Chapter 168: Totally Sharked Out
“Brother Ye, I heard you came back this time—"
“Brother Ye, I heard—”
“Brother Ye—”
While Lin Muqing was playing with her phone, the trio of girls made the first move. They started off with warm greetings and gifts, then followed up with invitations. Of course, the invitations weren’t straightforward like “let’s hang out,” but more roundabout.
Like: “My dad keeps mentioning you lately, wants to invite you over for tea or something.”
Or: “There’s a fun place to visit, and I wanted to invite Auntie Ye—oh, you should come along too.”
Lin Muqing, calm as ever, completely ignored them. She kept her head down, eyes glued to her phone, as if she didn’t hear a thing. Even Mother Ye, who was watching from not far away, was surprised. Isn’t she even a little nervous?
After all, those three girls had clearly dressed up on purpose, they looked really pretty. And it was obvious they were all interested in Ye Ziming. With all three of them working together, Mother Ye was a bit worried for Lin Muqing, thinking she was probably already at a disadvantage.
“Brother Ye, is this your girlfriend?”
“She seems super cold, like she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
“Feels like she doesn’t even want to talk to you, Brother Ye.”
As the trio launched a verbal attack, Mother Ye grew more uneasy—even a little anxious.
“Brother~”
Just at that key moment, Lin Muqing finally lifted her head, looked at Ye Ziming, and softly called out to him.
That soft voice immediately silenced the three girls. They all turned their heads toward her with alert eyes.
“Hm?”
The only one staying calm, Ye Ziming slowly turned to look at Lin Muqing, confused.
Hearing her sweet voice and looking into her big eyes, Ye Ziming had a pretty good guess of what she was going to say.
“This one.”
She blinked and raised her phone, showing the snack section on the screen.
She had originally just wanted to buy a cola, but then she accidentally clicked into the snacks section, and before she knew it, she got caught up browsing.
“No.”
He only took one glance. Before Lin Muqing could even finish, Ye Ziming immediately shut her down with one word.
“Just a little.”
“Even a little is a no.”
“Don’t be like that~ I haven’t had snacks in so long!”
“You had two packs just last night.”
“But that was barely anything…”
As she spoke, Lin Muqing went into “spoiled mode,” leaning against her best buddy like a clingy kitten.
No one knew when she developed this habit, but whenever Ye Ziming refused her, she would start snuggling up to him like this. And somehow, her instincts told her, if she snuggled cutely enough, he’d give in.
And she was right. Every time she did this, Ye Ziming couldn’t help but feel helpless and soft-hearted.
“Tsk, don’t you have any shame? You’re already grown up and still act like a spoiled kid.”
Watching the two interact like that for a while, Fang Xiyue couldn’t hold it in anymore. She bit her lip and threw a jab at Lin Muqing.
Her eyes were full of jealousy. She had known Ye Ziming for so long and had never even been that close to him, let alone snuggled up like that.
“Hah? Are you talking about me?”
Halfway through her act, Lin Muqing froze and stopped, sitting up straight and turning her head toward Fang Xiyue with an unfriendly look.
“Hmph, who else here is acting all clingy?”
Fang Xiyue stared right back at Lin Muqing, holding her ground as she responded in a not-so-friendly tone.
“I was being clingy?”
She looked at Fang Xiyue, then at the two girls beside her. After making eye contact with them for a while, Lin Muqing couldn’t help but frown. But after thinking for a moment, she turned her head and looked at her good buddy beside her, asking with a bit of disbelief.
“Was I?”
With a light smile on his face and full of affection in his eyes, Ye Ziming answered, “Nope.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
After getting the answer from her buddy, Lin Muqing immediately felt relieved. At the same time, she thought to herself, ‘How could I ever act all soft and sweet? No way, that’s not like me.’
Then she looked back at the three girls and quickly marked them as enemies in her mind, already beginning to think up a plan.
“You clearly—”
“Your makeup skills are terrible.”
Seeing how the two were interacting, Fang Xiyue felt even more upset and immediately wanted to say something. But she had only spoken two words before Lin Muqing cut her off and made her completely speechless.
“Your foundation isn’t even applied evenly, and your eyeshadow is a bit lopsided. And the moment you sweat, you’ll need to fix your makeup. Otherwise, even ghosts would look better than you.”
Facing her enemy, Lin Muqing started pointing out her flaws right away.
She didn’t know much about makeup at first, but after learning from Sister Yu for quite a while, even if her hands weren’t skilled yet, her eye for detail had improved a lot. In other words, maybe she still couldn’t do it well herself, but she could definitely judge others.
“You’re lying! There’s no way—”
“And also, with that thick layer of foundation you used, it looks like you did your makeup with your feet. Even your Brother Ye would be upset seeing it.”
This long string of words left Fang Xiyue completely speechless.
The trick was simple: start with things the other person could understand, then throw in some fancy-sounding stuff, and sprinkle in a few professional terms here and there. It didn’t matter whether Lin Muqing really knew makeup or not, what mattered was that she sounded super confident. Even Mother Ye, who was secretly watching, was shocked.
Lin Muqing (thinking): Hehe, let’s cause some drama. Let’s deal with you properly, shall we?
“You—how could you say that…”
Fang Xiyue couldn’t win the argument and even lost the upper hand, so she changed her approach and started playing the victim, acting like someone who had been wronged and needed comfort. In just one second, she changed into a sad, pitiful girl.
“Oh no, how could you—”
On the side, Xu Panyang seemed like she couldn’t watch any longer and looked like she was about to lead her girls to ‘fight back’ against Lin Muqing. But Lin Muqing wasn’t going to give her the chance. She quickly turned and gave her a dose too:
“What did I say that was wrong? And you’re calling others childish, maybe check if you have any ABCDEF sense first?”
A full-on showdown was about to begin. Lin Muqing stood alone against three people and put on a live performance of a modern school-style war of words.
If you looked closely, you’d notice that while Lin Muqing was arguing with Fang Xiyue, her phone had already been taken by Ye Ziming. He knew her payment password, so he helped her place a food delivery order.
Ye Ziming only ordered Coke for cooking.
And if you paid even more attention, you’d notice that it was only after that moment that Lin Muqing’s words started becoming more aggressive. The reason? These three girls were the reason she didn’t get any snacks, and didn’t even get to drink Coke! How dare they!
Even Ye Ziming didn’t expect that one small action from him would make Lin Muqing so angry.
So, to avoid getting caught in her fury, Ye Ziming chose to sit quietly to the side and “AFK”, watching Lin Muqing fire verbal shots at the three girls. But putting everything else aside, this little wildcat getting mad was kind of fierce… and kind of cute.
Secretly:
Mother Ye: “Tsk tsk tsk… she’s gone full shark mode.”
Meng Yue: “Good! Tear them apart! Trying to bully my daughter? Rip their heads off!”