeases him will make his whole family displeased."

Xiao Lingchen’s dark eyes tensed, the veins in his forearms hidden beneath his sleeves bulging.

The air stiffened, and the atmosphere suddenly became taut.

Xiao Mengxue spoke to smooth things over, "Miss Ye, Lingchen was just joking, you don’t need to take it seriously."

"Such jokes are better left unmade—after all, they’re really not funny," Feng Yi said coolly.

"Jiuliang, let’s go over there and have a look."

Ye Jiuliang nodded, and the two of them walked away together.

Once they were at a distance, Xiao Mengxue finally said, "Lingchen, what are you trying to do? Ye Jiuliang is already with Li Mochan. It’s better if you let go sooner rather than later."

Even she, an outsider, could tell—there was no room for anyone else between Li Mochan and Ye Jiuliang. Both were tough nuts to crack and not to be trifled with.

Xiao Lingchen didn’t respond. His thin lips pressed together tightly, his gaze fixed on the direction from which Ye Jiuliang had left.

...

After hanging out at the club with Feng Yi for a while, Ye Jiuliang was bored and picked a quiet spot to cool off.

The sunshine and sea breeze were comfortable and pleasant.

"Big sister."

A milky voice rang in her ear, and a plump little hand grabbed hers and shook it.

Ye Jiuliang lifted the magazine from her face, tilted her clear eyes, and a chubby little face with rosy cheeks came into view.

Ye Jiuliang narrowed her eyes, finding the little sticky rice ball suddenly appearing in front of her somewhat familiar.

"Big sister." Without getting a response, the little sticky rice ball raised its voice and called out again.

In the sunshine, the little sticky rice ball’s pair of watery blue eyes stared straight at her, and its chubby cheeks dimpled into shallow pear whirls, a perfect little lad, adorably cute.

Ye Jiuliang had a flash of insight and suddenly remembered whose plump little one this was.

No wonder he looked familiar, it turned out to be from the Charles family.

She hooked her lips up, stretched out her hand to pick up Little Tuanzi, and placed him on the lounge chair.

"Little Fatty, who brought you here? Where are your grandparents?"

The first time she saw this little guy, he had only been two years old. She didn’t expect that in just two years, the little fellow had grown so quickly.

"Big sister, I’m not called Little Fatty," Little Tuanzi articulated clearly.

Ye Jiuliang held back a laugh, reached out and poked the little pear whirl on his cheek, teasing him, "If not Little Fatty, then how about Little Troublemaker, huh?"

"Big sister." Little Tuanzi pouted, his sapphire-like big eyes blinking, looking like he might burst into tears at any moment.

Ye Jiuliang laughed and, taking out a lollipop from her pocket, handed it to him, "Little Fatty, crying babies are the ugliest. If you cry, you’re not handsome anymore, got it?"

"I want to be handsome." Hearing the word "ugly," Little Tuanzi immediately held back his tears, his plump little hand gripping the lollipop firmly.

"I don’t want to be ugly."

Ye Jiuliang burst into laughter, amused that such a small child cared about being handsome.

Quite a bit like Aqian in style.

"Big sister, hug." Little Tuanzi stuffed the lollipop into his shirt pocket and then reached out his little fleshy hand towards Ye Jiuliang.

"Hug."

Ye Jiuliang, propping up her chin, said with a smile, "Little Fatty, you’re so heavy, I can’t pick you up."

Little Tuanzi’s chubby face wrinkled, he lowered his head and stopped talking as he rubbed his little hands together.

Pitiful, helpless and innocent.

Ye Jiuliang chuckled lightly and lifted him into her arms.

"Oh, you’re really heavy."

Sitting on Ye Jiuliang’s lap, Little Tuanzi’s small face immediately brightened, the smile turning his blue eyes into crescent moons.

"I like big sister the most."

As he spoke, he grabbed Ye Jiuliang’s hand and puckered his lips to kiss the back of her hand.

Ye Jiuliang, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, flicked his little head softly, "Little guy, who taught you this?"

Suddenly, there was a faint noise ahead.

The sound of footsteps became clearer and clearer.

Looking up, the tall figure of a man entered her line of sight.

The anciently deep black eyes gleamed with a bright splendor too dazzling to ignore.

Li Mochan didn’t expect that upon his return, an extra Little Tuanzi had found his way into his little wolf cub’s arms.

What’s worth noting is, it was a boy.