Chapter 106 Why is he ranked ahead of me...?

Wen Chu walked to the parking space and was about to open the car door when a hand suddenly jumped out and pressed down on it, slamming the door shut again.

She was startled, her eyes wide like a frightened rabbit as she took two steps back. Upon recognizing the person standing in front of her, her anger flared: "What are you doing? Where did you come from? Trying to scare someone to death?"

"You're just too focused on thinking about others," Lu Ming said, his voice laced with coldness.

Wen Chu frowned and asked, "Have you been following me?"

Lu Ming remained noncommittal: "I want to see you."

"Oh, so you've seen it now." Wen Chu walked around him and prepared to open the car door again.

Lu Ming forcefully squeezed between her and the car door, completely blocking the door with his body: "Why is he in front of me in line?"

Wen Chu chuckled for the first time, finding Lu Ming's question rather childish: "No, didn't I have dinner with you first a couple of days ago? He was after you."

Lu Ming was speechless and felt a pang of heartache. He took a deep breath before asking, "Is there anyone else behind him?"

"Then this is my private schedule, and you have no right to interfere."

"What did Qi Siyan say to you?" Lu Ming asked in a muffled voice, holding his breath.

I thought Qi Siyan would give up after all this time, but I didn't expect this shameless person to still dare to contact Wen Chu.

"Why should I tell you? You really think you're my boss? Move aside, I'm going home."

Wen Chu's face turned cold. She pushed the man's arm, but he didn't budge. She had no choice but to let go, put some distance between herself and him, and looked at him silently with her arms crossed.

Lu Ming looked at her, not understanding why the person who had finally softened towards him last night had become cold again today.

He felt anxious, and also felt that there were more and more suspicious things about the woman. It was clearly her from beginning to end, but the feeling he got from her was subtly different.

Lu Ming forcefully suppressed the anger rising in his head. He had no right to be angry or question, so he could only lower his head and ask in a low voice, "Can I have dinner with you tonight?"

"I'm going home for dinner tonight."

"Then tomorrow."

"I have things to do tomorrow too."

"the day after tomorrow."

Seeing the man's stubbornness, Wen Chu was both amused and exasperated. People really do fear scoundrels the most.

It seems this person won't let her go unless he gets an answer today.

She turned her head away, took a deep breath, locked the car again, glanced at the person, and then turned to walk towards the side of the street.

Lu Ming's eyes flickered, and he obediently followed.

His mood was split in two, sometimes sunny and sometimes pouring rain, which resulted in contradictory behavior.

Wen Chu and her entourage casually found a coffee shop nearby and sat down. The afternoon sun shone through the transparent curtain wall onto the wooden table and dappled onto Wen Chu's snow-white wrists.

Lu Ming stared at that spot, lost in thought. There, she wore the pink diamond bracelet he had given her. The finely cut, flawless diamonds shone brilliantly in the sunlight.

Throughout the year, Wen Chu wore the bracelet without ever taking it off. Before, when she hadn't regained her memory, he thought she had forgotten where the bracelet came from and was wearing it haphazardly. But now that she had regained her memory, she still hadn't taken it off, which gave him a glimmer of hope.

Wen Chu ordered two coffees. After realizing what the other person was looking at, she didn't hesitate much: "Don't overthink it. I just think this gem is quite precious, and it would be a shame not to wear it. I also kept the necklace that Qi Siyan gave me."

"But you weren't wearing it."

"Then I'll wear it next time."

Lu Ming lowered his eyes, looked away, and remained silent.

Wen Chu scoffed inwardly, ignoring the man's petulant temper, and cut to the chase: "How's the robot project going?"

Lu Ming glanced at her with some surprise, seemingly not expecting her to care about this, but still replied seriously: "The basic human-like dialogue function, human recognition function, recognition command execution function, and robot appearance have been designed. The appearance has been surveyed in a small group, and the satisfaction level has met the standards."

Wen Chu nodded: "The progress is quite fast."

"It's not fast; there are still many technical issues that need optimization," Lu Ming continued seriously. "The accuracy of emotion recognition through facial and voice recognition needs improvement; the satisfaction level of personalized responses based on the recognition results needs improvement; and, most importantly, how to store and fully utilize the model's historical memory to better meet users' needs for coherent emotions is the most crucial problem to be solved. After all, the memory forgetting problem of current language models is unavoidable, and we need to find other ways to overcome it."

"Regarding this, I have hired several additional experts in this field to discuss solutions, and we have come up with several plans, which are currently being evaluated for costs."

Wen Chu nodded thoughtfully after listening, but did not reply immediately.

They exchanged a glance, each waiting for the other to speak and say what they wanted to hear.

The waiter brought the coffee over, and Wen Chu took a sip slowly, suppressing the urge to spit out the liquid. She looked at the cup in her hand and frowned.

Why is it so bitter?

What new product is this?

I clicked it without looking carefully.

While she was mentally complaining, Lu Ming had already stirred his portion, which included milk and sugar, with a spoon and pushed it in front of Wen Chu.

"Drink mine, it's not bitter."

Wen Chu put down her cup and shook her head: "No need, then this cup of mine will be wasted."

So Lu Ming picked up her cup and took a sip.

"Hey!" Wen Chu was so startled that she sat up straight and stared at him.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the side the other person drank from was the same side she had just drunk from, and there was still a faint lipstick mark left on it.

Lu Ming put it down dismissively: "That way it won't be a waste."

Wen Chu turned her head away and fanned herself with her hand, too lazy to bother with it anymore. She simply picked up the other person's coffee and took another sip before getting back to the point: "Who is in charge of this project now?"

"Jiang Xing. He's the project director now."

"You've been promoted to a permanent position? What about Director Yang?"

Lu Ming seemed unwilling to say more about him, and simply stated, "He resigned."

Everyone has their own ambitions, which is not surprising. Wen Chu nodded and then fell silent again.

If she were to suggest returning to Baiyue, she didn't know if Lu Ming would agree. It would feel abrupt, and she was even more afraid that he would use their relationship as a condition.

But she didn't want to delay any longer; she just wanted to take over the project as soon as possible, speed up the completion of the task, and go home as soon as possible.

After a moment's thought, Wen Chu tentatively asked, "If... I want to go back to Baiyue to continue participating in this project, would you agree or disagree?"

Lu Ming's grip on the cup tightened imperceptibly.

This is simply the best thing I could ask for.

But he can't show it, otherwise the other party might change their mind because of him.

So he forced himself to remain calm and asked in return, "Why?"

"I like to see things through to the end. Since I was in charge of this project from the beginning, I want to finish it."

Lu Ming twitched the corner of his mouth, "If you like things to be consistent, why did you do it in the first place—"

"It's none of your business." Wen Chu knew what the other person was going to say, so she interrupted him directly, "I'll do whatever I want."

Lu Ming concealed the sadness in his eyes and said in a low voice, "If you don't mind, I certainly have no objection. Our contract is still in effect."

"Alright then." A smile finally appeared on Wen Chu's face. "That's settled then. I'll go and complete the onboarding procedures in a couple of days." She finished her coffee in one gulp, got up and left without lingering.

Lu Ming chased her to the door, grabbed her wrist again, and asked with a flicker in his eyes, "Is this all you wanted to tell me?"

Wen Chu was puzzled: "What else could we say?"

"What happened yesterday...have you thought about it?"

"What is it?" Wen Chu asked, bewildered.

Lu Ming's eyes flickered, and his heart sank. He couldn't believe that a woman could be so shameless and deny everything.

"You said... you would reconsider our relationship..."

"Oh. I remember now." Wen Chu looked at the man's easily bullied appearance, and brushed his hand away with a half-smile. "Didn't you say you weren't in a hurry? I'm not in a hurry either, so let's talk about it later. I have something to do, I'm leaving."

Lu Ming subconsciously tried to grab the woman's wrist again but missed. He watched the woman's departing figure, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he finally let his hand fall and returned to his car with a frustrated expression.

Although he didn't know why the other party had become so cold towards him, Lu Ming's mood improved considerably when he thought about Wen Chu going back to work in Baiyue.

That way they would meet even more often.

Thinking of this, he felt his brain cells leaping with excitement.

Back home, Aunt Sun could tell at a glance that Lu Ming was in a good mood today. She knew without a doubt who he had gone out to see. She quickly went up to him to confirm the dishes to be prepared for dinner. Usually, he would either not eat or eat very little, but today he said he was fine with anything.

Aunt Sun quickly and efficiently prepared a few dishes, and while everyone was still in the mood to eat, she encouraged them to have a few more bites.

Lu Ming was eating quite lightly at first, but gradually his face darkened and his aura became anxious. He started checking his phone frequently, as if he was expecting a text message from someone, but he knew perfectly well that the person in his heart would not take the initiative to text him.

Seeing him like this, Aunt Sun could only sigh silently.

Lu Ming could feel that his state was very unstable. When Wen Chu was close to him, he was normal, but if he couldn't see her, and she didn't answer his calls and was walking with other people, he would become very anxious and feel empty inside, not knowing how to relieve it.

Previously, these symptoms would only appear when he was working long hours and couldn't find the time to visit Wen Chu at her bedside. Now, however, he can't concentrate if he doesn't hear from her for even a few hours.

He morbidly wanted to know what the woman was doing every second, who she was talking to, who she was smiling at, and wanted her to be within his sight every single second.

He wanted to know her every move, and hoped she would send him messages like before.

But he knew clearly that Wen Chu, who used to be completely devoted to him, had been lost by him.

He couldn't keep loitering in front of the Wen family mansion forever, lest he be discovered and mistaken for a psychopath.

He could only comfort himself again by reminding himself that Wen Chu wanted to return to Baiyue. With this mental suggestion, his breathing became somewhat more even, and he took the initiative to go to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Aunt Sun stood by helplessly. Even though Lu Ming told her several times to go and rest, she couldn't settle down and just watched from the side, ready to help at any time.

After cleaning the kitchen counter, Lu Ming suddenly said, "Auntie, can you teach me how to cook?"

"ah?"

Something came to mind, and Lu Ming's expression softened considerably: "She likes your cooking, so I learned how to make it and I'll cook it for her."

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Author's note: Aunt Sun: What should I do if someone tries to steal my high-paying job?