Is my roommate a caged bird? I'm stealing her away.

on Tuesday.

Zhou Suisui didn't know whether to blame herself for being too bold or too proactive...

Yes, Xu Yan's words stung her, even giving her a fleeting fantasy that Chen Boxu would actually be with her.

So, on Sunday night, perhaps driven by impulse, and perhaps also by a desire to avoid being constantly influenced by Chen Boxu, she arranged to have dinner with Shen Xu at this restaurant. It was his suggestion.

When she came in at six o'clock that evening, she saw Su Wei flirting with the vegetables. Her hand was almost inside the other woman's clothes…

Whether it was Zhou Suisui's burning gaze or Su Wei's heightened sense of vigilance, she turned her head and instantly lost all color in her face.

When her gaze shifted to Shen Xu beside Zhou Suisui, her expression immediately returned to normal, and she looked at Zhou Suisui with disdain, as if to say, "How could you do this?"

Zhou Suisui thought this bitch was totally insane. When it came to promiscuity, if she claimed to be second, Zhou Suisui would never dare to claim to be first. Because she didn't even have the courage to openly touch a man in a high-class restaurant.

It seems that she is still too inexperienced, or perhaps Su Wei is just too shameless.

Then, the two exchanged a glance, a fleeting spark ignited between them, before looking away.

In that brief eye contact, they understood each other's gazes and pretended they hadn't seen each other that day.

Because of this, Zhou Suisui didn't have a proper chat with Shen Xu that day. She only learned that he was the second son in his family, had an older brother, two ex-girlfriends, lived alone in a big house, and his parents were urging him to get married... Oh, and he also had a dog.

The dog's name is Spicy Girl. Zhou Suisui thinks it must be a very sexy dog.

It's all Su Wei's fault. She kept thinking about Su Wei's lecherous hand reaching inside the man's clothes while she was eating. Touching him back and forth—don't think she didn't see it; the folds of his clothes were moving…

She even took advantage of the opportunity to go to the toilet twice—once for real and once purely out of curiosity. She just wanted to see what the man looked like.

As a result, she didn't get a full view of his face, only vaguely sensing that he was quite handsome. The main reason was that Su Wei treated her like a thief, even threatening to tell Chen Boxu.

This woman's love for someone else is changing too quickly. Just two days ago she was saying it was a pity for her brother's feelings, and today she's calling him Chen Boxu.

Zhou Suisui felt as if she and Su Wei were connected by some shameful thread of fate.

Afterwards, she shared this gossip with Liu Weiwei, and the two gossiped for two hours, telling her everything about Su Wei. They even reenacted the whole scenario seventeen or eighteen times.

---

Friday morning.

As soon as Zhou Suisui arrived at the company, she received a message from Eva that the time had been changed. The original plan to pick her up and take her to the club this Saturday morning had been changed to tonight.

Damn, she thought she didn't have to go tonight. She stayed up all night yesterday chatting with several men she met on social media.

She didn't really like it, but mainly because she felt like she had grasped something mysterious during the process.

This made Zhou Suisui feel that her level of being a complete novice in love had suddenly jumped from Stubborn Bronze to Eternal Diamond.

Because of this, she had originally planned to go home after get off work today and catch up on her beauty sleep so that she could see Chen Boxu in her best condition tomorrow.

She didn't want to lose to the women of tomorrow; it was probably that subtle competitive mentality between women.

Last time, none of these women gave her a kind look, so she couldn't afford to lose.

However, things didn't go as planned, and her plans were completely disrupted. She quickly finished what she was doing and asked her boss for half a day off, which made the boss a little unhappy.

After all, it hasn't been long since I last took leave.

Fortunately, he reluctantly approved it in the end, leaving behind the warning that this would not happen again.

Zhou Suisui hurriedly made an appointment with Liu Weiwei to get a facial.

Actually, her face didn't look very tired; it still looked quite youthful. The bloodshot eyes betrayed that she hadn't been getting enough rest, but her youth and good natural features made up for it.

So the meeting wasn't just about being in a better state of mind; more so because she was a little nervous and wanted to ask Liu Weiwei for her experience, or perhaps she wanted to gain courage from her to face new environments.

Although Xu Yan said she didn't need to learn, she still seemed a little nervous.

The beauty salon's lighting was just right, and the air was filled with the subtle fragrance of plant essential oils.

Zhou Suisui and Liu Weiwei lay side by side on the nursing bed, their faces covered with thick seaweed mud masks, only their eyes and mouths were visible.

"So," Liu Weiwei's voice came from the side, slurred with the slurred tone typical of someone getting a facial, "is Sister Claw really that bold? Daring to grope in public?"

"Yeah, if it weren't for Xiao Shen here, I would definitely record a video for you to see..." Xiao Shen and Sister Claw were code names that she and Liu Weiwei specially gave to Shen Xu and Su Wei.

That's how you address strangers, to avoid running into someone they know.

Zhou Suisui stared at the projector light on the ceiling and slowly began, "From where I was sitting, I could just see her hand moving. That man's shirt... right—"

"Do you remember telling me a couple of days ago that you saw an eggplant walking around, and the shirt it was wearing looked very similar to what that person was wearing?"

On Sunday, after chatting in the tea room, Xu Yan said she would take her to buy some suitable clothes. At first, she was a little confused.

Until Xu Yan led her to pick out a bunch of elegant and sophisticated clothes that made her look classy. The prices were entirely within her current means, something she could afford with a little effort, using the money Chen Boxu had given her.

In Xu Yan's words, Zhou Suisui couldn't possibly wear the clothes Chen Boxu gave her to meet Shen Xu, as that would be tantamount to openly telling him that she was being kept by a sugar daddy.

Xu Yan coldly told her to throw away all of Zhou Suisui's old clothes that belonged to her when she first graduated.

After Chen Boxu gave her money, she thought about whether she should dress nicely, but Zhou Suisui didn't know how to describe the feeling.

For example, a colleague might ask her, "Why did you change your style?" or "Are you dressed up so nicely because you're going on a date?"

These assumptions made Zhou Suisui feel ashamed, and she couldn't help but wonder what her colleagues would say about her behind her back? Would she be ostracized?

So even though she had already started dating Chen Boxu, she still wore those old clothes to work before.

The clothes Xu Yan bought for her were cheaper than what Chen Boxu gave her, but still much more expensive than what she used to wear.

Over the course of the week, some colleagues began to distance themselves from her, while others began to approach her. She left her original dining buddies and found new ones.

The conversation about meals quickly shifted from which bubble tea shop had the best new drinks, to whether the subway was crowded today, to which skincare clinic was good, and to which bag I should buy.

Zhou Suisui initially thought she would have a hard time fitting in, but after actually getting to know her, she found that she didn't have that problem at all. On the contrary, she felt a strange sense of belonging, just like coming home.

After hearing her words, Liu Weiwei looked regretful for not being able to witness the drama unfold: "Why do you always seem to run into these kinds of things?"

"It's fate." Zhou Suisui lowered her voice. "I went to the bathroom twice but didn't see her face. I even pretended to look at my phone and secretly looked up, only to see Sister Claw's two eyes."

Liu Weiwei chuckled, a thin crack appearing on her face mask: "Pfft... So what happened next? The guy just let her touch him?"

"At first she seemed reluctant, but when she found out I was there, Sister Claw acted like a spider demon." Zhou Suisui tried hard to recall, "Every time I tried to sneak a glance, she would give me a warning look, so I didn't dare to look too much. I only caught a glimpse of her profile and felt that the man was not very old and should be quite handsome."

"Damn, I'm even more curious now." Liu Weiwei asked in confusion, "Does Young Master Xu know about this?"

"She definitely doesn't know," Zhou Suisui said firmly. "You didn't see the look on her face when she found me; it was like she'd seen a ghost."

"Hahahahahahahahahaha." Liu Weiwei's tone was full of mockery, "You two are quite destined for each other."

"It's a tragic fate!" Zhou Suisui said, then fell silent. The beautician was massaging her temples with moderate pressure.

"Weiwei," she suddenly asked, "what if she tells Chen Boxu about meeting me?"

---

At six o'clock in the evening, Zhou Suisui waited at the hotel entrance. The nervousness in her heart had dissipated most of it after chatting with Weiwei that afternoon. Until the black sedan came to a steady stop in front of her, she opened the car door, her movements freezing for a moment.

Chen Boxu sat in the back seat.

He was wearing a dark gray suit, a document spread across his lap, his profile appearing particularly cold and hard in the evening light. Hearing the door open, he looked up at her, his gaze calm and unwavering.

Zhou Suisui hadn't expected him to come pick her up in person. She gripped the strap of her handbag tightly, got into the car, and closed the door.

The carriage was quiet, and his familiar scent, mixed with the smell of leather, instantly enveloped her.

Chen Boxu didn't speak, and looked down at the documents again. The car smoothly entered the traffic.

Zhou Suisui leaned back in her seat and looked out the window. The streetlights on both sides of the street began to turn on, casting flowing light and shadow on the car window.

The car finally stopped in front of a rather unassuming building. The driver got out and opened the car door for her. Zhou Suisui took a deep breath and bent down to get out of the car.

She steadied herself, looked up, and saw that Chen Boxu had come down from the other side and was standing a few steps away.

He didn't look at her, but simply nodded slightly to the woman who came out to greet him.

"Miss Zhou, please come in." Eva smiled professionally and stepped aside to lead the way.