Chapter 601: I have friends

"Brother Li Kun said it, he doesn't like fat girls, he likes them with curves and long legs." Huang Ying pouted, her face full of grievance.

"Cough, cough, cough." Li Kun, who had just been immersed in eating, started coughing instantly.

He had just eaten a cold dish that happened to have chili peppers in it, and just like that, it got stuck, making him cough until his face turned red.

"Never wrong yourself for the sake of a man." An Yinan sighed.

Huang Ying, at the wrong time, met the wrong person.

"Have you ever heard the saying, if you bloom, the breeze will come on its own?"

"A man is just a companion, not a necessity. With him, you can live excellently; without him, I can still live just as freely."

"No one is an appendage of another, especially, you must not treat yourself as an appendage."

"You are very good."

She could tell that Huang Ying was very insecure, and in her mindset, Li Kun might not even be her love, but rather that she was used to relying on him, relying on Li Kun, which was the only way she felt a sense of security.

But...

Is this love?

No, it is a need.

"Is that so?" Huang Ying's large eyes, which still had traces of moisture, were now filled with ignorance and confusion.

Le Rong looked at An Yinan like this; if she hadn't chosen this path, she would also be a warm-hearted person, right?

But now...

She had become cold, accustomed to being a bystander, and had also become selfish.

An Yinan rubbed her head, then looked into her large eyes, "Yes."

"If you lean on mountains, they crumble; if you lean on people, they run. Do you want to spend your whole life watching him, wishing you could take a rope and tie him to your side?"

"Aren't you tired?"

Clearly, one could live freely and at ease, yet she chose to live such an exhausting life; this was something she could not understand.

It was also something she did not want to touch or encounter.

Huang Ying thought of her mother, thought of her mother's hysteria in the middle of the night, and thought of her silently weeping eyes.

Did she, too, want to live such a life?

"No..." She shook her head; she knew she did not want to.

It was precisely because her home was like that that her warmth came from Brother Li Kun.

It was Brother Li Kun who stayed with her when she was afraid, which was why she grabbed onto him so tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Huang Ying, be yourself. You are excellent enough on your own. Nothing will be able to stump you. You can be someone else's bedrock, rather than a dodder vine."

"Can I?" Huang Ying was somewhat lost. Her mother fought with various women every day, and her father lingered among flowers and leaves every day.

No one cared for her; she had a very good living environment, but...

At home, there were only her and those servants. The servants would take care of her daily life, but they had no way to tell her how she should walk her path.

"You can." This sentence was not said by An Yinan, but by Le Rong.

Le Rong only just came back to her senses, and her expression as she looked at An Yinan had changed somewhat.

Before, when she saw An An, she felt like she was looking at her own shadow, but now seeing her, she knew she had been mistaken.

An An was far more excellent than her, braver, and even more self-reliant.

Her strong mentality was enough to face anything.

In her words, it felt as if she were seeing a general, holding a heavy sword, facing thousands of troops, and never yielding.

"Huang Ying. You can." At this moment, Li Kun spoke up. The look in his eyes as he gazed at Huang Ying was very warm.

"I have always treated you as a younger sister, from childhood until now. You are very cute, chubby, like a child who will never grow up. By your side, I don't have to rack my brains to interpret things; by your side, when I'm tired, I can rest."

"I apologize for what I said." Li Kun himself had not expected that a casual remark of rejection would have such a huge impact on Huang Ying.

This was something he could not understand, and something he had not anticipated.

"I just don't want to get married. You know the situation with my parents; the Li Family is not a good place to be." Li Kun sighed and rubbed Huang Ying's hair, just like when she was little and her parents were arguing; he would cover her ears, letting her only look at him, while he smiled warmly at her.

At this moment, Huang Ying smiled faintly, smiling at Li Kun.

It seemed that something had changed.

Inside her heart, the things she had firmly believed in seemed to have suddenly shattered.

But that great mountain that had been pressing down on her until she couldn't breathe also slowly moved away.

"Hey, if you guys don't eat soon, the food I worked so hard to make is going to get cold." An Yinan did not like this atmosphere; it was a bit faintly sorrowful.

She couldn't help but speak up to break it.

"Wow, what kind of filling are these dumplings?" Le Rong widened her eyes; this was too fresh, right?

A freshness that made one want to bite off their own tongue.

"Here, these two colors are the three-delicacy filling."

"These three colors are fish ball."

"These three colors, hehe, pork and scallion, my personal favorite, do you want to try them?"

"I didn't know what you liked, so I specifically prepared a few extra fillings."

After An Yinan finished introducing them to them, she picked up two pork and scallion ones for herself and put them into her bowl without ceremony. Just at this moment, a bowl was handed over from the side.

An Yinan took it very naturally and returned a smile.

The three of them froze in the middle of picking up dumplings. This... what is going on?

Had they missed something?

"You guys..." Le Rong was a bit dazed. Weren't the two of them acting a bit too matter-of-fact?

If they weren't sufficiently trusting and familiar with each other, they wouldn't be able to be so matter-of-fact, right?

"He is my man, and also the father of my two children," An Yinan introduced directly.

The three people all cast their gazes toward Chen Xun; Chen Xun's rugged face carried a faint smile, and it was clear he was naturally a man who did not like to smile, so he nodded slightly at the three of them.

The three of them also greeted him, and when his gaze turned toward An An, it softened uncontrollably, and the curve of his lips hooked upward unconsciously.

One does not need to smile deliberately; it is just that one has not met that person yet, and when one meets that person, one learns to smile on their own.

Huang Ying looked at An An and her man, and suddenly seemed to understand what love was.

It is not the pestering pursuit she had been chasing, but something that happens naturally.

"I... think I understand." Huang Ying's eyes brightened, and she looked at An An with an expression of admiration, "Can we be considered friends?"

An Yinan smiled; she had a very good impression of this innocent girl.

Without even realizing it herself, she possessed an inherent decisiveness.

"We can," An Yinan said affirmatively.

"That's great, I have a friend now too." Huang Ying's previous waiting was gone, and now her eyes were curved into crescents; she was just short of jumping up.

For so many years, she had been chasing after Li Kun, without any friends of her own, without her own social circle; those people she called friends did nothing but watch her make a fool of herself.