[He even stole a teacup that Lei Nianren had used and kept it in his collection room to admire every day.]
Chuanwen peeled a nut and put it in his mouth, chewing it with a crunching sound.
Lei Nianren thought about how one of the tea sets he used often suddenly disappeared one day, and he couldn't find it anywhere. He was still lamenting that the complete tea set was now incomplete. Could it be that Zhou Shuqin stole it?
Lei Nianren pushed away Zhou Shuqin's outstretched hand, feeling that he could no longer look directly at her.
Lei Nianren could sense Zhou Shuqin's feelings for him, but he didn't have romantic feelings for her. However, since they had grown up together, they kept their distance and remained friends.
But now that he thinks about the belt and tea set, he feels he should stop associating with Zhou Shuqin.
However, it's far more than just belts and tea sets.
Chuanwen put another peeled nut into her mouth, uh... it was peeled and handed to her by Wenxue.
Chuanwen glanced at her, sighed, and couldn't bear to look. Wenxue, the silly girl, had recovered from her surprise at "Doesn't Shuqin hate Lei Nianren?" and turned into a gossip. Although she wondered why Zhou Shuqin seemed to care about Lei Nianren, whom she always disliked, she was still quite interested in gossiping about her sister's love life.
She also stole Lei Nianren's calligraphy brushes, ruined calligraphy pieces, damaged paintings, jade pendants... There were too many things to store, so she made up a collection room. To avoid suspicion, she even made up a story for each item she stole—uh... For example, she claimed that the calligraphy brushes were used by a certain calligrapher, and that the teacups, after being repainted, were used by a certain sage and had changed hands many times before ending up in her hands, and so on...
As Chuanwen recounted Zhou Shuqin's collecting history, Lei Nianren's face grew increasingly dark, while Wenxue's nut-peeling movements slowed down. She recalled a time when her friend visited her collection room and her friend's endless stories turned out to be lies!
Uh... also, she remembered there was a pair of socks on the shelf, could they also belong to Lei Nianren?
The more Wen Xue thought about it, the more disgusted she became, and she looked at Lei Nianren with disdain.
Lei Nianren had already cleaned up the tea stains, and Zhou Shuqin had returned to her seat.
Noticing that Chuanwen and Wenxue were both looking at them, Zhou Shuqin smiled nonchalantly. She knew that Wenxue, influenced by her mother, was always unconcerned about details and wouldn't overanalyze her act of wiping tea stains off a man. However, seeing Wenxue's disdainful look at Lei Nianren, a faint smile unconsciously appeared on Zhou Shuqin's lips.
She liked Lei Nianren, but Lei Nianren liked Wen Xue. However, through her efforts, Wen Xue had always disliked Lei Nianren since childhood. Originally, she was worried that after so many years apart, Wen Xue would change her opinion of Lei Nianren, after all, the current Lei Nianren was handsome, good at business and studying, a rare talent.
But now she feels much more at ease.
"Xue'er, how have you been doing in the capital all these years? You haven't written to us at all. We've been so worried about you."
Zhou Shuqin held Wenxue's hand, her expression a mixture of concern and reproach.
But Wenxue looked a little embarrassed. After hearing her sister's history of collecting, she really didn't know what expression to use to chat naturally with her sister.
"I... I'm fine. I didn't write to you because I was afraid my mother would find out..."
Speaking of her mother, Wen Xue shuddered. Her mother valued integrity above all else; having agreed to the marriage with the Lei family, she was determined to make her marry. If her mother knew she was in the capital, she'd probably come looking for her with a big knife!
The two resumed their conversation, but Lei Nianren felt extremely uncomfortable when Zhou Shuqin glanced at him intentionally or unintentionally.
Chuanwen, being an outsider, was the most relaxed. Since no one was peeling nuts for her, she picked up a piece of crispy pastry and slowly ate it while listening to Zhou Shuqin's gossip.
Lei Nianren was very smart as a child. He could memorize books after just one lesson, had beautiful handwriting, and was praised by his teachers for his poetry and prose. He also always got first place in exams—a true academic star! Hmm...
Chuanwen frowned slightly. [Most importantly, he's incredibly skilled with the abacus. This isn't a derogatory term, it's just the literal meaning. Probably because his ancestors were all in business, he was taught to manipulate the abacus beads from the age of two, and by five or six, he could move them so skillfully they left afterimages.]
Lei Nianren also frowned. So what? How did it suddenly turn from talking about Zhou Shuqin to digging up his outstanding past?
Astute people usually have accurate premonitions, and Lei Nianren had such a premonition at this moment, and it was a very bad premonition.
As expected, Chuanwen looked slightly puzzled. "How could someone like someone who plays an abacus just because they like the sound of the beads?"
Lei Nianren was stunned. Never before had he wished he could go back to his childhood and break the abacus he used for practice!
Wen Xue, who was chatting with Zhou Shuqin, also twitched her lips. Was that really the reason? What about all those hero-saves-the-damsel and love-at-first-sight stories in the picture books?
Wait, something's not right?
The simple-minded Wenxue finally realized that her friend liked Lei Nianren, so why did she tell her that she particularly disliked Lei Nianren?
At this point, Chuanwen also dug up this passage: [Zhou Shuqin likes Lei Nianren, and Lei Nianren likes Wen Xue, so Zhou Shuqin badmouths Lei Nianren to Wen Xue, saying things like he's a crybaby with a runny nose, that he's unhygienic and has even eaten fleas from his armpits, that he's slovenly and doesn't shower for a month, and that he's a womanizer... Hahaha, successfully making Wen Xue dislike Lei Nianren.]
Lei Nianren's face was ashen and stiff. No wonder Wen Xue always looked disgusted with him. It turned out that Zhou Shuqin was behind it all!
"Xue'er, what's wrong?"
Zhou Shuqin couldn't hear Chuanwen's thoughts, but she sensed that Wenxue's body was a little stiff, so she asked with concern.
Wen Xue glanced at Zhou Shuqin, who returned her with a ladylike smile. Wen Xue clenched her fists. If Chuan Wen hadn't been there, she would have definitely questioned Zhou Shuqin about whether it was necessary to resort to such underhanded tactics. They were still best friends, yet Zhou Shuqin was scheming against her for a man!
"I'm fine."
Although Wen Xue loosened her fist, her tone was still a bit stiff. Zhou Shuqin was stunned, wondering why Wen Xue had suddenly become a little cold towards her.
However, at this moment, Chuanwen glanced at Wenxue, ate his pastries, and sighed inwardly.
[Oh, poor Xiaoxue, she treated this person like a best friend, but this person treated her like a traitor! When they were little, if it weren't for wanting her pocket money, they wouldn't have given her treats, especially expired ones. And toys—they were only given to her in exchange for her pocket money after they'd broken or gotten tired of playing with them!]
Wenxue paused for a moment, recalling the scene when Zhou Shuqin carefully took out the pastries and snacks she had wrapped from her bosom and told her that she had saved them for her because she couldn't bear to eat them herself.
Whenever this happened, she would be very touched and would give her pocket money to Zhou Shuqin to spend. After all, she was either at school or stuck at home practicing martial arts, so she didn't have time to go shopping and spend money.
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