37: Chapter 37 By the River, in the Car...

Watching Du Aoling get into the ride-hailing car, Du Aoting stood at the entrance of the Japanese restaurant and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Just now at the dining table, while she had appeared to be serving Jiang Li food and pouring tea, in reality, her peripheral vision had never left her cousin for a single moment.

That girl Du Aoling had just turned eighteen this year, with skin so tender you could pinch water out of it; her unadorned face could kill off more than half the beauty influencers on Little Red Book.

Even more deadly, she was also a straight-A student and the recognized school beauty!

Put this kind of persona in front of any man, and its lethality was at a nuclear level.

Even in web novels, she would often become the female lead.

After all, what man doesn't like an eighteen-year-old?

Du Aoting had been genuinely afraid that Jiang Li would take a liking to her and ask for Du Aoling's information right on the spot.

After all, her relationship with Jiang Li, to put it bluntly, was just business mixed with sparring; there was no official status whatsoever.

If he really took a fancy to Du Aoling, she wouldn't even have the qualification to stop him.

Fortunately, from beginning to end, Jiang Li hadn't even proactively asked for Du Aoling's contact information.

"This hurdle is finally over." Du Aoting patted her chest, her signature look of slight smugness reappearing on her face.

"Jiang Li~" She turned and linked her arm with Jiang Li's, taking the opportunity to flash her handbag right under Jiang Li's nose.

The opening of the bag was slightly ajar, with three pairs of neatly folded stockings lying inside. One pair was pure white with lace trim, one pair was black silk with polka dots, and there was also a pair of red fishnets with fine mesh.

It was exactly the setup they had agreed upon in the car last time.

Du Aoting stood on tiptoe and leaned into Jiang Li's ear, "Shall we go to the riverside in a while?"

Jiang Li lowered his head to look at the three pairs of stockings in the bag, subconsciously licking his lips. Good heavens, this girl really had come fully equipped today.

"Sure." Jiang Li grinned, "Whose car are we taking?"

"Mine, of course!" Du Aoting replied without hesitation; she had only had this ora ballet cat for a day and was currently in the honeymoon phase with it. She couldn't bear to leave it for even a moment—it would be best if she could even sleep in it!

Watching Du Aoting's joyful expression, Jiang Li grinned, but immediately afterward, he winced inwardly. This kind of small car... it was hard to handle.

After sparring with Lin Xingchen in the mini cooper last time, his waist still ached whenever he thought about it.

Lin Xingchen was at least on the chubby side, but Du Aoting practiced yoga every day and had almost no excess fat on her body.

However... Jiang Li's gaze fell on those three pairs of stockings once again. For their sake, a small car it was. How did the older generation put it? Right, suffering is a blessing!

"Fine, then we'll take your car."

The scenery outside the car window changed from ground-floor storefronts to rows of street trees, and then from street trees to patches of low hills. The air gradually grew more humid, and the faint sound of a distant stream could be heard.

About twenty minutes later, the car turned onto a dirt road and stopped on a patch of hardened ground beside a small river.

This small river was a place where locals of Fanxing County often came in the summer; the water was clear, and both banks were overgrown with reeds and wild grass. Occasionally people came for picnics during the day, but at night, only the chirping of insects and croaking of frogs remained. And... a group of anglers.

Under a few sporadically scattered blue lights by the riverside, several grown men wearing windbreakers were sitting on folding chairs. Each of them had a fishing rod in hand, and their small buckets in front of them contained, to varying degrees, a few crucian carp the size of a palm.

Seeing a milky-white ora ballet cat driving down the dim dirt road, the eyes of several anglers went wide.

"Holy crap, an ora ballet cat?" An uncle wearing a headlamp put down his fishing rod and nudged his companion with his elbow, "This car is usually driven by women, right? Could it be that a young lady is here for night fishing today too?"

Hearing his words, his companions all got excited. Fishing was satisfying, but catching a fish in front of a girl—that was true satisfaction!

He had already imagined the scene: A large crucian carp breaking the surface, water splashing everywhere, the young lady beside him letting out an exclamation and asking to add him on WeChat. Then he would nonchalantly say it was a small matter, and finally drive off into the distance. Yes, the key was to drive off into the distance! That scene was simply perfect!

However, they soon discovered that something wasn't quite right. The ora ballet cat was parked on a patch of hardened ground in the distance, and the car doors never opened.

The uncle with the headlamp frowned and was just about to lower his head to continue watching his float when suddenly... the car body swayed. The amplitude wasn't large, but the rhythm was very steady.

The few anglers looked at each other. "This..." The uncle with the headlamp's expression shifted from anticipation to confusion, from confusion to astonishment, and finally settled into an indescribable, complex emotion.

The car continued to sway rhythmically, the frequency as steady as if it were keeping time with a metronome.

"Damn!" A younger angler was the first to lose it; he stood up abruptly and started packing up his fishing rod, "I'm done, I'm done!"

"Hey, hey, hey, don't go!" The uncle with the headlamp quickly stopped him, acting like an experienced veteran, "It's not like we haven't encountered this before; these kinds of things... just wait ten minutes, and the car will drive away."

The young man looked at him doubtfully, "Really?" "Why would I lie to you? I've been fishing by this river for three years; what kind of scenes haven't I seen?" The uncle with the headlamp patted his chest in assurance, "Ten minutes, ten minutes at most."

"Alright then, I'll wait another ten minutes." The young man set his fishing rod back up and plopped back down onto his folding chair.

Ten minutes passed. The ora ballet cat was still swaying. The young man turned his head resentfully, looking at the uncle with the headlamp, "Didn't you say ten minutes?" The uncle with the headlamp's mouth twitched, but he forced himself to maintain face, "Maybe... maybe it needs twenty minutes?"

Another ten minutes passed. The ora ballet cat was still swaying. The uncle with the headlamp stopped talking.

An hour passed. All the anglers were dumbfounded. What the hell... they couldn't have run into Superman, could they?

Two hours passed. The uncle with the headlamp silently pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. He wanted to see just how long they could keep going!

Three hours passed. The anglers were all too embarrassed to stay here any longer. Damn it... they probably broke a world record!

The uncle with the headlamp was the first to stand up and walk towards the dirt road without looking back. "I'm done!"

He had decided; he would never come to this river for night fishing again. This was an angler's nightmare. This was a provocation to all anglers!