Chapter 182 Is your liking love?
"Um, Palace..."
Qiao Mei wanted to call him "brother" like Gong Jing had said, but it always felt a little strange, and she couldn't bring herself to say it.
They had no choice but to settle for "Brother Gong".
"Brother Gong, it's like this, Qingqing is just a bit gossipy, but she's not a bad person. Please be magnanimous and don't take it to heart."
After saying that, Qiao Mei didn't give Gong Jing a chance to say anything more, and pushed Shu Qingqing to walk out: "Qingqing, you go out and wait for me first. I'll go find you after I finish talking to Brother Gong about this. Go quickly!"
Shu Qingqing was more than happy to oblige, and after she left like a whirlwind, Qiao Mei continued, "My mother said I should invite you out for a meal sometime, but I know you're quite busy, Brother Gong. Even if you don't have time, that's fine too..."
Gong Jing interrupted Qiao Mei, his voice calm as she watched her surprise: "I'm not that busy. I can still have a meal with you. When? Have you thought about it?"
"......"
Why does this person never play by the rules?
Helpless, Qiao Mei looked closely at Gong Jing's dark green eyes, trying to discern a hint of a joke within them.
Unfortunately, all she saw was earnestness.
I could only give a time, albeit with a bit of a headache—
"How about this Friday? We have the day off on Friday, so I'll treat you to dinner tonight, Brother Gong. What do you think?"
When people invite others to dinner, they usually choose a time when they are not in a rush, such as a holiday or weekend.
Qiao Mei's tight arrangements raise questions about whether she genuinely wants to have a serious meal with Gong Jing or is just going through the motions. Gong Jing, at his age, isn't stupid.
After raising an eyebrow, she immediately changed the time.
"How about Saturday? I can take you shopping. I've been keeping those clothing and jewelry cards for a long time without using them, and they've been gathering dust. Since you call me 'brother,' you're like a little sister to me. It's only natural for me to buy something for my little sister, right?"
Gong Jing is a little over twelve years older than Qiao Mei. Hearing him say that he only treats her as a younger sister, the tension in her heart quickly eased, and she nodded: "Okay, if there are any changes, I'll let you know, Brother Gong. Right now, I have to go, otherwise my friend will be getting impatient."
"Okay, go ahead."
Gong Jing didn't see Qiao Mei off any further, but just stared at her departing figure, lost in thought.
Outside the door.
Shu Qingqing breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Qiao Mei come out unharmed. As she walked back with Qiao Mei, she asked her if Gong Jing had said anything bad about her after she left.
"Qiaoqiao, really! Why didn't you remind me sooner that he was coming? This is so embarrassing!"
Qiao Mei was speechless: "I reminded you, more than once. You just got carried away and there was nothing I could do."
"There's more to this story? Okay, I'll forgive you for now, but what did you two talk about in there?"
"It's nothing, just that we're going out for a meal and shopping on Saturday as brother and sister."
During their conversation, the two did not notice that the little black dragon that was wrapped around Qiao Mei's neck had moved its head to the back of Qiao Mei's neck.
It seemed that by doing this, he could stop them from talking about the capital.
The next morning, after the official start of the school year, Qiao Mei attended classes diligently as usual and continued to create mecha model blueprints after class.
By the end of the last class on the principles of beast taming in the afternoon, she had basically finished the third version of the blueprints during the break.
Because she was in a hurry to show the blueprints to Ao Cang, Qiao Mei packed up her dinner.
"Cangcang, eat quickly later, I have something I want to show you."
"Okay."
Ao Cang's response was bland, even somewhat dejected.
These past few days, Qiao Mei has been wondering if it's just her imagination, but she feels that Ao Cang is in a low mood.
But when asked, he wouldn't say what happened.
Seeing that Ao Cang still seemed listless, she brought up the matter again during dinner.
"Cangcang, tell me honestly, are you hiding something from me?"
Ao Cang was eating the shrimp that Qiao Mei had peeled for him. Upon hearing this, he paused in his bite, then resumed chewing normally. His golden dragon eyes trembled as he lied, "No, An'an, you're overthinking it."
Whether he was lying or telling the truth, Qiao Mei could no longer tell as clearly as she had at the beginning when she knew nothing.
She could only suppress her doubts and change the subject, talking about what she was going to show him later.
"When it's finished, I don't know how it will turn out, but since it's made with elements related to you, Cangcang, I think it definitely won't be too bad."
“An element related to me?” Ao Cang finally raised his head, swallowing the shrimp meat that was originally sweet but now tasted bland to him.
"Okay, eat up. I'll show you when you're done. I've been busy with this for a while now."
Perhaps it was Qiao Mei's words that finally dispelled the gloom that had enveloped Ao Cang.
After dinner, he was a little stunned to see Qiao Mei standing in front of him, a mecha humanoid model that looked about six-tenths like him but had a pair of black raven feather wings.
"This is........"
Qiao Mei began her introduction: "I named this mecha 'Black Crow Boy.' It uses your silver hair, but to avoid causing any trouble when you appear in human form later, the long, curly silver hair has been changed to long, straight hair. However, the outline and shape of the body still reference you quite a bit. Overall, only people who are familiar with you can recognize it as yours; those who are not familiar with you will have no way of connecting the two."
"Originally, I only needed to make this mecha to B grade, but I thought that since I've already used your image, it wouldn't be good if it was made too poorly or the design was finalized. So I decided to make it a B+ grade mecha that can be upgraded later."
This mech upgrade is unprecedented in the entire interstellar mech world.
But Qiao Mei had made something similar when she was making game mechs in her previous life, so she still wanted to give it a try.
"What do you think? Is there anything about your appearance that needs improvement?"
After giving her introduction, Qiao Mei was both looking forward to Ao Cang's reaction and a little nervous.
Ao Cang saw her expectation and honestly replied, "I think it's very good. As for where to improve, I don't really know and can't explain it. But I have something I want to ask you."
Qiao Mei asked curiously, "What is it?"
"This is the first mecha you've developed yourself. Why did you use my image to make it?"
"? About this?"
Qiao Mei was genuinely bewildered. She thought she had made her intentions quite clear, so why did he still ask such a stupid question?
Although she was confused, she patiently replied, "Didn't I tell you I like you? You..."
Ao Cang interrupted her, his golden eyes serious: "Then I want to ask, is your liking the same as love?"
Qiao Mei: !! !! How sudden!!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
