"You’re back?"
Liang City opened the door and entered the house, immediately greeted by his wife Zhong Jing’s habitual question.
"Yeah." He nodded, swapping his shoes in the entryway before fully stepping inside.
Seeing her husband wearing a smile, Zhong Jing’s eyes lit up. "Is the matter settled?"
"The flowers are sorted," Liang City said with a smile. "As for the other thing, it’s hard to say."
Zhong Jing bounced the baby in her arms. "Director Liu is a pretty nice person. If she agreed to help, it’s basically in the bag."
Liang City shook his head. "That makes sense in theory, but it’s never that easy. She doesn’t owe us any favors. At best, this gives us a slightly better foot in the door than the rest."
"So what’s your plan?"
"Take it one step at a time. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Whatever happens, happens."
"Fine, as long as you’re not stressing over it," Zhong Jing said. She looked down and gently pulled the baby’s little fingers out of her mouth to stop her from chewing on them.
"Panicking won’t help." Liang City sighed. "Everyone has their eyes on this. There are three people in our town alone whose service terms are up, not to mention the other towns and sub-districts. It’s all thanks to Chen Jingle this time. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have even been able to connect with Director Liu."
"And what about me?" Zhong Jing huffed softly, expressing her dissatisfaction.
Liang City quickly added, "You deserve the most credit, of course. Without you, I wouldn’t have even had the chance to meet Director Liu."
"That’s more like it."
Nanny Liang emerged from the kitchen, smiling as she interrupted their conversation. "Alright, alright. Since you’re back, let’s eat first."
Everyone washed their hands and took their seats.
Dinner wasn’t exactly a lavish feast, but it was still quite good. However, Liang City only ate one bowl before feeling somewhat full, and he quickly set down his chopsticks.
Zhong Jing acutely noticed something was off. "Why are you eating so little today?"
It was often said that when a man had no appetite at home, it usually meant he had already eaten his fill outside. HMPH?! She raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
Liang City waved a hand. "When I went to Chen Jingle’s place to pick up the flowers, I happened to eat a few steamed buns. I’m a bit full." Find the original chapter at g.com.
Hearing that he had eaten at Chen Jingle’s house, Zhong Jing instantly dropped her suspicions, though she couldn’t help but playfully scold him. "I told you to ask him for help. It’s bad enough that you went over empty-handed, but you even freeloaded off his food and drinks?"
Liang City chuckled sheepishly. "You don’t understand, those soy-braised pork buns were incredibly fragrant. I’ve known him for over a decade, and it was only today that I discovered he had such a hidden talent."
"Oh? Just how good could they be?"
Liang City thought about it seriously before replying, "I don’t think I’ve ever had a better meat bun in my life."
"You’re totally exaggerating!"
"Suit yourself if you don’t believe me!" Liang City couldn’t be bothered to argue.
He thought, "Sigh, I should have just been shameless and eaten a couple more. I doubt Chen Jingle would cut ties with me over two extra buns! The more I think about it, the more I regret it. My thin skin really made me miss out!"
Zhong Jing sneered. "If they were so delicious, why did you only care about feeding yourself? Did it never cross your mind to bring some back for Mom, me, and our daughter?"
He thought, "Oh, crap!" Hearing this, a cold sweat instantly broke out on Liang City’s back.
He laughed awkwardly. "Well, you see, he didn’t make that many to begin with. Besides, you said it yourself—it was already bad enough that I showed up empty-handed and freeloaded. I couldn’t exactly eat his food and pack some to go, right?"
"HMPH." Teacher Zhong turned her head away, too lazy to engage with him any further.
Nanny Liang smiled and chimed in. "If you want to eat bread, I can try making some later."
"Mom, the bread you make is always rock-hard every single time, so let’s just skip it," Liang City quickly refused.
Nanny Liang immediately voiced her displeasure. "Of course I wouldn’t be good at it when I’m just starting to learn! I’ll get the hang of it after a few more tries."
Liang City could only wipe his sweat in secret, thinking, "The problem is you’ve already tried several times, and every single attempt has been a complete disaster! Since you don’t have a talent for making pastries, let’s not torture ourselves."
Zhong Jing didn’t dare speak up, either. Forcing herself to ignore her conscience and compliment the food would just be too difficult for her.
After dinner, Liang City went to wash the dishes. Nanny Liang was amusing Little Mingyue, while Zhong Jing went to turn on the water heater in preparation for a shower. While she was tidying up clothes in the bedroom, Liang City slipped in after finishing his chores.
"Hey, didn’t you mention before that you wanted to introduce Zhong Qing to Chen Jingle? I gave it some serious thought, and I feel like it could work," he said.
Zhong Jing turned her head to glance at him. Seeing that he wasn’t joking, she frowned. "Didn’t he reject the idea before? He already said no, so what else can I do? Besides, Zhong Qing might not even be willing."
"Just hear me out first." Liang City sat on the edge of the bed. "I’ve noticed over the past couple of days that Chen Jingle seems to have secretly gotten a lot more handsome. It turns out the reason I used to think he wasn’t as good-looking as me was just because he was scruffy."
If he had merely said Chen Jingle was handsome, it would have been fine, but claiming the man wasn’t as handsome as him instantly made Zhong Jing break character, and she burst into laughter. This chapter was taken from novelping . com without permission.
"What are you laughing at? Be serious," Liang City huffed in exasperation.
Zhong Jing covered her mouth. "Alright, he’s gotten more handsome. Care to be specific?"
Liang City continued, "He’s much fairer than before. I don’t know if it’s because he’s been staying home for so long, never going out day after day. A fair complexion covers a multitude of flaws, and his face has completely cleared up. He’s also been exercising recently. While I wouldn’t call him buff, his complexion is at least much healthier than before. He used to look way too frail.
"As for his character, personality, and temper, you might not be intimately familiar with him, but you’ve met him. At the very least, you know he isn’t some shady guy. Having known him for so many years, I can confidently say he’s one of the most reliable people out there. In terms of family background, while they aren’t wildly wealthy, marrying into his family wouldn’t mean a life of hardship. I’m honestly jealous of that little villa of his.
"The only tricky part is his work situation. He claims he’s saved up enough money to retire early and just chill, but looking at his current potted plant cultivation skills, along with those soy-braised pork buns I mentioned, either one of those talents guarantees he’ll never go hungry.
"I just feel like there isn’t a better option around. Blink and we’ll miss it. I really think we should give it a try.
"Didn’t you always say Zhong Qing was a massive lazybones who never wants to do anything? From the looks of it, she’s well on her way to becoming a total shut-in. If we don’t take the initiative to introduce her to someone, are we just going to cross our fingers and hope for a home invasion meet-cute?"
Zhong Jing remained silent after hearing him out, clearly deep in thought. After quite a while, she finally said, "Alright, I’ll ask again. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll drop it."
"Then you better hurry. The kid’s a hot commodity. The only reason he’s still single is because he stays indoors all day with zero social life. It’d be terrible if someone else snatched him up," Liang City said, his voice laced with concern.
He genuinely thought highly of Chen Jingle. When a person’s luck finally turns, their entire aura changes. As the saying goes, once a carp meets the wind and clouds, it transforms into a dragon. If they waited until he struck it rich to start networking, it would be far too late.
After Zhong Jing came out of the shower, she chatted with her younger sister, Zhong Qing, about wanting to set her up on a blind date.
"How old? How old did you say he was?"
On the other end of the internet connection, Zhong Qing was utterly dumbfounded. Never in a million years did she expect that, before she had even graduated from college, her older sister would already be plotting to set her up on a blind date—and with an older bachelor, no less.
What terrible sin had she committed in a past life to deserve such a punishment?
"Thirty," Zhong Jing replied, not finding anything wrong with it.
Zhong Qing couldn’t help but complain, "Thirty? Isn’t that basically an old man? I’m only twenty-two!"
They weren’t even from the same generation! According to the saying that every three years creates a generational gap, they were separated by nearly three entire chasms!
Zhong Jing was speechless. "Watch your mouth. Liang City is also thirty; do you think he’s an old man? Besides, an eight-year difference isn’t even that much."
"Isn’t thirty old? I’ll only be thirty in eight years, and he’ll be pushing forty by then! If his luck is bad, he might just croak at fifty, and I’ll be stuck as a widow for decades."
TAP TAP TAP. Her face scrunched up in disgust, Zhong Qing furiously typed on her screen to send her reply.