"F-fiancé?"
Xu Zhengming was completely stunned, as if he hadn't heard clearly, and repeated the question in disbelief.
"Yes, I've just decided to marry your daughter." He Linxi gave a faint smile, his tone so steady it seemed he was merely stating the most ordinary of facts.
As he spoke, he raised his hand to open the front trunk of the sports car and pulled out two gift boxes with understated yet luxurious packaging.
"I'm afraid today's visit was rather rushed, and I didn't have time to prepare the proper formalities. After the New Year, I'll have my father pick an auspicious date and formally come to propose."
Xu Yumo stood to the side, watching the two gift boxes that seemed to have materialized out of thin air, and she too was momentarily stunned.
When had he prepared those?
They had driven all the way here without even stopping the car once.
Judging by the look of things, it seemed he had been prepared all along, having placed them in the car beforehand.
"Your father is…"
Xu Zhengming swallowed hard. His gaze lingered on He Linxi's refined, well-bred face, then swept over the expensive gift boxes in his hands. The aggressive, overbearing air he'd had just moments ago had already dissipated without a trace.
"My father is He Wanshan." He Linxi's expression was calm, his tone even carrying a hint of modesty. "I wonder if you're familiar with him, Uncle?"
At the sound of that name, Xu Zhengming felt as if he'd been struck by a thunderbolt.
The next second, his originally cold and grim face bloomed like a dried chrysanthemum suddenly bursting open in late autumn, instantly covered in smiles.
"Ah, so you're Chairman He's son… I've had the fortune of seeing him from afar at a few business gatherings before, but I can't say we're acquainted, no, not acquainted…" Xu Zhengming said with an ingratiating laugh, his back unconsciously bending a few degrees lower.
Who was He Wanshan?
He was a towering figure whose mere stomp of the foot would make the entire Beijing circle tremble three times over.
The He family's power and wealth were simply not something a family like the Xus—who had risen halfway through life through industry and were now facing a broken capital chain—could casually aspire to!
Xu Zhengming never imagined that his daughter, whom he had always regarded as a disobedient troublemaker, would, in the span of a single night, directly step through the threshold of the He family.
Shock, suspicion, and the wild joy of a pie falling from the sky churned in turn within his eyes.
"It's fine."
He Linxi seemed completely oblivious to his loss of composure, his tone still languid and unhurried.
"If we weren't familiar before, now that our families will be interacting more in the future, we'll naturally become acquainted."
As he spoke, he handed over the gift boxes. "I hope you'll see fit to bless the marriage between Yumo and me, Uncle."
"Oh my—"
Xu Zhengming practically received the gift boxes with both hands, the smile on his face barely containable.
"Master He is far too kind!"
"For my Yumo to find such a talented and handsome son-in-law, I couldn't be happier. How could I possibly object?"
"Quick, please come in! It's cold outside—come inside and sit, come inside and sit!"
He didn't even bother to summon the housekeeper; he personally stepped aside to make way, bowing and scraping as he ushered He Linxi through the door.
Once inside the living room, Xu Zhengming continued to bustle about like a spinning top.
He loudly urged the housekeeper to brew the finest Da Hong Pao tea in the house, then hurriedly instructed the kitchen to prepare several signature snacks, terrified of slighting this future noble son-in-law.
The entire villa was suddenly in a flurry of activity, as if welcoming the God of Wealth during the New Year.
Just then, footsteps sounded from the staircase on the second floor.
Xu Yumo looked up and saw her mother, Gu Qin, slowly descending.
She had likely heard the commotion from upstairs; her thin face still carried a trace of lingering worry.
But when she caught sight of the unfamiliar man seated in the place of honor in the living room—his bearing cold and imposing, his demeanor extraordinary—Gu Qin's steps visibly faltered.
"Gu Qin, come down quickly!"
Xu Zhengming's face was beaming, his voice several notches louder than usual, making no effort to hide the pride in his tone.
"Come meet Yumo's fiancé—the eldest son of the He family, He Linxi."
The color drained from Gu Qin's face in an instant. She hurried down the stairs, her gaze landing on her daughter, filled with incredulous bewilderment.
Xu Yumo offered no explanation, only returning a slightly helpless, reassuring smile.
Seeing an elder descend the stairs, He Linxi rose calmly to greet her, his demeanor still that impeccable, faultless politeness.
Xu Zhengming hastily pulled him back down to sit.
As the fragrance of tea curled through the air, the conversation naturally turned to the He family's business empire.
Every word was laced with probing flattery and cautious sycophancy.
But Gu Qin kept her eyes on her daughter the entire time.
She knew Xu Yumo too well.
The weariness and complexity that her child couldn't quite hide in her eyes—none of it could fool her.
Finally, seizing a lull while the two men were engrossed in conversation in the living room, Gu Qin gently took her daughter's hand.
Her palm was slightly cool, her voice lowered to a whisper.
"Yumo, come upstairs with me for a moment."
The moment the bedroom door on the second floor closed, Gu Qin spoke urgently, her tone anxious and worried:
"What on earth is going on? Do you actually like that He Linxi? How did you two suddenly end up at the point of getting married? Is it because your father forced you to go on that blind date last night, and you're acting out of spite, rushing to find someone with a powerful background to use as a shield?"
Xu Yumo leaned against the cold solid-wood door. Looking at the belated, somewhat pale and feeble concern on her mother's face, she felt nothing but desolation in her heart.
"Mom. As you just heard, I'm getting married."
Her voice was so calm it was almost cold, without a single ripple. "As for everything else… yesterday when Dad forced me to go on that blind date with Zhao Yuwen, you were there too. Back then, you didn't say a single word to help me. So what are you pretending to care about now?"
Gu Qin's face went as white as a sheet in an instant. She opened her mouth, her voice fading weakly into the air: "Momo… I had no choice. You know your father's tyrannical temper. And the Xu family's situation is so difficult right now, I…"
"I know. You had no choice."
Xu Yumo gently cut her off. Her gaze drifted past the window to the bare tree trunks outside, her tone carrying a weariness that came from seeing through the world.
"Just like back then, when Grandpa's family ran into trouble, you had no choice either—you could only obey your family's arrangements and marry Dad."
Gu Qin was completely silenced.
She too had once been a young lady from a distinguished family, but when her family fell into decline, she became the first to be sacrificed as a tool for marriage alliance.
In the more than twenty years since the wedding, she had been like a beautiful ornament in this household. No say in anything, no confidence to stand on. She could only watch helplessly as her husband crushed her daughter's dreams step by step—and even had to help him persuade her daughter to be obedient and accept her fate.
"Momo, Mom is just afraid you'll walk the same path I did—marrying someone you don't love at all…" Gu Qin's eyes reddened, her voice trembling slightly.
"Don't worry. We're not the same." Xu Yumo raised her eyes, her gaze clear and bright. "Back then, you accepted it passively. But me—I'm choosing it actively."
With that, she didn't look again at Gu Qin's face full of guilt and shock. She turned and walked out of the bedroom.
Just as she reached the top of the stairs on the second floor, the voices of the two people in the living room drifted up through the double-height hall.
Xu Zhengming lifted his teacup and took a sip. Presumably feeling that he'd latched onto the He family's high branch, his tone unconsciously carried a kind of affected seniority: "Yumo—she's usually obedient, but she does have a bit of a stubborn streak. That robotics company she's been running outside these past few years is nothing but child's play. She has no sense of direction."
"After the wedding, you should be patient with her. Best if you can get her to rein in that ambition. Whether she comes back to Xu Heavy Industries to help with the family business, or simply stays home to be a good wife and mother—either way, it's better than her messing around out there."
Xu Yumo's steps on the stairs came to an abrupt halt. Her fingertips unconsciously clenched the handrail.
This kind of condescending belittlement and total negation—she had heard it countless times over the past few years. But at this moment, in front of He Linxi, the humiliation felt magnified a hundredfold.
In the living room, He Linxi was idly turning a white porcelain teacup in his hand. At those words, his movements paused slightly.
He slowly lifted his eyelids. Those deep, dark eyes cut through the curling white steam above the teacup and landed squarely on Xu Zhengming's self-satisfied face.
"Child's play?"
He Linxi repeated those three words, a faint, contemptuous chuckle escaping his throat. "By your logic, Uncle, the humanoid robotics project that Matrix Technology has poured over ten billion in R&D funding into—is that also child's play?"
Xu Zhengming's hand holding the teacup went stiff. The expression on his face froze.
"That… that's not the same thing at all." He waved his hands hastily, forcing a dry laugh to cover his tracks. "Matrix Technology is the benchmark of domestic AI—cutting-edge technology. That little workshop Yumo runs is just throwing money to hear a splash. How could it possibly compare to your grand undertaking?"
"Uncle, you may not be too familiar with the current tech industry."
He Linxi set down the teacup, producing a crisp, cool clink.
"The Multimodal Fusion Core Algorithm that Aether Technology has developed—in terms of precision and ultra-low latency, it leaves domestic competitors a full generation behind. Matrix has already officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement."
"For the next five years, Aether Technology will be the underlying logic partner for Matrix's robotics project. In other words, if this so-called child's play you're referring to were to stop, Matrix's ten-billion-yuan robotics project would come to a grinding halt along with it."
He paused, his dark eyes fixed on Xu Zhengming's gradually stiffening face, his tone turning icy and mocking.
"As for why Xu Heavy Industries has recently fallen into a cash flow crisis—at the root of it, it's because management's vision is too outdated, failing to keep pace with the iteration of new technology. At a moment of life and death like this, clinging to old ways isn't a good habit. It only accelerates the collapse of the enterprise."
This speech was practically tearing Xu Zhengming's face off and stomping it into the ground.
Xu Zhengming's face cycled through shades of pale and red, his chest heaving violently, as if he had a thick glob of phlegm stuck in his throat that he could neither cough up nor swallow down.
He had spent most of his life navigating the business world—when had he ever been lectured like this by someone of a younger generation, being scolded to his face?
But unfortunately, standing behind this young man was an absolute capital behemoth. He didn't even dare utter a single word of rebuttal. All he could do was force a smile and try to smooth things over:
"…Young people certainly have drive, and a sharp way of looking at things. As her father, I was just worried that Yumo might exhaust herself with starting a business… Since you two also have such deep cooperation on the professional side, that's for the best—absolutely for the best."
As he spoke, he picked up his teacup, trying to mask the embarrassment on his face with the act of taking a sip.
Xu Yumo's fingers, which had been tightly gripping the armrest, slowly relaxed. The weight that had been pressing down on her chest like a boulder seemed to have a crack forced open in that very moment, letting a flood of light silently pour in.
When she stepped back down the stairs, her steps unconsciously felt lighter.
"It's getting late." Xu Yumo walked straight to the center of the living room and broke the awkward atmosphere. "He Linxi still has a lot of work to attend to, so we'll be going now."
Hearing this, Xu Zhengming hastily set down his teacup and stood up. A fawning smile of paternal warmth was squeezed back onto his aged face. "In such a hurry? The New Year isn't even over yet—why not stay for dinner before you go? I'll have someone open a couple of good bottles from the wine cellar."
"No need, Uncle."
He Linxi also rose to his feet. His expression remained as cool and aloof as ever, but his tone was impeccably polite: "There really are matters to attend to this evening—no time to stay for a meal. Thank you for the hospitality. I'll be taking Momo with me now."
"Alright, alright… Business comes first." Xu Zhengming eagerly led them toward the entrance, his gaze occasionally darting up toward the second floor as he called out, "Gu Qin! Come down and see them off…"
"Don't call my mom." Xu Yumo cut him off coldly. "She's not feeling well and wants some time alone. And you don't need to see us out either—we'll see ourselves."
Xu Zhengming's unfinished words got stuck in his throat. His expression stiffened again, and the flicker of anger that had just risen in his heart was forcibly suppressed the moment he caught sight of He Linxi standing nearby.
He Linxi said nothing more, merely giving Xu Zhengming a slight, courteous nod.
Then, he raised his hand and naturally placed it on Xu Yumo's shoulder, drawing her half into his protective circle.
The warmth of the man's palm seeped through the fabric of her clothes.
Xu Yumo's spine stiffened slightly. The heartbeat she had just managed to calm unconsciously quickened by two beats.
After a moment, she forced herself to compose and went along with his gesture, walking out of the Xu family villa without looking back.
It wasn't until the heavy wrought-iron gate fully closed behind them that He Linxi casually withdrew his hand. He slipped it back into his overcoat pocket as if nothing had happened, his expression perfectly composed—as if that brief moment of tender shelter had truly just been an act put on for Xu Zhengming's benefit.
Xu Yumo lightly clutched the hem of her coat, chilled by the evening wind, and turned to look at him. "Just now… thank you."
"For what?" He Linxi tilted his head, his deep gaze settling on her face.
"For… helping me speak up back there."
He Linxi let out a low chuckle.
He turned and opened the passenger door of the sports car, casually tossing out a line: "What's there to thank me for?"
"If I don't back up my own wife, am I supposed to back up an outsider?"
"…"
Xu Yumo's breath caught.
It was as if those two words had gently bumped into her, freezing her in place.
Wife.
This marriage—so rushed it was almost absurd—had been settled for less than two hours.
She was still lost in that dazed unreality, hadn't even had time to get used to the word "fiancé."
Yet he had already slipped into his role so naturally.
So naturally that it seemed that title had been practiced countless times on his lips.
Her cheeks, which she had barely managed to cool down in the wind, began to burn again little by little.
Even the tips of her ears flushed a faint crimson.
But He Linxi seemed to notice nothing, still holding the car door with one hand, standing there quietly waiting for her to get in, his expression so open and unbothered that there wasn't the slightest hint of anything unusual.
Xu Yumo pressed her lips together, suddenly feeling a strange sense of defeat.
This kind of overly composed mental fortitude.
This ability to adapt to any change with lightning speed and handle the situation with effortless control.
No wonder he, at such a young age, had managed to lead Matrix Technology through every obstacle and reach where he was today.
Compared to him, her little blush and racing heart just now made her look like a naive rookie who had never seen the world.
At that thought, Xu Yumo couldn't help but sigh silently to herself.
Looks like from now on…
She really needed to learn a thing or two from him.