Chapter 321: Chapter 321: She Has Someone in Her Heart
An Mi didn’t even want to lift her head when she heard her voice.
She really is…
How can she be so persistently annoying?
Would she really lose a piece of flesh if she didn’t seek her out?
She doesn’t understand. She made herself very clear last time, how could she still not understand?
“An Mi, you came out to eat with a man alone, do your dad and Su He know?”
An Mi took a deep breath before finally looking up at her.
“First of all, lady, you are nobody to me, nor are you my guardian, so you have no right to meddle in whom I dine with. Secondly, I am already an adult with my own independent life, and neither my dad nor my sister restrict my social circles. Moreover, I am capable of distinguishing right from wrong, I am not some flower you’ve sheltered from the world!”
Lin Yue’s face looked extremely upset: “An Mi, you are becoming increasingly disrespectful when speaking to elders. I haven’t even mentioned last time’s incident, and now you…”
An Mi slightly furrowed her brow and interrupted her.
“Ms. Lin, you hardly count as any elder of mine, and I am under no obligation to respect you. Do I need to remind you of what you’ve done?”
An Mi’s retort left her speechless.
Lin Yue now realized that An Mi had become increasingly eloquent; she always felt that it was somewhat like what Su He would say.
The old An Mi wasn’t like this; it must have been Su He’s bad influence.
After saying her piece, An Mi shifted her gaze away.
She didn’t want to speak another word to her.
Mu Qi spoke up appropriately then.
His voice grew even colder: “Ms. Lin, if you don’t leave, I’ll have to call the police and report you for provocation. You might not get many years, but I am certainly capable of getting you a little jail time, maybe a fortnight or so.”
Lin Yue’s face stiffened: “…”
An Mi was increasingly becoming harder to talk and deceive.
And with Mu Qi, she couldn’t provoke him; she could only leave dejectedly.
Once Lin Yue left, An Mi looked apologetically at the man across her, “I’m sorry Mr. Wan, you had to see that.”
Mu Qi looked at her with tender eyes, “In front of me, you never need to feel sorry. Just do what you want to do, and I will always stand behind you.”
The man’s gentleness was ever-present.
…
After dinner.
It was still early, so An Mi proposed, “Mr. Wan, do you have other matters to attend to later?”
Mu Qi said, “No.”
An Mi: “Then shall we go watch a movie? Would you like that?”
She mentioned it casually without much thought.
Especially since a new movie had been released recently that she was quite eager to see.
She had time today and it was a special day.
He naturally wouldn’t refuse her suggestion.
Fortunately, there was a shopping mall near the restaurant.
The two walked over there in the guise of taking a stroll, she checked the movie times on her phone, and they still had plenty of time.
But just five minutes before the movie was about to start, Mu Qi received a phone call and had to leave.
“An Mi, I’m sorry, I’ll accompany you next time, I…”
“It’s okay. You go ahead if you’re busy, I can watch it by myself first.”
An Mi didn’t mind.
She wasn’t new to watching movies alone.
Mu Qi gently touched her head, saying, “I’ll solve it as soon as possible and come back to pick you up.”
An Mi nodded, “Okay, you go ahead.”
Then, the man left the cinema.
Although An Mi didn’t mind, she felt a bit of disappointment for a moment, but this feeling soon disappeared.
During the movie, she completely forgot about it and immersed herself entirely in the film’s plot.
When the movie ended, An Mi checked the time, it was exactly nine o’clock.
She could now get back in time for the dormitory’s curfew.
When she reached the ground floor of the mall, she realized it was pouring rain outside.
Even with an umbrella, going out would soak her lower half.
Thus, outside the entrance of the mall, a crowd had gathered, all seeking shelter from the rain.
An Mi saw that the rain wouldn’t stop anytime soon, so she decided to stroll around the mall.
“An Mi?”
Hearing someone calling her, An Mi instinctively turned around and saw her classmate, Ye Xuan.
“Is it really you?”
Ye Xuan approached and greeted her.
“It’s so late, why are you here by yourself?”
In Ye Xuan’s impression, An Mi was all about studying, and besides Chen Jin, she rarely talked to other classmates about non-academic topics.
An Mi replied, “Oh, I just passed by and came in to take shelter from the rain.”
An Mi was fairly popular, but she didn’t make deep connections; she would just greet people when she bumped into them, and her conversations were mostly about studies.
Ye Xuan was quite tall and good-looking, probably around 183 cm, and he also had a sunny disposition.
“Are you headed back to school later? I’ve called a ride. If you haven’t, we can share one. It might be cheaper,” Ye Xuan suggested.
An Mi thought about it; Mu Qi had said he would come pick her up after he was done, but it was getting late, and he probably hadn’t finished yet.
“Alright, let’s share the ride then. I’ll send you the fare later.”
“Okay, let’s go to the parking lot. I set the pickup location there so we won’t get rained on.”
The two then took the elevator down to the parking lot.
As soon as they arrived, Mu Qi called.
“Where are you?”
“I’m in the mall’s parking lot, what’s up?”
“Which section?”
An Mi looked around and said, “Section C.”
“Wait there for a bit, I’ll be there soon.”
“If you’re still busy, you don’t need to come get me.”
An Mi was a bit worried about being seen by Ye Xuan.
“I’ve finished, I’ll be there soon.”
“…”
After An Mi hung up, Ye Xuan spoke, “An Mi, is someone coming to pick you up?”
An Mi apologized with a guilty face, “Sorry, Ye, my family is coming to pick me up. When your ride arrives, you go ahead back first.”
Ye Xuan smiled, “It’s okay, then I’ll wait with you here. How long till they arrive?”
An Mi said, “There’s no need for that trouble, as soon as your ride arrives, you can leave. He’ll be here very soon.”
She really didn’t want Ye Xuan to meet Mu Qi.
Ye Xuan replied, “Okay then.”
Before long, Ye Xuan left in the car ahead of her.
No sooner had he left than Mu Qi arrived.
An Mi got into the passenger seat.
“Why did you come to the parking lot alone?”
Mu Qi casually asked.
An Mi replied, “Oh, I ran into a classmate. He was also going back to the school and had called a ride. I was originally going to go back with him.”
Mu Qi actually felt a bit guilty for leaving her alone in the cinema.
“An Mi, I promise, it won’t happen again.”
“Huh?”
An Mi didn’t immediately grasp what he meant by that.
Gazing at her very seriously, he said, “I mean, I won’t leave you alone again.”
Hearing this, An Mi’s ear tips warmed slightly, and her heart felt as if it was scorched by something.
After a few seconds of silence, she replied, “It’s okay, don’t feel guilty. I enjoyed the movie—it was worth watching. If you have time, you could also go see it,” An Mi changed the subject.
“How about you tell me about it?” Mu Qi said, “If I’m going alone, I’d rather not go; and it’s not like I can ask you to see it a second time with me.”
Actually, what he implied was: You’re the only person I’d want to accompany me to the movie.
An Mi’s eyes darted away, but she didn’t say much, just nodded, “Alright, you’ll have to make do with just listening, it won’t have the same visual effects.”
“It doesn’t matter, you talk,” he said.
In fact, what he wanted to say was: “I just want to listen to your voice.”
But he didn’t say it. He’d said too much tonight already; he worried she might not take it well.
Some things, if done gradually and slowly pulled over time, have a different effect.
…
Three days later.
It just happened to be Friday.
An Mi planned to go back to the An Family after her classes in the afternoon.
But before returning, she went to see Jiang You to request an autographed photo for Chen Jin.
Jiang You was very enthusiastic about signing it and even gave her a few extra ones.
An Mi couldn’t refuse, so she accepted them all.
After receiving the autographs, she was ready to leave, not wanting to disturb Jiang You’s work.
But Jiang You stopped her and asked, “Mimi, do you have a boy you like?”
An Mi didn’t know why she was asking, but she still answered, “Not at the moment.”
Jiang You: “Oh, that’s fine, I was just asking.”
“Then, is there a boy who makes your heart flutter?” Jiang You asked another question.
This time, An Mi suddenly paused.
Because, the image of Wan Muqi surprisingly surfaced in her mind first.
She was startled by her own thoughts.
She quickly shook her head: “No, there isn’t.”
Jiang You did not miss the evasion in her eyes.
This girl must have had her heart set on someone before, but who could it be?
Could it be that Mu Qi is facing a rival?
He has yet to win her over; could it be because An Mi has someone else in her heart?
It seems I must take action myself.
“Jiang You, I need to go home for a bit, thank you for today, I won’t disturb you any longer, I’ll head back now, and when I’m free, I’ll treat you to a meal.”
An Mi just wanted to leave quickly now, afraid that Jiang You would ask more questions she couldn’t answer.
“Then let me have my driver take you home.”
“No need, no need, I’ll just catch a taxi here; it’s very convenient.”
“Alright, then take care on the way back.”
“Yes, I know.”
…
As soon as An Mi left, Jiang You immediately took out her cellphone.
She opened WeChat, found Wan Muqi’s contact, and sent him a message.
At that moment, Wan Muqi had just returned to the law firm when he received the WeChat message from Jiang You.
Generally, Jiang You rarely contacted him on WeChat.
When he saw the message, he froze.
The assistant following behind him clearly sensed his change in mood.
The assistant cautiously asked as he looked at the man sitting in the office chair: “Mr. Wan, what’s wrong?”
Wan Muqi, with a solemn expression and furrowed brows, stared at his phone.
Jiang You wrote: [Mu Qi, I’m telling you, you need to put in more effort. Mimi now has someone she’s fond of. If you don’t work harder, she’ll belong to someone else.]
“It’s nothing, you can go out.”
Upon hearing this, the assistant dared not ask further, affirmed with a sound, and immediately left.
The moods of Mr. Wan at our firm are always very stable, with hardly any grave expressions; even with the toughest cases, he has never shown such a look.
He guessed it had nothing to do with the cases, very likely it had to do with a woman.
But he didn’t dare to ask.
Wan Muqi made a phone call to Jiang You.
Jiang You didn’t expect his call to come so quickly.
“Mu Qi, you made the call quite fast.”
Wan Muqi didn’t waste time, directly asking: “How do you know she has someone in her heart?”
Jiang You laughed: “Of course it’s a woman’s sixth sense.”
…
“Mu Qi, I’m telling you, don’t doubt my words, I’m a girl after all, naturally I understand girls better than you do.”
“If you don’t fuel the fire or add some vinegar soon, becoming Mimi’s boyfriend will be as hard as reaching the heavens.”
Jiang You said earnestly.
Wan Muqi fell into silence.
After a long while, he finally spoke, “Then in your opinion, how should I fuel the fire?”
Jiang You immediately perked up: “Now you’re asking the right person! Let me tell you, I’ve been through this—I have experience.”
Wan Muqi: “Stick to the main point.”
“…”
“First, you need to do this…”
…
At seven o’clock in the evening.
An Mi had just come out of her room when she heard a familiar voice.
She thought she was hallucinating.
She even stood deliberately at the door to listen carefully for a while.
Downstairs, she saw Wan Muqi sitting in the living room.
The man was chatting and laughing with her dad.
The two in the living room turned their heads upon hearing footsteps.
Mr. An did not realize An Mi had come home.
Mr. An: “Mimi, you’re home.”
An Mi felt disoriented. How had Wan Muqi shown up at her house again?
“Dad, I don’t have classes for the next two days, so I came home.”
“Oh, I see.” Mr. An said, “Go ahead and say hello to Mr. Wan.”
An Mi looked at Wan Muqi and politely greeted him, “Hello, Mr. Wan.”
Although they were quite familiar with each other, in front of her father, she still had to pretend to be unacquainted with this man.
“Dad, you and Mr. Wan chat, I’ll go to the kitchen to check if Aunt Mei has finished preparing dinner.”
After saying that, she turned and headed to the kitchen.
“This child is still so shy; Mu Qi, I’m sorry for any embarrassment,” Mr. An remarked.
Mr. An didn’t know that An Mi wasn’t shy; she was worried about being found out.
Wan Muqi smiled and said, “It’s alright.”
Then, as they continued talking, Mr. An asked, “Mu Qi, you don’t have a girlfriend, right?”
Wan Muqi replied, “No, Uncle An.”
Upon hearing this, Mr. An began making introductions, “I have a friend’s daughter, 28 years old, just returned from studying abroad. How about I introduce you to her?”
Mr. An doesn’t usually make such introductions, but as they had grown familiar, he began to take interest.
An Mi had just come out of the kitchen when she overhear her father’s words.
From the corner of his eye, Wan Muqi caught a glimpse of her.
Remembering Jiang You’s words from the afternoon, he responded to Mr. An, “Sure, why not.”
Mr. An had mentioned it casually and didn’t expect him to agree.
“Alright, I’ll introduce you two sometime, no worries if it doesn’t work out, think of it as just making a new friend.”
“Okay, no problem, Uncle An.”
“…”
An Mi stood at the kitchen door listening for a while before she came out and interrupted their conversation.
“Dad, Aunt Mei said we can start eating.”
An Mi spoke without looking at the man.
Just as the dishes were being served on the table, An Rui came home.
An Rui didn’t know Wan Muqi was at their house, so he was very happy to see him.
“Mu Qi, you’re here too.”
Seeing his flustered appearance, Mr. An said, “Now that you’re back, go wash your hands and then sit down to eat.”
An Rui gave a simple “Okay.”
After sitting down, he turned to Wan Muqi and asked, “Mu Qi, I have a question for you, do you have time after dinner?”
Wan Muqi: “Yes, let’s eat first.”