Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

"Tell me the truth! Is there some slut outside applying for teacher training?!" Lin Xiaoshuang blocked the doorway, hands on her hips.

Bai Li coughed twice and cleared his throat: "Look at the mess this has made. I just got back to the county and was about to go talk to a friend about the studio."

The four girls weren't buying it.

Chen Tingting was the first to act, grabbing Bai Li's trench coat collar and pulling it down:

"Dressing this smartly for work? Do you think we're three-year-olds?"

Zhang Qian took the opportunity to hug Bai Li's waist, wrapping her long legs around him:

"Big brother, you can leave through this door, but you have to take some of our local specialties with you!!"

"What local specialty?" Bai Li hadn't reacted yet.

Li Jiaxin and Lin Xiaoshuang pounced on them from the left and right.

Four red lips were pressed onto Bai Li's neck.

"Suckling sound—"

Various sucking sounds rose and fell in the entryway.

Bai Li was completely entangled and couldn't break free.

"Stop it... It itches! You'll leave marks and I won't be able to show my face in public!" Bai Li tried to push them away, but these girls were like octopuses, with suckers all growing from their mouths.

It lasted for a good twenty minutes.

Chen Tingting released her grip with satisfaction, examined the dense hickeys on Bai Li's neck, and snapped her fingers:

"Done. This is called territorial marking. Any wild woman outside who isn't blind will know this man is taken! And the taker is very strong!"

Zhang Qian licked her lips and smiled like a sly little fox: "Big brother, come back soon, I still need to give you a check-up tonight."

Bai Li looked at herself in the mirror in the entryway.

Goodness, his neck is so red it looks like he's been stung by wasps.

He pulled up the collar of his beige coat to barely cover most of the evidence before pushing open the door and fleeing in panic.

Stepping out of the villa's courtyard, a gust of cold wind made Bai Li shiver.

He then took out his phone and dialed Li Mengmeng's number.

The phone rang once and was answered. A soft, sweet voice came from both the phone and the person next to you.

"Happy New Year, Brother Bai Li!"

Bai Li turned her head.

Outside the gate of the villa next to Villa No. 1, Li Mengmeng stood gracefully in the wind.

Today she wore a light blue short down jacket, paired with sheer tights and a pair of very alluring white stockings.

Her short legs were already straight, but after eating well during the Lunar New Year holidays, her calves have become a bit chubby.

This doesn't make her look fat at all; on the contrary, the white stockings perfectly accentuate her slightly chubby figure, giving off a two-dimensional vibe that's hard to look away from.

Li Mengmeng jogged over, grabbed Bai Li's arm, and pressed herself against him.

"Why didn't you wait at home?" Bai Li let her hug him.

Li Mengmeng tilted her head back, pouted, and complained, "I just want to see Brother Bai Li as soon as possible~"

"Mengmeng ate meat every day during the Chinese New Year holiday, and I weighed myself; she's gained several pounds. Brother Baili, will you be disgusted with Mengmeng?"

"Of course not, it's better to be a little chubby." Bai Li's gaze fell on her short legs wrapped in white stockings, and she said honestly, "They're plump, feel good to the touch, and are even cuter."

Upon hearing this, Li Mengmeng's eyes curved into two crescent moons.

"Hehe, I learned how to cook with my mom these past few days during the Spring Festival." Li Mengmeng shook Bai Li's arm proudly.

"Hmm, great." Bai Li raised his hand and patted her head twice.

Li Mengmeng comfortably squinted her eyes, enjoying the head pat, feeling dizzy and her voice becoming soft and weak:

"Let's go grocery shopping this afternoon. Mom and Dad went to discuss business today and won't be back tonight. Mengmeng... will cook for Brother Bai Li herself tonight..."

As she finished speaking, Li Mengmeng stood on tiptoe and looked at Bai Li with hopeful eyes.

The elderly couple, dressed in exaggerated fifth gear, swayed twice, following her movements.

Bai Li swallowed hard.

Faced with such a hopeful and obedient little animal, the words of refusal stuck in my throat.

"Okay, let's go grocery shopping this afternoon," Bai Li readily agreed.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Bai Li suddenly remembered Jiang Ruyue.

Just as I was about to take out my phone to send that girl a message saying I'd stood her up, a new text message popped up on my screen.

Jiang Ruyue: [Hurry up! I'm across from the school, someone's bothering me!]

The tone of his voice suggests he was very anxious.

Bai Li put her phone back in her pocket, sighed, and said to Li Mengmeng:

"Come on, let's take care of something first. That girl at the barbecue restaurant who got asked for WeChat is in danger, I'm going to lend a hand."

Li Mengmeng nodded obediently, and just as she was about to open the car door, her gaze inadvertently swept over Bai Li's trench coat collar.

A section of her neck was exposed, covered in bright reddish-purple marks.

Strawberry marks. And not just one; judging from the shape and size of the teeth marks, they were clearly left by several people.

Li Mengmeng stopped moving, her heart aching with sadness.

She knew that Bai Li had a woman by his side, and she had seen Zhang Qian with blue hair at the barbecue restaurant last time.

However, there are far too many strawberry marks.

Li Mengmeng recalled that night when the blond-haired boy caused her such heartache... but it was clearly not something one person could have caused.

Are there also little green-haired, little red-haired, and little purple-haired ones?

Are these young women having a meeting?

Li Mengmeng bit her lower lip, sat in the passenger seat, and stared at Bai Li resentfully:

"Brother Bai Li...you two are actually chatting? And you're so keen on taking Mengmeng to meet him."

"Looks like you were having a lot of fun with other women behind Mengmeng's back during the Lunar New Year holidays."

She lowered her head, twisting her fingers, her voice trembling with tears:

"Why does Mengmeng always have to watch Bai Li get taken advantage of by other women... and she can only feel like a helpless wife..."

An incompetent wife?

Bai Li felt a chill run down his spine and quickly turned the steering wheel to drive out of the villa area, explaining repeatedly:

"No! It's really not what you think. We're just friends right now! Purely just friends!"

He himself felt that the explanation was weak and unconvincing.

If a casual friend of yours is in trouble, would you rush over immediately after receiving just one text message?

Although his progress with Jiang Ruyue was really only up to the last time she took the initiative to hold his hand, and at most she called him a big slut.

But this little girl's imagination turned it into a palace intrigue drama.

"Hmph." Li Mengmeng turned her head away, looking out the window and ignoring him.

The car sped along and stopped on the side of the street opposite Pingxian No.1 Middle School.

The Yutian Barbecue restaurant by the roadside was still closed, but two people were standing on the steps in front of the store.

One of them was Jiang Ruyue, who was wearing a white coat and carrying a schoolbag.

She hadn't started school yet, so she wasn't wearing her school uniform. Her long hair was down, and her innocent, youthful face was completely serious.

The other was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, carrying a briefcase, who was anxiously pacing around Jiang Ruyue.

"Ruyue, listen to what your teacher has to say." The middle-aged man's voice was loud and anxious: "This evaluation for senior teacher titles is extremely important for your future career."

"Your father is a leader in the Education Bureau. If you just say a word for me, it's just a matter of one word! Why can't you help the teacher?"

"Name your price, I'll give you everything the teacher can. I really want to improve!"

Jiang Ruyue stood with her hands in her pockets, her eyes cold and aloof, not even glancing at him.

"I won't say a word until my friends arrive!"

"Oh my goodness!" The Mediterranean-looking teacher slapped her thigh in exasperation. "What good are your friends? This depends on your family! Give me your dad's number, I'll call myself, okay?"

Jiang Ruyue turned away directly, leaving him with a cold back.

The Panamera's engine went out on the street.

Bai Li pushed open the car door and stepped out.

Jiang Ruyue caught a glimpse of that familiar figure out of the corner of her eye, and her usually tense and aloof face finally showed a slight change, her eyes brightening up.

Without hesitation, she bypassed the Mediterranean-looking teacher and strode towards Bai Li.

"He pestered me for half an hour." Jiang Ruyue walked to Bai Li's side, her voice still somewhat cold, but with a hint of dependence.

The Mediterranean-looking teacher paused for a moment when he saw Jiang Ruyue walking towards a tall and handsome young man, then quickly caught up with her.

"You're Ruyue's friend?" The Mediterranean-looking teacher sized Bai Li up and down, his brows furrowing into a deep frown.

"What's the matter?" Bai Li stood in front of Jiang Ruyue, his tone unfriendly.

This old bastard came to harass a female high school student in order to get a promotion; his behavior was truly disgusting.

The Mediterranean-looking teacher pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, adopting the demeanor of an elder and a teacher, and began with a series of astonishingly logical statements.

"You're half an hour late!" The Mediterranean-looking teacher raised his wrist, pointed to the time on his watch, and lectured him with a pained expression.

"Because you were late, Ruyue refused to communicate with me. You wasted thirty precious minutes of my time!"

Bai Li laughed and was about to speak.

The Mediterranean-looking teacher didn't give Bai Li a chance to interrupt, resorting directly to moral blackmail:

"Have you done the math? The two of us have been waiting for you here. You wasted thirty minutes of my time, thirty minutes of Ruyue's time, and a few minutes of your own. That adds up to over an hour!"

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, spittle flying everywhere:

"What if there are thirty people, or three hundred people, waiting for you here?"

"Then you've wasted several days of someone else's life! You're robbing them of their life for money!"

"As a young person, you have absolutely no sense of time. You should feel deeply ashamed of being late!"