After finishing her class, Lu Meng returned to the office. Her phone just happened to push a news notification about the Shao and Lu families reaching a strategic partnership.
She rarely paid attention to the group's affairs. She swiped her finger down, and after reading the report, she didn't feel much of a ripple.
Another teacher in the same office was getting water behind her and caught a glimpse of what she was reading, chiming in: "Teacher Lu, I didn't expect you to follow this kind of stuff too."
Lu Meng put down her phone and smiled naturally: "It just happened to show up in my feed."
"A while back I also saw that their two families are joining through marriage—probably all for the sake of cooperation."
Lu Meng followed along: "Probably."
Actually, regarding the two families' marriage alliance, there was indeed a lot of discussion in their circles.
Whether harsh or tactful, Lu Meng had heard plenty, but she didn't pay it much mind.
The union of the two great families, the Shao and the Lu, could be said to be the icing on the cake in every aspect, and for her there was no real downside.
As for those who hoped she and Lu Bofan would be together in name only, and even proclaimed that people bound together like them would sooner or later separate—
After hearing it, Lu Meng merely smiled indifferently.
Who cared.
She probably counted as a relatively "well-behaved" eldest daughter—no ambition to fight for the family fortune, and no interest in mingling in a world of extravagance and squandering money.
She'd found a decent job, occasionally delved into translating books she liked, and her hobby was probably baking cookies.
As for Lu Bofan, if they could spend the rest of their days treating each other with respect, that would of course be good. But if it really came to that point, Lu Meng thought of their prenuptial agreement and couldn't help but curve her lips into a smile.
She'd get quite a lot.
Lu Meng glanced at the time and picked up the bag by her desk: "Teacher Qin, I'm heading out first."
"Ah, okay."
She had to go back to the Lu family's old residence tonight, so she hadn't driven.
Lu Meng got into the car. The first thing that entered her view was the man's exposed half-section of a cool, pale wrist, wearing a low-key yet expensive watch. On his crossed legs rested a document, and as he turned the pages, the wedding ring on his ring finger traced a cold, sharp gleam.
The temperature inside the car was warm, and she didn't know how long he'd been waiting. Lu Meng removed her shawl and placed it on her lap, then raised her dark, lustrous eyes to look at him: "Why did you come?"
She paused, then immediately explained: "Weren't you supposed to be very busy today?"
Lu Bofan set down the document, his gaze involuntarily falling on the shawl she had pressed under her hand.
"I canceled it." The man's voice was steady and calm: "I couldn't let you go back by yourself."
Lu Meng didn't think it was a big deal—it was only a matter of sooner or later; he could have come after he finished. But she suddenly remembered what Auntie Ye had said—that the old master was very strict with Lu Bofan, and almost everyone in the Lu family was afraid of him.
At the wedding, Lu Meng had toasted the old master, but they hadn't exchanged many words.
She belatedly felt a bit worried, and just then the man's gentle, calm voice fell by her ear: "Lu Meng."
"Hm?"
She responded instinctively, and the hand resting on the shawl was taken up by someone. Her fingertips were still a bit cold, yet it was as if in an instant they were overwhelmed by the warmth of his hand.
Lu Bofan slowly pushed the wedding ring deep onto the woman's ring finger. The size was a perfect fit. Lu Meng was a little surprised: "Didn't you just find a designer?"
Lu Bofan didn't let go of her hand, answering in a flat tone: "Pay enough money, and you can speed up the progress."
Lu Meng had already grown somewhat accustomed to President Lu's calm and breezy demeanor. She admired the matching wedding rings they both wore—though not as dazzling and exquisite as pink diamonds, they were still exceptionally beautiful.
"Later when you meet my grandfather, if he tries to be harsh with me, President Lu, remember to protect me."
Lu Meng reminded him as a matter of course.
Lu Bofan had at some point taken her hand, casually stroking the woman's skin, quite conscious of his role as a husband. Hearing this, he nodded in agreement: "Of course."
His response only made Lu Meng more worried: "Is the old man really that strict?"
Lu Bofan reassured her with a faint smile: "He won't be harsh with you."
Lu Meng tried to read between the lines—so the grandfather really was strict with him?
Her lips parted, but before she could voice her question, Lu Bofan casually changed the subject: "You really like this style of shawl?"
Following his words, Lu Meng looked at the wool shawl on her lap and subconsciously murmured an acknowledgment, then couldn't help glancing at him and muttering: "You even noticed that."
There was a hint of a smile in Lu Bofan's eyes: "You wear this style quite frequently. Most of the shawls in your wardrobe are this brand too."
Lu Meng felt a bit strange under his gaze. She deliberately ignored the flutter in her heart and tilted her head to ask him: "President Lu is so attentive—you even specifically remember my preferences?"
Lu Bofan's fingertips moved slightly, still holding her hand, and he asked in return with an easy composure: "As a husband, is there anything wrong with remembering my wife's preferences?"
"…."
Lu Meng was cornered by his counter. She restrained the faint upward curve at the corner of her lips: "Then are you blaming me for not remembering your preferences?"
Lu Bofan remained perfectly at ease: "If you can't tell what I like, I can tell you—or I can write it into a document and forward it to you."
"….."
Only then did Lu Meng notice that he was still holding her hand. She didn't pull away, but instead mischievously traced a small circle in his palm with her fingertip: "President Lu, you have ulterior motives."
Lu Bofan wore a faint smile: "So will you accept them or not?"
Accept what—
It wasn't ulterior at all, but blatant intentions.
Lu Meng turned her head to look at her reflection in the car window. She didn't give a precise answer, only said with a slight curl of her lips: "Depends on my mood."
The car slowly drove into the Lu family compound. After getting out, Lu Meng walked to his side, and Lu Bofan casually adjusted the wool shawl on her shoulders.
Besides Elder Lu, Lu Bofan's cousin and his wife were also there, along with his little niece.
But what surprised Lu Meng was that although Grandpa Lu exuded authority, he was very gentle with her—completely different from the imagined coldness and hostility.
After chatting for a while, the old man looked at Lu Bofan and his cousin, his tone imperceptibly cooling: "Come upstairs with me."
After they left, the cousin's wife asked her with a smile: "Were you scared? Did you think Grandpa would be fierce?"
Lu Meng nodded honestly. The cousin's wife's surname was Feng, and she had a lovely name—Qingshu.
She too had married into the family through an arranged marriage between prominent families. The first time she met the old man, she had been just as nervous as Lu Meng.
"The old man is only strict with them—the father and sons. With us, he's quite generous and patient."
Lu Meng thought of what Auntie Ye had said. She glanced upstairs and asked Feng Qingshu: "Sister-in-law, do you know why?"
Calling her sister-in-law felt odd somehow, and Feng Qingshu also found it awkward to hear. "Just call me Qingshu-jie."
As for the reason, she paused: "I don't know much either. I only heard from Lu Cheng that after Bofan's parents passed away, Grandpa placed the Lu family's hopes on him."
Lu Meng found it strange: "Isn't Lu Bofan's uncle still around?"
His uncle Lu Yan, who was also Feng Qingshu's father-in-law.
The woman rarely showed a subtle emotion. She glanced upstairs, and her voice unconsciously softened: "He has the heart, but not the fate."
Lu Meng was stunned. Although she hadn't sorted out the specific circumstances, she still subconsciously asked: "So, is the old man really that strict with Lu Bofan?"
Feng Qingshu nodded, her brows furrowed: "I heard from Lu Cheng that he used to be locked in confinement by the old man often."
Among the several fathers and sons, Grandpa Lu was the strictest with Lu Bofan.
Lu Meng didn't know what she was thinking either. Feng Qingshu went to the backyard to find her daughter.
As mealtime approached, the servant was about to go upstairs to call the old man and the others for the meal.
Feng Qingshu called out to her from outside: "Aunt Chen, please come help me."
Her daughter was covered in mud from playing, and she couldn't handle the wild girl alone.
Lu Meng stood up: "You go ahead. I'll go call Grandpa and the others."
"Oh, alright. Thank you for the trouble."
Lu Meng walked up to the second floor. For some reason, her heart slowly sank.
She knocked on the study door: "Grandpa, it's time to eat."
A calm reply came from inside. Lu Meng didn't leave. As she expected, the study door was soon opened.
The old man's expression wasn't great, but facing her, he was kind and gentle: "Why is it you coming up to call us?"
Lu Meng's peripheral vision swept toward the man's figure. He casually brushed his knee, his clothes unwrinkled, as if noticing her gaze, his deep eyes quietly looked over.
She withdrew her gaze and mentioned Feng Qingshu's matter. When Lu Cheng heard it was his little girl, he said helplessly: "Grandpa, I'll go check on Qingshu."
"Go ahead."
Lu Meng supported the old man with his cane, and inadvertently glanced back at the man, only to see Lu Bofan unhurriedly following behind them.
At the dining table, Grandpa Lu didn't bring up business. Instead, he asked her unhurriedly: "Is Bofan good to you?"
"If there's anything you're dissatisfied with, you can tell me."
"He's very good to me."
Lu Bofan's movements paused. His gaze fixed on the woman's profile, and he saw her eyes curved, her tone completely without any perfunctoriness: "He's very thoughtful and takes good care of me. He even notices that I usually like this style of shawl."
Lu Meng knew Lu Bofan was looking at her, but she didn't turn back. Instead, she continued to the old man: "From the time we met until now, he's been so good that I can't find a single fault."
Grandpa Lu's sharp gaze swept over: "You little girl, are you protecting him?"
Lu Meng smiled: "What are you saying? He's my husband. Of course I'll protect him."
She knew how to charm people. Apart from her grandmother, there was almost no elder she couldn't win over.
As she expected, the old man's tone softened considerably after hearing this: "Having you is Bofan's fortune."
Lu Meng secretly glanced at the person beside her. Where no one else noticed, she gently hooked the man's hand.
She could actually tell that he was in a bad mood, probably having been lectured by Grandpa.
Lu Bofan stared at the woman's slender fingers, the wedding ring on her ring finger overlapping with his.
He slowly tightened his grip. Lu Meng had only meant to comfort him, but her hand was caught in his, and no matter how she tried, she couldn't pull it back.
She shot him a covert glare, but a smile flickered in Lu Bofan's eyes as he still refused to let go.
It was a rule of the Lu family that younger members who came to visit in the evening were to stay overnight at the Lu residence.
After dinner, Lu Meng followed Lu Bofan to his room.
But she had no mind to look around. The moment the door closed, she frowned at his knees. "Did Grandpa make you kneel?"
Lu Bofan wasn't surprised that she'd noticed. "It's nothing."
Lu Meng thought of what Feng Qingshu and Auntie Ye had said. Her red lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to ask something, but the words wouldn't come.
"You want to ask why Grandpa is so hard on me?"
Lu Bofan seemed to see right through her thoughts, and Lu Meng nodded slowly.
"My parents passed away early." His tone was flat, with no intention of hiding it from her.
"After that, my uncle became the second heir of the Lu family, but—"
He paused, a hint of cold mockery in his voice. "Handing the Lu family to him would be equivalent to its ruin."
He might as well have said outright that his uncle, Lu Yan, was a fool.
Elder Lu had two children. The eldest was gifted and intelligent, groomed as the heir from childhood.
As for Lu Yan, he was worlds apart from Lu Bofan's father—he simply didn't have the capability.
So Elder Lu shifted his focus to Lu Bofan. With Lu Yan as a cautionary precedent, he raised this grandson with ever-increasing strictness.
As for why the choice fell on him rather than his cousin—it was because his cousin had a congenital heart condition. The old man's only option had always been him.
Lu Meng thought about how old he must have been then. "You were only…"
"Six."
Lu Bofan hung up her shawl, then turned around to see her worried, downcast expression.
Lu Meng didn't notice his movements, her brow still furrowed. "Then why did Grandpa punish you today?"
She thought of the news about the cooperation between the Shao and Lu families. "Is it because of the partnership with my family?"
"No."
As if knowing exactly what she was thinking, Lu Bofan explained, "I don't bring personal relationships into work. All partnerships have been deliberated and decided by the company."
He then told her the real reason his grandfather was angry—it was indeed about company matters, but it had nothing to do with the Shao family.
Lu Meng wasn't disappointed by his clear separation of personal and professional. On the contrary, she felt a slight sense of relief.
After he finished speaking, remembering how she had defended him in front of the others that evening, he stepped closer, tilting his head slightly downward. "Worried about me?"
Lu Meng looked away, a little flustered. "I'm just worried that if Grandpa scolds you, it'll make me lose face."
"Is that so."
The man drawled the words slowly, a self-deprecating smile curling at his lips. "No one's ever worried about me before. Seems I misunderstood."
Lu Meng looked at him doubtfully. "Auntie Ye told me you've had it hard, and your cousin too—how could no one care about you?"
Lu Bofan's tone was indifferent. "Auntie Ye couldn't defend me in public either. She only brought me medicine afterward. As for my cousin, he gets scolded by Grandpa too—he's too busy trying to hide himself to dare help me."
Listening to him, Lu Meng finally sensed something off. She tapped his chest lightly with her finger, her dark, glossy eyes carrying a hint of accusation. "Lu Bofan, are you trying to play the victim with me?"
The man's gaze fell on her slender, fair fingers, then slowly, unhurriedly, lifted to her eyes.
"If I said yes, would you coax me?"
No evasion, no guilt.
His openness was so disarming that Lu Meng felt her fingers burn. She instinctively wanted to pull her hand back, but suddenly someone hooked her waist and drew her into an embrace.
Lu Bofan's gaze seemed to lightly, effortlessly fish her heart up. The hand she'd meant to push him away with paused, then rose to wrap around the man's neck. She tilted her face up and accused, "President Lu, of all people—resorting to shamelessness?"
Lu Bofan's brow arched. "This counts as shamelessness?"
Lu Meng gave a matter-of-fact "mm." The man was equally unruffled. "Then let it be shamelessness."
Lu Meng finally couldn't help but curve her lips. She was a little curious: "Do outsiders know that their President Lu would actually let someone coax him in private?"
Lu Bofan was utterly unperturbed. Only the eyes that glanced at her carried the faintest hint of a smile: "What others think—what's that to me?"
"What I asked was about my wife."