There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Extra 15.1

On the way back to the hotel, for most of the journey in the limousine, only Lu Yinong’s chattering voice could be heard.

“Qin Ke, your boyfriend is so handsome. Is he a celebrity?”

“…No,” Qin Ke in the front passenger seat reluctantly replied, glancing at Huo Jun who was driving.

Hearing this, Lu Yinong giggled, “Oh, he’s not? It’s such a waste for someone so handsome not to be a celebrity! But you’re so trusting. At the airport, I saw many people looking at your boyfriend. If I were you, I’d definitely want to hide him away.”

“Heh…” Qin Ke smiled outwardly, but her inner expression was blank.

The girl next to Lu Yinong, a graduate student from the same school, seemed to finally have enough. She reached out and lightly tugged at Lu Yinong.

Lu Yinong dodged to the side, “Ouch, that tickles! Don’t tease me, I’m very sensitive there.”

“…” The girl awkwardly withdrew her hand.

Lu Yinong’s gaze had already fallen on the car interior. “Wow, this armrest feels so nice. Is it real leather? And there’s even a built-in refrigerator! Qin Ke, isn’t this car very expensive?”

Qin Ke didn’t want to speak anymore. Only because of their teacher relationship, she couldn’t directly kick Lu Yinong out of the car. Her voice was slightly tense.

“I’m not really sure.”

“It must be expensive,” Lu Yinong sighed, “Your boyfriend is probably younger than us, right? It’s so enviable that he has his own car at such a young age…”

“It’s rented,” a cold voice suddenly interjected.

Everyone was stunned.

Lu Yinong, after a moment of shock, quickly looked up at the driver’s seat. “Huh? What did you say?”

“…” Those pitch-black eyes glanced in the rearview mirror, cold and indifferent.

“This car. It’s rented. I’m a poor student. Can’t afford to buy one.”

Everyone: “……”

Qin Ke, after a moment of surprise, looked helplessly at the driver’s seat. But seeing his serious expression, she couldn’t help but want to laugh.

Lu Yinong came to her senses, “Oh my, Qin Ke, your boyfriend sure knows how to joke—your top, pants, and shoes are all from Givenchy’s new collection this year, aren’t they? They must cost tens of thousands together. How could you be a poor student? Haha…”

Qin Ke’s eyes moved, her gaze falling on Huo Jun. She hadn’t really noticed what brand of clothes Huo Jun was wearing, but Lu Yinong had figured it out after just a glance.

Just as Qin Ke was curious about how Huo Jun would respond, she heard a lazy voice from the driver’s seat.

“Oh, I just bought these from a night market stall yesterday. The imitation is pretty good, right?”

Though phrased as a question, his tone was completely calm and nonchalant.

He’s telling such a blatant lie with a straight face.

Qin Ke smiled and lowered her eyes.

Just as Qin Ke finished this thought, she heard that lazy voice drifting over again.

“Qin Qin, I’ve used up my allowance. When we get to the hotel, can you give me another half month’s worth?”

Everyone in the back seat: “……”

Qin Ke: “?”

When had she ever given him an allowance? She didn’t even know about it herself.

Lu Yinong laughed nervously. “Why… why are you asking Qin Ke for an allowance?”

This time, Huo Jun didn’t even look in the rearview mirror, lazily responding. “Well, aren’t I a kept man?”

“……”

It was the first time they’d seen such an honest “kept man,” and the four people sitting in the back were nearly petrified.

If it weren’t for someone’s very convincing performance, Qin Ke might have burst out laughing.

After this comment, the car finally passed the rest of the journey in silence.

Half an hour later, the group arrived at the underground parking lot of the seaside hotel.

While the four in the back were getting out of the car, Huo Jun suddenly unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over, pressing Qin Ke, who was about to leave her seat, back down.

Close to the girl’s ear, his low voice carried a hint of dissatisfaction.

“What kind of friend is this?”

Qin Ke, for some reason, had the illusion of being licked and cuddled by a large dog. She couldn’t help but laugh softly, “I told you, she’s not a friend. We just met at a seminar because of my advisor. The advisor insisted, so I had no choice but to come along.”

Huo Jun let out a light snort.

“You didn’t even stand up for me earlier.”

“…What was I supposed to say?” Qin Ke blinked innocently.

Huo Jun swept his dark eyes over her.

“That woman obviously wants to sleep with me.”

Qin Ke was stunned. The use of this verb made her heart, liver, spleen, and lungs tremble slightly.

“Aren’t you overthinking…”

Huo Jun looked down coldly.

“Before getting in the car, she secretly rubbed against my pant leg – if you weren’t here, I would have kicked her out of the car already.”

Qin Ke was taken aback. “Rubbed your pant leg?” She really hadn’t noticed this, but it explained Huo Jun’s comments in the car.

When she realized the sexual implications of this action, Qin Ke’s expression cooled a bit.

—

She had disliked Lu Yinong from the moment they met, and her incessant questioning had been irritating, but Qin Ke never imagined Lu Yinong would do something like this behind her back.

Meanwhile, Huo Jun had already drawn his conclusion–

“So, remember to protect me.”

Qin Ke: “……”

Huo Jun raised his hand, unbuckled her seatbelt, and pushed open the passenger side door before getting out from the other side.

“I just checked, there’s a hotel-run buffet restaurant on the second floor. I heard it’s very luxurious! Why don’t we all go there for lunch today?” Lu Yinong said with a bright smile, coming over and linking arms with Qin Ke as if they were close friends.

“Let’s go, Qin Ke! I’ll treat you all to lunch today, as thanks for giving us a ride!”

“That’s not neces-”

Before Qin Ke could finish, she was already being dragged away.

As the saying goes, don’t hit a smiling face. Even though Qin Ke wanted to push this person away, faced with that bright smile, she could only endure it.

Taking the elevator, the six of them went directly to the buffet restaurant on the second floor of the hotel. The waiter led them to a six-person table by the window, thwarting Qin Ke’s plan to sit separately.

As the main course, each person was served a portion of lobster and steak.

After getting some food, everyone sat down at the table.

Qin Ke occasionally glanced up at the plate in front of Huo Jun – having been close to him for several years, she was very familiar with some of his little habits: being picky about food was one of them.

Huo Jun had lived in poverty as a child. His picky eating habits were “trained” into him later when he came to the Huo family, by the etiquette teacher hired by Huo Shengfeng. In the words of the Michelin-starred chef specially hired for the Huo family’s old mansion, an almost severe pickiness towards fine cuisine should be one of the qualities possessed by those capable of living an upper-class lifestyle.

Qin Ke couldn’t agree with this idea, but she understood that Huo Jun had been “tormented” in this way for nearly twenty years, making his palate extremely picky.

The quality of this hotel’s buffet wasn’t low, but it was still far from Huo Jun’s usual dining standards.

Qin Ke cut a small piece of steak and put it in her mouth.

A few seconds later, she frowned.

The meat quality was average, and it was slightly overcooked… In conclusion, Huo Jun definitely wouldn’t be used to it.

Thinking this, Qin Ke looked up and saw Huo Jun with a tense, handsome face, expressionlessly poking at the steak in front of him with the tip of his fork.

Apparently having judged something from its elasticity, that long, beautiful hand holding the fork turned towards the porcelain plate in front of him that basically only held salad.

Just as Qin Ke was about to say something, she felt Lu Yinong, sitting next to her, nudge her with an elbow, smiling.

“Qin Ke, your boyfriend doesn’t seem to like Western buffets, does he? I see he’s only chosen some salad. Is he not used to using a knife and fork?”

“…”

Qin Ke frowned.

Although these words were still accompanied by a smile, Qin Ke could hear the underlying contempt and mockery – apparently, Lu Yinong had taken Huo Jun’s words in the car seriously.

Qin Ke pressed down her knife and fork, about to speak.

“It’s called controlling your diet.”

“?”

Qin Ke turned her head in slight surprise, looking across the table.

The young man was lazily lowering his eyes. Light fell through the floor-to-ceiling window beside him, jumping onto his slightly upturned hair tips, sliding to his long eyelashes, and finally casting a faint fan-like shadow on his pale skin, as pleasing to the eye as a painting.

After saying that, Huo Jun seemed to feel it wasn’t enough.

He propped his elbow up, lazily supporting his chin as he raised his eyes.

“I’m on a diet, can only eat salad.”

“……”

Lu Yinong froze for several seconds before regaining her smile, “You maintain such a good figure, so you control your diet too. But it’s rare to hear about men dieting…”

“I’m different, aren’t I a kept man?”

Huo Jun said it as if it were perfectly natural.

“…”

Qin Ke personally witnessed a previously shy waiter turn back with a horrified expression.

While the person across from her, with his handsome face, was shamelessly spouting nonsense—

“In our profession, it’s usually competitive recruitment. My Qin Qin has too many options, I have to maintain a sense of crisis.”

Qin Ke: “……”

Keep boasting.

The girl at the table who rarely spoke had started coughing in shock, and the others had expressions too complex to describe. They all unanimously glanced at Qin Ke.

Qin Ke: “…” It’s not true, I didn’t, he’s talking nonsense.

Unfortunately, having tacitly agreed in the car earlier, it was too late to deny it now. Qin Ke could only swallow her pride, eat her meal expressionlessly, pretending not to hear the blatant lies from across the table.

However, just as she wanted to play deaf and dumb, someone didn’t let her have her way.

“Oh, Qin Ke, I forgot to ask earlier, where did you and your boyfriend meet?”

Qin Ke mumbled vaguely. “High school classmates.”

“Oh? So he should still be in school, right?” Lu Yinong asked with a smile, “Which school is he studying at?”

“…”

Qin Ke looked up across the table. After spouting nonsense, the person in question had apparently lost interest in these people and this lunch, and had started staring out the window absentmindedly.

He really didn’t care at all about what others thought.

But Qin Ke didn’t like it. She didn’t like the contemptuous and disdainful looks the two men at the table had given Huo Jun earlier. It made her feel uncomfortable for Huo Jun from the bottom of her heart.

“…He’s at the same university as me.”

Qin Ke heard her own voice become as cold as his.

The other four at the table were stunned. “Sa-same university? A University?”

“…”

Huo Jun seemed a bit surprised too, shifting his gaze back from the window.

Qin Ke lowered her eyes, smiling faintly.

“Yes, A University, Business Department.”

“…!”

The table fell into dead silence.

The four of them were several years older than Qin Ke, but they had been interacting with her as if she were their peer, mainly because of Qin Ke’s educational background.

A University was one of the top universities in the country. In terms of admission difficulty and student quality, undergraduates were even more impressive than graduate students. None of the four had managed to get into A University, not even for graduate studies.

Even those who weren’t A University students knew that the Business Department was A University’s trump card. Getting into its undergraduate program was arguably the most difficult in A University. So this person who had been calling himself a kept man…

Their expressions suddenly became as complex as if they had swallowed flies.

Realizing he was once again the center of attention, Huo Jun was silent for two seconds before saying, “I just got lucky on the entrance exam.”

Everyone: “……” Could you really guess your way from 75 points to 750? Only a ghost would believe that!

Huo Jun apparently felt his explanation wasn’t convincing either. After a few more seconds of silence, he shifted the responsibility.

“It’s mainly because my Qin Qin taught me well.”

Everyone: “?”

Huo Jun calmly and skillfully continued, “Oh, don’t you know?” His surprised expression was clearly perfunctory. “Qin Qin won first prize in the national competition in her second year of high school. She got early admission to A University.”

“?!”

All eyes turned to her.

The conflict was successfully transferred.

Qin Ke looked helplessly at Huo Jun.

“You two… are really amazing,” Lu Yinong said, a flash of jealousy passing through her eyes.

The girl on her other side joked in admiration. “Indeed, geniuses only date geniuses, right? If you two get married in the future, won’t your children’s IQs be off the charts?”

Hearing this, Huo Jun frowned.

“No children.”

This time even Qin Ke was a bit surprised, because she heard clearly – there wasn’t a hint of joking in his words. His tone was more serious than it had been all day.

She looked up at him across the table in surprise.

Beside her, Lu Yinong had already asked for her. “Why? Children are so cute.”

“Cute to whom?” Huo Jun gave her a cold glance, his gaze falling on Qin Ke. “It’s enough that my Qin Qin only loves me.”

“…Ugh, you two are so mushy.”

The two girls at the table laughed, but Qin Ke just wanted to cover her eyes and sigh.

—

They all thought Huo Jun was being romantic, but Qin Ke, the only one at the table who truly understood him, knew: Huo Jun’s abnormal possessiveness was at work again. He was being as serious as he could possibly be.

****