Chapter 107: Do Not Disturb Her

That night, Cheng Xingye beat some petty troublemaker to the punch and posted on Moments before he could run off with the news.

[hOShinO]: My little moonlight [photo]

The picture showed their two hands, fingers intertwined. It had been taken at night, so the resolution was poor, but the details were still clear enough: on one wrist was a silver bracelet engraved with “LQ,” and on the other was a black cord with a pendant marked “Y.” Together, they formed “LQY.”

The announcement came so suddenly that as soon as his post went up, it exploded into tonight’s gossip center. Within minutes, his Moments filled with rows upon rows of likes, while comments rained in one after another.

When Chen Shujie opened it, he nearly choked in shock.

[Chen Shujie]: I only just opened the feed when I got kicked in the ribs?

A couple of minutes later, Lou Zhao saw it too.

[Lou Zhao]: Good evening. Just the two of you.

Other than those two, everyone else—though startled—offered congratulations in a half-genuine, half-teasing way.

Only one comment sat there like a knife among all the blessings.

[Lu Yi]: The dog-stick is ready at home. All we need now is for the dog to walk into the trap.

Cheng Xingye didn’t reply. He saw the last comment, gave a faint, silent smile, and, dismissing it, turned off his phone screen.

---

With the confession out of the way, the other party, still half-dazed from sleep, missed it entirely.

The next day, when Cheng Xingye had only just reached the halfway point of his morning wash, the doorbell rang unexpectedly.

He rubbed his rumpled hair, slipped into slippers, and opened the door. He paused for a beat.

“Dad. Mom.”

Cheng Li and Guo Mengyun stood outside in bright, carefully put-together clothes.

Seeing him in homewear with pressed lines still creased into the fabric, hair tousled over his forehead, they knew immediately he had just gotten up.

After taking off her shoes and coming in, Guo Mengyun first looked around the room. Seeing no sign of other guests, she asked, “What was that Moments post last night?”

Cheng Xingye gave a flat expression, poured himself a glass of water, and replied casually, “Just something like that.”

Cheng Li frowned. Instead of thinking of his son’s love life, he turned, oddly, to the pendant.

“That charm—wasn’t it Xuanxuan’s? Did you give it away?”

Cheng Xingye had never imagined his parents could be this rigid-minded and yet so oddly clever. He lifted his brows in dry amusement and, with a lazy smile at the corner of his mouth, said,

“Dad, that’s a strange idea. Who courts a girl with someone else’s old trinket?”

Guo Mengyun and Cheng Li exchanged a glance. They already had a faint suspicion, but it seemed almost impossible.

Guo Mengyun’s thoughts tangled for a moment. After a few seconds, she asked uncertainly, “You mean that thing is not Xuanxuan’s?”

Ye Zixuan had married and gone on to raise a child. No matter what, Cheng Xingye could never have insinuated himself into someone else’s marriage. On that point, Guo Mengyun trusted her son.

So the hands in the photo could not have been Zixuan’s. If they followed that logic all the way through, the only way to make sense of it was that the object wasn’t hers.

Only then did Cheng Xingye lift his gaze and give a grave, restrained “hm.”

“It’s not hers.”

Guo Mengyun and Cheng Li froze for a moment.

Guo Mengyun blinked in confusion, then after a pause gathered herself enough to ask, “Then how did you keep that thing all this time… Did the people who saved you not belong to the Ye family after all?”

Something had pricked her, like a needle of realization. She had long suspected they had been deceived by the Ye family, yet she still resisted admitting it. Her face looked uncomfortable, but she kept her dignity and pressed on, wanting to hear confirmation from his own mouth.

Cheng Xingye had no intention of telling them so quickly. He had only just managed to fall into a relationship, and all he wanted was to speak to the girl earnestly, without dragging messy old stories into it and spoiling the fragile peace he had found.

But Cheng Li and Guo Mengyun were not the sort to be sent away so easily. Both sat now with hard, stern faces. Cheng Xingye knew if he failed to explain clearly that day, they would use their connections to investigate and eventually wind up at Lu Qingyue’s house.

He did not want his little girl to be bothered by his parents. With a sigh and a tightening of his brows, he gave them the straightforward version of what had happened.

The truth came out step by step.

It was not the Ye family who had saved him that day. It was a kind doctor with a daughter who had performed emergency care. Then, at the Ye family’s request, the doctor arranged for an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

Zixuan had also been one of the children injured in that accident. Later, at the hospital, when the Ye parents saw a boy in the same ward—who happened to be the only son of the chairman of the then-flourishing Dingli Group—they were shocked and exhilarated. For a family then struggling in the medical materials supply business and desperate for investors and sales contacts, this looked like a once-in-a-lifetime opening.

At that moment, the Ye family decided to erase every trace of that good-hearted doctor from the beach and pretend they themselves had happened to rescue the chairman’s son by chance, in order to forge ties with the Cheng family.

The living room grew heavy and still. Silence spread through the whole room.

After hearing the full account, Cheng Li and Guo Mengyun sat dazed for a long while. It took them quite some time to let the truth sink in.

Cheng Li had spent his life in high office, surviving endless schemes and factional battles. To be deceived in a matter like this in the end felt like being slapped in the face. His jaw clenched tight, and the hand resting on his knee trembled as if in a spasm.

Guo Mengyun, worrying about his health, moved over and held his hand, trying to ease him away from the topic.

“Are you seeing that girl now?”

Cheng Xingye gave a muted assent.

If not for their ambush today, he would by now probably be on the road back to the little girl’s grandmother’s place. Missing this window meant he’d have to wait nearly half a month to see her again. The thought stirred a restless impatience in him.

Guo Mengyun seemed about to ask something else, but Cheng Li cut in first.

“What family is she from? What’s her name? What do they do?”

With the Ye family still fresh in his mind, his caution was immediate and instinctive—he needed to know her background first.

Cheng Xingye understood exactly what his father meant. He lifted the corner of his lips in mockery and replied in a cool, unhurried tone:

“I worked for two years just to get one real relationship, and you want to ruin it too?”

Cheng Li frowned. “What do you mean by that—”

Guo Mengyun quickly intervened, speaking gently but firmly.

“Xingye, we’re not unreasonable people. But there is a precedent here. Even if she truly saved you, we still can’t rule out a second Ye family.”

“And besides, if that object really is hers, then we ought to go and thank her properly.”

Cheng Xingye gave a cold laugh, as though the thought were absurd on its face.

The girl he had loved for two years—so precious to him—was being treated by them as someone unworthy, someone to be watched.

He was furious, but held it in, answering in a flat voice,

“No need for you to go thanking anyone. From beginning to end, it’s just between her and me. She is my girlfriend, and I’ll take good care of her.”

He set his jaw, speaking with no room for argument, each syllable deliberate:

“If you don’t want to lose your son, don’t interfere with her.”

Cheng Li’s face turned dark and his jaw twitched, as if he wanted to say something more. Guo Mengyun stepped in first and laid a hand on his arm to stop him.

She has only this one son. She would not risk a mother-son rift over a girl. So she kept repeating, reassuring him again and again:

“All right, all right—be well. The two of you stay together. We won’t bother her.”