I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

"whispering sound..."

Chen Shuo scoffed, "Secret? Planting flowers is all so mysterious."

“I actually have a secret too,” he said.

"what?"

"I already said it's a secret, of course I can't tell you."

"whispering sound..."

Bai Xiaoqi wrinkled her nose and scoffed. She suspected that this guy didn't have any secrets at all, and that he was just pretending to have one because she hadn't told him where to get the flowers.

There isn't one at all.

My clever self had already seen through everything.

"It really exists, I'm not lying to you." Chen Shuo put his hands in his pockets and stroked the small, square box.

"Want to know? Call me 'husband' and give me a kiss, and I'll tell you."

"I don't want to know." Bai Xiaoqi turned her gaze aside, picked up the watering can and continued watering the vegetables, refusing to fall for his trick.

"I guarantee you'll regret this."

"Really?" she asked, sounding quite surprised.

"Yes."

"oh....."

Bai Xiaoqi gave an "oh" and continued watering the vegetables, completely unmoved.

After waiting for a while and seeing that she didn't speak again, Chen Shuo became a little impatient.

Little Meow has learned to be perfunctory now; she's not as cute as she used to be.

He took a small box out of his pocket. "Look what this is."

Bai Xiaoqi glanced at it; it was a very delicate little box. "What?"

"Call me 'husband,' then give me a kiss, and I'll..."

Before Chen Shuo could finish speaking, Bai Xiaoqi snatched the box from his hand. "Husband? What husband? We're not even married yet, how shameless!"

The box contained a ring, gleaming white, with a diamond set in it.

She picked it up and looked at it between her fingers, then held it up to the sun.

Chen Shuo stood aside, unsure of what to say. His original plan was a complete process, the most important thing being to highlight the sense of ceremony, such as kneeling on one knee, raising the ring, and saying, "Will you marry me?"

Then she said "I do," and immediately threw herself into his arms, offering him a sweet kiss. Maybe she would even be so moved that she would offer herself as her bedmate.

What a great script! This girl ruined it all. It was over before it even started, and she even interrupted my train of thought.

After hesitating for a long time, Chen Shuo asked dryly, "Would you marry me?"

"Yes, I'm willing." Bai Xiaoqi didn't even look up, focusing on examining the ring on her hand. Then she pressed the diamond set in it with her fingertip and asked, "Is this a diamond?"

“It’s a diamond, that’s true, but… I was just saying, could you please cooperate a little? I’m planning to propose with this ring, and I hope you can respect this occasion.” For some reason, Chen Shuo felt a tightness in his chest.

"So, if you don't propose, I won't marry you?"

"You don't know anything about teapots, this is about the ritual."

"You only know about teapots, yet you buy diamond rings. Diamonds are expensive when you buy them, but they're not actually worth much. They're just a scam to fools, a tax on your intelligence. You'd be better off buying gold. Gold holds its value and keeps appreciating, so it's like an investment."

"..." This left Chen Shuo speechless.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Bai Xiaoqi held up the ring to take a look. It seemed that there were words engraved on the inner wall of the ring.

"Why is there a 'meow' character engraved inside this ring?" she asked.

"Because there wasn't enough space to carve your name, and I was worried you wouldn't recognize the initials, so I just carved the character 'meow' instead."

"Does that mean I can't return it once it's engraved?"

"retreat?"

Chen Shuo was stunned; he never expected her to say something like that.

"Hmm." Bai Xiaoqi responded, indicating that he hadn't misheard, and placed the ring in her palm. "Can we return this? After returning it, we can buy a gold one from our own online store. It'll be cheaper, and it'll be like making money."

"I..."

Chen Shuo opened his mouth and exclaimed, "Damn, a little business genius!"

"Proposals are always done with diamond rings; diamonds are forever, a single diamond symbolizes love. Gold rings are part of the three gold pieces for a wedding... never mind..."

Chen Shuo gave up trying to explain to her; Xiao A Miao's thought process was so unique and unconventional that it was impossible to explain.

"It's too late to return it, you'd better wear it now." He waved his hand and turned to leave.

At this moment, Chen Shuo felt like he had suffered internal injuries. The perfectly good marriage proposal scene had been completely ruined by this little money-grubber.

More importantly, the money to buy the ring came from his hard-earned savings, which he had accumulated over several months.

Even applying Yunnan Baiyao (a traditional Chinese medicine) cannot alleviate the emotional trauma. What can relieve my sorrow? Only petting a cat.

Chen Shuo planned to vent his resentment towards Xiao A Miao by petting the cat, since they were both cats anyway.

Walnut's cat bed is still on the downstairs balcony, but it hardly ever lies in it anymore.

Since the pond on the rooftop was filled with water and a dozen or so koi were raised there, it has said goodbye to its previous days of eating and sleeping.

Every day, when it has nothing to do, it runs up to the rooftop, squats by the pond, and peers at the koi swimming around with its chubby cat face.

Walnut was squatting by the pond again. Chen Shuo went over, picked it up, and hugged it, stroking it vigorously.

Big Orange is better; I don't have to buy her a ring, and she lets everyone touch her freely. Unlike Little Meow, who complains about a diamond ring, saying it's a scam for idiots and a tax on intelligence—although she's not wrong.

The idea that diamonds are forever and that a diamond is forever is nothing more than diamond merchants linking this pretty but worthless stone to love and then swindling money from fools.

In fact, diamonds are produced in large quantities, and there is no real difference between synthetic and natural diamonds.

Maybe she just thinks it's just a broken stone. Although it's pretty, it's still just a broken stone, and she can't like stones, so she's indignant and wants a refund.

"If you don't like this diamond ring, just put it aside for now, and I'll buy you a gold one another day."

Chen Shuo felt he had figured out her thoughts, but when he turned around while holding the cat, he realized he was wrong.

Bai Xiaoqi was looking down and gently stroking the ring on her hand. From the innocent and cute smile on her face, you could tell that this girl really liked it.

"What did you just say?" Hearing Chen Shuo's words, Bai Xiaoqi came back to her senses and looked up at him.

"Oh, it's nothing."

Chen Shuo shook his head, his resentment suddenly dissipating. In any case, as long as she was happy.

Chapter 246 It's probably become a spirit!

Chen Shuo watched as she put the ring on her hand and seemed to like it very much, so he didn't dwell on it anymore. As long as she liked it, that was enough.

As for the gold ring, he'll get one when he gets married later. He doesn't really know much about gold jewelry, but Wu Yulan will help him arrange it. Maybe she'll even get him a jade bracelet, since that's a better investment than gold.

"I just proposed to you, and you said yes."

"Mmm-hmm." Bai Xiaoqi responded repeatedly, happily touching the ring on her hand. Although she felt that buying a diamond ring was not worthwhile, it was an engagement ring, so it was different.

"What if I don't agree?" she suddenly asked.

"That's easy, I'll just tie you up and take you home to be my wife."

"That depends on whether I'm willing or not."

"So, are you willing?"

"I'd love to."

Bai Xiaoqi threw herself into his arms, pressed Chen Shuo's neck down with her hands, and then stood on tiptoe to kiss him.

Chen Shuo lowered his head and kissed her lips that she offered herself, then hugged her back tightly. The two of them pressed intimately together, and the temperature on the rooftop seemed to rise a little.

"Meow...."

Walnut squatted beside the two of them, meowed listlessly, got up, shook its chubby body, and slowly went back to the pond to look at the goldfish. These were still the prettiest.

When she couldn't breathe properly, Bai Xiaoqi couldn't help but push his head away. After taking a few breaths with her face flushed, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him again.

After their lips parted once more, Bai Xiaoqi licked her lips with lingering desire. Kissing can be addictive, but she still had something very important to do.

So she said, "I'm going to find Ya Ya," broke free from Chen Shuo's embrace, turned and ran downstairs, followed by the sound of her running down the stairs.

In the same neighborhood, one in the north and one in the south, Bai Xiaoqi rang Anya's doorbell a few minutes later.

As soon as the door opened, Anya yawned, looking sleepy. "I was taking my beauty nap. Didn't we say we'd go in the middle of the night?"

How did you know Chen Shuo bought me a diamond ring?

"???"

Anya was dumbfounded.

Bai Xiaoqi raised her hand, showing off the diamond ring on her finger.

"Wow, a diamond ring! Let me be so envious!" Anya exclaimed dramatically, pulling her hand over to look at it. After a couple of glances, she asked doubtfully, "Are you wearing this ring on the wrong hand?"

"Where is it wrong?" Bai Xiaoqi looked left and right in confusion, feeling that it was perfectly straight and not crooked.

"He proposed to you with this diamond ring, right? The engagement ring is worn on the left middle finger, but you wore it on your index finger."

"Aren't they the same?"

“That’s so different.” Anya rolled her eyes and said speechlessly, “Wearing a ring on your index finger means you’re single.”

Bai Xiaoqi's eyes widened slightly, her face showing an expression of newfound knowledge. She hadn't expected there to be so many intricacies involved in wearing a ring.

She took the diamond ring off her index finger and casually put it on the middle finger of her right hand, asking, "Is this right now?"

"That's not right either. The engagement ring should be worn on the left middle finger, on the left hand, not the right."

"Oh..."

Bai Xiaoqi had no choice but to keep changing her ring. She had originally come to show off her diamond ring to her friends, but she ended up getting a lesson in rings.

This is what she admires most about Anya. Although she is single and doesn't even have a boyfriend, she knows a lot about love and relationships.