I Helped My Best Friend with Her Romance—and Fell for the Enemy’s Strategist - Chapter 66

“Should I open your gift later? I’ll put it in the back for now.”

Lin Ruocheng turned around, about to place the gift on the back seat.

That’s when she saw a large bouquet of blooming lilies already sitting there, emitting a faint fragrance.

“What’s this?”

“Your gift.”

When Lin Ruocheng turned back, she saw a necklace wrapped around Fu Yanxi’s slender fingers.

The pendant at the end of the necklace swayed gently back and forth in the air.

Lin Ruocheng smiled and took the necklace.

“Fu Yanxi, where did you learn these little tricks? Are you sure you’ve never dated before? You seem so smooth.”

“Learned it online. You said I should embrace new things.”

Who says earth signs are no good?

Who says earth signs are socially awkward?

Isn’t this pretty nice? At least so far, she hasn’t seen any signs of Fu Yanxi being socially inept.

Thinking about those two socially awkward friends, however, gave her a bit of a headache.

Lately, the two of them hadn’t been helping their awkward friends with dating advice.

But from what she could tell, the two awkward friends seemed to be doing okay.

At least there was no anger, no arguments.

Pretty harmonious.

She wondered what their conversations were like. Had they made any progress at all?

Lin Ruocheng told her socially awkward best friend about her date with Fu Yanxi today, and the reply came quickly.

[Lin Ruocheng]: I went out with Fu Yanxi today. By the way, send me your chat history with Yu Qiuli. Let me take a look and give you some pointers. It’s been almost a month since the dating coach started dating herself. Don’t tell me you haven’t made any progress at all.

[Song Wanqing]: Actually… hahaha.

Lin Ruocheng: “…”

Did this person think she was being funny?

Why did she have such a strong sense of foreboding? The feeling was particularly intense.

“Have you been helping Yu Qiuli with her conversations lately?”

“No, haven’t had the time. But I did tell her to keep the conversation balanced, at least don’t let it die completely.”

Fu Yanxi told the truth.

She had been so busy lately she barely had time for her own relationship, let alone managing Yu Qiuli’s.

“Same here. But I feel like they’ve made progress, yet also haven’t.”

Saying they hadn’t made progress wasn’t quite right, at least now when the two awkward friends met, they wouldn’t bow to each other and introduce themselves again.

But saying they had made progress wasn’t accurate either, she had accidentally glanced at their chat history before.

The content, while it could be considered back-and-forth… just didn’t feel like dating.

[Lin Ruocheng]: No classes today, for once. Any plans?

[Song Wanqing]: ??? What plans? Today’s plans: eat, sleep, beat the beans?

Lin Ruocheng couldn’t take it anymore and called her immediately.

Song Wanqing sounded like she had just woken up.

Her voice was still a bit hoarse.

“Seriously, sis, have you forgotten you have a girlfriend? Why don’t you ask her out? Stop living the same routine every day: classroom, library, track field, going back and forth. Are you two just completing daily tasks? Are you NPCs?”

“Should I ask her out then?”

Lin Ruocheng was about to faint from frustration. She had seen difficult cases before, but never one this hard.

Her side gig as a matchmaker was at risk of being ruined.

It felt like her reputation was about to be tarnished by this friend.

Wasn’t it hard enough helping socially awkward people date?

She had even started dating herself to hook the other person’s strategist.

How could this friend still have zero progress?

Couldn’t she at least try a little harder?

“Obviously! If you don’t ask her out, should I do it instead? Is she your girlfriend or not? Send her a ‘good morning’ text right now, then follow up with a sticker, but throw that classic facepalm laughing sticker of yours in the trash. Then ask if she’s free today.”

“After that, pick a few nearby places and send her the addresses. Find some nearby activities and let her choose. Then book a high-end restaurant nearby and pre-order a customized meal based on her preferences. Oh, and stop by a flower shop to buy a few bouquets…”

Lin Ruocheng rattled off instructions nonstop.

Fu Yanxi listened quietly beside her, mentally taking notes.

By the time she finished, Song Wanqing was still a bit dazed.

Her brain, which had just started functioning, couldn’t process so much information at once.

Though she was a bit robotic, at least she was obedient.

But just as she finished handling this side.

The other side threw up another roadblock.

“Is Yu Qiuli busy today? Probably not, right? I think she doesn’t have classes today.”

“Nope, she’s free.”

The next second, Song Wanqing sent over their chat history.

She had sent exactly what she was told.

So far, so good, but the other party responded with various AI image recognition tools.

She extracted text from all the locations and sent them over.

Then… nothing.

No one knew how these two even managed to hold a conversation.

Fu Yanxi had no choice but to call the other side too.

She put it on speakerphone.

The car continued moving along the road.

“What’s up? Didn’t you say you were going on a date with your ‘Orange’ today? Why are you calling me?”

Yu Qiuli had woken up early.

She’d been sitting on her bed playing games for a while.

“Any plans for today?”

“Me? Uh… eat… sleep… play games, I guess.”

“What about your girlfriend? Forgot about her?”

“Oh shit! I almost did forget! Wait, she sent me some pictures earlier, what did they mean? Maybe you should let your ‘strategist’ over there explain?”

Why did that line sound so familiar?

No wonder these two were a couple, same routine, same forgetfulness about having a girlfriend.

Fu Yanxi sighed.

Sometimes she felt she wasn’t great at relationships herself.

But seeing these two human robots in action made her feel a lot more confident. Guess it’s true, no contrast, no realization.

“Never mind, I’ll tell you. Since you’re free today, go out with her. Think before you reply to her messages. If you really don’t know what to say, ask me. Just don’t kill the conversation, okay? First of all, she didn’t ask you to use image recognition, understand?”

“Oh, right.”

Yu Qiuli had an epiphany.

She never thought of herself as robotic.

She just never knew what to say.

So the “lmao,” “hahaha,” and image recognition were all just fillers for when she didn’t know how to respond.

After all, couples are supposed to talk every day.

But what exactly are you supposed to say?

What are you supposed to do?

How should you act? What should you talk about?

There’s no script or standard answers.

Every time they interacted, she’d get so nervous she couldn’t even speak.

But from the looks of it, the two “strategists” seemed to be handling things effortlessly.

Especially Lin Ruocheng.

Seriously, ever since they returned from the National Day break, she finally understood why Fu Yanxi had secretly had a crush on Lin Ruocheng for seven years.

Lin Ruocheng was incredibly detail-oriented and knew how to care for people.

She valued relationships deeply, remained calm and organized under pressure.

She was steady, and treated everyone around her well.

Her personality was great, kind and genuine.

Who wouldn’t like a girl like that?

At first, she had always felt that Lin Ruocheng wasn’t worthy, wasn’t worthy of Fu Yanxi’s seven years of secret admiration.

After all, she too had grown up hearing all sorts of gossip about Lin Ruocheng.

Since childhood, Lin Ruocheng had loved teasing and flirting with younger girls.

Whether in middle school, high school, or even university, she was always the center of discussion, and her name was forever on the confession wall.

How could someone like that be worthy of Fu Yanxi, who had practically been a good girl her entire life?

But over time, her perspective gradually changed.

The two of them truly were a perfect match.