No one knew whether the others noticed that day or not. After Meng Yanxi shut the cat into the room, the cat quieted down, everyone went back to joking around, and everything looked normal. But it was hard to say—after all, every person present was sharp as a tack.

Taking a step back, even if they had noticed, they couldn’t exactly say anything. Otherwise, Jin Zhao could have performed an on-the-spot social death right there.

She was so embarrassed she could die, and genuinely wanted to be locked in a room together with 1119 to calm down. When Meng Yanxi came back, he held her hand, his fingers brushing across her palm. He probably thought this was comforting, but in reality, her face burned even hotter.

After that, out of guilt, she sat through the whole thing on pins and needles.

Finally, once the three were sent off and the door closed, Jin Zhao buried her face in Meng Yanxi’s arms, both ashamed and annoyed, on the verge of collapse. “This is all your fault!”

This man was really bad. Holding her, he laughed softly, yet asked in a perfectly serious tone, “My fault for what? What did 1119 do that you’re blaming me?”

Jin Zhao: “……”

Who was 1119 imitating, if not him? Wasn’t it his fault for always doing inappropriate things in front of the cat!

A six-month-old ragdoll was at the peak of its energy, staying up late at night. He was the same—every time she told him the cat had come in, he ignored it completely. And now look what happened: it got learned, and even put on a performance in front of outsiders.

But then again, she’d only ever heard of parrots mimicking speech—she’d never heard of cats copying people.

She didn’t want to go to Cambridge anymore. She just wanted to pack up overnight and leave the planet.

From that day on, Jin Zhao never again allowed Meng Yanxi to do inappropriate things in front of the cat.

♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

Because of the Qingming Festival schedule adjustment, Meng Zhuxi’s alarm didn’t go off and she ended up late for work. In her senior-year internship period, Meng Zhuxi directly messaged her boss and told him to fire her.

These past two days, Jin Zhao had gone out of town for an academic conference. Meng Yanxi happened to have the leisure to manage his younger sister, and personally drove her to handle her resignation. On the way back, Meng Zhuxi conducted a deep reflection and planning session for her life.

Meng Zhuxi: “Bro, do you think there’s this kind of job? No office hours, no clocking in, four days on, three days off—no, three on, four off—actually, let’s just do two on, five off! No bosses or clients pointing fingers. Most importantly, I can’t work hard at it, absolutely no overtime. Finish all the work within two hours a day. Monthly income should be a steady one hundred thousand. Three hundred thousand would be best.”

Meng Yanxi fell silent.

If something that good existed, please introduce it to him—he wanted it too.

His sister’s dream was even more outrageous than his girlfriend’s.

At least his girlfriend’s thirty million was a one-time thing. Meng Zhuxi here was planning to solve everything in one go and enjoy life for the rest of it. Heh.

But thinking of Jin Zhao’s resistance to meeting his parents, Meng Yanxi drove on, his long finger tapping the steering wheel, an idea stirring in his mind.

His girlfriend just hadn’t gotten past her own hurdle. He wasn’t as feudal as she was. What bullshit class gap—was he really supposed to wait until she became a professor before meeting his parents?

How long was that supposed to take?

Of course, it wasn’t that he lacked confidence in his girlfriend. He just couldn’t wait, and decided to help her adapt step by step.

Then they’d start with meeting his sister.

“There is.” The profit-seeking capitalist looked at his sister with a face full of sincerity.

In Meng Zhuxi’s living room, Meng Yanxi sat on the sofa with composed elegance and generously tossed her eight property deeds.

Meng Yanxi: “There are four weeks in a month. Two days on, five days off—so that’s eight working days a month. Here are eight apartments. Each day you go collect rent from one. That way you’re guaranteed work every day you work, and guaranteed no overtime within those eight workdays each month. All the properties are downtown, not far from here. Even if you personally go door to door to collect rent, your commute won’t be long, and your daily working time won’t exceed two hours. The only downside is that the monthly salary isn’t very stable. These apartments rent for anywhere from thirty to fifty thousand each per month, with a total monthly rent fluctuating between three hundred thousand and four hundred thousand. So—can you accept that?”

The young girl knelt in front of the coffee table, staring at the eight bright red property certificates in a daze for a full half minute. Then she silently pulled the stack of property deeds into her arms, didn’t even bother standing up, and directly knee-walked over to Meng Yanxi. With one arm hugging the deeds and the other tugging at her brother’s hand, she looked up into his eyes and said sincerely, “Ah, who cares about monthly salary or not? I mainly just love working!”

Meng Yanxi: Heh.

Of course, merchants pursue profit. Meng Yanxi didn’t spend such a high price for nothing.

Jin Zhao’s flight back to Suiyi was the next evening. He went to pick her up, planning to take her and Meng Zhuxi out to eat together then, letting her start with Meng Zhuxi and gradually get acquainted with his family.

Once she knew what kind of people his family were, she should be able to let go of her psychological burden.

But after calculating everything a thousand times, just when his sister finally didn’t drop the ball, Lu Jingyue did—abruptly abandoning an important client and disappearing without a trace.

Meng Yanxi: “……”

He must have accumulated some truly immense virtue in his previous life to end up with so many worrying younger siblings in this one.

Meng Yanxi had no choice but to clean up this mess himself.

At that time, Jin Zhao was already on the plane. He sent her a message.

Afraid that Jin Zhao might resist and end up not even seeing Meng Zhuxi, he schemed a little—didn’t say that he couldn’t make it, only said that something had come up on his end and he’d be late, and that he’d already asked Zhuang Yu to pick her up.

On the other side, Meng Zhuxi didn’t know that the person she was supposed to meet tonight was Jin Zhao. Meng Yanxi had always been too lazy to explain so much nonsense to kids—especially when that kid happened to be his number-one hater. They never saw eye to eye, so Meng Zhuxi had always assumed she was just meeting “one of Meng Yanxi’s concubines.”

Meng Yanxi’s scumbag behavior was truly despicable, but those eight property deeds were simply too lovable. So she obediently arrived half an hour early, and with great professional dedication even changed her WeChat nickname to “Reborn as an Assist in CEO Romance Fiction.”

But that night, Jin Zhao still didn’t get to meet Meng Zhuxi.

When the plane landed, waves of phone ringtones rose and fell inside the cabin. Jin Zhao also saw Meng Yanxi’s message. Just as she was about to reply, several missed-call notification texts came in, all from the same unfamiliar landline number.

Puzzled, Jin Zhao subconsciously tried to recall whether she had bought any lottery tickets or submitted any academic papers recently. At that moment, her phone rang again.

It was Jin Wenyi calling.

Over the phone, Jin Wenyi’s voice sounded very anxious. “Lingling, where are you right now?”

A sudden sense of foreboding rose in Jin Zhao’s heart.

“I’m at the airport. I just landed. What’s wrong, Auntie?”

Jin Wenyi said, “Grandma fell and is in surgery at the hospital right now. Your dad and the others aren’t in Suiyi at the moment. If you can go over there, could you go in Auntie’s place first? Your uncle and I are already on the highway—we’ll need another three hours to arrive.”

Jin Zhao stood up immediately. “Okay.”

Zhuang Yu was also rushing over last-minute. With rush-hour traffic clogging the city, he was five minutes late. Unable to wait to go to the hospital, Jin Zhao sent messages to both him and Meng Yanxi, then hailed a taxi and went to the hospital herself.

The elderly grow old, their bones losing the resilience of youth—one careless moment and they fall.

When Jin Zhao arrived, only Grandpa was keeping watch outside the operating room. Grandpa was old too, his hair completely white, wearing a thin jacket as he sat on the bench outside the operating room, his back hunched. Cold wind poured in from the window at the end of the corridor, icy as it scraped over the frail old man’s body.

“Grandpa.” Jin Zhao walked over and called out to him.

Seeing her rush over in such haste, the old man forced out an incomparably complex smile.

“Lingling…” His face was covered in wrinkles, words hovering on the tip of his tongue.

Jin Zhao reached out and held his hand reassuringly.

By the time Jin Wenyi and her husband arrived, Grandma had already come out of the operating room. Fortunately, it had been discovered in time and the problem wasn’t too serious—just that injuries to bones and tendons take a hundred days to heal, and she might need to stay in bed for quite a long while.

Zhao Xu ran back and forth paying fees and settling bills, and Jin Wenyi told Jin Zhao to go home first.

It was already close to midnight then, and Jin Zhao still had her suitcase with her. Seeing that Grandma hadn’t woken up yet, she nodded.

Jin Wenyi grabbed her again. “Wait a moment, Lingling. It’s too late now, it’s not safe for you to go home alone. Wait until your uncle gets back, I’ll drive you.”

“No, no need.” Jin Zhao hesitated for a moment, then said, “My boyfriend is coming to pick me up.”

Jin Wenyi froze, then said with delight, “You have a boyfriend?”

Thinking of Meng Yanxi, warmth spread through Jin Zhao’s heart. She nodded lightly. “Mm.”

Jin Wenyi had been feeling quite heavy-hearted, but instantly perked up, insisting on meeting her niece’s boyfriend no matter what.

As for Jin Zhao, she had always felt awkward because of the gap between herself and Meng Yanxi. But recently, she had also keenly sensed her boyfriend’s concern over her reluctance to involve parents, so she didn’t hide it anymore. When Meng Yanxi arrived at the hospital, she openly brought him to meet Jin Wenyi.

Jin Wenyi recognized Meng Yanxi at a glance, and the smile on her face stiffened.

Thinking back, when she had first seen them at Luxi Villa, she had immediately felt that Meng Yanxi and Jin Zhao were well matched. After that, she had gone to great lengths to get the man’s phone number, originally planning to play matchmaker. That evening at dinner with her brother and sister-in-law, she had eagerly shared the matter. But as soon as Jin Wenhui heard her description, his expression quickly cooled.

From Jin Wenyi’s standpoint, she was, after all, only an aunt. She couldn’t go against her niece’s own father’s wishes. And Jin Wenhui had said some things that, after hearing them, made her also feel that Meng Yanxi was not a good match.

Jin Wenyi’s view on choosing a partner was that you shouldn’t look for someone who treats you well—you should look for someone who is inherently a good person.

She didn’t think Meng Yanxi was someone who was inherently good.

But of course, she had no standing to say much. In front of Meng Yanxi, she immediately lifted a smile and exchanged pleasantries. The atmosphere was seamlessly harmonious—so much so that even Jin Zhao didn’t notice the rapid shift in her emotions.

However, Meng Yanxi was no ordinary person. With just a glance, he saw through what Jin Wenyi was thinking.

He didn’t mind. He simply, all of a sudden, understood Jin Zhao’s hesitation.

No one had ever given her confidence—how was she supposed to move forward?

She could only rely on her own efforts, forcing herself forward step by step, even if the process left her isolated and unsupported, full of hardships. Even if the only method she could think of was to advance through promotion, bringing her social status closer to his, closer and closer.

He really felt sorry for her.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for so long.” She was still apologizing to him. “Grandma protected me when I was little, many times. I don’t want to forget all the good she once showed me just because she failed to protect me this once.”

He held her hand, his thumb slowly rubbing across her palm. “It’s okay. I didn’t make it over either. Lu Jingyue ran off, and I had to attend a meeting at the last minute. Even if you hadn’t gone, you’d still have been waiting for me.”

Jin Zhao felt a weight lift off her chest.

In the end, he didn’t mention the dinner he had planned with Meng Zhuxi.

He was no longer in a hurry to have her integrate into his family.

They could wait a little longer. Two years, three years—he could wait.

♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

Grandma stayed in the hospital for more than a week. Whenever Jin Zhao didn’t have classes, she would go to see her.

When the accident happened, Jin Wenhui’s family was traveling outside, so the two didn’t get to meet. Once Jin Wenhui returned, a father and daughter meeting was inevitable.

Jin Zhao had originally been very afraid of this moment, just as she had been afraid of her murky, uncertain future when she was young. But when she actually saw Jin Wenhui in the hospital, she suddenly realized that she was already calm.

Many years had passed. Jin Wenhui had grown old, and she was no longer the fledgling chick of back then, with underdeveloped wings, battered into misery by the slightest storm.

Jin Wenhui had completely lost the vigor and high spirits of his younger days, his body filled with the air of aging and decline. Lin Yao had grown old as well, her whole person carrying a listless, dispirited fatigue.

Jin Zhao stood by Grandma’s hospital bed, separated by it, and smiled with composed grace. “Dad, Auntie, long time no see.”

Instead, Jin Wenhui and his wife were embarrassed by her greeting. Jin Wenhui didn’t even respond, pretending not to hear, while Lin Yao froze for a moment, then smiled awkwardly. “Lingling’s back, she’s even prettier now.”

Jin Zhao smiled as well.

After that, she continued to go to the hospital whenever she had time, but she never ran into Jin Wenhui and his wife again.

It was as if they were deliberately avoiding her.

All the way until later, when Grandma was discharged and returned to their hometown in Jinjue Town, Jin Zhao never saw Jin Wenhui again.

Her world had originally been very small, and yet it suddenly seemed to have grown much larger.