I said you’re a bit foolish, and you won’t admit it, but look—you don’t even know how to use the word for it properly.

Xiao Qi unceremoniously opened both a Western and a Chinese breakfast, laying them out beside him.
Eat if you want, or not.
Then she remembered something.
“By the way, this sumptuous breakfast cost me eighty-eight yuan and fifty cents,” she reached out to Yi Chen, “Boss Lin, reimburse me.”
“...”
“Xi Yang,” Yi Yang laughed, “You really have a witty nature!”
Could she explain that she hardly slept all night, got up early to buy breakfast, and now was utterly exhausted?
Just then, Lin Yi Chen’s phone rang in his pocket. “Hello?”
On the other end, Fang Li’s voice was filled with joy, “President Lin, Miss Qiao just called. Cruz has changed his schedule and booked a flight for two days from now.”
Upon hearing this, Yi Chen’s dark eyes narrowed slightly. After hanging up, he told Yi Yang beside him.
He simply omitted mentioning Joanna.
“Really?” Xiao Qi was even happier than Yi Yang himself, jumping up, “Cruz isn’t going back, that means he wants to cooperate with you! Yi Yang, your art exhibition has hope now.”
Yi Chen’s face turned cold again. “Be quiet during breakfast. If you keep jumping about, aren’t you afraid you’ll choke?”
“...”
Xiao Qi found Lin Yi Chen a bit neurotic this morning.
Too lazy to argue, she sat beside Yi Yang. “Yi Yang, now it’s up to you.”
Yi Yang was also delighted. He looked at his brother. “Brother, I won’t let you down this time.”
“This week, you can go out and explore. It’ll broaden your horizons, and then you’ll be twice as effective.”
His brother really had changed.
In the past, he always watched over him, but now he was actively encouraging him to seek inspiration outside.
“Understood, brother.”
“Times create heroes,” Yi Chen gracefully wiped his mouth with a napkin, “So this art exhibition will definitely be a success.”
Before heading to the company, Yi Chen took the liberty of driving a certain young lady to the restaurant.
She had already said not to bother, but he acted as if there was no room for argument.
Always so eager to manage her.
Hmm? Was it because Ye Xi Yang couldn’t stand his… controlling ways that she drifted away?
Hmph, calling it management sounds pleasant; calling it what it is, it’s domineering.
The car was quiet. At a red light, Yi Chen glanced at the girl beside him, gazing out the window.
He could only see her profile, but her slightly pouting lips were visible.
She’d bought several breakfasts and let Yi Yang pick first…
He still hadn’t calmed down.
Yet she was the one upset.
“Xi Yang,” he sought conversation, “are you deep in thought?”
Xiao Qi originally didn’t want to respond, her big eyes darted, then she smiled mischievously, “I was thinking, you’re such a… helpful person. But if you help people too much, that’s meddling.”
He replied directly, “Driving you back counts as meddling?”
Xiao Qi was surprised by his bluntness, pausing for a moment.
Looking into his dark eyes, she sensed danger lurking there.
She became instantly alert, switching topics, “No, I mean the opposite of helpful is meddlesome.”
“...”
“Xi Yang, you really are,” he hesitated, as if embarrassed to speak, “just as… foolish as you were before.”
“...”
Please, she wasn’t really Ye Xi Yang.
No, that’s not the point.
Am I foolish?
I’m clever, Alien No. 7, Xiao Qi.
And what was that expression of his?
It made her feel genuinely foolish. >_
But was the real Ye Xi Yang truly so silly?
Yet if she was foolish, how did she win him over?
Xiao Qi grew interested, “Hey! Didn’t I lose my memory? Why don’t you tell me the story of how we met?”
Yi Chen replied lightly, “She liked me at first sight, then chased me relentlessly. By senior year, I gave in and dated her.”
Though he sounded disdainful, his tone was cheerful.
Xiao Qi even noticed a smile on his face.
She couldn’t figure out his seemingly contradictory feelings.
Saying she’s foolish and dismissive, yet wearing a look of happiness.
Are Earthlings abnormal?
No, it’s that exceptionally handsome people are abnormal.
“Xi Yang, did you take English proficiency tests in the last five years?”
He suddenly asked something unexpected, leaving Xiao Qi momentarily lost.
After a while, she recovered.
She answered vaguely, “Yes, yes, English is full of benefits.”

Yi Chen glanced at her, then asked, “Yesterday, how did you know Cruz was in Room 208? And why did you make me wear an eye mask? Why didn’t the staff stop you?”
Xiao Qi deflected, “Because I have magic!” She raised her brows, “Do you want me to show you?”
Yi Chen hadn’t expected such an answer, “You really studied magic these five years?”
“Exactly, haha!”
Yi Chen fell silent; Pan Sen had said it.
There’s no such thing as magic in this world.
But the things Xi Yang had done…
“Then show me.”
“Alright!”
Xiao Qi waved her hand, and the car was instantly filled with dazzling lights, swirling colorful spheres, glowing Earths, and sparkling stars…
Yi Chen stopped the car, staring in disbelief at the scene before him.
It was as if he was in outer space.
He reached out, and the twinkling stars were within his grasp.
“Xi Yang, is this an illusion?”
“No,” Xiao Qi’s eyes curved, “this is my magic!”
Yi Chen suddenly felt tricked, his face instantly serious. “I think I should take you to the research department at my company.”
At his words, the dazzling display in the car vanished at once.
Oh no, she’d forgotten about that.
“Well, I haven’t hurt anyone, and I used it to help you, so you can’t be a weasel.”
“...”
Yi Chen felt a headache coming on.
Five years ago, Xi Yang had been troublesome due to poor grades and constant mischief.
Now, her bizarre magic was giving him a headache.
If he told Pan Sen, Pan Sen would probably say his hallucinations were worsening.
Really…
What exactly had she been doing these five years?
Yi Chen started the engine, troubled.
One person worried about headaches, the other about being dragged to the research department, and soon they arrived at the restaurant.
Xiao Qi immediately opened the car door.
“Wait.”
She became alert again; was he going to take her to the research department?
Yi Chen saw her obviously stiff posture and sighed, “Don’t worry, I would never send someone I care about to the research department,” he said, pulling out his wallet, pausing on the hundred-yuan bill, then taking out a one-yuan note.
He handed it to her, “Repaying your breakfast money.”
“...”
Xiao Qi glanced sideways, dark lines appearing on her face, “President Lin, breakfast was eighty-eight yuan fifty cents.”
“I know,” he replied calmly, “I don’t have eighty-eight fifty, so I’ll give you one yuan for now.”
Xiao Qi pointed at the large bills in his wallet, “All those big notes, can’t you…”
“I dislike making change.”
“...”
Xiao Qi was grinding her teeth, “President Lin, you’re a big boss and you still carry a one-yuan note in your wallet, truly… eye-opening.”
“Yes! I’m a unique kind of president.”
“...”
She was speechless.
“One yuan is a drop in the bucket.”
“You call me foolish, but you can’t even use the word properly.”
“...”
Xiao Qi clutched the one yuan angrily and got out.
Yi Chen smiled.
How wonderful it was to tease her like this!
On the way to the company, Joanna called, “President Lin, Mr. Cruz has changed his itinerary. Aren’t you going to treat me to a meal as thanks?”
Because of the breakfast money, Xiao Qi spent the whole morning in a bad mood, didn’t even want to deliver takeout to a certain someone, and slumped on the sofa.
Fang Yun walked over and patted her shoulder, “Xi Yang, Assistant Fang just called. President Lin has a lunch appointment today, so you don’t need to deliver lunch.”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Qi immediately cheered up.
She really didn’t want to deliver lunch anyway!
“Then I can take a nap.”
Fang Yun looked at her delighted face.
Were they quarreling?
#
“Which restaurant are you taking me to?” Joanna asked from the passenger seat, her voice tinged with joy.
Yi Chen answered calmly, “A rather special restaurant.”
As he spoke, she saw the corners of his lips curve.
He looked as though he was in a very good mood.
She had never seen him like this before.
In her understanding, he was always a cold person, not talkative, seldom smiling.
Could it be because of me? Because I helped him with Cruz, he’s so happy? Or is it because he’s sharing lunch with me?
Her eyes shone with hope. Anna asked, “President Lin, may I ask, when it comes to someone you love, what would you do?”
He didn’t hesitate for a second, answering directly, “I would keep her under my wing, never giving her a chance to leave.”
He truly was different, his approach to those he loved so unique.
Joanna suddenly remembered he’d said he already had someone he liked.
She naturally didn’t believe it, but now she inexplicably wanted to ask.
“You said you already have someone you like. President Lin, what is it about her that made you fall for her?”
“Her smile,” Yi Chen kept his eyes on the road, but a bright light flickered in his brow and eyes, “When I first saw her, I was captivated by her radiant smile. I instantly liked her, though the reason for that liking was elusive. I once stubbornly tried to find the logic behind my feelings, but for the first time, discovered I was powerless to prove the cause and effect.”
Anna’s hopeful eyes dimmed, a sudden sense of loss and pain left her speechless.
At first, she had confidently told herself he only claimed to have someone he liked to brush her off.
So she thought, take it slowly, after all, there’s time.
But after what he just said…
When she first met him five years ago, she sensed clearly that Yi Chen had built an ice wall in his heart, keeping all ambiguity out.
She had asked Zhuang Jia about Yi Chen’s past, but Zhuang Jia was obviously unwilling to say more.
She wasn’t the type to force others.
Even though she didn’t understand Yi Chen’s past or truly know him, she still pursued him wholeheartedly.
To pursue him, she secretly returned to the country, her parents unaware, took a month’s leave from her job in America.
At that time, she thought, if she didn’t win him, she wouldn’t return to America.
Even though he always responded coldly and indifferently, she still waited for him outside his office every day.
Later, he suddenly said he liked her persistence.
From that day, her pursuit grew more confident.
But the very next day, when she sought him, he coldly said he didn’t know her.
It wasn’t that she was tired of chasing or had lost patience, but that his words deeply wounded her.
Even if he said “I don’t like you, I won’t accept you,” she wouldn’t be discouraged.
But he said he didn’t know her.
Just how much did he dislike her, to so easily consign her to being a stranger?
That day, her father called, saying Lin Yi Chen’s stepmother’s brother—technically Yi Chen’s uncle—had told him Yi Chen was looking for a girlfriend.
Hearing that name, her blood boiled.
She never expected that someone so outstanding could still be single after all these years.
So she returned without hesitation.
But she didn’t expect him to remain the same, treating her with a strange, distant gaze.
She thought, since she was back, why not try to find him again?
After a second, unpleasant conversation in his office, she was about to return to America, but unexpectedly, he came to find her.
Now, they were sharing lunch together.
But the words he just spoke…
He really had someone he loved.
Had the ice wall in his heart from five years ago finally melted?
Yet why was there no other woman by his side but her?
Why did his supposed uncle say he was single?
Who was deceiving her?
She truly hoped it was Yi Chen’s side deceiving him.
She could have asked him directly who the person he loved was.
But she feared that when faced with the truth, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Perhaps not asking was the best choice.
After all, their relationship had improved a lot now.
And his father so openly approved of her.
So, she might as well keep trying.
The person he said he loved—she could continue treating it as an excuse to brush her off.
But thinking about five years ago, how she bared her heart so early, only to return empty-handed.
And now, it seemed, nothing had changed; with him, she would never get any closer.
She wasn’t someone who dwelled on the past.
But this man beside her…
In the world, how many men as handsome as Lin Yi Chen could there be?
At least in her circle, she had met very few.
And love at first sight—none at all.