Cheng Xi pretended to be dead; she wouldn’t move no matter what Lu Chenzhou did. Lu Chenzhou prodded her in the face a few times, but she still didn’t respond.

In the end, perhaps due to how pitiful she seemed, he stopped bothering her and left the room, bathed, changed clothes, and once again assumed his role of the diligent househusband.

As Cheng Xi pretended to be dead, she eventually ended up falling asleep. When she woke up again, it was from her hunger, which was being stimulated by a concentrated, mouthwatering aroma of tasty food wafting into her nose. She almost floated off of the bed and towards the smell, and discovered Lu Chenzhou in his apron and frying the last dish with a chef’s posture in the kitchen.

There were already a few finished dishes on the counter, and the most eye-catching one was a plate of twice-fried pork cutlets. Cheng Xi didn’t even think as she reached out with her hand, but even though Lu Chenzhou was concentrating on frying the last dish, he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He deftly blocked her hand without even looking as he coolly asked, “Have you washed up?”

Cheng Xi was speechless. ……She felt like she was about to die from starvation!

A lightbulb went off in her head. Inspired, she walked behind him, hugged his waist, and started rubbing against his body. “What a fragrant smell, Mr. Lu.You’re so capable.”

The capable Mr. Lu asked, “Have you stopped hurting?”

“Mm, I’m going to go and wash up now.” Her demeanor instantly frosted over as she swiftly let go of him and rushed out of the kitchen. But before she left, she nimbly stole a slice of cutlet and ate as she ran off. She even provokingly commented, “How fragrant.”

Lu Chenzhou put down his pan and turned around. Sensing that something was amiss, Cheng Xi slipped away like an eel.

Looking at the doorway that she had vanished into, Lu Chenzhou smiled slightly.

When Cheng Xi next came out, she had finished washing up and had even changed her clothes. Lu Chenzhou was sitting in front of the dining table, typing out something on his phone. The meal in front of her was as beautiful as a landscape painting, and the beautiful man…… she ignored. Cheng Xi sat down and started eating right away.

She really was about to starve.

Lu Chenzhou also knew her condition, so he had made barley porridge and other easily digestible dishes. He even started introducing the dishes one by one. “This one reduces swelling, so you should eat more of this.”

“Yup yup!”

Then he pointed at the cucumber and pork liver dish. “This enriches the blood!”

“Okay!” Cheng Xi said with her mouth, but her hand reached out for the cutlets instead. However, she was stopped by a pair of chopsticks. “Eat less of this. There’s too much sodium, so it won’t be helpful for your recovery.”

“……”

She laughed. “I’m getting a piece for you.” Her chopsticks picked up a piece of cutlet and headed towards his bowl, but at the halfway mark, when Lu Chenzhou wasn’t watching, Cheng Xi quickly changed course and stuffed it into her mouth. With a full mouth, she even said, “Let me see if it’s salty.” There was a crunchy bone in the cutlet, and it made a crisp crunching sound as she bit down, and as she did so, she nodded with clear eyes smiling like a crescent moon. “It’s not salty at all. It’s really quite tasty!”

Her actions were just to vent her anger, but she didn’t realize that Lu Chenzhou merely saw her behavior as very juvenile. He placidly looked at her and coolly replied, “If it’s not too salty, then have a bit more. In either case, you’re the one who’ll be in pain if you eat too much, whereas I’ll be quite comfortable regardless.”

Cheng Xi instantly thought, 

You beast!

She really was unable to stand him sometimes, and she severely reprimanded him. “Can we not talk about this at the dining table?”

Lu Chenzhou actually agreed. “Alright.”

Cheng Xi found it quite shocking, and was happy that she was able to eat a peaceful meal without hearing any more “reminders” from him and stuff her stomach with a whole table of food meant to enrich her blood and reduce swelling. Since it was the weekend, they even leisurely lazed around after they finished their meal. Cheng Xi was still thinking about Fu Mingyi and Gong Hengjin’s situation, and she asked Lu Chenzhou to make another phone call and ask about the progress of the blood drawing. The reply she got back was, “Both of these people have quite severe throat pain and fever. However, they’ve been treating it as if it were the common cold.” This year’s flu season was unusually bad, and many people around them had exhibited similar symptoms. So, the two of them didn’t suspect that anything was wrong with their body, and hadn’t gone to the hospital. They had simply bought some over the counter medicine to use at home.

When Lu Chenzhou’s men showed up to provide free medicine and a  blood-drawing test allegedly in response to the flu outbreak, both of them were very cooperative. Their blood samples were taken without issue and then sent to the corresponding lab for analysis. The two of them had also been instructed, for safety reasons in the name of preventing the spread of the flu, to abstain from close contact with other people, which temporarily relieved the potential problem of them unknowingly spreading the disease to others.

Lu Chenzhou’s call was made on speakerphone, and the other person spoke clearly and with a well thought-out plan. When Cheng Xi heard all of it, she was finally able to relax, saying, “This person’s pretty capable.”

Lu Chenzhou, however, replied, “His technique isn’t very good.”

“Hmm?”

“If it were, then maybe his wife wouldn’t have divorced him.”

! ! ! !

Cheng Xi slapped his face. “Lu Chenzhou, you silly dolt!”

Honestly, Cheng Xi didn’t expect that the new-and-improved Lu Chenzhou would be like this. Unable to stand his salacious comments anymore, she decided to take a leisurely two-day break—last night’s reverie had seriously traumatized her, ok? Even now, she was still aching inside!

Of course, she still gave a pretty good reason for her solo vacation: “It’s been a few weeks since I last visited home. Conveniently, I have some time off this week, so I’m going to return and see my parents.”

But Lu Chenzhou’s reply was, “I’ve already talked to them.”

“Hmm?”

“I told your mother that you weren’t feeling well today, so you can’t go back.”

“……Did my mom call?”

“Mm, to be accurate, she sent me a text.”

! ! !

A very bad premonition surfaced within her heart. She started walking back into the room, but on second thought, she walked out again. “What were you guys talking about?”

Lu Chenzhou was sitting comfortably on the sofa with both legs extended as he generously handed his phone to her. The first thing Cheng Xi noticed was that her mother had been stickied on his WeChat.

Clearly, the two of them chatted quite often. All of it was initiated by Cheng Xi’s mother, as she asked him almost daily, “What are the two of you doing today?”

Lu Chenzhou’s responses originally started off very terse. “Busy.” “At work.” “She’s working overtime.” Then, perhaps Cheng Xi’s mother found it boring, there were a few days where she didn’t ask anything. But after Cheng Xi’s apartment renovation had finished, she had started asking the questions daily once again.

This morning, Cheng Xi’s mother had texted: What are you two doing?

Lu Chenzhou: She’s sleeping, and I went to get groceries.

Cheng Xi’s mother was clearly shocked: This lazy brat’s still sleeping, even at this time?

Lu Chenzhou: Because she’s not feeling well.

Oh, is she sick? Tell that girl to take better care of her body.

Then, Cheng Xi’s mother linked a few articles that weren’t particularly credible with titles such as, “What you should eat when you have a cold.” These articles were ubiquitous on mothers’ and aunties’ feeds throughout the country.

Up to here, everything looked normal; the shocking news was at the very end. After a while, Lu Chenzhou responded: She doesn’t have a cold. She said that it’s because I hurt her.

Cheng Xi’s feelings were about as complicated as Cheng Xi’s mother’s.

As soon as she read this, she grabbed his hand and started grinding her teeth. 

Crazy, crazy, crazy! Why did he have to tell her mother about this!!

This time, Cheng Xi’s mother took a very long time to reply: Give her some good food to supplement her body…… And then she added on in a second text: If it’s too uncomfortable, tell her to rest well at home.

From Cheng Xi’s understanding of her mother, she was almost definitely typing these sentences out, one letter at a time, with a malevolent and fearsome expression on her face.

Her intuition was spot on. When Cheng Xi returned to her room and picked up her own phone, she saw a message from her mother: You dirty little brat! You’d better not come home this weekend, or I’m afraid that I might be unable to control myself and beat you to death! Tell him to prepare to get married. Your place is already renovated, so just choose a date and have the ceremony then!

Cheng Xi had no response.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter