Everyday Romance After Becoming a Billionaire

"We’re just going to go for a stroll. You stay and chat with your mom, don’t worry about us."

Xiao Wanqing stopped Liu Jinyu, then shouted over to Su Ran, who was fishing, "Su Ran, we’re heading out~"

"Be safe," Su Ran called back.

"Okay."

The three girls nodded, waved to Liu Jinyu and Nanny Liu, then walked out, chatting and laughing.

The afternoon sun shone on the three girls’ fair, slender legs beneath their skirts.

It was a sacred, inviolable territory for a girl, one that no man had ever touched—save for the sun, which could profane it.

Except for Su Ran!

I mean, you have to use your hands for a spa treatment. It’s not like Su Ran had any bad intentions.

The sun was bright, and time passed peacefully.

"Hehe~"

Aina let out a laugh as light as an oriole’s song. She glanced at a nerdy guy passing by. When the guy saw this great beauty from the Western Regions looking at him with a smile, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. His face flushed red in an instant, and he quickly stared down at his phone, hurrying away. After getting some distance, however, he turned back to sneak a peek at the three departing beauties. Just then, Aina glanced back at him. The nerd immediately whipped his head around in embarrassment and scurried off. He finally understood why the ancient kings had tried every means possible to conquer the Western Regions.

A beauty capable of toppling nations would naturally turn heads, and Aina was long used to it. But this time, it just reminded her of a certain someone.

"You know... Su Ran is a nerd too, so why is he so different from other nerds? Hmm..." Aina propped her chin on her hand, pondering for a few seconds before continuing, "A normal nerd would be shy and sneak glances. Not him. He stares openly and even critiques our outfits. And if you call him a pervert, he’ll give you a dead-serious lecture about how it’s not perversion, it’s just ’opposites attract,’ or ’magnetic fields,’ or ’beautiful things are meant to be appreciated.’ Basically, he uses a pile of stinking logic to convince you he’s not a pervert."

Aina’s words struck a chord with Xie Yiren.

"Exactly! Su Ran has so many justifications. He insisted on seeing the Phoenix on my back, claiming it was for ’aesthetics’ and ’art,’ not anything lewd."

Heh.

Xiao Wanqing glanced at the two simple, sweet girls and delivered Su Ran’s death sentence without hesitation: "He’s just a pervert!"

And...

"Su Ran is different from other perverts. He’s a top student, a man of profound knowledge and culture. When a guy like that decides to be a pervert and act like a hooligan, it’s terrifying. He’s got his logic down pat, so he can be a hooligan ’openly and honorably.’ You can’t even argue with him. In short, he’s just very ’bad’."

Xiao Wanqing recalled Su Ran’s massage last night. The massage itself was proper, and yet... not so proper.

’Hmm, how to put it... it was very provocative. The kind of provocation that seeped into your bones and made you go weak.’

Especially.

When she’d bitten her lip, resentfully reached out to pinch Su Ran, and cursed, ’You’re awful!’, thinking he was doing it on purpose, he had put on a perfectly righteous expression and said, ’This is ergonomics. I read about it in a foreign book. When a person is tired, they need to enjoy full-body relaxation. You have to relax first, don’t be so tense.’ And he’d added a kind smile, completely devoid of any ill intent.

Xiao Wanqing believed him and did as he said.

She could have died of embarrassment.

Thinking back on it later, Xiao Wanqing was convinced: Su Ran was just being a pervert. He was bored alone late at night and decided to mess with her for fun.

Bad~

’Hmm, girls probably like this type of guy: the honest man + a little bit of a bad boy.’

’If a guy is just bad and not the least bit honest, girls won’t like him.’

’If he’s just honest, girls feel nothing for him. Though, they might keep him in mind for later, when they’re tired of playing the field, don’t want to mess around anymore, and are ready to get married. Then, they might consider the honest man.’

Of course, the three of them knew very well that Su Ran didn’t just fit into the categories above. Even if he were ’both bad and dishonest,’ and even if he didn’t know the four of them, plenty of girls would still try everything to get close to him and become his girlfriend.

For no other reason than this: he was handsome and rich.

But, having known Su Ran for a while, they felt from the bottom of their hearts that he was already an outstanding person. At the very least, he could give a girl a sense of stability and security.

Xiao Wanqing took a deep breath, feeling pleased in body and mind. She hailed a taxi and let Aina and Xie Yiren get in. Then, she glanced back toward the farmhouse, a trace of regret in her beautiful eyes.

Meanwhile, Su Ran and Professor Liu were having a pleasant chat.

Professor Liu was a man of profound learning. From outer space to the inner uterus, there was nothing he didn’t know.

The topic shifted from animal husbandry to matters of the heart.

Professor Liu noticed that Su Ran wasn’t just on good terms with his daughter, but also with her three friends. If Su Ran were plain-looking, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But unfortunately, the bastard was handsome as hell, and rich too.

This inevitably made Professor Liu worry that one man might mess up the relationship between his daughter and her friends, which wouldn’t be good.

Professor Liu tossed a handful of bait toward the fishing float, clapped his hands clean, and asked with a smile, "I can see you’re quite close with Jinyu and her three friends?"

Su Ran nodded and said, "Yeah, I met them through Jinyu. We get along well, so I’d say we’re good friends now."

"Oh..." Professor Liu nodded, paused for a moment, then asked, "Those three young ladies don’t have boyfriends, right?"

Su Ran spread his hands. "They probably don’t want boyfriends, or maybe their standards are just ridiculously high. They wouldn’t look twice at an average guy."

Professor Liu laughed. "That’s true. They’re probably looking for a boyfriend like you, hahaha..."

Su Ran heard the implication in Professor Liu’s words. He just shook his head with a smile and said, "We’re just friends. You’re overthinking it."

"Is that so?"

"Of course," Su Ran said, his tone firm as cutting iron.

He had no desire to be stomped to death by high heels, then chopped in two—one half put in a jar and made into a human Gu, the other half air-dried into a raisin.

’Date a whole group of best friends? Go all in?’

’Heh. Sorry, but my life is more important.’

Su Ran didn’t want to discuss these matters of love and romance. He never liked talking about such things, so he let out a deliberate yawn.

"If you’re used to taking an afternoon nap, go find a place to rest for a bit. Don’t mind me."

"Actually, I don’t usually nap in the afternoon. I just haven’t been resting well these past couple of days."

"..."

’What does he mean, he hasn’t been resting well?’

Professor Liu’s smile froze on his face.

Su Ran stretched. "I am a little sleepy. Uncle Liu, you take your time fishing. I’m going to go get some rest."

"..."

Professor Liu watched his daughter’s boyfriend get up with a weary expression, pound his lower back, and walk away.

KRA-KOOM!

It was as if a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky had struck Professor Liu.

’Is this the feeling of a father whose little padded jacket, which he’d protected so carefully, has just been nabbed by a pig?’

"Fish my ass."

Professor Liu balled up a piece of bait the size of a sandbag, smashed it down where his float was, and seethed with anger.

The fat guy next to him wasn’t happy. "Hey, Specs, what the hell’s wrong with you? Why you gotta mess up my fishing spot?"

Huh?

Professor Liu looked over and realized he’d thrown it right into the burly man’s fishing spot next to him. He quickly offered up a cigarette to apologize.

Su Ran didn’t notice the little incident by the fishpond. He scanned the farmhouse resort. It was large-scale, with a predominantly Chinese style of decor. Beneath the pavilions and terraces, some young women in vibrant Hanfu were posing for photos, arching their backs to accentuate their curves.

He walked through a long corridor, heading to the backyard to find Liu Jinyu.

The corridor was lined with many decorative paintings. They weren’t by famous masters, but rather the works of unknown artists, probably to decorate the place and elevate the Chinese-style resort’s class. If guests liked them, they could also be purchased; the prices were marked below.

Now that Su Ran had ’Mastery of Tang Yin’s Paintings,’ his painting skill was many times greater than that of the artists whose work hung on the wall.

Therefore, looking at these paintings, he could see much room for improvement.

However...

One painting, in particular, caught Su Ran’s attention.

The piece consisted of only two brushstrokes. One was a vigorous, powerful stroke of crimson sweeping down the center of the rice paper. The other was an elegant, soaring stroke of black, flicked across the crimson one. And that was it.

Simple, just one red and one black, yet they formed the deeply evocative back of a woman in an ancient style.

In the bottom right corner was the signature—Shan Weizi.

"Her?"

Su Ran still had her "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix." He liked it a lot, but it had been damaged. He figured he’d find a chance another day to rethink it, redesigning and recoloring the ruined parts. It wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

To be honest, looking at these two paintings, Su Ran would never have guessed that the artist was a young maiden of eighteen, the same age as him.

’A talented woman.’

Su Ran looked at the price: 998 yuan.

He called a server over, paid by scanning the code, and asked the server to wrap up the painting for him to take later.

He turned and went to the backyard.

Liu Jinyu and her mother were in the backyard, taking pictures and chatting. When they saw Su Ran arrive, Nanny Liu exchanged a few pleasantries with him, then made an excuse to leave the two young people alone.

"What’s over there?"

Liu Jinyu followed Su Ran’s finger and saw a quiet little grove of trees. She bit her lip and shot Su Ran a ’reproachful’ glance before saying casually, "I don’t know either. Let’s go have a look."

She took Su Ran’s hand and led him deeper into the grove.

When they reached a quiet, shaded spot, Liu Jinyu stopped. A certain atmosphere between a man and a woman began to spread silently.

She turned, wrapped her arms around Su Ran’s waist, tilted her head up, and closed her eyes.

Su Ran leaned in and kissed her.

Everything was perfectly in sync.

"Mmm~~~"