Chapter 52 I like her very much too.
The atmosphere became a little awkward for a moment, but Zhou Shilin, who was used to all kinds of things, only paused for a brief moment before coming to his senses and extending his hand to Chen Ci's father: "Hello, Uncle Chen, I am Zhou Shilin."
Shen Ci's father's gaze naturally fell on him. The Shen family didn't have much business dealings with Shijie Group; it was just that his older brother and Chairman Zhou had some interactions before. The chairman was still the same chairman, but Shijie Group had actually been handed over to Zhou Shilin.
He had met Zhou Shilin a few times before at business summits, but they had only exchanged brief glances and hadn't spoken a word. Today, however, Zhou Shilin took the initiative to extend his hand and greet him.
It's all thanks to his daughter's influence. :)
“Mr. Zhou of Shijie Group, it’s an honor to meet you.” Chen Ci’s father shook his hand back, still with that forced smile. “I over there was talking about Mr. Zhou bringing a young female companion, and everyone was really curious. I was also curious, so I came up to see what was going on. I didn’t expect it to be my daughter.”
Chen Ci: "..."
Dad, spend less time in internet cafes.
"It was indeed my oversight that I hadn't met my uncle and aunt yet."
“Then someone else must have been negligent.” Shen Ci’s father’s sharp gaze turned to Shen Ci again. Shen Ci swallowed the shrimp in her mouth, coughed lightly, and said with a smile, “It’s like this, my dad heard that I went to see Uncle Zhou and Aunt Sun, so he said he would invite you to dinner as well, but I just haven’t found the time yet, hahaha.”
Chen Ci's father chuckled twice, "It's alright, if you don't make the arrangements, God will take care of it."
"..." Yes, that's right.
"Your mother is over there too, go over and say hello."
Shen Ci pursed her lips slightly. She didn't want to see her mother, to avoid another argument, but this was a banquet hosted by someone else, and she had even bumped into her father. She couldn't pretend she hadn't seen her mother. Zhou Shilin knew that Shen Ci and her mother had a complicated relationship, and she must have kept quiet about Uncle Shen's invitation to dinner for the same reason.
He looked down at Chen Ci, as if waiting for her to make a decision.
"Alright, let's go say hello then." Chen Ci put down what she was holding, picked up a tissue to wipe her mouth, and followed her father over.
Chen Ci's mother, dressed in a long red dress, was chatting and laughing with someone while holding a wine glass. Her favorite long, wavy hair was draped over her shoulders, with one side tucked behind her ear, revealing a large gold earring. Even among a group of elegantly dressed people, she was always the most eye-catching one.
Chen Ci spotted her mother immediately. When she went out with her mother in high school, people always said they looked like sisters. In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed, but her mother doesn't seem to have aged at all.
It makes sense when you think about it, after all, her mother usually does all kinds of care and maintenance, and this beauty is all bought with money.
"Isn't that President Zhou from Shijie?" Before Chen Ci and Zhou Shilin even got close to them, some people had already recognized Zhou Shilin and started whispering among themselves.
Chen Ci's mother looked over and saw Chen Ci walking with Zhou Shilin.
The two of them looked like they were wearing matching outfits, with many small details on their clothes that complemented each other. Chen Ci's mother raised her hand, took a sip of the red wine in her glass, and smiled in Chen Ci's direction: "What did I tell you? Clothes make the man. Dressed up like this, you actually look quite presentable."
Among the women talking to her, one seemed to recognize Chen Ci and said with some surprise, "Is this your Chen Ci? I haven't seen her in a long time. She's grown more and more beautiful."
Chen Ci greeted the uncles and aunts with a smile, and everyone's eyes were drawn to Zhou Shilin.
The news that Zhou Shilin had brought his girlfriend to the banquet had already spread far and wide, but no one expected that his girlfriend would be Chen Ci.
"Mr. Zhou, hello. This isn't our first meeting, is it?" Chen Ci's mother smiled and greeted Zhou Shilin.
Zhou Shilin said, "I was deeply impressed by President Lin's speech on stage at the last Entrepreneur Summit."
Chen Ci's mother chuckled and said, "Last time, President Zhou was surrounded by a crowd of people, and I didn't even have a chance to go up and say hello. I didn't expect that President Zhou would remember me."
As she spoke, her gaze swept over Zhou Shilin and Shen Ci again: "Did President Zhou come with Shen Ci today?"
Zhou Shilin nodded and said to her, "It's not very convenient to talk here. Why don't we go to the lounge to sit down?"
There were indeed many eyes watching them. Chen Ci's mother put down her wine glass, said something to the others, and then walked towards the lounge with Zhou Shilin. Chen Ci and her father followed behind them, feeling that Zhou Shilin's meeting with her mother didn't seem like meeting the parents at all, but rather like discussing business.
Just then, Chen Ci's father remarked quietly from the side, "I have a feeling that President Zhou and President Lin have some business to discuss. Would it be inappropriate for us to go and listen in?"
Chen Ci: "..."
The lounge next to the banquet hall was an elegant suite. After the waiter brought tea as instructed by Zhou Shilin, he quietly closed the door. Chen Ci and her father found a corner seat and left the center of attention to her mother and Zhou Shilin.
In a sense, her mother and Zhou Shilin are indeed the same kind of people. Both of them were born into privilege, had outstanding looks, and were first-rate in social skills. They were never short of admirers.
But on the other hand, the two are completely opposite.
No one spoke for a moment in the lounge. It was Chen Ci's mother who broke the silence with a smile: "How long have Mr. Zhou and Shen Ci known each other?"
Zhou Shilin said, "It's not long, a little over two months."
Chen Ci's mother nodded and tasted a piece of fruit on the table: "It really wasn't long. In such a short time, she was able to tell you everything. It seems she really likes you."
Chen Ci: "..."
Last time she argued with her mother at Tianxiaju, she mentioned that Zhou Shilin said he liked her as she was. Although it was only that one sentence, it's not hard to infer that she told Zhou Shilin about her illness.
Although it was all true, she still felt a little embarrassed to hear such a confession from her mother out of the blue.
Fortunately, Zhou Shilin responded, "I like her very much too."
The room fell silent for a moment, and everyone except Zhou Shilin felt a little awkward.
Everyone else felt awkward, but Chen Ci didn't.
It still has to be Zhou Shilin.
Chen Ci's mother coughed lightly and spoke again: "Then she must have said a lot of bad things about me in front of you."
Chen Ci couldn't help but retort, "Everything I said is true, not a single word of it is slander against you."
Chen Ci's mother chuckled and said to Zhou Shilin, "Then I'll take this opportunity to tell you a few facts, Mr. Zhou. When Chen Ci was little, she attended a private school. Her classmates all came from well-off families, and many of them had business dealings with us. But what about her? She relied on her martial arts skills and would hit people at the drop of a hat. Do you know how many people she offended? That time she and her father secretly went to the martial arts school without telling me, how did her grandfather find out? Because she hit another classmate, and that classmate's grandfather was a good friend of her grandfather's, so he complained to her grandfather directly. In Mr. Zhou's opinion, should I support her learning martial arts?"
Chen Ci stood up abruptly from the sofa: "None of the classmates I beat up were innocent. They deserved to be beaten. I think I didn't hit them hard enough!"
Chen Ci's mother looked at her and asked, "Who decides whether someone is innocent or not, whether they deserve to be beaten? You? Or do you want to decide all the court rulings?"
Shen Ci pursed her lips and remained silent. Zhou Shilin spoke up for Shen Ci, saying, "She was too young at that time, so it's understandable that she acted impulsively. What parents should do is guide them correctly, rather than simply negating them."
"Didn't I talk to her? Didn't I ask her to change? I even went to her martial arts gym to talk to her coach." Chen Ci's mother seemed to have a lot to say and wanted to say it all today. "Chen Ci, you tell me, did these things happen?"
Chen Ci didn't speak. Her father cleared his throat and said, "Xiao Ci has a rather stubborn personality. She can't stand seeing others being bullied, which is why she wanted to learn martial arts. You did talk to her about it, but this isn't something that can be resolved with just one talk; it requires a gradual process..."
"How dare you speak like that? It's because you spoiled her and supported her 'heroic deeds' that she turned out like that!" Chen Ci's mother turned to look at Chen Ci's father. "Don't you know how strong she is? She was young then, and the classmates she beat up were also young. If you had gone through it step by step, would the classmates she beat up have survived that long?"
"..." Chen Ci's father coughed dryly, "That's a bit of an exaggeration."
"Exaggeration, yes, anyway, I wasn't the one who went to the hospital with gifts to apologize to others."
Chenci's father: "..."
"Later, I suggested she learn something else, like piano and painting. Did you choose those yourself? And what happened? As soon as I went on a business trip, you and your dad still secretly went to the martial arts school behind my back, and it even got to your grandfather's face. If I had known even a little about it, I wouldn't have been in such a passive position in front of your grandfather back then."
“Yes, it’s all my fault.” Chen Ci looked at her and laughed. “It’s my fault that you got scolded by your grandfather, it’s my fault that you lost the company’s project, so you want to divorce my dad and have another child, right!”
After Shen Ci finished speaking, the room fell silent again. This incident happened a long, long time ago, but the family of three remembered it very clearly. However, in Shen Ci's parents' memory, they started arguing after Shen Ci had fallen asleep.
Chen Ci's father was stunned for a moment, then frowned as he looked at Chen Ci: "You heard all of that? Weren't you asleep at the time?"
Chen Ci suddenly didn't know if her father was really stupid or pretending to be stupid: "You guys are making such a loud noise, if I'm not awake yet, then it's not as simple as just being asleep."
Chenci's father: "..."
No wonder, no wonder the porcelain started to change after that day.
For a long time, no one spoke in the lounge. Zhou Shilin poured everyone a cup of tea to ease the tense atmosphere: "Have some tea, calm down."
Chen Ci looked at the tea Zhou Shilin poured and muttered softly, "She should drink some loofah soup."
"Heh." Chen Ci's mother looked at her and sneered. She picked up the tea that Zhou Shilin had poured for her and took a sip. "I didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of President Zhou today, but regarding what happened back then, President Zhou shouldn't just listen to Chen Ci's side of the story."
Zhou Shilin said, "Everyone does have their own perspective. Different angles lead to different views. Chen Ci was just expressing her feelings. I believe she didn't mean to smear you."
At this point, he picked up a cup of tea and handed it to Chen Ci so that she could moisten her throat, before speaking again: "But no matter what, Chen Ci was just an eleven or twelve-year-old child back then. She could only understand so much. You are adults, and moreover, her parents. She had such a serious illness and even attempted suicide. Your problems are indeed very serious."
Shen Ci's father, who was holding a cup of tea, suddenly couldn't drink it anymore. He knew that he and Shen Ci's mother were responsible, especially after Shen Ci's wrist-cutting incident. They had reflected on their actions and compromised, otherwise they wouldn't have let Shen Ci stay in China to study, and even distanced herself from them for a time.
But one thing is one thing. When he approached Zhou Shilin today, he never expected that Zhou Shilin would be sitting here lecturing them.
Is that correct?
He put the teacup back on the table and looked at Chen Ci, saying, "Xiao Ci, your father and I have been reflecting on ourselves over the years. In your eyes, we may have fallen out, but we also wanted to take this opportunity to give you your own space and let you catch your breath. Your mother does have high expectations for you and wants to raise you to be a second version of herself, but more than that, she definitely hopes that you can live a good life."
Chen Ci, however, did not quite believe his explanation: "When we met at Tianxiaju last time, my mother said that she did not think she was wrong."
"I don't think I did anything wrong in preventing you from learning martial arts and in asking you to change your image and personality." Chen Ci's mother also put down her teacup. "Didn't you reap the benefits of these changes?"
“But she also paid a price,” Zhou Shilin said. “She did say that a world where everyone likes her and a world where everyone hates her are two completely different worlds. But these things didn’t come for free. Was what she gave up proportional to what she got? For her young self at the time, perhaps the whole world’s hatred for her was not as hurtful as her mother’s hatred for her.”
Chen Ci's mother's lips twitched, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she seemed to swallow those words and let out a light laugh: "I am indeed not a qualified mother, you can think that way."
Chen Ci's father had previously disagreed with her, but now he couldn't help but speak up for her: "You're under a lot of pressure too. I didn't do well back then either. Sigh, it's not easy for anyone, it's not easy for anyone."
He was down for a moment, then suddenly made a 180-degree turn: "But, we invited President Zhou here today not to listen to you lecturing us."
He was puzzled. Zhou Shilin was supposed to be a junior, so how could he lecture them so naturally?
"We want to ask about you and our Xiaoci."
After hearing what Shen Ci's father said, Shen Ci's mother changed the subject: "Since President Zhou attended the banquet with Shen Ci today, he must be serious about her, right? Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so protective of her just now."
Zhou Shilin explained, "I was just stating the facts and didn't mean to offend either of you."
Chenci's father: "..."
Weren't you offensive enough just now?
A knock came from outside, and a waiter reminded him, "Mr. Zhou, the charity auction is about to begin."
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