Chapter 220: A Close Interaction
After agreeing with her good buddy, Lin Muqing noticed that his expression looked a bit better, although he still seemed a little worried.
After chatting for a while, she learned that the Ye family was a bit different from the Lin family. Her good buddy didn’t have lots of uncles and aunts. His father was the only son of his grandfather. While talking, Ye Ziming also mentioned that his grandfather once said he had a wish: before he passed away, he wanted to hold his great-grandchild in his arms.
“Uh… do you want to help your grandpa fulfill that wish?”
Hearing what her good buddy said, Lin Muqing suddenly had this strange thought.
“Yeah, I do.”
Ye Ziming looked at Lin Muqing with a half-smile and nodded honestly.
At that moment, the atmosphere between them felt a bit strange. Lin Muqing looked into his eyes and felt something was off.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
She secretly took a deep breath and asked a bit awkwardly.
Actually, what she really wanted to say was, “If you want your grandpa to hold a great-grandchild, then go find a wife. Why are you looking at me like that?” But she felt that sounded a bit weird, so she toned it down before saying it out loud.
“I think you’re really cute.”
Ye Ziming squinted slightly and looked at the very cute Lin Muqing in front of him. A playful smile appeared on his face.
He also held back a little. What he really thought was, “I think you’d be perfect to help me fulfill my grandpa’s wish.”
Both of them had their own thoughts, but neither said it aloud. Neither wanted the other to know.
“Other than calling me cute, can you say something else?”
Suddenly pausing, Lin Muqing puffed up her cheeks and responded with a little dissatisfaction.
“Sweet, innocent, soft and lovable…”
Raising an eyebrow slightly, Ye Ziming smiled and started searching in his mind for more cute words to describe a girl.
But before he could say more, Lin Muqing quickly raised her hand to stop him.
“Enough!”
Hearing all those words, she felt even more embarrassed. Honestly, she preferred when he just said “cute.”
That’s because her good buddy said it to her all the time, and she had already built up some resistance to that word.
“Pff, hey… do you want to go over there and check it out?”
Seeing Lin Muqing’s adorable reaction, and to stop her from getting upset, Ye Ziming didn’t continue. Instead, he changed the topic with a smile.
He was pointing to the more crowded part of the room. A very different area from where they currently were.
“Umm… sure.”
She hesitated a little. In truth, she didn’t really like crowded and unfamiliar places.
But then she remembered what her mom said earlier, that there were lots of delicious foods over there, and it was all self-serve and free to eat. That thought made her change her mind.
So next, she let her good buddy hold her hand and lead her to the main hall of the banquet in search of yummy food.
Tonight’s banquet, hosted by both the Ye and Lin families, wasn’t just about making their relationship public. There were also some business-related arrangements. It all sounded very impressive, at least to Lin Muqing, because she didn’t really understand any of it.
Even now, she still didn’t know exactly what her family did, or what field they were good at.
“Look! Ye Ziming is here!”
“Huh? Who’s that girl he’s holding hands with?”
“Is that the young miss from that family?”
“I don’t know. Never seen her before…”
When Ye Ziming entered the crowd with Lin Muqing, the first thing everyone noticed was him, many people had at least heard of him. Then, their attention turned to Lin Muqing, the girl beside him.
Some people quietly asked who she was, while others made jealous comments in low voices that were still loud enough for others to hear.
There were all kinds of whispers, mostly from people of the same generation, the sons and daughters of powerful families.
Lin Muqing didn’t care at all about the comments around her, because right now, in her eyes, the only things that mattered were her good buddy and this pile of delicious food. Just as she was about to try something new and interesting, she suddenly noticed the word “pufferfish”.
“Hm, just a tiny bit of it is enough to poison someone to death.”
With a serious expression, Ye Ziming turned to her and said that.
“Huh? Then why is it even on display?”
Lin Muqing was genuinely surprised. She didn’t know that not every part of the pufferfish was poisonous.
After a short while, knowing her good buddy well, she quickly realized he was just trying to scare her.
As they interacted, a middle-aged man walked over, picked up a piece of pufferfish sushi, and ate it on the spot.
“Emmm... why don’t you try it first?”
Saying that, Lin Muqing picked up a piece with tongs and put it on a plate. Then she used chopsticks to pick it up, pretending to feed it to her good buddy. Because she was used to being close with him, she didn’t realize how suggestive her action looked.
A girl feeding a boy like that… it was the kind of thing that made people watching smile like proud aunties.
“Mmm, it tastes good.”
Ye Ziming bit off the sushi from her chopsticks, then slowly chewed as she watched him, smiling as he gave his verdict.
“Do you feel poisoned? Should I call an ambulance just in case?”
Teasing him to get back at him for scaring her earlier, Lin Muqing grinned mischievously.
“Before the ambulance takes me away, there’s still one thing I haven’t done.”
“Huh?”
“There are a few catgirl cosplay outfits in my closet… I want to see you wear one.”
“Bleh~ You’re thinking dirty thoughts.”
The two stood by the food area, chatting in a way that didn’t disturb others, just a simple and casual interaction. To Lin Muqing, it really was no big deal. This kind of back-and-forth happened between them all the time. Just harmless teasing.
But to others, it wasn’t so simple.
For girls much younger or older than Ye Ziming, it wasn’t a big deal, they weren’t romantically interested in him.
But to people like Fang Xiyue and her group, this was like being force-fed lemons and dog food.
“That awful girl… she actually stole my Brother Ye!”
Holding a little napkin in both hands and biting the corner of it, Fang Xiyue made a jealous grumbling sound the signature voice of someone who’s sour with envy.
But what hit them even harder was when Ye Ziming gently picked up a piece of pufferfish sushi and fed it to Lin Muqing.
And because the sushi was pretty big, Lin Muqing only took half a bite, and Ye Ziming, without hesitation, finished the other half.
“Emmm… but I already took a bite of that…”
Lin Muqing thought it was a bit weird and couldn’t help laughing.
“So what?”
Tilting his head slightly, Ye Ziming looked puzzled.
That look on his face made it seem like he thought what he did was totally natural and normal.
As the two of them shared that unexpectedly intimate moment, strange sounds began to rise from the crowd, sounds of jealousy, napkins being shredded, teeth grinding, heartbreak, and even people going into shock.
If all those noises were put together, it might have sounded like a full orchestra.
Lin Muqing: See? That’s your Brother Ye. Ah, but now… he’s mine.