Chapter 33

At this time a day ago, she and the designer had just arrived at the restaurant, her father was still on his way to the restaurant, and he hadn’t made that phone call to her yet.

They seemed like two people in parallel worlds.

Who could have imagined that a day later, they would be about to become husband and wife.

Wei Lai took the keys and set them aside.

“I forgot to wish you a happy birthday yesterday.”

“It’s okay.”

There was nothing more to say.

Wei Lai couldn’t think of anything to say. She picked up her water glass, slowly digesting the fact that she was about to marry him.

After drinking half a glass of water and calming down, she realized that they hadn’t discussed the most important thing.

“Is there something else?” She looked up at him.

Zhou Sujin was busy cutting the meat on his plate. He glanced at her and then lowered his head again. “Go ahead.”

“Are we having a marriage of convenience or…?”

“Not a marriage of convenience.” Zhou Sujin asked, “Do you want a marriage of convenience?”

Wei Lai shook her head.

Suddenly, she remembered the scene she had set up before.

In the subtle atmosphere, they finished this blind date meal.

When they reached downstairs of the restaurant, Wei Lai realized belatedly that Zhou Sujin didn’t let her drink alcohol to let Kuli Nan drive her back.

Without giving her a chance to refuse, Zhou Sujin said, “I drove here from Beijing. It took nearly thirteen hours.”

Wei Lai looked at him incredulously. She thought it was Uncle Yan who drove here.

“You can’t blame me for never taking the initiative.”

Zhou Sujin didn’t explain much of his habits. He gestured for her to get in the car. “You’ll still drive this car in the future. Those who know you will understand what it means when they see this car.”

Wei Lai thought she had said that when she invited him to dinner in Sucheng that day, she said it in a relaxed tone, as if it were just casual conversation.

Little did she know, she accidentally revealed some emotions.

But it didn’t amount to resentment towards him.

However, such emotions could only be understood, she couldn’t accurately express them in words. It would be too pale to argue, so she just accepted it.

“When are you going back to Beijing?”

“A couple more days.”

It was cold outside, and Zhou Sujin gestured for her to get in the car again.

Wei Lai got into the driver’s seat of Cullinan. She turned her head to look at him outside the car, his angular face was as cold and indifferent as when she first met him.

Seeing that she didn’t seem to intend to start the car and leave, Zhou Sujin walked two steps forward to the car window. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Not everything had to be said tonight.

She waved her hand, and Wei Lai drove away from the restaurant.

Soon, Cullinan merged into the traffic.

She didn’t go back to her own apartment, but went to her mother’s place.

In the depths of winter, the villa area was cold and quiet.

Cullinan stopped at the gate of the courtyard, and Wei Lai leaned out of the car window to call her mother out.

“Hey, you’re here.” Cheng Minzhi came out wrapped in a cashmere shawl.

Wei Lai asked her mother to sit in the back seat. “I have a surprise for you.”

Cheng Minzhi didn’t ask how her daughter managed to drive Zhou Sujin’s car back. Her daughter always had a sense of propriety, so she didn’t need to worry about it.

She smiled and said, “Do I have to sit in the back seat?”

“Yes, you have to sit in the back seat to see the surprise.” Wei Lai smiled.

After her mother sat down, she opened the panoramic sunroof.

Her mother was first surprised, then exclaimed repeatedly.

“There’s even a meteor effect, this has broadened my horizons.”

Wei Lai turned to her mother and said, “The gift Zhou Sujin gave me on my birthday, I returned it to him after we had a quarrel.”

Cheng Minzhi was always a qualified listener, never asking more than she needed to. From her daughter’s tone, it seemed that the two were planning to reconcile.

The stone that had been weighing on her chest for several months was finally lifted.

Wei Lai asked her mother to admire the starry sky for a while longer, then turned back and entered the password for the safe to retrieve the valuable gift.

There was no excessive packaging, just a simple velvet box. When she opened it, she saw a diamond-studded watch shining even brighter under the starlight than the stars themselves.

It was the only diamond-studded ladies’ watch in Zhou Sujin’s watch safe, which he said would be given to someone in the future.

Now he gave it to her.

“Mom.”

“Yeah?” Cheng Minzhi responded gently.

Her mother had never known that she and Zhou Sujin were contract lovers, thinking that they had truly broken up. Now that they had decided to get married, she didn’t intend to confess the past to her mother. What’s past is past.

So she carefully worded her words, “Zhou Sujin came to reconcile with me tonight, and he proposed to me.” She reluctantly regarded his question of whether she considered marrying him as a proposal.

After all, without emotions, demanding too much is unrealistic.

Cheng Minzhi asked his daughter, “What do you think?”

“I want to be with him,” she replied.

“Then be with him,” Cheng Minzhi said.

Wei Lai’s voice was hoarse as she said, “Thank you, Mom.”

No matter what she did, her mother always supported her unconditionally.

Cheng Minzhi rubbed her daughter’s head and asked, “Are you staying with Mom tonight?”

Wei Lai nodded, deciding not to return to her own apartment.

“Then I’ll go make the bed for you.” Her mother got out of the car, sitting alone inside for a long time. She hadn’t shared this joy with her father yet. She picked up her phone to compose a message.

[Father, Zhou Sujin and I plan to get married. We’ll come over for dinner soon to discuss the wedding.]

—

Zhou Sujin hadn’t arrived at Jiang’an Yunchen yet when he received a message from his elder brother. His elder brother informed him that the negotiation with a British company had been rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

He replied to his elder brother that he was still in Jiangcheng and couldn’t return temporarily.

Zhou Jiaye: “Business trip?”

It couldn’t be to see Wei Lai anyway. Such on-again-off-again affairs were not uncommon, but they would never happen to his brother.

Zhou Sujin: [To see her.]

Zhou Jiaye stared at the three words on the screen for a long time, utterly unable to understand him. [Have you changed your mind and decided to continue acting?]

[Not acting. Marrying her.]

“…”

It overturned his understanding of Zhou Sujin.

After the shock, Zhou Jiaye laughed. Even Grandpa wouldn’t be able to handle this move.

[Mom might be exasperated by you, but the happiest person about your marrying Wei Lai is Auntie. And the only person who can speak for you is also Auntie.]

Zhou Sujin switched to Auntie’s chat box. [Wei Lai and I are getting married.]

Ning Rujiang was dumbfounded. Marriage?

This kid was determined to go all the way against the family. If you dared to push him to marry, he dared to get married.

She glanced at her sister who was applying a facial mask beside her. If she saw the message Zhou Sujin had just sent, the mask would explode from anger.

“Sis, I need to make a call to our Uncle Shen at home.”

Ning Ruzhen waved her hand, signaling her to go.

Ning Rujiang went to her room and locked the door.

This kid was something else.

“Zhou Sujin, what are you up to?” She called her nephew, using both his name and surname to interrogate him.

Zhou Sujin remained calm. “Mom is so bothered by my marriage that she can’t even go home. Grandpa may not say it, but he still hopes I settle down soon. I can’t be unfilial forever.”

Well, now he had all the reasons.

Ning Rujiang rarely got really angry with her two nephews. Today, she couldn’t take it anymore. “A fake marriage won’t work with me. Don’t expect me to help you maneuver. I won’t even open the door!”

“Auntie, I’ve planned out the rest of my life with her. Do you think I’d fake a marriage?”

Ning Rujiang snorted, not believing him.

It’s extremely difficult to regain trust after telling a lie.

Zhou Sujin told his aunt that he had proposed a contract marriage to Wei Lai on her birthday, and she had directly refused him without hesitation.

“After we parted ways, she didn’t even use my resources and instead chose to give up thirty percent of her shares in the supermarket to cooperate with He Wancheng. Even if I wanted a fake marriage, Wei Lai would have to agree.”

Ning Rujiang had a natural filter for Wei Lai. Softening her heart, she asked her nephew, “How do you plan your future together?”

“I’ll gradually shift my focus on work. In three to five years at most, I’ll spend half my time in Beijing and half in Jiangcheng.”

If it was a real marriage, Ning Rujiang would naturally be happy. Finally, there would be someone to chat with her in the yard over coffee. But her sister would be so angry that she wouldn’t sleep well.

Zhou Sujin said, “When should both sets of parents meet? Discuss it with my mom.”

“…”

All the pressure was on her.

But how could she bring up this matter to her sister?

—

The next morning, Zhou Sujin didn’t go out. He spent the morning having a video conference with Zhou Jiaye, and halfway through the meeting, Lu Yu joined in.

He was a bit confused. “Why suddenly reduce your stake in Xinming?”

Xinming was a semiconductor material company held by Zhang Yan’s new family. Originally, the Kunchen Group planned to continue adding another three billion in investment next year.

Now, not only were they not adding, they were reducing.

Zhou Sujin just said, “To invest in Jiang’an Group.”

“But that won’t affect the subsequent cooperation with Xinming, will it?”

The discussion was almost over, and it was time for casual conversation. Zhou Jiaye leaned back in his chair, sipping his coffee as he said, “Someone doesn’t want to earn money for their love rival.”

Lu Yu thought it was a big deal, “If we’re talking about a love rival, then Yuan Hengrui counts too. I heard he’s infatuated with Wei Lai.”

Zhou Jiaye replied, “That’s different. One is an ex-boyfriend, and the other is an admirer, one-sided.”

Zhou Sujin remained focused on his phone, seemingly unaffected.

Lu Yu didn’t dare to say anything in front of Zhou Sujin. He privately messaged Zhou Jiaye to correct him: [How can Zhang Yanxin be considered an ex-boyfriend? Where do you put some people?]

Zhou Jiaye: [He’s the current one now, about to marry Wei Lai.]

Lu Yu, excitedly, sent the wrong message and left the conference room.

Zhou Sujin said to his elder brother, “I’m leaving.”

The meeting ended.

Today’s discussion was just among them, and the specifics would still need to be decided at the board meeting.

He had just closed his laptop when he received a screenshot from Lu Yu. Opening it, he saw an electronic voucher for Wei Lai’s supermarket’s Jiang’an Yunchen branch.

Spend 88, get 25 off.

Zhou Sujin said, [Apart from being indifferent to the project, there’s nothing else you’re indifferent to.]

Lu Yu gathered the courage and didn’t respond directly.

He wouldn’t have dared to do this before. Even if he replied with an ellipsis, he would still have to respond.

Zhou Sujin closed Lu Yu’s chat box and looked for Wei Lai’s. He didn’t pin anyone in his personal WeChat. It was either family or important friends. He read and replied to all unread messages, so he hadn’t pinned anyone.

[What time in the afternoon will you be free?]

Wei Lai was on her way from the Yunhui Complex to the Jiang’an Yunchen store when she received his message. She replied with a voice message, “I haven’t reached the Jiang’an store yet. I’ll see how much coordination is needed when I get there.” The store manager was too busy to even look at his phone. The morning’s issues hadn’t been summarized for her yet.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“Buying you a ring. You can pick it yourself.”

He had given her a full diamond watch yesterday. Wei Lai thought he wasn’t going to give her another ring.

“If you’re busy, we can do it tomorrow. I’ll be in Jiangcheng these few days.”

“I want to do it today.”

“Alright,” Zhou Sujin agreed.

Hearing that she was about to arrive at the Jiang’an Yunchen store, it would take less than five minutes for her to walk from the store to his building. He asked her, “Do you want to come up? I’m at home.”

Wei Lai wasn’t hesitant, “Sure.”

Zhou Sujin hadn’t ordered lunch yet. There was no butler or maid here, so he had to do everything himself.

“Let me know before you come up. I’ll order in advance.”

Wei Lai planned to cook by herself. The food she ordered often didn’t suit her taste. “You don’t have to order for me. I’ll make rice bowls.”

She coordinated the tricky issues at the store first, then bought some ingredients for beef and seaweed rice bowls. With the bags in hand, she went upstairs.

When she reached the door, she instinctively pressed the doorbell twice, but no one came to open it.

Zhou Sujin was changing out of his loungewear in the bedroom. He called her, “Forgot the password?”

“No,” Wei Lai realized that this would be her home from now on. “I’ll hang up.”

She entered the password directly and opened the door.

From being the contractor to his wife, she hadn’t fully adapted to the change in status yet.

The living room was empty. Wei Lai placed the ingredients on the island counter and unpacked the newly bought apron from the shopping bag. There were no aprons here, so last time she made rice bowls here, she had to be extremely careful not to dirty her clothes.

As footsteps approached from behind, Wei Lai turned around instinctively to see Zhou Sujin. He was wearing a black shirt today, tall and slim.

Even during the contract period, even at home in Beijing, he had never worn a robe or loungewear in front of her. Whenever he left the master bedroom, he always changed into his going-out shirt, and his shirt was always neatly tucked into his trousers.

After removing the tag from the apron, Wei Lai tied it around herself. Zhou Sujin saw her skillful knife work and asked, “You can cook anything?”

Wei Lai replied, “I won’t cook anything I don’t like.”

As she spoke, her hands paused while cutting the beef. This meant that she wouldn’t be able to cook the dishes he liked.

After lunch and a short rest, they went to the jewelry store to choose a ring. They just picked one to wear temporarily. He would have the wedding ring customized from a familiar jewelry brand.

Until the departure, Zhou Sujin made an appointment with a flagship jewelry store, which was also the only flagship store in Jiangcheng.

Today, the journey from the park to the downtown area was smooth sailing all the way, with all green lights, much faster than expected.

In the jewelry store, the store manager occasionally glanced at the tablet, waiting for emails.

Twenty minutes ago, she received a notification that the second young master of the Zhou family in Beijing wanted to come to the store to pick out a ring, only mentioning the surname Zhou without telling her the specific name, and naturally, she wouldn’t inquire further. People from Beijing often come to flagship stores in Jiangcheng to get new jewelry. Previously, a person surnamed Min bought three limited edition bracelets from the store, but they were all ordered for the driver to pick up, and he had never appeared in person.

Today, he came to the store to pick it out personally for the first time.

Since she became the store manager, she has never seen any big shots from Beijing.

There were vases of flowers in the VIP room. She wasn’t sure about the preferences of the other party, so she could only prepare various teas and drinks first.

She was waiting for more information on new ring designs that had not yet been released when a familiar customer came into the store.

Wei Lai walked in first, followed by Zhou Sujin.

The store manager recognized her at a glance and greeted her with a smile, “Lai Lai, long time no see.”

Being called so warmly, Wei Lai was surprised, “You still remember me?”

Having a good memory is the most basic requirement for being a salesperson.

The store manager smiled and said, “Sister of Sitian, best friend of Wei Lai, and shares the same name as Wei Lai Supermarket. You’re so beautiful, it’s hard to forget.” It wasn’t just a casual compliment; there was a Wei Lai Supermarket near her neighborhood, so she remembered this name particularly well.

Wei Lai responded with a smile. Qiao Sitian, introduced by the store manager, was one of the super VIP customers of this jewelry store, and she was always served by the store manager whenever she visited.

Once, she accompanied Qiao Sitian to choose jewelry and even looked at engagement rings. At that time, she hadn’t broken up with Zhang Yanxin.

Qiao Sitian introduced her to the store manager at that time: “My best friend, the daughter of Wei Lai Supermarket, and Zhang Yanxin’s girlfriend.”

The store manager deliberately glanced at the imposing man behind Wei Lai. This should be Zhang Yanxin. It was said that they had been dating for more than two years, their relationship was stable, and Wei Lai had come to the store to look at engagement rings a few months ago. It was estimated that things were going well with Zhang Yanxin.

“What would you like to see today?”

“Engagement rings.”

The store manager’s smile was just right, “Congratulations.” The strength of Zhang Yanxin’s family ranked in the top three in Jiangcheng, so it wasn’t easy for the two of them to get together.

“Thank you.” With that, Wei Lai looked at Zhou Sujin beside her, her eyes asking him, “Didn’t you make an appointment? Why isn’t anyone here to greet you?”

The two of them had been chatting since they entered, and Zhou Sujin hadn’t interrupted them.

At this point, the store manager said to Wei Lai, “The few you liked before are still here, and new ones have been introduced during the New Year period. Shall I have someone bring them all for you to see?”

Wei Lai: “…”

It seemed that she mistook Zhou Sujin for Zhang Yanxin.

She hurriedly excused herself, “I’ll just look at the new ones.” She could only say jokingly, “My taste has improved now.” She really worried that the store manager would call Zhou Sujin ‘Manager Zhang’ the next moment.

She was about to introduce Zhou Sujin as her boyfriend to the store manager when he spoke, “Is Manager Chen here?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m Zhou Sujin.”

Upon hearing Zhou Sujin’s name, the store manager was stunned. The second young master of the Zhou family? He arrived so quickly? Why didn’t he bring any entourage?

Without thinking too much, she quickly adjusted her expression, “Mr. Zhou, hello, sorry for not welcoming you earlier. Please come inside.”

She then put on her most standard smile to greet Wei Lai, “You and Mr. Zhou have a cup of coffee first, and I’ll have someone bring all the new designs in the store.”

She escorted Zhou Sujin and Wei Lai to the prepared VIP room in relief.

She had almost caused a disaster.

Thinking of the ‘Manager Zhang’ she almost mentioned just now, she felt lingering fear.

She had more than one VIP customer from Zhang Yanxin’s circle, but she usually only maintained customer relations and never asked for gossip about that circle. It turned out that Zhang Yanxin was already a thing of the past for Wei Lai.

In the VIP room, Wei Lai sat down next to Zhou Sujin. The store manager and other staff went to fetch the rings. Now it was just the two of them. She turned to look at him, wondering if he had caught the meaning behind the store manager’s words. To avoid the embarrassment of the store manager mistaking him for someone else, he had to reveal his identity.

Zhou Sujin: “Guess what I’m doing?”

“I know you don’t mind, but I still have to explain. I didn’t just visit this store; nor did I think that only this store’s rings were nice. So when you said you wanted to come here to choose a ring, I didn’t think much of it.”

Zhou Sujin: “When did you ever use me before, Wasn’t it because of Zhang Yanxin? If I held a grudge, would I still marry you?”

Past relationships are in the past; bringing up past disrespect towards him serves no purpose.

They sat close, with almost no distance between their bodies. Wei Lai had nowhere to put her arms. After hesitating for a moment, knowing they would have to get used to such close proximity, she eventually rested her arm on his leg, trying to make it look as natural as possible.

Zhou Sujin glanced at her.

Regarding the rings, Wei Lai proposed, “I’ll buy your ring, and you just buy my diamond ring.”

Zhou Sujin didn’t respond.

Since the store manager hadn’t arrived yet, Wei Lai asked him again, “Are you planning to get the rings and then find a time to register? I don’t want to register directly.”

Zhou Sujin looked down at her and said, “You’re so fond of comparisons. Will having what others have made you content? Let’s get engaged first; I’ll give you an engagement ceremony.”