Chapter 59 You are the "gift" I wanted most in this whole drama.
After landing, Yan Shuang maintained a distance of half a step from Lin Chengyu.
She pursed her lips, trying to appear nonchalant, but the tips of her ears burned uncontrollably.
Lin Chengyu walked beside her, his hands in the pockets of his flight jacket, his shoulders maintaining just the right distance from hers. His gaze was straight ahead, his expression normal, as if the sudden kiss just now was really just some kind of "courtesy act".
The two walked silently toward the locker room.
When Yan Shuang came out after changing her clothes, she happened to see Lin Chengyu standing at the end of the corridor answering a phone call.
Suddenly, her gaze fixed on the back of his hand.
Several distinct red marks lay across his pale skin, the result of her pinching him hard during the flight due to nervousness.
Yan Shuang recalled how she had gripped his hand so tightly high in the air that her nails almost dug into his flesh. He had remained silent the entire time, letting her vent her fear, and even gently patted her when she closed her eyes in terror, silently comforting her.
He had so kindly brought her to experience flying, but she felt awkward because of an unintentional kiss.
That kiss wasn't anything special; it was just an instinctive reaction from a boy who grew up abroad in a romantic setting.
He also apologized for it.
Yan Shuang pursed her lips, a sense of guilt creeping over her.
Lin Chengyu hung up the phone and turned around, just in time to meet her complicated gaze. He was slightly taken aback, then followed her gaze to the back of his hand, and smiled knowingly: "It's okay, it doesn't hurt."
Yan Shuang wanted to say something, but saw that he had already naturally changed the subject: "Are you hungry?"
He stood against the light, his expression indistinct, but his eyes remained clear and bright, as if nothing had happened.
She found her awkwardness somewhat ridiculous, so she relaxed her shoulders and said with a smile, "Let me treat you to dinner as a way of thanking you."
Lin Chengyu's expression subtly changed.
He looked down at her, a smile still playing on his lips, but his eyes had turned cold: "Does my sister have to be so formal with me?"
Yan Shuang was taken aback and hadn't reacted yet when he continued, "If you really want to thank me," he raised his eyes, his gaze intense, "could you come home with me for dinner?"
"Go home?" Yan Shuang's eyes widened in surprise. "You have a home in Los Angeles?"
Lin Chengyu nodded, looking innocent: "Yeah, I just remembered."
"..." Yan Shuang was both amused and exasperated. "Then why did you say you weren't familiar with this place before?"
He touched the tip of his nose, a rare hint of embarrassment on his face: "The Lin family has too many overseas businesses. I only found out about this place after I landed here and did some research."
Yan Shuang finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Is this the troubles of a rich young master? Ordinary people book hotels when they go out, but he goes out to check his own property?
When Lin Chengyu saw her smile, his gaze softened as well.
"So, sister, would you like to come with me?" He paused, then added, "My mom is here too, and she keeps telling me to take you home for dinner."
Yan Shuang was taken aback, then realized that this was something that had been agreed upon in their "pretending to be a couple" contract long ago.
She nodded, her tone relaxed: "Okay, of course."
Lin Chengyu's fingers tightened slightly. Looking at her composed expression, he felt a strange tightness in his chest.
She agreed so readily simply because it was part of the contract.
"Let's go then." As he turned around, a perfect smile still lingered on his lips, but a hint of darkness flashed in his eyes.
"Wait, do I need to change into something more formal?"
Lin Chengyu turned around to look at her. She wore a simple white shirt and jeans, and her hair was still messy from the flight, but she looked so good that it made his heart flutter.
"No need." He reached out and brushed a stray hair from her shoulder. "It's fine as it is."
Yan Shuang didn't notice the lingering affection in his fingers; she simply looked down and rummaged through her bag: "At least bring some gifts, right? It's too impolite to show up empty-handed."
"We have everything we need at home." Lin Chengyu held her hand. "Your presence is the best gift."
He spoke casually, but silently added in his heart: After all, you are the gift I want most in this play.
A black Bentley slowly drove into the villa gate.
Through the car window, Yan Shuang saw a bronze statue of the sun god Apollo standing in the central fountain pool of the French-style symmetrical garden. Water jets gushed out from the gaps in the seven-stringed lyre. The hydrangea avenues on both sides were a hundred meters long, with blue and purple flower balls clustered around the marble benches like clouds.
The main building is in the Neoclassical style, with an ivory-white facade inlaid with Palladian arched windows and six Corinthian columns supporting a three-meter-high portico.
Yan Shuang looked on in surprise. This manor was clearly quite old, with the vines on the walls showing the marks of time.
Being able to preserve such an industrial area in Los Angeles is not just a symbol of wealth, but also a legacy accumulated over generations.
Suddenly, the fawning smiles of my parents appeared before my eyes.
If her parents saw this estate, they'd probably pack her bags and send it over right there in the middle of the night.
But what if in the future...
She could almost foresee the scene: one day, after politely saying goodbye to Lin Chengyu, she would return home to face her parents' utterly disappointed eyes. Her father would rustle the newspaper, while her mother would say in that familiar tone, "How could you be so incompetent?"
She began to regret agreeing to pretend to be Lin Chengyu's girlfriend.
If he were just an ordinary rich kid, perhaps his parents wouldn't have been so disappointed when they broke up.
The car stopped.
Lin Chengyu leaned over and unbuckled her seatbelt, noticing a slight pause in the breathing beside him.
He looked up and met Yan Shuang's eyes, which had been sparkling just moments before, now seemed like the moon obscured by clouds, suddenly dimmed.
"What's wrong?"
Yan Shuang seemed to suddenly wake up, and hurriedly shook her head: "It's nothing..."
She paused, then smiled and said, "I just feel like you're too good for me, I'm almost not good enough for you."
Even though they were just a couple in name only, she felt like Cinderella who had wandered into a noble ball, and that she would be exposed at any moment when the clock struck midnight.
Lin Chengyu's expression suddenly turned cold.
Yan Shuang could feel the sudden drop in his aura, but she didn't know where this anger came from.
He stared at her forced smile and said seriously, "It's not good enough."
Yan Shuang paused slightly, blinking in confusion. She hadn't expected her casual remark to make him reflect so seriously. A pang of guilt rose in her heart, and she quickly shook her head, "That's not what I meant..."
They were only pretending to be a couple, yet she was overthinking things and even made him feel guilty for no reason.
“Let’s go,” she said, opening the car door and extending her hand to Lin Chengyu. “Don’t keep Auntie waiting.”
Lin Chengyu looked at her outstretched hand, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
The unspoken words lingered in his throat. He wanted to say that he wasn't good enough, not good enough to make her lower her guard, not good enough to make her believe that the relationship could last.
That's not enough... to make her fall in love with him.
But in the end, he only curled the corners of his mouth and suppressed those surging emotions back into his heart.
He took her hand and intertwined their fingers: "Okay, I'll listen to my sister."
Two rows of servants stood under the portico supported by Roman columns on the main building.
A middle-aged female housekeeper in a cheongsam came forward and respectfully opened the car door: "Young Master, Miss Yan, Madam has been waiting for a long time."
As Yan Shuang followed Lin Chengyu into the entrance hall, she heard hurried footsteps coming from the stairs.
"Shuangshuang is here!"
Lin's mother rushed down the spiral staircase, her silk cheongsam billowing as she nearly tripped on a step. Lin Chengyu reacted quickly, catching his mother, but she slapped him aside, saying, "Get out of the way! Don't block my view of my daughter-in-law!"
Yan Shuang stood frozen in place, the words "daughter-in-law" ringing in her ears.
Before she could react, her hands were tightly grasped by Lin's mother. "The last time I saw you was in the summer. How come you've lost weight again? Has Cheng Yu not been taking you out to eat properly?"
"Mom." Lin Chengyu stepped in, forcefully separating the two, "You scared her."
"I'm scary?" Lin's mother's eyes widened. "Shuangshuang, tell me, is Auntie scary?"
"You...are so kind." Yan Shuang smiled and shook her head.
"Did you hear that?" Lin's mother raised an eyebrow at her son triumphantly.
She affectionately took Yan Shuang's arm and walked towards the restaurant. "I only know that you like Chinese food, but I don't know exactly what you like to eat, so I asked the kitchen to prepare some of everything for you to try."
Yan Shuang nodded politely: "Thank you for your trouble, Auntie."
She genuinely liked Lin's mother, a once powerful businesswoman who acted like a kind neighbor in front of her, without any airs.
But the moment she stepped into the restaurant, she froze.
This is hardly what you call "preparing something".
The six-meter-long Italian-style dining table was laden with a dazzling array of dishes.
In the very center of the gilded nine-dragon cauldron, the imperial Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup is steaming with wisps of hot air. In the aroma of twenty-year-old Shaoxing wine, you can vaguely see Luzon yellow lip glue, Liaodong sea cucumber and Tibetan morel mushrooms floating in the amber soup base.
On the left side, in a gilded enamel plate, the roast suckling pig gleams like agate, with rose-colored textures showing through the crispy skin. It is paired with sesame pancakes freshly baked by a Yangzhou chef and sweet bean sauce smoked with lychee wood from Lingnan.
On the ice boat carved from a single piece of Hetian jade on the right, there are thin slices of peony fish, as thin as Xuan paper. The fattest crescent-shaped meat of the Yangtze River knife fish is carved into a blooming peony on the ice, and dewdrops made of carrots are adorning the gills.
The maids presented the cloisonné insulated bowls one by one:
"This is the squirrel-shaped mandarin fish from Suzhou Prefecture. The sauce must be made fresh."
Hot crab roe sauce is poured over the golden-fried fish, which has a pine cone carved from chicken meat in its mouth and its tail sticking up high.
The eight delicacies main course were laid out along the table:
Studded with silver sprouts: Bird's nest strands are threaded into the hearts of bean sprouts and poached in chicken soup until they become translucent.
Precious Pearl: Boneless braised bear paw, stuffed with quail eggs and dried scallops;
A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix: Nine kinds of birds, including pigeon eggs, quail, and doves, are steamed in layers.
...
Twenty-four kinds of fine pastries from Beijing and Suzhou are displayed on the pastry shelf:
The goose fat pastry is layered like snow, with each layer sandwiched with shredded ham and Longjing tea powder;
The three-colored rice cake is shaped like a ruyi (a traditional Chinese ornament symbolizing good fortune) and inlaid with jujube paste, red bean paste, and lotus seed paste.
The little yellow duck is carved from pea flour cake, with two black sesame seeds for its eyes.
...
On the dining table, beside a gilded rice bowl, seven pieces of tableware were neatly arranged: a rhinoceros horn spoon for tasting soup, ebony chopsticks for picking up vegetables, a silver knife for slicing roasted meat, and a jade cup for serving sweet soup...
...
"This..." Yan Shuang opened her mouth, but was at a loss for words.
Lin's mother patted her hand with a smile: "I didn't know if you preferred sweet or savory, so I prepared a little of both."
Is this what you call "a little bit"?
Yan Shuang subconsciously looked at Lin Chengyu, only to see him looking helpless: "Mom, there are only three of us."
"What does it matter?" Lin's mother said matter-of-factly. "The leftovers can be given to the servants as a late-night snack!" She pulled Yan Shuang to sit down in the main seat. "Come, try this crab meat lion's head meatball. I specially invited a chef from Yangzhou to make it."
An exquisite blue-and-white porcelain bowl was pushed in front of her, the lion's head meatballs soaking in a clear broth, emitting an enticing aroma. Yan Shuang carefully scooped up a spoonful, and the delicious flavor instantly exploded on her tongue.
"Is it delicious?" Lin's mother asked expectantly.
Yan Shuang nodded and exclaimed sincerely, "It's so delicious! I've never had anything so authentic before."
Lin's mother immediately beamed and picked up another piece of honey-glazed ham for her: "Then try this one!"
In the blink of an eye, the plates in front of Yan Shuang were piled up into a small mountain.
Yan Shuang looked at the mountain of dishes in front of her. Lin's mother kept adding food to her plate, muttering, "You're too thin, you need to eat more."
She looked at Lin Chengyu for help, only to see him resting his chin on his hand, gazing at her tenderly.
Yan Shuang recalled the dining table at her home, where the clatter of bowls and chopsticks was more frequent than conversation, and the only conversations were mostly about Yan You. Now, Lin's mother was vividly recounting embarrassing stories from Lin Chengyu's childhood, even slapping the table and laughing heartily as she spoke; although Lin Chengyu called out "Mom" with a helpless expression, the corners of his mouth remained turned up.
"Shuangshuang, try this sweet fermented rice balls," Lin's mother suddenly scooped a spoonful of sweet soup into her bowl. "When Cheng Yu's father was pursuing me, he sent this to my house every day."
The warm sweet soup slid down my throat, the rich aroma of glutinous rice mixed with a hint of wine.
The halo of the crystal chandelier enveloped the three of them, casting warm reflections on the gleaming ebony dining table.
The warmth of this moment is so real.
Yan Shuang couldn't help but think, if only this really were her home.
The thought flashed through her mind so quickly that she was startled and immediately lowered her head to eat.
"I'll be staying in Los Angeles for two weeks to see the spring fashion shows." Lin's mother placed her hand on Yan Shuang's hand. "Shuang Shuang, come over for dinner with me when you have time, okay?"
Yan Shuang nodded almost without hesitation: "Of course, it's my duty."
As soon as she said it, she realized what she had said and quickly added, "And I also really enjoy spending time with Auntie."
That's the truth.
Lin's mother has a reassuring quality; she is neither as tense as her own mother nor as aloof as other wealthy wives.
She is cheerful and enthusiastic. When she laughs, fine lines appear at the corners of her eyes. When she gets excited while talking, she will unconsciously slap the table, just like a lively young girl.
Hearing her answer, Lin's mother's eyes lit up: "Then it's settled!" She turned to look at her son and winked meaningfully, "Cheng Yu, remember to bring Shuangshuang over on time every day."
Lin Chengyu slowly wiped the corner of his mouth, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes: "Okay."
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