Wasn’t meeting the parents a bit too fast?
He and Chen Xingjian had only signed a marriage agreement, and nothing was prepared yet. How could they be going to meet the parents already tomorrow?
“Reason and emotion dictate that we should go see them since we’re married.” Chen Xingjian didn’t seem particularly ruffled on the surface. “If my mother gets angry tomorrow, just stand behind me.”
What? Meeting the parents and someone still gets angry?
“I, I’m a little right, my head still hurts a bit. Maybe I shouldn’t go over,” Lian Jue said.
Chen Xingjian was entirely unhurried: “It’s fine, I’ll bring a doctor along. Whenever it hurts, you can call for the doctor.”
Lian Jue offered: “I, I suddenly remembered I have work tomorrow.”
Chen Xingjian dismissed it: “Cancel it. I’ll pay the breach of contract penalty, and I’ll double your salary.”
Lian Jue wrung his brains: “But, but”
“Alright, enough buts. My mother won’t eat you,” Chen Xingjian stated.
He conveniently pierced straight through Lian Jue’s quivering quail-like mindset: other people’s little canary types would be desperate to make a personal appearance to cement their status, but Lian Jue was the opposite, shrinking backward at every turn. Anyone not in the know would think his Chen family was some kind of man-eating demon cave.
Chen Xingjian leisurely laid down his ultimate trump card: “If you’re not willing to go, that’s fine too. Then the diamond in your hand”
“I think tomorrow’s work isn’t a big deal after all. I’d better accompany Mr. Chen on this trip,” Lian Jue hurriedly pledged his loyalty. As if afraid Chen Xingjian might go back on his word, he specifically found a small velvet pouch to pack the diamond away securely.
Chen Xingjian asked: “Choose between me and the diamond—what’ll you do?”
What kind of new-era death-trap question was this?
Tortured into utter agony, Lian Jue made cute piglet oinking sounds as he stuffed himself into Chen Xingjian’s arms, even reaching out to pull Chen Xingjian’s hand and place it right against his own soft belly.
“Mr. Chen shouldn’t ask me these questions anymore; it really hurts our relationship,” Lian Jue said.
Going along with Lian Jue’s wishes and pressing no further, Chen Xingjian smoothly pinched the roll of soft flesh around Lian Jue’s waist.
With fragrant warmth and soft jade held in his arms, his body seemed to pick up the cozy warmth of Lian Jue’s scent. Outside the window, a light breeze blew past in a quiet, comforting stillness.
Moist, hot breaths puffed intermittently against the back of his neck. Lacking the restraint to play the upright gentleman at a moment like this, Chen Xingjian gripped Lian Jue firmly by the waist.
“Xiao Jue”
After calling out twice softly, Lian Jue gave no response.
Side-glancing, Chen Xingjian saw Lian Jue slumped softly against his shoulder, one cheek pressed completely flat, sleeping soundly right then and there.
Tsk. The sugar daddy hadn’t even given permission to sleep yet, so how had he fallen asleep just like that?
Frowning, Chen Xingjian placed a hand on top of Lian Jue’s head, but upon suddenly catching sight of the faint dark circles under his eyes, whatever urge he had to wake Lian Jue up completely vanished.
Irritation and a burning heat surged to the surface. With a face as dark as ink, Chen Xingjian settled Lian Jue down comfortably before stepping outside to light a cigarette.
“Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen, smoking isn’t allowed in the hospital; you can’t light up here,” Assistant Zhao rushed over hurriedly, only to be greeted by yet another blank stare from Chen Xingjian.
“What the hell kind of day is this?” Thoroughly depressed, Chen Xingjian tossed the cigarette he had been holding in his mouth straight to the floor and ground it out fiercely beneath his heel.
Unable to touch the person right in front of him, and forbidden from lighting a cigarette either how long had it been since he’d been this frustrated?
“That oblivious little bastard Lian Jue. Just wait until tomorrow—see if I even bother putting in a good word for him.” Narrowing his eyes, Chen Xingjian recalled Bai Yishu’s temperament and felt another wave of headache coming on.
Lian Jue slept exceptionally well this time, undisturbed by anyone, and woke up to find the sky already bright.
The clothes on his body hadn’t been changed yet, and last night’s events only remained in his memory as a vague, hazy blur.
Scrambling to the bedside to search for his phone, he found no reply from Yuan He yet. He attempted to recall the email, only to receive a notification that the recall had failed.
Yuan He’s team had looked over the email he sent, but left it unanswered which was clearly a form of rejection.
Once his brain cleared up, Lian Jue could somewhat understand that he had been harboring rather whimsical expectations. He was merely an ordinary person who had passed a video interview; before anyone else had even requested anything, he had acted like a big star demanding a face-to-face dialogue with the interviewer. Anyone not in the know would have thought he was trying to deliver bribes and play the back-door route.
Patting his own face, Lian Jue forced himself to perk up.
Since he had to go meet the parents with Chen Xingjian today, it was bound to be another tough battle.
Taking advantage of the fact that Chen Xingjian hadn’t arrived yet, Lian Jue went off to find the doctor by himself, cutting away two layers of the thick gauze wrapped around his head. While it still didn’t look pretty, it was at least an improvement over before.
The moment Chen Xingjian pushed open the door and walked in, Lian Jue was right in the middle of trimming the gauze on his head.
“Mr. Chen, what kind of gift did you prepare?” Lian Jue deliberately glanced toward Assistant Zhao’s side—nothing. It was possible it hadn’t been brought upstairs and was stashed in the trunk instead.
A momentary flash of unnaturalness crossed Chen Xingjian’s face as he spoke: “Don’t ask so many questions, just follow along.”
With such a guilty conscience, he probably hadn’t prepared a single thing.
Lian Jue’s abacus started clicking away in his mind at once: Chen Xingjian was the biological son, so whether he brought a gift or not didn’t matter much, but for him, making his very first visit empty-handed would be far too lacking in manners.
“Mr. Lian, don’t worry. Going over today is mainly to talk business with Madam,” Assistant Zhao piped up, not forgetting to claim credit for President Chen: “President Chen has always been very attentive to that audition you care about so much. Yuan He is currently managed by Madam, so he’s specially taking you over to let Madam take a look first.”
“Begging someone for a favor?” Lian Jue spun around abruptly, the gauze catching against the wound on his forehead and instantly making him bare his teeth in a wince of pain.
Pressing a hand to his forehead, Lian Jue stammered in a rush: “Th-that won’t do! Begging someone for a favor without bringing a gift is going to look even worse, right?”
Rendered utterly helpless by Lian Jue’s clumsy fumbling, Chen Xingjian could only wave a hand to tell Assistant Zhao to handle the purchasing.
“Be careful,” he said. “You’ve still got gauze unwrapped on your head, yet you can’t sit still for a second.”
Guarding his head, Lian Jue sat obediently on a little stool while mentally adding two more tally marks against Chen Xingjian in his heart.
Only when he remembered the small treasury hidden beneath the carpet of the villa did Lian Jue’s mood improve slightly.
Lian Jue had been locked up in the hospital for quite some time without stepping foot outside.
The moment he climbed into the car, he acted like an inquisitive baby, poking and touching everything from left to right, exploring the entire interior trim of the vehicle. Finally, realizing there really wasn’t anything else fun to play with, he pressed both hands against the window and gazed out at the passing scenery.
Lian Jue sat there in his carefree, unbothered little world, playing in the car until right before stepping out, when Chen Xingjian suddenly spoke up.
“My relationship with my mother has been ordinary these past few years. If she says anything harsh to you, just pretend you didn’t hear it. You might have to suffer a bit of grievance.”
Frozen in place, Lian Jue suddenly felt as though he had boarded a pirate ship by following Chen Xingjian.
Yet since he was already here, he had no way to turn around and run. All he could do was snatch what looked like the most expensive-looking gift box out of Assistant Zhao’s hands to use as a shield.
“Chen Xingjian! I let you bring someone over for a visit to show them some decency, and you actually went ahead and brought him here?!”
“In your eyes, do you even have me as your mother?!”
From inside the luxury little townhouse right in front of them, a round of crashing and smashing suddenly erupted, followed by a woman’s furious roar.
Lian Jue’s hanging heart had finally, definitively died.