Two flowers blossom, each showing a branch.

Mu Qiu was very happy to have a guest over for dinner, especially when the guest had nothing in common with her.

This way, her parents’ topics would shift to someone else, and they wouldn’t compare her, allowing her to eat peacefully and happily listen to stories.

Like this dinner.

Yuan Chun and Mu Zhi’s conversation was always about Zhou Jilin and Su Jin, mentioning her only in passing.

She was at ease, slowly gnawing on a chicken drumstick, occasionally messaging Zhao Yu.

Su Jin was pregnant and couldn’t eat many things, so everyone’s attention at the table was on her.

"Su Jin, have some soup. Jilin, did you two hire a cook since you’re living together?"

Zhou Jilin was busy with work, and Su Jin also worked, just from home instead. Both were busy, and the pregnant woman couldn’t be expected to find time to cook for both of them.

Zhou Jilin: "We hired one from the maternity center. My mom occasionally comes over too."

Su Jin was worried that the elders would think she was lazy, so she pinched him lightly.

Zhou Jilin felt the pain but didn’t show it on his face, just added: "But the cook is only responsible for weekday lunches and dinners, she prefers to cook herself when she has time."

Yuan Chun scolded him: "You know the first three months are unstable, yet you let her cook."

Su Jin smiled and said it was okay.

Mu Zhi couldn’t get a word in, glanced around, and seeing Mu Qiu just focused on eating, brought the topic back to her.

"Su Jin is diligent, unlike Mu Qiu, who is too lazy to move. What are you looking at, it’s you I’m talking about, lazy to the bone, only knows how to order takeout at home!"

Innocent Mu Qiu: "..."

Come on, she’s just eating a chicken drumstick, why is the topic back to her?

Zhou Jilin remained unmoved by Mu Qiu being scolded, continuing to add food to Su Jin’s bowl.

He had eaten at Mu’s house several times, so he wasn’t surprised by such things.

But Su Jin couldn’t ignore it, she quickly spoke up in Mu Qiu’s defense: "No way, Qiuqiu is great, everyone likes her."

"Like Cheng Zhirang," Zhou Jilin added.

Great, the topic successfully shifted to Cheng Zhirang.

Mu Zhi asked Zhou Jilin: "You’ve met him, right? What do you think of him?"

"He has a good reputation," Zhou Jilin had a high opinion of Cheng Zhirang, "Aside from being a celebrity, I haven’t seen anything bad."

Mu Zhi trusted him greatly, and hearing this, he immediately felt half relieved.

"I find him well-mannered, well-educated, not a spoiled young master waiting to be served, which is nice."

Yuan Chun: "It would be better if he wasn’t a celebrity."

"You can’t say that," Zhou Jilin reasoned fairly, "If he wasn’t a celebrity, hadn’t had a ten-year acting career, maybe he wouldn’t be like this now."

Su Jin looked at Mu Qiu’s expression and tried to get involved in the conversation: "I met him last time too, he was polite and, most importantly, he treats Qiuqiu well, and Qiuqiu likes him a lot too."

No matter how many points compare, the last two points beat them all.

Mu Zhi looked sideways at Mu Qiu, who was holding her head down and eating a drumstick: "She just likes that he’s good-looking!"

Mu Qiu put down the drumstick and raised her head to speak for the first time: "People all love beauty, what’s wrong with liking that he’s good-looking?"

It’s not like she doesn’t have eyes to see his other qualities, Cheng Zhirang is not just a shallow pretty face.

Mu Zhi’s first reaction was to find a historical example to refute her, but Su Jin spoke up first.

"He is indeed handsome, I’ve seen his movies, his acting is great, and many of my friends are his fans."

Mu Qiu finally found someone with good taste: "Right? The first time I saw him on the show, I thought, he’s too handsome."

A masterpiece of Nuwa’s craft.

Speaking of the show, Su Jin was quite interested.

"I’ve watched every episode of your show, the format is good, the guest lineup is appropriate, and I quite like that tall Shi Yuhuai."

"...You like Brother Huai?" she widened her eyes, barely holding back laughter, "When I see him in a few days, I’ll be sure to pass on your fondness, it’ll surely make him happy."

The two of them immediately started chatting, going back and forth, leaving no room for others to chime in.

Zhou Jilin’s lips tightened as he looked at Su Jin’s profile, wanting to say something, but their conversation was too dense and foreign for him to enter.

Until Su Jin’s soup went cold, he refilled it and pushed it over, and she naturally paused to drink, finally giving him an opportunity to speak.

"So how did you and Cheng Zhirang catch each other’s eyes?"

Mu Qiu initially wanted to say since when was he so nosy, but seeing that his expression wasn’t one of gossip curiosity, he was probably just asking to satisfy others’ curiosity.

"That’s a long story."

She tried to ignore Yuan Chun’s almost tangible gaze and briefly recounted how she and Cheng Zhirang met, got to know each other, and fell in love.

"It’s quite coincidental, actually, just before filming the pilot, I saw him once. I had just arrived in Hai City, and as I was picking up my suitcase from baggage claim, I saw he was waiting for his suitcase too. Every suitcase that came down the chute, he would reach out to catch."

"Then during the pilot, everyone had to draw a card to complete a small task, and my task was to say a few words to the first person I saw, conveniently, he was the first I saw. Later... "

She skipped over the incident where a sasaeng fan broke into her house, only mentioning the fainting and evening with Chengcheng.

"Even more coincidentally, the apartment I rented happened to be opposite his manager’s. At the time, his manager was going through a divorce, and there was a kid the size of a Louboutin without a place to go, whom I took in for half a day.

Then, I fainted at home with gastroenteritis, and coincidentally, he was the one who found me when he came to pick someone up, and took me to the hospital. You see, with so many coincidences, isn’t it fate?"

After roughly recalling, she realized they were really fated.

In this world, some people are so destined that they can meet across the ends of the earth, while some are so unrelated that they can go years unseen in the same place.

They were considered fated, so how could they not seize this chance?

Su Jin listened intently, her eyes showing some longing: "It really is fate. But why did you faint? Did you get checked out?"

"Nothing serious, I’ve been fine lately." She said lightly, and reached for the boiled shrimp in the middle.

Su Jin also got two shrimp, peeled by Zhou Jilin, dipped in the special sauce, and placed on the plate in front of her.

Seeing it made Mu Qiu envious, as she bit into the shrimp, she thought of Cheng Zhirang.

Su Jin, having recently gotten used to Zhou Jilin’s regained attentive care, didn’t pay much attention and, after eating the shrimp, asked her: "So who chased whom?"

Mu Qiu paused.

"Ah... I chased him."