His physiological preference

"What's going on?" Liu Minlan asked with great interest.

Qin Yuzheng did not answer.

He withdrew his hand from the railing, put it in his pocket, turned around, and his face remained expressionless. But he did not deny it.

In Liu Minlan's view, not denying it was tantamount to admitting it.

Mu Cheng and Zhou Zhanyu also stopped and stood at the end of the corridor waiting. Mu Cheng looked at Liu Minlan, then at Qin Yuzheng, raised an eyebrow, and seemed about to ask something, but was stopped by a look from Liu Minlan.

"Let's go," Qin Yuzheng said calmly, as if nothing had happened.

He took the first step, heading towards the stairs. His leather shoes clicked silently on the carpet. But as he descended the first step, his gaze unconsciously drifted back in that direction.

The eyes have to see on their own; it has nothing to do with the brain.

Liu Minlan followed behind, watching everything unfold. He put his hands in his pockets, thumbs outside, and slowly rubbed the edge of the pockets, the corners of his mouth curving slightly wider than usual.

He only believed half of what Qiu Jinyi had told him on the phone a few days ago.

Qiu Jinyi is a man who likes to exaggerate when he speaks; he can make a three-tenths of a matter sound like seven-tenths, and he never takes everything seriously.

But today, seeing Qin Yuzheng with my own eyes, the Qin Yuzheng who had been celibate for 35 years, accused by his ex-wife of being "impotent," and whom everyone thought was indifferent to women, was standing by the railing in the corridor, watching a woman eat until he was lost in thought.

Liu Minlan thought to herself, "This guy is definitely up to something."

When we get to the winery, he'll have to examine it carefully.

The four of them went down the stairs and through the lobby on the first floor. Qin Yuzheng walked in front, his gaze fixed straight ahead, but his peripheral vision kept lingering on his left, towards the window.

When he passed by, he was about seven or eight meters away from her table, with two tables of guests and a waiter serving food in between.

The waiter carried a plate of steamed sea bass, and steam rose from the plate, creating a white mist between them that blurred their outlines.

Did she know he was here?

They probably don't know.

Her face was turned towards the round-faced girl opposite her, her head down as she ate, nodding and smiling, seemingly oblivious to everything. But in the few seconds he passed by, her chopsticks paused for a moment.

She picked up a piece of char siu pastry, put it in her mouth, and chewed it slowly.

As Qin Yuzheng stepped out of the restaurant, the May evening breeze rushed towards him, carrying the fresh scent of sycamore leaves and the lingering warmth of the day, gently caressing his face.

Liu Minlan followed him out, put her hand on his shoulder, and led him toward the parking lot.

"Let's go, Zheng. I have something to ask you tonight," Liu Minlan said with a smile.

Qin Yuzheng glanced at this smiling tiger; he knew it couldn't be anything good.

Qin Yuzheng took his phone out of his pocket and turned on the screen. In WeChat, the chat box with "Zhiyan" was quiet, the last message still being the one he sent the day before yesterday: "The cheongsam arrived, Grandma is very satisfied."

He stared at the chat window, turned off his phone, and put it back in his pocket.

Liu Minlan watched from the side, the corners of her mouth curving up even wider.

He didn't say anything, but he understood everything.

The evening breeze carried away the lingering flavor of the last bite of Cantonese food.

Jiang Siya's car was parked in front of the restaurant. The white body was bathed in a warm yellow light from the streetlights, and the hood reflected the neon lights in the window of the flower shop across the street.

She pressed the remote control, the car lights flashed twice, and a "beep" sounded particularly crisp on the quiet street.

"Get in the car, next stop, the bar." Jiang Siya opened the driver's side door, turned around and smiled at Yang Zhiyan, her dimples appearing faintly under the streetlights.

Yang Zhiyan stood by the passenger door, her hand on the door handle, but she didn't open it.

"I don't want to go," she said decisively.

"Why don't you want to go? You finally got it tonight, shouldn't we celebrate?"

Jiang Siya tilted her head to look at her, "That bar has a very nice atmosphere. It's not the noisy kind of bar; it's a quiet bar with live music, and the singers are pretty good."

Yang Zhiyan shook her head again.

"Siya, I don't like that kind of place."

Jiang Siya leaned against the door frame of the driver's seat, arms crossed, and didn't interrupt.

Yang Zhiyan turned to look at her. "If I don't like it, I just don't like it. I won't be happy going to a bar, and you don't want me to be unhappy, do you?"

Jiang Siya stared at her and smiled. "Oh wow, she's definitely teachable."

"Okay." Jiang Siya closed the car door, locked the car again, walked over and took Yang Zhiyan's arm. "If you don't want to go, then I'll take you home."

Yang Zhiyan was led by her arm and walked two steps toward the car.

"Siya".

"Um?"

"Thank you."

Jiang Siya glanced at her. The streetlight shone directly on Yang Zhiyan's face, softening her features: her arched eyebrows, amber eyes, the small mole on her nose, and the slight curve of her lips.

Jiang Siya thought Yang Zhiyan looked better today than ever. She hoped she would be even more confident and radiant in the future.

"No need to thank me, get in the car." Jiang Siya patted her shoulder, her tone fierce.

As the car drove towards Yang Zhiyan's residence, the street scene changed. The wide asphalt road became a narrow cement road, and the plane trees on both sides were shorter than those on Binjiang Road, with less dense and sparse branches and leaves.

The roadside was packed with cars, one after another, leaving only enough space for one car to barely pass through. Jiang Siya drove very slowly, turning the steering wheel left and right, weaving through the narrow gaps.

"Are you sure there's parking in your brother's neighborhood?" Jiang Siya frowned, looking at a parking space in front of her that seemed impossible to squeeze into.

"Just leave it here, I'll walk over, it's not far." Yang Zhiyan unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the car door.

She got out of the passenger seat, walked around to the driver's side, bent down by the window and said to Jiang Siya, "Drive carefully, and text me when you arrive."

"Okay, okay, stop nagging." Jiang Siya waved her hand. "Go back now, you have to go to work tomorrow."

Yang Zhiyan walked back in a cheerful mood, unaware that two people were standing behind the holly bushes at the entrance of the residential area.

Yang Yaohua and Li Fengxia.

It was supposed to be a walk, but it really just involved standing at the entrance of the residential area for a while. Li Fengxia was five months pregnant, her belly was showing, and she was starting to feel tired when walking, so she couldn't go very far.

She leaned against a telephone pole next to the holly bushes, one hand on her stomach and the other fanning herself, muttering, "Why is it so stuffy today?"

Then she noticed the white BMW parked on the side of the road.

Then the passenger door opened, Yang Zhiyan got out of the car, bent down and said a few words to the people in the car, then turned and walked towards the residential area.

Li Fengxia's gaze swept over the emblem on the front of the white BMW. She recognized the blue and white round emblem; she had seen it on Douyin (TikTok). It wasn't cheap.

She didn't know the exact price, but the word "BMW" was enough for her to calculate the cost in her mind.

When Yang Zhiyan came out, Li Fengxia spoke first.

"Zhiyan, you're back?"

Their tone was gentle and friendly, as if they had a very good relationship.

Yang Zhiyan paused. Only then did she notice the two people behind the holly bushes. Her brother was leaning against a telephone pole, a cigarette between his fingers, the red dot of the cigarette glowing in the darkness.

Her sister-in-law stood beside her with a smile on her face. She recognized that smile; her sister-in-law always had that same expression whenever she asked something of her.

"Brother, sister-in-law," Yang Zhiyan called out, nodded, and prepared to go inside.

"Wait," Li Fengxia stepped forward and grabbed her arm, "Zhiyan, whose car was that that brought you back? Your boyfriend?"

Yang Zhiyan looked down at her sister-in-law's hand that was holding her arm. This hand, which was usually used to order her around, was never so affectionate.

"No," she gently pulled her arm away from her sister-in-law's hand and took a half step back, "She's just an ordinary friend, a woman."