Qu Jiaran was unconvinced and still wore a sulky face. "I'm going to eat out today."
Qi Zhu advised gently, "It's better for you to go back to the hospital and have the nutritious meal."
Qu Jiaran was furious. "I haven't accompanied Yuyu to pick out the bridesmaid dresses yet!"
Qi Zhu said, "You can make another appointment with Miss Nan next time. There will be opportunities in the future."
Seeing that he wouldn't budge, Qu Jiaran put her hands on her hips angrily. "I'm not leaving today. Do you dare to knock me out and take me away?"
She sneered. "Even if you could, let's see if you have the guts."
Unexpectedly, Qi Zhu actually nodded. "Good idea."
Before she could react, Qi Zhu stepped forward, said "Excuse me, Miss", and then directly carried her on his shoulder.
"Put me down!"
Qu Jiaran suddenly found herself off the ground, tightly held by Qi Zhu. She struggled frantically. "Linyuan, Yuyu, save me quickly! I'm going to be taken away by a bad guy!"
Nan Yu: "..."
"Qi Zhu! I'm going to deduct your salary! You're fired!" Qu Jiaran scolded while kicking and punching Qi Zhu. "Put me down. I'll count to three!"
Qu Jiaran's verbal threats had no effect at all. Qi Zhu had been trained for years and remained calm throughout until he carried her back to the car.
After doing all this, he turned around and said respectfully, "Mr. Tan, Miss Nan, I'll take Miss back first."
Tan Linyuan nodded.
Qi Zhu was a quite competent bodyguard. He didn't indulge Qu Jiaran without a bottom line, which was why he could always stay by her side.
As a professional personal bodyguard, in his eyes, Qu Jiaran's health and safety were the top priorities.
Her own wishes could only come second.
As soon as Qu Jiaran left, Nan Yu also prepared to take a taxi back.
Tan Linyuan looked at her. "I'll take you back."
"It's no trouble, Uncle. I can go back by myself." Nan Yu frowned slightly. "It's not dark yet."
"We've been busy all afternoon. I should treat you to a meal." His tone was casual. "Just as a way of saying thank you."
Thank you?
In what capacity? As Qu Jiaran's fiancé?
Thank her for what?
Thank her for helping them choose the appropriate wedding dresses and suits?
No matter what the answer was, it made her feel uncomfortable.
Nan Yu just felt stuffy in her heart and extremely irritable. "No need. There's still a lot of food left from yesterday. I'll heat it up when I get back. It'll go bad if I don't eat it soon. I don't want to waste food."
She racked her brains to come up with a decent and appropriate reason to decline.
Little did she know that if she really wanted to reject someone, she didn't need to think of any reasons.
A simple "it's not convenient" could exclude all the social niceties.
But Nan Yu just didn't understand.
"Really?" Tan Linyuan pondered. "In that case..."
His eyes were fixed on her face, and his gaze landed on Nan Yu's slightly upturned nose.
They said that a woman was most beautiful when she was wearing a wedding dress.
It was true.
Nan Yu didn't know what he was thinking. She thought his next words would be "then I won't bother you", and she hadn't even had time to breathe a sigh of relief—
"In that case, I'll just go to your place to have a meal." Tan Linyuan made a quick decision.
"… What?" Nan Yu thought she had misheard.
She never expected that he would be so shameless as to go to her place to eat the leftovers.
"Didn't you say there's a lot of leftovers? It's not right to waste food. I'll help you finish them."
It was really strange. Even when he was saying something as taking advantage of others, his tone was so calm and amiable.
Nan Yu: "… It's not proper to let a guest eat leftovers. I'll invite Uncle some other time."
"It doesn't matter. Guests should follow the host's arrangements." Tan Linyuan then put on a very polite attitude. "If there are any ingredients needed, we can buy them on the way."
Anyway, he was determined to eat this meal of leftovers today.
… What a rascal!
Seeing that she couldn't refuse him no matter what, Nan Yu simply stopped struggling, but her face was full of grievance.
The silence on the way was her silent resistance.
Tan Linyuan was driving. Occasionally, he would glance at her and see her pouting and unable to vent her anger. The corners of his lips lifted slightly.
This was a rare day when he was in a good mood in recent days.
…
On the contrary, Nan Yu was in a very bad mood.
After entering the house, Nan Yu was busy in the kitchen while Tan Linyuan was resting in the living room quite comfortably.
The more Nan Yu thought about it, the angrier she got. She directly threw down the spatula.
Who on earth would go all the way just to eat leftovers?
She heated up the leftovers haphazardly and pushed the plates onto the table with a huff. "Uncle, please enjoy your meal."
She put the plates down a bit too forcefully, and the table made a "bang" sound.
Tan Linyuan lifted his eyelids.
Looking at the wilted vegetable leaves that had been heated multiple times, he didn't mind at all. He picked up his chopsticks, took some and put them in his bowl.
"Thank you."
She had deliberately given him a cold shoulder, but unexpectedly, he really started to eat slowly. Nan Yu felt guilty again.
Such hospitality was really impolite.
"I'll go and cook another dish for you." Nan Yu pulled out the chair and got up to go to the kitchen again.
"No need to bother. These are enough." Tan Linyuan said.
The more he said so, the more guilty Nan Yu felt. "I'm sorry. I should have prepared a decent meal to entertain you."
"It doesn't matter. I didn't come here just for the meal." Tan Linyuan said.
"Then what did you come for…"
"I want to spend more time with you."
Nan Yu's heart suddenly tightened, and her breathing gradually became difficult.
She cleared her throat and lowered her voice. "Uncle, don't joke around."
"When have I ever joked?" Tan Linyuan looked at her. "Nan Yu, I've said that I never hide anything from you."
There was nothing inappropriate in his tone, but Nan Yu's ears were burning.
He was really unreasonable.
Clearly he was about to get married to someone else, yet he was saying such misleading things here.
Nan Yu closed her eyes. "Uncle, as a friend of Qu Jiaran, I hope you can be responsible for this marriage."
Tan Linyuan also replied to her, "Don't worry. I know better than you."
… You know nothing!
Nan Yu became even more restless. She couldn't eat anymore. She simply stared directly at Tan Linyuan, hoping that he would finish eating quickly so that she could politely ask him to leave.
After all, he was a big shot. Under her sharp gaze, he still remained calm and ate slowly.
It was not until he finished eating that he slowly wiped the corners of his mouth with a tissue.
Nan Yu thought it was time to give the order to leave, but Tan Linyuan suddenly said, "Have all the debts owed by the Nan family been paid off?"
Suddenly bringing up this topic, Nan Yu was stunned for a moment but still honestly replied, "Shen Yanche said he had helped me pay them all off."
After answering, Nan Yu had a bad feeling in her heart. "Could it be that he lied to me and actually didn't pay them at all?"
Tan Linyuan didn't answer her question but asked instead, "Do you know who the creditors of the Nan family are?"
Nan Yu nodded. "Most of them are the merchants and enterprises that used to cooperate with the Nan family. The bank has detailed debt records."
As soon as she finished answering, the frown on Tan Linyuan's forehead deepened.
He remembered that Liang Yi had said.
That sum of money had been transferred several times by the Shen family, and then they had found a developer for a bidding project before finally merging it into the account.
Tan Linyuan squinted his eyes slightly and suddenly let out a soft laugh. "Save little and take out a lot? He sure has a good plan."