Chapter 42.1

Xu Yuan felt a bit of discomfort with Meng Zhengrong’s actions, but she also understood that it was all his family’s money, and Meng Zhengrong would definitely not make a loss on this deal.

After all, it wasn’t her money being spent, and he wouldn’t cut back on her living expenses, so even if he built a golden palace for her, it wouldn’t affect her at all.

“Have we finished? Are we heading back to the company now?” Xu Yuan turned her head and asked.

Thinking about how she skipped work to look at this piece of land, she began to regret wasting her whole morning.

Having experienced life and death and gone through many changes, seeing a person who looked somewhat similar was just a small trigger; her emotional shifts in one morning had already reached their limit. She wouldn’t allow herself to dwell in such negative and useless emotions for too long—there were still many things she needed to do.

Meng Zhengrong shook his head. “It’s very close to the neighboring city, just less than a twenty-minute drive. It’s also lunchtime now, so let’s go eat over there.”

In this matter, Xu Yuan was not particularly keen on disagreeing with Meng Zhengrong. She raised her hand to check the time; at this point, rushing back for lunch would be too late, so she nodded and replied, “Alright, will we have enough time to get back to the company after lunch?”

“It’ll be too late,” Meng Zhengrong said, slightly bending down and lightly scratching her nose with his finger. “Why do you like working more than me, your boss?”

Xu Yuan replied, “It’s company policy; even if I don’t like working in front of my boss, I have to pretend that I do.”

“You can forget about this year’s year-end bonus,” Meng Zhengrong teased her intentionally.

“In that case, you can forget about having an easy time next year,” Xu Yuan said flatly.

Meng Zhengrong: “…”

They didn’t linger there any longer. After getting into the car, they headed toward the neighboring city.

“What are we eating in the neighboring city?” Xu Yuan was quite picky about food, after all, in her previous life, she had eaten dishes prepared by imperial chefs.

Although the variety of ingredients in the past wasn’t as abundant as now, and the seasonings weren’t as rich, the reason why imperial chefs were called imperial chefs was that they certainly had their skills. Even if the conditions weren’t as good as today, the food they prepared was still much more exquisite.

This showed that on Sunday, she was able to eat the meals Meng Zhengrong prepared; even if it wasn’t true love, it wasn’t too far from it.

In modern terms, Xu Yuan was actually an invisible foodie.

Meng Zhengrong wasn’t too picky about food either, having eaten delicacies since childhood. For him, anything would be the same; after all, he only cared about eating expensive meals, and the chance of making a mistake in a pricey restaurant wasn’t very high, so he casually said, “We’ll see what we feel like when we get there.”

Xu Yuan hated this answer. She had gone out to eat with her colleagues a few times and was quite familiar with the current apps; she knew exactly which ones were useful for her daily life.

She pulled out her phone, opened a review app, and started searching for the highest-rated restaurant.

Seeing her fiddling with her phone, Meng Zhengrong said, “Don’t play with your phone in the car; it’s bad for your eyes.”

Xu Yuan ignored him.

He wanted to eat in the neighboring city but didn’t prepare in advance.

In some matters, Meng Zhengrong was indeed quite unreliable.

Seeing that Xu Yuan ignored him, Meng Zhengrong no longer felt angry.

Before long, they arrived in the neighboring city. Xu Yuan chose the restaurant with the best reviews online.

As soon as they sat down, Meng Zhengrong casually asked, “Were you just looking for a place to eat?”

“Mm.” Xu Yuan glanced around the restaurant; the decor was quite nice, and there weren’t many people at the moment. She opened the menu; the prices weren’t too high but definitely not affordable.

While they were eating, Xu Yuan’s phone buzzed. She picked it up to see a message from a friend of the original owner.

This friend hadn’t been in contact with the original owner very often, but she speculated that they could still be considered friends.

“Xiao Yuan, are you there? I just found out something really funny. That scheming girl Sun Zhi secretly got pregnant to marry Chen Hao. Chen Hao’s parents don’t even like her; even seeing her pregnant didn’t change their minds. They said they wouldn’t let her in unless she gives birth to a boy. If it’s a girl, she can forget about it. Hahaha, isn’t that so satisfying?”

Xu Yuan casually sent a smiling emoji in response. She didn’t feel any satisfaction and was instead inexplicably saddened for the women in society.

In her previous era, it was a feudal society, and the bias against girls was prevalent.

But what about now? The times had changed, and society had advanced; they claimed to be promoting gender equality, so why were people still troubled by the gender of their children?

Aren’t they all just children? Whether it’s a boy or a girl, they are still one’s own kids.

From her observations, those who favored boys over girls were often women.

Meng Zhengrong saw Xu Yuan staring at her phone and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xu Yuan locked her phone, looked at Meng Zhengrong, and said, “It’s nothing. A friend told me about Chen Hao and Sun Zhi’s recent situation. Don’t look at me like that; I’m not interested at all. You know, there are plenty of people watching this drama.”

“Recent situation? What’s that about?”

“Sun Zhi is pregnant, and Chen Hao’s parents said they wouldn’t let her in unless it’s a boy. That’s it.”

Meng Zhengrong clicked his tongue. “Does his family have a throne or a lot of property that needs inheriting?”

Xu Yuan casually replied, “But the Meng family has a lot of assets too; shouldn’t a boy inherit it?”

Meng Zhengrong’s internal alarm bells went off immediately. This issue was being raised too high. “I’ve said before, I like both boys and girls. There’s no preference for me based on gender.”

“Then back to the previous question—who inherits the Meng family’s wealth, a boy or a girl?”

Xu Yuan felt a bit ridiculous asking this. Although Meng Zhengrong was looking down on Chen Hao’s family, there were hardly any people in this circle who didn’t share this kind of thinking.

Thinking of this, she added, “Forget it; let’s not talk about this. Let’s eat.”

She shouldn’t have brought up this question to trouble Meng Zhengrong, even if he was somewhat helpless in the matter.

However, Meng Zhengrong didn’t want to easily change the subject. He didn’t want Xu Yuan to overthink, so he put down his chopsticks and said earnestly, “That’s incorrect. There are no regulations saying only boys inherit or only girls inherit. My ideal is to have one son and one daughter, just like me and Pingting. The Meng family would also have a share of Pingting’s assets, and my assets will belong to my children. If there’s only one child, there’s no choice. With two children, it would be half each. As for who takes over my position, whoever is more capable will take it. If my daughter is better than my son, then she’ll take the position. My family has always been like this. For my dad and for me, what matters most is who can make the Meng family better. The gender of the inheritor is not important.”

To make the family develop and grow, one must abandon these outdated thoughts; whoever has the ability should step up.

It’s not enough to just sit back and enjoy the spoils just because you have something.

Xu Yuan showed no reaction on the surface, but internally she felt even more determined than before.

In her previous life, she had seen too many girls living under the biases of favoring boys and suffering from unequal treatment. She absolutely wouldn’t allow her children to face such irony in this new era.

Mother Xu once said a very true thing: aside from love, Meng Zhengrong is indeed a very good candidate for marriage.

“How about it? Are you satisfied with my answer?” Meng Zhengrong asked. “Everything I said just now is the truth.”

Xu Yuan glanced at him. “Because I’m satisfied, I’ll be paying for today’s meal.”

This was the first time Meng Zhengrong had encountered a situation where a woman insisted on paying for the meal, and he felt quite pleased. “Okay, okay, you can pay.”