Chapter 31

"Alright, boss, I've arrived at Miss Yan's house, don't worry."

Assistant Meng was relieved that his phone was of good quality, and Miss Yan's father should not have heard what the boss said. This was the only thing he could do to save face for the boss.

He couldn't understand what the boss was thinking. He had already met with Miss Yan's father, and now he was asking him to go back and apologizing for the trouble?

Why was he apologizing just now? Now he remembered to send lipstick to please his female friend, but it was too late.

Song Hai looked at the young man in front of him, who claimed to be the assistant of the second young master of the Yuan family, and although he showed a gentle smile, his chubby body blocked the door, not allowing Assistant Meng to enter. "Mr. Meng, what brings you here?" Last week, he heard a rumor that the second young master of the Yuan family had gone abroad for business. Not long after, someone claiming to be his assistant showed up with a gift. If he didn't have any doubts, that would be strange.

But he also didn't want to make things awkward if the man was telling the truth, so he just blocked him at the door—neither offending nor welcoming him.

Assistant Meng could tell that Song Hai was wary of him, but he didn't take offense. After all, anyone would be cautious when visited by a stranger. Actually, he thought that Miss Yan's father not closing the door in his face already showed some respect.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Yan Xi returned from outside, noticed the young man standing at the door, and assumed he was an employee from Song Hai's company, so she greeted him politely.

"Don't you know this person?" Song Hai's eyes sharpened. This man kept saying he was delivering a gift from the boss, but if the second young master of the Yuan family were really that close to their family, how could Yan Xi not recognize this assistant?

"Is he your employee?" Yan Xi noticed that Assistant Meng was dressed neatly, his tie perfectly arranged, and suddenly realized. "Sorry, we don't buy insurance or handle any business, thank you."

To her surprise, Assistant Meng was momentarily confused, not realizing he was being mistaken for an insurance salesman. "Miss Yan, I'm not here to sell insurance. I'm the assistant of Mr. Yuan Yi."

"Ah?" Yan Xi looked at Assistant Meng a few more times. Her facial recognition ability wasn't strong, so she wasn't sure if she had seen this man before. "What did he ask you to do?"

"This is a gift from Mr. Yuan, please accept it."

"What is it?" Yan Xi didn't reach out to take it. The night before, Yuan Xiao Er had called her and asked if she wanted anything, but she had clearly rejected the offer. Why had he bought something after all?

"It's a set of lipsticks that are very popular with women these days," Assistant Meng explained. Seeing that Yan Xi smiled politely but with a hint of courtesy, he knew that he wouldn't be able to give away the lipsticks unless he clarified everything. "Mr. Yuan didn't know which shade you liked, so he bought the whole set."

"Yuan Xiao Er would buy me lipsticks?" Yan Xi stepped up the stairs and entered the house. Her smile became even more polite. "Sorry, I can't accept such a generous gift, thank you for your kindness, please convey my thanks and best wishes to Mr. Yuan!"

Assistant Meng stood there dumbfounded as the Song family door closed in front of him, struggling to process what had just happened.

"Dad, don't open the door for people we don't know next time," Yan Xi said. There had been a kidnapping incident involving a wealthy family just the day before. The news had been suppressed to avoid causing panic, but she was still cautious.

From what she knew of Yuan Xiao Er, he wouldn't have bought her lipsticks unless something was wrong. She glanced through the peephole and saw the man with the lipsticks had already left. She then collapsed onto the sofa, took out her phone, and called Yuan Yi. She felt it was better to inform him just in case these people weren't targeting her but were plotting something against Yuan Yi.

The Yuan family was a large and wealthy family, with too many interests involved. Who knew what kind of schemes could be at play? She wasn't familiar with the tactics in such families, so it was better to leave it to someone with more experience.

After hearing that Yan Xi wasn't in a relationship, Yuan Yi felt a wave of fatigue disappear. The only regret he had was not being able to personally deliver the lipstick. He leaned back against the headboard, wide awake.

When his phone rang, he saw it was from Yan Xi and immediately answered. He wanted to ask if she liked the lipstick set, but before he could, Yan Xi spoke first.

"Yuan Xiao Er, something happened just now," Yan Xi said with a serious tone. "Someone came to deliver a gift, claiming to be from you."

Yuan Yi: "Huh?"

"Someone brought a whole set of expensive lipsticks, saying they were sent by you," Yan Xi lazily leaned on a pillow. "He thought I was an idiot, but why would you think of sending me lipsticks? That's nonsense. You should be careful; I'm worried someone might be using your name to do something bad."

Yuan Yi was a shining diamond bachelor, and swindlers often used his name to get close to wealthy families with unmarried daughters. By making the families believe he was interested in their daughters, they could manipulate many situations.

Having been in the media industry for so long, he knew that no matter what kind of scam it was, it was always possible for fraudsters to pull something off, no matter how absurd.

"..." Yuan Yi couldn't help but wonder what kind of image he had in Yan Xi's mind, that she would think he wouldn't even send her a set of lipsticks.

The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt. "Why couldn't I send you lipsticks?"

This didn't sound quite right, did it?

Yan Xi cautiously asked, "Could it really have been you who sent it?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

Sometimes silence is the best form of acknowledgment. This was awkward.

"Well, how about you call your assistant back?" Yan Xi realized she might be overthinking it due to her profession. "Sorry, I might be wrong, but... why did you think of sending me lipsticks?"

She could already imagine Yuan Xiao Er secretly laughing at her on the other side of the phone.

But why did Yuan Xiao Er think to send her such a thing?

"This is my apology for waking you up in the middle of the night," Yuan Yi noticed Yan Xi's tone sounded a little strange. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I can't even finish a whole set of lipsticks. Next time you buy something, don't buy so much," Yan Xi sighed in relief. It seemed like she had overthought things. From Yuan Xiao Er's behavior, it didn't seem like he was interested in her. She might just have been too single for too long and developed a narcissistic tendency to think every man was interested in her.

With that kind of confidence, maybe she should go for Miss World.

"You still want a next time?" Yuan Yi raised his voice. "Yan Xi, this is an apology, not a gift." He almost blurted it out but managed to stop himself. Why did he need to care about the different shades of lipstick? In the end, they all looked the same to him.

"I was just about to compliment you on being generous, but now I take it back," Yan Xi kicked her legs and took an apple from the table.

"Why do you sound like you really care about my compliments?" Yuan Yi asked when he heard a strange sound coming from her end. "What's that noise?"

"I'm eating fruit," Yan Xi casually responded. "What, do you want some?"

"Yan Xi, are you even a woman? Talking on the phone while eating?" Yuan Yi couldn't help but ask. "Don't you care about your image?"

"You're neither my boss nor the man I have a crush on, so why should I care about my image?" Yan Xi wiped her mouth. "Big men, can you stop being so pretentious? If we can't even have fun as friends, what's the point?"

Friends?

Yuan Yi rubbed his ear, feeling a bit impatient, and said, "Eat, eat, eat, if you like eating, then eat."

"Never mind, I'll care about your feelings and not eat," Yan Xi turned around and noticed that Song Hai was staring at her intently. She spoke into the phone to Yuan Yi, "I'll hang up now, please apologize to Assistant Mr. for me."

"Alright," Yuan Yi rubbed his nose, feeling strangely guilty, "I'll send you the lipstick tomorrow."

After hanging up, he realized that he had talked to Yan Xi for over ten minutes on the phone.

"It could have been settled with just a few sentences," he shook his head, placing the phone on the nightstand. "Women are really troublesome."

They love talking so much nonsense when on the phone.

"Yan Yan," Song Hai, who had been holding back for a long time, tried to look like an open-minded parent. "Do you know the second young master of the Yuan family?"

"Yeah, we met recently," Yan Xi knew what her father was thinking and immediately emphasized, "He doesn't want to pursue me; we're just ordinary friends."

What Song Hai hadn't asked yet: ...

"Ordinary friends sending you lipstick?" Song Hai held his teacup, with a hint of suspicion in his tone. "Yan Yan, I'm not planning to be some super rich guy, but you really shouldn't force yourself to rely on someone's wealth. Although the Yuan family is rich and powerful, we're not lacking money, right?"

"Dad, what are you thinking?" Yan Xi laughed, "With the Yuan family's financial power, if he really wanted to pursue me, he'd give me a car, a house, jewelry... a lipstick isn't worth mentioning. He knows our family's financial situation, and I'm not short of money for a lipstick."

"That's true, if he really wanted to pursue you, sending you such a thing is really stingy," Song Hai agreed. "When I didn't have much money, I was generous when I was chasing your mother," he said, still believing in his own wisdom. "Anyway, I don't think that Yuan second young master is easy to get along with. He probably has some bad habits, like domestic violence. You should stay away from him."

Yan Xi laughed when she heard that, "Dad, you think too much. Someone like Yuan Xiaoer must have seen all sorts of beauties. Why would he like me?"

"Why wouldn't he like you? You're beautiful and elegant, and you're smart and capable. What reason would he have not to like you?" Song Hai, as always, was blindly confident that his daughter was a little fairy, and all men were divided into two categories: those who were liked by his daughter and those who were not.

Yan Xi had no response. Wasn't her father's attitude a bit contradictory?

At 8:30 PM, The Things Around Us aired as scheduled. The opening scene showed a bustling restaurant kitchen, diners waiting for their meals, and a variety of beautiful dishes.

"Our country has many delicious foods, but often, due to our busy lives, we can't taste them in person or don't want to travel far to enjoy them. It's a shame," the soft voice of the female host sounded like a stream—gentle yet lively. "But today, there are people who have solved this problem for us."

"His name is Zhou Qiang, an ordinary food delivery man. There are countless delivery men like him in the capital."

In the early morning before dawn, the sound of rain poured down. Small restaurants by the roadside were already open, almost like a beautiful scene.

Yuan Yi sat on the sofa, his eyes fixed on the TV.

In the program, Yan Xi's voice occasionally came through, though she rarely appeared on camera.

The cameraman cleverly captured the expressions of customers, the actions of the merchants, and Zhou Qiang's back as he climbed the stairs, his raincoat soaked, and his delivery bag dry without a drop of rain.

"Thank you, the rain is really heavy, you should be careful."

"You're giving me food delivery in such heavy rain, it's really a hassle."

"Goodbye."

The camera slowly pulled away, and some customers only closed their doors after the delivery men had left.

"The rain is cold, but the attitudes of the customers are warm," the female host's voice seemed to carry warmth. "Food delivery meets many people's needs, while also creating job opportunities. Mutual respect brings people closer."

Only when the program ended did Yuan Yi snap out of the atmosphere it had created. He rarely ordered takeout, and almost never interacted with delivery people, but this episode had documented the hard work and touching aspects of the job.

Yuan Yi had expected the program to feature unreasonable shop owners or picky customers, but the footage, from start to finish, was filled with warmth, friendliness, politeness, and hard work. It didn't pit customers against delivery workers or merchants, but rather created a sense of community where everyone needed each other.

After watching the episode, Yuan Yi found himself unexpectedly craving takeout.

Since The Things Around Us had once gone viral online, that night, a netizen posted the episode titled Delivery Worker: The Episode online.

Due to some small marketing accounts reposting it, it quickly attracted some attention.

Netizen 1: "The style of this program is so refreshing. I was waiting for a difficult customer to appear, but by the end, the whole show maintained a warm tone. In the end, I couldn't resist and ordered takeout."

Netizen 2: "You can tell the production team put a lot of effort into it. They didn't look for trouble or blow up conflicts. In fact, most people are ordinary, not oddballs, and since the camera follows them, people tend to behave better. If there had been a series of troublemakers, I would have doubted the authenticity of the show."

Netizen 3: "Am I the only one who was totally obsessed with the host's voice?"

Netizen 4: "The host's voice is indeed very pleasant and has a great impact. The program resonated with so many people, and her narration played a big part in it."

Yipin Mingcha: "Is this host called Yan Xi?"

Chen Mingdong, hearing the familiar voice and catching a familiar profile in the video, couldn't finish watching before he hastily typed this comment in the section.