To make up for the debt owed to Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

A difference of just one letter can make all the difference.

Since last night, Qing Tian had imagined countless scenarios. If she encountered Wan Xuening, what should she do to avoid embarrassing Zhiyuan? But she couldn't think of anything like this. Shame instantly filled her mind. Her head was buzzing, and she couldn't even hear what they were saying. All she could see were their mocking smiles and their mouths opening and closing.

"sunny!"

A loud shout pierced through all other sounds, clear and powerful, silencing all noise.

He's here...

Ke Qing would rather he not come; she'd rather be trampled into the mud on the other side than let him see this and embarrass him...

She turned and walked towards Zhiyuan, smiling at him casually, "Let's go, Zhiyuan."

That way, he won't know what just happened, right? It's fine for her to suffer alone; Zhiyuan absolutely mustn't know...

But Zhiyuan didn't leave. Instead, he stood beside her and said to the people opposite, "I bought her clothes. If you want to laugh, laugh at me."

After saying that, she looked down at Qingtian with gentle eyes, "I'm sorry, it was my fault for not understanding, and I made you a laughingstock."

Qingtian's mind was buzzing, the sound growing even louder. He actually belittled himself in front of so many people to defend her? Even though their relationship was fake, his defense of her was genuine...

"Eat it quickly, it's going to melt." Zhiyuan peeled off the wrapper from the mung bean popsicle she wanted and handed it to her.

Qingtian quickly took it, but Zhiyuan stretched out his hand in front of her, "Come on, let's go to the front and get ready to check our tickets."

As Qingtian looked at those clean, white hands, her eyes gradually welled up with tears.

"Sunny day! Come on! Run with me!"

Many years ago, in front of that chaotic little fish stall, when she was almost in despair after being beaten by those thugs, he appeared as if from nowhere. He and his friends defeated the thugs. He was the one who, like today, reached out his hand and said to her, "Sunny! Come on! Run with me!"

She once thought it was a life-saving grace from her childhood, a memory that belonged only to her childhood, and that their lives would never overlap again. But she never expected that, many years later, it would still be this hand, these same words, and this same person...

She didn't put her hand in his; instead, he took her hand directly and walked straight to the ticket checkpoint.

Those who had been mocking Wan Xuening were stunned as they watched the two figures walk away.

After a long silence, someone finally said, "Li Zhiyuan bought her knock-off clothes? Li Zhiyuan doesn't even recognize the brands? That's impossible!"

But then someone immediately said, "How is that possible? Li Zhiyuan came back from abroad, how could we not recognize him? Besides, Li Zhiyuan is dressed very well, can't you tell?"

"That……"

"There's only one possibility: Li Zhiyuan is saying he bought it to protect her, and we won't laugh at him anyway."

"Yes, who would dare laugh at him! He's a hot young talent brought in by the institute. Even if his family is dirt poor, no one would dare laugh at him to his face. They would only praise him, saying, 'A talented person can come from a poor family.'"

The more they talked, the uglier Wan Xuening's face became. "Don't men all care about their pride? Does Li Zhiyuan not care about his pride by saying that?"

"Hey, all I can say is that Li Zhiyuan is truly in love with this country girl!"

Upon hearing this, Wan Xuening immediately turned and left.

"Oh, Xue Ning..."

"If you can't speak properly, then don't speak at all! Xue Ning is really angry!"