Chapter 67: I’ll Handle It

“Little Doctor Zhou.” Tan Qingya let out a soft sigh. “Your attempts at changing the subject are still too clumsy.”

Zhou Jianghao paused for a moment, then lifted her gaze and stared at her with wide, pleading eyes.

Tan Qingya held out under that look for a while before finally giving in. She lowered her head and popped a piece of meat into her mouth, then looked up at her again. “Go ahead and eat.”

With that, she rolled up her sleeves, revealing her slender wrist, and began fishing out meat for Zhou Jianghao.

Zhou Jianghao felt like she had only glanced at Tan Qingya before looking down again, only to find her bowl already piled high.

All meat.

The tender slices glistened with the spicy broth from the hotpot, tempting her mouth to water. She had to admit, this hotpot place really knew how to make it tasty. Seeing Tan Qingya about to add even more to her meat mountain, Zhou Jianghao quickly snatched away her scooping tool.

“Don’t just focus on me—you need to eat more too,” Zhou Jianghao said earnestly.

Zhou Jianghao was clearly a bit uncomfortable with the attention. Tan Qingya thought for a moment and nodded. “Alright, then I’ll just scoop for myself.”

And so the two of them paused for a bit.

But Zhou Jianghao had overestimated both herself and Tan Qingya. Even after eating for over an hour, there was still a lot of untouched food left.

“I’m already stuffed.”

Seeing Zhou Jianghao’s gaze turn her way, Tan Qingya sighed, using the word “stuffed” for once in her life.

She had lived so many years and never eaten more than seventy percent full. Stuffing herself like this today was a first. She glanced down at her belly, round and bulging like she was carrying a baby.

“Should I send the leftovers to another table?”

“Mmm.”

There was quite a bit left, but since it was all untouched, sharing it with other tables wouldn’t be wasteful.

The two put on their coats and had just stepped out of the hotpot restaurant when they spotted a tall, burly man standing at the entrance.

He stared straight at Zhou Jianghao. When she approached, he glanced at the woman wearing the matching puffer jacket and grinned. “Jianghao, is this your girlfriend?”

Tan Qingya’s gaze turned icy.

See? Trouble had delivered itself right to their door.

Zhou Jianghao despised Lan Maoquan. She didn’t want to exchange a single word with him. Tightening her arm around Tan Qingya’s, she pulled a stern face and tried to walk past.

Lan Maoquan used his hulking frame to block their path. “Jianghao, don’t be like that. I took special leave to come find you. Sure, you slandered me back then, but I’m big-hearted—I won’t hold it against you. We’re still friends!”

“Get lost,” Tan Qingya said coldly.

At her words, Lan Maoquan’s eyes lit up. “Beauty, I didn’t expect your voice to be even prettier than you are! Let’s be friends!”

Then he turned to Zhou Jianghao with a smile. “No wonder you turned me down before—you like women. Hey, I don’t mind if you like women. Hell, I like them too.

“I don’t mean any harm. You two probably haven’t experienced the joy of being pampered by a real man, right? How about we set a time to hang out? My skills are…”

Before he could finish, Tan Qingya had already swung her foot up, kicking him mercilessly right in the crotch.

She was wearing sky-high heels, and she didn’t hold back.

With a wretched howl, Lan Maoquan curled up on the ground in agony.

“I don’t mean any harm either,” Tan Qingya sighed. “I just wanted you to feel what it’s like to be on the receiving end.”

“You bitch! How dare you hit me?! I’m calling the cops! I’ll sue you both!”

Enraged and humiliated, Lan Maoquan was in too much pain to stand. It throbbed and went numb down there. Terrified he might actually be done for, he forgot about the police and fumbled for his phone to call an ambulance.

“Go right ahead,” Tan Qingya said coolly. She pulled a business card from her Lawyer Team out of her bag and bent down to stuff it in his mouth. “Be sure to contact my lawyers when the time comes.”

She paused, then added, “Though they’ll probably reach out to you first—to chat about how you bullied my wife before.”

With that, she yanked the name tag off his chest. “Lan Maoquan, is it?”

Her casual question sent a chill through him. Despite the winter cold, he broke out in a cold sweat and clamped his mouth shut.

Tan Qingya let out a muffled chuckle, then stood and pulled Zhou Jianghao away.

Once they were in the car, Zhou Jianghao eyed Tan Qingya’s expression and spoke up first. “He’s a coworker I met during a part-time gig. He wasn’t a supervisor back then.”

“He bullied you later and got you fired?” Tan Qingya didn’t start the engine right away. She turned sideways to face her.

“Yeah, that’s just how he is—total sleaze. He’s harassed a bunch of coworkers. He used to take the bus a lot too, sneaking photos up women’s skirts. I caught him once and told the Boss, but nothing happened to him.”

Not only that—the Boss fired her instead, handing her just that discount voucher as compensation. And now Lan Maoquan was the supervisor at this hotpot joint.

Tan Qingya sneered. “He just thought you’d be an easy target.”

She reached out and pinched Zhou Jianghao’s cheek. “You should’ve told us sooner. If we’d known it was your compensation, we would’ve eaten this place out of business.”

Of course, bankrupting it now wouldn’t be too late either.

So what if it was a trendy spot? With staff like that, covering for their own kind, it was doomed to crash and burn.

“You don’t need to worry about it. I’ll handle it.”

“It might take a while, and getting legal punishment for him now could be tricky.” Here, she recalled Tan Qingya’s ruthless kick in public and frowned. “Plus, you kicked him right out in the open—we might be the ones in trouble.”

“What’s there to panic about?” Tan Qingya said dismissively. “My million-dollar Lawyer Team isn’t just collecting paychecks. And that guy looks like the type who stirs up trouble everywhere—there’s enough there to keep him pedaling a sewing machine in prison for years, no digging into the past required.”

She patted Zhou Jianghao’s head. “Don’t overthink it, got it?”

Zhou Jianghao nodded. “Okay.”

Tan Qingya drove them home. At the apartment building, as she parked, she casually said to Zhou Jianghao, “There are some things I bought in the trunk. Mind grabbing them for me?”

Zhou Jianghao agreed and hopped out to open the trunk.

The moment she did, a melodic tune drifted out softly. Zhou Jianghao froze in shock. The entire trunk was beautifully arranged, filled with flowers and starry lights—like a glowing sea of blooms.

Tan Qingya stepped up beside her. “Pretty, right?”

“Stunning.” Zhou Jianghao was too awestruck to say more. Spotting the banner that read “Happy Dating Anniversary,” she turned to Tan Qingya. “When did you set this up?”

If she remembered right, after she’d told Tan Qingya they could jump straight into dating and declared today their anniversary, Tan Qingya had been with her the whole time.

“Sweetheart, never underestimate the power of money.” Tan Qingya wiggled her fingers, then pointed at the flower sea. “Want to see if there’s a surprise hidden in there?”

Under Tan Qingya’s encouraging gaze, Zhou Jianghao reached in and found a beautifully wrapped gift box tucked away. Holding her breath, she opened it gently—and was instantly speechless at the sight inside.

It was an exquisite vintage wristwatch.

The dial was dainty, surrounded by sparkling tiny diamonds, with gold bead chains wrapping both sides for an elegant, refined look.

Beautiful without screaming luxury.

“Didn’t I say I’d get you a gift?” Tan Qingya took the watch out and fastened it on Zhou Jianghao’s wrist. It looked stunning against her pale skin. She stared at it for a few seconds, then couldn’t resist lifting Zhou Jianghao’s hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. “I spent ages picking it out. I hope you like it.”

“Won’t it be…”

Before she could finish, Tan Qingya covered her lips.

“It’s a couple’s set.” Releasing her, Tan Qingya bent down to retrieve another box and handed it over. “Will you put mine on for me?”

She removed the watch from her own wrist.

But Zhou Jianghao didn’t move right away, staring at the watch like she could make flowers bloom from it. Tan Qingya’s heart skipped—had she hurt Zhou Jianghao’s pride after all?

The thought had barely formed when Zhou Jianghao suddenly looked up at her, utterly serious. “I need to work hard, make good money.”

“Huh?” Tan Qingya blinked.

“I can’t give you something of equal value yet, but I’ll work hard to earn more, to keep up with you.”

Their backgrounds meant they’d never be on equal footing, but she’d do her best to close the gap.

With that, she picked up the watch and carefully fastened it on Tan Qingya. She knew Tan Qingya had a collection of stunning timepieces, all priced beyond her wildest dreams.

This one was far more understated than the rest. Just as beautiful, but it felt like it was shortchanging Tan Qingya.

She couldn’t let Tan Qingya lower her standards just because of her.

Looking at Tan Qingya, she said, “Don’t hold back or make concessions for my sake everywhere.”

“Oh?” Tan Qingya’s eyes sparkled. “Even in bed?”

“…”

Zhou Jianghao’s expression was too adorable. Tan Qingya burst out laughing, ruffled her hair—unable to resist how cute she was—then cupped her face with both hands and squished her cheeks. “Got it, sweetheart. Big sis isn’t some lovestruck fool who’d wrong herself.”

It was the truth.

Eating wild greens to accommodate a partner was just self-indulgent nonsense. She’d make allowances for Zhou Jianghao, but she wouldn’t shortchange herself.

Worried she’d be misunderstood, she added seriously, “I only do things like this because I want to.”

Whether it was their date at the hotpot restaurant with Zhou Jianghao or anything else, it was all built on the foundation of her genuine enjoyment.

She put that recently revived old saying to good use—the one that had been dragged out of the archives and heated up again: “After crying in a BMW for so long, sometimes I miss the days of laughing on the back seat of a bicycle.”

Zhou Jianghao was successfully amused and burst out laughing.

She was the type who usually kept a straight face, so moments like this, when her eyes curved into happy crescents, were rare indeed. Tan Qingya’s gaze softened, and she suddenly thought of Auntie Chen. If she were here, she would definitely snap a photo to capture this precious scene forever.

What a shame.

But it didn’t matter.

Tan Qingya was confident she could make Zhou Jianghao’s smiles last a lifetime.

Tan Qingya’s lawyer team worked with impressive efficiency. The moment Zhou Jianghao spotted a new friend request on WeChat from Lan Maoquan, she knew Tan Qingya hadn’t come out on the losing end.

She ignored the request without a second thought.

Zhou Jianghao wasn’t some saintly pushover. Back when she’d been fired for reporting Lan Maoquan, she hadn’t just swallowed her anger meekly. He probably still had no idea why his car had ended up with those ugly scratches.

She’d deliberately waited until the second month after her dismissal to sneak over and key his car, then puncture the tires with a sharp tool. Lan Maoquan was the cheap sort who always parked in out-of-the-way spots on quiet streets where hardly anyone passed by. The location was remote—no witnesses, no security cameras.

It had made her revenge all the easier.

In the aftermath, Lan Maoquan never once suspected her. But it had been her first time pulling off something so underhanded, and she’d spent days on edge, heart pounding with anxiety.

The mere memory of that disgusting leer he’d fixed on Tan Qingya that day was enough to unleash all her buried dark impulses. Truth be told, even if Tan Qingya hadn’t landed that satisfying kick on him, Zhou Jianghao would have made sure he learned his lesson the hard way.

Though she never could have done it quite as cathartically as Tan Qingya had.

Pushing down every lingering bit of resentment toward Lan Maoquan, she refocused and returned to the tutorial on her phone.

She had already begun knitting the scarf. The video made it look straightforward enough, but she kept messing up. Worse, she’d knit an entire length before realizing she’d botched a stitch and left an unwanted gap, forcing her to unravel everything and start over.

After half a day of this back-and-forth, she still hadn’t made it to five centimeters, and her eyes were already burning with fatigue.

She stretched out her fingers and stared at her hands in a daze.

They were nimble enough when she was pulling teeth or filling cavities for patients—so why did they turn into stiff wooden clubs the moment she tried knitting?

She hadn’t puzzled it out when a knock came at the door. “Little Doctor Zhou,” Tan Qingya called softly, “it’s getting late.”

“Coming right away!” Zhou Jianghao replied in a rush, quickly stashing her supplies out of sight.

The apartment was spacious, and both she and Tan Qingya had their own studies. To keep the scarf a surprise for Tan Qingya, she’d holed up in hers all afternoon.

It wasn’t until she stepped out that she realized it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet.

This was Tan Qingya’s idea of “getting late”?

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