"Eat something! Why so many questions!"

Hai Fu found it amusing inside; Li Yan was so experienced that she didn’t believe he truly didn’t understand what it meant, knowing he was pretending.

Wen Qianyi had already taken the snack he handed over and said with a grin, "Do you really want to know? Saying it might make me feel bad."

Zhang Yurong felt a bit embarrassed for Li Yan; if they were at the dining table, she would definitely kick him under it to signal him not to ask.

Luckily, Li Yan seemed to catch on: "Will it make you feel bad? Then let’s drop it."

"Since you’re so eager to know, let’s talk about it!" Wen Qianyi insisted, "Actually, these past few days I’ve been somewhat... a bit that something..."

Zhang Yurong and Hai Fu felt a bit awkward, as women discussing it among themselves was fine, but with a man here, Wen Qianyi saying this made everyone uncomfortable.

"Have you ever heard the saying ’when you’re unlucky, even drinking cold water can wedge your teeth’? That’s how my luck has been these days; I’m afraid even drinking cold water will wedge my teeth, so I’ll just skip it." Wen Qianyi explained earnestly, then feigned surprise and said, "Why do you all have that expression? Did you figure it out?"

Zhang Yurong and Hai Fu exchanged silent looks, as if to say, do we all know you’re bluffing?

...

Wen Qianyi spared Li Yan’s dignity by only teasing him a little without exposing the truth, so Li Yan certainly couldn’t continue on the topic. He brought out a blanket: "Are you cold? Do the three of you want to wrap yourselves in this? Of course, if you don’t mind including me in there too, I wouldn’t mind either."

"You wish!" Zhang Yurong replied unceremoniously, then had the other two sit closer while the three of them spread the blanket over themselves with Li Yan’s help.

Actually, all three of them cared about Li Yan; if it were just one of them, they wouldn’t mind being wrapped up with him. But since there were others around, they obviously couldn’t. Seeing him able to grab people and toss them into the sea effortlessly, he likely wouldn’t be freezing.

Li Yan was just saying it for fun, not really expecting to squeeze in with the three of them. If they were trapped in a cold environment, it might be possible.

"Oh, Qianyi isn’t feeling well so I’ll tell a few jokes to lighten the mood!"

Upon hearing Li Yan’s suggestion, Hai Fu calmly said, "Earlier those people were also cracking jokes, but it seems none of them made us laugh, don’t let them outdo you!"

"So much pressure, let me try..." Li Yan thought about spending the evening with them, unable to discuss more personal matters. After arranging a restaurant at the office, he specifically found some jokes to read. No matter what, girls never reject jokes.

"There was this time, I saw a child covering a man’s eyes and asking, ’Dad, guess who I am...’ "

Everyone fell silent, Wen Qianyi rolled her eyes, "Is that funny?"

"Kids are so cute." Zhang Yurong did smile a bit.

"It’s not finished, then another identical child appeared..."

"Twins?" The three of them finally caught on but still found it unfunny.

"Once there was news about discovering Cao Cao’s tomb, inside it unexpectedly two skulls were found, and after expert evaluation, it was said one belonged to Cao Cao, and the other... was Cao Cao when he was a child."

Typically serious Zhang Yurong and Hai Fu, after understanding, chuckled a bit, but Wen Qianyi pursed her lips and said, "That’s old news."

Li Yan sweat a bit, "Then here’s one I saw earlier before dinner. When I went in, I saw a table of guests ordered a large Sprite, poured it around, and when it came back to the person pouring, the bottle was empty. So he shook the Sprite bottle at the waiter and said: ’Is there any more?’ The waiter hurriedly ran over, took the bottle meticulously checked it, then earnestly said: ’No more.’"

Everyone understood this one and laughed, though not too intensely; Wen Qianyi further accused him of embellishing since no waiter would be that extraordinary.

"Someone bought a house and renovated it. Due to the contractor’s irresponsibility, the male homeowner quarreled with them. His girlfriend saw the situation and quickly came over to mediate. The male homeowner said: ’Just so you’re here, stand straight against the wall—Look! That’s what level looks like! You dare call those tiles level?!!’"

When Li Yan told this joke, although the three present were each more endowed than the last, boasting impressive bosoms, their stance collectively criticized him for the joke disparaging women.

After telling several jokes, as everyone ate and laughed, the atmosphere became more harmonious. Li Yan felt it necessary to tell a more profound joke. For unfamiliar beauties, this would earn eye rolls; for those with close bonds, even if they eye roll outwardly, it might draw them closer in a subtly ambiguous connection.

"Have you all seen the game on TV where one person acts out something for another to guess? When I was in school, we played this game, and it was a sleazy guy acting out and a Seems Pure girl guessing. The prompt was ’fierce’, the sleazy guy first put his hands on his chest, lifting up as if to make a chest shape, pun for ’fierce’; then placed his hand on his head, mimicking sweat pouring down, hinting at ’sweat’. In the end, guess what happened?"

"What?" The staid Hai Fu asked. Wen Qianyi smiled without speaking.

"The girl thought in another direction and timidly said: nipple..."

"..."

"That sleazy guy was you, wasn’t it?" Wen Qianyi laughingly asked.

"How could it be? I’m pure. Here’s another adult one! There’s this guy trying to do something novel with his wife, asking her to buy black lace stockings. That evening, he lay on the bed, awaiting her appearance excitedly. After a while, she came in with the stockings over her head... hahaha!" Li Yan laughed out loud himself.

The result was another collective disdain, Zhang Yurong even thought Li Yan was hinting at something, directly retorting, "His wife is really pure, this guy’s too sleazy!"

With this pure adult setup, Li Yan continued, "Finally, here’s one. You might not know, during New Year the trains are unbelievably crowded! Once, a guy..."

"It’s you again?"

"Well, if you assume it’s me again, you’ll call me sleazy... He had a seat, and next to him a girl stood for too long, totally exhausted, asked if she could squeeze in. But the three-person seat was already fitting four! As he hesitated, the girl too tired, disregarded everything and said, ’I’m too tired, mind if I sit on your lap for a bit!’ Then she sat right down.

To avoid awkwardness, she chatted jokingly with the guy, said, ’This isn’t bad, even scored a soft seat!’ Before the words were out, she stood up in shock and exclaimed: Ah—was proud too soon, ’soft seat’ became ’hard seat!’ "

Seeing Li Yan’s lewd expression as he finished, the joke-savvy Wen Qianyi and experienced Hai Fu immediately understood what was going on, together chastising him: "It’s you, sleazy guy!"

The rather pure Yurong found it a bit confusing; for a moment didn’t understand what was happening, awkwardly refraining from asking.

As it was quite late, sitting there felt a bit chilly, nearly midnight, the distant Wish Tower was already bustling, music directly reaching this spot, the DJ began warming up for the countdown to the new year. They tidied up a bit and moved back. Naturally, Li Yan was the one carrying their things. He wanted to just leave it here, but they were all environmentalists and wouldn’t leave it behind.

Together they crossed the beach, arriving near the Wish Tower, the most important moment of the night had arrived, everyone gathered around, watching the final performances, waiting for the countdown to midnight.

Since they arrived late, they could only stay on the outer perimeter, none of them were that eager for excitement at their age, so they didn’t rush forward, just watched from the outskirts.

The current environment did offer opportunities for sneaky hand-holding and other intimate little interactions, but regretfully Li Yan had both hands occupied with bags, so he could only think about it.

While everyone’s eyes were on the stage and were overwhelmed by the loud speakers, Li Yan heard a voice not far away, "Isn’t that Li Yan?"

He turned to look, and across a few people, two beauties were coming towards him, leaving him unsure how to react! (To be continued, to know what happens next, visit www.qidian.com, more Chapters available, support the author, support legal reading!)