02. Always been so good at pretending, even as a child.

Upon entering the private room, Mu Jia's aunt and uncle, along with Lu Siming and his girlfriend Chu Bike, had been waiting for them for quite some time.

Mu Jia sidled up to Lu Siming and whispered angrily, "Why didn't you come down to meet us just now?"

"Oh, Miss! I just went to order. Your aunt insisted on adding a Ten-Ingredient Soup." Lu Siming said with a smile, and whispered, "Besides, wouldn't it be the same if your brother Chiyi went?"

Mu Jia smiled outwardly, but inwardly rolled her eyes at him, thinking, "Same as you my foot!"

Xiao Yu followed Mu Jia in calling for people and took out the gifts that had been prepared in advance. With his humble and obedient attitude and outstanding appearance, he had already won the favor of the two elders.

After everyone sat down and exchanged a few pleasantries, the conversation inevitably turned to the young couple who had just returned from abroad.

Mu Jia's aunt, Mu Meixi, looked at Xiao Yu and said gently, "Xiao Xiao, how did you and Jiajia meet?"

These questions were asked on behalf of Mu Jia's parents, who were traveling abroad and had not yet had time to return.

Xiao Yu smiled and said, "Auntie, it's like this. Jiajia has been working on her company's overseas market operations in Latin America for the past two years. At the beginning of this year, our brand also wanted to go global, and we thought we could do some product placement in their company's new mobile game. My father saw that I was idle all day, so he sent me to Mexico to talk to their person in charge there."

He then turned to Mu Jia, "Jia Jia was the one who received us at the time."

"I didn't expect it to be love at first sight!" Lu Siming looked up and said half-jokingly, "Xiao Xiao, tell me, what is it about this girl in my family that made you fall in love at first sight?"

He knew perfectly well that his little girl had always been able to make a group of boys devoted to her and willingly follow her around.

They kept coming one after another, like flies, impossible to shoo away...

But he insisted on asking, wanting to know what the essential difference was between this rich second-generation man who looked like a male model and the boys of the past.

"Oh? Is that so?" Lu Siming raised an eyebrow, deliberately probing, "In which specific aspect?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a group of eyes, not weak in their presence, turn towards him.

She had just been startled by Xiao Yu and couldn't help but take her anger out on him as a scapegoat. She glared back mercilessly and said, "What are you looking at!"

"Cough, cough..." Mu Jia finally choked, and Xiao Yu stopped talking and turned around to ask with concern, "Jiajia, are you alright?"

Mu Jia listened to his rambling explanation, which was so nonsensical that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and she almost didn't dare to look up at her aunt and uncle's expressions.

I couldn't help but facepalm. I'd been careless. If I'd known his "homework" was prepared this way, I really should have checked it beforehand...

Unexpectedly, his strange and mysterious performance pleased the two elders opposite him.

Mu Jia raised a hand to his forehead, unsure whether what had truly fooled the elderly couple was his twisted and unfounded logic or his handsome face...

This guy is a waste of his time as a spoiled rich kid; he should start his own business and specialize in marketing health products for middle-aged and elderly people.

Lu Siming was equally dumbfounded. Even if you beat him to death, he simply couldn't connect the eloquent and quick-witted young man in front of him with the "shy" boyfriend that Mu Jia had described.

He couldn't help but turn his head to seek approval from his good friend sitting next to him.

But Chu Chiyi was seen eating intently with his head down.

The man's focused expression and excellent table manners made it no exaggeration to call him "a feast for the eyes."

Not only that, but he seemed to be enjoying his meal immensely, as if the food was far more delicious than the melon, and he was completely indifferent to other people's romances.

However… Lu Siming looked at him with some doubt. Didn’t he usually not like to eat fish?

Why is he eating with such focused concentration right now, with nothing but that fish in his eyes, as if he wants to completely devour it...?

Sometimes, even if you try to ignore everything that's going on outside, you still can't avoid trouble coming your way.

Mu Jia's aunt, Ms. Mu Meixi, is usually very busy and loves to organize things. She wishes all the young people around her could live happily ever after and get married as soon as possible.

Now, seeing that her son's relationship with his childhood sweetheart Chu Bike was stable, and that her niece Mu Jia had also found a good match, her gaze swept around the dinner table and landed on Chu Chiyi, who still appeared to be single and without a partner.

"Chiyi, it's not that your aunt is pressuring you, but look, your little sister Jiajia already has a boyfriend. We can't just focus on our careers; we need to get on board with this important life event too, right?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Mu Jia, on the other side of the table, choked again.

Chu Chiyi and Lu Siming have been friends since middle school, and their friendship has only grown stronger since graduation.

Two years ago, Lu Siming left his previous company and started his own biomaterials company with several colleagues. The company is currently in its early stages. Chu Chiyi, as a legal professional, has provided a lot of guidance and assistance to Lu Siming in related fields.

His parents lived abroad for a long time, but the two elders of the Lu family remembered his kindness and maintained close contact with him, treating him as if he were their own son.

Upon hearing this, Chu Chiyi smiled and looked up, about to say a few words of criticism, but Lu Siming interrupted him, eager to stir up trouble: "That's right! Mom, you're right! You don't know, this kid, with such good prospects, I don't know where his mind is!"

Mu Jia looked up and saw Lu Siming still indignant: "Every time I try to introduce him to a girl, he makes excuses about not having time. Is it really that bad? He can't even find time to meet her for a meal? What are we doing now?"

Chu Chiyi remained silent and did not offer any explanation, but simply smiled faintly at him.

It was Chu Bike who stepped in to smooth things over. She raised her eyebrows slightly and scolded Lu Siming, "Chi Yi was able to come today because you kept pestering him, saying that Jiajia wanted to bring her boyfriend. It was the first time they met, and your parents happened to be traveling. You were worried that it would be awkward if there weren't enough people, so you asked him to come and help you make it more presentable?"

Lu Siming glanced at his girlfriend with an awkward smile.

He did have ulterior motives for dragging Chu Chiyi along today.

His mother is Mu Jia's father's younger sister. He and Mu Jia grew up together since childhood, and they are both only children. Over the years, he has long regarded Mu Jia as his own younger sister.

She didn't tell them about her boyfriend beforehand, so he didn't know anything about him, but he didn't want to compromise on his strict criteria.

After some thought, I came up with the brilliant idea of ​​carrying a "perfect answer key" with me.

When we meet, if the other person is far from the "reference answer" in every aspect, it will make them feel ashamed and automatically pack their bags and go back to where they came from.

After saying that, Chu Bike turned to Xiao Yu and said with a smile, "Who knew that little Xiao would be so easygoing and interesting? So, Lu Siming, you probably over-prepared, didn't you?"

Upon hearing this, Mu Meixi and Lu Changyang smiled and echoed her sentiments.

Xiao Yu smiled as he stood up and raised his glass to his aunt, uncle, brother, and sister.

Mu Jia lowered her head and took a sip of the pear juice in her glass. Chu Bi Ke was always like this: proper and appropriate. Everyone who was with her felt like they were bathed in a spring breeze, and it seemed that they could all naturally like her.

After these words, the host and guests were both pleased and the blame was shifted for Chu Chiyi.

No wonder even he...

But to everyone's surprise, after taking a few bites of food, Mu Meixi remembered the conversation that had been interrupted halfway through and launched into another attack on Chu Chiyi: "Chiyi, your Uncle Lu has an old friend whose family is also in business. I remember his daughter is a year or two younger than you and is also single. How about I introduce you two in a couple of days?"

Chu Chiyi put down his chopsticks and opened his mouth.

Mu Jia picked up the scallop that Xiao Yu had just placed on her plate, and heard the man's clear voice say, "Okay, then thank you for your trouble, Aunt Mu."

She paused silently as she chewed, probably because the scallop meat was too smooth and chewy.

So he gritted his teeth and chewed a few more times.

He smiled gently at his elders, showing no trace of the malice he sometimes couldn't hide in front of them.

She couldn't help but think to herself, "She's always been such a good actress..."

With such great acting skills, why don't you enter the entertainment industry? I won't watch the next major awards ceremony if you're not among them!

At this moment, Chu Bike, who was on her other side, naturally chimed in, saying that there were also eligible and outstanding female colleagues at their school who would probably like his type, and that they could meet him sometime, and so on...

A sudden surge of schadenfreude welled up inside Mu Jia, and she barely managed to suppress her laughter.

It's no wonder she kicked him when he was down. The person she liked was completely unaware of her feelings and was even seriously introducing her to potential blind dates. Could there be anything more ridiculous than that?

Yes, Chu Chiyi had feelings for Chu Bike.

Moreover, apart from Chu Chiyi himself, only she knew about this matter.

Because this was something Chu Chiyi told her personally when they were still in high school.

As for why Chu Bi didn't know, perhaps it's because there was Lu Siming between them.

The order in which people appear in each other's lives is that important. Sometimes, if the order is wrong, even the most capable person can only sigh in vain, unable to obtain what they desire...

Mu Jia looked up and saw that Chu Chiyi's face remained calm, but his gaze silently fell on them.

She picked up her chopsticks and placed an oyster on Xiao Yu's plate.

While picking up food, by sheer coincidence, my eyes met those of the person opposite me.

Two seconds later, the other person nodded.

Chu Bi laughed, "Okay, then remember to let me know when you're free."

In terms of interpersonal relationships, Xiao Yu is the kind of person who can easily break down boundaries with others, and if he wants, he can easily make you feel like you are the center of his territory.

Chu Chiyi is the kind of person whose boundaries are extremely difficult to break.

Although he has a strong sense of boundaries, whether out of politeness or disdain, he rarely makes direct rejections or offends others.

Moreover, the other party was Chu Bike. Mu Jiaxin understood. How could he bear to part with her?

However, precisely because of this, in some situations, especially when you don't yet fully understand this characteristic of his, his behavior can easily create a misconception.

For example, he seems to have a pretty good feeling about you.

But when you realize that it was all just an illusion, you'll feel completely lost and might even start to question the meaning of life...

Mu Jia couldn't get a word in edgewise about the current topic at the table, and unlike the other two ladies present, she didn't have the resources to offer him anything.

All I could do was bury my head in my food and eat.

In the blink of an eye, she had eaten all the scallops and salmon from the sashimi dish on the table.

Mu Jia looked up again and saw Lu Siming peeling shrimp for Chu Bike.

I had just peeled the shrimp heads when my phone, which was on the table, suddenly rang.

He craned his neck to look at the caller ID, apologized to everyone at the table, wiped his hands, got up, and went outside to answer the call.

Before leaving, he casually pushed the plate with shrimp in front of Chu Chiyi, signaling to his good brother with his eyes, "Help me out, it won't taste good if it gets cold."

After peeling a crayfish, Lu Siming still showed no sign of returning. Remembering that the plate originally belonged to Chu Bike, Chu Chiyi returned the plate from a seat away.

Chu Bike seemed to have forgotten about the shrimp. She paused for a moment before realizing what had happened, then smiled slightly at him a little embarrassedly and nodded her thanks.

He smiled back at her before picking up a tissue to wipe his hands.

Seeing that Mu Jia was staring at the plate of shrimp on the table, Xiao Yu assumed that she also wanted to eat some, so he peeled one for her.

Mu Jia snapped out of her daze and looked at the whole, glistening shrimp meat on her plate, with even the shrimp vein carefully removed. She was about to turn her head and say something to Xiao Yu.

Just then, out of the corner of their eye, they caught a glimpse of a gaze inadvertently sweeping over them.

She closed her half-open mouth, reached for her chopsticks, and ate the shrimp under the gaze of the man opposite her.

"Excuse me." Chu Chiyi suddenly stood up and greeted the two elders at the table. "Uncle and Aunt, I'm going to the restroom."

A dozen minutes later, as the dinner was drawing to a close, Mu Jia left the table to go to the restroom to touch up her lipstick.

The washbasins at Jinjiangchun are connected on both the men's and women's sides.

As soon as I entered, I saw a familiar figure standing in front of the sink.

The man was tall and slender. He bent slightly at the height of the sink, which made his shoulders and back appear even more upright.

The cold white ceiling light in the bathroom shone on his profile, obscuring his expression.

Amidst the pattering water, Mu Jia paused for a second, then suddenly realized that this scene was all too familiar.

It was so familiar that it gave her goosebumps.

The next second, her body acted faster than her mind; she abandoned her makeup touch-up and turned to leave.

"Wait." Suddenly, someone behind him called out to him.