At only twenty-five years old this year, Lu Jinglin could hardly pull rank on Xia Guoliang based on generation alone. However, the Lu family’s status spoke for itself, and among the wealthy families in all of Nan City, very few dared to offend Lu Jinglin.
Lu Jinglin had taken over the Lu Corporation at a young age and now managed the entire conglomerate. Everyone knew that this man possessed deep cunning and formidable methods, making him a true business prodigy.
In Nan City, no one dared to underestimate his capabilities. Since his own strength was already immense, not to mention the entire Lu family backing him up, even fewer people in the entire capital dared to cross him.
No matter how dissatisfied Xia Guoliang felt inside, he did not dare show the slightest hint of it.
Thinking of this, Xia Yuning couldn’t help marveling that this was indeed a true big shot. He made up his mind that starting today, he would thoroughly latch onto this powerful thigh. Since a premium thigh had delivered itself right to his doorstep, how could he possibly not embrace it?
Inside the car, Xia Yuning covertly sized up the man sitting beside him.
The man was dressed in a sleek black suit that paired quite nicely with Xia Yuning’s own outfit, forming a matching set of black and white.
The air inside the vehicle was somewhat warm, so the man had removed his suit jacket and casually draped it over his muscular forearm. Two buttons of his shirt collar were also undone, revealing a patch of wheat-toned skin. The fine black fabric outlined the contours of his chest muscles, which rose and fell in rhythmic shadows with the man’s breathing.
The ambiguous interplay of light and shadow carried a sharp wave of masculine hormones.
Xia Yuning thought with a slight flush on his cheeks that getting a husband for free didn’t seem so bad after all.
Suddenly, as if sensing this gaze, Lu Jinglin lifted his eyelids, his deep, profound gaze locking onto Xia Yuning.
Caught red-handed in the act of sneaking a peek, Xia Yuning’s heart skipped a beat for a moment.
He blushed faintly under the scrutiny and blinked with a sense of guilty conscience.
The outer corners of his eyes curved slightly as he offered Lu Jinglin a shallow smile. “Mr. Lu, thank you for just now.”
“Don’t mention it,” Lu Jinglin replied indifferently.
His voice was deep and magnetic, sounding as pleasant and melodious as a cello.
Xia Yuning’s ears tingled slightly, feeling a pleasant itch triggered by that voice. He rubbed his numb ear and said with a bright smile, “No, I still have to thank you. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have gotten to see Xia Lei’s expression of utter defeat.”
He made no effort to mask his aversion toward the Xia family.
The mere memory of Xia Lei’s frustrated expression of anger without the daring to speak out brought a wave of satisfaction to his heart, and the corners of his mouth curled upward in a growing grin that he could barely control.
The young man’s bright eyes seemed to hide tens of thousands of stars, shimmering and swaying along with his smile.
This was rather different from what Lu Jinglin had expected. The youth before him was completely at ease, the attractive peach-blossom eyes curved slightly, and the voice when speaking was clean and clear. He bore no resemblance to the timid and cowardly little useless person from the investigation; instead, he radiated an air of self-confidence from head to toe.
He was worlds apart from the rumors surrounding that speech-impaired little useless thing, which made him rather interesting.
Lu Jinglin studied him closely for a moment before asking, “Did that person often treat you like that in the past?”
Xia Yuning lowered his eyelashes slightly, recalling the plot details from the original novel.
In the past, Xia Lei had indeed frequently bullied the original owner. When they were younger and ignorant, the bullying had been even worse. Xia Guoliang and Lin Ying had also routinely beaten and scolded the original owner on a whim. The entire family had subjected him to that kind of verbal abuse. They were truly a household of beasts.
He answered truthfully, “Yes.”
Lu Jinglin furrowed his brows. It seemed the Xia family treated Xia Yuning even worse than he had imagined. The young man before him kept his head slightly lowered, his long eyelashes concealing those bright, clear eyes so that his expression became unreadable. With his seductive peach-blossom eyes drooping downward, he looked rather pitiful. Perhaps asking like that had brought back bad memories for him.
Frowning, he said, “My apologies.”
Xia Yuning was taken aback. “Huh?” He looked at the man in confusion. “Why…” Why was he suddenly apologizing?
“I’m sorry for making you recall unpleasant things,” Lu Jinglin explained.
Xia Yuning’s mind cleared. It appeared Lu Jinglin had misunderstood. When he was deep in thought, he often lowered his eyelashes out of habit. Lu Jinglin must have thought he was feeling sad and therefore offered an apology.
However, he really did look rather pitiful in this posture. Whenever his eyelashes drooped, his peach-blossom eyes naturally slanted downward, visually projecting a delicate and helpless vibe that easily invited misunderstandings. Xia Yuning mused that he would have to break this habit in the future.
Xia Yuning’s eyes flashed with a glint of fragmented amusement. “It’s fine. Those matters are already in the past.”
He had expected the man to be completely cold toward him, but he hadn’t expected Lu Jinglin to observe him so carefully.
Seeing that Xia Yuning genuinely seemed unaffected, Lu Jinglin responded with a simple, “Mm.”
After this minor interlude passed, they arrived at the civil affairs bureau.
Having wasted some time back at the Xia residence, it was now peak hours, and the place was crowded with people lining up to get married.
The moment he stepped out of the car, Lu Jinglin led him straight inside.
“Don’t we need to wait in line?” Xia Yuning looked at the long queue and asked with some perplexity.
“No need. I spoke with the person in charge here, so we can process it directly.” Lu Jinglin led him into the main hall of the civil affairs bureau.
At one of the registration desks in the hall sat a young woman who was mind-numbingly performing her daily corporate slave duties. The moment she saw someone walk in, she lifted her gaze, her eyes instantly lighting up as her entire body surged with the excited energy of a caffeine rush.
Holy shit, these two guys are ridiculously handsome! Their looks are off the charts, and they look so pleasing to the eye standing together!
Since they walked in together, don’t tell me they are here to get their marriage certificate!
Just as she was running wild with her inner fantasies, the person in charge of their section emerged and approached the two exceptionally attractive figures. “Are you Mr. Lu? Please come over this way with this gentleman to register.”
The desk clerk watched the two figures drawing closer while maintaining external composure while screaming internally. They are coming over, they are coming over, ahhhhh!
The person in charge called out toward her desk, “Xiao Liu, please process the registration for these two gentlemen.”
Xiao Liu’s inner world was already in absolute chaos.
Holy shit, holy shit, ahhhhh! Registration! They really are here to get married! My ship has sailed, it has totally sailed, ahhhhh!
“Oh, right away, Brother Wang!” Although her mind was in turmoil, Xiao Liu kept her exterior calm. Temporarily suppressing her inner excitement, she twitched the corners of her mouth into her signature professional smile. “Gentlefolk, please fill in your names, ID numbers, and phone numbers here.”
Lu Jinglin’s fingers were well-articulated and looked powerful. As his slender fingers gripped the fountain pen, they appeared exceptionally sexy. How could even a person’s hands look so sexy?
“What are you looking at so intently?”
Lu Jinglin’s deep voice rang out, yanking Xia Yuning’s drifting thoughts back to reality. He hurriedly pulled back his gaze, a wave of red instantly rushing up his ears as he guiltily stammered, “I was looking… looking at how nice Mr. Lu’s handwriting is. Yes, your handwriting is very nice.”
Lu Jinglin raised an eyebrow, his dark gaze landing on the youth’s slightly flushed earlobes while his fingers unconsciously twitched.
If he wasn’t mistaken, that previous gaze had been lingering entirely on his hands. With a meaningful tone, he said, “Is that so? Then why is your face so red?”
“Ah, is it red? Is it?” Xia Yuning touched his burning cheeks, feeling increasingly guilty. “It must be the heat! It’s a bit warm in here! Haha.”
“Warm? I think it’s quite comfortable.” Lu Jinglin murmured thoughtfully.
“Really, it really is, I’m a bit warm.” Xia Yuning said with a hint of panic, “Alright, I’ve finished writing! Let’s hurry on to the next step!”
Lu Jinglin let out a muffled chuckle. “Alright.” He thought to himself that the youth was quite cute, acting like a cat that did something bad but was trying desperately to cover it up.
Xia Yuning whimpered softly inside. Damn it, stop laughing.
Lu Jinglin’s laughter only made him want to blush even more!
Without needing to guess, he knew his face must be even redder right now.
Pretending unconcern, Xia Yuning hurried to keep up with the person in charge named Brother Wang, striding forward with artificial naturalness and not daring to look back at the man.