"Happy birthday, Ying Zenan."
"Thank you."
Xiao Qinghe held the flowers in her hands and stood in front of Ying Zenan, surrounded by the crowd, celebrating his birthday.
Many people came to celebrate Ying Zenan's birthday.
Ying Jing sat in the corner, and someone took the chance to strike up a conversation with her.
"Jing Bao, why are you sitting here? There are delicious things over there, want to go?"
"Zenan's popularity is so high, even Xiao Qinghe came."
"Could it be that Xiao Qinghe likes your brother!"
...
Ying Jing leaned absent-mindedly against the sofa. Others thought she was staring intently ahead, while in fact, her thoughts had long flown elsewhere.
This is really strange.
Why is Xiao Qinghe at her brother's birthday party now, with her cheeks blushing, looking every bit the shy girl? Anyone could see she had a crush on Ying Zenan.
Wake up, heroine!
Your male lead isn't here.
Leave my brother alone.
This didn't happen in the past life.
Anyone can be her sister-in-law, but not Xiao Qinghe.
Lu Zishu later became so obsessed with Xiao Qinghe, she knew that well.
No way, she can't let her family take the same path as before.
Her brother is such an excellent person, he should shine brightly in the business world.
Even though she tried her best to avoid contact with the original male and female leads.
Why, why, has it still circled back to the plot?
Ying Jing felt a bit irritated.
Suddenly her hand was pulled by something, and she stood up from the sofa.
All the eyes around were on her.
What happened?
She was completely clueless.
Ying Zenan pulled her by the wrist to the cake, which she had personally bought.
Though it was with Ying Zenan's money.
Which led to Ying Zenan complaining about her the whole way because of the cake.
Calling her an ungrateful ingrate, forgetting to prepare a gift for her own brother's birthday.
The reason was she left too hurriedly and forgot to bring money! She hadn't even brought her usual phone.
Ultimately, it was her brother's fault for dragging her out.
Besides Ying Jing, others had also brought cakes, and a corner of the room was specifically cleared to pile up various gifts, which were undoubtedly expensive.
In previous years, these gifts were always opened by Ying Jing, taking several hours.
When it was time to cut the cake, Ying Zenan directly chose the one Ying Jing bought from the pile.
Ying Jing clearly sensed the disappointed gaze of several women in the crowd.
She took a special look at Xiao Qinghe, who seemed quite composed.
Standing modestly in the crowd, right beside Ying Zenan.
Ying Zenan didn't have a girlfriend, so he pulled his unreliable sister, Ying Jing, to cut the cake together.
Everyone present knew that Ying Zenan, despite his sharp tongue, really cared for his sister.
Even though they envied, it was nothing they could help, since it was her good fortune by birth.
Ying Zenan cut the biggest and most delicious-looking piece of fruit on the cake for Ying Jing, keeping one piece for himself. The rest were left for everyone else to share, and the other cakes were quickly divided up too.
Ying Jing had eaten quite a bit at home, so she wasn't very hungry now.
Her brother was being crowded by a group talking noisily, making the room a bit too loud.
Seeking peace, Ying Jing escaped outside.
Occasionally scooping a spoonful of cake into her mouth.
"Why are you here alone? You used to love crowds before."
Ye Qingyu approached her and noticed the cream smeared on the corner of her mouth from her greediness. Instinctively, he raised his hand to help wipe it off, but Ying Jing, wary, tilted to the side almost simultaneously.
His hand hovered awkwardly in midair.
"Why dodge? I just wanted to wipe the cream off your mouth," he said casually, as though it was no big deal.
Ying Jing wiped it with the back of her hand, indeed finding a small smudge near the corner of her mouth.
"It's still not clean."
Seeing Ye Qingyu's hand reaching out again, Ying Jing decisively stuffed the cake into his hands without much thought. "Here, please hold this for me, I need to go to the washroom."
Watching her nearly flee in embarrassment.
Ye Qingyu lowered his head in disappointment.
It was only after Ying Jing realized she ran in the wrong direction that she decided to head downstairs, out of the venue, sitting on a bench beside the road to cool off.
Knowing Ye Qingyu's feelings for her, she had tried to avoid contact with him as much as possible.
In the past, Ye Qingyu kept his emotions somewhat in check, but now his naked gaze nearly betrayed his affection for Ying Jing.
But she was no longer the real Ying Jing.
The Ying Jing whom Ye Qingyu liked no longer existed.
Ying Jing leaned her head back, hanging over the bench, looking at the dark sky.
She let out a long sigh.
"Miss Ying, Zenan was just asking where you'd gone. Why are you sitting here alone!"
Xiao Qinghe needed to return to the film set and was leaving early. She didn't expect to see the dazed Ying Jing here on her way out.
The pretty girl sat there boldly, seemingly unaware of how much attention her beauty was attracting.
The familiar voice startled Ying Jing, almost causing her to topple off the bench.
Xiao Qinghe.
Encountering this person made her bristle all over.
There was no helping it; the shadow of the previous life was too overwhelming.
Xiao Qinghe came from a poor family and nearly couldn't attend college because of financial issues. Later, it was said a mysterious benefactor supported her education. The present Xiao Qinghe was still a small unknown in the entertainment industry, gaining some popularity from starring in a hit novel-turned-web drama.
Acting was Xiao Qinghe's dream.
She struggled in the entertainment circle, with her initial journey fraught with difficulties. She refused to succumb to unspoken rules and was shelved by her agency for over a year.
Later, she met Lu Zishu and gradually rose to fame.
"Is Miss Xiao familiar with my brother?"
Upon mentioning Ying Zenan, Xiao Qinghe softened noticeably.
"Not too familiar, but President Ying helped me, and I'm very grateful to him."
Ying Jing wasn't aware of this. How many changes were there in this world she didn't understand?
She suddenly realized something: as soon as she broke away from the plot's control, it meant she could no longer predict the storyline's trajectory.
The plot might change, perhaps stay the same, or be fragmented.
"I didn't expect my straight-laced brother to actually help others." Ying Jing tried to maintain her composure to draw Xiao Qinghe out.
To her surprise, the other didn't intend to hide anything from her.
"I almost couldn't attend school because of money back then. It was thanks to President Ying's sponsorship that I could study."
Ying Jing was stunned, as if thousands of grass mud horses galloped through her mind. Of all things, she never imagined that her brother was the mysterious benefactor.
Wait, she suddenly remembered when reading the novel, she found some parts too tedious and chose to skip them directly.
When she reincarnated, she was following the later plot.
Which led to her being a bit unfamiliar with the earlier plot.
The novel seemed to sketch a few lines about the identity of the mysterious benefactor. Xiao Qinghe later fell in love with the benefactor who helped her. After confessing, she was ruthlessly rejected, causing her to be downcast for quite some time.