Chapter 40 Nobody liked the old me, but...
Tianxiaju was a well-known Chinese restaurant when Shen Ci was a child, but the store was not as big as it is now, and the dishes were not as plentiful. Later, Tianxiaju moved to its current location and became the most upscale Chinese restaurant in City A, frequented by many celebrities.
If Chen Yun has been abroad for too long and doesn't know which restaurants in City A are reliable these days, then Tianxiaju is definitely a choice that won't go wrong.
After all, apart from being expensive, Tianxiaju has no flaws.
"So, you've decided on a place to eat?" Zhou Shilin scooped up a spoonful of baked sweet potato with cheese and looked up at Chen Ci across from him.
Chen Ci paused for a moment, then began to examine the phone in her hand from all angles.
"What are you doing?" Zhou Shilin asked.
Chen Ci said, "I just want to see if my phone has X-ray vision."
"..."
"My phone doesn't have X-ray vision, so do you have X-ray vision?"
"..." Zhou Shilin scooped the sweet potato into a bowl, then put the spoon back in its place. "It's not that hard to see through your thoughts; they're written all over your face."
"Oh..." Chen Ci rested her chin on her hand, looking at Zhou Shilin across from her with ill intent, "Then look at what I'm thinking right now?"
"..." He didn't want to see it.
Chen Ci put down her phone and said to Zhou Shilin, "Chen Yun also booked Tianxiaju. It seems that Tianxiaju is indeed the first choice for the wealthy in City A."
“The wealthy people in City A do like to dine at Tianxiaju, but your high school classmate probably doesn’t qualify as a wealthy person.” Zhou Shilin slowly tasted the sweet potato in his bowl. “If he were doing well abroad, he wouldn’t have come back.”
"..."
"He's at most a rich kid." After commenting on Chen Yun, Zhou Shilin added a comment on the sweet potato he had just eaten, "This sweet potato tastes really good, we can order it again next time we come."
Chen Ci: "..."
These two sentences together made her feel that Chen Yun was less than a sweet potato in Zhou Shilin's eyes.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Zhou Shilin finished tasting the sweet potato, then elegantly wiped his mouth with a tissue. "Do you disagree with my assessment of your high school classmate?"
"...No, no, you're absolutely right, I can't argue with that." Chen Ci picked up a spoon and started to scoop out the soup from the bowl. "This soup is good, very flavorful. You should have a bowl while it's hot."
"Hmm." Zhou Shilin picked up a clean small bowl and ladled some soup into it.
After that, Chen Yun didn't send any more messages, and Zhou Shilin finally stopped mentioning him. Chen Ci quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
After dinner, Zhou Shilin asked the driver to take her home first. After Chen Ci got out of the car, she bent down and waved to Zhou Shilin in the car: "Take care on the road, Mr. Zhou. Good night."
"Good night." Zhou Shilin replied with a good night before the car slowly drove away from the entrance of the residential area.
After getting home, Chen Ci took a shower and then set her alarm for tomorrow. Chen Yun had arranged to have lunch with her tomorrow at noon, and if she didn't set an alarm, she would definitely oversleep.
After setting the alarm, she thought for a moment and then poked Li Linrui: "Chen Yun is back, did you know?"
Li Linrui thought for a full three seconds before remembering who Chen Yun was: "Oh, your boyfriend from high school?"
Chen Ci: ...What little boyfriend? We're completely innocent, okay? [smile]
Li Linrui: The way he looks at you isn't innocent.
Sinking porcelain: ...
Li Linrui: I remember he went abroad right after graduation, didn't he? Did he not make it abroad?
Chen Ci: "..."
She now feels that Chen Yun may really not be able to make it abroad.
Chen Ci: We only met briefly today and didn't talk much, but he's having dinner with his high school classmates tomorrow. Didn't he contact you?
Li Linrui: I'm not in the same class as you guys, he probably looked for people in your class.
Li Linrui: I just got back to China and immediately contacted you. Your motives aren't pure. Does President Zhou know you have this young boyfriend? [doge emoji]
Chen Ci: ...By the way, has Gao Yang come to see you recently?
Li Linrui: Why are you changing the subject? Are you feeling guilty? [doge emoji]
Chenci: I care about you
Li Linrui: Oh.
Li Linrui: After Gouwa and the others warned him several times, he has become much more obedient recently.
Chenci: That's good.
After chatting with Li Linrui for a while, Chen Ci finally put down her phone and lay down to sleep.
The alarm clock woke her up on time the next day. Chen Ci got up, washed up, and saw the private room Chen Yun had sent her. Chen Ci replied "Received" and put down her phone.
As she was changing her shoes, she glanced at her phone. Besides some work messages, there was also a new message from Chen Yun: "It's obvious you're really suffering from work right now."
Sinking porcelain: Indeed
Chen Ci: Who else did you meet up with today?
Chen Yun: You'll know when you get there.
Seeing that he seemed to be deliberately trying to create a sense of surprise, Chen Ci did not ask any further questions. After arriving at Tianxiaju, the hostess led her to the door of the private room.
"Ms. Shen, your private room has arrived," the host greeted her politely before turning to leave. Shen Ci stood at the door, not going in immediately, but listening intently.
There were indeed people talking in the private room, so it seemed that Chen Yun had indeed made an appointment with others. However, the room wasn't very big, so he probably only invited a few of his closest friends.
She then tidied her clothes and hair, and pushed open the door to go inside. Chen Yun was chatting with two people on the sofa. Seeing her come in, he stood up with some delight: "Chen Ci, you're here?"
Chen Ci stood there, holding her bag, her brows furrowed slightly.
Chen Yun didn't invite any high school classmates at all; she invited her parents instead.
Seeing that she didn't look well, Chen Yun immediately explained to her, "It's like this, your aunt and uncle knew that I invited you to dinner today, so they came along too. After all, you haven't seen each other for a long time."
After listening to her, Chen Ci turned her head to look at him: "Chen Yun, I told you yesterday that you shouldn't interfere in my family's affairs, but you insist on being the peacemaker, right?"
Seeing this, Chen Ci's father quickly came over and said a few words on Chen Yun's behalf: "This has nothing to do with him. It was your mother and I who came up with this plan. Don't blame Xiao Chen."
"You want to ask me out to dinner, why don't you just say so?" Chen Ci glanced at her father, then her gaze swept over her mother. "You know I won't come if you just ask me out directly, right?"
Hearing her say that, Chen Ci's mother also sneered and stood up from the sofa: "Don't make it sound like we really want to have dinner with you. If your father hadn't dragged me here today, I wouldn't have come."
"Oh, in that case, everyone can go their separate ways then." Chen Ci said, turning around to leave, but Chen Yun stopped her.
"Don't be angry, let's talk things out."
Chen Ci said, "I've said everything that needs to be said before."
Chen Ci's father glanced at Chen Yun and said to him apologetically, "Xiao Chen, why don't you wait for us outside? We'll have a good talk with Xiao Ci."
"Alright, alright, you two take your time chatting, no rush." Chen Yun said as he walked out of the private room, closing the door behind him.
The atmosphere in the room was tense. Seeing that neither Chen Ci nor her mother intended to speak, Chen Ci's father had no choice but to speak up himself: "Xiao Ci, how have you been lately?"
"fine."
"Oh...how's work going?"
"Dad, if you have nothing to say, don't force the conversation."
"..."
Silence fell in the private room again. Chen Ci turned around, glanced at her parents, and said to them, "Since that's the case, I'll take this opportunity to make things clear to you. I don't care why you've been so close to Chen Yun, but after all these years, you don't still expect me to rekindle our old romance, do you?"
Chen Ci's father said, "That's not what we meant. It's just that Xiao Chen is really enthusiastic, and our two families know each other quite well. If you also..."
"I don't like him, so you can forget about it."
Chen Ci's father was taken aback for a moment, then looked her over carefully and asked, "Wait a minute, you're not in a relationship, are you?"
Chen Ci: "..."
She remained silent, and Chen Ci's father's gaze sharpened even more: "Who is it? What's their name? What do they do for a living?"
"..." This sounds exactly like what Zhou Shilin asked about Chen Yun that day.
Shen Ci's mother's gaze also fell on Shen Ci. Although Shen Ci's relationship with her family was not good at the moment, if it came to marriage, they couldn't possibly ignore this matter: "If you can't answer, do you also know that the other party is not presentable and we will not agree?"
Chen Ci looked at her mother and sneered, "Just because you agree to something doesn't mean it's acceptable. Do you think you have such good taste? Haven't you made any mistakes?"
Before Chen Ci's mother could speak, Chen Ci's father spoke first: "No, what do you mean by that? What are you implying?"
"..." Chen Ci glanced at her father and said to him, "I wasn't talking about you, don't overthink it."
Chenci's father: "..."
This makes it easier for people to overthink things.
Chen Ci's mother chuckled and looked at her, saying, "Then tell me, what did I misunderstand?"
Chen Ci clenched her hand holding the bag slightly, as if suppressing some emotion. After a while, she raised her head and looked directly at her mother: "Since I was little, you've always thought that I'm not good enough here or there. You always said that no one would like me because of me."
Chen Ci's mother pursed her lips and asked her in return, "Am I wrong? Back in school, didn't your classmates all dislike you?"
"So you still think that way, right?"
Chen Ci's mother was silent for a moment, not answering her question directly: "Then tell me, after you changed, did you become more and more popular with your classmates?"
Chen Ci lowered her eyes and chuckled softly, nodding and saying, "Yes, no one liked me before, but Zhou Shilin did!"
After she shouted those words with some force, the private room fell into an unprecedented silence.
Shen Ci's parents were clearly quite shocked by her words, not only by "liking" but also by the name Zhou Shilin.
—The combination of this name and this verb is absolutely devastating.
"Wait a minute, don't get excited, let me calm down first." Chen Ci's father rubbed his forehead, and after several seconds, he confirmed with her, "Did you just say Zhou Shilin? The one from Shijie Group?"
Chen Ci pursed her lips and didn't answer. She originally didn't want to involve Zhou Shilin, but she really wanted to tell her mother that there were people in this world who liked her, and that they were very, very outstanding people.
She didn't say anything, but her parents couldn't just pretend they hadn't heard: "You just said you're dating someone, could it be him?"
Chen Ci sniffed and said to his father, "I never said I was in a relationship, that was what you said."
"So you two are flirting now?" Shen Ci's father frowned. He took Shen Ci's love life very seriously. Even if the other person was Zhou Shilin, he wouldn't let him do anything reckless.
"You didn't make up this name on purpose to fool us, did you?" Chen Ci's mother was also somewhat skeptical of her words. "I know your company interviewed Zhou Shilin before. Is that when you met him?"
Chen Ci had no intention of getting entangled with them on this issue any further, and said directly, "That's not important. What I want to say is that there's no possibility between me and Chen Yun, so don't waste your time."
"Is there any possibility between you and Zhou Shilin?" Chen Ci's mother asked. "Okay, even if what you said is true, and he likes you now, can he like you forever?"
Chen Ci said, "Nothing in this world is eternal except death."
"..." Chen Ci's mother choked for a moment, "I'm talking to you about reality, don't try to talk to me about philosophy."
"So you think Chen Yun will like me forever?"
“It’s different.” This time it was Chen Ci’s father who spoke. “It’s not that we necessarily want Chen Yun, but compared to Zhou Shilin, Chen Yun is definitely easier to control. He wouldn’t dare to bully you because of us. Zhou Shilin…”
Even the board of directors of Shijie couldn't control him, let alone them.
“It’s too early for you to be thinking about these things now.” Chen Ci exhaled, composed herself, and said to her parents, “I’ve said what I needed to say. I think no one has much of an appetite right now, so I’ll be going now.”
After she finished speaking, she turned and left the private room. This time, her parents didn't stop her. She didn't see Chen Yun when she came out. Chen Ci didn't know where he had gone, nor did she care. She went straight to the elevator and pressed the button.
The elevator slowly ascended from the ground floor, floor by floor, until it reached Chen Ci's floor. The elevator doors opened with a "ding," and Chen Ci looked up, preparing to step inside, only to see Zhou Shilin standing inside.
Chen Ci was stunned for a moment, thinking she had misread it: "Zhou Shilin? You're eating here too?"
Zhou Shilin stepped out of the elevator and looked at her, asking, "Have you finished eating?"
"..."
Chen Ci kept her head down and didn't speak. Zhou Shilin looked at her for a while, then walked back into the elevator: "It seems you don't really want to eat here. Let's go somewhere else."
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Author's Note: This chapter took a while to write. [Chilling]
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