Upon hearing this, Lu Yanting glanced at Xu Jingyan, then silently put on his gloves and began to focus on peeling shrimp.

Before long, Xu Jingyan's bowl was piled high with shrimp. She said somewhat embarrassedly, "Yanting, um, I've almost finished eating, you don't need to peel them anymore."

Lu Yanting ignored her, peeled the remaining shrimp, and put them into Qiu Mang's bowl. He did so so quickly that the others at the table hadn't even had time to react.

Qiu Mang looked up at him in surprise, only to see the man eating nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened.

After dinner, the sky was completely dark. Lu Yangyang insisted on setting off fireworks, so the group moved to the lawn outside.

On the lawn, with a loud bang, fireworks soared into the air and burst into beautiful sparks, followed by excited screams from children.

Qiu Li and Lu Yangyang ran hand in hand across the grass, screaming. Lu Nian, Xu Jingyan, and Lu's mother stood not far behind them.

Qiu Mang pulled up a white chair next to the grape trellis and sat down, quietly watching the crowd not far away.

Lu Yanting stood on the second-floor balcony, his gaze unconsciously falling on Qiu Mang on the lawn. Fireworks bloomed and fell in the sky, illuminating her slender figure. The evening breeze blew, blowing her long hair. Lu Yanting closed his eyes, as if he could smell the faint fragrance of shampoo on her hair.

Before long, Lu Yanting came downstairs, walked to the grape trellis, and pulled up a chair to sit down.

Sensing someone approaching, Qiu Mang turned around and smiled when she saw Lu Yanting.

"Mr. Lu, I hope my visit today won't be a bother to you?"

Lu Yanting sneered, "You're acting first and informing me later. What if I said I was disturbing you?"

A gentle evening breeze ruffled Qiu Mang's hair, which she smoothed with her hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect to be here tonight when I left home."

The man paused, then laughed, "You're quite capable, managing to charm my sister, that ice queen, so much so that even she has to speak up for you."

Qiu Mang was taken aback. "Ice Queen? No way? Isn't Sister Lu Nian always so gentle?"

Lu Yanting took a deep breath. "It seems she considers you a friend. She doesn't treat ordinary people like this."

Qiu Mang smiled and said, "That's such an honor. I also really like Sister Lu Nian."

After a long while, the man remained silent. When Qiu Mang turned to look at Lu Yanting again, she found him leaning back in his chair with his eyes half-closed.

Lu Yanting thought of his mother's sharp tongue and knew that Qiu Mang would definitely be scolded by her today, and he felt a pang of heartache.

He gently reached out and placed his hand on a pair of soft, white hands. "Did you have fun coming over today?"

"Yan...Yan Ting"

An unexpected sound reached his ears, and Lu Yanting abruptly withdrew his hand, opened his eyes, and looked at the woman in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" The man's voice trembled involuntarily with surprise.

"I...I was getting a little tired of standing, so I came over when I saw there was an empty seat here!" Xu Jingyan said shyly, her head down.

Lu Yanting raised his hand and rubbed his temples. "Why...why did you guys come to my house today?"

Xu Jingyan smiled and said, "Yanting, I was planning to go shopping with your aunt today, but she said you would be back for dinner tonight, so she asked us to come along."

The man withdrew his gaze from Xu Jingyan and looked at the distance. Qiu Mang had somehow run up to Qiu Li's side, and Lu Yangyang was standing with her.

Lu Nian brought out sparklers and distributed them to the group, "Come on, let's each get a sparkler and instantly transform into little fairies!"

The two little girls screamed excitedly, "Time to light the fairy wand!"

Qiu Mang stood beside the two children, waiting for Lu Nian to give her a magic wand, as obedient as a primary school student.

Lu Yanting let out a long sigh of relief. "So, what do you want to do with Qiu Mang by bringing her here?"

"I, I already said, I wanted to be friends with her, so I asked her to go shopping with me, and that's when we ran into your aunt."

Xu Jingyan then picked a leaf and held it in her hand. "Aren't you happy that I brought her here?"

Lu Yanting felt as if something was blocking his heart, and he felt somewhat annoyed. "No."

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Xu Jingyan pulled her clothes tighter around herself, coughing several times while clutching her chest, looking aggrieved. "I thought you would blame me..."

Lu Yanting couldn't bear it any longer and softened his tone, "No, don't overthink it."

After a while, several car horns sounded at the entrance of the villa. Lu Yanting stood up and squinted as he looked outside.

Aunt Wu had already reached the villa's entrance. Upon seeing the newcomers, she smiled broadly and then ordered someone to open the door.

A short while later, several figures walked in from the villa entrance.

The man at the front had one hand in his pocket, his almond-shaped eyes slightly upturned, giving him an extremely charming and sinister look.

He looked at the figure on the lawn, a knowing smile playing on his lips.

"Yan Ting, that's impressive! You have beautiful girls at home, so you don't come out to play with us anymore?"

Xu Jingyan thought he was talking about her, and smiled a little embarrassedly, "Hua Xiao, what are you saying? You're making jokes about me."

Lu Yanting glanced at him and said, "Hua Xiao, I think you're asking for death."

Han Feng and Han Bing came out from behind. Han Feng scratched his head and laughed heartily, "Sister Jingyan is so beautiful, of course Brother Yanting has to stay with her. Do you think he'd be clinging to you every day?"

"You brat! What's it to you?"

Hua Xiao raised his hand and ran it through Han Feng's hair, immediately making Han Feng's hair messy.

"hiss……"

He took a step back, immediately protecting his head, frantically scratching his hair, trying to restore the original look.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Behind them were several rich kids who usually hung out together, and they all started laughing.

Seeing everyone laughing at him, Han Feng angrily turned to look at his sister next to him.

"Hey! Your brother's being bullied like this, and instead of helping me, you're laughing about it?"

Han Bing's lips twitched slightly. "I'm sorry, as you know, I don't usually like to laugh unless it's really funny."

Hua Xiao raised an eyebrow at Han Bing, then looked at Han Feng, "It's your honor to be amused by our cool Miss Han, why are you blaming her?"

Xu Jingyan took two steps forward. "Alright, Hua Xiao, stop joking with Han Feng! You've messed up his hairstyle. Han Feng is someone who cares about his image, and you've made him feel very embarrassed."

Han Feng chuckled twice. "It's Jingyan who cares about me. Yanting and Huaxiao are too much. They bully me just because they're older! Luckily, I have Jingyan."

Hua Xiao dropped his nonchalant attitude, his tone became serious, and he patted Lu Yanting on the shoulder.

“These guys were playing at my house. They heard that Sister Nian had returned to China. We thought we hadn’t seen each other for so many years, and seeing your house with fireworks and kids playing around, I brought my brothers over to join in the fun and see Sister Nian. I hope we haven’t disturbed you?”