"I'm not a villain!" Ji Shuli defended herself.

If the male lead thinks you are, then you are.

Ye Zhiwei snorted coldly: "I just want to tell you that talking too much is not a good thing."

Ji Shuli: ...

My little cousin still has a fiery temper today.

However, seeing Ye Zhiwei lighting candles again, Ji Shuli still asked, "It's not anyone's birthday, why are you lighting candles?"

"It's about ritual, you wouldn't understand."

Ji Shuli shook her head. "You girls are just complicated and difficult to deal with."

He glanced at it and saw that Jiang Jianian seemed to be staring at the cake, looking thoughtful. He couldn't help but ask, "Do you understand them?"

Jiang Jianian looked away from the cake and at Ye Zhiwei, who was lighting a candle and muttering something about ritual. He said, "I don't know."

Ye Yingying, who was holding a fork, looked up at Jiang Jianian when she heard this.

Jiang Jianian seemed to notice Ye Yingying's gaze as well. He slowly extinguished the candles, took the knife and fork handed to him by Ye Zhiwei, and began to cut the cake. The boy's fingers were long and beautiful, and the cake was cut more like a work of art in his hands. Each piece was perfectly shaped and beautiful. Finally, he placed the pieces on the plate one by one.

He cut a piece of cake and put it in his mouth, glanced at Ye Yingying, and finally turned to Ye Zhiwei and said, "The cake tastes good."

Ye Zhiwei asked happily, "You like it?"

Jiang Jianian cut a small piece again, looked at Ye Zhiwei and said, "I like it."

Ye Zhiwei was taken aback. Jiang Jianian was actually so easy to talk to? She thought he would be in a terrible mood like before, expressionless, arrogant and sarcastic, and say: "So-so."

Ye Yingying seemed somewhat surprised by Jiang Jianian's answer. She clenched her fist, took a big bite with her fork and spoon, and turned to Ye Zhiwei, saying, "Sister Zhiwei, I like it too! I like strawberry cake too..."

Ye Zhiwei touched Ye Yingying's hair, thought for a moment and said, "But... Yingying, your birthday is in September, and strawberries in September don't taste as good as they do now, right?"

Ye Yingying felt a little wronged after hearing this, "And next September, Sister Zhiwei will also be going to university."

"I can come back."

Ye Yingying was delighted. "Sister Zhiwei will come back to celebrate my birthday?"

"Of course I'll definitely come back. I'm not going to university in a faraway place. It'll probably just be in another city, less than twenty minutes by plane." Ye Zhiwei calculated, "It shouldn't be necessary."

"So... Sister Zhiwei, which university do you want to attend in the future?" Ye Yingying continued to ask.

As soon as she finished speaking, Jiang Jianian's hand holding the fork and spoon paused for a moment.

All eyes were on Ye Zhiwei, watching as the young lady secretly put the remaining strawberries from the cake one by one into her own plate, and finally secretly put the largest strawberry in the center into Jiang Jianian's plate.

They moved very quickly, very rapidly, and assumed no one was watching.

After a series of actions, Ye Zhiwei belatedly realized that the "green tea sister" had asked her something. She turned to Ye Yingying and asked curiously, "Yingying, what did you just ask me?"

Ji Shuli: ...

Ye Yingying: ...

Only Jiang Jianian calmly picked up her knife and fork and put the strawberries from her plate into her mouth.

After finishing the cake, Jiang Jianian returned to his room. His phone was on the table. He read the text messages again, stood up, opened the window, and stared blankly out the window.

The area outside the Ye family villa was quiet, with a tranquil pavilion, a central fountain, and vines growing alone in the darkness, adorned with vibrant flowers.

In such an environment, loneliness can easily breed in lonely people, and this loneliness can gradually devour them.

Jiang Jianian stared out for a very long time.

After a long while, he closed the window, sat down at his desk, took out the small handcuffs Ye Zhiwei had given him from the drawer, and quietly looked at the handcuff pendant on the necklace. He tightened the necklace in his hand, placed it to his cold lips, closed his eyes, and murmured, "Suppress the desires in my heart? What if... I can't suppress them?"