Chapter 109: Shock

All this time, Fu Mingyi had thought that Shen Wei still loved him, the prodigal son who was nevertheless accepted by his family, someone who disgusted outsiders but thought of his own actions as moving and compassionate.

Cheng Xi hadn’t interacted with him that often, and she only knew him to be somewhat shallow and superficial. However, she didn’t expect that he would actually be so shameless. Since he wouldn’t take her advice to heart, she decisively hung up.

Some people wouldn’t learn their lesson until something truly catastrophic happened to them.

On the other hand, Shen Wei’s condition was steadily improving. From her behavior in the morning alone, everyone thought that she had vented out all of her negative feelings and was feeling hale and hearty again. This was the biggest reason why Fu Mingyi felt that the two of them could get back together; she’d beaten him and scolded him, so naturally, in his mind, she should forgive him.

But in reality, she hadn’t slept well at all. After an arduous battle to fall asleep, she had been shocked awake by her emotions in the middle of the night. Afterwards, she had stayed up until dawn.

Sometime during that night, Cheng Xi had asked her, “What’re you thinking about?”

She drily responded, “Killing people, of course.” And then a second later, “I’m joking. Actually, I’m not thinking of anything, but I just can’t fall asleep.”

But actually, her first sentence was true, and her second false. Even though she wouldn’t actually kill anyone, her heart was still dripping with an untold fury.

All Cheng Xi could do was try her best to enlighten her and prescribe her some mild medication. However, Shen Wei was pregnant and wasn’t sure about whether or not she wanted to keep the baby, so she had to be very careful about what she consumed. Even the medicine that she had been prescribed wouldn’t be good for her in large doses. Given this situation, Cheng Xi was speechless that Fu Mingyi thought that she would forgive him if he just put in a little bit of effort.

Two days later, it was Lunar New Year’s Eve.

Cheng Xi’s vacation only started on the first day of the new year, so she had to work even on Lunar New Year’s Eve. In the morning, she stayed at home to accompany her parents and had a traditional Lunar New Year’s Eve meal. Then in the afternoon, she had to return to the hospital to work. Her brother Cheng Yang had it slightly better than her, but he too was only free after the twenty-ninth.

Since the two of them were both busy, their parents ignored the fact that the new year was supposed to be joyous and festive and instead used their time to nag at Cheng Yang. As soon as they finished their meal, they started talking about how he was old enough to be looking for a girlfriend by now, how if he didn’t, he’d remain single for the rest of his life, and that even his sister was getting married before him.

Cheng Yang was shocked. “My sister’s dating someone? She’s going to get married?”

And then the subject suddenly shifted to Cheng Xi. She was speechless, whereas her parents were smiling even as they grew angry. “Yes, quite. They’ve been together for half a year, or even a year by now. So, are you two planning on getting married at the end of next year?”

Cheng Xi was relieved that they had at least left her a year’s buffer, but then she heard her mother continue, “You would always say that the two of you were very, very busy, and so I didn’t nag at you. However, you must have a few days’ leave now that it’s the New Year, right? Talk to his parents so that we can meet them sometime during the fifth to the eighth and have a family meal together.

“Of course, don’t keep mentioning it to Lu Chenzhou. Just remind him once or twice. If he doesn’t arrange it, then he probably doesn’t care that much about you, in which case you should quickly give up on him. In my opinion, that someone’s someone’s son is pretty good, and you can meet up with him on the way back. Even if the two of you aren’t compatible, you can still find new friends, and having more friends will broaden your opportunities and stop others from thinking that you’ve unwisely saddled yourself with a burden.”

Cheng Xi looked at her own mother, unsure whether she should laugh or cry.

Cheng Yang honed in on one particular part of their conversation. “Lu- Lu Chenzhou? Sis, your boyfriend’s Lu Chenzhou?”

During these last two months, he had been busy working on an engineering project in the countryside, and truly hadn’t had any time to worry about his sister’s romantic life.

“No.”

Her mother triumphantly stated, “That’s him!” She looked at her daughter, and then unabashedly continued to throw shade at her without restraint. “If you’re unwilling to recognize him as your boyfriend, then stop bringing him home.”

And that was already her holding back to preserve her daughter’s face. After all, the two had already slept together, but for some reason she still wouldn’t admit that he was her boyfriend! Did she want to be known as a promiscuous woman that badly?

Her own daughter was secretly immoral… Oh, how Cheng Xi’s mother’s heart hurt!

This time, it was Cheng Yang who was rendered speechless. He looked at his own sister as he said in disbelief, “You even brought him home? You… damn, you’re moving quite quickly!”

And then his father scolded him without missing a beat. “It’s the new year. Why are you cursing?”

The nagging continued until both their faces were drained and devoid of color, and their parents never stopped talking until Cheng Xi had to leave for work once more.

Cheng Yang obediently offered to send her out, and Cheng Xi accepted with a smile. The disaster-stricken siblings escaped from their parents’ house as if they were running away from a calamity. As the two hastily walked along towards the hospital, Cheng Yang asked her with some concern, “Is your relationship with Lu Chenzhou… real or fake?”

“Fake.”

“Then why did <om say that you brought him home? And before that, he was even at your place naked……”

“It’s all a big misunderstanding.” Cheng Xi was much more direct with her brother. “The two of us are in the same boat. At any rate, you have to believe me⁠—you can’t start making a disturbance like mom!”

……Having a sister like Cheng Xi truly exhausted one’s heart! Cheng Yang shook his head. “If you’re not with him, then don’t act so intimately with him. It’ll cause misunderstandings.”

Cheng Xi was surprised that Cheng Yang would make such an insinuation. “Why do you care so much about this?”

It was just an innocent question, but Cheng Yang gulped.

“What opinion could I even have? It’s just that I feel like you’re not very sincere about this. In fact, your ambiguous statements about your relationship with him only makes me even more curious. It wouldn’t be bad if you were really in a relationship, since I could even get some useful connections out of it.”

“Aside from business, is there anything else in your mind?!”

“You, and our parents. Besides money, the three of you are the people I love the most in this world.”

Cheng Xi harrumphed. “Actions speak louder than words, and just having a silver tongue won’t save you.”

Cheng Yang chuckled.

The siblings were extremely close, so close that Cheng Xi didn’t even notice the small bit of guilt in his laughter.

As they talked, they reached the hospital. Cheng Xi went to work, and Cheng Yang, not wanting to return home and be nagged at again, said, “I’ll wait for you to finish. Call me when you’re done with work.”

“You’re going to wait for that long? It’s only about noon right now.”

“That’s fine. I’ll wait for you no matter how long you take.” Cheng Yang waved his phone as he continued, “My friends are asking me to go play cards with them. Just let me know in advance when you’re ready to leave.”

Cheng Xi nodded, and as Cheng Yang was about to drive away, he got a message on his phone: “It’s the new year… I really didn’t expect that this would still happen in the end… I clearly met you first.”

The tone of the message was so bitter that Cheng Yang’s teeth ached just from looking at it. He glanced at his sister standing out the window, cowardly deleted the message, threw his phone to the side, and summarily left without another word.

His phone was thrown into a corner of the passenger seat, so he didn’t see the following message: “He sees you in broad daylight, but I can only hide in a corner.”

The car drove away. It was still early in the day, but there were already the sounds of fireworks in the air. As that weak light from the phone, along with that line of text, slowly faded from view, silence reigned once again.

Cheng Xi was only able to say, “Be careful,” before Cheng Yang’s car rapidly drove out of sight. She shook her head in annoyance as she walked up the stairs to the hospital, her hand carrying her lunch box. When her colleagues saw her, they rapidly swarmed her. “What food did you bring us?”

“Dr. Cheng is the only one who remembers that we’re here.”

Everyone happily dug in as Cheng Xi looked through the day’s records. As she flipped through the pages, a nurse came up to her. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, Dr. Cheng, your boyfriend came over to visit Chen Jiaman.”

Cheng Xi was a bit surprised, and immediately put down the records and walked over to Chen Jiaman’s ward. When she reached the corridor, she saw a man wearing a windbreaker.

It was Lin Fan, not Lu Chenzhou.

At the same time that she realized the visitor’s identity, she also realized, somewhat shockingly, that she had started tacitly considering Lu Chenzhou as her boyfriend in her heart.

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