Xu Xinran's Favor

Wan Xinyan smiled radiantly, but inwardly, she was full of misgivings.

What was the deal with this vixen suddenly showing up?

It was not that she was prejudiced against Xu Xinran, but rather that this woman's aura simply exuded a seductive charm.

Some girls naturally seemed like spirits of certain creatures. For example, Shengsheng's aura was like some kind of cold-blooded animal. According to Su Bai, a snake spirit was the most fitting description for her, because it was said that when snakes mated, they would entangle their partners for a long time, which perfectly matched Chen Yusheng's habits—her long legs would wrap around Su Bai just like that.

As for Xu Xinran, she had the aura of a fox. Especially when she narrowed her eyes and smiled, it made people subconsciously feel like she was plotting some scheme.

Wan Xinyan believed that her appearance at this service area to coincidentally bump into Su Bai was definitely part of her scheme!

After all, Xu Xinran's work schedule was actually quite flexible. Did she really have to come do her field research right at this moment? She probably knew about Su Bai's itinerary in advance and arranged this on purpose.

It was just like some girls at the university. Once they found out Su Bai was rich, they would deliberately take the same classes as him or orchestrate chance encounters in places like the cafeteria...

As Su Bai's personal little maid, Wan Xinyan had seen plenty of this!

Many people might not know this, but the way girls racked their brains to please a rich, handsome guy was actually not much different from the mentality of guys acting as simps.

In fact, driven by Su Bai's presence, the revenue on the second floor of the small cafeteria had noticeably increased. It was quite hilarious, considering that many of those refined girls used to turn up their noses at the cheap, large portions of home-style food served there.

It could only be said that the consumer behavior of female college students was often just following the herd.

And Su Bai had already become a trendsetter they followed!

Su Bai actually also felt that Xu Xinran had purposefully joined their journey.

This little scheme was not entirely bad, and Su Bai knew that Xu Xinran really wanted his... ahem.

Wanted that thing of his that had just gained a new function!

The small hotpot bubbled and boiled, its white steam venting out of the RV through a specialized dining exhaust pipe.

The ambiance was excellent, evoking the feeling of an ancient poet boating on a vast lake amid freezing winds and snow, boiling congee.

That was Su Bai's first impression, though he was not sure if ancient poets actually boiled congee on their boats.

Xu Xinran chatted with Wan Xinyan for a while, inevitably bringing up Wan Xinyan's hometown since it was the shared destination of their trip.

"If Yanyan is going to pick up her grandmother, you can bring me along to prevent any local troublemakers from making things difficult. I have connections there. One of the uncles used to be an old subordinate of my father, and he's very reliable," Xu Xinran offered proactively.

"Oh, how could I trouble you like that..."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Since we have connections to ensure everything goes safely and smoothly, we might as well use them."

Xu Xinran looked nonchalant, seemingly talking to Wan Xinyan in a very relaxed manner, but her eyes kept drifting toward Su Bai, seeking his opinion.

Obviously, when it came to exchanging favors and making major decisions, Su Bai was the one who had the final say. The little maid was, after all, just a little maid, and Su Bai was not the kind of rich guy who would lose his willpower just because a beautiful woman blinded him.

Some rich guys were indeed pathetic and could even be manipulated and gaslit by nightclub girls.

Xu Xinran had seen similar examples.

Su Bai, however, was the type with an independent personality and a very stable inner core. This was also one of the aspects Xu Xinran admired about him.

After a brief moment of thought, Su Bai nodded. "Then we'll have to trouble Reporter Xu to accompany us... Hmm, does this count as part of our business cooperation?"

"No, this is just mutual help between friends."

"That works too. If you need my help with anything, just say the word."

Su Bai was not against Xu Xinran trying to get closer to him. Or, to put it another way, once this girl realized Su Bai was not an easy man to conquer, she immediately changed her strategy from direct advances to a slow, steady approach. Su Bai thought this was quite nice.

If you want to have a child with me, then become my confidante first!

Let's start with being confidantes.

Moreover, Xu Xinran was around the same age as Xia, so honestly, having a child was not particularly urgent.

It was best to let nature take its course.

Today, Xu Xinran was still wearing her suit-style professional skirt outfit—a tailored blazer, a tight pencil skirt, and black sheer pantyhose. Her high heels looked very premium, featuring a design that was both business-appropriate and highly fashionable.

Among all the girls Su Bai knew, Xu Xinran definitely leaned the most toward the corporate business style.

Senior Zhou Jialu had also worked for quite a while, but the time she had spent immersed in a workplace environment was clearly less than Xu Xinran's. She had even been an undercover reporter. To be honest, Su Bai was quite curious about her many experiences.

When the girls were about half-full from the hotpot, Su Bai started to work his magic again.

The refrigerator in the super RV was divided into several sections, which, following Driver Huang's advice, were used to store different categories of food.

As a sashimi enthusiast, Su Bai naturally dedicated a specific section entirely to storing his sashimi.

Over these past few days, Su Bai had become well-acquainted with several high-end sashimi suppliers in Jiangcheng.

He ordered in large quantities, bought premium grades, and did not haggle much over prices. Therefore, a lot of the time, even the owners of Japanese restaurants in Jiangcheng could not get their hands on ingredients of as high a quality as Su Bai's.

Because of this, he had also tried quite a few obscure and niche types of seafood.

Although bluefin tuna belly was delicious, one could not eat it all the time. It would get cloying, so he needed other types of fish to mix things up.

Su Bai took an isaki fish out of the cooler.

It was about as long as his palm and had a plump, rounded shape. Excluding shipping costs, the wholesale price for one fish was only around a hundred yuan. It was not considered a precious species, but there were not many restaurants where you could eat this fish.

It was still best suited for preparing himself.

Its scientific name was threeline grunt, and in some places, it was also called the yellow chicken fish.

It could not be artificially bred.

First, he removed the innards, sliced it open, and deboned it.

Normally, when eating sashimi, the fish skin had to be removed. However, for this type of fish, the skin could be left on, though the scales obviously still needed to be prepped and removed.

He lightly torched the skin side with a blowtorch to bring out the charred aroma of the oils. Eaten together with the raw fish meat, the taste was absolutely phenomenal.

Paired with perilla leaves, wasabi, and ponzu sauce, the flavor profile became even richer.

Watching Su Bai thoroughly enjoying himself, Xu Xinran blinked curiously.

"Does he usually like to cook at home too?"

"Yeah, Brother Su Bai loves messing around in the kitchen. But most of the time, it's just the two of us and Sister Zhou Jialu doing the work in the kitchen. He only cooks when he's in the mood."

Wan Xinyan did not forget to casually praise herself in passing.

Xu Xinran could tell that Su Bai genuinely enjoyed cooking. In fact, whether someone liked cooking or not was easy to see through once you looked past the surface. In their social class, many children from wealthy families would learn a few cooking skills from a young age just to show off as a talent. As for whether they actually liked it, that was hard to say—it was purely a matter of chance.

Someone like Su Bai, who could immersively enjoy the process, was truly rare.