"Where are we going?"

Xu Ye had come over in Zhao Ming's car. Chen Qingqing and Zhang Ruowei had taken the back seat, and it was Chen Qingqing who spoke up.

Before Xu Ye could answer, Zhao Ming, their host, grinned. "To my place, for dinner."

Zhang Ruowei laughed too. "With the two of them along, I'm suddenly not nervous at all… Zhao Ming, can you tell your mom to stop calling me 'Sweetheart'? Every time she does it, it's fine if nobody's around, but if anyone else is there, I get goosebumps all over."

"I think it's nice. My mom only calls you that because she likes you."

"Then why don't you call me that? Don't you like me?"

"I…!"

Xu Ye rolled his eyes. He had no interest in listening to Zhang Ruowei lecture her boyfriend, so he turned to look out the window. From the back seat, Chen Qingqing poked his arm and passed him an orange lollipop, already unwrapped.

Xu Ye popped it in his mouth and, eyes half closed, happily watched the high-rises on either side sweep past.

Just as he was starting to doze off, Zhang Ruowei looked up from scrolling through Weibo and leaned forward from the back seat, all serious. "Zhao Ming, I have a question for you."

"Go ahead."

Zhang Ruowei glanced at her phone. "If we broke up, would you find a girlfriend who's a lot like me?"

Zhao Ming had long since become immune to this kind of question. Zhang Ruowei sprang them on him out of nowhere all the time, and he had even worked out a technique for answering them.

He smiled and shook his head. "No, because you're irreplaceable."

Then he grinned, very pleased with himself.

Zhang Ruowei couldn't call the answer satisfying, but she couldn't call it unsatisfying either. Still, seeing Zhao Ming handle these so smoothly now annoyed her a little, so she patted Chen Qingqing's thigh and gave her a look.

Chen Qingqing hadn't wanted to play along, but Zhang Ruowei kept giving her looks until she gave in.

So she leaned forward…