Bride Swap Backfire: My Cousin's Rebirth Made Us a Power Couple Chapter 329 - 132: Bumped into Twice

De’an wolfed down the egg pancake, wiped his mouth, and drank a bowl of hot water. Breakfast was as simple as that.

As the three of them got up to leave the kitchen, Chen Wanqing comnted, "I wonder how things are progressing in Guyuan County."

"Mr. Cheng must have told Magistrate Sheng by now."

De’an was puzzled. "How do you know?"

"The exam results will be posted soon. To prevent Cui Junrong from making the list, Mr. Cheng would certainly have inford Magistrate Sheng in advance."

Otherwise, if the matter blew up, it wouldn’t just be Cui Wei who faced the consequences; even Magistrate Sheng wouldn’t get off easy.

At that point, the scholars would suspect that Magistrate Sheng had taken bribes from Cui Wei and was in cahoots with Magistrate Cui.

While Cui Junrong most likely wouldn’t make the list, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"You have a point. Uh... anyway, Sis, you and Jing can go about your day. I’m going back to my room to catch up on so sleep."

"Catch up on sleep now?"

"Yes, right now. I haven’t been sleeping well these past few days, and I’m exhausted. Don’t wake for lunch; I’ll just eat dinner."

De’an darted into his room in a few quick steps, shut the door, and vanished.

Chen Wanqing and Zhao Jing exchanged a look.

"Don’t you think De’an is hiding sothing from us?"

"So you think so too, Wanqing. What a coincidence, so do I."

"Then what do you think happened to him at the Wang Family’s ho?"

Zhao Jing shook his head. "I really can’t guess. Do you know, Wanqing?"

"I don’t know either. Forget it, let’s not guess wildly. We’ll just ask him directly when he wakes up. If he wants to talk, he’ll talk. If he doesn’t, we’ll leave it alone."

"Sounds good."

That afternoon, the couple didn’t go out. They stayed in their room, one doing needlework and the other flipping through a book.

At dinner, they both asked De’an if sothing had happened. A flustered, deer-in-the-headlights look flashed across his face, but he stubbornly refused to admit anything.

This only made Zhao Jing and Chen Wanqing more curious.

They hadn’t planned on pressing him, but they were worried he might be hiding sothing serious, so they asked him two more tis.

De’an’s expression grew even more anxious, but he bit his lip and said loudly and firmly, "Really, it’s nothing."

De’an, the very one who claid nothing was wrong, secretly stopped his sister when Chen Wanqing ca out to fetch water for washing their feet.

He blushed, his voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz. "Sis, I got drunk... and I ran into soone."

Chen Wanqing jumped, thinking he had killed or injured the person. But then she rembered De’an wasn’t that irresponsible. She asked, "Where did you hit them? Did you hurt them? What about you? Are you hurt anywhere?"

De’an hemd and hawed. After a long pause, he gritted his teeth and said, "I’m fine. I’m strong as an ox. It’s the other person... When I bumped into her, I was completely out of it from the drinking and couldn’t stand straight. She grabbed , and I just fell right on top of her."

"And then?"

"I... I was startled. When I pushed myself up, I... well..."

"Well what? Just say it."

"Well, my hand landed right on her... her chest!"

The area fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Chen Wanqing’s voice trembled as she asked, "The person you ran into... was it a man or a young lady?"

"A... a young lady."

Chen Wanqing clutched her head. "You were drinking at the Wang Family’s ho, so you must have run into soone from the Wang Family. Was it a servant girl, or..."

"It was one of the young ladies of the house." De’an’s face was beet red, and he decided to just get it all out in one go. "If I’m not mistaken, it must have been the family’s Third Miss. She and her maid had snuck out, and on their way back, they didn’t dare take the main path, so they took a detour through a small lane to get back to her courtyard. I was drunk and felt sick, so I left the pavilion to walk around a bit. And just like that, by sheer coincidence, we collided."

Chen Wanqing clung to a sliver of hope. "How do you know it was one of the Wang Family’s young ladies? If she snuck out, she must have been disguised. Maybe it was..."

"It was definitely one of the Wang Family’s young ladies. When we first arrived in the Prefecture, we paid a visit to the Wang Family. As we were leaving, we reached a street corner, and that sa girl ca running recklessly and we bumped into each other then, too."

"You’ve already bumped into her once before?"

"Yes. Last ti, she let sothing slip, and the maid with her tried to cover for her but failed. It just confird her identity."

’The Wang Family’s Third Miss... isn’t that Wang Zhen?’

Chen Wanqing felt a massive headache coming on. The whole thing sounded too surreal to be true.

She pointed at De’an. "Tell the truth. Did you run into her on purpose?"

"Sis, you’re my own sister. I might be a bit of a scoundrel, but I’m not a shaless, depraved person like that."

"Then how do you manage to bump into the Third Miss again and again? Even I find it hard to believe you when you say it’s all an accident."

"Never mind you not believing it—I don’t believe it either! But it’s the truth. If I’m lying or deliberately trying to ruin a girl’s reputation, may lightning strike down!"

De’an didn’t even need to swear. Chen Wanqing knew her brother’s character perfectly well.

And that’s why she was even more speechless.

’What an ill-fated connection this is.’

’Bumping into each other twice... If word got out, wouldn’t everyone think it was a match made by the gods?’

But the Wang Family was wealthy, and the head of the household was an academic official in the Prefecture. As the family’s only daughter, the Third Miss was expected to marry up. While De’an wasn’t a bad sort, he ca from a humble family in a remote, poor region. It was unlikely they would ever find him acceptable.

Then again, to bring up marriage just because he’d bumped into the girl twice would be nothing short of extortion.

’So, is the best way to handle this really to pretend it never happened?’