Volume 14
Chapter 7: Father (Part 3)
“Waah, Lu Li, wuwu—” the Silly Goose sobbed in his arms. Speaking of which, Lu Li hadn’t held her for a long time. The Silly Goose’s delicate body was still so warm and soft. Lu Li remembered the scene where she had her hands on her hips, pulling him in the classroom, insisting on having him call his parents. Thinking of this, the corners of Lu Li’s mouth curled up slightly. He felt that it was so good to be able to hold her again.
As he held the Silly Goose, he glanced at the toppled screen. Behind the screen, there was only an air conditioning blanket. From beginning to end, the so-called Old Master Chu was just Chu Jingyi, who was supposed to have been sent abroad. The various strange things Lu Li had noticed before were finally explained.
The Silly Goose was crying like a little tearful person. “Wuwu, Lu Li, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you about going abroad. I’m sorry, wuwu—”
Lu Li could smell the faint lavender scent of the shampoo in her hair. How could he blame his Yibao? And, with Yibao’s personality, she probably wouldn’t have thought of pretending to go abroad to eavesdrop from behind. It was most likely Chu Xiaodong who had orchestrated all of this.
Chu Xiaodong put down his teacup and poured himself a lonely cup of tea. “Silly daughter, you’ve shown yourself so early. How is your father supposed to talk to Little Lu now?”
The Silly Goose cried and said, “Why are you bullying Lu Li! You’re such a big official, such a big person. Why do you have to keep pressing Lu Li! He’s already said so much. Why do you still have to bully him!”
“This is a test.” Chu Xiaodong was playing tricks again. If Lu Li succeeded, it was called a test. What would it be called if he failed? This old fox really left himself a way out in everything he did.
“In my heart, Lu Li has already absolutely, one hundred percent passed the test! I also like—no, I love Lu Li! No matter what else you say, I won’t change my mind!” The Silly Goose’s nose was running. Lu Li took some tissues from the table and wiped the tears and snot from the little girl’s face. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t moved. Lu Li knew that in Chu Jingyi’s heart, she had always had two knots. This was also the main reason why they had parted ways before.
One was the gap in their family backgrounds.
The other was a girl’s apprehension about the future.
Men will always subconsciously ignore how important “loving a person” is to such a traditional girl. In this flamboyant era where romantic experience is treated as life experience, Chu Jingyi, on the contrary, was seriously thinking about what it takes to like a person, to love a person.
To love a person might mean leaving the parents who had raised her for ten or twenty years, leaving the small family she had grown up in, and going to an unknown, new home full of secrets.
To love a person might mean that from now on, she would have to treat his gains and losses as her own. It might mean changing from being able to casually pick whatever she wanted from the dinner table to having to care if he had eaten his favorite dish.
To love a person might mean that she would spend the rest of her life with him, and the future might be filled with troubles, bitterness, sweetness, and happiness.
Of course, she would also be afraid, full of worry about the unpredictable future. She would be afraid that Lu Li didn’t love her, or perhaps didn’t love her so deeply. She didn’t have the courage to wave goodbye to her parents and say, “I’m going to find Lu Li.” There were so many girls around Lu Li; she felt she was probably the one who would be cared for the least.
However, today, she was no longer afraid. She knew that the man of her heart would cross the chasm, would cross the mountains, face all sorts of temptations, and come before her to say he would marry no one but her. This insecure young girl finally realized that her love was not one-sided. Lu Li had never ignored her. This feeling, like a carving knife, had carved a deep mark at the top of the scale of love.
It was precisely for this reason that Chu Jingyi had mustered the courage to break her agreement with Chu Xiaodong and, regardless of everything, wanted to cry her heart out in Lu Li’s arms.
Looking at his daughter, who was wholeheartedly biased toward Lu Li, the father’s heart was filled with mixed feelings. He wasn’t actually a despicable person, but in the matter of Lu Li and his daughter, he had been despicable more than once or twice. He found that he had underestimated Lu Li, underestimated him too many times.
He hadn’t told Lu Li that in the choice between his identity as a politician and a father, he had actually chosen to be a father. This was also the reason why Lu Li was able to sit opposite him, alive, right now.
Lu Li didn’t dare to wipe the Silly Goose’s tears too frequently. He was afraid the girl’s skin was too sensitive and he would break it—the An Baili of the past had loved to cry. After crying, she would cry out in pain when a tissue touched her skin. The corners of her eyes would hurt, her nose would hurt, and she would still stubbornly say she wouldn’t cry next time. Do all girls love to cry? Lu Li thought. They must all be made of water.
Lu Li gently kneaded the Silly Goose’s tear-streaked cheeks. “Be good, no more crying, no more crying. I’m not angry at you. I promise you that today I will definitely make our dad agree, okay?” Lu Li had already changed his address to “our dad,” which made Chu Xiaodong’s eyebrows twitch slightly.
Chu Xiaodong also cleared his throat. “Yibao, you should step aside for a bit. If you keep this up, I won’t be able to talk to Little Lu.”
Chu Jingyi said, crying, “No! You’re just bullying him with your power! I want to be with Lu Li!”
Who is your real family? Chu Xiaodong was speechless. He thought, if he were twenty years younger, he would definitely have a one-on-one with Lu Li and beat this boy until he couldn’t stand up. Maybe he shouldn’t have let Lu Li into Chuanhai No. 1 High School back then. Chu Xiaodong’s idea at the time had been simple: find a boy with a clean family background and excellent genes to marry into the Chu family, and be completely obedient to his daughter—it was that simple.
Fortunately, at this time, Lu Li soothed the Silly Goose’s emotions. “Yibao, I’ll go and keep you company later. Give me a little time, okay?” Hearing Lu Li’s words, the Silly Goose’s gaze instantly softened, her eyes fixed on Lu Li, unable to be pulled away. “Okay…”
Chu Xiaodong almost couldn’t catch his breath. They say a daughter’s heart belongs outside the family. He had even argued with the old master back then, saying Yibao wouldn’t be like an ordinary little woman. The old master had chuckled at the time and said, “Your maternal grandfather thought the same way back then.”
Chu Jingyi walked out of the tea room, turning her head back every three steps. She said softly, “I’ll be waiting for you at the door… I still have so, so many things to say to you… Don’t you go…” With that, she looked at Chu Xiaodong again, her tone suddenly full of resentment. “Dad, don’t make things difficult for Lu Li anymore!”
“Alright, alright! Alright, alright!” Chu Xiaodong nodded helplessly. This was his only daughter. The entire Chu family doted on this little princess. How could he really push Yibao to the opposite side?
The Silly Goose didn’t go far, but really did move a small stool and sit down at the door. Lu Li could even hear the clatter of the small stool. Only then did he look at Chu Xiaodong with a meaningful expression. He saw that Chu Xiaodong suddenly seemed much more tired, as if he had drained a day’s worth of energy.
Recalling carefully, he finally understood that Chu Xiaodong had been setting traps for him all day, constantly luring him to chase after fame and fortune. Even his agreement to cooperate had seemed overly easy. Lu Li felt that Chu Xiaodong was very suited to be a devil in hell, the kind of old devil who tricks humans out of their souls. If Lu Li had said one wrong word today, done one wrong thing, or even had a single thought of letting Yibao down, he would have lost everything today.
He had arranged for Yibao to wait behind the screen just to fundamentally erase Jingyi’s good feelings for Lu Li. And to blacken a person, the lowest method is slander and defamation, while the most brilliant method is to corrupt him with wealth and power. Many people in the world can withstand the former, but few can withstand the latter. The more experienced and knowledgeable a person is, the more unable they are to resist the temptation of wealth, power, and status.
Only Lu Li, who had lived three lifetimes and was still focused on fooling around with women, was an exception. Zhu Xi was right; Lu Li was destined to fall because of women.
“Uncle Chu, your methods are so deep.” Lu Li using the word “deep” to describe Chu Xiaodong was already very restrained and conservative. “The cooperation you agreed to before, was that the truth, or a lie?”
Chu Xiaodong sighed helplessly. The general trend was like this. If he tried to correct it again, he would only end up with a falling out between father and daughter. “It was originally a lie. Now it seems it has to become the truth.”
