Chapter 118: Do You Really Like Me?

Cheng Xi immediately blurted out, “Don’t speak such nonsense……” But she was silenced with one hand from her mom.

Cheng Xi’s mother stared at Lu Chenzhou in horror, as if she were about to collapse. “Have you two gotten married yet?”

Lu Chenzhou didn’t understand why Cheng Xi’s mother was asking this, but he insipidly replied, “No.”

“Then just what do those words of yours mean?!”

A faint hint of shyness appeared on Lu Chenzhou’s face⁠—so faint that the three of them wouldn’t have noticed it if they weren’t attentively staring at him.

A very bad premonition surfaced in Cheng Xi’s heart. She was about to open her mouth to stop him, but she was too late. “I meant that she’s willing to get into bed with me now.”

Cheng Xi thought, ……Did you have to be so direct?!

While Cheng Xi’s parents couldn’t even think of a reply.

They seemed to have lost all of their HP—both of them were sitting there stunned with indignant red faces, wanting to roar out in defiance. Who on earth would say something that directly?! And someone like you, whose relationship with our daughter is still undetermined… For you to say something like that in front of us, her parents, are you really trying to be beaten to death?

Lu Chenzhou blinked, and was surprised to see the three people in front of him show signs of extreme agitation. He raised his eyebrows in confusion. Should I not have said those words?

His experience in interacting with a ‘girlfriend’s’ family was really just too limited. In his own family, his mother had died early while his father had never cared about these kinds of things. Although his grandparents did ask a lot of questions, Lu Chenzhou always answered them simply and roughly.

Case in point, his grandmother loved asking him, “How’s your relationship with Dr. Cheng going?”

He would mechanically answer, “chasing after her,” “kissed her,” and “can try to get into bed with her.”

After trying to ask him a few times, his grandmother didn’t dare ask again, because the answers were growing more and more provocative. Instead, she decided to just happily wait for the outcome.

Lu Chenzhou innocently thought that Cheng Xi’s parents would behave the same as his grandmother, so he described the situation truthfully. No matter what, honesty was a virtue. Even when he conducted business, he particularly disliked roundabout discussions where each party gave evasive answers. Instead, he preferred to straightforwardly delineate his bottom line. If the business deal worked out for both of them, great; if not, that was also fine. He hated it people who just kept blabbering on the most.

And since he was accustomed to everyone indulging in his preferences, Mr. Lu really didn’t understand how to be indirect, and him spending this much effort to chase after Cheng Xi was already an abnormal venture for him. Of course, it could also be interpreted that he immensely enjoyed doing so; otherwise, he would have just done what he did before: sign a contract and save himself all that trouble!

And so, Cheng Xi’s pitiful parents received a tremendous shock—it was so bad that they were unable to regain their senses for quite a while: they simply didn’t know how to respond to Lu Chenzhou’s brazen words!

They were angry, but their words remained choked up in their chests.

Finally, Cheng Xi stood up. She was exasperated, but she was at least mentally prepared for a situation like this, so she quickly recovered from her shock and regained her calmness⁠—what else could she do? All he had done was say his inner thoughts out loud.

But she also didn’t have any way to soften the impact of Lu Chenzhou’s words, so she could only attempt to nicely placate her parents. “We haven’t done anything inappropriate so far, have we? Mom, please stop worrying.” She placed her hand on top of her mother’s hand, her tone earnest. “We know what we’re doing, so please trust me, mom.”

Her face was still flushed red, which somewhat lowered her credibility. However, she had at least found an excuse for her parents to extricate themselves from this conversation. They gladly accepted as they didn’t dare prod at this topic anymore, not even at the big red blanket—who knew what shocking thing would come from Lu Chenzhou’s mouth next time? Her mother glared at Cheng Xi, hissed, “I’ll deal with you later,” from the side of her mouth, and then looked toward Lu Chenzhou as she asked, “What are your future plans?”

Lu Chenzhou calmly responded that he planned on marrying Cheng Xi. Perhaps his earlier shocking remarks had conditioned Cheng Xi’s parents, but they actually both released a deep breath after hearing his relatively normal response.

After this, the meeting between Lu Chenzhou and Cheng Xi’s parents finally returned to normal, and next, her parents asked if his family knew about the relationship between the two of them.

Lu Chenzhou replied, “Yes, they know.”

“And they’re supportive of it?”

Even Cheng Xi’s father, who normally spoke very little, solemnly stated, “I won’t dance around the topic. There’s a very wide gap between the statuses of our two families, both in terms of social and financial positions. Our Cheng Xi has worked very hard for herself, and all we’ve ever wanted is for her to be happy, not to clamber around for wealth or position. Even if this means her not marrying, we won’t let her suffer even a bit of grievance.”

Cheng Xi’s father was very earnest and mindful of the differences between them, and Cheng Xi noticed that after Lu Chenzhou heard her father’s words, he stilled a little. This was the first true emotional response that he had given tonight, and she noted it down in her heart.

Lu Chenzhou had already lowered his gaze, and after a while, he coolly replied, “I won’t let her suffer any grievances. I want to marry her, and I definitely won’t let her suffer if we do so.”

His words were spoken calmly, and his expression was also calm; however, it was this calmness that made his words feel heartfelt. This, along with the dash of pride and arrogance that was unique to him, gave his words a reliable feeling⁠—wouldn’t he be able to protect his own woman?

And with that, they were essentially done talking. The food was served, and they began to eat and drink. Cheng Xi’s father normally only drank once or twice throughout the course of the year, but today, he actually tried to compete against Lu Chenzhou in drinking! It was all to get a sense for Lu Chenzhou’s actual personality⁠—after all, one’s moral character was invariably revealed under the influence of alcohol!

But before he could see what Lu Chenzhou was like drunk, he fell drunk himself. And as he continued drinking and drinking, he eventually rolled underneath the table and fell asleep.

Cheng Xi’s mother was very angry. Didn’t he know what his alcohol tolerance was after all these years?

Lu Chenzhou, on the other hand, glanced at Cheng Xi, finally understanding whom she had inherited her pitiful alcohol tolerance from.

Just like Cheng Xi, her father was a good drunk. He didn’t make a mess or fuss about; he just wanted to sleep peacefully.

He was tall and heavy, and generally, even two or three people wouldn’t be enough to support him. Luckily, the location of the restaurant they were eating at was pretty convenient, as there was a hotel right upstairs. Lu Chenzhou helped them book a room, and afterwards, Cheng Xi’s parents went there to rest.

Once Cheng Xi’s parents settled into the hotel room, Cheng Xi went out to send Lu Chenzhou off. The new year’s celebrations in the city were hardly festive; despite the particularly glamorous lights and shiny ornaments decorating the storefronts, there were very few pedestrians wandering about.

As the two of them stood by the roadside, Cheng Xi finally found a chance to privately speak to Lu Chenzhou. “Sorry. My mother insisted on meeting you, so please excuse her actions.”

Lu Chenzhou looked at her strangely. “Why are you apologizing?”

“……”

“Is it because, despite getting into bed with me, you never planned on marrying me?”

This question put Cheng Xi in somewhat of a bind. While she was indeed a doctor, she was also a woman, and it made her uncomfortable when he kept throwing around phrases like “getting into bed together.”

But she didn’t shift her gaze away. She met his glance straight on and smiled as she replied, “Today, when my father said that he’d rather have me not marry than allow me suffer, you seemed very surprised, no?”

Lu Chenzhou pursed his lips.

Cheng Xi continued, saying, “You were shocked because you realized that there are parents who are alright with their children not getting married, right? I don’t know what your precise stance on this issue is, but I feel like people needing to do certain things when they reach a certain age is a preposterous notion. We only have one life, so why do we have to get in a relationship or have to get married? The world is so large, and our choices are so numerous. Neither love nor marriage are necessities in our modern world.”

“Just now, you asked me if, despite getting into bed with you, I had no plans to marry you. I can answer you now: yes. But marrying you and falling in love with you are two completely different things, because I can choose whether or not I want to marry you, but I can’t choose whether or not I love you. What about you, Lu Chenzhou? Are you chasing after me because you want to get married, or because you truly love me?”

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