・・・☆・ Fifty Three ・・・☆・

Yingyue could always count on her bumbling band of baboons to cheer her up. She could also always count on them to leave their work as last minute as possible. As what was currently seen, the group had congregated around Si's house for many of them to work on their end of degree thesis. Yingyue was avoiding working on her's she had a meeting with her thesis lecturer during the day and their conversation had put her off even wanting to look over hers. But she was still willing to work on the others on theirs. 

Lei was lucky as most of his final years work was around composing his own song and considering the boy was a musical prodigy and genius he had a smooth sail through the year. The others were not as lucky. In fact the group had been there since school had finished earlier in the day and it had been a couple of hours. Not much progress had been made in general, they had finally moved onto the final person's work though. At least that was one benefit.. 

Yingyue wanted to be as supportive as she could towards her husband's thesis but if she was being honest the stupid papers were the main reason they had been arguing as of late. Each time she had tried to voice her opinion and give some support he had flipped out stating she didn't understand or see where he was coming from. And if she was being honest she was not really willing to start another one up. Every marriage had their problems and struggles and this just happened to be one of their own. It couldn't really be completely avoided, considering they were both in their final years at university and both on the same course. The stress levels from the degree were rather high for both of them and it was just safer to avoid trying to help out to the point where it became more of a hinderance than help. 

Instead she drew her focus to how uncomfortable she was currently in the outfit she was in. Sure it had been cute with the woollen skirt and turtle neck but she was getting this uncomfortable itch almost from the material of the skirt and she wanted nothing more than to get out of it. To add to the itch even though she knew this skirt was her size, for some reason it felt tight and considering it was brand new it wasn't as if she had another laundry mishap. Maybe it was the affect of her bad day making her just want to be in something baggy and comfortable she wasn't sure but she knew she needed to change. The only problem was that there was nothing she had on her she could possibly change into to make herself more at ease. Had she been in her own home she would have excused herself to change but this didn't seem like an option. Until she remembered she was in Si's house he was basically her brother and would possibly be able to help her out. After all he did have an older sister who's clothes she could wear. 

"Si." The words she spoke had been her first in a little while and it caused the four boys to turn their attention towards her. Raking a hand through her hair whilst trying to piece together her words she waited for the boy's response. All she got was a hum in response but a hum was more than enough for her. 

"I don't suppose you have something I could change into maybe something of your sisters?" Yingyue proposed the idea hoping that her words wouldn't seem completely unusual. 

"You know where my room is, help yourself Yeye, don't worry." Si seemed to bat her question off without much of a second thought and it appeared none of the other boys were too fussed either. Sending what she hoped was a appreciative smile Yingyue nipped her way up the stairs and towards the familiar room. 

・・・☆・

It was no more than five minutes later when Yingyue went back down the stairs and into the cellar where the group of men were gathering. She had changed from her skirt and into a pair of jogging bottoms she couldn't recall the last time Si had worn. The joggers were miles too big on her and she had rolled the bottoms up a significant amount to suit her much smaller frame but she was finally comfortable. She didn't feel as though she had suddenly put on a tonne of weight in them and despite still not being upmost comfortable she remained in just her turtle neck not wanting to overstep and take too much from the boys wardrobe. 

By the time she had walked down the stairs she wasn't surprised to see the boys having made no progress on where they were trying to help each other. Before she even got a chance to make herself known to be back in the room the three boys sat at the table looked up to see her. It was almost as if they were looking for excuses to not actually do any of the work. Ximen had reached out to her and made the gesture for her to come over. He clenched and unclenched his fists in the air much like a toddler does when asking for attention. 

Yingyue was more than happy to oblige and shuffled her way over her feet clad only in her socks having carried her uncomfortable shoes down the stairs. Her appearance at present, no longer looking as glamed up as usual, was purely reserved for only those she trusted most and as she slinked her way around to her husband all she could do was let out a little giggle as she was pulled immediately onto his lap. When his hands reached out to touch her they made contact with a small part of her exposed wrist and Yingyue had to pause for a second when he flinched slightly. 

"Ye, you're freezing why didn't you grab a jumper? And Si does it kill you to turn the heating on once in a while." At his words Yingyue felt herself blush there was two reasons she hadn't also grabbed a jumper whilst she was upstairs. The first being not wanting to overstep the boundary and the second was this desire she had to wear the one he currently had on. 

"I want yours." Yingyue's voice was small almost timid, something that barely occurred and had everyone's eyes once again on her. She didn't miss the not so subtle wink sent her way by Meizuo who was enjoying watching the girl struggle in general. Nor the little gasp that she heard from a direction she knew none of the boys to be in. Instead the gasp had come from none other than Shancai who had chosen that time to bring some food down to the 'hardworking' group. 

"Of course you can, you should have asked me earlier for it instead of freezing yourself to death." Ximen's words were almost as if he was chiding her but Yingyue knew there to be no malice in them as he was more concerned for her health than anything else. The pair moved around a little awkwardly for a few moments before he eased her into the grey jumper he had been wearing. Pulling her arms into the material which also seemed to want to drown her in the present Yingyue finally took a proper chance to look at the newcomer to the room. 

Shancai was wearing her work outfit and Yingyue had to remind herself that the girl was currently working in the Daoming mansion to be able to stay there. It wasn't the most ugly of uniforms it was just sad to see the young girl working for her boyfriend when she could really just be spending her free time with him. The girl had brought in a platter of what seemed like fruits and yingyue tried to study them to see what the young girl had decided was a decent enough study snack for the group. 

Placing the bowl on the table Shancai wasn't delayed in her demands for what she expected the group to do. Even going as far to interrupt the conversation the boys had finally gone back to about the work they were supposed to be doing. "Have some fruit." It was amusing to watch Si act like a baby bird in order to get his girlfriend to feed him, especially when it worked. Considering Shancai's normal character Yingyue thought there was no chance the girl would go along with it but she had. 

Whilst the boys took the chance to mock Si for his actions, Yingyue relaxed in the embrace she was currently being held in. Intwining her right hand with Ximen's which had been so casually placed above her hip bone in order to not only keep her secure but provide her some form of comfort. She knew that it was only because she was sat on Ximen's lap that he wasn't hit like Meizuo regarding the teasing. Her husband could thank her later. 

"She can only feed me." With those words the boys seemed to move their attention properly away from the conversation had between the newly formed couple and back to whatever they were doing beforehand. 

"Come out for a while, I have something to tell you." Shancai's words drew Yingyue's attention from where she was finally getting a chance to read Ximen's thesis back to the young girl. She wanted to know what was so important that Shancai felt as though she needed to take Si away from the rest of the group. What if the younger girl was pregnant? Had the newly formed couple gone that far? 

"Just say it here. By the way Ximen scroll down." Si answered the girl not really drawing his attention away from the MacBook. "See this one, it doesn't really work." 

"Let's go on a date." Shancai's next choice of words drew the attention of everyone in the room. Nobody thought the young girl would ever take the steps to ask Si on a date. Considering it was almost always the boy chasing after her, this seemed a leap in the right direction for their newly blossoming relationship. 

"Shancai you're incredible." Ximen voiced up first of the whole group and Yingyue gave the boy a small whack on his left wrist, was it out of jealousy, most likely. Not that she knew she had a reason to be. She must just be hormonal. 

"Little Miss Shancai is making the first move now." Meizuo was the next to peep up 

"Well do you still remember my good friend Xiaoyou?" Shancai continued on and to save everybody's dignity Yingyue voiced the next bit.

"The young girl you work with, large eyes kinda like a cute little puppy?" Yingyue responded stopping the boys from saying anything back in response. 

"Yes Yeye, that's her." Shancai agreed with the older girl.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" 

"Let's have a double date with Xiaoyou and her boyfriend, on Sunday 11am at the theme park. Just treat it as a date with me." There was a small pause as nobody went to speak the rest of the group watching the couple interact. "Never mind, if you didn't hear properly I'll just take that as a yes." Shancai finished her date idea. 

"This is the legendary double date." Ximen started and Yingyue for once felt as though she had no clue where he was trying to reach to with those words. 

"The famous double date for 20 year olds." Meizuo backed Ximen up and Yingyue still had to admit she had no clue what those two were getting at but decided to leave them to it. 

"You want me to go out with someone I don't know?" 

"Who says you don't know her? Xiaoyou is my friend, just adjust to it!"

"Adjust? Why?"

"It is a bit overrated, but it's the first time Shancai has been the one to ask you out." Forever the romance 'expert' Yingyue listened as her husband voiced his opinion. She agreed with him and could give him credit for trying to convince Si into doing something new. But she knew deep down how stubborn Si was in terms of change and knew it would take more than a couple sentences to convince him to agree. 

"Si you can play the supporting role for once. Won't you do it for Shancai?" Love and relationship expert number Two Meizuo was the next to voice his opinion.

"How boring, I got excited over nothing." Si didn't seem any more open to the idea even after his friends words of 'encouragement'. 

"Why are you making that face? It's just the first day of the one month period. Can't you just try it for once?" Shancai already seemed at her wits end with Si and Yingyue pondered how long this relationship would last if they were already bumping heads at every single avenue. 

"I don't want to do it, no way." With those words Si stormed off. Shancai went to follow the over dramatic young adult and Yingyue felt as though she needed to say something to give the younger girl some hope, even if she hadn't fully warmed up to her just yet. 

"Don't worry about it Shancai, he'll come round to the idea soon enough." Yingyue tried to give the girl some confidence regarding the situation but still got the opportunity to laugh as Shancai cursed the man who had walked away. 

Soon enough Shancai had left the four to remain down in the cellar. The group went back to working for a few minutes until a grumbling sound made its way from where Lei was sat. 

"Sorry I'm starving, might head off to get some food." Said boy spoke.

"Help yourself to some of this fruit it's only going to go off." Meizuo encouraged the boy before grabbing something for himself. 

"Ye there's some pineapple here. It's your favourite." Meizuo spoke going to offer the girl a piece. However, Yingyue only wanted to recoil at the fruit for some reason it smelt completely off and she couldn't place her mind on what smelt so bad about it. 

"Are you sure it's in date, that smells foul." Yingyue commented watching as the boy brought it up to his own nose for a large inhale of the odour of the fruit. 

"It smells just fine to me." Meizuo replied waiting to see the girls response but when she still shook her head he decided to just take it on himself and eat it not wanting the food to go to waste. 

Author's note:

Can I even remember what happened in the TV show at this point? Not really am I skipping loads and trying to work my own plot line in? Yes. If you've noticed aught hinted out in this chapter and have any theories drop them here!

Fingers crossed I can get some more work done, I've just been rather distracted by the amount of work I have for university at the present. 

Peace out.