Chapter 3
Chapter Summary: "You're not actually married and just made up a husband to fool us, are you?"
The smile froze on her face. Ni Zhenzhen turned to look at the old lady, speechless with surprise.
She instinctively took a few steps back and accidentally fell to the ground. The old lady clung to her tightly as if she had grasped a lifeline, and Ni Zhenzhen struggled to break free.
The old woman continued shouting, "Give me some money! I need money! Yes, I have that... you know, this one, you can scan it..."
Ni Zhenzhen then noticed a QR code in the aluminum basin where the old lady was asking for money.
"Heh..." Ni Zhenzhen laughed out loud as if she had seen the biggest joke in the world.
How ridiculous! She naively thought the old lady would only ask for food and not money. It was all a lie, a complete hoax!
The old woman was still pleading, but Ni Zhenzhen seemed not to hear her. She stumbled to her feet and ran away without looking back.
On the subway, Ni Zhenzhen stared blankly at her reflection in the glass window. It seemed that Xu Tianzhou was right; the beggars on the street were indeed deceiving people. Fortunately, he didn't find out about this incident, or he would definitely be furious.
Ni Zhenzhen got off the subway and transferred to a bus. She checked the time and figured she should be able to make it.
There aren't many staff at the bank, so they have to eat lunch at different times. If Ni Zhenzhen goes home late, her other colleagues will definitely go hungry.
But then, of all times, something went wrong.
The bus had only been gone a short while when it encountered a traffic jam. An extra-long truck with "Xinda Logistics" written on it broke down while making a U-turn and ended up blocking the middle of the road.
Complaints and honking horns rose and fell.
Ni Zhenzhen wanted to get off the bus, but the bus driver said she couldn't get off until her stop, "It's all for your safety."
Ni Zhenzhen had no choice but to wait, and she waited for more than half an hour.
Back at the counter, Ni Zhenzhen hurriedly apologized to Qian Lina: "I'm sorry I'm late."
Rong Xiaodan, who was standing nearby, said, "Zhenzhen, you're finally back. Lina is angry."
"It's all my fault, you should go eat." Seeing that Qian Lina still had a stern face, Ni Zhenzhen said again, "Um... I'll treat you to dinner tonight, you can choose the place."
"Really?" Rong Xiaodan exclaimed in surprise. "Then we won't stand on ceremony! Lina has always wanted to eat Japanese food, right? Zhenzhen can treat us. Okay, okay, don't be angry."
Qian Lina's expression finally softened a bit. "What Japanese food? We're all colleagues. It's just a little late. How dare you ask for that?" She rolled her eyes. "How about rice noodles instead?"
“Rice noodles…” Rong Xiaodan said reluctantly.
Qian Lina had already made up her mind, "Let's go to the one in Huijing Center. Xiaodan and I rarely go to the city, so this is a good opportunity to go shopping."
"Great idea." Rong Xiaodan, who was originally going to insist on eating Japanese food, immediately changed her mind. "It's a good opportunity to meet Zhenzhen's husband."
Since they put it that way, Ni Zhenzhen couldn't refuse, so she said, "Okay."
After thinking it over, Ni Zhenzhen decided she should tell Xu Tianzhou. She couldn't touch her phone while working at the counter, so she could only call Xu Tianzhou after work.
The phone screen lit up, Xu Tianzhou glanced at it, and gently turned the phone face down. At that moment, he was discussing the details of a collaborative rocket manufacturing base construction project with the president of a listed company.
This collaboration involved so much that even though Su Wenjin repeatedly emphasized that he could represent the wishes of the group's actual controller, the other party was still not at ease. "They insisted on talking to you personally."
"Alright," Xu Tianzhou had no choice but to agree.
"You're not just going to go like this, are you?" Su Wenjin said, glancing at Xu Tianzhou.
Xu Tianzhou was wearing the work uniform from the rice noodle shop. Although it was a suit, the quality wasn't very good. It was fine for him to dress like that for meetings with people in the company, but it seemed inappropriate to meet the company's most important partner in the near future.
"Too."
Fortunately, Xu Tianzhou had reserved a suite at the company, which not only had first-class facilities but also had everything one could need for food, clothing, and daily necessities.
Su Wenjin chose a royal blue three-piece suit for him, and carefully selected gemstone cufflinks, tie clips and a watch from various accessories to match the suit.
Of all the items, only one was chosen by Xu Tianzhou himself: the pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. Although the CEO probably wouldn't go to the rice noodle shop on the basement level, it was always better to be cautious.
When Xu Tianzhou came out of the suite, he was a completely different person.
When Su Wenjin first met Xu Tianzhou, she felt that he possessed a special, innate temperament. Now, with the adornment of his clothing, that elegance and nobility were pushed to the extreme. With such a presence, Xu Tianzhou, let alone being the actual controller of Xinda Group, could easily be mistaken for a member of a prestigious family inheriting family honors.
Xu Tianzhou didn't answer the phone, so Ni Zhenzhen had no choice but to go to the rice noodle shop with her colleagues without informing them. Hearing that Xu Tianzhou wasn't there, Ni Zhenzhen texted him while telling everyone to order, "He should be back soon."
Even after finishing all the rice noodles, Xu Tianzhou was still nowhere to be seen.
In the rice noodle shop, customers came and went, and several groups of customers changed tables next to each other, all with smiles on their faces, but their table was lifeless.
"Zhenzhen, where did your husband go? Why isn't he back yet?" Rong Xiaodan asked listlessly, stirring the leftover soup in her bowl with her chopsticks. "You're not actually married, are you? You just made up a husband to fool us, are you?"
“How could that be…” Ni Zhenzhen said with a smile.
Qian Lina thought to herself, Rong Xiaodan really has no brains. If she really wanted to fabricate a husband, she wouldn't fabricate a rice noodle shop manager.
She was just about to suggest going out for a walk and coming back later when suddenly Rong Xiaodan sat up straight and shouted, "Look, look! He's so handsome!"
Rong Xiaodan was a complete fangirl, often gossiping with them about which client was handsome or looked like a celebrity, when in reality it was all nonsense. This time, Qian Lina didn't take Rong Xiaodan's shouts to heart; she even followed Rong Xiaodan's gaze with amusement.
Who knew that Qian Lina would be stunned at just one glance.
Even without Rong Xiaodan pointing, she knew who Rong Xiaodan was talking about, because that person was simply too dazzling.
The man had just come in from outside when the waiter who had been greeting him stood beside him, whispered something, and then pointed in this direction.
The man nodded slightly in response.
Cold, reserved, and unsmiling were her entire impressions of that person. Qian Lina thought to herself that he must be very difficult to get along with, but when their eyes met, she realized that it wasn't such a big deal.
As the person drew closer, Qian Lina's heart pounded faster and faster. Soon, the person spoke something, and it was this sentence that made her heart leap into her throat and then plummet.
The man said, "Zhenzhen, I'm back."
Ni Zhenzhen, who was sitting opposite Qian Lina, immediately turned around and said, "You're finally back." She introduced them to everyone, "This is my husband, Xu Tianzhou, and these are my colleagues, Qian Lina and Rong Xiaodan."
"Hello," Xu Tianzhou greeted the two.
Rong Xiaodan smiled broadly, "Hello, handsome, I saw you a long time ago."
Qian Lina couldn't hide her disappointment, "You... hello..."
Xu Tianzhou asked, "How was your meal? Was there anything we didn't do well? Would you like some more food?"
"No need, no need, we're full," Rong Xiaodan said.
"It's getting late, we'll go for a walk and then head back." Qian Lina stood up, then exclaimed "Eh?"
Rong Xiaodan saw it too. She pointed at the back of Xu Tianzhou's neck and said, "Why are there still tags on your clothes? Did you just buy them? Why didn't you cut off the tags?"
Xu Tianzhou was slightly taken aback, and thought to himself, "Oh no."
Ni Zhenzhen comes from a wealthy family and has been exposed to various designer brands since childhood; that expensive suit certainly wouldn't escape her notice. He wanted to change back, but unfortunately, Ni Zhenzhen was sitting in the store.
Left with no other option, Xu Tianzhou rushed to the mall and bought a piece of clothing at random. Unexpectedly, in his haste, he forgot to remove the price tag, and Ni Zhenzhen's colleagues saw him do so. Would they think he bought the clothes for the sake of appearances and deliberately left the price tag on so he could wear them and return them?
Xu Tianzhou was right; that was indeed what the others thought.
“Dandan…” Qian Lina winked at Rong Xiaodan, as if to remind her of something.
Rong Xiaodan quickly changed her mind, "If you don't want it cut, then don't cut it. Once it's cut, you can't return it."
The atmosphere froze instantly. Rong Xiaodan said, looking aggrieved, "Did I say something wrong?"
Qian Lina complained, "They just forgot to get their hair cut, what's with all this talk about refunds? Let's go."
"Oh..." Rong Xiaodan hurriedly followed Qian Lina away. As she left the store, she turned back and winked at the two of them, "Goodbye Zhenzhen, goodbye handsome guy."
"Goodbye." Ni Zhenzhen waved to her.
After the two had walked away, Xu Tianzhou habitually put his hands in his pants pockets. "Did I embarrass you?"
“No,” Ni Zhenzhen said with a smile. “They’ve always been like this; they don’t mean any harm.”
"Is that so?" Xu Tianzhou sneered inwardly. She was bullied like this, and she still said that others had no ill intentions? Was she really innocent, or was she just pretending to be kind?
In fact, this problem had been troubling him for a long time.
He still remembers their first meeting. That day, he transferred to an international high school, and when he walked into Ni Zhenzhen's class, the students immediately burst into discussion.
"What? He's wearing Adidas?"
"You're mistaken, it's Audib. Even their fakes are so shoddy, hahaha..."
"What if he doesn't know it's fake and actually thinks it's Odibas?"
"Oh my god, so people actually wear knock-off clothes?"
"Have you forgotten? He was admitted as a special scholarship student, and his family is very poor."
Throughout the entire day, the discussions about him in the class never stopped. The classmates either laughed or looked down on him, but Ni Zhenzhen didn't care at all.
She took the initiative to greet him and told him that he could ask her if he had any questions.
"Don't be shy."
"I understand, thank you." Xu Tianzhou thanked her on the surface, but he didn't believe that Ni Zhenzhen would be completely unconcerned about his impoverished background.
She must be faking it.
Xu Tianzhou knew this kind of person all too well; they would cloak their contempt in sympathy to portray themselves as incredibly kind.
Don't let her current appearance fool you; she might say bad things about him behind his back.
He could even picture her talking about him with her head held high, occasionally exchanging knowing smiles with the listener, like an eerie scarlet stamen in a white flower.
Who knew that Ni Zhenzhen would keep up this act until now? She rejected many suitors with excellent conditions and insisted on choosing herself; she was willing to give up a comfortable life and even sever ties with her parents in order to marry herself.
He couldn't believe it was true. How could someone be completely indifferent to wealth and poverty, as pure as a blank sheet of paper? Xu Tianzhou secretly challenged himself; he was determined to wait until the day Ni Zhenzhen's true colors were revealed.
But Ni Zhenzhen always disappointed him. She was kind to everyone, and even though he had told her countless times that the beggars were fake, she would still secretly give them money, just like today.
Xu Tianzhou had anticipated that Ni Zhenzhen wouldn't stand idly by while the old woman begged. Sure enough, around noon, he saw from his phone's location system that Ni Zhenzhen had left the bank and gone to the subway station. He then asked Su Wenjin to arrange for a car to be parked on the road, deliberately making Ni Zhenzhen late.
Is it worth it to be late for work and be disliked by colleagues just to help a fake beggar?
Xu Tianzhou really wanted to hear her answer.
"Why did they come?" Xu Tianzhou asked.
Ni Zhenzhen certainly didn't dare say that she was treating her colleagues to dinner because she was late; "They wanted to go shopping."
"Yeah?"
“Yes,” Ni Zhenzhen said with a smile.
Xu Tianzhou presented her with another difficult problem, "What should we do with the clothes? Should we return them?"
To be honest, this outfit really suits Xu Tianzhou. Ni Zhenzhen reached out and stroked his shoulder. "It fits perfectly. Keep it."
Xu Tianzhou sneered inwardly, "Look at him, putting on an act again."
Ni Zhenzhen hasn't bought new clothes in a long time because she's been saving money to buy a house. They have to be very frugal every month. She even brings her own meals to save money in the future. Now she's saying she'll leave the clothes behind.
Does she really have no complaints at all?
"Okay, whatever you say." Xu Tianzhou kissed Ni Zhenzhen's forehead and then pulled her into his arms.
From an angle unseen by Ni Zhenzhen, Xu Tianzhou's expression changed, becoming serious and cold.
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