Chapter 223 Winning Hearts and Minds (Part 1)
The Xia family.
Xia Yu sat on the sofa and listened to Lu Qi finish explaining his purpose. He was so angry that he laughed. His gaze fell on the young man sitting next to Lu Qi. Xia Yu asked, "You want to get engaged to my daughter. Was this your idea or that of that old scoundrel Lu Qi?"
Lu Qi smiled and said, "Xiao Yu, I'm not old yet."
Lu Jin said, "This is my idea after careful consideration. I brought him along simply out of politeness."
After all, the two families are going to become related by marriage, and the elders of both sides need to meet. The groom's elders will formally make a request to the bride's elders. This is a sense of ceremony and an essential etiquette.
Lu Qi was still smiling kindly, "Don't make it sound like I'm just a tool."
Xia Yu snorted, "I guessed so, otherwise you wouldn't have brought that old scoundrel Lu out to embarrass yourself."
Lu Qi: "Xiao Yu, I'm really not that old..."
Lu Jin said, "Uncle Xia, please agree to let Zhenzhen get engaged to me. I will definitely take good care of you with her in the future."
Lu Qi couldn't laugh anymore. It was as if he didn't exist. Xia Yu and Lu Jin didn't even look at him. He had never heard the word "filial piety" from Lu Jin's mouth.
Xia Yu scrutinized Lu Jin for a long time. "You want me to allow you to get engaged to my daughter, but my daughter is so perfect. There are never a shortage of talented young men who want to marry her. What makes you think you are better than those people?"
In this situation, saying "I love her" might seem unrealistic to elders.
Lu Jin said, "After I marry Zhenzhen, I am willing to live with her in the Xia family."
Lu Qi's smile froze for a moment.
Xia Yu immediately felt refreshed, straightened his back considerably, and said with great interest, "Would you like to come and be our son-in-law?"
Lu Jin said, "I'm willing."
Xia Yu looked at Lu Qi.
Lu Qi returned the smile politely and elegantly.
Back then, Xia Yu always suffered losses at Lu Qi's hands. At that time, Lu Qi would never have imagined that his own son would end up becoming a live-in son-in-law in Xia Yu's family.
Based on this alone, Xia Yu felt that he had already won by a lot, and he could finally hold his head high.
In the end, Xia Yu did not immediately agree. Instead, he said he needed to discuss it with Xia Zhen's mother. After all, it was a major life event for their daughter. Even though Xia Yu and Wen Yu were divorced, Xia Zhen was still their child. Such an important matter naturally required the parents to sit down and have a proper talk.
In fact, Xia Yu's statement already indicated that he had given in.
Wen Yu never believed that Xia Zhen should follow the preordained path in life. Even when Xia Zhen was with Lu Jin, it didn't matter that she later realized she had misjudged him. With her status, she had the means to start over.
Moreover, Lu Jin had clearly left a good impression on Wen Yu during the last "meeting between the two countries".
Therefore, the relationship between Lu Jin and Xia Zhen can be considered a done deal.
As they left the Xia family home, Lu Qi asked with a smile, "On the way here, why didn't I hear you mention anything about becoming a live-in son-in-law?"
Lu Jinping replied calmly, "That's not important."
No matter where he lived, wherever she was, that was a place he could consider "home".
Lu Qi didn't care where Lu Jin would go in the future. He smiled slightly and said, "Was my acting just now alright?"
He played along with Lu Jin's words, revealing an embarrassed and unconvinced look at the right time, in order to numb Xia Yu's nerves and make Xia Yu careless when he was complacent.
In a sense, he was truly a good father who worried himself sick over his son's marriage.
Of course, he just found it quite amusing to see Xia Yu's disgusting expression, which was more like he had swallowed a fly, every time he called Xia Yu "father-in-law".
Lu Qi asked with considerable curiosity, "What about that kid from the Song family? What are you planning to do with him?"
Lu Jin looked up at the second floor of the Xia family mansion, which was in the direction of Xia Zhen's room.
His eyesight was good; he could see that the curtains in the window were slightly ajar, and the girl was peeking at him furtively. She probably couldn't look at him so openly because Lu Qi was there.
A smile appeared in Lu Jin's eyes.
Realizing she had been discovered, the girl hiding there drew the curtains tightly shut and stopped peeking at him.
Lu Qi asked again, "Are you really going to let bygones be bygones?"
Lu Jin lowered his eyes and said, "I will handle it. You don't need to worry about it."
Undoubtedly, it wasn't long before the engagement date for the young master of the Lu family and the young lady of the Xia family was set, and all the prominent figures in the circle received invitations, including the Song family.
Song Zhu stood outside a room and said worriedly, "Song Heng, you haven't left your room for many days. Your mother and I are very worried about you. If you have anything bothering you, you can talk to us about it!"
No one in the room responded.
Song Zhu came to his house every day to look for him, but he always refused to see her.
To be honest, Song Zhu used to think that her brother was just a simpleton, but when something actually happened to him, she still worried.
Song Heng was in a bad state, and Song Zhu naturally didn't dare to tell him that Xia Zhen's engagement date had been set. She was so anxious that she lost a lot of hair and had a headache.
In a room without lights on and with the curtains drawn, it is especially dark.
My phone vibrated.
These days, his phone keeps ringing, either from Song Zhu or his mother, but now it's showing an unknown number.
The person huddled in the corner of the bed slowly regained a glimmer of light in his dull eyes, as if he had sensed something, and a hope emerged from his mind.
Her pale hand picked up the phone, and she eagerly answered the call, but a male voice came from the other end.
"Young Master Song, hello, I am Lu Jin."
The light in Song Heng's eyes vanished completely, and he slowly lowered his hand from his phone.
But then the person on the other end said, "Zhenzhen and I are getting engaged. You mentioned before that you and Zhenzhen have known each other for a long time, and I think it's only polite for me to extend an invitation to you on Zhenzhen's behalf."
Song Heng's hand tightened around his phone, veins bulging on the back of his hand. He said slowly in a hoarse voice, "Do you have the right to show off in front of me? I've been through everything you're going through now. I was the first person she ever liked."
"Yes, you're right," Lu Jin said gently and kindly, "but the world you're in now is different from the world you were in before, isn't it?"
Song Heng's expression paused slightly.
Lu Jin seemed to chuckle. "It was your decision that led me to meet Zhenzhen that night. If I were to thank you now, it wouldn't be too late, would it?"
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