Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.

"Hmm~"

Xie Yuyan, seated on a chair by the dining table, rested her chin on her hands and hummed a tune while staring intently at Ye Feng. Her eager expression made it clear she was highly interested in his reaction to what came next.

"Ye Feng, hurry up and try the garlic butter shrimp and pickled fish I just learned to make! How do they taste?"

Hearing the urgency in Xie Yuyan's voice, Ye Feng nodded and picked up the chopsticks beside his bowl. For some reason, seeing her so happy made him feel as if he had returned to the brief time they had lived together before.

"Mmm! Delicious!"

After eating a peeled garlic butter shrimp, Ye Feng widened his eyes and gave Xie Yuyan an approving nod. There was no denying it—if Xie Yuyan wanted to open her own restaurant, her cooking skills were more than up to the task.

"Xie Yuyan, your skills are absolutely amazing!"

"Eh~ Really? Ye Feng, you’re not just saying that to encourage me, are you?"

"Of course not! Why don’t you try it yourself and see?"

Ye Feng noticed that Xie Yuyan hadn’t touched her chopsticks. Instead, she was looking at him with a pouty, resentful expression.

"Xie Yuyan?"

"Ye Feng, you’re so inconsiderate. After slaving away in the kitchen for so long, you won’t even feed me a single bite. You’re making me do everything myself."

"......"

Ye Feng could tell Xie Yuyan was putting on an act, but considering she had done all the cooking while he hadn’t lifted a finger, he set down his chopsticks and reached out to her.

"Hmm?"

Pretending not to understand, Xie Yuyan leaned forward and rested her chin on Ye Feng’s palm, tilting her head as she looked at him with feigned confusion.

"Like this?"

"Of course not!"

Ye Feng hadn’t expected Xie Yuyan to suddenly pull such a move. His heart raced with a mix of panic and inexplicable excitement—mostly because her delicate, alluring face and graceful figure made such a suggestive gesture incredibly distracting.

"I meant for you to hand me your chopsticks so I could feed you. Where did your mind even wander off to?"

"Why should I? Why do you have to use my chopsticks to feed me?"

"Hey, if I don’t use yours, should I use mine instead? There are boundaries we should respect!"

"We’re already eating from the same plate—what’s the big deal? You’re making a mountain out of a molehill!"

Xie Yuyan protested stubbornly, her tone making it clear she completely disagreed with Ye Feng’s reasoning.

"Feeding someone one bite won’t change anything! Back when we lived together, we didn’t fuss over stuff like this."

"That was different. Back then, I hadn’t realized yet..."

"Realized what?"

Xie Yuyan cut him off, zeroing in on the key phrase.

"Realized... the importance of hygiene! Look, we should be using serving chopsticks now to avoid any issues."

"There won’t be any issues!"

In a flash, Xie Yuyan snatched the chopsticks from Ye Feng’s hand. Then, right in front of him, she picked up a shrimp and popped it into her mouth, deliberately biting down hard on the tip of the chopsticks.

"Xie Yuyan, you..."

Ye Feng had seen it coming, but since he was still recovering and couldn’t move too abruptly, he could only watch helplessly as Xie Yuyan used his chopsticks.

"Why go this far? It’s just a meal—is it really that serious?"

"Ye Feng, you don’t get it! This is about breaking down the invisible barriers between us! I don’t want our relationship to grow distant over something as trivial as chopsticks~"

Xie Yuyan laid her cards on the table. She knew Ye Feng was already aware of her feelings for him. The most important thing now was to pull his heart closer to her side, ensuring she maintained the upper hand.

Though she didn’t know what tricks Ye Feng’s student had played during her absence, everything seemed fine for now. Now that she was back, her first priority was to fortify her defenses—making sure no one with ill intentions toward Ye Feng could get close... except for her, of course.

"Alright, alright, let’s just eat together. If we don’t hurry, the food will get cold."

Seeing Ye Feng resort to his usual tactic of changing the subject, Xie Yuyan played along. In this subtle game between them, she only needed to secure small victories bit by bit. Over time, those small advantages would accumulate until Ye Feng realized—too late—that he had already given away far more than he intended.

"Here, Ye Feng, you can use my chopsticks."

"Mm..."

After dinner, Xie Yuyan helped Ye Feng to the sofa. Though he repeatedly insisted he could walk on his own, she argued that since she was the one who caused his condition, she should be the one to fix it. Using her physical advantage, she pressed him firmly into the sofa cushions before finally letting go.

"Oh, by the way, Ye Feng, I’ve already cleaned up the mess I made. And any trash that didn’t belong in this house has been thrown out. The place is spotless now."

Ye Feng didn’t understand why Xie Yuyan had emphasized "trash that didn’t belong here" so heavily. But after scanning the room and finding nothing unusual, he simply nodded. "Got it."

"Good. Now, Ye Feng, where are my blanket and pillow? You didn’t throw them away while I was gone, did you?"

Xie Yuyan sat down right beside him, leaving no space between them, and hugged his arm as she asked softly.

"Of course not! Xie Yuyan, I kept all your things safe. Your blanket and other personal items are in the storage box in the living room. You just need to take them out."

His answer pleased Xie Yuyan immensely. At the very least, it proved that Ye Feng still held a place for her in his heart. Now, all she had to do was keep up her act, steadily earning his trust until she finally uncovered his secrets... and then she wouldn’t have to hide her true intentions anymore.

"Ye Feng... there’s one more thing I want to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Can you tell me... who’s that unfamiliar girl who’s been living in our house lately?"

"You mean Meng Li?"

"Tch..."

Hearing Ye Feng refer to Shen Mengli so casually made Xie Yuyan’s skin crawl. But she couldn’t let her irritation show—not yet. First, she needed to gather intel on this little homewrecker. After all, knowing your enemy was the first step to victory. And to defeat an opponent she knew nothing about, she had to see right through her!