11. He grabbed both the key and my hand.

Chu Chiyi waved to her, his expression natural, as if the passionate scene that had ended a few hours earlier had never happened.

Mu Jia had no choice but to walk over to him, but she was still annoyed. "What do you want? I still need to walk the dog."

He picked up a box from the bench and handed it to her.

Mu Jia looked at it with a puzzled expression: "What is this?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "The lady at the rest stop at the entrance of the community gave it to me. She said you forgot to pick one up earlier."

"Oh." Mu Jia nodded, racking her brain but unable to recall what she had missed. Then she realized something was wrong. "My package, what does she want with it?"

Chu Chiyi looked at her for two seconds, then shook his head innocently.

But Mu Jia saw through her immediately, "What did you say to them?"

"She didn't say anything." He looked at her, his handsome eyebrows slightly raised. "She saw me pass by and called out to me first."

"Nobody would believe that!"

"real."

"And then what?"

"..." Mu Jia paused for a moment, then raised an eyebrow as if nothing had happened. "Really? What did you say then?"

Chu Chiyi picked up the not-too-big-to-small delivery box for her and started walking into the park.

Mu Jia had originally planned to walk her dog in the park, but now she had no choice but to follow him inside.

After taking a few steps, realizing she was following him closely, a strange sense of unease suddenly arose in her heart, and she continued to press, "What are you talking about?"

Chu Chiyi's gaze fell on her ankle. "Does your foot still hurt?"

Mu Jia shook her head before hearing him say, "I told her that we've had a little disagreement."

"..."

“But if you’re in a good mood later,” he suddenly smiled, “you might let me go up.”

He continued to hold the box for her, saying, "So if you need it, it should be fine to give it to me first."

"..." Mu Jia was speechless for a moment, then glanced at him and said, "Nonsense!"

After saying that, she put Mimi on the ground, watched the puppy run off happily, and then quickened her pace to walk away from him.

But the next second, the other person took a long stride and once again matched her pace. "What? What I just said contained false or misleading information?"

Mu Jia turned her head and glared at him.

Seeing him smile, she said, "If you have any evidence, please provide it, Miss Mu."

She rolled her eyes inwardly, her gaze falling on the delivery box in his hand. "From noon to five in the afternoon, you've waited until now just to give me this?"

“No.” He shook his head honestly. “I knew you probably wouldn’t be coming down around noon, so I took some time to meet a client nearby.”

Mu Jia snorted inwardly, "That's more like him."

Then I glanced at the clothes he had changed into, and I realized why.

Noticing that the other person had noticed her gaze, she casually looked away, her eyes following Mimi not far away.

Just then, a voice was heard saying, "A man."

She paused for a second before realizing what it meant.

She turned her head and looked at him with a puzzled expression. "What does this have to do with me?"

Chu Chiyi didn't answer, his dark pupils met hers, and then he blinked gently.

Mu Jia looked away. What was she supposed to do? Who cared if he was a man or a woman? What did it have to do with her? Who asked him? This was utterly ridiculous!

A gentle breeze swept by, and the air after the early autumn rain carried a hint of sweet osmanthus fragrance.

"What if I don't come out at all today?" She looked at the box in his hand and suddenly asked deliberately, "Are you planning to keep this for yourself?"

"No, it won't." Chu Chiyi's gaze shifted to the little white dog frolicking in front of him. "If you don't get down, it will."

Mu Jia was reminded by him and realized that Mimi had already run some distance away. She had rushed down and hadn't taken the leash, so she quickly ran a few steps to catch up. "Hey! Mimi! Slow down!"

Mu Jia finally caught up with Mimi, keeping the distance between them within a reasonable, controllable, and safe range. She tried her best to maintain the distance and followed for a few more steps, but couldn't help but be slightly out of breath. When she came to her senses, she glanced at the person next to her and found that he was still calm and composed, as if he was very relaxed.

Indeed, back in high school, he always easily won first place in events like the marathon and 3000 meters at the school sports meet.

"Chu Chiyi, you're very free?"

He turned to look at her, "Not bad."

As soon as she finished speaking, Mu Jia regretted it, wishing she could bite off her tongue that had spoken so quickly.

Sure enough, there was a moment of silence, followed by the slightly amused voice of the man beside me, "How did you know I sometimes work overtime on weekends?"

Perhaps because she was being walked by the dog, her breathing suddenly quickened a few degrees. "Well, it was something my brother mentioned in casual conversation."

"Casual chat?" He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Looks like you weren't that busy abroad."

“No, not as busy as a top lawyer.” She nodded readily. “So busy that he doesn’t even have time to meet girls.”

Before he could say anything, she continued, "Instead of spending the whole afternoon squatting downstairs feeding the cats, wouldn't it be better to take some time to meet your blind date? So, are you planning to meet the one my aunt introduced first, or the one Sister Ke'er introduced?"

Chu Chiyi suddenly paused.

Mu Jia pressed her advantage, adding insult to injury, "My suggestion is that you should see the person Sister Ke'er introduces first."

She slowed her pace slightly, catching her breath as she looked at him with a smile. "After all, what she thinks is good should also suit your taste, right?"

Chu Chiyi's eyes darkened for a moment.

If there were a ranking of the things in this world that make her feel good, then watching him get his comeuppance would definitely be in the top three.

She chuckled inwardly, only to see that Chu Chiyi was also smiling.

She paused for a moment, and just as she was about to say something, her phone rang again.

She slowed her pace, moved the screen closer to her eyes, and saw that it was a message from Xiao Yu.

Is your mom alright?

Her gaze softened, and the corners of her lips lifted slightly.

It's nothing serious, just a common gastroenteritis. I've already gone home after the hospital check-up.

I'm sorry for making you worry today. I'll treat you to a meal next time!

She did feel a little guilty, since she was the one who suggested treating him to dinner to express her gratitude, but in the end, it didn't work out.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but glance at the instigator beside me.

At this moment, the notification sound rang again.

Okay, I'll wait for you.

She was about to reply when another message came first.

【What are you doing? 】

Mu Jia then raised her phone, took a picture of Mimi frolicking on the lawn not far away, and sent it to her.

[Being walked by a dog...]

This was followed by a string of self-deprecating "hahahahahaha".

The other side replied with a string of "hahahahahaha".

Then another message came: "After the rain, there are more negative oxygen ions in the air, so it's quite nice to do some exercise."

[Wow, baby, you're so energetic!]

She glanced up at the energetic white figure in front of her, indicating her agreement:

[This is still a puppy, and I can barely keep up. If it were a big dog, I'd probably have to put it on a leash and drag it around on the ground.]

I'm talking about you.

Mu Jia's gaze froze for a second, then she couldn't help but chuckle softly.

That's how it is when you chat with Xiao Yu.

He always seems to have a way of making girls happy effortlessly. If you were to index and analyze their chat history, the most frequent content would probably be strings of "hahahahahaha".

When they first met, she witnessed Xiao Yu chatting with several girls at the same time.

Seeing his slender fingers flipping quickly, she couldn't help but ask, "Won't this cause the hair to stick together?"

Xiao Yu looked up at her for a moment, smiled, and then confidently and skillfully did it without hesitation.

But later, he was somewhat surprised to find that none of those girls seemed to settle down with him. On the contrary, they almost all gradually disappeared from his life...

However, although the old people have disappeared, new people will surely emerge to fill the vacancies.

Mu Jia's gaze remained fixed on her phone screen. Unconsciously, she seemed unaware that her pace had slowed down, eventually coming to a complete stop.

But a sudden clanging sound of metal striking metal brought me back to reality.

She looked down at the sound and saw that the bunch of keys she was holding had fallen to the ground.

She came downstairs to walk her dog. Before leaving, she casually put on a loose-fitting knitted dress. The dress was a one-piece with no pockets. Fortunately, she didn't plan to take much, so she just grabbed her phone, keys, and a black plastic bag just in case she needed to clean up her dog's poop.

She held all the items in her hands, just the right amount, but while typing and sending a message, her hands were a little too full to move, which is why she couldn't hold the keys for a moment.

She looked down at the bunch of keys, about to bend down to pick them up, but someone else beat her to it.

Seeing that Chu Chiyi had already grabbed the key, she subconsciously reached out to take it.

He grabbed at empty air, but then grabbed his hand.

He held the key and her wrist in his hand at the same time, the jagged edges and the cold touch of the metal clearly imprinted on Mu Jia's skin.

She looked up in surprise, met Chu Chiyi's eyes, and was momentarily astonished when she saw the expression on the man's face.

That look in his eyes was both familiar and strange. For a fleeting moment, it seemed to pull her back to ten years ago, to the first time she met him.

For some reason, Mu Jia suddenly took a half step back subconsciously.