Chapter 147: Hello, Uncle and Aunt

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For most of the following half month, whenever he was not too busy, Cheng Xingye would personally go to the university to pick Lu Qingyue up and take her home.

He felt vaguely restless and often dreamed at night.

In his dreams, Lu Qingyue would call his name and run toward him joyfully. But before he could reach out to her, she would vanish like mist into thin air.

He would wake with a start, his back drenched in cold sweat.

When he reached over to touch the bedding beside him, he found the little one sleeping soundly, her small face resting against his shoulder. Sometimes a fine sheen of sweat would cover her body, leaving her pressed sticky-warm against him.

Cheng Xingye would let out a quiet sigh of relief. In the silence of the night, he would kiss her forehead, the tip of her nose, and the corner of her lips. Then he would bury his face in the hollow of her neck and breathe in her faint scent, only managing to fall asleep again with difficulty.

Fortunately, after keeping an eye on things several more times, he never heard Lu Qingyue mention encountering anyone strange at school again.

While appearing calm and composed on the surface and continuing to busy himself endlessly at the company, Cheng Xingye quietly drew Xiao He over to his side.

In mid-November, Dingli held a board meeting to appoint new members to the board of directors.

Cheng Xingye became even busier during that period. His university classes and company affairs piled up all at once, forcing him to rush back and forth between the two places. Occasionally, he had no choice but to leave Lu Qingyue alone in the dormitory.

By the end of the month, the appointment letter arrived.

Everything had finally settled, and it seemed they could at last breathe a little easier.

Cheng Xingye placed the appointment letter in his desk drawer and glanced at the time. Lu Qingyue should be in an afternoon class by now.

She did not have many classes as a freshman, but she was genuinely disciplined. She rarely skipped class or asked for leave, and when she had free time, she would go to the library. He barely needed to worry about her.

Cheng Xingye opened WeChat, intending to send her a message to tell her he would pick her up and take her home that evening.

Before he could even open her profile, however, his assistant knocked on the door and reminded him that the meeting was about to begin. He had no time to compose the message, so he hurriedly set down his phone, rose to straighten his cuffs, and headed for the conference room.

Ten minutes later, in the deserted office, the phone on the desk lit up.

A newly arrived message lay on the screen—

[ Xiao He ]: Young Master, Sir and Madam are currently on their way to your apartment.

.....

In late autumn, the temperature in Jiangcheng dropped sharply.

Lu Qingyue sat in the classroom wearing a thick sweater, yet she still could not withstand the cold and let out a sneeze.

It was as though that sneeze had flipped a switch. Once it began, it refused to stop.

After sneezing seven or eight times, she finally had to ask Fang Yang, who sat in front of her, for a tissue. Only then did Fang Yang stare in surprise at the tip of Lu Qingyue’s nose, rubbed red from all the sneezing.

“Yue’er, are you catching a cold?”

Lu Qingyue listlessly accepted the tissue and wiped her nose. Then she slumped over her desk, utterly dispirited.

“Not necessarily. It could also be cerebellar atrophy.”

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Fang Yang: “...”

She reached over and touched Lu Qingyue’s forehead. It was not hot. Still, Lu Qingyue’s spirits had seemed poor ever since she returned from the library the night before, so Fang Yang kindly advised her,

“You should still go to the campus clinic and get checked.”

Lu Qingyue buried her face in the crook of her arm and gave a muffled hum.

She probably should go. Plenty of people caught colds during this season, and she could easily be next. If she ended up passing it to Cheng Xingye, that would be troublesome.

Lying there in a daze, Lu Qingyue failed to realize that her first reaction was not to worry about herself, but to think of him.

She endured the dizziness and muddled heaviness in her head until class ended. Just as she was about to pack up and go to the campus clinic, she suddenly felt a warm rush beneath her.

Her heart jolted, and only then did she remember that today was the start of her period.

Her periods had never caused stomach cramps, but they did leave her noticeably weaker than usual.

As if catching a cold were not enough, her period had arrived at the same time.

Lu Qingyue felt that she had encountered every possible misfortune at once. She had not expected things to get even worse.

She returned to the dormitory and discovered that her trousers had been stained. There was only one clean pair left in her room. If she wore those today, she would have nothing to wear tomorrow.

Lu Qingyue: “...”

She struggled to accept this utterly miserable fact. Then, after staring at her wardrobe for a while, she decided to return to Cheng Xingye’s apartment and bring back some of the clothes she had piled up there.

There were not many people at the bus stop in the afternoon. Lu Qingyue dragged her weakened body onto the bus and took a window seat, staring absently at the street outside.

She had not told Cheng Xingye that she was going back to get clothes. In fact, she had not seen him for almost two days.

Once this man became busy, he turned into a workaholic who seemed not to need food or drink. Lu Qingyue knew he was surely occupied at the company, so she did not message him. She did not want to distract him.

Fortunately, the journey went smoothly.

When she arrived at the apartment, Lu Qingyue used the fingerprint lock to open the door. Hoshino immediately ran over to greet her, wagging its tail.

Hoshino was an exceptionally intelligent Samoyed. From the very first day Lu Qingyue moved in, it seemed to understand who would truly be in charge of the household from then on.

Cheng Xingye had raised it himself, but it was even more attached to Lu Qingyue. Whenever she returned, it would leap about excitedly, wagging its tail at her with all its might.

Lu Qingyue crouched down, stroked its neck, and rubbed its head. After playing with it for a while, she finally stood up and went to the bedroom to fetch her suitcase.

Hoshino was extremely clingy. Wherever she went, it followed.

Lu Qingyue played with the dog while gathering her clothes.

After nearly half an hour, she had almost finished packing her things. She dragged the suitcase into the living room, then turned back to check whether there was still dog food in the bowl on the balcony.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang outside.

Lu Qingyue was crouching on the floor and pouring dog food when she turned around in confusion at the sound.

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The wall clock showed that it was six-thirty in the evening. Cheng Xingye should still have been at the company at this hour, and the woman who usually came to clean his apartment would not be coming until the weekend.

She found it strange, but the doorbell continued ringing without pause, so she had no choice but to set down the dog food and go open the door.

Outside the heavy wooden door, Cheng Li and Guo Mengyun took turns trying the fingerprint lock. Only then did they realize that Cheng Xingye had somehow deleted both of their fingerprints. They had no choice but to press the doorbell.

They waited for quite some time, but no one came to open the door.

Guo Mengyun pressed her lips together and glanced down at the time. With some uncertainty, she said,

“Could he still be at the company...?”

Before Cheng Li could answer, the door suddenly opened in front of them.

A big-eyed girl wearing a pair of rabbit slippers poked her little head through the gap in the door. Looking at them in confusion, she let out a soft exclamation.

“Who are you looking for?”

Cheng Li: “...”

Guo Mengyun: “...”

Although they knew that their son had a live-in girlfriend, actually meeting her so unexpectedly left them somewhat at a loss.

The girl looked far too young.

Her eyes were round and enormous, clear and pure. She looked obedient and gentle, like a little white rabbit utterly without guard against human beings.

This was the first time Cheng Li had seen her. The instant their eyes met, he was dazed for a moment.

Guo Mengyun was the first to recover. She quickly asked with a warm smile,

“Is Cheng Xingye at home?”

Seeing that they were both neatly dressed and seemed reasonably kind, Lu Qingyue lowered her guard and answered honestly,

“He isn’t here. You are...?”

The last time, another couple more or less like them had come knocking. Lu Qingyue’s first thought was that perhaps they had come to the wrong apartment again.

But this time, the couple outside froze. Then the elegantly made-up woman smiled gently at her and explained in a soft voice,

“We’re his parents.”

Lu Qingyue stared blankly for a moment.

“Oh. Hello, Uncle and Auntie.”