Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Song Donglin told them to sit down and ran to the kitchen. He washed some apples, pears, and strawberries before cutting them into cubes. Then, he cut up a grapefruit and brought them to the living room for Qi Chengzhi and Song Yu to eat.

Since the house was not very big, Qi Chengzhi could hear the sounds of dishes being washed in the kitchen while he sat in the living room. He glanced stoically and quickly shunned his gaze away.

This time, Yu Qianying did not stop Qi Chengzhi from leaving together with Song Yu, even though it was difficult for her to see her daughter leaving with a man. Song Donglin felt the same way too.

When they were sending them off at the doorstep, Yu Qianying said, “Come home and visit with Song Yu if you have the time. I know that you"re busy, it"s not a must to come home and have a meal. It"s alright to just drop by for ten to twenty minutes. We, as parents, will miss our daughter dearly.”

“And you,” Yu Qianying turned towards Song Yu, “If he"s busy, you should also come back often to see us.”

“Okay,” Song Yu promised with a smile. She felt much more relaxed as Yu Qianying no longer objected to their relations.h.i.+p.

Even though the hallway was well lit, it was not as bright as the indoors. Song Yu stood at the entrance and looked at Yu Qianying, her face seemed to look wearier under the illumination of the lights.

Song Yu felt a surge of tightness in her throat and moved forward to embrace Yu Qianying tightly with her arms.

Yu Qianying was surprised by her actions as Song Yu rarely showed her emotions. However, it was as if she understood something and hugged her back with a smile. She patted her back and said, “Go back earlier.”

Song Yu broke away from Yu Qianying"s embrace and turned around to tell Qi Chengzhi, “I…”

Before she could even finish her sentence, Qi Chengzhi"s gaze was clearly giving out the message, ‘Don"t even think about it."

He knew what she wanted to say. She wanted to stay for the night.

Therefore, he did not allow Song Yu to continue speaking and dragged her hand, “The weekend is in two days. We"ll come back again.”

Yu Qianying glanced at Qi Chengzhi and let out a sigh. They had not even gotten married yet and he was already so possessive of her. She could only say, “Go home. You guys can stay a night here during the weekends, how about that?”

This time around, Song Yu did not give the chance for Qi Chengzhi to answer and shouted in a hurry, “Yes!”

Song Yu answered it so quickly that she looked towards Qi Chengzhi guiltily after saying it out loud. It seemed like he was smiling, his deep-set eyes gleaming with a hint of mockery, but he did not oppose her opinion. He said with a calm and mellow voice, “Let me arrange my time to see if we can come here on Friday or Sat.u.r.day.”

A gleeful smile lit up on Yu Qianying"s face instantly and Song Yu gave him a grateful glance.

Both of them left after getting into the car. Song Yu did not thank him as she felt like it would depreciate the closeness of their relations.h.i.+p and even upset him.

Nevertheless, before they were about to alight after parking the Range Rover into the garage, Song Yu leaned forward suddenly and gave him a peck on his face quickly. Her swift motion caused a gentle stir of wind, mixed with a faint scent of her fragrance which felt quite pleasant.

When she was about to get down the car, Qi Chengzhi grabbed her hand and yanked her back up.

At the same time, his seat slid backward to prevent Song Yu from hitting the steering wheel and gear stick when he carried her over onto his lap.

His coat was lying on the backseat. The heater in the car was still running, he folded his sleeves leisurely until it was below his elbow and exposed his strong forearm.

His arm was not as hairy as other men, but it was definitely more than that of a woman. It felt especially powerful.

Song Yu lowered her head and saw his arms wrapped around her. She had an impulse to raise his arm with both of her hands and pepper it with kisses.

However, the gaze above her head was so glaring that she did not linger on his arm for long and lifted her head, meeting his teasing jet-black eyes.

“Is this your way of thanking me?” he asked with an ambiguous smile.

Song Yu blushed and admitted by nodding her head, “Thank you for not objecting to the suggestion.”

“If your parents allow us to stay in one room, I would absolutely support it,” he placed his warm palm on the back of her waist and grazed upwards. His dextrous fingertips pinched the ends of her braids and loosened the rubber band easily.

He inserted his slender fingers into the braid and comb through them gently, her wavy hair drooped down like a waterfall.

His clean fingertips comb through her curly hair, straightening a few wavy strands along with his action, but it bounced back to the original curvature once he released them.

“I want to comb your hair like this for the entire night today.” His voice was deep and raspy. It sounded extra s.e.xy and drilled its way through her heart.

He buried his head into her hair and inhaled deeply.

Song Yu was so embarra.s.sed by his action that her face went numb and flushed. She said softly, “There are only two rooms in my house. One belongs to my parents and the other one is mine. If you insist on staying behind, you will be staying with me.”

His chuckle emitted from her luscious hair on her neck. His lips grazed gently from her neck upwards until they found her soft lips and kissed them deeply.

At night, Yu Keyao noticed that there were two pairs of shoes in front of the shoe rack at the entrance when she came back from a gathering with her friends. There were a pair of ladies medium-heeled leather shoes and a pair of men"s shoes with a design suited for middle-aged men.

Yu Keyao raised her eyebrows and recalled the interaction between the Qi family and her yesterday. She thought to herself, ‘Could it be that Qi Zhongliang and Xia Wenna came to visit?"

Yu Keyao pa.s.sed her bag to Auntie He cheerfully as she was in a very good mood. She asked with a relaxed tone, “Who"s here?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Yu,” Auntie He replied.

The smiley face on Yu Keyao disappeared instantly. After walking into the living room, she saw Yu Zixiu and Chi Yuanzhen sitting at the opposite of Yu Zidong and Liang Lihua.

“Keyao, you came back just in time. Come over here and sit down. We"re discussing something that involves you,” Yu Zixiu said as he pointed at the empty seat on the sofa when he saw Yu Keyao.

After she was seated, Yu Zixiu mentioned, “I heard from your sister that you met the Qi family at Jingqi"s kindergarten yesterday.”

Before waiting for Yu Keyao"s answer, Yu Zixiu continued, “Your sister came home and told us that Qi Chengzhi already has a girlfriend, and she"s Song Yu.”

Then, Yu Zixiu s.h.i.+fted his gaze from Yu Keyao towards Yu Zidong and Liang Lihua, “Why didn"t you tell us about this?”

“It"s no big deal. The Qi family would never allow Qi Chengzhi to be with Song Yu. It would only be a matter of time before they break up. There"s nothing to say about it.” Liang Lihua pursed her lips into a sharp line and gave a cold stare at the person opposite of her. She was not happy that Yu Zixiu and his wife came to meddle with their affairs.

“Song Yu already sat openly with the Qi family, what more can we say?” Chi Yuanzhen put down the teacup in her hand and raised her eyebrows. “According to what Kexin saw, although the Qi family was not very satisfied with Song Yu, they did not force them to break up. They had no choice but to allow them to be together after Qi Chengzhi proclaimed that he would only be with Song Yu and no one else, even though they were not very pleased with his choice.

Besides, Grandmother Qi was very satisfied with Song Yu and stood on their side. That"s why others dare not speak of their objections.” Chi Yuanzhen cleared her throat and continued, “Yesterday, the way Qi Chengzhi and Song Yu acted so lovingly showed that they wouldn"t allow anyone to interfere with them. Those who have a sense of dignity would definitely not hang around. They were already hinting so obviously and yet you followed them home. You still followed the Qi family home even after Qi Chengzhi left together with Song Yu. Are you trying to make a fool out of yourself?”

Liang Lihua never expected Yu Keyao to behave like this. Yu Keyao only told her that she saw Qi Chengzhi and Song Yu at the kindergarten and that she was invited by the Qi family over to their house.

She had always thought that the Qi family preferred Yu Keyao over Song Yu and planned to support Yu Keyao to be with Qi Chengzhi until the very end. To her surprise, it was actually Yu Keyao who pestered them incessantly.

Even Liang Lihua who kept encouraging Yu Keyao to continue with her pursuit felt embarra.s.sed after hearing what Chi Yuanzhen had just said.

“Brother, what message are you guys trying to convey? You came here today just to say that Yu Keyao shamed the Yu family?” Yu Zidong said unhappily. Yu Keyao was still his daughter no matter what. Even if she did something inappropriate, he would tell her in private. How could these two come to their house and tell her off?

“At first, we were all very pleased to hear that the Qi family intends to arrange a union between Yu Keyao and Qi Chengzhi. This is great news for the Yu family as it comes along with many benefits,” Yu Zixiu said as he ignored his younger brother"s sarcasm, “However, according to the current situation, Qi Chengzhi would not marry Yu Keyao anymore. If the Qi family couldn"t even force him to do so, what can we do?

Why don"t you befriend Song Yu instead? She"s still our niece no matter what. If Qi Chengzhi insisted on marrying her, we would also be in-laws with the Qi family.”

“Absolutely not!” Liang Lihua voiced out suddenly. Her voice was so sharp that it pierced through the ears of Yu Zidong and Yu Keyao who were sitting next to her.

Yu Zixiu and Chi Yuanzhen"s gaze turned towards her. Liang Lihua regained her composure before continuing, “When the Song family went bankrupt, we already cut ties with Yu Qianying before she came to us for help. We haven"t contacted each other in so many years. If the Yu family approached them right after Song Yu got together with Qi Chengzhi, do you think that they would forgive us just like that?”

Liang Lihua pursed her lips coldly and snickered, “I think they will taunt and torture us, not to mention forgiveness! I bet that they will take this opportunity to embarra.s.s us and take revenge on us for the things we did to them in the past.”

“We ignored the Song family when they went bankrupt. If we try to worm our way to them now that Song Yu"s with Qi Chengzhi, don"t you know what Yu Qianying will do with her temper? She"s your sister too.”

The whole living room fell into silence. Then, a gentle voice emerged, “I think that you guys should at least let me try my best before approaching them?”

When Yu Keyao noticed that everyone was looking at her, she explained, “Even though Song Yu and Qi Chengzhi are together, they haven"t got married yet. The Qi family is not against them, but neither have they showed their support explicitly. Everything is still uncertain, don"t you think it"s too desperate if we go and ingratiate with them now?

Also, I still stand a chance if they are not married yet. We"re not certain that Song Yu and Qi Chengzhi can stay till the end!” Yu Keyao pouted her lips coldly and continued, “Uncle, I a.s.sume that you"re really desperate to ask us to ingratiate ourselves with the Song family. I think that you won"t do that if this is not the final straw.

If this is the case, why don"t you let me try first? If Song Yu managed to marry Qi Chengzhi in the end, we could always still reconcile with the Song family, right? I don"t think there would be a difference in the Song family"s att.i.tude if we approach them now or in the future.

You mentioned that I embarra.s.sed the family. However, I don"t agree with that. I like Qi Chengzhi and I pursued him bravely. What"s wrong with that?” Yu Keyao tugged her hair beside her ears and said, “If I don"t try now, I will never succeed. Once I have succeeded, who cares about the process it took me to get there?”

Yu Keyao stood up and glanced at them, “Anyways, I won"t give up. You guys can think about what I"ve said to see whether it makes sense. I"ll head back to my room.”

The afternoon of the following day, Song Yu finished work earlier than Qi Chengzhi as usual. Chang Lai picked her up and sent her to Qilin, but she did not enter the company.

She chose not to enter to avoid attracting all those unwanted attraction and make a scene. When she thought about how many staff were going to look at her and how the supervisors would treat her with such formalities, her scalp started to feel numb.

She told Chang Lai that she wanted to walk around before she entered the company.

Qilin was located in the central business district, surrounded by high-end office buildings and upper-middle-cla.s.s malls. There was no night market around, but there was a unique shop beside the road.

Once she exited the shop, she received a phone call from Qi Chengzhi.

“Where are you?” Qi Chengzhi"s gentle voice was quite raspy, which sounded rather lethargic over the phone.

“I"m strolling around the company,” Song Yu replied. She lifted her head to look at the shop name and told him, “Are you done with your work?”

“Why don"t you come up?” He asked again as if he had ignored Song Yu"s last question.

“It would be so awkward if something similar to yesterday happens again! Whenever I"m there, your company"s staff and supervisors are too enthusiastic. Also, I don"t have anything to do while you"re busy working. Just go ahead with your work. I"ll slowly walk around, no hurry.”

When she finished, Qi Chengzhi replied with a cool “Uhm” and hung up the phone.

Song Yu did not mind it as she was used to his style of talking over the phone. She continued walking but she did not go too far. Instead, she went into each store and shopped carefully.

There was a store selling digital accessories next to the one that she just came out from. There were some interesting phone cases and tiny accessories displayed on the window. She stood outside to browse through the phone cases that were hanging on the window and saw one case with a rather intricate design.

The phone case had white linings and a transparent body. The material looked like plastic, but it was printed with greyish-silver and white feathers. Song Yu fell in love with it instantly. She felt that it suited her name so well, and it was just right for her cellphone model.

Coincidentally, there was another phone case hanging beside it which was from the same series. It had an orange lining with a different print. The transparent body had oranges with its leaf prints on them. The color and the cute style were designed for young girls.

However, she thought of Qi Chengzhi when she saw the orange print. The p.r.o.nunciation of orange, “cheng zi” was also a h.o.m.onym for Chengzhi.

When Song Yu pictured Qi Chengzhi holding a phone with such a cute girly styled case, she could not resist laughing.

When Song Yu was about to enter the store, a low voice that was holding back its laughter sounded behind her, “What are you buying?”

Song Yu turned her head around in shock. When she saw who was it, she could not help but ask in surprise, “What are you doing here?”

Li Zhuoan had a smile on his face as if he was intrigued by her astonishment. His eyes were fixated on Song Yu"s face, not wanting to move it, “I came to run some errands nearby. When I pa.s.sed by, I saw a silhouette that looks like you. I thought that I"ve mistaken it for someone else, that"s why I came down from the car to check, and it turns out to really be you.”

Song Yu glanced behind him and saw the Maserati parked beside the road. She recalled that night when Qi Chengzhi attended the blind date, she saw the same car that belonged to Li Zhuoan.

It was illegal to park beside the road, but he did that without a second thought.

“Buying something?” Li Zhuoan looked towards the store. When he was walking over, he saw that Song Yu was about to enter the store.

“I just want to go in and have a look.” Song Yu did not want to continue chatting with him. This place was just beside Qilin, they might be seen by other Qilin"s staffs. It would not be nice if Qi Chengzhi hears about this.

Even though she did not do anything, that man could be blinded by jealousy and she would have to spend so much effort coaxing him after that.

“You can"t park here. Don"t leave your car for too long, you might get a parking ticket,” Song Yu tried to dismiss him.

“Let it be, it"s fine,” Li Zhuoan disregarded it. At the same time, the corner of his mouth raised into a confident grin.

Li Zhuoan had a steady mien. He was known for his credibility and never boasted carelessly. When a man showed a confident smile like his, he could easily catch the attention of women and gain their favor

Nevertheless, Qi Chengzhi had a steadier mien. When he curled the corner of his mouth, there would be a hint of mischief that miraculously appeared amid his steadiness. Furthermore, his confidence and maturity that was polished over age and experience were far beyond Li Zhuoan.

Song Yu"s standard had been spoiled by Qi Chengzhi long ago. That was the reason why when she saw Li Zhuoan put up such a charming expression that many other women would definitely fall for, she was not impressed. Instead, she felt that he was still too young and immature.

If Qi Chengzhi said the same words as he did, he would be blasé about it.

Since Li Zhuoan said that, Song Yu did not dwell with him further. She turned around and enter the store, but she had not expected him to follow her in as well.

The store was not very big. With Li Zhuoan following her closely behind, even if he was not really touching her, Song Yu still felt congested and uncomfortable.

At this moment, she just wanted to get away from him. However, she could not say it directly to him as it would be impolite.

She took down the phone cases with feather and orange prints from the hook and went to the cas.h.i.+er hurriedly. After looking at the price on the machine, Song Yu was taking out money from her purse when Li Zhuoan handed a card to the cas.h.i.+er.

Song Yu frowned and pa.s.sed the three hundred dollar notes in her hand.

“Since I"m here, let me pay for it,” Li Zhuoan said.

“That"s not a good idea,” Song Yu had no reason to spend Li Zhuoan"s money. She rarely spends Qi Chengzhi"s money unless he insisted on it, not to mention Li Zhuoan. She rejected his offer and said, “I have no reason to let you pay for something that I want.”

“It"s just a small matter. There"s no need to be so calculative between friends. I don"t have the habit of letting women pay no matter where I go. It"ll make me uncomfortable. Moreover, let this be my apology gift to you,” Li Zhuoan said and forced his card into the hands of the cas.h.i.+er.

Song Yu frowned and said, “If you were referring to the Red Roof incident, you already sent me flowers. I didn"t hold any grudges against you. There"s no need for an apology. If you insist, I already forgave you immediately when we were at Red Roof. There"s no reason for you to pay.”

“Talking about flowers, on the card that I gave you was a message saying that if you forgive me, call me. I never did receive your call, so I thought you never forgave me,” Li Zhuoan said and smiled. “Let me atone for my sins of the past. Although a phone case is not much of a gift, please accept it. I"ll make it up to you another time.”