Pursuing Her Best Friend after Confession Failed

Every day was scheduled to the brim, making life incredibly fulfilling.

Zhihu had been online for almost a month, and while the pace of new user acquisition had significantly slowed, the user activity level remained consistently high thanks to the various sections Li Yuan had designed.

Meanwhile, *Honor of Kings*, the game Li Yuan valued most, had also entered its final stages. According to reports from Hu Zhenqiang, Xie Zheng, and the others, the game’s framework, hero skills, and character modeling were all complete. They had even hired professional voice actors to do the voiceovers. Around the end of December, just before or after New Year’s Day, the game would enter its internal testing phase, making its official launch just a step away.

The game had been in development since early September, nearly three months ago. By the time it reached internal testing, it would be just over four months. For a major game, this progress was incredibly fast.

As for the novel *Battle Starry Sky*, sales skyrocketed thanks to generous fan donations and its explosive popularity. This month’s manuscript fees reached a world-shocking 8,000,000. With such astounding sales, the novel accounted for nearly half of Yuandian Web’s entire market share, and its monthly manuscript fees continued to set new records in the web fiction community. When factoring in the sales dividends from the physical book publication of *Battle Starry Sky*, his earnings from manuscript fees and copyright revenue alone reached an eight-figure sum this month.

What surprised and pleased Li Yuan most, however, was the continued popularity of the Tea Color Moonlight milk tea brand. Thanks to unanimous praise for its ambiance, flavor, and service—compounded by the fact that Li Yuan himself founded it—Tea Color Moonlight had become the most upscale milk tea brand in the country. The lines of people waiting to buy it were endless every day, and it had become a fashionable check-in spot for young people. The slogan "The first cup of milk tea in autumn" had resonated throughout the country, becoming an icon.

After finalizing the expansion of thirty new stores, Li Yuan had already discussed plans with Zhong Tingyue, Bai Weixi, and Su Yunting to launch a new event. The event was finalized as the "Milk Tea Girl" selection campaign. Li Yuan planned to collaborate with the Zhihu website to launch a nationwide ’Milk Tea Girl’ selection campaign. By offering an enormous cash prize to find the nation’s most beautiful ’Milk Tea Girl,’ he aimed to further boost Tea Color Moonlight’s brand recognition and influence across the country.

Over the past week or so, Li Yuan had been joyfully busy. A nagging sense of guilt prompted him to spend more time with his three official girlfriends: Zhong Tingyue, Xia Zhijin, and Bai Weixi. Since time was limited, he naturally spent less time with his "spare tire girlfriend," Qi Siyu.

A little over a week later, after going through the procedures of property transfer, tax payments, and processing the deed, Qi Siyu finally received the first property deed of her life, just as she had wished. Her new home was at Ziyu Mansion, Building 20, Apartment 2603.

Looking at the brand-new property deed in Qi Siyu’s hand, Liang Jingjing remarked with a sigh full of envy, "Siyu, congratulations on owning your first house! You’re officially a resident of Modu now."

"Hehe, thank you!"

"You’ve only been working for a little over a year, and you’re already worth over a million. Hehe, I guess I should start calling you ’Siyu, the little rich lady,’ huh?"

"Hmph, Jingjing, you’re making fun of me again!"

"How could I be making fun of you? I’m incredibly envious! This is a house bought outright with cash, truly worth over a million."

"Hehe, Siyu, for such a memorable moment in your life, aren’t you going to show it off?"

Qi Siyu’s eyes lit up at Liang Jingjing’s suggestion.

"You’re right. I should probably show it off a bit. It might even chase away some pests."

With that, she took out her phone, opened the property deed, and delightedly snapped a photo. After editing it to hide some sensitive information, she uploaded it to her QQ Space and wrote a new post.

"The best birthday gift I’ve ever received! Thanks to a certain someone. Love you, muah! [Blushing] [Heart] [Kiss]"

Liang Jingjing looked at the post and asked in surprise, "Siyu, why didn’t you tag Li Yuan? Or post a photo of you two together?"

Hearing Liang Jingjing’s question, Qi Siyu’s joyful mood soured. She quietly explained, "Jingjing, back in early October, I used Li Yuan as a shield to reject Peng Cheng. After that, he spread a rumor that I was dating a student. The college administrators had a private talk with me, telling me to be mindful of my influence and that I shouldn’t date my own student, so..."

Her voice trailed off sadly. She wanted to show off her love openly, but her position made her afraid to do so.

Liang Jingjing understood instantly. They were both tenured university lecturers within the state system, which meant they were subject to strict school regulations. Even in this day and age, which was much more open-minded, teacher-student relationships were still not widely accepted by society.

In truth, Qi Siyu was only Li Yuan’s academic advisor and had never taught him in any classes, so it wasn’t technically a real teacher-student relationship.

"Siyu, today you got your deed. How about we invite Li Yuan over to celebrate?" Liang Jingjing suggested. "Hehe, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. We have a kitchen here, and we both know how to cook. Let’s make a few of our specialty dishes and invite Li Yuan over to try them..."

After she finished speaking, Liang Jingjing stared at Qi Siyu with anticipation, hoping she would agree to invite Li Yuan over. This was the only way her bold idea might actually work.

At the mention of Li Yuan, Qi Siyu’s eyes instantly lit up. It had been almost two weeks, and she had only seen him twice in that time—and both times were just for a game of ’poker’ in his car.

"I’ll give him a call and ask."