"What, it's your birthday this Saturday?!"
At noon on Wednesday, while having lunch in the cafeteria, Jiang Yuan and Lin Suye ran into Jia Fang. Jia Fang walked over cheerfully with his tray of food and brazenly invited the two of them to his villa party.
Jiang Yuan lowered her head and picked at her food. She said indifferently, "Will Chi Xu go too?"
Lately, she couldn't face the fact that she had fallen for Chi Xu and tried to avoid him as much as possible.
"Yeah, I've invited the guys in my dorm. Lin Suye, you can ask the other girls in your dorm to come too. The more the merrier." Jia Fang turned to look at Lin Suye.
At a long table behind them, Chi Xu sat quietly, actually listening intently and openly eavesdropping on their conversation.
"I'll have to ask the other two. Yuanyuan, are you going? If you go, I'll go too. Otherwise, it'll be so boring for me alone." Lin Suye quickly stuffed a mouthful of food into her mouth and picked up her phone to send a message in the dorm group.
Jiang Yuan tilted her head and thought for a while. She decided she still needed to avoid Chi Xu for a while and was just about to speak.
Jia Fang quickly interrupted her, "Jiang Yuan, you must come. Please. If you don't come, Lin Suye won't come either, and the girls in your dorm definitely won't come. Then my villa party will lose a lot of fun."
He clasped his hands together and bowed his head in a pleading gesture.
"But... I have something to do this weekend." Jiang Yuan made up an excuse on the spot. "I'll give you your gift directly then."
"Hey, Yuanyuan, what do you have to do this weekend? You never mentioned it before." Lin Suye blurted out, inadvertently exposing Jiang Yuan's lie.
Jiang Yuan: "..."
"Jiang Yuan, for the sake of our long acquaintance, please come." Jia Fang winked in Lin Suye's direction. When he saw her about to look over, he quickly sat up straight.
He added, "For my lifelong happiness."
Jiang Yuan's gaze slid from Jia Fang to Lin Suye. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly. She seemed to have guessed something.
He probably wanted to confess his love to Lin Suye on his birthday.
Lin Suye usually seemed carefree and never hesitated to retort when Jia Fang tried to flirt with her. It was hard to tell if she liked him.
"Okay, I'll invite the other girls in our dorm." The other two girls in the dorm group readily agreed.
Jia Fang heaved a sigh of relief. His mission was accomplished.
"You don't need to bring gifts. It would be too formal. I don't care about such trivialities." After all, the villa party under the pretext of his birthday was all a ruse.
"My only request is that you all dress up beautifully."
Everyone wanted to capture their most beautiful moments.
After Jia Fang finished speaking, he carried his tray and sat behind them. He beamed at Chi Xu and gave him a thumbs up.
"Dress up beautifully? It's just a birthday party, not a matchmaking event." Lin Suye tilted her head and murmured softly. "Oh well, it's his birthday. He gets to call the shots."
In a blink of an eye, it was Saturday. Jia Fang had sent the location of the villa and the meeting time in advance. Jiang Yuan thought it was Lin Suye's big moment for a confession, so she didn't want to steal her thunder. She casually picked out a sweater and paired it with a pair of pants. She only put on a very light lipstick.
As she walked out of her room, she looked up and saw Chi Xu.
He was wearing a black overcoat, which was wide open, revealing a light-colored turtleneck sweater inside. He had on a pair of gray wide-leg pants. He looked clean and tidy. With his tall and slender figure, he was sitting lazily on the sofa, playing with Jiao Jiao.
He looked extremely formal.
Hearing the noise, Chi Xu looked up. When he saw Jiang Yuan's casually made-up face, he frowned slightly. He asked gently and tactfully, "Yuanyuan, haven't you put on any makeup?"
Jiang Yuan: "..."
A straightforward idiot!
Jiang Yuan cursed in her heart but didn't show it on her face. She looked cold. She glanced at him and said indifferently, "Jia Fang wants to confess his love to Lin Suye. Why should I dress up nicely? To steal my best friend's future boyfriend?"
Chi Xu finally understood the problem. He rubbed his temples in frustration and decided to activate Plan B.
He would tell Lin Suye the real purpose in advance and ask for her help.
Chi Xu remembered that there was a period when Jiang Yuan was extremely obsessed with novels when they were kids. She had once said firmly,
"If someone confesses their love to me one day, I will definitely dress up beautifully and leave no regrets."
Chi Xu quickly typed a message to Jia Fang, who would then pass it on to Lin Suye. He would stall for time in the living room.
Sure enough, Lin Suye's phone rang. Jiang Yuan answered it curiously.
"Yuanyuan, what are you wearing? Have you put on makeup? I realized I'm dressed very flamboyantly. I look so good."
"That's great. I'm just wearing something casually. What's wrong?"
On the other end of the phone, Lin Suye said in frustration, "Jiang Yuan, I order you to go back and change your clothes right away. Put on some proper makeup. You must look beautiful..."
Jiang Yuan was confused but stupidly agreed to Lin Suye's request to dress up and put on makeup.
"You can go. There's still plenty of time." Chi Xu said softly.
Jiang Yuan glanced at him and immediately went back to get herself ready.
More than an hour later, Jiang Yuan came out again.
She had changed into a long black velvet mermaid dress. Over it was a fluffy milk-colored coat. Her hair was half-up. She had put on a light makeup.
She looked completely different, refreshing and eye-catching.
Chi Xu checked the time. He hailed a taxi and went to the pre-booked villa with Jiang Yuan.
They arrived just in time for dinner. A group of people went to have dinner merrily.
Lin Suye hugged Jiang Yuan and said with a smile, "Sure enough, you look much better like this."
Jiang Yuan rolled her eyes at her. "You're not dressed that flamboyantly. It's just a normal outfit. Why do you demand that I be so elegant? And Yu Huan and Su Kexin, you two are dressed too casually."
Yu Huan looked around curiously and said indifferently, "We're not the main characters. What's the use of looking good?"
"Yeah, the main character is Jia Fang. It's his birthday today." Su Kexin nodded in agreement.
A villa party, as the name suggests, is a comprehensive entertainment venue that combines leisure, entertainment, and accommodation. Since it's held in a villa, it's also called a villa bash.
"Jia Fang is really rich. I never noticed before. How much does it cost to rent such a big villa for a day?" Lin Suye smacked her lips and shook her head.
It seemed that Jia Fang had really put a lot of thought into it. Jiang Yuan just smiled and said nothing.
The four girls walked behind, looking around as they walked. The other four boys walked in front, huddled together and whispering.
"We need to go all the way with this. I've ordered a two-tiered cake. It will be delivered at around five or six o'clock in the evening. I've also decorated the rooftop. I just don't know how to lure Jiang Yuan up there."
Chi Xu deliberately lowered his voice, trying to come up with a foolproof plan.
He Suyan had an idea. He said excitedly, "Is the switch for the villa on the upper floor? We can turn it off on purpose and ask Jiang Yuan to turn it on."
Jiang Kuo quickly picked up the conversation. "Perfect. The switch is right at the entrance to the rooftop. If we leave the rooftop door slightly ajar, Jiang Yuan will naturally go in to take a look when she sees it."