Chapter 9 — My Best Friend's Older Brother Took Responsibility for Me

The entire living room fell into dead silence for about three seconds. The teacup in Li Yingqiu's hand slipped, clattering against the glass table. Ye Ding'an put down his chopsticks. Ye Zhiyi's mouth hung open unable to close. Wen Ruyue stood frozen, her polite smile freezing for two seconds before fading completely.

"Registered what?" Li Yingqiu reacted first. "Hangzhi, what did you say?"

Li Hangzhi pulled two small red booklets from his trench coat pocket, opened the first page, and placed them on the tea table. Names of both people, joint photo—clear as day. Li Yingqiu picked them up, looked at me, then looked at him. "This is... marriage certificates?" "Yes." "You and Hi Bao registered a marriage?" "Yes." "Since when?" "Half a month ago."

The living room exploded—not with noisy arguing, but a silent explosion where everyone wanted to speak but couldn't. Ye Zhiyi reacted most fiercely: Looking at the certificate, looking at me, looking at her brother, then stepping back two paces to lean against the sofa armrest. "Wait," her voice weakened. "You mean the scammer husband who carried my best friend off, the wealthy husband who bought two huge diamond rings, the stingy husband with the Samoyed avatar named 'Zhi'... is YOU?!"

Li Hangzhi looked at her. "When was I stingy?" "That huge diamond... you put it away at first..." "I bought both. One for sincerity, one for fidelity." Ye Zhiyi's expression shifted rapidly. "So that night at the bar... you waited for her on purpose?!" Li Hangzhi didn't answer, but didn't deny it either—tantamount to tacit admission.

Ye Zhiyi turned sharply to me. "Lin Wan!" "Huh?" "You're my best friend!" "Yeah." "You married my eldest brother?!" "...I didn't know at the time." "So you became my sister-in-law?!" Her voice shifted from utter shock to complexity, then to an unnamable emotion. Two seconds later, she lunged to hug me tightly. "Then you're my sister-in-law! I always wanted you to be my sister-in-law! Even though I planned to marry you to my second brother, marrying my eldest brother works too! I have a sister-in-law!" She jumped three times around the living room.

Li Yingqiu hadn't recovered. Ye Ding'an poured tea, taking a slow sip. "So that story about company public disclosure..." "Directed by me," Li Hangzhi said calmly. Meaning from the start, he was the initiator.

Standing aside, I finally pieced everything together. That night at the bar, he wasn't an innocent bystander dragged away by a drunk girl. He knew me. Perhaps from the start, he knew who I was. Every Moments post Ye Zhiyi made featuring me, he had viewed. The photos, the mole on the eyebrow, the wrist bone, the fingers—all matched. I didn't know whether to be angry or touched.

At this moment, Wen Ruyue finally spoke up. She dropped her standard polite smile, staring at Li Hangzhi. "Mr. Li, what about me? I was arranged to come here for a blind date—turns out I'm extra?" Li Hangzhi glanced at her. "Apologies. This was arranged by family; I didn't know the two events coincided." Wen Ruyue nodded. "Understood. I'll take my leave." She grabbed her bag, politely bid farewell to Li Yingqiu and Ye Ding'an, and looked back at me at the door with a slight smile—so standardized it felt fake. The door closed.

Ye Zhiyi leaned against the window watching her car leave. "Ruined—the blind date Mom worked hard to set up is ruined." Li Yingqiu breathed a sigh of relief. "Ruined what? Hi Bao is ten thousand times better than her! I've wanted Hi Bao as my daughter-in-law for ages." Ye Ding'an nodded in agreement. "Knowing her roots is more reassuring than an outsider."

Li Hangzhi stood in the center of the living room, looking at me. "Hungry?" His tone was flat, just like his WeChat texts. My nose felt slightly prickled. "Hungry." "Then sit down and eat." He pulled out the empty chair beside him for me. This was the first time since meeting him half a month ago that we sat opposite each other at the same dining table.

Halfway through dinner, Ye Zhiyi's phone text chimed. She glanced at it—a message from Wen Ruyue: *Zhiyi, today's event was sudden, but I don't blame your family. I'd like to understand the situation more—let's meet and talk if convenient.*