"Let's go to the department store. Today is a good day, worth celebrating and commemorating." For so long, he had bought things for this girl, but she wouldn't accept anything even slightly expensive. Now that they had finally confirmed their relationship, he was overjoyed.

Ultimately, despite Jiang Ruyu's initial reluctance, Zheng Yang persisted, and Jiang Ruyu ended up with a Shanghai-brand women's watch. Her colleagues also learned that Jiang Ruyu had a boyfriend.

Amidst the teasing glances of her colleagues, Jiang Ruyu grabbed Zheng Yang and fled. Once outside the office, Jiang Ruyu gave him a playful glare: "You came here on purpose, didn't you? Now look what's happened, I'm just waiting to be teased by them at work tomorrow."

Zheng Yang felt like he'd been electrocuted by his girlfriend's gaze, and he laughed gleefully: "Hehe, let them all know that you, this delicate flower, are already taken. In the future, when I'm not around, if any fool dares to covet you, they can speak up for me."

The two chatted and laughed while eating dinner before heading back. Before leaving, they called the commune where their maternal grandfather lived, asking them to pass on a message to Hu Bei, asking him to come to her aunt's house so she could contact him if she needed anything.

When they returned to the alley, it was still early. The two of them came back together. Although they didn't hold hands, the older women, who were used to seeing this, had sharp eyes and smiled ambiguously and flirtatiously at them.

"Hey, isn't this Ruyu and Zheng Yang? What's going on between you two?"

Jiang Ruyu felt a chill run down her spine from the blatant stares, while Zheng Yang was quite at ease. He openly took Jiang Ruyu's hand and asserted his ownership: "Ladies and aunties, I went through a lot of trouble to win over this delicate flower of our alley. She just became my official girlfriend today, so you'd better take it easy and not scare her away."

"Wow, you're something else. You actually did what you said you had your eye on last time."

"Tsk tsk, all the boys in our alley should learn from you. When it comes to pursuing girls, you have to be quick, accurate, and ruthless. If you see someone you like, you have to take action. Look at Zheng Yang, he's so decisive."

"That's right, I was wondering why. I used to not be able to see you even once a month, but I've been seeing you all the time in the last month or two. I was originally pursuing Ruyu."

Jiang Ruyu blushed as she listened, and pulled her hand back forcefully. Zheng Yang smiled and said, "We've just confirmed our relationship. We'll invite you to a wedding candy party when we have more good news later."

After saying that, he pulled his shy girlfriend through the group of people laughing good-naturedly and headed home, leaving behind a few women who laughed and said, "You know what, these two young people are quite a good match. The young man from the Zheng family has a good job, and he's tall and handsome. As for Ruyu, she's really beautiful, and she works at a department store. Tsk tsk, what a wonderful marriage!"

"Oh dear, these two with such good conditions have gone together. Those families in the alley who were eyeing them must be regretting it so much they'll be slapping their thighs at home."

They were all talking about it, and most of them thought the two of them were a good match. Jiang Ruyu and Zheng Yang were of similar quality, and there was no question of one of them being "marrying up" to the other. However, just because the two of them were both quite good, several families in the alley were eyeing them.

Jiang Ruyu's job as a sales clerk, not to mention how respectable it was, the salary and benefits alone were the envy of many. Every month, when that girl brought home a defective product, people in the alley would keep an eye on her. Just for those benefits, which family wouldn't want to marry her?

Needless to say, Zheng Yang's job is quite something. Long-distance drivers, who doesn't earn extra money by bringing back local specialties that can't be bought here? Those with a bit of guts often buy and sell back and forth, earning just as much extra money as their salary.

Jiang Ruyu and Zheng Yang returned to the courtyard hand in hand. In the courtyard, Grandma Jiang and her old friends were picking vegetables together. When Grandma Li saw the two young people, she nudged her old friend with her elbow and said, "Hey, your granddaughter brought her boyfriend."

Grandma Jiang looked up and saw the young man from the Zheng family holding her granddaughter's hand, grinning at her with his big teeth: "Grandma, Ruyu has agreed to let me be her boyfriend."

Grandma Jiang couldn't bear to look at the boy's silly expression, as if he had found some treasure. Of course, if the treasure was her granddaughter, that would be a different story: "Report properly. We won't interfere in your youthful affairs. Just get along well and have dinner at my house tonight."

"Hehe, milk, we've already eaten."

Jiang Ruyu didn't even want to see her partner's silly expression; she was clearly a clever person. "Grandma, Grandma Li, I'm going back to my room."

After Jiang Ruyu finished speaking, she shook off Zheng Yang's hand and prepared to go back to the house. As she passed Zheng Yang's door, Zheng Xiaoyue walked over with a smile: "Sister Ruyu, my brother finally won you over. He was so slow. It's great. Now I have a sister."

Jiang Ruyu smiled a little embarrassedly: "Haha, well, you know that too."

"I know, my brother was acting strange last year. The teacher kept asking me weird questions. After observing him, I guessed that he had a crush on you. I didn't expect it to take so long for you to finally say yes. He's so useless."

She really liked Sister Ruyu. Her family consisted of her father and brother, but her brother was often away from home, and her father was very quiet, so she was very bored. Now her brother had finally found her a sister-in-law, and this sister-in-law was someone she knew and liked. She didn't have to worry about them not getting along in the future. Heaven knows how afraid she was that her brother would find a sister-in-law like the eldest sister-in-law of the Sun family across the street.

Jiang Ruyu was unaware of these things. She exchanged a few words with Xiaoyue and went back to her room, completely oblivious to the fact that a pair of eyes were staring intently at her from next door, their red eyes filled with resentment.

Jiang Hui and Jiang Lin, who were inside the house, also heard what was being said outside. Jiang Hui was prepared, but Jiang Lin, being a bit careless, had never paid attention to such things before.

When he first heard Zheng Yang say it, he wanted to go out and confront him. When did his beautiful, pretty, and occasionally violent sister become his girlfriend? He didn't want a brother-in-law. But Jiang Hui, who knew him well, stopped him.

Jiang Lin angrily pointed at her brother, whom she had been with since birth: "Jiang Hui, how can you be so calm? Didn't you hear that Zheng Yang had already coaxed our sister? Why aren't you worried at all?"

Jiang Hui rolled her eyes at him: "Can't you see anything other than food?"

"Huh?? What do you mean? Are you insulting me? Don't think I can't tell. Are you calling me brainless?" Jiang Lin jumped around angrily.

Jiang Hui didn't want to talk to his younger brother. He couldn't understand why his mother would give him one less brain when they were only born a few minutes apart.

As soon as Jiang Ruyu entered the house, she saw her silly younger brother staring at Jiang Hui with cross-eyed eyes. She said casually, "Oh, why is our silly brother so angry today? What's wrong? Did you get bullied?"

Jiang Lin immediately complained: "Sis, Jiang Hui insulted me. He's no longer my brother."

Jiang Ruyu raised an eyebrow: "What did your brother say to you?"