When the two arrived home, Pei Yue had also just returned. Seeing that there was no sound or light on the third floor, Pei Yue thought they had already gone to bed. She was adjusting the brightness of the lights at the French windows on the first floor and holding a selfie stick, taking pictures of her new hairstyle she had done all day.

Lu Xingyan and Shen Xingruo entered, and there was a “click” sound from the direction of the light source. Shen Xingruo paused, then greeted her. Lu Xingyan was speechless to the point of rolling his eyes, standing at the entrance to change his shoes without even glancing in Pei Yue’s direction.

Pei Yue had excellent psychological resilience and didn’t feel embarrassed at all. She put away her selfie stick and naturally made a surprised expression, “You two are just back. I thought you were already asleep.”

“Went out to eat,” Lu Xingyan replied lazily.

“What did you eat?”

“…”

“…”

Both Lu Xingyan and Shen Xingruo remained silent.

Two underage teenagers sat at the outdoor wooden table and had a hotpot worth 903 yuan as if it wasn’t a glorious achievement worth mentioning repeatedly.

Fortunately, Pei Yue didn’t care much about what they had eaten. Since she was going to Huize tomorrow, she changed the topic, said a few more words, and then told them to go upstairs and sleep quickly.

As they climbed the stairs, Lu Xingyan intentionally lagged behind a few steps. When Shen Xingruo walked past the corner, he glanced back.

Pei Yue was gesturing to him with her eyebrows.

He raised a finger and gestured back.

Pei Yue sighed.

Every family has its difficulties. There was nothing she could do. She had tried her best.

The next morning, after Lu Xingyan finished washing up, with his messy bed hair, he went downstairs to have breakfast. Just as he pushed open the door, he saw Shen Xingruo carrying her backpack toward the stairs.

Not sure if it was because his imagined background story of the wicked stepmother and her daughter was too realistic, when Lu Xingyan saw Shen Xingruo’s slender back, he couldn’t help but feel that she was the real Cinderella.

He couldn’t hold back, so he called out, “Hey.”

Shen Xingruo turned around.

He paid some attention to his appearance, adjusted his hair, then leaned against the door lazily and asked, “Where are you going with your backpack?”

“The library,” Shen Xingruo paused, then added, “And then back to school.”

Perhaps because his mind wasn’t quite clear in the morning, and his already poor ability to organize his thoughts was at its lowest, he wanted to say something, but all he could do was put on a cold face that said, “Oh, I was just asking casually, no need to answer in so much detail,” as he watched Miss Cinderella walk downstairs.

In the afternoon, Lu Xingyan and Pei Yue boarded the high-speed train to Huize. Compared to the two-hour wait at the airport, then another hour in transit to the city center, plus the high risk of flight delays, the high-speed train journey of only one hour to and from Huize was much more convenient.

Lu Shan was busy with work. Originally, he planned to return to Xingcheng and attend the wedding with his wife and son, but he couldn’t get away at the last minute, so he had to fly directly from Yun City to Huize on the day of the wedding.

This was Shen Guangyao’s second marriage, and as an artist himself, he didn’t want the wedding to be too grand and extravagant, as it would contradict his elegant persona that disregarded wealth and fame. Apart from one absent daughter from the groom’s side, there were hardly any distant relatives present, and the bride’s family had few guests as well. All in all, there were fewer than fifty guests.

Though the wedding ceremony was small in scale, every detail was meticulously arranged. A month prior, Lu Shan’s family received the wedding invitation hand-painted by Shen Guangyao himself. Upon arrival in Huize, a dedicated car was waiting at the station to escort them to the hotel.

Huize was a wonderful place, with beautiful scenery and a comfortable lifestyle. Despite developers turning every city into a collection of similar rectangular buildings, stepping into Huize, one could still feel the slower pace of life compared to Xingcheng.

The wedding was scheduled for the next morning at a hotel under the Junyi Group’s umbrella. Shen Guangyao, being a genuine artist in his forties, was quite romantic. He had reserved half of the hotel floor for the ceremony, which was held on a lawn.

Lu Xingyan didn’t like attending such occasions with his parents. It always felt like children were being used as assets for showing off or as excuses for socializing. Lu Xingyan wasn’t good at studying, and Pei Yue and Lu Shan never mentioned his academic performance. The conversations at such events were usually with discerning individuals, and if you didn’t actively bring up a topic, it wasn’t worth mentioning.

Moreover, he didn’t seem to have a very good temperament, so the uncles and aunts could only praise him repeatedly for “how tall and handsome your son Lu Xingyan has grown!”

After hearing it too many times, Lu Xingyan’s soul had one more question deep down — besides being tall and handsome, do I have no other qualities?

During the wait for the bride and groom’s entrance, Lu Xingyan casually asked Pei Yue.

Pei Yue sighed with relief and exclaimed, “Son, although you don’t have many qualities, at least you have self-awareness.”

Was she his biological mother?

Soon, the newlyweds made their entrance. Dressed in black suits with white wedding gowns, they were accompanied by two flower girls and flanked by etiquette ladies throwing flowers on both sides — after all, the groom was in his forties and the bride in her thirties. At this age, it was difficult to find unmarried friends to be bridesmaids and groomsmen.

The last time Lu Xingyan saw Shen Guangyao was three years ago when he came to Xingcheng for an art exhibition and visited Lu’s home. Back then, Shen Guangyao was as elegant and cultured as he appears today, but besides his elegance, he also had the melancholic demeanor unique to artists. Now, that melancholy was completely gone.

The bride looked gentle and beautiful, with a graceful appearance. Her beauty was remarkable for someone in her thirties or forties, though compared to Shen Xingruo’s mother, Song Qingzhao, it was incomparable.

— But this didn’t hinder the couple from walking hand in hand, smiling sweetly and warmly.

The wedding music was a niche piano piece. As they walked forward, roses bloomed brightly, lilies exuded purity, and the petals of both colors mixed, creating a scene that looked both happy and romantic.

Sitting at the wedding, Lu Xingyan’s mind was filled with the indifferent expression Shen Xingruo had when she said, “I’m not going.” Perhaps because Shen Xingruo’s resistance was too obvious, he found it difficult to empathize with this romance.

The wedding quickly progressed to the part where the newlyweds exchanged rings, made vows, and kissed.

Lu Xingyan wasn’t interested in watching two people nearing eighty years of age being overly affectionate. He glanced outside the venue.

Suddenly, his yawning was interrupted.

“Hey, what are you doing, Lu Xingyan? Sit down!” Pei Yue pulled Lu Xingyan’s sleeve, lowering her voice to scold him.

Lu Xingyan pretended not to hear, “I’m going to the restroom.”

“Can’t you hold it in for a while?!”

“No.”

He got up.

Lu Xingyan’s abrupt departure attracted the attention of many people. He didn’t care about the gazes of others and simply grabbed Shen Xingruo’s wrist, dragging her to a corner.

Shen Xingruo remained expressionless throughout. She stumbled backward as Lu Xingyan dragged her, not attempting to steady herself. It was only when Lu Xingyan supported her against the wall that she stood upright.

But her gaze was still fixed on the end of the flower path.

With one hand against the wall, Lu Xingyan licked his molars and asked, “What do you want to do?”

Shen Xingruo remained silent.

“Be sensible. If you cause a scene now, where will your dad’s face be? If he gets angry and leaves everything to your stepmom and her son, without even leaving you a painting, what will you do?”

Shen Xingruo withdrew her gaze. “I didn’t intend to cause a scene.”

Lu Xingyan was taken aback.

Shen Xingruo continued, “My mom’s assets are all mine. Besides, before the marriage, he transferred four out of his six properties to my name. I’m also the beneficiary of his insurance and trust funds. If he wants to leave anything to that mother-son duo, he’ll have to paint more, find more people to praise him, and maybe die in a more mysterious way for them to appreciate the value.”

Lu Xingyan paused. Cursing his dad with a mysterious death after getting married wasn’t a small grudge.

After calming himself, Lu Xingyan asked, “But you said you weren’t coming. Dad was quite disappointed when he heard that you weren’t coming last night.”

Shen Xingruo replied indifferently, “Disappointed? Now he’s happily getting married, looking like he’s returned to his youth.”

“You’re sharp-tongued.”

The emcee announced the formal union of the couple, followed by applause and cheers nearby. Shen Xingruo’s expression became even colder.

Just as Lu Xingyan was about to say something comforting, Shen Xingruo suddenly locked eyes with him, her gaze intense.

At that moment, she seemed to be calm before the storm, and Lu Xingyan involuntarily imagined a scene where she would forcefully kiss him and anger her father on the spot. He unconsciously licked his lips.

Shen Xingruo lowered her eyelashes, looking at the hand pressed against her side, and said, “Don’t take advantage of me, and stay away from me.”

It took Lu Xingyan three seconds to react. He quickly stood upright, adopting an expression of disdain as if to say, “Who the hell wants to take advantage of you? I feel like I’m at a loss.”

It seemed that Shen Xingruo had indeed just come to take a look. Without causing a scene or crying as if her life depended on it, once the wedding proceedings were over, she turned around and left.

Liu Xingyan followed suit.

With long legs and large strides, he caught up with Shen Xingruo leisurely, hands in his pockets. They stepped out of the hotel into the bustling streets of Huize City.

The midday sun shone brightly, casting a hazy beauty on the dust particles in the air, creating a sense of tranquility.

Before coming, Liu Xingyan had glanced at the weather forecast on his phone. Huize had been experiencing continuous rainy days, but today, the sun was shining brightly.

Suddenly, he asked, “Are you here hoping for a sudden downpour when they exchange rings?”

“Childish,” Shen Xingruo glanced at him, feeling utterly speechless about his thought process.

Liu Xingyan was just teasing her, not taking it too seriously.

As lunchtime approached, they walked around the streets for a while and both started feeling hungry.

Liu Xingyan suggested finding a restaurant, and conveniently, there was one nearby that Shen Xingruo had recommended to him, known for its delicious spicy fish slices. They followed the map and headed there.

After finishing their meal, Liu Xingyan paid the bill and casually teased her, “Hey, did you forget to split the bill again when you went to the restroom?”

Shen Xingruo looked at him with an “I don’t have money to pay” expression.

The restaurant served a plate of honeydew melon and another of sliced watermelon. They didn’t leave immediately but sat down to eat and chat.

Liu Xingyan remembered something and asked, “By the way, I didn’t see your stepmother’s kid today.”

“She’s probably at extra classes, preparing for competitions,” Shen Xingruo replied.

Liu Xingyan raised an eyebrow slightly, “Still in junior high?”

“Middle school,” she confirmed.

Seeing her unusually forthcoming, Liu Xingyan seized the opportunity to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while, “Your dad has been single for quite some time, and he seems to treat you well. Why can’t you accept him remarrying?”

Shen Xingruo remained calm.

She looked up and said, “That woman was my homeroom teacher in my first year of high school. She was always there for me at school, comforting me and helping me overcome the loss of my mom. She knew everything about my family from me, and then she went behind my back and started dating my dad, intending to become my stepmother. Would you accept that if you were in my shoes?”

Homeroom teacher. No wonder she transferred schools. Liu Xingyan was momentarily at a loss for words.

Shen Xingruo wiped her hands with a tissue. “Liu Xingyan, can you lend me three hundred bucks? I need to buy a ticket back.”

Since arriving in Xingcheng, she hadn’t touched the living expenses given by Shen Guangyao. However, she was generous with money and not accustomed to being thrifty. She had already spent all her saved scholarship money.

Liu Xingyan, still a bit dazed, immediately transferred five hundred to her.

As they got up to leave, Liu Xingyan suddenly thought of something and asked, “Did you take the high-speed rail to get here?”

“Yeah,” she replied.

Liu Xingyan asked, “Then where did you get the money to buy the high-speed rail ticket to Huize?”

Shen Xingruo hesitated for a moment. “I went to that restaurant last night and got back the extra money I paid.”