Zhou Cheng was very reluctant to part.

Xia Xiaolan also felt their time together was too short. She was reflecting on herself, realizing she shouldn’t negate Zhou Cheng’s good qualities just because of their different views on marriage and relationships.

She decided to discuss things in detail with Zhou Cheng the next time they met. Being together meant mutual compromise and concessions.

On the way back to the guesthouse from Zhou Cheng’s workplace, Kang Wei carefully defended Zhou Cheng: “Take Tong Lili for example – she’s just being wishful thinking about Brother Cheng. There are plenty of toads wanting to eat swan meat. Brother Cheng only has eyes for you, Sister-in-law. He wouldn’t even glance twice at those other women! As for Zhou Yi, she’s just a cousin – how can she make decisions for Brother Cheng?”

Kang Wei compared Tong Lili to a toad just to make Xia Xiaolan smile.

In reality, everyone knew Tong Lili could hardly be considered a toad.

Xia Xiaolan thought for a moment, “The Zhou family has high standards – tell me, how high?”

These weren’t questions she could ask Zhou Cheng directly, so she decided to ask Kang Wei and Shao Guangrong instead. Shao Guangrong’s uncle worked in the Commercial City government, and even Shao Guangrong wasn’t arrogant in front of Zhou Cheng. This led Xia Xiaolan to guess that Zhou Cheng’s family must be even more powerful than the Shao family, or at least their equal.

Kang Wei and Shao Guangrong took turns introducing Zhou Cheng’s family members.

Even if Xia Xiaolan had been a senior executive at a multinational corporation in her past life, she probably wouldn’t have met the Zhou family’s standards for a daughter-in-law. No wonder Tong Lili was so arrogant and confident – speaking of matching family backgrounds, even the Tong family fell slightly short.

As for Xia Xiaolan’s family, there was no need to discuss it. If following the principle of matching family backgrounds, she would need to start over and hope to be born into a better family.

However, Xia Xiaolan wasn’t too concerned.

As she had said before, she wasn’t begging to join the Zhou family, so their attitude toward her didn’t matter. People only worry when they want something. Xia Xiaolan hadn’t even considered marriage with Zhou Cheng yet, so why let future concerns trouble her now?

Xia Xiaolan inquired about Zhou Cheng’s family background to understand their family values:

“If I don’t break up with Zhou Cheng, will his family cause trouble for my family?”

Kang Wei knew about Guan Hui’e’s attitude and assumed other Zhou family members would be similar. If they disapproved of Zhou Cheng’s choice, they would at most just ignore Xia Xiaolan’s existence. Or they might pressure Zhou Cheng to break up with her.

Would they bypass Zhou Cheng and cause trouble for the girl’s family?

Kang Wei weighed the behavior of the Zhou family elders in his mind and felt it didn’t match their style.

Shao Guangrong also said, “Sister-in-law, in families like ours, reasonable people outnumber unreasonable ones. Take your situation with Brother Cheng – if the Zhou family disapproves, they can only pressure him to break up with you. It takes two hands to clap in a relationship – what use would it be to give you trouble?”

What use would there be in troubling the girl? With Zhou Cheng’s personality, it would only intensify his rebelliousness.

If the family disapproved, they would certainly focus on controlling their child.

With both Kang Wei and Shao Guangrong saying this, Xia Xiaolan felt more at ease.

As long as they didn’t trouble her family, what was there to fear about dating Zhou Cheng?

The worst scenario would be someone like Ding Aizhen making reckless moves, disliking Xia Xiaolan to the point of setting traps! But Xia Xiaolan didn’t overthink it. She now believed that she and Zhou Cheng just had different paces regarding marriage and relationships – they just needed to resolve this issue.

Zhou Cheng liked her so much that he had already planned to take her home to meet his parents, thinking about marriage next year when they would be old enough. Although this differed from Xia Xiaolan’s thoughts, after her initial anxiety passed, joy gradually rose in her heart.

Xia Xiaolan slept particularly well that night.

However, tonight, many people, including Zhou Cheng, would be losing sleep!

Xia Xiaolan thought she and Zhou Cheng needed to resolve their different paces regarding marriage and relationships.

But in many people’s eyes, she was the “problem” that needed to be “resolved.” As soon as she left the “Five People Common” restaurant, Zhou Cheng followed, and Kang Wei and Shao Guangrong didn’t stay either. Zhou Cheng was too protective of Xia Xiaolan, showing no consideration for Tong Lili’s face, let alone others.

“Lili, where should we go now?”

“Lili, don’t be upset. Zhou Cheng must be blinded…”

No matter how beautiful Xia Xiaolan was, these people were more familiar with Tong Lili. Their friendship since childhood couldn’t be overturned just because Xia Xiaolan was pretty. Besides, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t given them a chance to take sides – she hadn’t tried to win them over. No matter how gentle her voice was, she hadn’t taken them seriously.

Zhou Cheng was indeed powerful.

But these people didn’t depend on him for their livelihood.

Now that Zhou Cheng was protecting Xia Xiaolan, they found it quite meaningless.

Of course, if Zhou Cheng became more powerful, or if Xia Xiaolan changed from girlfriend to the Zhou family’s daughter-in-law, these people wouldn’t care about their slight discomfort or their familiarity with Tong Lili – they would actively seek Xia Xiaolan’s company.

Tong Lili managed to hold herself back from rushing out – she had already lost enough face today, so why run out just to be humiliated by Zhou Cheng again?

All these people had come to support her, and their behavior had already displeased the restaurant. When someone asked where to go next, Tong Lili waved her hand:

“Nowhere else. Tonight’s my treat – let everyone try this Japanese cuisine!”

The restaurant had been open for less than a month, and Tong Lili hadn’t eaten there before.

With more than ten people, even with modest portions of Japanese food, the final bill made Tong Lili’s face turn green.

She didn’t have that much money!

Who would carry that much cash?

For a group eating at Old Mo’s, including drinks, 200 yuan in the pocket would be enough. But this Japanese restaurant was more expensive than Old Mo’s. Tong Lili didn’t have enough money on her, and even with Zhou Yi’s contribution, it wasn’t enough. In the end, several people had to chip in. Nobody said anything, but when Tong Lili walked out of the Beijing Hotel, she wished she could find a crack in the ground to disappear into.

Tonight had been terrible!

“Lili, Zhou Yi, see you!”

“Goodbye, Lili.”

Goodbye, everyone please leave quickly – she didn’t want to see anyone right now.

Even Zhou Yi felt sorry for her, waiting until everyone left before supporting Tong Lili. After grinding her teeth for a while, Tong Lili burst out, “Zhou Yi, a meal at this place is so expensive – that Vixen only gets to appear at the Beijing Hotel because of Zhou Cheng, right? A country girl like her, what right does she have to eat the same food as us? And those clothes she’s wearing, I bet everything from the inside out was bought by Zhou Cheng. She’s just sucking Zhou Cheng’s blood!”

Zhou Yi felt Tong Lili had a point – without Zhou Cheng, how could a country girl suddenly move in their social circles?

But Zhou Yi couldn’t agree openly. Whether she was sucking Zhou Cheng’s blood or not, outsiders might get angry, but Zhou Cheng himself was willing.

Before she could speak, Tong Lili suddenly burst into tears.

Earlier, with so many people around, she couldn’t lose face, but now with just the two of them, Tong Lili couldn’t hold back anymore! Zhou Yi and Tong Lili weren’t just superficial friends – Tong Lili, usually so proud and domineering, now crying so pitifully, moved Zhou Yi’s heart.

She gritted her teeth, “Stop crying. I’ll help you one more time.”