Lu Sui raised his cold eyes and glanced at her. "Is that so strange?"
"No." Gu Kuankuan shook her head. "Staying pure and keeping manly virtue—that's great."
She said this, but inwardly she was thinking: Although Lu Sui was a bit cold in temperament, his looks were flawless and beyond reproach, and financially he was…
Financially, she had no idea.
He was thirty-three and still unmarried… well, until this flash marriage.
Could it be that something was wrong with his body—something he found hard to talk about?
Some hidden ailment, perhaps?
While eating breakfast, Gu Kuankuan received a call from her mother.
"Kuankuan, when will you and your boyfriend be home?" Mother Gu asked gently and lovingly.
"Around ten or eleven."
Gu Kuankuan glanced at the time—it was already nine in the morning.
Mother Gu said, "Tell me, what does your boyfriend like to eat? I'm at the market buying groceries."
Her father was in the ICU, with professional doctors monitoring his condition around the clock.
Visiting hours were three or four in the afternoon every day.
"Lu Sui, is there any food you don't eat?" Gu Kuankuan looked up and asked the man across from her.
"No cilantro, celery, raw scallions or garlic, onions, or animal organs. I prefer light flavors."
Gu Kuankuan relayed his words to her mother.
After breakfast, Gu Kuankuan and Lu Sui set off for her home.
Only after the car left the villa did Gu Kuankuan realize that Lu Sui's villa was built on a mountain; there were a few other villas nearby, but they were quite far apart!
Gu Kuankuan's imagination ran wild—Lu Sui had been duped by a developer into buying a villa in this middle-of-nowhere place. Then, before the villa complex was even finished, the developer ran off when their funding chain broke.
Lu Sui couldn't afford a second house, and unwilling to pay a mortgage for nothing, he had no choice but to live here.
The car drove for nearly half an hour before reaching the main road.
Gu Kuankuan became even more convinced of her theory.
Sympathizing with Lu Sui's lack of money, Gu Kuankuan took him to a large supermarket and bought a few hundred yuan worth of things.
Then she brought Lu Sui home.
Next to the small red-brick house was an empty space, perfect for parking.
To make more room inside the house, Mother Gu had pushed her daughter's little electric scooter outside the door.
"Mom, we're back!" Gu Kuankuan got out of the passenger seat, opened the rear door, and took out the gifts.
Hearing her voice, Mother Gu hurried out of the house and said with a beaming smile, "Mr. Lu, you've come back with Kuankuan."
Then she exclaimed in admiration, "Kuankuan, you look so beautiful today, just like a celebrity on TV."
"The dress and shoes were bought by Lu Sui." Gu Kuankuan looked at Lu Sui.
"Hello, Auntie!" Lu Sui greeted her. "You can just call me by my name from now on."
"Good, good!" Mother Gu smiled and ushered them in. "Come in and sit down. I'll just stir-fry a vegetable dish and then we can eat."
"Mom, these are gifts Lu Sui bought for you—all things you can actually use."
Gu Kuankuan pressed the items into her mother's hands.
Over this past month or so, her mother had been running back and forth between home and the hospital. She had grown haggard, and her hair had turned much grayer.
She and Lu Sui had gone to the large supermarket and bought two cans of middle-aged-and-elderly milk powder and some health supplements.
Mother Gu lightly tapped her daughter's forehead with a finger.
She gently scolded, "Lu Sui lent us so much money yesterday—how could you still let him buy all these things? From now on, when you bring him home for dinner, don't bring anything."
While mother and daughter were talking, Lu Sui took out of the trunk the gifts he'd had his secretary prepare.
"Ma'am, this is my first time formally meeting you, so I couldn't be careless about courtesy."
Gu Kuankuan saw that Lu Sui was carrying several gift boxes, all of which looked quite high-end.
She asked in surprise, "Lu Sui, when did you buy all this?"
"Yesterday," Lu Sui replied.
After she called him yesterday, he'd had his secretary prepare it.
Mother Gu's good impression of Lu Sui shot up rapidly.
Yesterday, when she suggested her daughter bring Lu Sui over for a meal, he had immediately prepared gifts for meeting the parents.
In Mother Gu's eyes, this showed how seriously Lu Sui took her daughter, and it also showed that his upbringing and character were excellent in every respect.
He was a man worth entrusting herself to!
Carrying the gifts, Lu Sui walked into the house with Gu Kuankuan.
The twenty-some-square-meter apartment was kept especially clean—small as it was, it had everything it needed.
On the dining table, a vase held a single lily. The lily was fragrant; Mother Gu had bought it that morning for five yuan.
Mother Gu poured a cup of hot tea. "Lu Sui, have some tea. I just need to stir-fry some greens and we can eat."
"Mom, you've been busy all morning. Rest a while."
Gu Kuankuan pressed her mother's shoulders, making her sit down.
She turned to turn on the stove, quickly stir-fried the greens, and dished up the rice…
During the meal, Mother Gu asked with concern, "Lu Sui, is the food to your taste? Or if there's anything you like to eat, just tell me."
"Ma'am, the food tastes great," Lu Sui said.
Seeing that Lu Sui didn't seem to be just making polite conversation, Mother Gu was relieved.
After lunch.
Lu Sui said to Mother Gu, "Ma'am, I have a vacant two-bedroom apartment near the hospital where Uncle is staying. Later, I'll arrange for someone to come help you move."
"What?" Mother Gu was too astonished to speak.
"I know that because Uncle's hospitalization costs so much money, you've been living in a place like this to save," Lu Sui paused, then continued, "If you don't object to me and Kuankuan being together, we can move after we register the marriage tomorrow."
To cooperate with Gu Kuankuan's act, they were currently in a relationship.
Mother Gu, of course, wouldn't object—she was even deeply moved inside.
Most people, faced with her family's situation, would run away overnight, yet Lu Sui had proposed marrying her daughter.
"You really… want to register the marriage with Kuankuan?" Mother Gu confirmed with him.
"Yes." Lu Sui was decisive, saying forcefully and domineeringly, "Then it's settled."
Lu Sui had matters to attend to, so he didn't stay long before leaving.
Gu Kuankuan briskly cleared the table and washed the dishes.
Mother Gu thought about how her daughter would go register the marriage with Lu Sui tomorrow. Her heart was full of reluctance, yet she also felt happy for her daughter…
She pulled her daughter over, wanting to have a heart-to-heart. "Kuankuan, tomorrow you're going to register the marriage with your boyfriend…"
"What do you mean, register the marriage tomorrow? Gu Kuankuan, didn't you already marry a stranger yesterday?"
A sharp woman's voice cut off Mother Gu's words.
Mother Gu looked up toward the door and saw Lin Shumin and Gu Xueyan, mother and daughter, dressed up flamboyantly, walking in with arrogant expressions.
"Kuankuan, what did your aunt just mean by that?" Mother Gu asked, her face somewhat pale.
Gu Xueyan glanced at Gu Kuankuan and saw that Gu Kuankuan looked nervous.
Gu Xueyan sneered inwardly. "Auntie, my mom felt sorry for Cousin, who's been working herself to the bone to pay for Uncle's medical bills, so she offered to introduce her to a wealthy man. She figured that if the two of them hit it off, Uncle's medical expenses would no longer be a worry."
"Yesterday, my mom arranged for Cousin to go on a blind date, but she was so ill-mannered that she made the appointment and then didn't show up. It wasn't until my mom called to ask that she admitted she'd already had a flash marriage with some stranger."
"Kuankan, is what they're saying true?" Mother Gu demanded in disbelief.