"Because Qingfeng makes me hamburgers, so I wanted to reward you by holding your hand."
Anby rarely showed anything resembling embarrassment. She puffed out one cheek, turned her head to the side, and avoided his eyes, her voice unusually soft.
"Hmm."
The moment she finished speaking, a light chop landed on top of her head. It did not hurt, but she let out a small involuntary sound anyway.
"Definitely another scene from some movie."
Ye Qingfeng looked at Anby, who had produced a genuinely girlish pout from a face that was usually completely expressionless. His heart gave a hard thump. He would be lying if he said he was not moved. But her delivery had been noticeably stiff.
He felt a quiet pride about the content of her answer, even if the execution needed work.
Anby was also, he had to admit, remarkably easy to read. Everything purchased today would be reimbursed by Nicole anyway, which meant he had essentially used Nicole's money to have a girl hold his hand. Not bad at all.
He had also caught Anby starting to say "Ni" before catching herself. That required no great leap of logic. Sister Nicole was behind this.
He did not understand the reasoning, but he approved. She could feel free to do more of the same.
And that soft, restrained voice paired with Anby's usually blank face was something like a small paw pressing unexpectedly against his chest. Gentle, warm, and oddly persistent.
"Mm."
Just like that, Anby returned to her default expression. The softness vanished as though it had never been there.
He still preferred this version of her, if he was being honest. The other was endearing in a way that was difficult to process.
"Alright. That answer was satisfactory." Ye Qingfeng tossed the hamburger gummy candies into the cart. "Let's pay and go home."
"Mm."
Anby had not let go of his sleeve the entire time. The moment she saw the candies land in the cart, her eyes tracked them with quiet satisfaction, and she fell into step behind him toward the checkout.
Halfway there, Ye Qingfeng ran through his mental shopping list one more time and stopped.
They were out of soy sauce.
"Anby, stay with the cart. I'll grab some soy sauce and be right back."
He took one step and was immediately pulled back by his sleeve.
"No. We go together."
He considered arguing and decided against it. Anby in this mood was not going to budge.
But running across the supermarket while she held onto his sleeve was going to be slower, not faster, and they were already attracting enough attention. He could already picture the video ending up on Inter-Knot before they reached the exit.
He deployed what he privately considered his most reliable approach.
"Don't you want to get home and eat those hamburgers quickly? I'll be faster on my own. You stay here and make sure nobody touches the Delicious Hamburgers while I'm gone."
The hamburger-shaped candies were, in fact, called exactly that.
Anby blinked at him. Then, slowly, she released his sleeve. Her gaze dropped to the cart, fixed on the candy package with an expression that suggested she would not be taking her eyes off it until he returned.
He had half-expected it, but part of him was still slightly wounded that the hamburgers had won.
He pushed the thought away and jogged toward the condiment aisle before it could develop further. If he let himself keep thinking, he was going to end up imagining Anby sitting calmly on a riverbank eating a hamburger while watching him drown, and that was not a productive line of thought.
Two turns later, he reached the condiment section and slowed down, scanning the shelves.
Salt, no. Sugar, no. The soy sauce was probably on the other side of the display.
He rounded the corner of the shelf.
A girl in a maid outfit was running straight at him at full speed from less than a meter away.
At this distance, in this particular layout of the universe, Ye Qingfeng had approximately one second to consider his options.
Option one: she runs directly into him and he catches her.
Option two: the collision knocks her backward, he grabs her hand, and pulls her back upright.
He was faintly aware that his instincts had changed. In his previous life, he would have simply tried to dodge, and if he failed, walked away without looking back. Now, apparently, his first thought was to open his arms.
He did so.
A system notification sounded in his mind at the same moment.
*[Beep! Target for interaction: Corin Wickes.]*
*[Initial Affection Level...]*
Corin's head connected solidly with his chest.
Ye Qingfeng landed on his back two meters from the point of impact.
*She hit like a freight train. And why do people instinctively close their eyes and duck their heads when they see a collision coming?*
*[Affection Level: 5%]*
Ye Qingfeng stared at the ceiling with a dazed expression. He was beginning to seriously suspect he had some kind of passive ability that made him lose any close-range physical encounter.
Anby, Qingyi, and now a girl he had met in a supermarket aisle.
Corin had been rushing back because of an unexpected commission and had not anticipated anyone appearing at the corner. The fright had been considerable. Unable to stop in time, she had done the only thing available to her: tucked her head down and shut her eyes.
Her head ached mildly. She opened her eyes.
A man was lying flat on the ground, staring at the ceiling with a blank and distant expression.
This was entirely outside Corin's experience. Her first instinct was to look for Mr. Lycaon. He was not there. She looked back at the man on the floor, panic fully taking over.
"Ahhh! What do I do, what do I do?!"
Lying on the ground, listening to the voice above him, Ye Qingfeng briefly considered whether she was planning to leave him there and make her escape. She had certainly not helped him up yet.
*It hurts. It really hurts.*
"I think I can still be saved." He managed to produce a voice, though it came out rough. "Could you help me up?"
"Ah! O, okay!"
Corin set down her shopping basket, quickly moved to his side, grabbed his shoulder with both hands, and hauled upward with surprising force.
He had not expected that. He made it upright, but the sudden movement pulled at his chest, and the pain sharpened into something considerably less pleasant.
"Does it hurt badly?" Corin's eyes had filled with tears again in the span of a sentence. "Should we go to the hospital?"
Ye Qingfeng felt something pressing into his thigh. He looked down and found a small face looking up at him, eyes brimming, the serrated metal trim of her skirt hem digging lightly into his leg.
He was not going to think too hard about the design philosophy behind a skirt with spiked edges. What he did know was that if either of them moved suddenly, the situation was going to get significantly worse.
"I'm fine, it's not serious." He kept his voice very calm and very clear. "Miss Corin, please don't move. Whatever you do, please stay exactly where you are."
He had used her name without thinking, and only noticed afterward.
Corin went visibly still. The tears that had been welling up stopped as if on command. She stood perfectly upright and did not move, like a small soldier awaiting orders.
Ye Qingfeng took two careful steps back and exhaled properly for the first time in several minutes.
With a bit of distance between them, he got a proper look at her.
A delicate face, pale skin. Because he was looking at her, a light blush had crept into her cheeks, giving her the look of cherry blossoms catching early morning light. Wide, clear purple eyes held a trace of confusion and something genuinely innocent. Soft tawny hair in twin-tails, eyebrows the same color as her hair.
He noticed one particular detail and filed it away thoughtfully.
Corin had remained completely still the entire time he was looking at her, which was approximately ten seconds. She was visibly nervous about it, a trace of timidity moving through her expression. She bit her lower lip lightly.
The maid outfit was classic in cut, black and white, pleated skirt, genuinely elegant. The metal accessories on the hem, collar, and in her hair were the more surprising element.
She was, in short, very cute. And her current expression made him want to give her a hard time, which he recognized as a character flaw.
"You can move now."
Corin's posture relaxed all at once, though she still looked nervous and somehow more so.
"Does your chest still hurt?" Her eyes moved to the side, avoiding his directly. Her voice was very quiet. "And, um. How did you know Corin's name. And why were you staring at Corin just now."
He had expected someone saying something like that to be sharp about it. A clipped, direct demand for an explanation. This was something else entirely. Soft, careful, as though she was worried about saying the wrong thing.
Bullying her would absolutely produce an overwhelming sense of guilt. It would also, without question, be very interesting.
"I didn't expect Miss Corin's head to be quite so solid, but I'm fine now." Ye Qingfeng's expression settled into something pleasantly unhelpful. "As for how I know your name, that's a secret. And whether you really want to know the reason I was looking at you, well. Do you?"
"Oh, I'm so glad you're okay!"
Corin released a long breath. Knowing he was not seriously hurt, the worst of the tension left her, though it barely showed on her face.
"Um. Corin would like to know."
She turned her head to look at something else. Her cheeks were still faintly flushed. Both hands found the sides of her skirt. She drew a small breath and spoke in a voice that was barely audible.
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