He wanted to rush over and snatch the phone away. He wanted to roar at the person on the other end of the line.
He wanted to tell Meng Ruozhao not to pay any heed to this imposter...
But what right did he have?
In her eyes, he was just a "friend", a "little brother" who needed her help.
And the person on the other end of the phone was her rightful fiancé.
The overwhelming sense of helplessness and anger almost tore him apart. All he could do was clench his fists tightly.
His fingernails dug deep into his palms, and the pain forced him to stay silent.
Only the tense line of his profile and the cold aura emanating from his body betrayed his on - the - verge - of - explosion emotions.
Meng Ruozhao felt the almost tangible low - pressure beside her. There was a hint of confusion in her eyes.
But she didn't have time to think much about why Pei Jiangmu was acting like this, because Yan Qiubai's voice came through the phone again.
"Come over? I'll send someone to pick you up."
Yan Qiubai's invitation, with its hint of familiarity, sounded extremely jarring and out of place to Meng Ruozhao.
An inexplicable sense of resistance welled up inside her.
"Today..."
She took a breath, and her voice carried a deliberately tired tone.
"I'm a bit tired today. I just came back from the supermarket and want to rest early."
"I'll go see Naonao some other day."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone.
Yan Qiubai clearly didn't expect to be rejected so straightforwardly.
There was a hint of barely perceptible displeasure and speculation in his tone.
"Tired? Are you not feeling well?"
He seemed unable to accept Meng Ruozhao's rejection.
After all, which engaged couple hadn't even kissed yet?
He admitted that he was a bit impatient, which was why he'd extended such an invitation.
But it was only natural, wasn't it?
"No, I'm just a bit worn out."
Meng Ruozhao's tone carried an undeniable sense of finality.
"You should also rest early."
Hearing her words, Yan Qiubai's voice also turned cold.
After a few seconds of silence, he said, "Okay, then rest well."
Just a second before he was about to hang up the phone.
Meng Ruozhao seemed to faintly hear a very soft, coquettish female voice from the other end of the phone.
It was a mumbled something like "...stop it...".
The voice was very brief, and then the call was cut off.
Meng Ruozhao held the phone, and her brows knitted involuntarily.
Did she hear it wrong? Or...
The living room fell into complete silence.
Pei Jiangmu also clearly caught that barely audible female voice.
A flash of cold understanding and anger passed through his eyes in an instant.
Humph, that scumbag was truly despicable. With a woman by his side, he still dared to invite Meng Ruozhao over at night.
A man without self - respect was just like a rotten cabbage.
Just based on this alone, how could he even dream of being with his Ruozhao?
Pei Jiangmu was filled with disgust for Yan Qiubai, but he remained calm on the surface.
Only his tense body seemed to relax a bit, and his tightly clenched fists slowly loosened, leaving several deep crescent - shaped marks on his palms.
He turned slightly towards Meng Ruozhao, and his face had returned to calm.
There was even a deliberately gentle look on his face, as if the almost - erupted anger had never existed.
He looked at her slightly furrowed brows and spoke softly, changing the subject.
His voice carried a deliberately cautious lightness.
"Sis, was that your boyfriend on the phone? The Naonao he mentioned, is it his sister?"
Of course, he knew that Yan Qiubai didn't have a sister named Naonao.
He did have a dog named Naonao.
But he couldn't let Meng Ruozhao know that he knew.
Meng Ruozhao was taken aback by his sudden change of topic. She put down the phone, snapped out of her daze, and shook her head.
"No, Naonao is a Samoyed. It's very cute."
Actually, she didn't really care about that female voice.
Her momentary daze was because she found it strange herself - she seemed to be overly cold towards Yan Qiubai.
Was this the state that an engaged couple should be in?
But her momentary distraction was interpreted differently by Pei Jiangmu.
Was she sad because of that female voice on the phone?
But a scumbag like Yan Qiubai didn't deserve her sadness.
"Do you like puppies very much, sis?"
He suppressed his emotions and continued to ask.
Actually, they had once raised a puppy together.
To be precise, it was a little mongrel she had picked up.
Her adoptive mother was allergic to dog hair, so even though she loved dogs, she was too sensible to ever ask to raise one herself.
But one day, on her way to a tutoring class, when she passed a crossroads, she saw a little mongrel abandoned in a corner.
It had black - and - white fur and was in a cardboard box. It was chubby.
When it saw her, it immediately looked at her with wet eyes.
She went to buy some ham sausages to feed it, and the puppy immediately licked her palm.
The young girl's heart melted.
That day, she asked many people in the tutoring class if they wanted to adopt a puppy.
But after they saw it was a little mongrel, they all showed no interest.
She searched among a large number of people, asking everyone she knew, but to no avail.
In the end, she had no choice but to carry the cardboard box and bring the puppy in front of Pei Jiangmu.
"Brother Jiangmu, can I leave it here for a few days? I promise I'll find an adoptive family for it soon."
"And I'll come to feed it every day. Can we just keep it in the corner of the back garden?"
Maybe she didn't even realize that Pei Jiangmu never refused her requests.
He had always been her last resort.
This time was no exception.
Even though Pei Jiangmu had a severe case of mysophobia and frowned when he saw the puppy being held in her arms, he still didn't refuse her.
They took the puppy to the garden together.
The butler even found a doghouse for them.
Meng Ruozhao also kept her promise. Every day after school, she would immediately come to his house to feed the dog, change its pee pads, and take it out to poop.
The butler once told Pei Jiangmu that they could do these things and that Meng Ruozhao didn't need to come every day.
But Pei Jiangmu just gave the butler a cold look, and the butler understood and never dared to say another word.
In the end, the puppy stayed at the Pei family.
Pei Jiangmu named it Pei Tianguang.
At that time, Meng Ruozhao protested. What kind of strange name was that for a puppy?
Who would think it was a puppy when they heard that name?
But Pei Jiangmu insisted.
Finally, since Pei Tianguang could only stay at the Pei family, Meng Ruozhao had no choice but to compromise.
Later, Meng Ruozhao found out that the name came from "accompanying each other from dawn to dusk until the end of time" - from the day - to - day companionship to the eternal togetherness.
Pei Tianguang was raised at the Pei family, but it was closest to Meng Ruozhao.
She would come to see it whenever she had time and buy it yogurt and snacks that it liked.
Even when she was so tired from the tutoring class that she cried, she still didn't forget to take it out for a walk.
It was a pity that Pei Tianguang didn't get to accompany her until the end.
In the fifth year, after a banquet, it ate the meat laced with rat poison and died in front of Meng Ruozhao.
After that, Meng Ruozhao never asked to raise a puppy again.
Now, she had forgotten Pei Jiangmu and Pei Tianguang.
But it didn't mean that Yan Qiubai's dog could replace Guangguang.