Li Xiwei, in a white dress, got out of the car. When she saw Meng Mian, she didn’t recognize her at first glance.
But at second glance, she recognized her immediately.
“Mianmian! It really is you, Mianmian!” Li Xiwei ran happily over to Meng Mian’s scooter.
Parking her scooter, Meng Mian joked with a perfectly well-behaved look. “Thank god. Finally, someone who can recognize me at first glance.”
“Pfft.” Li Xiwei was amused into laughter. “What, a lot of people didn’t recognize you? But honestly, I actually didn’t recognize you at first glance just now.”
Meng Mian laughed. “That’s normal. When I went to the company looking like this, my colleagues didn’t recognize me either. Even Ji Silin saw me like this, twice even, and didn’t recognize me either.”
“Ha ha.” Li Xiwei laughed even harder. “So does he recognize you now?”
“Your brother called him and said I was the one who delivered the documents, so he knew it was me.”
Li Xiwei nearly died laughing. “If I hadn’t been your classmate in middle school and seen you without makeup, and you’ve just grown into your features a bit more since then, I actually wouldn’t have recognized you even at second glance.”
She paused, then added, “But why do I feel like you’ve changed? Not only are you fun to talk to, but you’re not wearing that heavy makeup anymore, and you’ve even started riding a scooter. Didn’t you say before that was embarrassing?”
“Before was before, now is now. Now I’ve experienced the joy of not getting stuck in traffic. It’s absolutely intoxicating.” Meng Mian took off her helmet and hung it on the scooter.
Li Xiwei liked this Meng Mian even more.
She really was so interesting.
After both went into the hotpot place and sat down at a window booth, Li Xiwei was still staring at Meng Mian.
Meng Mian wasn’t flustered at all. “What, don’t recognize me anymore?”
Li Xiwei laughed. “No, just that you’re really well-behaved like this, so pretty. And how do you take care of your skin? It’s so tender. Before, with all that heavy makeup, it was really a waste of heaven’s gifts.”
Meng Mian looked up at the sky and sighed. “Before, I didn’t know you all liked me like this. Miscalculated.”
“Pfft.” Li Xiwei laughed out loud again. “Even if you get angry, I have to say it. I really like the current you.”
Looking at the menu, Meng Mian answered fluently. “It’s no use you liking me. I have a boyfriend.”
Li Xiwei nearly laughed and slapped the table.
After both ordered some things, the waiter took the menu and left.
Li Xiwei liked the current Meng Mian so much she couldn’t help saying,
“Do you remember the day you came to Li Group for the interview? If you had appeared in front of me like this, I definitely would have recognized you as my middle school classmate.”
“But with all that heavy makeup at the time, I didn’t recognize you. It was only when you called out to me and said who you were that I knew you were my classmate.”
Meng Mian said, “Wasn’t I trying to get hired by your family’s company? I just happened to see you, so of course I immediately went up to tell you who I was and cling to your leg.”
Li Xiwei was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Are you this honest now?”
Meng Mian lied without missing a beat and smiled sweetly. “Because I recently learned a move. Sincerity is the ultimate skill.”
Li Xiwei was amused into loud laughter again.
In short, she didn’t suspect at all that the current Meng Mian and the previous Meng Mian were simply not the same person.
Today the two of them really just ate their way across the city. Only the next day did they go shopping together.
It was also while Meng Mian was shopping that, at the Ji family’s old residence,
Old Master Ji leaned on his cane, and no matter how he looked at his grandson Ji Silin, he found him displeasing.
In the end he couldn’t hold back and opened his mouth, blowing his beard and glaring.
“It’s rare you don’t have to go to the company today, and you just stay at home? Can’t you go out on a date? Aren’t you a person with a girlfriend now? Do you even know how to date?!”
Ji Silin’s head hurt.
Going to the company every day, not staying home, his grandfather criticized him.
Now staying home one day a week, and he still said he didn’t go out.
He thought his grandfather was just deliberately picking a fight.
But his grandfather was still bombarding him.
“If you screw things up and lose your girlfriend, I’m not done with you!”
“Would it kill you to be a little enthusiastic?!”
“Who are you showing that cold face to?!”
“What girl would like that?!”
“At this rate, when will you get married and let me hold a great-grandson?!”
“Grandpa Tian’s great-grandson is already several years old!”
“We arranged someone for you to marry and you didn’t want that!”
“Since you didn’t want that, and you’ve found someone yourself, then date her properly!”
“Or is it that what Lu Chen told me about you having dinner with your girlfriend that night was actually a lie to fool me?!”
“You actually aren’t dating anyone at all. You don’t have a girlfriend!”
“Our family really is going to have to relocate the ancestral graves after all!”
By the end, he was howling at the sky.
On the verge of old-man tears.
Ji Silin kept pinching the bridge of his nose. “Grandpa, I really do have a girlfriend.”
“Then you’re on vacation and you don’t even go out to date her?! Who dates this coldly, like they’re not even dating?! I only heard you had a meal with her that night. Other than that, is there anything?!”
“Can’t she have things to do? Do we have to be glued together every day?”
“I say you just don’t have one!”
Ji Silin was speechless.
Old Master Ji was also afraid of really angering his grandson, so he backed off. “Then what’s her name? Do you have a photo of her? Show me, and I’ll believe it!”
“Her name is Meng Mian.”
He actually did have a photo of Meng Mian on his phone.
It was the selfie Meng Mian had sent him last time when she got home and let him know she was safe.
Ji Silin picked up his phone and found the photo in his chat history with Meng Mian.
It was easy to find. It was the second to last message.
The last message was his one-word reply.
He and Meng Mian hadn’t exchanged any more messages these past two days.
To avoid his grandfather seeing it, Ji Silin first saved the selfie to his phone’s album.
Then he opened the album.
He found the photo there and handed the phone over to show his grandfather.
Old Master Ji snatched the phone and saw it really was a photo of a girl.
He immediately beamed. “There really is a photo! And it was found on your own phone. Looks like you really are dating! Good, good, good. Really good.”
Anyway, Old Master Ji completely believed it, not the least bit suspicious anymore.
Squinting his old eyes, he examined the photo carefully, more satisfied the longer he looked.
“This little girl looks really clean and neat, and so well-behaved. But why does she look so young? She’s not underage, is she? Ji Silin, have you gone crazy?! Under—”
Before Old Master Ji could finish scolding, Ji Silin said, “She’s twenty-one.”
“Good then, good then.” Old Master Ji was instantly beaming again.
He changed expressions especially fast.
Ji Silin was used to it.
“The little girl looks so well-behaved. She must be a good person too, right?” Old Master Ji said cheerfully.
He was already dreaming of his grandson marrying Meng Mian and giving him several chubby great-grandsons.
She wasn’t much before, but she’s pretty good now.
Ji Silin nodded. “Mm.”