Chapter 45 Why are you unlucky, but I'm the only one who gets...?

It was almost noon, and the sun was directly overhead, scorching hot and making people irritable. So much so that it took Wen Chu several minutes to park her car properly.

She raised her hand above her head to shield her eyes from the equally oblivious sunlight as she walked towards her door. Immediately behind her, she heard the sound of a car driving by, which deliberately honked its horn at her.

Wen Chu turned her head and glanced diagonally behind her. After confirming it was that damned man, she pursed her lips and quickened her pace toward her front door.

Just as she entered her password to enter her home, her wrist was grabbed. She stumbled, turned around, and faced the person face to face. In an instant, she felt both hot and cold, and a battle was about to break out.

"What are you doing, Mr. Lu?" Wen Chu pulled her hand away from the person's grasp.

Lu Ming's heart skipped a beat when he heard the other person's deliberate way of addressing him. He stared intently at her and said, "Shouldn't you explain?"

"What do I need to explain? Explain why I'm with Qi Siyan? I might have to explain if outsiders ask, but don't you and I both know the truth? Am I, the fake girlfriend, supposed to explain to you, the fake boyfriend, why I'm with another man?"

The coldness in Lu Ming's eyes deepened. "You ask me for reasons? Then I'll give you reasons. Officially, we're business partners now. You shouldn't be meeting with my rival in private. I'll suspect you have some other connections, and that would give me grounds to terminate our cooperation. Personally, you're my girlfriend now, and you shouldn't be meeting with another man in front of my house while I'm away, damaging my personal image. Tell me, is there anything wrong with what I said?"

"How can there be no problem?" Wen Chu's anger grew stronger. "Officially, we haven't signed a contract yet, so we're not partners. Personally, we're not really partners, so you have no right to restrict who I associate with. If something goes wrong, you can just shift the blame to me and say I've fallen for someone else. That way, you can have your cake and eat it too, get rid of this annoying person, and make your dad give up on you. My dad won't blame you either, and you can completely sever ties with me."

“You…” Lu Ming’s jaw clenched. “You’re quite good at kicking someone when they’ve served their purpose.”

"I think I'm dismantling my own bridge, what's it to you?" Wen Chu turned around with a stern face and quickly pressed the keypad on the door to go inside, but the door was slammed shut by Lu Ming again as soon as it opened a crack.

"Wen Chu, I'm very angry right now," Lu Ming said, his chest heaving, his face extremely gloomy. "You are not trustworthy at all."

He made the decision to hire Wen Chu as a technical consultant quickly and domineeringly, and the contract was also requested urgently. This was inevitable, and once the news spread, it caused quite a stir within the upper management of Baiyue.

Attitudes are polarized. Those who oppose her do not trust Wen Chu's abilities and do not believe she is controllable. They all think Lu Ming is blinded by love. However, some people, while not believing that Wen Chu can win the competition and bring honor to Baiyue, have her status. Some speculate that Lu Ming's purpose is not the competition, but a marriage alliance with the Wen family.

Everyone has a different perspective, different thoughts, and different reactions to his actions.

Only the technical department was shocked and then calmly accepted the fact. After all, others might not know Jiang Xing's character and might think he was colluding with the boss, but everyone in the department had seen it. Since he had said it, there was nothing to argue about. Except for Yang Binshi, who was still relentlessly discussing the feasibility of this matter with Lu Ming.

As the night passed, Lu Ming's inbox was flooded with more emails offering suggestions. Looking at these emails this morning, he decided to call an impromptu meeting to make his reasons more transparent.

So he spent the whole morning in the conference room, holding a three-hour meeting on this unprecedented decision. Even after he presented the evidence and asked Jiang Xing for his opinion, one-third of the senior executives still did their best to raise objections.

Finally, Lu Ming lost his patience, tapped his index finger on the table, and said indifferently, "I have already had Deputy Director Jiang explain the reasons very clearly to everyone. If you still have objections, you can submit your resignation. Do as you please."

He spent the whole morning worrying about her, only to be met with her not answering his calls, chatting and laughing with her rival near their house, and then inexplicably treating him so badly after he discovered it.

Anyone would be furious in that situation.

Wen Chu felt a pang of heartache at his words as well. She took two deep breaths before turning back to confront him: "I'm not trustworthy? Then are you? You..." The words of blame were on the tip of her tongue but stopped. She knew that forgetting wasn't Lu Ming's fault, but people are still human, and she couldn't help but feel no resentment towards him.

She didn't even want to see him looking blank and questioning her with suspicion: When did I promise you that? When did I say such a thing? Don't flatter yourself. I would never agree to go to the amusement park with you, I would never agree to blow-dry your hair, I would never make you cold medicine, and I would never admit that you are outstanding.

After her emotions had been fluctuating for a short period of time, Wen Chu felt exhausted from the inside out. She breathed a sigh of relief and didn't want to argue with anyone anymore. "Fine, say whatever you want. I want to be alone."

Lu Ming grabbed her wrist again, his gaze serious: "I'll ask you one last time, do you have any other purpose in approaching me?"

Wen Chu frowned. Although she was extremely annoyed at the moment, she remembered that she couldn't be out of character or say anything sarcastic that would affect the mission's progress. So she took a deep breath and patiently said, "What could my purpose be? I've liked you for so long. Do you think I'd fall for Qi Siyan and go help him less than two weeks after he came back? Or am I supposed to help Ke Ming steal some company secrets from your company? Do you think I need to do that?"

"Everything I do is ultimately aimed at making you happier and smoother in your life, and incidentally, getting a 'good person' card from you. Also, it's to slap those who don't believe me in the face. It's that simple, how many times do I have to say it?"

"It seems I didn't even get the 'good guy' card, but I got a whole bunch of 'questioning cards'." Wen Chu tried to break free from the man's grip on her hand and go inside, but he only tightened his grip, making her feel a little pain.

Lu Ming couldn't understand why the woman in front of him could speak in such an impatient and unwilling tone, saying things that were completely contrary to her attitude. He loosened his grip a little and reminded her again, "You have to take responsibility for everything you say."

"If you're going to take responsibility, then take responsibility. You can test it however you want."

Lu Ming gradually calmed down and finally asked, "So what happened to you today?"

"Nothing much, just really unlucky and in a bad mood."

"What bad luck? Have your appliances been restored to normal?"

"I don't know, I didn't notice."

Lu Ming released her hand, gesturing for her to open the door and check. Wen Chu entered the password, went inside, and turned on the light switch by the door, only to find there was still no power.

Wen Chu cursed inwardly, "System, when are you going to restore the power?! Have you ever seen a high-end residential area have a power outage for this long???" In reality, the property management would have been complained about eight hundred times! But here, everything was peaceful, as if she was the only victim and no one had suspected anything.

"Come to my house for dinner," Lu Ming said softly.

Wen Chu took a deep breath and finally nodded, "Okay." She couldn't afford to mess with her stomach, no matter who else she was going to offend. Just thinking about Aunt Sun's cooking made her stomach rumble as if it were about to burst.

The man's expression softened a little, and the two of them walked towards his house with stern faces.

Lu Ming couldn't help but ask, "Why is it that when you're down on your luck, you only give me attitude?"

Wen Chu snorted coldly: "I'll give the attitude to whoever gives me the cold shoulder."

Lu Ming couldn't help but ask again, "Don't you think there's anything wrong with your behavior?"

"What's wrong? I was just bored this morning, and I happened to run into Qi Siyan. We had a cup of coffee together. What's wrong with that?"

"When did you two become so close?"

"You think we're friends just because we had coffee together? We've eaten together so many times, lived in the same house, and even slept in the same bed. Are we even friends?" Wen Chu stopped and glared at the man, asking him the question.

Lu Ming fell silent after being spoken to, then asked again, "Just having coffee? And are you sure it's just a coincidence? Just a coincidence that you're dressed like this, and just a coincidence that you're wearing makeup?"

"I just want to dress up and make myself look pretty, it'll make me feel better, what's wrong with that?! Why are you interfering with that?" Wen Chu shouted, her defenses broken by what she was being told.

She wanted nothing more than to rush forward and strangle this clueless, lifeless thing.

"Besides, if I really wanted to do something bad to you, I wouldn't need to go through all this trouble. I could just whisper something in my dad's ear. Don't always judge others by your own petty standards. Just because you have a dark heart doesn't mean everyone else does." Wen Chu glared at him and continued walking.

Lu Ming was so angry that his chest ached, but he just laughed and said, "My heart is black?"

Wen Chu said without turning her head, "Isn't that right? You know it's unpleasant to be given the cold shoulder? That's just how you treat me. If you were even a little bit kinder, you would treat me better."

"That's because I don't like you and need to keep my distance to prevent you from crossing the line, since you always like to push your luck," Lu Ming said bluntly.

Wen Chu was so angry she was almost speechless. She closed her eyes, sighed wearily, and didn't even have the strength to roll her eyes at him. She turned around, pointed at Lu Ming, and warned, "If you dare to say another word, I won't eat anymore. I'll starve myself to death and write my will saying you're the one who caused it. You just wait for my parents to come and settle the score with you!"

"..." Lu Ming had never heard such a refreshingly unconventional threat before: "Dare you be any more unreasonable?"

"You dare!"

"..."

The atmosphere at the dinner table was somber. Wen Chu ate in silence, only glancing up at Aunt Sun once to smile and say "delicious," before falling silent again. She didn't serve him any food or say anything inappropriate. For the first time, Lu Ming saw a look of disappointment on the girl's face.

He broke the silence first: "Did you have trouble preparing for the competition?"

"No." Wen Chu rolled her eyes at him speechlessly. "Is work all you think about? Are you so afraid I'll mess things up?"

"I was just asking casually." It seemed that wasn't the reason. Lu Ming thought for a while, then guessed that maybe the other person had argued with their family, so he asked again cryptically, "After that night, did your parents say anything to you? Has Uncle Wen been angry with you lately?"

Wen Chu picked up a piece of meat and put it in her mouth, chuckling, "Your reaction time is really slow; it took you this long to think of asking."

Does it exist or not?

Wen Chu put down her chopsticks, looked up at him and scrutinized him. "What's your family background? You're asking so many questions today. I can tell you without worry, I don't. My parents are very good to me and would never be angry with me. I've finished eating, I'm sleepy, I'm going to take a nap." Wen Chu originally wanted to go home to sleep, but thinking that it was hot at noon without air conditioning, she had no choice but to go upstairs to her guest room. Lu Ming didn't say anything.

"Did you get up very early this morning? It's only a few minutes and you're already sleepy," Lu Ming said, watching her retreating figure.

His words successfully ignited a fire in Wen Chu's heart. Wen Chu curled the corners of her mouth and said sarcastically, "Of course not as early as you. You're too early."

Lu Ming naturally understood the sarcasm in Wen Chu's words. "What do you mean?"

"It means nothing, not a single bit!" Wen Chusan went upstairs in a few steps and closed the door, afraid of saying another word to this person.

The conversation ended unhappily.

Lu Ming sat alone at the dining table, his gaze deepening.

After finishing his meal, he went upstairs. He paused for a few seconds in front of Wen Chu's tightly closed door before finally knocking on it.

Footsteps came from inside the room. Wen Chu opened the door, tilted her head, and asked him expressionlessly, "Is there anything else you need?"

Lu Ming's gaze fell on her bare feet. "Even in summer, walking barefoot on the floor can easily make you catch a cold."

Wen Chu looked down at her feet, nodded, and said, "Oh, thank you for reminding me. So, is there anything else?"

"I told you last time I'd take you out to play, where would you like to go?"

After he finished speaking, the air seemed to freeze for a second, two seconds, three seconds...

Instead of turning into a bright-eyed bunny as he had expected, the other person became even more somber upon hearing these words.

The woman stood in the doorway, staring at her. Her eyes held a mix of emotions she didn't quite understand—shock, speechlessness, anger, resentment, and a raging fire within them…

But in the end, all he heard was someone say, "It's too hot lately, I don't want to go anymore, we'll talk about it later." Then they slammed the door shut.

Lu Ming clenched his fists, a little angry. How could she treat him like this? Fine, he'd already done more than enough. Since she wouldn't explain her intentions, there was nothing he could do.

He returned to his room with a somber expression, no longer wanting to think about it. What the other person did was none of his concern.

But the more he tried not to care, the more he cared. The sudden coldness from someone who had always been so warm and welcoming to him felt like being doused with a bucket of ice water, leaving Lu Ming mostly bewildered.

What did he do to offend this woman? If it was something that happened yesterday, didn't he make up with her last night? Why is she acting like this again today?

He offered her a place to stay yesterday, even blow-dried her hair as she requested, and explained what he had said yesterday afternoon. Wasn't that enough? He just forgot to ask when she wanted to go out. He was just about to ask when she refused.

depressed.

Lu Ming's eyes flickered for a moment when he saw a text message on his phone, a reminder from the hospital to schedule a visit.

He stared at the text message for a long time, and considering Wen Chu's behavior today, he suddenly had a guess.

He picked up the tablet from the bedside table, entered the password, and reopened the surveillance footage from the living room.