Chapter 34 Dwichen’s College
Time flies. The week soon passed when Xia Xiaoluo could enjoy herself whatever she liked. And it was the time for Dwichen’s College to start soon after the week.
Xia Youfeng dared not to violate Ling Tianyi’s order, so he especially and flatteringly drove his Bench to meet Xia Xiaoluo in the early morning.
Youfeng Real Estate Company was experiencing a slump and the future of it now completely depended on the hand of his son-in-law. In recent days, Ling Tianyi had helped his company intentionally or unintentionally, making him more aware of the importance of wooing Xia Xiaoluo, though he used to be always taking bad care of her.
Due to the indifferent and distant relationship between Xia Youfeng and Xia Xiaoluo, Xia Xiaoluo kept silent all the way, but, by contrast, Xia Youfeng was trying to find some topics to chat with her and flatter her.
As the top 1 college for the nobility in City A, Dwichen’s College had enormous excellent teachers and was extremely luxurious in material conditions, which made people gasp. Only those who were from wealthy or powerful families would be able to be admitted to college. When the college started, it was like a fierce competition for luxury cars. In such a competition, compared with countless Bentley, Cayenne, and Maybach, such cars as a Bench and a BMW seemed like staple goods.
Xia Youfeng made great efforts to find a place so as to park his staple-good-like Bench finally.
“Xiaoluo, do you feel hot? Now let’s go for registration,” said Xia Youfeng, wiping the sweat on his forehead while passing a bottle of iced black tea to Xia Xiaoluo.
Mistakenly not taking a parasol, Xia Youfeng was busying in protecting Xia Xiaoluo from the sunlight by his hands while he was walking together with her. He had never been so attentive to her before. Or, in other words, it was the first time for him to take Xia Xiaoluo to school for registration.
As for Xia Jingru, another daughter of Xia Youfeng, she returned to City A dejectedly, as Ling Tianyi had temporarily forgiven her for Xia Xiaoluo’s sake. Besides, she was also admitted to Dwichen’s College and got a chance to study at Business School because Xia Youfeng went about begging for help for her. So, today Xia Jingru also came for registration accompanied by her mother, Zhu Yufen. But for this, she had complained about it for countless times.
Xia Xiaoluo’s registration went quite well, and all was done even before noon. For her registration, Xia Youfeng had made a good preparation in advance and had already investigated the registration process. Of course, he did so mainly by an ulterior motive, namely, to prevent Ling Tianyi from regarding him as inefficient at everything he did.
Xia Xiaoluo only made one comment on her future college that it was luxurious, so luxurious, and so luxurious to death!
According to the process that Xia Youfeng had told her, Zhu Yufen helped Xia Jingru to finish her registration soon. Then the two divisions of the Xia family met together at the gate of the college.
Meeting Xia Xiaoluo, Zhu Yufen then must flatter her and could never look down upon her, for she was now the wife of Ling Tianyi.
However, holding a parasol, Xia Jingru stood and watched from the sidelines, feeling agitated.
“Mum, it’s so hot here! Let’s go.” Xia Jingru could not bear her mother’s flattery anymore.
Zhu Yufen knew that her daughter would have been revenged on by Ling Tianyi for her serious mistake, if Xia Xiaoluo had not begged for mercy. Hence, now it was a chance that they met with each other today.
“Yes, it’s really hot here,” said Zhu Yufen while dragging Xia Xiaoluo under her parasol. She then went on at her husband, “It’s so thoughtless of you to take Xiaoluo here even without a parasol.”
“Xiaoluo, don’t get angry with your father. Today, we all come together here and it’s noon soon. Let us have lunch together, shall we?” Zhu Yufen proposed. To have a family reunion dinner would be helpful to ease the tension between the two sisters. In the future, Xia Jingru may rely on Ling Tianyi for his help.
At once Xia Youfeng echoed Zhu Yufen’s words, “Yes, Xiaoluo, we have not had dinner together for a very long time, have we? After all, we are families. We should not be so distant from each other.”
But for the proposal of having lunch together, Xia Xiaoluo was really unwilling to do that. They had treated her so bad before that she was ordered about as if she were a servant and she was driven away from their home since. In their eyes, she now “married rich”, namely, she married Ling Tianyi, and they should butter her up and curry favor with her. Xia Xiaoluo was completely fed up with their false display of affection.
“Ling Tianyi will possibly come back home for lunch at noon. If he doesn’t see me, he won’t be happy.” Xia Xiaoluo declined, for she believed Xia Youfeng dared not to say anything more if she mentioned Ling Tianyi, the investor of Youfeng Real Estate Company.
“Xiaoluo, you don’t have to worry about that. Today, President Ling will sign a contract with the government of City A about the land in West District. At noon, he will be busy having dinner with the government officials and must have no time to go back home.” Xia Youfeng was only nobody in the business circle of City A, but he was still able to ask for information.
Hearing what he said, Zhu Yufen was so afraid that Xia Xiaoluo might continue to refuse, saying quickly, “Xiaoluo, you heard what your father said. If you continue to refuse, then you mean you are looking down upon us. You don’t want to consider us as your parents since you’ve married a man from a rich and powerful family, do you?”
Xia Xiaoluo thought to herself that it was them who did not treat her as their daughter and who had driven her away from home. How could they make such a countercharge?
However, Xia Xiaoluo was always very soft. Hearing what they had said so far, she could do nothing but agree to have dinner with them.
Xia Youfeng chose a luxury restaurant near the college. They then were seated in a decent private room, feeling cool under the air conditioner. Now they felt relieved, for they almost had heatstroke during the registration process.
When the waitress handed over the menu, Xia Youfeng then passed it directly to Xia Xiaoluo, saying, “Xiaoluo, order whatever you like.”
“It doesn’t matter. You can order. I really don’t care.” Xia Xiaoluo pushed the order back to Xia Youfeng.
Xia Youfeng dared not to order anything hastily, so he wanted to let Xia Xiaoluo do that. For one thing, it was a chance to show his respect to Xia Xiaoluo. For another thing, he really had no idea of what his daughter liked to eat.
Xia Youfeng and Xia Xiaoluo pushed the menu to each other, which made Xia Jingru impatient. She then grabbed the menu and quickly ordered what she liked. After that, she threw it back to the waitress, saying, “Hurry up. We are all very hungry!”
Xia Jingru took out her make-up box and tended to touch up her make-up, for she was covered in sweat, leaving her make-up messed up. So various cosmetics were exhibited on the table.
Zhu Yufen found Xia Xiaoluo wearing no make-up at all, so she could not help saying, “Xiaoluo, you are already 18 years old, and it’s time to dress yourself up. After dinner, let me take you to a shopping mall to buy some cosmetics for you.”
“No need.” Xia Xiaoluo did not want to be bothered by them anymore. After finishing lunch, she would leave right away.
“Why? Have you ever found any woman who is not wearing make-up nowadays? You have now married Ling Tianyi, who was surrounded by innumerable pretty girls. So, you should make yourself look better and Ling Tianyi will then like you more, won’t he?” Zhu Yufen said with a smile. She did not really care for her, but was afraid that Xia Xiaoluo would fall into disfavor, making the Xia family lose their great dependence, the Ling family.
“Ling Tianyi doesn’t like me wearing make-up.” Xia Xiaoluo came up with Ling Tianyi as her excuses, but actually, she did not know whether he liked women wearing make-up.
Zhu Yufen and Xia Youfeng looked at each other and immediately they understood.
Ling Tianyi was surrounded by various women, but why did he finally choose Xia Xiaoluo, such an ordinary girl? Was it just because he only liked such girls as Xia Xiaoluo who wore no cosmetics at all?
The lunch was basically expensive, but Xia Xiaoluo felt very gloomy.
During the dinner, the husband and wife managed to mention Ling Tianyi in every few sentences. They repeatedly urged Xia Xiaoluo to grasp Ling Tianyi so that Huasheng Group could help develop Youfeng Real Estate Company more.
In addition, Zhu Yufen also asked Xia Xiaoluo to care more about her sister Xia Jingru, who was born of the same father but a different mother. Xia Xiaoluo had already married a rich husband while her sister had not yet. If Ling Tianyi could introduce one of his friends to Xia Jingru, then he must also be a wealthy and powerful person.
Xia Xiaoluo had reached the limit of her patience, so she left this uncomfortable private room on the pretext of going to the washroom. But in the washroom, she met with a familiar face—Shen Jiani.
“Miss Xia Xiaoluo, it’s a great honor to meet you,” said Yao Sheng, instead of Shen Jiani.
“Ah!” surprised was Xia Xiaoluo, finding a male in the women’s washroom, which was too ridiculous!
Thanks to Ling Tianyi, Yao Sheng was very familiar with Xia Xiaoluo, who had not known him, though. She then felt very strange and wondered why this stranger knew her name. But she did not intend to delve too deep into the matter as long as this unfamiliar man left soon.
“Sorry! I will leave. I’m leaving.” Yao Sheng himself also felt that his appearance in the women’s washroom was out of turn with the occasion. He then hurried to walk out of the room.
“Jiani, I’ll wait for you outside,” said Yao Sheng, standing outside the women’s washroom like a door-guard, but in low spirits.
Shen Jiani had planned to ridicule Xia Xiaoluo, for it was her instinctive reaction to make trouble. But this time, all she did was only to give a nod to Xia Xiaoluo and then simply to touch up her make-up in front of the mirror.
After sending a short message to Xia Youfeng in the washroom, Xia Xiaoluo went back to her apartment directly. She was unwilling to go on that lunch with various purposes and could not bear her parents’ hypocritical words anymore.
When Xia Xiaoluo was waiting for the bus at the entrance of the restaurant, she saw Shen Jiani get in a Land Rover. The driver turned out to be the pervert who was just in the women’s washroom.
“Hello, Miss Xia! May I give you a ride?” asked Yao Sheng while whistling to Xia Xiaoluo. Shen Jiani threw him an angry glance, saying, “You’re really a playboy! I am still sitting in your car. Don’t you know how to show respect for my feelings?”
Xia Xiaoluo was totally unfamiliar with Yao Sheng, so she would not take his car. So she took the chance and said, “No need. It’s very convenient to take a bus here.”
Yao Sheng was always a loose man, but he had never been in hot pursuit. What’s more, he was really caring about how Shen Jiani felt who was now seated in the co-driver’s seat.
Yao Sheng had truly fallen in love this time! Last time when he went to a bar to investigate Xia Xiaoluo, Yao Sheng accidentally encountered Shen Jiani. Then they were together burning with desire.
After that, Yao Sheng was unstoppably falling in love with Shen Jiani to the extent that he even kept close to her and followed her in recent days.
But Shen Jiani could not throw off such a sticky pursuer, for he was a detective! Even if she were hiding in the crevice in the rock, Yao Sheng could manage to find her.
Of course, Shen Jiani did not really intend to throw off him. After that sweet and touching night, she made a plan of revenge, one that she has waited for ten years.
