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r her.
Just when he was about to reach for the teapot, Shen Yan had already grabbed it on his behalf and began to pour the tea.

Tsk tsk.
Ning Xiaoxiao’s heart stirred.

With the menu as her cover, her eyes peeked secretly from behind it to observe the two men’s every move, like two camera lenses capturing every trace of intimacy.
But to be honest, she never expected that Qi Jing would take fancy in this type of man.

She thought that with how Qi Jing stayed in the world of media for so long, his taste would be more ‘trendy’.

Once they were done ordering the ingredients for their hotpot, they chose a nutritious chicken mushroom broth for a soup base, and let the waiter light the fire and serve the pre-heated soup base.

As the ingredients weren’t served yet, Ning Xiaoxiao seized this moment and took an initiative to start the conversation, showing her usual ladylike smile to introduce herself: “My family name is Ning, and my name is Xiaoxiao, currently I’m working in a magazine publisher as an editor.
And how should I address you, Little Assistant-kun?”

Shen Yan answered her seriously, “My family name is Shen, my name is Yan, like ‘yan’ in ‘wild goose’.
Right now I’m working in a veterinary clinic as a vet.”

Hearing him say so, Ning Xiaoxiao suddenly gasped with an ‘ah’, then blinked blankly towards Qi Jing: “Can it possibly be the same clinic you visited for the interview the last time, Senior?”

Qi Jing smiled, but didn’t answer.

Memories in Ning Xiaoxiao’s head rewinded for a while with a ‘swooshing’ of cassette tape, and suddenly stopped at the phone call Qi Jing gave her that day.
This time she didn’t even have time to blink her eyes, as she shouted and pointed at Qi Jing without any care for her image: “Right! Right! You have asked me about a couple of adjectives before! Something something careful, dedicated, responsible and so on, you have said that it was for describing an interviewee, can it be that it was—”

Shen Yan was dumbfounded.

Since he was just an ‘interviewee’ at that point, then it should be at the early stage of their interaction.
So that was the impression he gave Qi Jing at that time?

He instinctively turned his head to look at the author of those keywords.
As expected, that person’s ears reddened, and under the guise of propping his head on his hand, Qi Jing covered it to prevent Shen Yan from seeing it.
Then, Qi Jing uttered through clenched teeth, “To think you remember it so clearly, lass…”

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Fortunately he had a pot placed before him—once the milky white broth started boiling, the wafting cloud of steam could somewhat conceal his embarrassed expression.

Shen Yan stared at him blankly for a while, then slowly withdrew his sight.
But the warmth that welled up in his heart could not be withdrawn, filling the depths of his chest to the brim.
He couldn’t tell if it was soft or firm—he just felt full.

“It really was him?” Ning Xiaoxiao exclaimed in realisation and seemingly saw the reason why Shen Yan could become Mr.
Boyfriend Under Probation..

“Yes, yes, let’s start adding the ingredients already.” Just like with the broth, the waiter was quick to bring a few plates of meatballs and vegetable appetizers, giving Qi Jing a way out of this embarrassing situation.
He took the lead to shove food towards his Junior, hoping that this would make her shut up and eat in peace.

Ning Xiaoxiao reorganised her thoughts while putting the ingredients into the broth with her chopsticks.
As she arranged the information in her head in a chronological order, she suddenly came to the conclusion that made her freeze on the spot—since they got to know each other because of that interview, then the mutual affections should have developed during the following month when Qi Jing was doing the follow-up.

If that’s the case, then why didn’t this person visit Senior when he was hospitalised after the accident?

Was Senior in such a ghastly state because this person didn’t show up? If that’s the case, wasn’t Shen Yan kinda… scummy?

Her heart fell, and she couldn’t help but secretly start to worry.

Actually, as a voice-con, she really liked Shen Yan’s voice, even though he barely said thirty words.

After that, Shen Yan still didn’t take any initiative to talk with her.
The current atmosphere was already quite weird to begin with.
Wouldn’t the one normally be more proactive towards their boyfriend-to-be’s best friends—trying to get some extra support to earn some point? Or was it that he wasn’t actually that into her Senior?

As someone who’s always been concerned about Qi Jing’s relationship status, who he gave his heart to—she couldn’t help but take it upon herself to join the vetting team and seek the answers she needed.

And so she deliberately gave Shen Yan a meaningful chuckle before bringing up the topic very naturally: “By the way, you said you got to know each other during the interview, while I got to know Senior because we did our undergraduate studies at the same college.
The courses we majored in were relatively similar, and as we also were from the same province, we grew close with how often we saw each other.”

Whenever she was talking, Shen Yan would stop moving his chopsticks and listen quietly and intently till she was done.

Ning Xiaoxiao thought Shen Yan would say something in response, but he only listened without any sign of wanting to continue the conversation—after she stopped talking, he just nodded once.
When all was said and done, she still didn’t know if he didn’t know how to continue the conversation, or was it because he wasn’t really interested and didn’t want to continue it.

She paused for three seconds—she had no other option but to stay calm, and keep the gentle smile while proceeding with guiding the topic towards him: “So, where did you do your undergraduate studies, Dr.
Shen?”

Hearing this, Qi Jing also lifted his head.

They hadn’t discussed this topic between them before, so he was also curious for the answer.

Shen Yan’s expression changed slightly.

From two different directions, two pairs of eyes looked at him through the steam, plastering their gazes on his face.
At the same time, the broth in the pot bursted with the sound of intense bubbling sound, boiling fiercely as if it was spurred by those two fervent gazes.

Shen Yan’s breathing also seemed to have been spurred by them, becoming slightly hurried.

He involuntarily lowered his eyes, his lips parting slightly, but not saying anything for quite a while.
The steam gushed from the pot, hitting him in the face which only caused him to feel the chill in his body even more.

Qi Jing was the first to realise that it might have been not a good question to ask.

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So far, Shen Yan had answered every question he was asked—if he didn’t say anything for such a long time, then it meant that he didn’t want to answer it.
Qi Jing was immediately alarmed, and was about to hurriedly change the topic, when Shen Yan finally opened his mouth.

“I didn’t… study as an undergraduate.” Both his voice and eyes were equally lowered.
Each word stung like a needle when passing through his throat; because of the pain they caused, sentences became incoherent, “I studied for three years at a vocational school and went out to work immediately after.”

“Eh…” Ning Xiaoxiao didn’t anticipate such an answer at all, and went dumbfounded on the spot.
Fortunately, she quickly got herself back together and said somewhat hesitatingly, “Is, is that so…”

The university she and Qi Jing studied in could be counted as one of the top universities in China, although it wasn’t as good as Tsinghua or Peking University, but it was still quite famous.

And the man before her only had a mere professional training diploma.

Women were naturally more sensitive and suspicious of things, especially if the other party was still ‘under probation’.
She already had some doubts concerning Shen Yan, but now, those doubts were like the sand in an hourglass, piling up with every passing second.

Ning Xiaoxiao coughed once, and navigated the topic into a different direction: “Then, is Dr Shen a local? Is your family also living here?”

“Xiaoxiao,” When Qi Jing heard the words, ‘your family’, his face grew grim, and he interrupted her in a stern voice, “that’s enough.”

After seeing that photo album, he had an inkling that Shen Yan’s family situation might be unusual, so a question like that shouldn’t be asked directly.

Ning Xiaoxiao didn’t know what was wrong, as this question seemed relatively normal for her, completely devoid of any landmines.
Qi Jing’s attitude confused her.

At that moment, Shen Yan who was silent for a long time suddenly replied in a faint voice: “I’m not a local, I was born in a village, and only moved here later.
About my family… My grandpa passed away already, so I’m alone now.”

Ning Xiaoxiao was someone whose mouth moved faster than her brain; the instant a thought popped up in her mind, she would blurt it right out, unable to contain herself.
“If your grandpa passed away, then what about your parents?”

More often than not, one’s family situation greatly impacted how they treated their partner.
The magazine publisher she worked for would often take on real-life related topics, discussing internal disputes of a family, emotional problems of married couples, disagreements of mothers and daughters-in-law.
It was a force of habit from her profession which she couldn’t get rid of—she was always particularly concerned over this aspect of things.

Even more so when the other party was the person Qi Jing liked.

Without thoroughly investigating his circumstances, she wouldn’t be able to tell if this person would treat Qi Jing well in the future, or would he have a change of heart.

“Xiaoxiao!” Qi Jing immediately grew anxious, and his right hand firmly gripped on Shen Yan’s hand under the table, shaking it a little.

He wanted to convey to Shen Yan—if you don’t want to say it, then don’t say it.
But when he grasped a hold of that hand, his heart skipped a beat out of scare.
The back of that person’s hand was ice-cold, his fingers curled into fists, trembling in the shadow.

“My parents… aren’t locals,” Shen Yan had much more control over his voice than his hands, the tremble in his voice could barely be heard unless one paid close attention, “We haven’t been in touch for a long time.”

T/N

Lucilla: I know that this Ning Xiaoxiao is simply wishing the best for QJ, but gal, where is your seasoned fujoshi’s sixth sense?? This specimen (points at the fluffy goose) might not look remarkable, but I swear, he’s a top tier husband material!

Mashiro: Totally right lucilla!!! 100% agreeing with you.
(pst, I have chloroform, shall we silence her up secretly when QJ is not looking?)