By the time Cheng Xi’s airplane landed, it was already very late at night in her hometown. She hadn’t told anyone that she was coming back, having intended to go straight to Lu Chenzhou the next day.
But when she arrived at her apartment, she found that she couldn’t even enter it, because her front door…… Had! Been! Replaced!
If it weren’t for the stupid “Dr. Cheng’s home” sign, she would’ve thought that she had gone to the wrong floor on her apartment complex.
Cheng Xi couldn’t even describe her feelings at that moment. She had been worried that Lu Chenzhou would come back here and find himself locked out, so she had left the key to the apartment next door to Cheng Yang, which meant that she didn’t have a single key, leaving her unable to enter either apartment.
In the end, she was forced to call her brother. “Did you replace the front door to my apartment?”
Cheng Yang was still muddle-headed from sleep, and he automatically replied, “That’s right! Lu Chenzhou was trying to kick me out! So I just replaced the front door directly!” But by the time he finished talking, his head had cleared up a little, and he suddenly yelled out, “How did you know? You’re back?!”
Cheng Xi was slightly exasperated as she admitted, “That’s right. Where are you?”
In lieu of a response, Cheng Yang instead opened the door to her apartment, standing there barefoot as he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. “It’s really you? Why didn’t you let us know before coming back?”
“It was a rash decision.” Cheng Xi smiled, handed him her luggage, walked in, and found some slippers to slip on. A moment later, she raised her head, extremely surprised. “Lu Chenming?”
She stared at Lu Chenming, and then turned around to stare at Cheng Yang, an expression of utter shock on her face.
Cheng Yang glared at her. “I know what you’re thinking!”
Cheng Xi blinked once, her expression quickly transforming into one of innocence. “What? I’m not thinking about anything. I’m just surprised that Chenming left his house.”
“……”
Lu Chenming had no idea what the two of them were talking about and insinuating. He obediently took the suitcases from Cheng Yang’s hands, and politely greeted her. “Ice- Prof. Cheng.”
He was used to calling her “icey,” and it was only as he started saying it that he suddenly realized that the person in front of her wasn’t his icey anymore.
No. Rather, she never had been.
Lu Chenming’s face turned red again.
Cheng Xi smiled at him as she ignored his unusual behavior. “It’s nice to see you again, Lu Chenming. It’s been a while, and you look like you’ve grown a bit taller.”
This tone was the sort an adult used to praise a child… Lu Chenming silently lowered his gaze, no longer willing to talk.
Cheng Yang shot his sister a supercilious look before plopping down on the sofa. Cheng Xi silently looked at her sofa that seemed to have become a bed and asked, “Why’re you sleeping here?”
The guest room’s door wasn’t closed, and she could see a small bed inside. Lu Chenming had clearly just come out of the guest room.
In response, Cheng Yang merely shot her another supercilious look. Truth be told, he was scared of sleeping in her bed, alright? After he replaced the front door, he had started staying in this apartment regularly, but when he saw the brand new bed that Lu Chenzhou bought, he had decided to just get himself another small bed in the guest room.
He really didn’t want to talk about this whole affair, so he quickly changed the topic. “Alright, why’re you back so suddenly? Didn’t you say that you were going to be really busy in the near future?” As he said this, he started inspecting her critically, automatically putting on a disdainful expression. “You’ve gotten thinner, darker, and your skin’s coarser. You really look like you could be my older sister now!”
Cheng Xi smiled, not minding her brother’s antics. “Then if you call me older sister, I won’t mind.” She twisted her head to look at Lu Chenming again. She handed him a seat cushion and asked in a warm tone. “I’m sorry that I woke you up. If you can’t sleep, do you want to have a seat instead?”
Lu Chenming sat down silently.
“If your home is too chaotic right now, it’s not a problem if you want to come and stay here for a while. However, make sure that you tell your grandparents where you are so that they don’t worry.”
Lu Chenming was slightly surprised that this was the first thing that she mentioned, and he nodded as he shyly said, “I already told my grandmother.”
“Are they doing well?”
“Yup.”
Cheng Yang couldn’t bear watching them trying to exchange pleasantries any longer. He brusquely interrupted and said, “If you’re worried about that guy, just ask about him directly and honestly! What’s the point of running around in circles like that!”
Cheng Xi looked straight at him. “I don’t need to ask.”
“Why?”
“If he were doing well, then I wouldn’t need to come back.”
Lu Chenming looked at her, shocked. “You…… how did you know?”
“I just guessed,” Cheng Xi said with a smile, “Don’t worry. As long as he’s not dead, I’ll pull him back.”
Her tone was somewhat fierce.
Cheng Yang and Lu Chenming unconsciously shrunk backwards. They had a feeling that, after living in the wild west for quite some time, the gentle Dr. Cheng had become a fierce lion.
Cheng Xi said she wasn’t going to ask, and she really didn’t ask them anything about Lu Chenzhou. She didn’t have to, after all. Baldy understood Lu Chenzhou better than both of them.
Before Cheng Xi had boarded the plane, she had spent some time talking to Baldy. He had said that, after Lu Chenzhou was dismissed from his position as CEO, he had holed himself up at home without seeing anyone.
As Baldy hadn’t ever given up on him before, Lu Chenzhou had been starting to respond more favorably to him, but after this whole affair, even Baldy wasn’t able to see Lu Chenzhou anymore either.
“This is what I hate the most about him! My god, he’s just like a girl—he locked himself in his room after getting angry. Once he gets out, I’m going to laugh at him till he dies of embarrassment!”
Baldy was really quite worried and angry as he complained to Cheng Xi.
Cheng Xi was also quite worried, so after briefly chatting with Cheng Yang and Lu Chenming, she decided to have a good night’s sleep. Then, the next morning, when she was revitalized, she would go out to find Lu Chenzhou.
When Cheng Yang heard Cheng Xi say that she was going to rest, he agreed suspiciously enthusiastically. “Alright, alright! Sleep early tonight.”
Cheng Xi squinted at him, but she couldn’t figure anything out. Eventually, she gave up and went to her room to do as planned.
As she pushed the door to her bedroom open, her entire body froze. The entire room was adorned in red; the red was so bright that it hurt the eyes…… Cheng Yang’s annoying voice piped up from behind. “Ding ding ding! Congratulations to our contestant, Dr. Cheng, for winning a newlywed’s bedroom! Are you surprised? Are you shocked?”
Cheng Xi whirled around, her tone dangerously calm. “You did this to my apartment?”
“Hey, don’t falsely accuse me! Your precious Director Lu was the one who did it. I slept on your bed and he didn’t like it, so he got a whole new set of a bed, blankets, table, and chairs for you. Is it red enough for you?”
Cheng Xi calmly replied, “……His taste is quite good.”
Cheng Yang was speechless. “……”
The real Cheng Xi must still be Gansu, and this person in front of me must be a doppelganger, right?
She really had to be, While it was already suspicious enough that she had willingly slept in that bedroom, her outfit the next day was even more shocking. Cheng Xi had put on a bright red dress. It was flaming red, and its graceful curves accentuated her figure, lending her a fatal charm and allure that others rarely saw.
Cheng Yang and Lu Chenming’s eyes almost popped out of their skulls as they looked at her.
“Damn, what’ve you done to my sister?” Cheng Yang rushed into the bedroom to look for her.
Cheng Xi dragged him with an exasperated expression. “That’s enough.” She patted her slightly curly hair and expectantly asked, “How do I look?”
Cheng Yang dryly replied, “You can’t tell for yourself?”
Cheng Xi’s tone became even more exasperated. “It’s so red that I’m losing my sense of taste.”
“……Meaning?”
“It’s tragically ugly.”
Cheng Yang and Lu Chenming were both at a loss for words. “……”
Rather than losing your sense of taste, it’s more like it became completely flipped around, alright?!
Cheng Yang even wanted to encourage Cheng Xi to change into a new outfit, simply because he wasn’t used to her looking this good! But Lu Chenming always responded slightly faster than him at critical junctures, and he shivered as he softly said, “I think that my brother will like it quite a lot.”
“Really?” Cheng Xi smiled genuinely at him before sighing. “Then I’ll go like this.”
With a wave of her hand, she picked up her handbag. Then with Cheng Yang as her chauffeur and Lu Chenming trailing behind her, they went off to find Lu Chenzhou.
