Brother! This is the adoption certificate. I don't want your sister-in-law!

The moment Su Xiao pushed open the door, she thought she had walked into the wrong season.

The living room lights were on, and a variety show was playing on the TV. The host and guests were laughing so hard they were doubled over, their laughter coming in bursts.

Su Wanning did not smile.

She sat on the sofa, her face devoid of any smile, as still as an iceberg.

As soon as Su Xiao stepped inside, she felt that the indoor temperature was several degrees lower than the outside temperature.

He swallowed hard, then, trying to appear calm, picked up the plastic bag behind him and shook it.

"Um... I brought you some late-night snack, fried noodles with an egg. Are you hungry?"

Su Wanning finally turned her head to look at him.

Her gaze slowly moved from his face to the plastic bag, and then back to his face.

She didn't accept the fried noodles, but leaned back on the sofa armrest, her tone so cold it could freeze the Xiangjiang River.

"Where did you go?"

"Didn't I tell you? I had some things to take care of outside..."

"What is it?"

Su Wan Ning placed the remote control on the coffee table very gently, but the "click" sound was particularly clear in the quiet living room.

"What would you do to need to step on someone's hair?"

Su Xiao felt sweat starting to appear on her back.

"That was a misunderstanding. I was at an internet cafe at the time, and there was a woman next to me playing a game. She lost and started yelling and screaming, and her hair was swinging around. It probably hit me. I didn't touch her at all."

Su Wan Ning listened quietly to his explanation, and then spoke. Her voice was still neither warm nor cold, but every word seemed to have been taken from an ice cellar.

"Su Xiao, do you think I'm easy to fool?"

Su Xiao opened her mouth, but all the lines she had prepared got stuck in her throat.

Looking into Su Wan Ning's frighteningly calm eyes, the eloquent, seasoned businessman in his mind suddenly fell silent.

"You won't hear women making those kinds of noises in an internet cafe."

Su Wanning said, enunciating each word clearly, "Besides, there was another person breathing on your phone. Don't treat me like an idiot."

Su Xiao stood there, still holding the bowl of fried noodles in his hand, the plastic bag rattling as he twisted it with his fingers.

He took a deep breath, walked over, put the fried noodles on the coffee table, and sat down next to her.

Su Wan Ning moved half an inch to the side.

"Okay, I'll tell you the truth. Don't be angry."

Su Xiao placed her hands on her knees, her posture very upright. "Do you remember Wu Mengmeng, a girl in Class 2 of our grade in the third year of junior high?"

Su Wan Ning's eyebrows twitched slightly.

She remembered the name.

The names that frequently appeared on the list of the top ten in the grade suddenly disappeared.

I heard that something happened to her family. Later, I occasionally ran into her at the school gate. Her hair was dyed all sorts of bright colors, and she looked like a completely different person.

"You were with her?"

Su Wanning's tone was not a question, but a statement.

Su Wanning thought of Wu Mengmeng, this spirited young woman, and also of Su Xiao's past as a delinquent.

Her gaze instantly shifted from cold to even colder, like frost forming on a blade. "You're dating her?"

"How is that possible!"

Su Xiao almost jumped up from the sofa. "She waited for me at the internet cafe... No, it wasn't ambush, it was just a coincidence. Something happened to her family recently, and she ran away from home. Her mother asked me to say a few words to her."

"What needs to be said in a hotel?"

Su Xiao was stunned. "How did you know it was a hotel?"

"You smell like hotel air freshener."

Su Xiao raised her arm and smelled her sleeve, but couldn't smell anything.

Sometimes he really suspected that Su Wan Ning's nose was at the level of a police dog.

He was silent for a few seconds, then took his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the coffee table.

"I'm really not dating her. How could I possibly be interested in her? Besides, my goal right now is to study hard and go to university with you in the future. How could I possibly be dating?"

Su Wan Ning turned her head away, leaving him with a cold profile.

Su Xiao took a deep breath. "Fine, you don't believe me? Just watch."

He opened his contacts in front of Su Wanning, scrolled down a few pages, and found a contact named "Wu Mengmeng".

Then he pressed the dial button and turned on speakerphone.

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The moment the call connected, Su Xiao didn't give the caller a chance to speak.

"Hey, Wu Mengmeng, right? I've made myself clear today, I don't like you. Don't come looking for me again, and don't send me any more of those random messages. If you say anything bad in front of my sister again, don't blame me for turning on you. Don't contact me again, understand?"

There was a two-second silence on the other end, followed by a faint voice.

"that……"

"Hey, what the heck! Haven't I made myself clear enough?! Stop bothering me! Do you think your words can shake the relationship between me and my sister? You're dreaming! My sister won't believe your nonsense! I'm hanging up!"

Su Xiao pressed the hang-up button forcefully, then promptly added the contact to the blacklist.

The entire set of movements was fluid and seamless, and the transition of the expression from anger to determination to composure was perfect.

He then showed Su Wanning his phone screen.

The name "Wu Mengmeng" was prominently listed on the blacklist.

Su Wan Ning looked at him, neither saying she believed him nor disbelieved him.

She simply stood up, picked up the fried noodles from the coffee table, and turned to walk back into the room.

As Su Xiao watched her pick up the fried noodles, the tension that had been building up inside her finally eased.

Just as he was about to slump into the sofa, Su Wan Ning walked to the door of the room and suddenly stopped.

"Did you lend her my umbrella that day?"

The string that Su Xiao had just loosened snapped tight again.

How did she know?

The question exploded in his mind, but he didn't have time to think about it, because Su Wan Ning was looking at him sideways, half of her body had already entered the room, and the expression on the exposed half of her face was so cold it could freeze.

"I……"

The door closed.

It wasn't a slam, but a very restrained closing, which was even more terrifying than slamming a door.

Su Xiao stood alone in the living room, her hand still outstretched as if she wanted to explain.

He looked down at his hands, then scratched his hair.

What kind of situation is this?

He walked to the sofa, lay down on his back, stared at the dusty ceiling light, and felt that his experience today could be made into a movie called "A Bloodbath Caused by a Young Woman".

My phone vibrated.

He took it out and saw that it was a QQ message from Fang Yu.

"Upright Person: Brother Su, what's wrong with you late at night? You called and yelled at me, and I didn't dare say a word. Even my mom asked me if I owed someone money."

It turned out that Su Xiao had changed Fang Yu's phone number to "Wu Mengmeng" just before going upstairs.

He looked at the message Fang Yu sent, a slight smile playing on his lips, and his fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed a few words.

"Brother Su: I'm sorry to have troubled you, brother. I'll treat you to dinner tomorrow."