Ji Fanyin took two seconds to sort out her thoughts before raising her head to reveal a look of helplessness and embarrassment. "Can we finish the meal first? We'll talk about this afterward."
Song Shiyu lowered his gaze and murmured, "… Alright."
Ji Fanyin fully enjoyed the thousand dollars Western cuisine she was having, and the knowledge that she didn't have to pay a dime made it even more delightful.
When it was finally time to foot the bill, Song Shiyu received the receipt from the waiter and paid for the meal without any hesitation.
Ji Fanyin kept her eyes on him throughout the entire process. She waited patiently for him to finally direct a questioning look at her before remarking with a twinkling smile, "A man looks the most charming when he's footing the bill."
Song Shiyu's lips inconspicuously curled up a little. "Shall we take a walk? There's a beautiful lake outside."
Ji Fanyin raised three fingers before Song Shiyu, and before his perplexed face, she put them down one by one.
Three, two, one.
The phone that had never moved throughout the course of the meal suddenly began ringing loudly.
The gentle smile on Ji Fanyin's face vanished right away. She grabbed the vibrating phone on the table and showed the countdown timer to Song Shiyu, saying, "Time's up."
Song Shiyu looked as if someone had just smacked a baseball bat on his head.
Ji Fanyin switched off the alarm before directing a professional smile in Song Shiyu's direction. "I'll be looking forward to your next reservation."
She was certain that Song Shiyu would come back for more. He had already lost himself in the illusion she had created within less than an hour's time.
How could a man who indulged himself in substitutes possibly be worthy of love?
Ji Fanyin picked up her bag and began heading out of the compartment room. She was just about to walk through the door when she suddenly halted her footstep. "I nearly forgot. There are two questions I would like to ask you in order to improve the service quality, but if you don't intend to meet me anymore, I won't bother asking them. What are your thoughts?"
Song Shiyu stared at Ji Fanyin silently, not speaking a word at all.
Ji Fanyin's eyebrows arched upward. "It looks like there's no need for that. Shall we blacklist one another to officially terminate this relationship?"
Word by word, Song Shiyu squeezed out the answer that Ji Fanyin expected to hear. "I can at least afford that bit of money."
"Very well. Question 1, is it more convenient for you to keep this relationship underground?" Ji Fanyin got straight to the point. "It might not look good for you if my younger sister hears that you're often meeting up with me while she's overseas."
"Of course," replied Song Shiyu right away.
He irritably fiddled with the pen he had used to sign the receipt, twisting it from his thumb to his pinky before doing the same backward.
"Understood. I'll take note of that when you extend invitations to me to public places, and answer accordingly." Ji Fanyin paid no heed to Song Shiyu's expression as she continued asking her questions, "Question 2, do you wish for me to play as your lover or just remain friends?"
Song Shiyu burst into laughter. "Ji Fanyin, are you trying to use her identity to become my lover?"
"Let me put it in another way then." Ji Fanyin didn't lose her temper despite Song Shiyu's ridicule. She maintained her professional smile and continued on, "Do you wish for my service to reflect reality or follow your desires? Take the question you asked earlier for example, do you want 'Ji Xinxin' to accept your confession and become your lover? If so, she'll be your girlfriend from this day onward. Going out on dates, having long calls at night, exchanging words of affection… All of these can be realized if you want them to."
Ji Fanyin's calm depiction of the possibilities left Song Shiyu in a daze. The pen he was fiddling with slipped through his fingers and fell loudly onto the ground, jolting him out of his thoughts.
He clicked his tongue and sneered, "Don't even bother with your schemes, Ji Fanyin. I'll never go out with you."
"Got it. The next time such a situation happens, I'll stick to reality and reject you accordingly." Ji Fanyin bent down to pick the pen up.
For some reason, Song Shiyu found himself reaching out to take the pen from her, but Ji Fanyin placed the pen on the table instead, making Song Shiyu's outstretched hand look awkward. She made a phone gesture with her hands and said, "See you. Remember to make a reservation in advance."
"Who else would bother playing along with your games other than me?" scoffed Song Shiyu.
"That's hard to say," replied Ji Fanyin earnestly. "That being said, it's none of your business whether I expand my list of clients or not."
Song Shiyu's face immediately darkened.
However, Ji Fanyin waved her hand nonchalantly and left the compartment room all by herself. The waiter by the doorway shot a perplexed glance at her, wondering why the two of them weren't leaving together.
Had Song Shiyu not been too engrossed with his flaunting, Ji Fanyin could have accompanied him out of the restaurant. Unfortunately, despite the initial hesitation, he ended up getting too absorbed into the act that he didn't even notice the passing of time. If not for…
Ji Fanyin was suddenly trailed to a halt and took out her phone.
She subconsciously tapped into the 'Temptation of Home' application to take a look, and she noticed that there were significant changes in the number. Taking a look at the details, she realized that Song Shiyu had contributed an entire 90,000 Emotion Points to her.
She couldn't tell just what kind of intense emotional turmoil Song Shiyu had gone through in the past three hours, but…
Golden fish, get√
With affectionate eyes, she created a new group for her contacts labeled 'Client' before dragging Song Shiyu into the group. The settings allowed for the contacts under the 'Client' group to contact her even while her phone was in the 'Do Not Disturb' mode.
She hummed a melody as she made her way to the closest WcDonalds' dessert stand to buy a vanilla cone. At the same time, she wondered when Song Shiyu would succumb and call her to make the second reservation.
It should be pretty soon.
After all, his birthday is coming right up, and there's no way Ji Xinxin would specially return from Paris to celebrate his birthday.