Cheng Xi couldn’t drop everything to go on a ten or fourteen-day honeymoon vacation with Lu Chenzhou just because she wanted to.
At the very least, she still had to spend some time with her parents: they had flown all the way to Gansu just for her. She couldn’t just leave them here and fly off on her own.
But her parents were satisfied that she was concerned about them at all. Cheng Yang was somewhat embarrassed of his actions last night, so when he found out that Cheng Xi and Lu Chenzhou were planning a honeymoon, he patted his chest and promised, “Am I not still here? I’ve always said that I would take our parents on a trip, and now’s a great time to do so. I’ll show them the wonders of the desert, tour through Jiayuguan City, and have a taste of the Tianshan lotus.”
“……”
Cheng Xi really didn’t want to roast him because it was rare for him to act this responsibly, but she was honestly very worried that he’d make a mess of everything and ruin the experience for their parents. In the end, she cautiously asked, “Do you know where Tianshan is, and how far it is from Jiayuguan?”
Cheng Yang nodded and slowly replied, “Isn’t Tianshan close to Gansu?”
Cheng Xi couldn’t bear to even look at him.
She exasperatedly answered, “They’re a thousand miles apart. I think that it’d be for the best if I got you guys a travel guide. Mom, Dad, is there anywhere you’d like to see while you’re here?”
Here? Cheng Xi’s parents had come here exclusively to see their daughter, and since she was well, they could just head back home—they really didn’t care about visiting the exotic locales.
“Don’t! You’re all here already anyway. Rou and the others also want to see the local sights around here.”
Cheng Xi was slightly regretful that she wouldn’t be able to join them, but right now, she would rather focus on spending time with her new husband than with her old friends and family. Lu Chenzhou wasn’t someone who enjoyed being large groups of people, and he was firm on having their honeymoon with just the two of them.
What’s more, there was still Chen Jiaman around. Cheng Xi couldn’t bring her along on the honeymoon, so she could only entrust Chen Jiaman to her parents. “Please help me look after her. She’s very timid and scared of other people, but she also likes to feel needed by others. If it’s possible, please try to rely on her a bit and have her do some tasks for you. It’s fine to act a little dumb in front of her. She really dislikes and fears forceful people, so please try to be as gentle with her as you can.”
She described Chen Jiaman’s predilections and habits endlessly, until her parents grew weary from just listening to her. “Why’d you take on such a heavy burden in the first place?”
Cheng Xi smiled brightly. “I like seeing things through from start to finish, and to see miracles result from life.”
To see miracles, was it…… That was probably both the biggest surprise and reward of being a doctor, and Cheng Xi would gladly endure hardship to see her patients fully recover.
Her parents were used to dealing with all kinds of people as they ran a diner, so Cheng Xi felt confident about leaving Chen Jiaman in their hands. As long as they were truly willing to accept Chen Jiaman, Cheng Xi had no problem entrusting her with them.
Cheng Xi’s parents’ requests for her were far simpler. “Stay safe and take good care of yourself.” Her mother also added on, “If Lu Chenzhou’s willing to listen to you, then try to get him to return home. Lots of things have been happening at Donglai lately. His father’s being investigated and his grandfather is trying to deal with the aftermath of the Donglai scandal even though his health isn’t that good. Before we got here, both of his grandparents came to our house to talk, and they almost cried whenever Lu Chenzhou came up. I really feel sorry for them.”
Cheng Xi was silent for a moment before she nodded. “Alright.”
She went upstairs to find Lu Chenzhou and overheard Baldy talking to him. “You’re not really going to stay here with Dr. Cheng, are you? I’m serious. If you let the situation fester anymore, even Donglai Hotel might not be safe from the incident. You started it yourself; do you really not care if it survives?”
Cheng Xi stood outside their door for quite a while, but she never heard Lu Chenzhou respond.
In the end, she could only knock and enter. When she opened the door, she found that Lu Chenzhou was packing his bags, his face cold and forlorn. Honestly, she was quite impressed that Baldy was brave enough to talk to him for that long.
When Baldy saw Cheng Xi come in, he immediately stopped talking and instead put on a sly smile. “Ah, your bride’s here. I won’t disturb the two of you any longer then.”
After he left, Lu Chenzhou’s complexion turned much warmer.
“Are you finished packing?” Lu Chenzhou was far better at preparing than she was, and Cheng Xi was asking just out of habit.
Lu Chenzhou nodded, opened the suitcase, and then asked her, “Is this enough clothes for you?”
The whole suitcase was painted red all over…… Yesterday, he had bought her an entire suitcase’s worth of clothes in Lanzhou. And with the marriage as an excuse, he had added various shades of red to her wardrobe.
But these clothes were all so uniformly red that Cheng Xi didn’t know what to even say in response. In the end, she grabbed a few more plainly colored clothes from her wardrobe, added them to the suitcase, and then said, “Okay, it looks good now.” With that done, she looked at him as she asked, “What were you and Baldy talking about just now?”
Without even lifting his head, Lu Chenzhou coolly replied, “Donglai’s about to fall.”
And Cheng Xi was once again reminded of that time at the hospital, when he had seriously asked her, “What if we get rid of Donglai Pharmaceuticals?”
She had always taken his words seriously, but she had never expected that he would do it this quickly. She carefully asked him, “Lu Chenzhou…… if I asked you to save Donglai, would you be willing to do that?”
He stopped moving and raised his head. “Are you also afraid that I won’t be able to take care of you without Donglai?”
He had said, “also,” which implied that many others had voiced the same concern to him.
Cheng Xi smiled. “No, I’m not afraid of that at all. Even if you were penniless, I would still love and take care of you. It’s just that Donglai’s been around for so long that, as a pioneer of the medical field, the benefits that Donglai brings outweigh its drawbacks. We can definitely excise the rotten and rancid portions, but we should let the remaining excellent and novel parts of Donglai keep developing. Lu Chenzhou, you’re smart, intelligent, capable, and a natural-born businessman. I hope that you can revitalize Donglai.”
Cheng Xi’s tone was calm, but her words seemed to stir something deep within Lu Chenzhou’s heart.
After a momentary pause, he said, “If that’s what you want to see, then I’ll do as you wish.”
After that, they didn’t speak of the matter any further. The two of them booked tickets to Kanas Lake; they would fly from Lanzhou to Urumqi, and then drive from Urumqi to Kanas Lake.
Due to how picky Lu Chenzhou was, Cheng Xi had planned on renting out a car in Urumqi, but Mr. Lu had planned far in advance. He had already arranged for a brand new RV to be dropped off there on his behalf.
Once they got off the plane, the car arrived. The RV came furnished, and it was so extravagant that even Cheng Xi, who was well-versed with the lifestyle of the rich, was left open-mouthed at its lavishness.
And so, they went on a scenic tour. They only arrived at Kanas Lake on the third day. It was June, and wildflowers were blossoming all over the grassy mountainside, making for a scenic view matter where Cheng Xi looked.
The only thing that made Lu Chenzhou somewhat unhappy was the fact that it was also peak tourist season at Kanas Lake, which meant that there were far more tourists than he had accounted for. But with Cheng Xi around, all this was bearable.
Because Cheng Xi really had been very obedient during the whole trip, making Mr. Lu’s life very…… comfortable.
They stayed in Kanas Lake for a week. On the last day of their trip, the hotel had a huge bonfire at the shore. Lu Chenzhou normally never participated in these social events, but Cheng Xi very much wanted to experience it. She looked at him with pitiful eyes as she asked, “Lu Chenzhou, can we go and play?”
He thought it over a little, and then accompanied her down.
It was very crowded around the bonfire. Although Lu Chenzhou was handsome, his expression was so cold that nobody dared to walk up to him. On the other hand, in the time that it took for Lu Chenzhou to get a drink, someone had dragged her off to dance.
Luckily, she knew her limits, and she stopped after two circles around the bonfire. When someone invited her for another dance afterwards, she grabbed onto Lu Chenzhou and replied, “I’m sorry, but I’d like to accompany my husband.”
When Lu Chenzhou saw all the men leave regretfully, he felt slightly pleased within his heart, but he was also a little disappointed and frustrated.
He didn’t know where these emotions were coming from, because Cheng Xi was more than attentive to him. Only when Cheng Xi left to roast another skewer of meat did the man sitting by the table next to him suddenly say, “Your wife’s really in love with you.”
He turned around and saw that although the man was dressed very well, he was surrounded by a dismal atmosphere. There were quite a few glass bottles piled up by his hands.
Lu Chenzhou coolly asked, “Why do you say that?”
He smiled wryly. “Because she’s very worried for you.” He motioned in her direction. “She’s been roasting food for the past couple of minutes, but she must have looked in your direction at least fifty times by now.”
After that stranger said this, he stood up shakily. “There are no secrets in a lover’s eyes, but it’s a pity that I understood this too late… Honestly, no matter where I go, I see happy couples everywhere.”
He walked off, continuing to mumble to himself. Lu Chenzhou looked at Cheng Xi, and at the same exact time, she raised her head and looked over at him as well, her bright eyes filled with a gentle mirth.
This was the first time that Lu Chenzhou had ever seen her love for him through someone else’s eyes, and he suddenly understood where his melancholic feelings were coming from—he had always thought that she was treating him well because she was still treating him like a patient. He simply didn’t dare to believe that she actually loved him.
So, on the entire way over here, he had happily accepted and enjoyed her obedient behavior because he felt that she was only trying to compensate him for their future separation, to assuage her guilt of not actually loving him.
He had a gaping wound in his heart that had never healed. But in that moment, he felt as if his heart had finally been restored to a complete whole.
In his wound appeared the shadow of an indistinct woman. She had clear limpid eyes, a straight nose, warm red lips, and a slight smile.
And she only had one dimple.
The first words he had ever said to her were, “You only have one dimple? How ugly!”
But what he had truly wanted to say at that time was, “I’ve been waiting all my life, and now I know that I was always waiting for you.”
The night wind blew fiercer than ever before, and the moonlight shone down unusually brightly from far above the mountaintops. But even the throng of people between him and her melted away as she walked toward him from afar. Her eyes were the stars in the vast sky, and her smile, the gentle spring wind.
