Chapter 28 The Gift
After the dinner, before Luo Xincheng went to take a shower.
The housekeeper suddenly found her and respectfully handed her a beautifully wrapped gift box.
"This is a Christmas gift that Mr. Fu Zhiheng asked me to give to you." The butler's face was adorned with the same gentle smile he had worn for over a decade, his voice carrying a hint of teasing. "He said it was an early Christmas present for you."
Luo Xincheng: "Huh?"
Christmas?
There's still more than a month to go.
She frowned, looking somewhat annoyed. "Why didn't you give it to me yourself?"
Are you resorting to these underhanded tactics because you're afraid of being rejected by her in person?
The butler smiled without saying a word, simply holding the gift box high with both hands.
Luo Xincheng looked at the box, hesitated for a moment, and then took it.
Although she was very curious about what was inside, she did not open it immediately after returning to her room.
She was wearing full makeup, making her skin feel suffocated. The jewelry she was wearing was also quite heavy, and the dress she was wearing was too tight, constricting her waist...
In short, all sorts of discomfort prevented her from sitting down properly to unwrap the gifts.
*
It was three hours later when I finished showering and doing my basic skincare routine.
She casually tied her freshly oiled hair into a loose bun, creating a full shape with an indescribable sense of relaxation—even more perfect than a carefully styled bun she made on a whim.
She looked at herself in the mirror from left to right and smiled silently.
She washed off the remaining hair oil from her hands, dried them, and finally began to unwrap the gifts.
What could be inside?
During the dismantling process, Luo Xincheng inevitably thought of the gifts Fu Zhiheng had given her.
He's quite a ritualistic person; he always prepares a gift for her on her birthday or other special occasions.
Some of them he bought with his part-time wages, and some he made himself.
Of all the gifts, the one that left the deepest impression on Luo Xincheng, besides the opal ring he gave her, was a sweater.
A cardigan sweater, mostly green, with three-dimensional flowers of varying sizes adorning the collar and cuffs. I don't know what kind of yarn it was made of, but it felt incredibly soft to the touch and had a hazy, oil painting-like appearance.
It was a pattern that looked very difficult to knit, so Luo Xincheng remembered it quite clearly.
When she first received it, she couldn't believe that it was actually knitted by Fu Zhiheng himself, stitch by stitch.
But she knew Fu Zhiheng would never lie about something like this, so she could only accept reality in shock.
"How do your hands even grow like that...?"
She looked at the three-dimensional crochet flowers on the sweater, touching them in disbelief. The stitches were very dense, and the layers of petals had a great sense of depth. Could Fu Zhiheng really have woven this?
She put down the sweater and took his right hand in her arms. His fingers were slender and bony, and she could clearly feel the thick calluses left by years of writing between his middle fingers. His nails were short and rounded.
Are such hands not only beautiful, but also incredibly skillful?
"You're so virtuous... You must have been knitting for a long time, right?"
"Fortunately, it took about a month to knit in total."
Fu Zhiheng felt a little itchy as she haphazardly touched his hand, so he couldn't help but cup his fingers and wrap her smaller hand in his palm.
"How do you like it?"
He looked at her, his eyes brimming with expectation.
Without hesitation, she nodded, "Of course!"
Who wouldn't love such beautiful clothes?
He smiled contentedly, with a hint of pride in being praised.
"So, will you wear it?"
She smiled at him, and her answer was exactly the same as before.
"certainly!"
Won't.
I actually only wore it for a photoshoot, and after taking it off, I completely put it away and never wore it out again.
Looking back now, was Fu Zhiheng's reason for giving him that sweater also a Christmas gift?
Same as today's.
Just as she was thinking of this, she tore off the ribbon and opened the gift box lid.
Inside was a small jewelry box, and... an invitation?
The translucent envelope was tied with a green lace ribbon, and an intricately patterned sealing wax stamp was placed on pink dried flowers.
Luo Xincheng suddenly felt at a loss. He held the envelope in his hand and looked at it over and over for a while before slowly opening the envelope and taking out the paper inside with his fingertips.
Sure enough, it was an invitation to his birthday party.
The date was January 27th, which was exactly the day before Lunar New Year's Eve.
Luo Xincheng skimmed through the text on the invitation, his face gradually contorting with pain.
Her words were filled with expectation, but please allow her to refuse.
She really dislikes attending banquets; pretending to be proper is exhausting.
Besides, her birthday isn't until a few months away, so why send her an invitation now?
Could it be that you're thinking that even if you get rejected, you'll still have plenty of time to try again?
Luo Xincheng reluctantly stuffed the invitation back into the envelope, wishing she could pretend she hadn't even read its contents.
She then picked up the jewelry box, her somber expression suggesting she was waiting for some kind of disciplinary notice, rather than a Christmas present.
The moment the box was opened, the large, multicolored diamond on the deep blue velvet inner tray instantly refracted beams of dazzling iridescent light, flashing past her eyes.
Luo Xincheng's breath hitched, and his eyes widened little by little.
Holy crap, those colored diamonds are huge and incredibly sparkly...
It's no exaggeration to say that her room seemed to have brightened up by an octave.
Even though she had seen countless pieces of jewelry, at this moment, she couldn't help but be captivated by the breathtaking beauty of these diamond earrings.
The AB style earrings feature a rare fancy intense pink 11a-shaped diamond on the left and a fancy intense yellow-green diamond with IF clarity on the right, both weighing over five carats. They sparkled brilliantly under the room lights, so bright that Luo Xincheng could barely open her eyes.
And coincidentally, she had just seen these earrings at Sotheby's spring auction earlier this year.
However, she was short of money and had to keep her distance from the eight-figure auction items, fearing that she might like them but not be able to afford them, which would cause her great distress.
So even though she took a liking to the earrings at first glance, she didn't dare to look at them for more than a second.
Unexpectedly, after many twists and turns, the pair of earrings ended up in her hands.
She couldn't help but gasp, and her hands holding the jewelry box began to tremble.
Fu Zhiheng was only recognized by the Fu family two years ago, wasn't he?
How much money have they made in the last two years? Giving away jewelry worth tens of millions of yuan like that?!
This is just too... a real test...
Unable to contain her overwhelming joy, she couldn't help but roll around on the bed, clutching the jewelry box.
My initial firm decision not to attend his birthday party began to waver.
I'm sorry, she's just a little girl who's easily swayed by money.
Ugh, the banquet is so crowded and boring. I don't want to go.
But the gemstone earrings he gave me were so big and so sparkly, it was so hard to refuse...
Aaaaaah!
She screamed silently in her heart, "Why would you use such a beautiful pink diamond to test someone?!"
That's so cunning!
Overwhelmed by the huge surprise, Luo Xincheng was dizzy and only managed to calm down after rolling around several times.
Calm down, Luo Xincheng.
Although both diamonds boast top-tier color saturation and clarity, it's not like you can't afford them...
I'm just a little reluctant to bleed a lot.
Don't act like you've never seen the world before, easily going against your own will for these things, okay?
Similar thoughts swirled in Luo Xincheng's mind. She inhaled and exhaled, then opened the jewelry box again, intending to take a few more glances before finding an opportunity to return it.
Yes, we still have to return it.
Although she was reluctant, she would have accepted the gift he gave her today if it was less than a million, since she could always return the favor with something of similar value later.
But it would be a bit difficult for her to pay it off on her own.
It would be better not to accept it at all.
Moreover, after returning home, she could refuse his birthday party with even more confidence.
With that in mind, she decisively picked up her phone and took a picture of the earrings.
I've had it, so it wasn't a loss.
However, when she took out an earring to examine it closely, she suddenly noticed that something was wrong with the jewelry box. The velvet inner tray was smaller and looser than the box itself, and the tray shifted slightly when she took out the earring.
It looks like it was added separately later, and it doesn't match the original box.
how so?
With a heart full of doubt, she carefully took out the two earrings, placed them aside, and finally lifted the inner cover.
There was something else hidden at the bottom of the box.
She wondered what this person was up to so mysteriously, and then picked up the business card and glanced at it.
Unlike the simple, business-style business card he had given him last time, this one was an ambiguous pinkish-orange color, printed with gold foil patterns and exquisite embossing. If you held it up close, you could even smell a faint, sweet fragrance.
So flashy...
She was at a loss for words, both amused and exasperated.
And why hide the business card so well? What if she didn't notice?
It would be more natural for it to be placed together with the invitation...
etc.
She paused for a moment, then suddenly realized something, and quickly turned over to reach for the envelope that had been placed on the bedside table, opened it, and poured it out.
The invitation fluttered down onto the bed sheet, and a business card followed suit.
...
So it was placed in both locations.
Haha, that's very meticulous.
Luo Xincheng wiped her face with mixed feelings.
She didn't see the business card that was placed in an obvious position, but she found the one that was hidden.
That's quite dramatic.
After composing herself, she glanced at the phone number on the business card, then at the gemstone earrings, and without further hesitation, quickly added his account using the new WeChat account she had registered with at university.
After sending the friend request, she looked at the chat-only settings in her friend permissions and decided against it.
Anyway, there wasn't much on her WeChat Moments.
I glanced at the time again, and it was already midnight.
It's so late, I wonder if he's asleep yet.
...
Of course I didn't sleep.
How could I possibly fall asleep?
Ever since the gift was given, Fu Zhiheng has been glued to his phone, constantly checking his new friends list, afraid of missing anything.
I tossed and turned, filled with anxiety.
After washing up and past his usual bedtime, he tossed and turned in bed, staring at the unresponsive WeChat screen, and began to wonder if he had misplaced his business card.
A business card should be placed in the largest box as well, that would make it more noticeable.
But it's too late to regret it now.
He could only wait anxiously.
I waited until midnight before a red dot finally appeared on the contacts screen.
Upon clicking, it was indeed her friend request.
He stared blankly at the application interface for a long time, making sure it wasn't a hallucination, before finally moving his finger to click "Apply".
The next second, faced with a blank chat interface, he fell into deep thought, struggling with what to say as an opening line.
Before he could even come up with a solution, the other party's message popped up first.
Luo Xincheng: [I really don't like attending banquets or crowded places, so I won't be attending your birthday party. I'm sorry.]
...I was rejected without hesitation.
Moreover, it really had such an official, businesslike tone.
Fu Zhiheng banged his head against the pillow in frustration.
Luo Xincheng: [Also, I can't accept something for nothing. The Christmas gift you sent early is too expensive, and it would be a bit difficult for me to reciprocate, so I don't plan to accept it. I'll return it to you when I have time.]
He wouldn't even accept gifts.
Fu Zhiheng stared intently at the words until a blurry double image appeared before his eyes, then buried his face in the pillow as if trying to escape reality.
I wish I could just smother myself to death.
Ding-dong.
A notification sound for a new message rang.
Fu Zhiheng, who was on the verge of suffocating, instantly pulled his face out of the pillow and looked at his phone.
Luo Xincheng: [I have a cousin who shares the same birthday as me. He has many friends and loves being around people. Every year he invites a lot of people to his birthday party, and I often celebrate my birthday with him.]
Luo Xincheng: [So, if you don't mind, you're welcome to come to our shared birthday party.]
Fu Zhiheng's dark eyes reflected the screen's deep blue light, and his lifeless heart began to beat strongly again.
Of course I don't mind.
How could I possibly mind?
Author's Note: It's getting colder and colder, and so is my comment section. I'm giving away thirty small red envelopes in this chapter to let me know I'm not just chuckling to myself, sob sob [melting emoji]
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