Once he had seen his mom, his dad and his uncle out, Zhao Ming breathed a long sigh of relief.

He lay down on the bed, hesitated for a while, and told Zhang Ruowei about it after all. He put it as gently as he could, but the moment Zhang Ruowei heard that Zhao Ming's family all knew about her and wanted to meet her, she thought back to what Xu Ye had said last time, and her nerves went to pieces.

Winning Zhao Ming over was easy enough, as far as Zhang Ruowei was concerned.

But it was exactly as Xu Ye had said. Men like that uncle of his could all read people like a book, and getting past him was not going to be easy.

Zhang Ruowei checked the time, then turned her head toward Chen Qingqing across the room. Finding her inside her mosquito net on a video call with Xu Ye, Zhang Ruowei climbed straight down from her own top bunk in her pajamas, up onto the top bunk across the room, pulled Chen Qingqing's net open, and burrowed right in.

Chen Qingqing yelped at once. "Zhang Ruowei! What do you think you're doing~"

Zhang Ruowei squeezed in beside her and got under the covers with her, beaming. "I've got something to ask Xu Ye."

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"Aiya, it'll only take a second — mua~" Zhang Ruowei put an arm around Chen Qingqing and planted a kiss on her cheek. There was no arguing with her, so Chen Qingqing held the phone up again.

Xu Ye had heard the whole exchange.

Seeing a second face on the screen, he asked, "Miss Zhang, looking for me this late — don't tell me it's still about you and Zhao Ming?"

"Don't play dumb."

"Haven't the two of you been doing fine lately?"

Zhang Ruowei sighed. "Zhao Ming just told me his parents and his uncle turned up at his place tonight out of nowhere. What his parents are saying is that I don't have to go to their house for the time being, but…