Dating should happen after get off work.

Jiang Sheng sat in a chair scrolling through short videos, occasionally glancing up to examine Lu Sanqian in front of him.

The girl was dressed very elegantly today, with a purple Lolita dress printed with tiny white stars, a purple hairband, and beautiful makeup, looking like a beautiful girl straight out of an anime.

However, Lu Sanqian seemed somewhat restrained at this moment.

With her head down, she held her hands between her inner thighs, her body swaying slightly from side to side, occasionally glancing up at Jiang Sheng.

For example, right now.

The two made eye contact, then immediately lowered their heads, hunching over like startled ostriches.

He hasn't said a single word so far.

Jiang sighed, exited the short video app, and placed his phone flat on the table.

"Aren't you at work today? Why are you here so early?" he asked, taking the initiative to strike up a conversation.

Lu Sanqian trembled, hurriedly took out a tablet from the "Kuromi" backpack, quickly typed, then closed his eyes and showed the tablet to Jiang Sheng.

"I'm a freelancer, so I have a lot of free time."

Jiang Sheng remembered that Lu Sanqian was the type who would become speechless when under extreme tension, so he always kept a tablet handy for typing.

In other words... being alone with him is an extremely stressful situation!

Am I some kind of bad person?

"Why didn't you use the samurai-style typing tone on WeChat?"

"That's just a means of self-protection!"

"Protect what?"

"Protect yourself"

"Now that you mention it, I'm a little curious." Jiang Sheng became interested, resting his chin on his hand as he looked at the petite and adorable girl in front of him. "Why are you so determined to become more extroverted?"

Lu Sanqian slightly opened his mouth.

She was extra careful when typing this time, and she stood the tablet up again.

"I'm too timid; there are many times when I can't say what I want to say."

"But there are some things I have to say myself; this won't do."

Her eyes were firm, a stark contrast to her timid personality and appearance, revealing her to be a girl with a strong inner strength.

Jiang Sheng looked at Lu Sanqian with a smile.

"Xia Xiaoman's personality is innate and cannot be replicated by anyone. You might as well become my apprentice."

"master!"

"Go, buy the chef a glass of orange juice."

Then Lu Sanqian excitedly went to find Lao Zhou to get her a glass of orange juice—it was only when she went that Lao Zhou would pour it for her.

Lu Sanqian sat back down, his eyes shining as he looked at Jiang Sheng, looking ready to listen to the lecture.

Jiang Sheng took a sip of orange juice to moisten his throat.

"Your personality will become much more outgoing after drinking. If you work on your alcohol tolerance, you can just get a little tipsy."

What am I like after I drink?

The little deer tilted its head, looking puzzled, clearly unaware of what had happened yesterday.

The atmosphere between the two eased a little.

After chatting for about ten more minutes, Li Youhe appeared.

He immediately launched into a tirade.

She sat down next to Jiang Sheng, looking at him with a resentful gaze: "I've been waiting for you for so long after I made dinner, why didn't you go home first?"

Little Deer: !

What's going on with these two people?!

Jiang Sheng scratched his head, looking completely bewildered. Little did he know that he had come straight here after get off work today and had run into Li Youhe's dinner incident.

"Are you two living together?!"

Even the mute man was so excited that he started speaking.

"No," Li Youhe answered directly, then smiled at Lu Sanqian, "We just live relatively close by and occasionally visit each other."

"Oh, oh."

Just as I was about to ask another question, Xia Xiaoman's voice came from the entrance of the tavern.

As if it were a pre-arranged meeting with Li Youhe, the latter appeared as soon as the former arrived.

My friends! How was your day?

Everyone (including others in the shop) looked over, and Xia Xiaoman stood in front of the door, smiling and greeting everyone in the shop.

She wore beach shorts, a green floral shirt, and oversized flip-flops. Her long black hair was styled in a bun with a miniature parasol tucked into it.

Wearing red-rimmed sunglasses, a black and white rubber swimming ring around her neck, carrying a white shopping bag in her left hand and a water gun in her right, she looked like she had just returned from a vacation in Hawaii.

"So, Xiaolu, that silly side of hers is innate; you can't learn it," Jiang Sheng sighed.

"I...I understand," Lu Sanqian stammered.

She felt ashamed just looking at Xia Xiaoman's appearance.

Let alone extracting or imitating it.

Xia Xiaoman ran over excitedly, shouting "Yay!" and giving the three of them high-fives, then held the swimming ring horizontally in front of her.

"When are we going to the beach?! I'm all ready!"

"Is this part of the process?" Jiang Sheng asked.

"Let's start preparing now!" Xia Xiaoman said with her hands on her hips and a grin.

She then sat down in a chair and placed the swimming ring and water gun on the table.

"You said your aunt and uncle didn't have anything they particularly liked, so I was thinking of buying some things I like as gifts to give them to them tomorrow!"

"So you bought all of these?" Jiang Sheng picked up the water gun and sprayed water at the old dog next to him, startling it into meowing and running away.

I must say, it's quite interesting.

"How could that be! These were just things I bought on the side!" Xia Xiaoman said, pulling out her "treasures" from the shopping bag. "I bought Auntie my usual skincare products, Uncle tea, a massager for the elderly, and I even baked some cookies myself... Why are you all so quiet?"

The other three all showed expressions of surprise.

"Whoever you are, please get off my friend." Jiang Sheng looked at Xia Xiaoman with a serious expression.

"What?!" Xia Xiaoman pouted. "I put in a lot of effort too!"

Indeed, her attentiveness exceeded everyone's expectations.

I thought Xia Xiaoman, who made a comical entrance, would bring out some outrageous props.

But then... Jiang Sheng secretly glanced at Li Youhe and Lu Sanqian's expressions.

Sure enough, everyone started to take it seriously.

...This doesn't make sense!

Jiang Sheng brought them back with him to help distract them, using this unconventional approach to keep his grandfather and parents busy and ultimately save himself.

However, while external conflicts remain unresolved, internal conflicts are now emerging.

This can't go on.

Jiang Sheng immediately tapped the table to attract the attention of the three girls, then cleared his throat, looking serious:

"My parents both own companies, and they hate gift-giving the most, so I suggest that everyone not bring gifts, otherwise they might be disliked."

"Eh!" x3

"Does your family own a company?!" Xia Xiaoman asked in surprise. "Are you really that rich?!"

"It's alright."

"Is it the kind where they live in villas?"

"It's a villa... Hey, don't interrupt." Jiang Sheng reached out and flicked Xia Xiaoman's forehead. "Anyway, don't bother with gifts. If you've already prepared one, why not give it to your parents instead..."

Jiang Sheng wanted to slap himself twice as soon as he finished speaking.

How could you say such a thing in front of Li Youhe!

"Ahem." He coughed, drawing the three's attention again. "What I mean is, instead of worrying about these social niceties, we should think about what to wear tomorrow and how to have more fun."

The three girls all looked thoughtful, muttering to themselves, "What clothes should we wear?"

"I understand!" Xia Xiaoman confidently put on her sunglasses. "Tomorrow I'm going to wear my best outfit!"

Li Youhe looked at Jiang Sheng earnestly, her eyes seeming to say, "I will do my best."

Xiao Lu was so nervous that her hands were shaking as she typed, and then she held up the tablet.

"Can I wear a cheongsam?"

Jiang Sheng covered his face and sighed, feeling even more tired than after working a week's worth of jobs.

Forget it, forget it.

Let them be.