As the door closed, Lu Chenzhou opened his eyes and stared at the recording device she had left on the table for a long while before calling Baldy. “You said that the Wang siblings wanted to chase their stepmother out of their house, right?”
“Yes. Their father’s quite old now, and his mind’s a little muddled. They’re trying to prevent him from giving all his assets to their stepmother in his will… Honestly, their stepmother isn’t innocent either. She pretended to be ill to summon her biological son back from overseas. Apparently, he graduated from a famous school, worked at a renowned company, and is much smarter than the Wang siblings; there’ll be exciting drama ahead, I’m sure.” Baldy’s voice was filled with schadenfreude as he gossiped about the other family’s affairs. Only when he finished did he realize that this wasn’t something that Boss Lu usually deigned to partake in. He even thought that it might have been because he was planning to profit from the fight. “What, you’re interested in their companies?”
“Not at all.” Lu Chenzhou lowered his gaze, looking at his hands. They were currently clutching his jade teacup, which was allegedly made from a warm piece of jade. However, stone was just stone, and it emanated a coldness that annoyed him. He used an even colder tone to tell Baldy, “You have lots of women, so go find a girlfriend for the Wangs’ stepmother’s son.”
“What do you mean ‘I have lots of women?!’” Baldy started jumping around again, and, when he realized what he had said, he started shouting again. “When did you become a matchmaker for other people? Did the Wang siblings ask you for help? To use a woman to ruin their half-brother?”
Lu Chenzhou ignored him and simply said, “Find a woman who has a strong background and valuable skills, someone who can’t be rejected.”
Baldy kept yelling his grievances. “You’re trying to help his stepmother? Will the Wang siblings cry themselves to death if they knew your stance? Even though the youngest one’s a bit unreliable, and did throw a woman at you…”
He continued speaking long-windedly nonsense, but Lu Chenzhou didn’t want to listen to him and irresponsibly threw four words at him. “That’ll be all.”
And then he hung up.
Baldy was furious.
On the other hand, Lu Chenzhou held his phone and laughed coolly. Did Baldy say that he wanted to help the Wangs’ stepmother? No, he was solely helping himself. He was helping Lin Fan recognize his own reality by finding him a suitable woman.
As for him being Cheng Xi’s idol? Hah!
Cheng Xi didn’t know what sort of thoughts were going through Lu Chenzhou’s mind. Even though she was a psychiatrist, if patients weren’t willing to share any information, it wasn’t as if she could forcefully read their thoughts.
Right now, she only felt that her stomach was somewhat uncomfortable —she had drunk too much water and eaten too much fruit earlier.
She hadn’t been ill-treated while doing tasks for Lu Chenzhou; the tea was exquisite, the fruits were plentiful, but the result was unsatisfying. Even after how hard she’d worked, he had still complained that she was bothering him and preventing him from sleeping.
She tried hard to get close to him, but it seemed like her efforts had all been made in vain. Could it be that all her compliance and forbearance was futile?
As Cheng Xi sat in the car, she reflected on her actions. Though she was being honest with him, it might be time to adjust her strategy.
But he was too indifferent towards everything, even Chen Jiaman’s case. After what had happened last time, Lu Chenzhou’s interest in her seemed to have dipped.
Cheng Xi tried to think of something that she could have done differently. Of course, at this time, she was completely unaware that she didn’t even need to do anything more—she had already stirred up plenty of interest from him.
The first thing Cheng Xi did when she got home was take a nice, long bath, and then immediately afterwards, she went to bed and had a comfortable sleep. The next day, she went to work as usual. But because her throat was slightly sore, she decided to cook some porridge for lunch. As she was staring at it, waiting for it to finish cooking, she suddenly thought, If Lu Chenzhou could be lulled to sleep with my stories, then couldn’t I do the same with Chen Jiaman?
If she recorded some stories and played them by Chen Jiaman’s ears, then even if Chen Jiaman didn’t listen to them, would she become more familiar with her voice? Familiarity could reduce the distance between them, and similarly, reduce the wariness in her heart.
Inspired, she put her thoughts to action. Lowering the fire, Cheng Xi started rummaging through the house for a recording device. She remembered that she used to have one that she had used while studying; was it still functional even after so long?
When Lin Fan called her, Cheng Xi had just found her old recording device. As she continued digging around for a charger, she picked up. “Hello.”
Lin Fan noticed the change in her voice, and was silent for a few seconds. “You… is something up?”
“No. I’m just looking for something.” She finally found it. All of her chargers had been tidied up by her mother when she had moved places. They were all tied up with a thick piece of string, and then everything had been knotted together tightly. It was very difficult for Cheng Xi to untie everything, so she had to exert some strength, causing her voice to become slightly strained. “What’s up?”
Lin Fan relaxed. “I’m just about to get food with some friends, near where you live. Do you want to join us?”
She could hear him anxiously trying to maintain a calm tone, which reminded her of the sneaky kiss that he had given her before running away. She laughed at the memory and said, “Alright, I haven’t eaten yet.”
Lin Fan was very happy, and he sent the address over immediately after hanging up. It really wasn’t far from her house, just a few minutes by taxi.
Cheng Xi set the porridge on the stove to simmer, changed her clothes, and went to where Lin Fan had directed her. When she got out of the car, she saw Lin Fan standing on the second floor of the restaurant, waving at her from afar. She arrived at the entrance at about the same time as he did.
He asked, “Are you cold?” Cheng Xi was wrapped up tightly with a red woolen scarf that covered up half her face and made her look even smaller and more exquisite than usual.
“I’m alright.”
The two of them went into the building, and Lin Fan introduced her to his friends, all colleagues from his new company. Only now did Cheng Xi realize that he had found a job and had started working.
“Not far from the hospital,” he explained to her secretly, the slight smile of his mouth particularly attractive.
Cheng Xi couldn’t help but smile back.
All of Lin Fan’s colleagues seemed relatively carefree and young. When they heard that she was a psychiatrist, a girl by her side even looked at her carefully before asking in a small voice, “Can I add you on WeChat?”
“Of course!”
Later, she found out that that girl was the niece of the Lin Fan’s company’s CEO, and she had an especially pretty name, Meng Qingyang.
As Cheng Xi was enjoying lunch, Baldy was sitting in Lu Chenzhou’s office with his legs crossed jovially while acting very proud with himself. “I’ve found someone for you, with an absolutely perfect background and skills; she’s someone whom a regular person definitely can’t reject.”
Lu Chenzhou continued to look at his laptop, indifferently asking, “Who is it?”
“The niece of Longjing’s CEO, the daughter of his dead brother. His brother died saving his life, so he’s given her whatever she wanted, even handing over half of the company’s shares, so she definitely has a good background. Coincidentally, the Wang siblings’ stepmother’s son was just hired at Longjing, so they’re in quite close proximity to each other.
“Perhaps it's because the CEO is so protective of her that her temper’s particularly soft, like a pure little bunny. If the Wang siblings’ stepmother is really that ambitious, then she’ll definitely like her. As a wealthy and powerful girl with an easily manipulable personality, she’s the perfect match for her son.”
Only then did Lu Chenzhou become a bit interested, raising his head. “What’s her name?”
“Meng Qingyang.”