Chapter 5: Guan Yizhou Is Here!

The restroom was at the end of the hallway.

Marble walls, gold faucets, even the hand soap was an expensive French brand.

The two of them were the only ones in the entire restroom. Ke Miantang stopped at the sink, pulled a lipstick from her bag, and slowly applied it while watching herself in the mirror.

She knew He Yaying was watching her. That gaze hadn't left her since they walked in—scrutinizing, with a certain condescending appraisal.

"Ke Miantang." He Yaying stood half a step behind her, her voice stripped of the sweetness it had carried in the private room. "For someone ranked outside the top ten on the whitelist to be sitting here for dinner—you really do have Rong She's favor to thank for that."

Ke Miantang's hand paused mid-stroke. She slowly twisted the lipstick back down and capped it.

Then she glanced left, then right, confirming there wasn't a soul in the restroom who could overhear them.

Satisfied, she turned and leaned against the counter, arms crossed, and smiled sweetly at He Yaying.

"Well, I'm just terrified," she said, her voice light and airy, dripping with deliberately affected coyness. "I'm really not worried about Rong She getting tired of me, though. You have no idea how clingy he is these days."

He Yaying's pupils flickered. The composure she'd worn at the start was gone—she couldn't even picture Rong She being clingy.

Rong She had spent three years at Chengxin Academy without a single woman at his side. When word got out that he had a girlfriend, the circle had already been shocked once, and people started placing bets on how long before Ke Miantang got dumped.

Now, hearing "how clingy he is"—He Yaying's brain simply short-circuited.

Pretty face aside, Ke Miantang's family background was nothing worth mentioning. A family that did custom interior spaces—no matter how capable, they'd never earn a seat at this table.

"You're lying." He Yaying's voice came out tight at the edges.

Ke Miantang shrugged. "Believe what you want. I don't need you to."

She headed for the door, and as she passed He Yaying, her steps slowed for just a beat.

"Believe it or don't—up to you. But you did get one thing right. I really am lucky."

With that, she tilted her head and smiled—a smile with a genuine spark of happiness in it.

After all, she still had a hundred and fifty days.

Until the original female lead showed up, this Crown Prince's girlfriend title really was hers.

Ke Miantang walked out of the restroom with a light step, her back radiating that spoiled, flamboyant air.

[Host, your performance as a spoiled girlfriend deserves an Oscar.]

"You flatter me."

[This System is not flattering you. You seem to genuinely enjoy pissing people off.]

"She started it!"

Back in the private room, Ke Miantang picked up her little crossbody bag. Her fingers brushed the corner and paused—she looked down and found a dark smudge there, no telling what had rubbed against it.

She turned it over, examined it from every angle, dabbed at it with a tissue. It wouldn't come off.

The stain had soaked into the leather, stark and ugly against the pale surface.

The smug little smile on her face collapsed in an instant.

It was her favorite limited-edition bag, bought just last month, carried maybe twice.

Her mouth puckered into a pout, and her eyes even went a little red. That was Ke Miantang all over—when something she loved got ruined, she got sad; when she got sad, she wanted to cry; when she cried, she felt humiliated but couldn't hold it back.

Rong She caught the shift in her expression. He glanced over, one brow lifting slightly. "Bag's dirty."

She nodded, lashes fluttering. "It was my favorite one."

At that, Rong She leaned back against his chair with deliberate ease, long fingers tapping the table twice, his tone idle. "So what do we do about it?"

Ke Miantang missed the undercurrent entirely. She sighed, small and mournful. "What else can I do? I'll just have to ask my dad to buy me another one."

The moment the words left her mouth, the dark eyes beside her narrowed.

Rong She was looking at her, his gaze a few degrees colder—like he was watching a cat that had misbehaved.

Ke Miantang's heart gave a nervous little squeeze under that stare. Before she could react, Rong She was already on his feet, his hand closing around her wrist, pulling her up from the chair.

She let out a startled "Ah—" and tilted her face up. "Wh-what is it?"

"Buying a bag."

Ke Miantang's eyes went wide, lashes fluttering twice. "Really?"

Rong She looked down at her, thin lips barely moving, his tone cool and faintly mocking. "Since when do you ask such stupid questions?"

Her heart clenched.

In the original novel, the female supporting character never thought twice about spending Rong She's money.

She quickly dropped her lashes, tucked the guilt away, and when she looked up again, she was all soft obedience.

She wrapped both hands around his arm and pressed herself against him, chin propped on his upper arm, beaming up at him. "Let's go, let's go."

She clung to him like a vine, half tugging, half coaxing him toward the door, chattering all the while. "I want a limited edition—the kind no one else can get."

Rong She let himself be dragged along, turning his head to signal to the table that they were heading out first.

Zhou Ran watched the two of them disappear from inside the private room, his hand resting on the back of his chair, unmoving for a long moment.

He turned to Shen Zhiyan. "Have you ever seen Rong She like that?"

Shen Zhiyan shook his head. "Never."

-

The black sedan cut through the neon, city lights sliding across the window frame by frame.

Inside, Ke Miantang had half her body draped over Rong She's arm, her cheek rubbing against that lean, hard stretch of muscle.

She lifted her face, eyes black and bright and glistening. "So is this your way of making it up to me?"

Rong She looked down at her, a low laugh in his throat. "Making up for what?"

Ke Miantang scrunched up her face and tapped her lower lip with a fingertip. "You kissed me so hard it hurt today, and you didn't even apologize."

His gaze dropped to her lips, his eyes darkening a shade. "We came out to dinner. What more compensation do you want?"

The man was a master of twisting words.

Ke Miantang huffed and decided on the spot not to argue with him.

Ten minutes later, the car pulled into the underground garage of the most expensive mall on Zhongnan Road.

There was only one store on the top floor, and it had been cleared out in advance.

Ke Miantang walked ahead. She was the only female customer on the entire floor, like a kid in a candy shop, gasping "Wow" at everything she laid eyes on.

Rong She followed a few paces behind, long-legged and slow, his posture lazy.

The moment they appeared, the store manager hurried out personally and bowed ninety degrees to Rong She. "Mr. Rong, what can we do for you?"

Rong She looked at Ke Miantang. "Pick whatever you want."

She didn't stand on ceremony. She picked up a crocodile-skin Birkin and turned to call out to him. "Does this look good?"

He was already settled into a sofa, his gaze drifting from her face to the bag. "Looks good."

In his eyes, honestly, every bag in the world looked the same.

Crocodile, lizard, ostrich—the only differences were softness, origin, and whether the species was on the endangered list.

But when Ke Miantang held one, the thing was worth something.

She took him at his word and turned to wander toward another display.

The sales assistant brought out three bags from behind the counter, laid them on cushions, and introduced each one with great reverence.

Limited editions—only three in the world. Two in Baicheng, one in Gangdao. This was the only one in Lingzhou City.

Ke Miantang crouched down to look, fingers darting from one to the next, touching this one, stroking that one.

She couldn't decide.

"You like them all?" Rong She had come up behind her, his voice dropping from above.

She tipped her head back. He was looking down at her, the corner of his mouth curved just slightly.

Her eyes lit up. "Every single one is so pretty."

"Take them all."

Ke Miantang let out an "Ah—" and in the next second bounced up and latched onto his arm, hanging off him and swinging, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder.

"Rong She, you're so good to me."

That wasn't enough, apparently, because she switched to nuzzling her head against his chest, her long hair sweeping across his chin, the tickle traveling down his nerves.

Rong She hooked an arm around her waist, his fingertips pressing idly into that softness.

*No bones at all,* he thought. *Like holding an armful of warm cloud.*

Ke Miantang hung on him a while before letting go, turning back to the bags, murmuring to herself. "What would go with this one? That one seems to match the skirt I'm wearing today."