Anby came down the stairs in a pure white dress, each step producing a soft, clear sound. Her expression was as calm as ever, but paired with the dress, she looked like something that had stepped out of a different world entirely. Composed, quietly striking, and entirely unaware of it.
From the moment she came into view, Ye Qingfeng could not look away. He watched in silence until she was standing in front of him.
"Qingfeng? What are you staring at?" Anby waved a hand in front of his face and tilted her head. "Can we go?"
"This is the first time I've seen you wear something like this."
Ye Qingfeng took a small, instinctive step back, swallowed, and pointed at the dress with a hand that was not entirely steady.
From the day they had met, Anby had almost always been in dark skirts or trousers. He had not expected a single change of outfit to make this much of a difference.
If he had to describe what she gave off right now, the only phrase that came close was the feeling of a first encounter with something that makes your chest tighten unexpectedly.
"Nicole told me to wear it." Anby blinked. "She said she bought it a long time ago and never once saw me put it on. She said it was wasteful to leave it sitting in the wardrobe, so she told me to wear it today."
"Why hadn't Anby worn it before?"
"Because it was the first thing Nicole ever gave me." Anby's expression became uncharacteristically serious. "And the last time I wore it outside with Nicole, we ran into robbers. It wasn't hard to deal with them, but the dress got stained in the process. It took a lot of effort to clean afterward."
Anby paused, then suddenly reached out and looped her arm through his.
"Nicole also said to stay close to you like this. If anything happens to this dress, you have to pay for it."
Her proximity brought a faint, clean scent, and the warmth pressed against his arm made Ye Qingfeng momentarily lose his train of thought entirely. His heart, which had been perfectly steady a moment ago, was now doing something considerably less steady.
"This dress. How much?"
Despite everything, this was the one question he needed answered. Something about the situation told him the answer was not going to be pleasant.
"Nicole said 500,000 Dennies."
Anby felt his posture go rigid and his body temperature rise. She looked up at him, mildly puzzled.
"Qingfeng, you feel very warm. Are you unwell?"
"How much?"
The flustered feeling from Anby's closeness evaporated instantly, replaced by something far less pleasant.
"500,000 Dennies." Anby repeated it without expression, assuming he had not heard clearly.
What on earth was Sister Nicole thinking?
He genuinely could not work out what she hoped to accomplish. Did she actually expect him to hand over 500,000 Dennies?
The truly infuriating part was that he could.
"Let's go." Ye Qingfeng exhaled deeply, got up, and headed for the door. "Did Sister Nicole say anything else?"
"That was all."
Anby kept hold of his arm as he moved. The moment they stepped outside, she glanced back and saw Nicole at the top of the stairs giving her a thumbs up.
Anby raised her free hand and returned the gesture.
Then the door closed, and they were out on the street.
When she had been halfway through changing, Nicole had suddenly appeared in her room without warning, pulled this dress out of the wardrobe, and told her to put it on. Anby had taken off what she had been putting on and changed into the dress without complaint.
At the point where her back was briefly exposed, she had been aware of the wide eyes watching her, but she had paid them no attention and simply put the dress on.
Nicole had looked her over, nodded with clear satisfaction, and then said with great seriousness, "Anby, you don't want to never eat Qingfeng's hamburgers again, do you."
*Anby: ?!*
"I suspect Qingfeng may have been influenced by Billy and might leave the Cunning Hares." Before Nicole could finish the sentence, she saw Anby's expression sharpen as she reached for her blade. Nicole lunged forward and grabbed her. "Wait! Hold on! It's a suspicion, that's all. No evidence yet."
"No need for evidence. I'll just cut Billy down and the problem is solved."
Anby kept walking. Nicole, still holding on, found herself being dragged across the floor in short, unsteady slides.
For Anby, the things that mattered most in life were, in order: Nicole, films, and hamburgers.
Nicole she saw every day. Films she could go watch whenever she wanted. And hamburgers, well. The hamburgers she had eaten before Ye Qingfeng arrived could not begin to compare to the ones he made. It was not just hamburgers either. She had come to genuinely look forward to everything he cooked. Hamburgers remained her favorite, but the category had expanded considerably.
As long as Qingfeng stayed, she could keep eating well, and the money she used to spend on buying hamburgers outside could go toward watching more films.
Her happy life had finally found its proper shape.
And now she was supposed to just accept Billy disrupting it?
"Calm down, Anby! I have a plan!"
Nicole scrambled to get in front of her. Whatever was actually going on, the situation did not leave room for letting Anby follow through on this impulse.
And quite apart from everything else, letting Anby cut down Billy would be wasteful. A pile of scrap metal versus a fully operational combat unit. The value comparison was not a difficult one.
She also just wanted to dock a few months of his wages. Silencing him permanently had not been the goal.
If Billy ever found out how close he had just come to being chopped in half over a misunderstanding, he would probably start talking even faster than usual.
"What plan?"
Anby stopped. She turned around with the most serious expression Ye Qingfeng had ever seen on her face, though Ye Qingfeng was not present to witness it.
"Do exactly what I say, and I guarantee Qingfeng will stay with the Cunning Hares for life."
Nicole leaned close and lowered her voice.
"Think about it. Is there anything Qingfeng particularly likes or cares about?"
Anby ran through the possibilities quickly.
Hamburgers? Eliminated. Films? Eliminated. Nicole? Pending.
Dennies.
"Dennies!"
She had worked through the things she liked and the things Nicole liked and concluded that Ye Qingfeng had a reasonably high chance of liking Dennies.
"Fair point. Who doesn't like Dennies..." Nicole's eyes lit up, then immediately dimmed. "The problem is we don't have any."
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