When did the two of them get so close?

Compared with large-scale shopping malls in the city center, although the foot traffic in the malls of a small county town is quite decent, there are not many high-end brand stores. Even on the first floor, one can barely find a few jewelry shops.

Even if there are any, very few customers linger around them.

People seem much more inclined to stay near food stalls, beverage shops, Miniso, or Muji.

There is no help for it. Over the past couple of years, there has been a general consumption downgrade across the country, and the baseline spending power in a small county town is not high to begin with. Most people come to the mall simply to have a meal or wander around for leisure.

The nearby university town has a night market, and this mall mainly benefits from having air conditioning. In the cold winter evenings, coming here to eat keeps people warm; otherwise, it wouldn't attract such high foot traffic.

Perhaps because of this...

The shopping mall possesses a greater sense of everyday warmth and earthly vibrancy, while lacking that aloof, high-end, and intimidating aura.

In the center of the first floor, there was even a pop-up stall selling clothing for middle-aged and elderly people.

"Your place here really is quite different." Xia Qianyi wore a black face mask designed to flatter her facial contours, perfectly wrapping up her breathtaking and devastatingly gorgeous face.

Compared to those ultra-high-end shopping malls that feel immensely luxurious—where a single restroom costs tens of millions to build and people flock to take check-in photos—Xia Qianyi genuinely preferred this kind of small mall brimming with human warmth and local flavor.

"What's so different about it? They're all just places selling things to scam me out of my money." Gu Yin shook his head. Having grown accustomed to a small town, he naturally couldn't perceive anything strange about it.

Led by Gu Yin, the three of them took the elevator all the way up to the fourth floor and found a barbecue restaurant named "Sister Bai's Qiqihar Barbecue" in the northwestern corner.

The proprietress, Sister Bai, was a middle-aged woman with a somewhat plump figure, wearing an extremely kind and honest smile.

She seemed to know Gu Yin, waving to greet him as he appeared. Then, shifting her gaze, she noticed two girls following behind him. One of them had short hair, a tall and slender figure, which immediately made her eyes light up. Pulling Gu Yin aside, she asked,

"Girlfriend?"

"I wish..." Gu Yin shook his head with an awkward smile.

If he dared to say "yes," he figured Xia Qianyi's chubby assistant, Mengmeng, would probably ask him what species of toad he fancied himself to be.

Although the venue couldn't compare to the Japanese restaurant Xia Qianyi had taken him to last week, this place also featured "small booth" style seating with standard Korean-style interior decoration, and the barbecue tables were just very ordinary, modest-sized tables.

"You're quite considerate." Upon entering the private booth, sitting down, and removing the black face mask, Xia Qianyi could not help but praise Gu Yin.

On the way here, she had been worried that Gu Yin would pick some highly public venue. It wasn't that she was being overly squeamish, but rather that she was afraid of people snapping unflattering photos of her.

Fortunately, Gu Yin was thoughtful, and she was quite satisfied with the place he had chosen.

Not only was she satisfied with the venue, but she was also very pleased with the food.

"A plate of snowflake beef, a plate of chuck flap, a plate of rib fingers, a plate of Qiqihar seasoned meat..."

In daily life, Gu Yin was rather stingy, but when it came to eating, he was surprisingly generous. Since they were here for barbecue, he scanned the QR code on his phone and immediately started adding dishes to the cart, piling up five or six plates of meat in the blink of an eye.

The prices of the meat here were quite acceptable to Xia Qianyi, averaging around fifty or sixty yuan per plate, and they were all beef. Judging by the pictures, the meat looked very fresh, but she wondered if it might be a bit too expensive for consumption levels in a small county town.

Three plates already came to a hundred and sixty or seventy yuan...

This lingering doubt vanished the moment the dishes were served.

A waiter brought a plate of snowflake beef—with its fat and lean meat distributed in a remarkably beautiful marbling pattern—and placed it on the table. Each slice of beef was very thick, forming a generous pile of seventeen or eighteen slices that delivered a powerful visual impact!

"Hand-cut?" Xia Qianyi's eyes lit up.

"I didn't expect you to know your stuff..." Gu Yin used a pair of tongs to pick up a piece of white fat from the top of the beef, rubbed it left and right across the hot griddle, and amid a sizzling sound, the pan was soon coated with a layer of glistening oil.

Gu Yin explained as he laid down the meat: "That proprietress is from the Northeast. The meat at her place is shipped directly from up there. The quality is great, and the portions are generous."

In his daily life, Gu Yin was indeed the thrifty sort. After all, money is hard to earn and living is tough. To him, money should either not be spent at all, or spent where it counts most.

The day he went to the city center with a Japanese restaurant with Xia Qianyi, a single plate of snowflake Wagyu cost over a thousand yuan, making one think it was made of gold...

The plate in front of him was also snowflake beef, and while the coloring was indeed slightly different, this plate cost only sixty-eight yuan, meaning one could easily eat their fill for over a thousand yuan.

"It had to be you." Xia Qianyi looked around the restaurant. "I'm remembering this place."

"What for?" Gu Yin took off his coat and asked while grilling the meat, "You gonna treat me here next time?"

"...Why are your thoughts always so full of wishful thinking?" Xia Qianyi rolled her eyes and picked up the nearby teapot. "Want a refill?"

"Sure, suit yourself." Gu Yin casually handed over his cup.

"Hmph." Xia Qianyi curled her lips, poured tea for him, and said, "Next time you want a drink, just say it directly. Don't beat around the bush like this."

"Can't you just pour it for me directly?" Gu Yin argued unreasonably.

"You!" Xia Qianyi secretly gritted her teeth...

With the two of them bantering back and forth, the atmosphere inside the small booth turned out to be surprisingly pleasant.

Only...

Standing to the side, Xia Qianyi's assistant, Mengmeng, kept glancing back and forth between Xia Qianyi and Gu Yin, an inexplicable look in her eyes.

Wait a minute...

When did these two get so familiar with each other?

If she remembered correctly, during the days she wasn't around, the two of them had only practiced driving together for a single day, right?

This morning, they still seemed like complete strangers. How did they end up bickering so naturally by now?

"This is getting a bit dangerous," Mengmeng thought to herself.

If things continued to develop this way, might these two actually end up sparking some romantic chemistry?

At this thought, Mengmeng's lips twitched frantically...

Not just Mengmeng, but even some fans in the live broadcast room of "Reconciling with Life" felt that something was amiss...

The barrage of comments scrolled continuously:

[I've never seen the goddess get this familiar with anyone before...]

[She never joked around with others this often on variety shows either!]

[How bizarre... Could she have fallen for this Coach Gu?]

[Oh... A bizarre new CP has been born.]

Because the camera lens had been left running a bit too late this morning, the broadcast had run slightly overtime, and Gu Yin figured he would have to wait until he sent Xia Qianyi home before turning it off.

"I'm going to the restroom."

Halfway through the meal, nature called. Gu Yin gave Xia Qianyi a heads-up and stepped outside.

Every floor of the mall had a restroom, and Gu Yin was fairly familiar with this place, knowing full well where the facilities were. At first, he wasn't in a huge rush and walked leisurely, but upon arriving and finding the restroom under maintenance, he almost dropped dead on the spot...

With no other choice, crossing his legs, he dashed up to the 5th floor.

As he passed by a storefront, he scratched his head:

"When did an agency open up here?"