Lu Xiaoxiao couldn't put down the painting before her, showering it with lavish praise and sparing no effort in her admiration.
Lu Baichen grew embarrassed by the compliments, pursing his lips. Though he showed little outward reaction, the tips of his ears began to flush red. This time, he realized his sister's words matched her genuine thoughts, and this awareness made him even happier, his heart sweeter than if he'd eaten honey.
So when Lu Xiaoxiao took the painting away, Lu Baichen watched her retreating back and secretly resolved: I must give my sister more gifts in the future!
Returning to her room, Lu Xiaoxiao had just stored Lu Baichen's painting safely when she received a call from Lu Xunli.
Having long since returned to the company, Lu Xunli only realized he'd forgotten an important document after already sitting in the conference room. Normally he wouldn't be so careless, but recent busyness had left him so overwhelmed he'd made such a basic mistake.
While reflecting on his oversight, Lu Xunli immediately sought a solution. Given the document's high importance as company confidential material, he didn't trust handing it to household staff and had to contact family instead.
At this hour, the only available people were his younger siblings. Lu Yubai was the most unreliable and thus his first exclusion. As for Lu Jiaoyue, though she seemed meticulous by nature, she'd been home for less than a week and remained unfamiliar with both the company and household.
After careful consideration, this plea for help found its way to Lu Xiaoxiao.
Having a favorable impression of her eldest brother, Lu Xiaoxiao agreed without complaint upon hearing his request. Following Lu Xunli's instructions, she went to the Lu Family study and found the mentioned document in the desk drawer. Just as she prepared to leave quickly, she turned too abruptly and her arm knocked over a stack of books placed at the corner of the desk.
Alone in the study where silence had reigned moments before, the sudden clattering noise proved startlingly loud, giving the unprepared Lu Xiaoxiao quite a fright.
She hurriedly crouched to gather the books, inwardly scolding herself for being clumsy. But halfway through collecting them, one particular book caught her attention.
It had fallen open to reveal a prominent boldfaced headline: "For Harmonious Marital Relations, Start with Communication."
Lu Xiaoxiao: "……?"
Hesitantly picking up the book, she flipped it over to see the title: "Reject Marital Drain, Make Life Sweeter" in large print. Scanning the contents revealed numerous underlined passages and handwritten annotations, showing the owner had studied it carefully.
The pages appeared somewhat worn, suggesting frequent previous readings.
Given that only Lu Yuan and Song Zhilan were married in the Lu Family, and this study was primarily used by Lu Yuan and Lu Xunli, the book's owner became self-evident.
Feeling somewhat complicated emotions, Lu Xiaoxiao's gaze fell on a checked sentence: "To make his wife happy, a husband must learn to cater to her preferences and provide economic value."
Beside this sentence, Lu Yuan had noted the date of an auction and jotted down: "Blue-and-white jade vase spring bottle with seasonal floral patterns."
According to the original description, Song Zhilan had maintained a long-standing hobby of flower arrangement.
The blue-and-white jade spring vase with seasonal floral patterns was worth over 27.6 million yuan. Giving such an expensive vase could naturally be considered catering to Song Zhilan's preferences.
After flipping through the book a while longer, Lu Xiaoxiao suddenly realized it wasn't right to snoop into Lu Yuan's privacy like this. She hurriedly closed the pages and rushed out of the study with the documents Lu Xunli needed.
The distant relationship between Lu Yuan and Song Zhilan wasn't exactly a secret—all the Lu Family children actually knew about it.
Of course, for wealthy families like theirs bound by Commercial Marriage, maintaining a respectful relationship and remaining faithful to each other was already quite good.
Among other wealthy families in the same social class as the Lu Family, many had husbands who kept mistresses outside while maintaining appearances at home, with both spouses turning a blind eye to each other's behavior, treating marriage as merely a practical arrangement.
However, from what Lu Xiaoxiao knew, Lu Yuan and Song Zhilan's situation was somewhat special. It wasn't that they lacked feelings for each other, but there were too many misunderstandings between them, and neither was good at communication, which kept them stuck in this awkward status quo.
The book she had just seen further confirmed Lu Xiaoxiao's thoughts—Lu Yuan clearly cared deeply about Song Zhilan, a classic case of being secretly Love-Obsessed!
But precisely because he couldn't express himself properly, Song Zhilan had always believed he didn't care much about her.
With mixed emotions swirling in her heart, Lu Xiaoxiao reached the entrance and saw Song Zhlan sitting on the sofa watching TV dramas while eating fruit, looking completely relaxed and content. After watching her thoughtfully for two seconds, Lu Xiaoxiao couldn't help but sigh on Lu Yuan's behalf.
Song Zhilan noticed her daughter and looked over, asking kindly, "Xiaoxiao, are you going out? Will you be back for dinner tonight?"
Lu Xiaoxiao nodded: "I'm just going to the company to deliver something to big brother, then I'll be back for dinner at home."
[The favored truly are fearless! Mom, you're so clueless! Do you even know how much Dad absolutely adores you?!]
Song Zhilan: "???"
Song Zhilan blinked in confusion, not understanding why her daughter suddenly seemed so frustrated with her, nor where this notion of Lu Yuan "absolutely adoring" her came from.
They had been in a sort of semi-cold war these past few days, barely exchanging more than a few words!
Lu Xiaoxiao looked at her with pity in her eyes, and just before closing the door, added another mental remark:
[If nothing else works, Mom, you should sneak into the study and see what books Dad usually reads too. Forget about privacy—how long are you two going to keep being this awkward with each other!]
With a "bang," Song Zhilan stared at the closed door in stunned silence, even forgetting to chew the fruit in her mouth.
The study? Could Lu Yuan be hiding some secret in the study?
Song Zhilan felt hesitant, but found she'd completely lost interest in the drama playing on TV—she couldn't focus on it at all.
Out of respect for Lu Yuan, Song Zhilan hardly ever touched his things without permission, and whenever similar thoughts crossed her mind, she would suppress them.
But this time, Song Zhilan truly couldn't resist. After thinking it over repeatedly, she finally decided to go check the study.
If even their daughter understood her husband better than she did, then her marriage was truly failing!
Just one look—only this once!
Song Zhilan ultimately convinced herself to put down the fruit and headed toward the study.
The Lu Corporation building was far more imposing than Lu Xiaoxiao had imagined—one had to crane their neck until it ached just to see the top.
But no matter how grand it was, everyone inside was just another miserable office worker. With that thought, Lu Xiaoxiao immediately felt disillusioned about the building.
Lu Xunli was probably already in a meeting, so it wouldn’t be appropriate to call and disturb him.
Without contacting her elder brother, Lu Xiaoxiao walked straight to the front desk and said to the young woman sitting there, “Hello, I’m here to see your President Lu. Could you please tell me how to get to his office?”
She thought her words were perfectly polite, but the receptionist merely glanced at her sideways and replied in an extremely impatient tone, “Do you think just anyone can walk into President Lu’s office? If you don’t have an appointment, please leave.”