“This? My mom left it to me.”

Ye Yubai said casually.

“She said it was a family heirloom and told me to keep it safe. Apparently, it’s worth a lot.”

Gan Lan quickly put it back in his box.

She suddenly realized this might not be an heirloom in the usual sense. It could be proof that Ye Yubai belonged with the Ye Family.

Something like that couldn’t be lost, no matter what.

Seeing how much more careful she was with it than he’d been, Ye Yubai couldn’t help laughing again.

“Gan Lan, you’re way too tense. Money’s just a worldly possession.”

Gan Lan shot him a glare. “Money’s just a worldly possession. This isn’t!”

If this really was proof of his identity, then it could affect Ye Yubai’s happiness for the rest of his life.

“Anyway, keep it somewhere safe. Don’t just take it out whenever you feel like it.”

Hearing Gan Lan’s parent-like warning, Ye Yubai answered, “Mm.”

Then he suddenly leaned in close to her.

He crouched down.

He placed both hands on her legs.

And ran them back and forth over her legs.

With a smile in his voice, he asked, “Are you taking such good care of it because it’s mine?”

Gan Lan froze for a moment.

Ye Yubai leaned in even closer.

“Do you care about me?”

Gan Lan shot to her feet and pushed his hands away.

Ye Yubai tried to stop her, but couldn’t.

All he could do was watch as she ducked into the bathroom.

The smile was still on his face.

To him, Gan Lan’s reaction was just too amusing.

“You’re so flustered. I must’ve hit the nail on the head.”

He plopped down on the floor, leaned back, and rested his head against the sofa.

“Ah, this girl. Don’t tell me my charm’s really turned her straight-guy heart gay.”

At the thought, the scheming streak Ye Yubai had been born with began to quietly surface.

What a cute girl.

I wonder how she’d react if I teased her some more.

……

“Phew.”

Hidden away in the bathroom, Gan Lan turned on the tap and scrubbed her face hard.

The cold water splashing against her face helped clear her head.

“Ye Yubai, you jerk.”

She could tell Ye Yubai was teasing her.

He was such an annoying guy, and yet somehow he made her feel all flustered, as if he were flirting with her.

Gan Lan stared at her gloomy reflection, then pinched her own cheeks hard enough to leave several red marks from her fingers.

“What are you thinking, Gan Lan?!”

“He’s your childhood friend. Your rival. A man. That scheming Ye Yubai!”

“Don’t let that innocent, harmless-looking face fool you!”

She repeated the warning to herself over and over.

Being reborn as a girl had changed her hormones, and her emotions were all over the place.

She’d never been interested in men before, but Ye Yubai’s teasing had quietly awakened all the sentimental feelings of a girl in her.

The change left Gan Lan inexplicably unsettled.

If the man in question weren’t Ye Yubai, she might not have been so resistant.

But, of all people, it had to be Ye Yubai.

Just thinking about all the girls Ye Yubai had dated made her shudder.

In her previous life, Ye Yubai had shown exactly what “bros are like limbs, women are like clothes” meant. He changed girlfriends as fast as he changed outfits.

And that wasn’t all—he’d been dogged by rumors for years!

“No way. I have to hold my ground and keep my distance from him!”

Having made up her mind, Gan Lan finally gathered the courage to leave the bathroom.

Ye Yubai was still sprawled across the sofa like a dead fish.

At the sound of the bathroom door, he turned his head and glanced at Gan Lan.

Seeing her face and hair dripping wet, he frowned.

“Did you fall into the bathtub?”

“No.”

Gan Lan walked toward her room without expression, ready to close the door.

Ye Yubai asked again, “What are we doing for dinner?”

Gan Lan tossed out a halfhearted, “Whatever.”

Ye Yubai clicked his tongue. “What do you mean, ‘whatever’? It’s your turn to cook tonight.”

Gan Lan stopped in her tracks.

Ye Yubai seized the chance to step over and grab her by the shoulders, giving them a couple of ingratiating squeezes.

He spoke in a coaxing, almost whiny voice:

“Come on, buddy. I want noodles tonight, with a soft-boiled egg. No scallions.”

……

As Gan Lan walked into the kitchen, she had just one thought: What on earth had turned her into such an obedient cook?

Was it fatherly love?

Yeah. It had to be fatherly love.

After all, from the perspective of a 25-year-old working adult like her, Ye Yubai was just a cute, lovable, brainless high school kid!

Thinking of it that way calmed Gan Lan down.

She quietly cooked a soft-boiled egg and set it on top of the noodles.

Then she poured the broth over them.

A bowl of delicious-looking, fragrant homemade noodles was ready.

Ye Yubai followed the smell into the kitchen, took the steaming-hot bowl from her hands, grabbed two pairs of chopsticks, and headed back to the living room.

“Let’s eat together.”

Gan Lan wasn’t particularly interested in eating noodles.

Mostly because she still had a cold and didn’t have much of an appetite.

She watched Ye Yubai eat with relish, sitting on the sofa across from him.

“You’re really not eating?”

“Really not.”

As she spoke, Gan Lan took her phone out of her pocket and started trying to contact her older cousin to ask about Bitcoin.

Half an hour later, Li Li replied that she could help.

Still, she advised Gan Lan to be careful. After all, it was virtual currency, “and it doesn’t look like something that’ll be worth much.” She warned her to “watch out for scams.”

Gan Lan gave a wry smile.

If her cousin knew this stuff would eventually climb to forty or fifty thousand dollars per coin, her jaw would hit the floor.

But nobody would believe her if she said that. They’d only think she was weird.

“Cousin, I know what I’m doing. Don’t worry.”

“All right. If you’re sure you want to buy, I don’t mind helping you out. Just don’t buy too much, or you won’t be able to explain it to your parents.”

Once they’d settled everything, Gan Lan said she’d transfer the money to her cousin as soon as possible and asked her to keep an eye on things.

Next, Gan Lan tried hard to recall every detail about that third-prize lottery ticket.

She closed her eyes. Memories flickered through her mind like slides in a PowerPoint presentation, one frame at a time, disjointed and incomplete.

She opened her eyes.

Two numbers stood out with startling clarity.

“15 and 20!”

She immediately opened her notes app and wrote down the two numbers.

Ye Yubai slurped his noodles, stealing the occasional glance at her.

Gan Lan’s expressions were fascinating. Several times, Ye Yubai almost asked what she was thinking, but each time he held back.

If Gan Lan wanted to tell him, she’d bring it up herself.

When he didn’t want to talk, even hitting him with a stick wouldn’t get him to open up.

By the time he finished his noodles, one soft-boiled egg was still left in the bowl.

Ye Yubai nudged it around with his chopsticks, carefully picked it up, and held it out to Gan Lan.

“Here. Help me finish this, will you?”