Chapter 982: Independent Lan Wen
Because of the budding feelings that had already taken root, Lan Wen couldn't help but feel a touch of girlish shyness when facing Ye Fei.
But she wasn't quite ready to fully acknowledge her thoughts, so she subconsciously kept a certain distance from him.
Zhang Tao, however, saw this and attributed it to the success of his boastful talk. Although Lan Wen hadn't shown any particular closeness to him, the fact that she was now distancing herself from Ye Fei was, in his mind, a huge piece of good news.
Feeling great, Zhang Tao decided to take another shot at putting Ye Fei down. After they got downstairs, he took out his car keys and pressed the controller for a small sports car parked below.
He then feigned a dilemma and said, "Oh man, I should've driven a bigger car. This one only has two seats. What are we gonna do?"
"You're still not fully sober. Maybe you shouldn't drive. Let's just take a taxi together," Lan Wen suggested kindly, even though she was growing more and more annoyed with Zhang Tao.
After all, they were colleagues, and he had been pretty helpful to her in the past.
Zhang Tao, however, waved his hand dismissively and said, "Don't worry about it. The son of the traffic bureau chief is a good buddy of mine. Even if the traffic police captain himself showed up, he wouldn't dare to check my car."
Lan Wen couldn't help but roll her eyes. She felt like there was no way to communicate with this guy and decided to just ignore him.
But Zhang Tao kept feeling good about himself and said, "How about this, Jingwen? You ride with me, and let Ye Fei take a taxi. It's freezing out here. You don't want to catch a cold."
Lan Wen rolled her eyes again. "Are you serious? This is Ye Fei's first time here. How is he supposed to find the place by himself? You should just go ahead. We'll catch up later."
Zhang Tao was taken aback. In his eagerness to show off and be considerate, he'd completely forgotten about that.
Suddenly, he felt like he'd shot himself in the foot.
Lan Wen's words made perfect sense—Ye Fei couldn't be left behind. And there was no way he could take it back and say he'd take a taxi with them. That would undermine his earlier boasting.
With no other choice, Zhang Tao drove off alone. After he left, Lan Wen didn't say anything to Ye Fei. She just quietly led him toward the main entrance.
"Jingwen, why did you suddenly stop talking to me?" Ye Fei asked suddenly, looking at Lan Wen. She was wearing a bright red down jacket this time. It was a cheap one, probably costing only a couple of hundred bucks, and the color wasn't exactly trendy. But on her, it looked incredibly cute and charming.
"I... I didn't. I just didn't feel like talking because Zhang Tao was being annoying," Lan Wen stammered, her heart racing under Ye Fei's gaze.
A few months ago, Ye Fei might have believed her excuse. But he wasn't the same naive kid he used to be.
After interacting with dozens of different beautiful women, he could now easily tell when someone was starting to have feelings for him. He could see it in Lan Wen's eyes—she was already beginning to like him.
Lan Wen was not only stunningly beautiful and had a great figure, but she was also Aunt Zhang's daughter. It would be a lie to say Ye Fei wasn't attracted to her. He just didn't expect that she would develop feelings for him first, even though they were still in their infancy. For Ye Fei, it was a pleasant surprise.
The best approach with a girl like Lan Wen, who was experiencing her first crush, would be to do nothing and just let her get to know him better, allowing her feelings to grow naturally.
But Ye Fei couldn't afford to wait.
For that to happen, they would need to spend a lot of time together.
The reality was that Ye Fei wouldn't have much time for her until she officially became his girlfriend and moved to the mansion with the other women. So he needed to take a more aggressive approach to quickly strengthen her feelings for him.
With that thought, Ye Fei smiled and suddenly reached out, grabbing Lan Wen's cold little hand that was sticking out of her sleeve.
"Now that the annoying guy is gone, let's chat, sister," he said.
Caught off guard by Ye Fei's move, Lan Wen let out a little scream. Her hand instinctively tried to pull back, but Ye Fei held on tight. She couldn't break free, and the warmth of his hand felt good. She didn't want to let go either, so she just let him hold her hand.
They started chatting casually. With Ye Fei's witty conversation, the slight barrier caused by Lan Wen's shyness quickly disappeared.
By the time they reached the entrance, they were back to the easygoing vibe they had when they first met.
Lan Wen didn't object to Ye Fei holding her hand anymore. She unconsciously leaned a little bit into him.
As they walked out the gate, Lan Wen suddenly remembered something and asked, "Hey, I forgot to ask you. How did you get here?"
"I drove, of course. Did you think I flew here or something?" Ye Fei laughed, pointing to his car parked by the roadside. "There it is."
"Phew, that's a relief," Lan Wen said. "I was so focused on getting rid of Zhang Tao that I forgot today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. I wasn't sure if we'd even find a taxi. Who knows how long we'd have to wait?"
"Well, then it's perfect. Let's take my car," Ye Fei said with a smile, though he was a bit puzzled why Aunt Zhang hadn't bought a car for Lan Wen, who was already an adult.
Lan Wen immediately explained, "I should've listened to my mom and let her buy me one back then. With my current income, I don't know when I'll be able to afford a car on my own."
What an independent girl! Ye Fei couldn't help but admire her in his mind. He didn't offer to buy her a car, though.
Their relationship wasn't at that point yet, and given Lan Wen's independent nature, he figured that offering to buy her something might backfire.
Sure enough, Ye Fei's restraint didn't upset Lan Wen. Instead, she was secretly delighted. She felt that Ye Fei understood her.
Unlike that annoying Zhang Tao, who always flaunted his wealth in front of her and kept offering to buy her things, Ye Fei treated her with respect.
Zhang Tao's behavior made her feel like he thought she was some gold-digging girl, which she wasn't.