Chapter 117: She Gave Herself to Me (1/2)

“You’ve investigated him?” This “him” was referring to Lu Chenzhou. It wasn’t strange for Cheng Xi to think this, because Lu Chenming was still in school. As a businessman, it wouldn’t be strange for Cheng Yang to know of Lu Chenzhou, but him knowing Lu Chenming was a bit strange.

Cheng Yang paused for a moment before quickly inflating with confidence and vigorously declaring, “Of course! I only have one sister! Don’t I have to be more careful?”

Cheng Xi harrumphed in annoyance. “Lying again!”

Cheng Yang desperately thought to himself, ……What can I do?! He was used to making these moves all the time in his business dealings, but he had to be very careful with his words at home; when he was faced with Cheng Xi’s pellucid gaze that refused to let him get away with even the smallest thing, he could only touch his nose in shame and admit, “I wanted to do business with the Lu family in the past, so I thought of some ways to form connections with them. Lu Chenzhou is particularly hard to get close to, so I asked someone to investigate the people around him to see if there were any easier targets.”

“And what did you find?” But as soon as Cheng Xi said this, she suddenly remembered the answer to her own question. “Not only did you find something, but you even found the target that you were looking for, didn’t you? I remember that your engineering project in Hainan was from the Lu family.”

This engineering project in Hainan was the project that Cheng Yang had been working on right before the start of the new year. He had never mentioned it before, but Cheng Xi had suddenly recalled that the backdrop of one of his work photos on his social media feed was the banner of the Donglai corporation.

Cheng Yang begrudgingly admitted to it. “You do have quite the good memory.” He then sighed before explaining, “I did do that project, but I wasn’t the one who obtained the contract. I bought it off of someone else, and even had to fork over a large intermediary fee to him.” Afraid that Cheng Xi was going to keep pressing him for information, he hurriedly said, “So since you’re on really good terms with Lu Chenzhou now, please don’t forget about me.” He grabbed her hand and rubbed it greedily. “Don’t forget about your dear brother when you make it rich.”

Cheng Xi pulled her hand back as if she were about to slap him in the face.

Cheng Yang chuckled. As the two siblings messed with each other, Cheng Xi suddenly heard her mother calling for her.

Cheng Xi went into the guest room and immediately saw that the guest room’s cupboard was wide open. Her parents were both stock-still in their pajamas, as if they had just seen a frightening creature come out of the cupboard.

Cheng Xi peeked in. Ah, oh dear. The big red blanket that Lu Chenzhou had used to wrap up his nude body as a present was still there! Cheng Xi’s mother walked over, pointed at the blanket, and asked, “When did you buy this?”

Actually, the blanket wasn’t the problem; its color was the real issue. Cheng Xi’s taste had never included such bright colors. She might have one or two red pieces of clothing to match with the rest of her outfit. But with regards to a blanket, and especially to this sort of big, red blanket that was normally only bought for a marriage or a particularly joyous occasion, Cheng Xi wouldn’t buy something like that even if she weren’t thinking straight!

But what she said was, “I…… I bought it when I wasn’t thinking straight.”

And then her infuriated mother yelled, “You wouldn’t buy something like this even if you weren’t thinking straight! Is this something that you think can be explained away by that silly excuse? This damn thing is something that you only use when you get married! Tell us, did you already secretly get married with that dolt?”

Cheng Xi’s mother was so mad that her imagination was running rampant, causing her to even start cursing! And the more she thought about it, the more sense her theory made to her, and she even started running around the entire apartment, trying to unearth evidence that Cheng Xi had gotten secretly married without telling her family.

Cheng Xi’s mother had never forcefully searched through Cheng Xi’s belongings in this fashion before: Cheng Xi had always been an obedient child, a diligent student, and a responsible adult. It was only in the last two years that Cheng Xi’s parents had started worrying about her relationships; before that, they had never really interfered with her life. As a result, when they did get serious, Cheng Xi couldn’t really do anything to stop them. As for Cheng Yang, the siblings usually teamed up to get away from their parents’ nagging, but he didn’t want to join in to just attract their attention and be scolded for not having any relationship progress.

Cheng Xi looked pitifully towards her father for help, but just one sentence from him caused her mother to turn on him too.

Helpless, Cheng Xi could only concede to her mother’s fury. Her mother scolded all of them, and finally, Cheng Xi even had to call Lu Chenzhou.

Once the call connected, she was stripped of the privilege of speaking. Her mother took over the phone, and personally talked to Lu Chenzhou. Of course, her mother’s tone was still quite kindly; in order to not lose her daughter any face, she didn’t act too brusquely. She steered the conversation through a tortuous line of small talk before finally saying, “Lu Chenzhou, given that you’ve been with my daughter for this long, why don’t we officially meet up?”

She hadn’t asked for the two families to meet up, but rather just him and her family.

Lu Chenzhou was unusually patient with Cheng Xi’s mother. Even though he thought that her call was a bit random and out of the blue, when he recalled the romance books that he’d read, he was about to take a treasure away from her hands. Thus, it was only natural for him to act nicer to her.

And so, when Cheng Xi’s mother requested for them meet up, Lu Chenzhou decisively agreed without any hesitation, and even made sure to choose a date that wasn’t the sixth⁠—that day was supposed to be a date day for him and Cheng Xi, and he’d force it through even if it were raining frogs outside.

After Cheng Xi’s mother confirmed the time for the meetup with Lu Chenzhou, she became paranoid about her daughter colluding with him and coming up with a fake story. So, not only did she confiscate Cheng Xi’s phone, but she even slept with Cheng Xi during the night, and she even came up with a decent excuse for doing so: your brother’s so tall that it wouldn't be good for him to sleep on the sofa.