Chapter 52. To pursue you, all you need to do is stand still, and I will walk away...
That evening, the nightlights in the Jing family garden were peaceful and warm. The Jing family's nanny prepared a large table full of delicious food, and everyone dined at the outdoor table in the Jing family garden.
The stars twinkled softly across the sky, the purple hydrangeas in the courtyard were in full bloom, and even the cicadas sang a warm and gentle song.
When Jing's father saw Guan Bohan, he immediately became annoyed and snorted, "You brat, what are you doing here!"
"Uncle Jing~" Guan Bohan fawned over him, trying to get closer to him, "I just missed you!"
"Give me a break!" Mr. Jing scoffed. "I always ask you to come over and have some tea and a chat, and you always say you're too busy! Busier than the Prime Minister! Today you came uninvited, who knows what kind of mischief you're up to!"
The people at the table couldn't help but chuckle. Guan Bohan touched his nose somewhat embarrassedly and said reluctantly, "Then why did you scold me but not him?"
He was referring to the sunken boat crossing.
Jing's father snorted again and pointed to the half-finished tea beside him, "This tea you're drinking was just delivered for the Dragon Boat Festival!"
"..." Guan Bohan had completely become a clown.
The nanny brought out the last bowl of soup, and the Jing family then got everyone to start eating.
The Jing family first raised their glasses together with tea instead of wine to express their sincere gratitude to Xia Chan.
Chen Zhoudu gazed calmly at Xia Chan, a smile playing on his lips.
Xia Chan raised her glass in return, saying there was no need for thanks. After all, if they originally intended to treat her as one of their own and didn't want her to be polite, then she shouldn't thank them so formally.
Her words brought comfort to the Jing family, and the atmosphere became more relaxed. Jing's mother, Lin Lan, warmly served her food and told her not to be shy and to eat freely.
Worried that she might not recognize Chen Zhoudu and Guan Bohan, she specially explained to her, "Xia Chan, you might not recognize them. This is Zhoudu, and this is Bohan. Although they are not family, they are almost like family. We didn't expect them to come here suddenly today. Zixi didn't tell us either. You can eat your food and don't need to be so formal with them!"
Xia Chan glanced at Chen Zhoudu and Guan Bohan, their eyes meeting meaningfully, and couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. She thought to herself, "We know each other."
Not only do we know each other, we're very close.
"I know her." She casually looked away and smiled at Jing's mother, "I've seen her on TV."
Jing's mother seemed to only then remember that Shen Zhoudu and Guan Bohan were now celebrities. She paused for a moment, then clapped her hands in reproach, "Oh! Look... I've watched them grow up since they were little, and I'd completely forgotten that they're both on screen every day now. In the blink of an eye, they've grown up. I still think of them as children. Xia Chan, please don't mind."
"They're all getting on in years, but none of them are getting married or finding a partner," Grandma Jing interjected in a lukewarm tone.
The four innocent bystanders at the table: "..."
Once the elders brought up this topic, it was like a floodgate that couldn't be closed. Jing's father immediately asked with a smile, "Zhoudu, have you started dating anyone lately?"
"..." Shen Zhoudu glanced at Xia Chan quietly and coughed softly, "Uncle Jing, let's change the subject."
"I didn't talk about it either." Guan Bohan scurried forward and even gave Xia Chan a flirtatious wink.
Xia Chan lowered her eyes and ate her food, seemingly oblivious to the situation.
"Nobody wants you," Jing's father said indifferently.
Guan Bohan choked up.
Jing Zixi, her mother, and her grandmother burst into laughter. After laughing, her grandmother looked at Xia Chan with genuine concern and asked, "Xia, do you have a boyfriend yet?"
Shen Zhoudu and Guan Bohan's attention immediately jumped to her.
Xia Chan, who had been quietly eating her food and trying to minimize her presence, could no longer hide. Meeting the various gazes around her, she said flatly, "No."
Chen Zhoudu lowered his eyes quietly. Guan Bohan spoke first, his words intriguing: "Then someone must be pursuing you, right?"
He rested his chin on his hand, leaned on the table, and looked at her with a meaningful, leisurely smile. "With Manager Xia's charm... she must be a very handsome man."
Chen Zhoudu glanced at him with a hint of disdain. Xia Chan paused for a moment, then suddenly smiled and stared into Guan Bohan's eyes, saying, "Yes."
Before Guan Bohan could even feel happy, she added, "Two."
Guan Bohan's expression froze instantly.
Chen Zhoudu quietly raised the corners of his lips and ate his food.
"Who is it! Who else but me—" He suddenly raised his voice the next second, completely unaware of the astonished looks on the faces of Mr. Jing, Mrs. Jing, and Grandma Jing.
Jing Zixi glanced around weakly and coughed lightly to remind them. Guan Bohan then realized what was going on, looked apologetically at the Jing family, but stopped pretending and asked in a low voice with a sullen face, "Who else is there besides me..."
Chen Zhoudu silently tightened his grip on the chopsticks. Xia Chan said calmly, "One is a dog, the other is even worse than a dog."
"..."
Both of them choked at the same time. Guan Bohan choked back a little, still somewhat unwilling, "Then which one am I?"
Xia Chan met his eyes with a half-smile, "You're a dog."
"..."
After dinner, it was already past seven o'clock, and night was falling.
Before Xia Chan left, the Jing family gave her a bunch of gifts, including food and other necessities.
Bird's nest, donkey-hide gelatin, cosmetics... Xia Chan tried to refuse several times but couldn't, so she had no choice but to accept them one by one.
Grandma Jing held her hand repeatedly, expressing her gratitude and urging her to come and visit often.
Jing's parents repeatedly said that it wasn't easy for a young girl like her to work hard alone in Shanghai, so they treated this place as their second home and often came to visit, so as to keep Jing Zixi company.
Xia Chan was deeply moved and agreed.
Junzhou Huafu is quite far from the city center, and the group disagreed again on who should take Xia Chan home.
Guan Bohan has now made his intentions clear to Xia Chan, and he kept pestering her to see her off even before she left the Jing family's gate.
Xia Chan's refusal to let him give her a gift was, in a way, a tacit rejection of him as a person.
Seeing that Pian Guan Bohan was persistent, Jing Zixi took the initiative to step forward and said to him, "Are you going back to Yu Hui? I need to go to Yu Hui to pick up something. Can you give me a ride?"
"No, don't you have a driver?" Guan Bohan was unhappy, and Jing Zixi stepped forward and hit him.
"Hurry up! Are you going or not?"
Guan Bohan had no choice but to reluctantly agree.
Before leaving, he repeatedly gestured to Xia Chan that he would contact her home via WeChat later.
After finally seeing Guan Bohan off, Jing's father offered, "Xia, let our driver take you! We're worried about you walking alone in the dark, or we can have Zhou Du take you..."
Shen Zhoudu's eyes immediately brightened, and he held his breath, afraid that she would refuse. Xia Chan said, "No need, Uncle Jing, I have already called a car. I will come to see everyone again next time."
Her "next time" made the Jing family overjoyed, and they repeatedly asked Chen Zhou to take him to the villa area so that she wouldn't have to wait for him alone.
The moon cast long shadows on the tree-lined path in the villa area, and the dim streetlights stretched the shadows of two people walking side by side in silence.
Chen Zhoudu glanced at her several times before mustering his courage to speak, "Could you... perhaps cancel the ride you ordered?"
"What are you doing?" Xia Chan looked up at him with a half-smile. "It's canceled. I'm walking back?"
Chen Zhoudu paused for a moment and then said, "I'm driving."
"so what?"
Helpless, he couldn't help but smile, and could only say bluntly, "I want to give it to you."
Her tone carried a hint of persuasion and pleading. Hearing this, Xia Chan finally smiled, as if pleased, and said, "You know, rich people are interesting. They all like to live in these remote suburbs, where there's no subway or bus service. But then again, every household has a car and a driver. What driver would come here?"
Chen Zhoudu paused for a moment before realizing what she meant, and his breathing stopped slightly as his eyes lit up with an unusual light.
Xia Chan merely glanced at him indifferently, scoffed, and walked past him.
Chen Zhoudu smiled as he watched her retreating figure and quickly followed.
"Which one am I?" he asked.
"What?" Xia Chan asked, puzzled, glancing at him.
“One is a real dog, the other is even worse than a dog.” Chen Zhoudu’s eyes were filled with a smile.
Recalling the casual remark made at the dinner table earlier, Xia Chan couldn't help but chuckle. Then, with a hint of mystery in her eyes, she glanced at him and asked, "Which one do you think you are?"
Shen Zhoudu's gaze immediately turned resentful. "I want to be human."
She burst out laughing out loud, and Chen Zhoudu couldn't help but chuckle as well. The sound of cicadas chirping in the trees mingled with the laughter, carrying far into the distance.
"Grandma Jing... Uncle Jing and Aunt Lin," Chen Zhoudu said, walking forward through the swaying shadows of the trees, then changed the subject again after a moment, "They all like you very much."
Xia Chan slowed her pace, faced him, crossed her arms, and stared at him leisurely. Shen Zhoudu met her gaze and raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Why do you insist on having me come here for this meal?" Xia Chan asked with a half-smile, bringing up old grievances. "You know perfectly well that I don't want to associate with people from your circle."
Chen Zhoudu paused for a moment and lowered his eyes, but when he looked up at her again, he smiled and answered truthfully, "Because I didn't want you to misunderstand."
Xia Chan's eyebrows twitched slightly, as if she didn't understand.
“Zixi and I have indeed known each other since childhood.” He seemed to have already seen through something, his gaze fixed on him, his eyes brightening slightly, a smile playing on his lips. “But, there’s nothing between us.”
“My dad and Uncle Jing did express their intention to matchmake, but although Zixi looks weak, she is actually a very opinionated person. She studied modern art and wants to open her own studio as soon as possible after returning. Her career is not yet halfway done, so she will not consider the so-called lifelong matter, and she does not like me.”
"Instead of letting you hear rumors from others, I'd rather tell you directly. And since words are not enough, the best way is for you to come and see for yourself what kind of people the Jing family are, and what kind of person Zixi is. It would be best if you two became friends, then you wouldn't use that as a reason to reject me."
Xia Chan's heart pounded, and she looked at him as if she couldn't catch her breath for a long time. After a while, she looked away with a somewhat indifferent expression and said, "You don't need to tell me these things."
“But I want to tell you something,” Chen Zhoudu said, his gaze fixed intently on her face. “Xia Chan, you may not care about these things, but I have to tell you. This is also the attitude I promised you.”
His gaze was deep, clear, and gentle, yet Xia Chan felt as if she were being burned by it. After a long while, she sighed and murmured to herself, "Chenzhoudu, what am I going to do with you..."
I've said the most heartless things and done the most cruel things;
How can anyone maintain such unwavering passion forever?
How could there be such a person?
How could there be...someone like him?
“If you don’t know what to do, then don’t do it.” Chen Zhoudu could keenly sense the cracks in her emotions, and a faint smile appeared on his lips as he said, “Xia Chan, you don’t have to do anything. As promised, you just need to stand still, and I will walk towards you. I just hope you won’t push me away again and will give me a chance to walk towards you.”
When Shen Zhoudu returned to his residence that night, he opened the door and found his assistant, Asen, there. He immediately breathed a sigh of relief and stood up when he saw her return.
"Brother...you're finally back!"
Shen Zhoudu's house is located in the middle ring of Shanghai. It is a 120-square-meter single-level apartment. He bought it after spending most of his savings a few years after he debuted. Since then, he has moved out of the Shen family villa and has never lived with Shen Jinghai again.
He usually travels all over the world and spends very little time in this house. He only comes back to stay for a few days between work commitments, and his living assistant usually comes to clean for him.
Some time ago, the crew of "The Boundary Line" had almost finished filming his scenes. All that was left was for him to fly to Shancheng and Liancheng with the rest of the crew next week before he said goodbye to the set and returned home.
I never expected that Asen would be here.
Chen Zhoudu was somewhat surprised. "What's wrong?"
"Brother, do you really not look at your phone at all? My phone and Brother Jiang's phone are being bombarded with calls from Chairman Shen..."
Chen Zhoudu paused for a moment before taking out his phone. It was unusually quiet tonight, so he had put it on silent early on and hadn't looked at it since.
As soon as the phone was turned on, more than twenty missed calls from Shen Jinghai popped up.
There are also Jiang Cheng's, Asen's...
Ah Sen said anxiously, "Chairman Shen said you absolutely must go home today. If you don't, he'll come to the company in person tomorrow... Brother, you know that Brother Jiang and I really can't handle your dad, so why don't you..."
The scene Shen Jinghai caused when Shen Zhoudu first debuted was enough to leave them all with lingering fears. Shen Zhoudu's eyes darkened slightly as he pursed his lips and said, "I'll go back for a bit."
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