Translator: Paperplane Editor: DarkGem
The assistant tightly sealed his lips.
He had a temper too… Mr. Lu, you don’t want to hear it? Well, I don’t want to tell you! In any case, you’re the one who’s going to be hurt in the end, not me.
Although the assistant thought this way, his expression was still evidently a little embarrassed.
He clearly had good intentions, and yet Lu Jinnian was so ungrateful!
Lu Jinnian, who stood beside his assistant, opened the friends’ circle and searched for Zhao Meng’s message and clicked ‘like’ after the many ‘likes’ she received!
Mmm… his heart was finally at peace.
–
In front of the man they like, women, more or less, are a little unruly.
As Zhao Meng said, slightly unruly women show off dependence on men, but men also show an indulgence for women.
Qiao Anhao had hung up on Lu Jinnian seven or eight times now. Having pent up anger for all the things that had happened for such a long time now, she wanted to pick up the next incoming call from him.
In the end, who knew… her phone actually was quiet. Lu Jinnian stopped calling.
Qiao Anhao started to feel uneasy again. Even though she thought that she was right for hanging up on Lu Jinnian, but now, she couldn’t help but question herself. Had she gone too far? Did she hang up on him for too many times?
Zhao Meng and her had started hanging out together in middle-high, so she knew every move she was going to make. As she chewed on a scallop, she stared at Qiao Anhao with an expression that said ‘you deserve it’, then said, “That prick. Didn’t pick up your call, and made you feel ashamed, this time he can feel ashamed…”
As Zhao Meng said this, her line of sight suddenly focused in on one place, and she stayed there in a daze.
Qiao Anhao furrowed her brows. “What’s wrong?”
Seing as Zhao Meng stared on with no reaction, Qiao Anhao followed her line of sight and turned her head.
Zhao Meng was staring at the entrance where there was nothing out of the ordinary…
Just as Qiao Anhao wanted to turn her head and ask Zhao Meng “Are you nuts?” she saw Lu Jinnian in a blue suit stepping into the Japanese restaurant.
Qiao Anhao, who was just going to call Zhao Meng nuts, was truly completely nuts.
Shouldn’t Lu Jinnian be in America? He had an important meeting yesterday at three in the afternoon, and then he said he had to sign some kind of contract today… How was he here, now, in front of her?
Qiao Anhao repeatedly blinked her eyes.
She saw Lu Jinnian politely asking the waiter something, then his assistant behind him found her and Zhao Meng. He mentioned it to Lu Jinnian, who only shot him a fierce glare, as if annoyed he wasn’t the first to see her. The assistant was so scared he took a step back.
Qiao Anhao raised her hand and rubbed her eyes. It really was Lu Jinnian… He was actually back from America?
Which meant that yesterday when he hung up her call he was rushing relentlessly back?
An unspeakable feeling came charging into Qiao Anhao’s soft heart, instantly dissipating the sorrow she had felt because he hung up on her, because he didn’t contact her, because of getting cursed out online, because of Lin Shiyi’s fired shots… It was all replaced with an indescribable feeling of satisfaction and happiness.
In truth, Zhao Meng wasn’t even looking at Lu Jinnian. She was looking at a man in a peaked cap who continuously took secret photos of her and Qiao Anhao.
At first, she had thought she was seeing things.
Translator: Paperplane Editor: DarkGem
Zhao Meng then purposefully paid attention to that man, but he managed to quickly hide away, which is why her eyes stared at the door like she was blanking out. When in reality she was focusing on the photographer from the corner of her eyes. After about five minutes, she finally caught him dead on!
This morning, Qiao Anhao’s scandal broke out. Now, there was someone following her and taking photos. If they took a photo of something bad, then she was afraid that it would cause a waterfall effect of bad news.
Suddenly, Zhao Meng drew her eyes back, ready to warn Qiao Anhao when she suddenly stood up from her seat opposite Zhao Meng and turned around. Her eyes were transfixed ahead of her and her expression looked shocked with a hint of a feminine shyness.
“Qiao Anhao, are you out of your mind…” Midway through Zhao Meng’s sentence, Lu Jinnian jumped into her field of view. He stood there in front of Qiao Anhao, ignoring the many people around them taking photos with their phones. He lowered his head, and said in his clear and gorgeous voice, “Qiao Qiao.”
Lu Jinnian looked into her eyes with boiling passion, which gave people the impression that if there weren’t so many people around then he’d hold her in his arms and give her a good hug.
“Mr. Lu?” Zhao Meng couldn’t help but let slip. Then she realized that there were loads of people staring at them, so she quickly shut her mouth. She stared at Lu Jinnian’s assistant behind him and used her eyes to ask him ‘What’s going on?’.
The assistant looked at Zhao Meng like he understood what she meant. In turn, he shrugged his shoulders with uncertainty.
Time stopped for about a minute. Zhao Meng hastily shifted in her seat and signaled for the assistant to sit. She then looked at Lu Jinnian and reminded Qiao Anhao, who was still in a daze, “Qiao Qiao, Mr. Lu just came back from as far as America, he mustn’t have eaten yet.”
Only then did Qiao Anhao snap back to her senses and realized that she was just staring at Lu Jinnian blankly for a long time. With a slightly red face, she shifted she moved to the side, giving Lu Jinnian her original seat.
Qiao Anhao and Zhao Meng practically hadn’t touched a dish on the table, but Zhao Meng still called a waiter for a two menus and handed one to Lu Jinnian and another to his assistant. The waiter also brought two pairs of chopsticks.
The assistant had already had lunch, so he only ordered a pot of sake. Lu Jinnian simply flipped through the menu, only ordering some sushi.
The waiter took the menu and left. Zhao Meng opened her mouth and said, “Mr. Lu, Qiao Qiao was just unhappy…”
Qiao Anhao knew exactly what Zhao Meng was going to talk about: Lin Shiyi’s taunts, so she abruptly lifted her leg and kicked her friend under the table. Then secretly shot her a look.
Zhao Meng immediately swallowed her words.
But Lu Jinnian heard the key words, unhappy?
He furrowed his brows and turned his head to look at Qiao Anhao. “What happened?”
All the grievances she had in her heart disappeared when he dropped his work and rushed back to the country to find her.
He rushed back after a short fifty plus hours, practically without taking any breaks. He had to be exhausted. Since he made it here, Qiao Anhao really didn’t want to trouble him even more with comments from people she didn’t know online and Lin Shiyi’s insignificant taunts.
Translator: Paperplane Editor: DarkGem
Qiao Anhao was afraid Zhao Meng and the assistant would say some vexing things, so she immediately turned her head around first and whispered into Lu Jinnian’s ear. “Nothing. It’s just because you hung upon me twice last night, so I was a little unhappy.”
Well it was the truth. Her voice sounded like it carried a little anger, but he didn’t know why, coming from Qiao Anhao’s mouth, it sounded like she was just acting like a spoiled child.
Lu Jinnian was in a slight daze for a while, then he suddenly realized that it really did happen.
So when he called today and she constantly hung up on him, it was about that…
Lu Jinnian turned his head and looked over at Qiao Anhao’s side profile. The contour lines on her face were soft, her skin was delicate, and she practically had no pores in sight. What she said to him last night, slowly rang in his ears line-after-line again. His heart thumped, and Lu Jinnian slowly and gently said, “Qiao Qiao, I’m really happy.
“Really happy about what you said to me last night.”
This restaurant in the department store didn’t have private rooms, so they were surrounded by buzzing voices. However, after Lu Jinnian said those few words, the world instantly became silent.
Qiao Anhao felt like her heart was filled with something warm inside and her chest shook unrealistically. “So you rushed back from America overnight because you were too happy?”
“Uh huh,” Lu Jinnian responded without the slightest hint of wanting to cover it up. “I wanted to give you a surprise but when I went home, I realized that not only were you not there, the house was turned upside down. It was so messy, I didn’t even have anywhere to stand.”
When Qiao Anhao heard this, she let out an “Ah!”, thinking back to her cluttered home. Her face turned red in an instant.
She originally planned to restore the house to how it was before Friday, when Lu Jinnian was due back. Who knew he’d suddenly come back early…
Which went to say, he knew that she had searched through his study room?
Qiao Anhao let out another low gasp. She turned her head and looked into Lu Jinnian with a little avoidance. “Then… Then, you know that I stole something of yours?”
“I found out last night.” Lu Jinnian stared into Qiao Anhao’s eyes with a blindingly bright glow in his eyes.
“Eh?” How could he have found out last night? She never told him, and he was in America…
Lu Jinnian used his chin to point over at his assistant that sat opposite him. “He called me last night.”
So news of the incident at last night’s charity gala had already traveled outside the circle of wealthy families.
“Oh,” responded Qiao Anhao in a quiet voice.
Lu Jinnian couldn’t help but raise his hand and rub her hair, making Qiao Anhao’s ears redder. He let out a low, gentle chuckle. “Qiao Qiao, thank you.”
Qiao Anhao’s fingers couldn’t help but tighten on her chopsticks. After a while, she said in an extremely gentle voice, “You don’t need to thank me. Who let her bully you…”
What a joke. How could Han Ruchu ever bully him?
Although Lu Jinnian felt that Qiao Anhao’s words hurt his ego a little, but he was unusually happy with the pain. “Qiao Qiao, are you trying to cover something up?”
With Lu Jinnian’s reminder, Qiao Anhao suddenly realized she had said her thoughts out loud. Her face reddened, and her eyes wandered everywhere, then she said with little confidence in her voice, “No, I was just saying… who let her bully our child…”
Translator: Paperplane Editor: DarkGem
Under Qiao Anhao’s evasion and hypocrisy, Lu Jinnian let out a gentle chuckle and slowly threaded his fingers through a string of her hair. “To protect our child is to protect me…”
Qiao Anhao didn’t fight back and lifted her eyes to stare at Lu Jinnian with a pursed smile.
“Kekeke,” coughed the assistant suddenly.
Zhao Meng also went along and cleared her throat. “With you guys like this… Do you really think it’s good for you both to show your affection for us to see?”
The assistant added, “Yeah, I’m with Zhao Meng. Perhaps you both haven’t heard of something called ‘Those who show off their love, die sooner?’…”
As the assistant said this, he hurriedly stopped and caught sight of Lu Jinnian’s chilling glare. He immediately lowered his head and pretended to not have said anything. He raised his sake and downed it. He even poured Lu Jinnian a cup, handed it to him with a smile, and said to kiss up to him. “Mr. Lu, the sake here tastes the best.”
Lu Jinnian stared at the cup of sake in front of him for a while, before finally picking it up.
Only then did the assistant let out a sigh of relief.
However, his anger hadn’t completely subsided, for he suddenly lifted his eyes and swept him a look. “What do you mean ‘Those who show off their love, die sooner?”
The assistant swiftly shook his head.
“Qiao Qiao and I were always affectionate, do you think we needn’t show it?”
The assistant’s head shook even more frantically.
–
After the meal, Lu Jinnian paid the bill.
He was a little exhausted and wanted to go home with Qiao Anhao and sleep, but in the end, Zhao Meng rushed ahead to say with a beaming smile, “Mr. Lu, Qiao Qiao and I went window shopping before we came to eat at ACR. Qiao Qiao had her eye on a lot of things she wanted to buy. She said she’d go buy them after lunch.”
Qiao Anhao abruptly lifted her head and stared at Zhao Meng.
When she went window shopping with her? They clearly made plans to go shopping later that afternoon! And… when did she have her eye on many things to buy?
After hearing what Zhao Meng had to say, Lu Jinnian didn’t even question if what she said was real or fake, he immediately stood up and picked up his jacket from behind his chair. He looked over at Qiao Anhao and said, “Then let’s go.”
“I…” Qiao Anhao instinctively wanted to deny it.
Yet Zhao Meng cheerfully stood up from her seat and dragged her up too. “Qiao Qiao, do you want to buy handbags or clothes first? Or jewelry?”
“I…”
Though Zhao Meng had asked Qiao Anhao, she obviously had no intention of letting her friend get a word in. “From what I saw, you loved the new model of Chanel handbag so much you have to have it. Let’s first go to Chanel on the first floor.”
After she said this, Zhao Meng looked over at Lu Jinnian. “Mr. Lu, can we?”
Lu Jinnian nodded without any objections.
Just as Qiao Anhao was about to speak out, Zhao Meng quickly whispered into her ear at a volume only the two of them could hear. “Qiao Qiao, let me tell you… you’re being followed by a reporter who’s been taking photos for as long as that entire meal. Now that Mr. Lu is here, that reporter will definitely follow us. Wasn’t everyone online cursing you? Wasn’t Lin Shiyi so pleased with herself? Now that Mr. Lu is here shopping with you, buy everything you could possible want! Once that reporter let the news out, it’ll just kill her!
“Also, Qiao Qiao, I’m just helping you let off some steam. Don’t go running away and betraying me. What’s more, Mr. Lu is your husband, so why should we just let so many people curse you out on the internet.”
Translator: Paperplane Editor: DarkGem
Actually, Zhao Meng was right. Why did she have to be cursed out by so many people online? She owed them nothing.
And then there was those hard-to-hear things Lin Shiyi had said about her… If she could, then she really wanted to viciously fight Lin Shiyi back!
When Qiao Anhao heard Zhao Meng’s words, it wasn’t like she wasn’t tempted… After all, she wasn’t a saint, she was just the same as the myriad other women in the world. She was a little vain and would secretly feel down under everyone’s criticism.
“Qiao Qiao, don’t tell me, you want to be a push over!” Zhao Meng’s voice sounded slightly resentful and impatient.
Who wants to be a pushover?!
Qiao Anhao glared at Zhao Meng with a bad feeling. Though she called Lu Jinnian over last time during the shoot of “Love at First Sight”, she still felt a little apprehensive. But eventually she nodded and said, “Got it.”
Zhao Meng abruptly smiled and blinked at Qiao Anhao enthusiastically, saying, “Tonight the entertainment news are going to blow up!”
–
Though Qiao Anhao agreed to Zhao Meng’s suggestion, when she really did step foot into the store, she felt a little sorry when it came time to choosing what to buy.
She wasn’t trying to act pretentious. Perhaps every woman who truly loves a man doesn’t want to give off the impression that they are with them for the money.
And so Qiao Anhao kept her plan in mind under Lu Jinnian’s patient company. In the end, she spent half a day to finally choose just the one bag.
Zhao Meng looked over at the reporter, who would hide and take a photo of them every now and then. Seeing Qiao Anhao’s contorted expression on her face, a random concerned feeling like “a child who cannot learn is a hopeless case” came over Zhao Meng.
Eventually, she calculated something in her mind for a moment, then suddenly pointed over at the most expensive bag beside them and said, “Qiao Qiao, did you say that you liked this one earlier?”
After hearing what Zhao Meng said, Lu Jinnian, who had originally pulled out his card ready to pay, put it back into his wallet. He looked over at the shop assistant and made a hand gesture as though to ask her to wait for a moment. Qiao Anhao slowly lowered her head, and looked at the flat shoes she wore today. Lu Jinnian asked her, who just about reached his shoulder, in a gentle voice, “Which one do you like?”.
Qiao Anhao didn’t nod nor shook her head.
But Lu Jinnian didn’t care too much for her opinion. Instead, he just shot his assistant following behind a look, who immediately told the shop assistant, “Could you please wrap up this bag also?”
“Is there anything else you’d like?”Lu Jinnian asked again. This time, without any rush to pay.
Zhao Meng rushed to answer first. “Yeah, that one, that one, and that one…”
Not to mention good-looking bags, Zhao Meng practically pointed at every single bag in her sight. She was so fast, Qiao Anhao couldn’t even get a word out. “… and that one. Oh! That’s right, Qiao Qiao also likes that one…”
When Zhao Meng finished, she realized that the last bag looked like the same model as the one Qiao Anhao carried today. She then calmly explained, “Oh, Qiao Qiao especially likes that bag. The one she has is a little old, she wants a new one.”
Lu Jinnian calmly let out an “Uh huh”, then glanced at the assistant to tell him, “Could you please wrap up all of the bags the lady pointed at?”
Lu Jinnian went to the front counter to pay the bill while the assistant inspected the items with the shop assistant.
Translator: Paperplane Editor: DarkGem
Qiao Anhao grabbed Zhao Meng in a swoop and said in a low voice, “Zhao Meng, are you crazy? You’re about to clear out the store.”
“Qiao Qiao, you’ve stripped naked in front of each other, what’s there to be embarrassed about now?” Zhao Meng glanced at Qiao Anhao. “What’s more, we aren’t spending your money. Why are you so hurt?”
“What do you mean it’s not my money.” They were already married. Lu Jinnian’s money was her money.
“Alright, even if it was your money, but with so much money, even if you tried your hardest to spend it, you can’t possibly spend it in a short amount of time.” As Zhao Meng said this, she glared at Qiao Anhao. Then Qiao Anhao heard Lu Jinnian’s beautiful voice from behind her.
“What are you two chatting about?”
Before Qiao Anhao said a word, Zhao Meng said whilst snickering, “Mr. Lu, your wife is reviewing herself for wasting the family fortune.”
As Zhao Meng’s words fell, she felt Qiao Anhao forcefully pinching the side of her hip.
Your wife… Those three words sounded so good to hear… It felt like a gust of spring breeze had brushed over Lu Jinnian’s incomparibly handsome face. He couldn’t help but reach his arm out with a slightly weak touch and rub Qiao Anhao’s head. Then instead of shoving his wallet back into his pocket, he handed it to her. “Don’t worry about it. You can go spend it all.”
It wasn’t that he was generous or didn’t care about money.
But because he was once so poor he only had two hundred RMB on him yet still didn’t hesitate to spend it all on her. Let alone now?
No matter how time flew by… no matter how rich he was now… no matter what they’d gone through or how they’ve changed in the last thousands of years… From his very bones, he knew she was the woman he loved throughout his entire youth.
Even when was really poor, he was willing to exhaust his wallet to pay her bills.
Although it was Zhao Meng’s idea and Lu Jinnian hadn’t a clue what was going on and didn’t have the intention to show off, he followed right along. He simply wanted to buy the things he thought she liked… to buy all of them for her!
So much so, he was willing to give her his wallet.
Qiao Anhao had forgotten when she saw the phrase online, but now it came flying back. It isn’t important how much money a man has. What’s important is whether he is willing to give it to you.
At the time, a lot of people said that it was a classic quote. At the time, she was young and didn’t understand the real meaning behind it. Now that she was all grown, she understood the importance of life’s daily necessities… she understood how exhausting running around a city to get to work was… she understood that even though you didn’t like money, you couldn’t exist without it, and that’s when she understood that most of the time, money didn’t equal love but was a way to express it.
Qiao Anhao pinched Lu Jinnian’s wallet, raised her head, and stared straight at him.
He probably hadn’t rested for several days now. His complexion still looked shockingly handsome, but there was an obvious hint of exhaustion between his brows. His eyes were drooped and he had seriously dark circles under them.
He wore a slightly unbuttoned white shirt and who knows where he ripped his tie off… Qiao Anhao could see that the collar was ruffled up, and it was slightly dirty. He probably hadn’t changed out of it for a long time.
Did he rush back from America yesterday, got home without even taking the time to shower, and then ran over to see her?
He was obviously really tired, and yet he still forced himself to hold up and go shopping with her.
Translator: Kingbao Editor: DarkGem
What about her? She didn’t try to understand him and had instead gone head on with the curses online and with Lin Shiyi who would do her no good.
Qiao Anhao felt guilt engulf her, she felt as though the weight of Lu Jinnian’s wallet was too heavy for her, it was as if she wasn’t appreciative of his care.
She lowered her eyes in shame.
Lu Jinnian’s assistant and the shop assistant walked over with handful of bags. “Mr Lu, everything is checked, there isn’t any problem.”
Lu Jinnian nodded and reached out to tug at Qiao Anhao’s elbow. “Let’s go, didn’t you want to look at clothes?”
Qiao Anhao remained stationary as the guilt piled on.
Lu Jinnian frowned and turned to look at her with confusion. “What’s wrong?”
She bit down on her lip and turned to look at Zhao Meng instead. “I’m sorry.”
The confusion thickened in his eyes.
Qiao Anhao didn’t dare to look at Lu Jinnian. She turned towards the shop assistant.”Can I return all those bags.”
“Ah? Ms. Qiao, don’t you like these?” Lu Jinnian’s assistant exclaimed.
Lu Jinnian’s frown deepened, but he stared at Qiao Anhao silently.
Qiao Anhao glanced at the pile of beautifully packaged bags before pointing to the first bag she had picked out. “I only want this one, please help me return the rest.”
Pausing slightly, she asked, “Can I return them?”
The shop assistant smiled. “Yes, I’ll process it for you now.”
“Give us a moment.” After a moment of silence, Lu Jinnian spoke. He signaled for Zhao Meng and his assistant to give them some time. He held onto Qiao Anhao’s hand and let her out of the store to an emergency exit nearby that was empty. Turning to stare into her face, he said, “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Qiao Anhao forced her lips into a tight line, avoiding his gaze in silence.
Lu Jinnian pressed her against the wall and reached out to lift her jaws. Slowly, he lowered his body to stare straight into her clear eyes. “Qiao Qiao, I know you’re hiding something from me.”
Qiao Anhao knew that the moment she requested to return the bags, he would definitely sense that something was amiss.
She also knew that Lu Jinnian would now definitely catch on that the scandal was blazing all over the web.
She had wanted to let him rest before complaining about the scandal but after being directed by Zhao Meng, she felt that she could no longer keep it from him, so she confessed honestly, “Today when I woke up, I realized that I was entangled in a scandal… and was on the headlines.”
Lu Jinnian froze. He grabbed for his phone and entered weibo, the words [Qiao Anhao, Man Chaser] came into sight.
He quickly clicked the bold words and saw the video, all the captions and comments. Gradually, his face darkened and his frown deepened.
“Actually, it’s fine to be on the headlines, it’s common for celebrities to have scandals once in a while,” Qiao Anhao reassured, attempting to make it sound like nothing.
