Zhou Yingying had always thought that amongst the younger generation, she was the closest to her cousin Fu Zheng. After all, when her cousin had gone out to the community to attain some life experience, she was the first to find him, and of all her cousin's relatives, she was the only one who had met her future cousin-in-law. Even when it came to how the two of them had fallen in love, she had played a colorful role - if she hadn't pretended to be her cousin's suitor, would her cousin's suit have gone so smoothly?

Thus, Zhou Yingying was internally assured that she was a close confidant of her cousin Fu Zheng. Her status was absolutely different.

You reap what you sow, and her cousin always kept his word. After she 'starred' in that scene, he had immediately given her a large amount of money earmarked for diving, far beyond her current budget. Zhou Yingying was so happy, she didn't sleep for two whole days.

Ever since she had hugged her cousin's thick thigh, good things had surrounded her. Just a few days ago, he had found her and asked if she had any other projects she wanted to learn after finishing her diving course--

"If there's anything you want to learn, I'll sponsor you abroad to learn from an truly authentic coach for a few months."

Zhou Yingying had been quite touched, but in the end, familial affection defeated desire. Shaking her head, she had told Fu Zheng very thoughtfully, "No, cousin, I can't just waste your money like that. You're now someone in a relationship, it's precisely the time you need money the most!”

She was so considerate that her cousin had probably felt grateful enough to reciprocate. Pursing his lips, he said, "That doesn't matter. I'm not short of money. I don't mind paying the little amount it takes for you to learn or play however you like.”

"I just finished my diving lesson, and I'm a little tanned from the sun. Once I get the certificate, I'm just going to stay at home and recuperate for a bit. Cousin, really, there's no need. Save your money!"

Even though she had said all this, Fu Zheng was quite persistent. He didn't seem too happy, his brows slightly drawn together. "Think about it. There must be something you want to learn."

Zhou Yingying thought about it. "There really isn't."

In the end, Fu Zheng supplied her with options. "There must be something. What about paragliding, you haven't learned that yet, have you? I'll find you an instructor in Turkey. They're relatively well-known for it, and you can take classes there for a few months. Don’t worry about the money, I'll pay whatever's needed.”

Tears welled up in Zhou Yingying's eyes, she was so moved. She reached out and took Fu Zheng's hand. "Cousin, no, really, thank you for the thought! But it isn't necessary! Keep the money! Once you get married, you'll have a family to support!"

"Oh? That's right, I just heard from auntie that you proposed? Did she agree? Are you getting married soon? What are you going to do for the wedding, Chinese style or Western style? Or are you going to have a destination wedding? Do you have any thoughts? Need any advice?"

It was fine when she hadn't mentioned the wedding, but once she did, Fu Zheng started looking a little unnatural. "We don't have such far-off plans yet. Let's not talk about that for now. If you don't want to learn paragliding, what about something else? Or maybe just don't do so many extreme sports, people should learn things that are actually useful in real life, too. I feel like your educational level might still need some improvement. There's a high-end legal training exchange convention the next city over coming up. You can join that."

? ? ?

Zhou Yingying was completely lost at sea. "Huh? But..."

In the end, Fu Zheng happily decided for her. "Many of the participants this time will be senior executives from major companies, as well as some partners from law firms. There'll be plenty of young, talented men. Aren't you still single? It wouldn't hurt to expand your network of connections for future cases." Saying so, he took out his phone and tapped quickly for a bit. "There, you're signed up. Did you want to take any MBA or EMBA courses? I'll provide full financial support for those as well.”

"Uh, no?" For a moment, Zhou Yingying couldn't take it all in. "I'm not looking for a partner right now..."

"I thought naïvely like that too when I was single, but once you find someone, you'll understand that being single isn't worthwhile. So go to class next month, and don't go home halfway."

Although it was a bit strange, Zhou Yingying was very touched that someone as cold as her cousin would take the initiative to care about her and urge her to make progress in life. He had even come to her house to talk to her. Could any of her brothers and sisters¹Not her actual siblings, but more like her relatives of the same generation boast such attention?

After seeing off Fu Zheng, she immediately opened the group chat to show off--

"Cousin is so kind to me. Not only did he pay for my last diving course, he even asked if I wanted to learn paragliding! He said that as long as I was interested, he would pay for it!"

Upon hearing this, no one in the group could keep their cool--

"What, why? Isn't it enough that I usually flatter cousin Fu Zheng? He keeps publicly displaying his affection to his online circle in a super green tea-ish way, sounding so chill and cool but in such a cheap, show-offish tone. But even so, I still praise his smelly-ass feet²Praising something that's objectively wrong or terrible.! Not only do I like, I even comment and butter him up! Is this easy for me? Are my hard-earned gestures not professional enough? Why does he only think about Zhou Yingying when such good things come along?! I wanna learn paragliding, too! I'm gonna fucking cry over here!"

"I worked hard too! At the last family gathering, I stood up for future cousin-in-law in front of the whole family. I was so awesome at bragging, it was as if I had already met her!"

"Boohoohoo, am I the worst one off? Once when cousin was on a business trip, he forgot to bring back the gift that he'd bought. Wasn't it my fleshy self who shuttled the gift over to him across all of Rong City? Wasn't his happiness that night all thanks to me?”

…

Zhou Yingying swiped proudly, very pleased to see all this expected envy, jealousy, and hatred. It was exactly the effect she was going for. She couldn't help but say, "You guys are all just too shallow. The only one with a spiritual resonance with cousin is me! He's not only willing to pay for me to go have some fun, he even cares enough about me to sign me up for some fancy high-end training!"

Just as she had expected, what followed was another series of crying, howling, and envy. Zhou Yingying preened, extremely satisfied. After thinking about it, she made a decision--

"It was wrong of me before to have kicked our cousin out of the group. As a role model and leader of our generation, shouldn't he have the right to be in here? It doesn't make sense. I'm going to invite him back into the group!"

Her juniors obviously had different ideas about Fu Zheng's re-entry into the group.

"No, right? That just reminds me of how scary it is to be dominated by our cousin..."

"No, no, don't be afraid. Our cousin's temper has improved a lot ever since he fell in love. He doesn't cuss you out anymore, just implies things..."

"But I think that makes him even scarier now. Don't you think he's kind of become a green tea? He's obviously even more insidious than he used to be. He used to scold openly, but now..."

"Forget it, let's bring him back in. It's better to have him be in the trenches with us rather than an enemy. Besides, isn't he going to bring our future cousin-in-law to have dinner with us soon? He said that the engagement party would be next month!”

Zhou Yingying had just been about to invite Fu Zheng back to the group, but when she saw this, she halted in her tracks. "Huh? What? He's getting engaged next month?" She immediately denied, "You've got to be kidding me, right? There's no way he would be getting engaged next month.”

Of course it was impossible. The event that Fu Zheng had just signed her up for meant that she would be out of town all of next month. If he was about to get engaged, shouldn't he be inviting her? How could he have possibly booked her a conflicting itinerary?

Zhou Yingying couldn't help but shake her head. Her fellow brothers and sisters had such unreliable sources of information. "Where did you get this fake news?" she said immediately. "There's absolutely no way that cousin would have his engagement party next month! He and future cousin-in-law haven’t been together for long, right? Why would they be getting married so soon? Doesn’t it feel kind of out of character for our cousin? He’s always super cautious about such big things!”

But what a pity, her words did not calm the group. They squelched her from all sides--

"What do you know? Our cousin is what they call 'an old house on fire'! Once it starts on fire, it'll be razed to the ground! A wildfire! Get it?"

"Yeah! Anyway, my mom has already gotten an invitation letter to his engagement party. It's next month. Can that be faked? Sister Yingying, you're not too well-informed this time, are you?"

The person who posted this was Zhou Yingying's younger cousin. After saying so, to prove her words she quickly attached a photo of the engagement party invitation...

Zhou Yingying had been about to argue, but before she could finish typing, she was stunned by the photo--

Was it really next month???

Before a mountain of irrefutable evidence, she naturally had nothing more to say, but... but why had her cousin asked her to attend some out-of-town event when he was getting engaged next month? She was a meritorious official who had rendered outstanding service toward his marriage with their future cousin-in-law! She should be getting a big red envelope, yet Fu Zheng was actually treating her like this?! Was he even human?!

Zhou Yingying stopped attempting to get Fu Zheng back into the group, and instead called him angrily to question--

"Cousin, you're getting engaged next month, yet you're trying to get me out of the picture?! Are you planning to burn down this bridge and kill this donkey after crossing the river³Burning down the bridge after crossing it; killing the donkey after milling the grain; these are both idioms to describe being ungratefully discarding someone who's helped you?! I should have known that 'someone being so solicitous for no reason is either an adulterer or a thief'. All of a sudden, you're trying to reimburse me for this or that, advising me to learn this and that. Were you ever someone who cared that much about your juniors? No!"

Feeling deceived, the more Zhou Yingying spoke, the more indignant she became. "I thought we were pretty close. After all, I'm the only one who's ever met future cousin-in-law..."

Upon saying this, Zhou Yingying suddenly gave a start. Fu Zheng didn't want her to appear at his engagement. Was it because... he didn't want her to run into her future cousin-in-law?

In that case…

"Cousin, tell the truth," she said, feeling a little confident. "Is it that you just don't want me to meet your future wife?"