Such a clever wife, suddenly turning foolish.

Zhou Cheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Was it really about his smoking habit getting worse?

It was about other things he couldn’t say…

After extinguishing his cigarette and throwing it in the trash, Zhou Cheng maintained a distance of over half a meter from Xia Xiaolan.

“One room, under reservation, surname Zhou.”

Zhou Cheng had booked the room before leaving New York. America was indeed convenient in these matters. Zhou Cheng registered with his passport, and the front desk said his companion needed to register too.

Xia Xiaolan reached for her driver’s license, but Zhou Cheng, after an intense internal struggle, stopped her hand:

“Sorry, I’m staying alone. She’ll be leaving shortly, does she still need to register?”

The front desk clerk just smiled.

Young couples coming to hotels where the woman leaves shortly wasn’t unheard of, but it was rare.

Perhaps it was about reputation, with one party not wanting to register.

However, this didn’t seem quite like the case.

The clerk’s rich inner thoughts showed on their face, and Xia Xiaolan secretly pinched Zhou Cheng’s hand.

Zhou Cheng remained unmoved.

He dared not overestimate his self-control.

He might be resolute in other matters, but when it came to Xiaolan, even without her teasing, merely his imagination was enough to provoke a physical response. If he let Xiaolan stay tonight, his resolve would surely crumble.

He still stood by what he’d said before – Xiaolan deserved better.

Not this cheap hotel, not some bed countless others had slept in.

“Be good, don’t tease me.”

Zhou Cheng’s voice was as gentle as tonight’s moonlight.

Though the front desk clerk didn’t understand Chinese, they thought this Zhou was quite handsome – how could his companion bear to leave when faced with such passionate eyes?

“Sigh, I won’t tease. Should I still follow you upstairs?”

Xia Xiaolan pointed up.

Zhou Cheng kissed her forehead, “I’ll see you to your car after checking in. Drive carefully going back, and I’ll come to find you at the Wen house tomorrow morning.”

Now it was Xia Xiaolan’s turn to look plaintive:

“Comrade Zhou Cheng, opportunities only come once, youth is fleeting. If you don’t seize it, it’ll slip away.”

She’d decided to look in the mirror when she got back.

Perhaps she’d become haggard from being too tired lately, and that’s why she wasn’t attractive to Zhou Cheng.

But no, when they first met at noon, Zhou Cheng had kissed her so passionately!

Even a straight-forward woman had her pride. After her boyfriend’s repeated refusals, how could she shamelessly try to seduce him?

Zhou Cheng saw her in the car. Halfway home, Xia Xiaolan finally understood Zhou Cheng’s pained, plaintive looks and his strange behavior of smoking before entering the hotel—Ha! Packaging himself as a proper gentleman, making her look like the aggressive one, when she hadn’t even done anything except mention not returning to the Wen house, and Zhou Cheng had such a big reaction!

Damn, his acting was really good, even fooling her.

When Xia Xiaolan got home, she didn’t go in immediately, instead laughing to herself while leaning on the steering wheel.

Zhou Cheng had boldly pursued her when they first met.

In a blink, they’d been dating for almost two years, with plenty of kisses and hugs, but whenever it approached a certain bottom line, Zhou Cheng turned incredibly pure!

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t help but laugh, feeling oddly proud.

To put it in gender-swapped straight male terms, she was Zhou Cheng’s first love, first kiss, and naturally would be his first time… Zhou Cheng must be very certain about the third point, which was why he kept maintaining that bottom line, saving it for their wedding night.

“Would it be too mean to keep teasing him?”

What else could she do?

Really consider marriage just to legally consummate their relationship—Xia Xiaolan didn’t seem so resistant to the idea now. Marriage was just marriage, just adding a certificate, like her mom and Old Tang who managed their long-distance marriage quite well.

Seeing her return so early, Hu Ying muttered something under her breath, seeming to say Xia Xiaolan was too conservative.

Had Mannie’s lessons been too extreme when she taught Little Xia, scaring her?

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t explain at all.

If she said it wasn’t that she was conservative, but that Zhou Cheng was old-fashioned, would Hu Ying believe her?

…

New York.

Song Zhicheng told Song Minglan that Zhou Cheng had quietly left the group.

Song Minglan wasn’t convinced: “With his looks, how could he be low-key?”

Were the inspection team’s leading cadres blind? The team only had so many people – even in a forest of white poplars, if the straightest and most handsome tree was cut down, how could the forest rangers not notice?

Claiming he left quietly was pure self-deception!

Song Minglan felt unsatisfied about not repaying her debt of gratitude, and it bothered her no matter how she thought about it.

Song Zhicheng interrupted her: “If the people don’t report it, officials won’t investigate. As long as no one complains to the team leader, they’ll turn a blind eye. I don’t care what schemes you’re plotting, but don’t mention this matter again.”

“Alright, I understand. Get some rest.”

Song Minglan hung up.

At worst, she’d find another opportunity to repay the favor. Too bad Xia Xiaolan was even richer than her, otherwise it could have been hush money.

Song Minglan had brought several thousand dollars when she came abroad.

A part from her parents, part was sponsored by Huo Chenzhou, and Sheng Xuan contributed some too.

She wasn’t short on money – her studies were government-funded, and she’d even gotten a scholarship.

She could afford that $2,100 check from the party. Though using up most of her scholarship, even if she wasn’t short on money, she couldn’t be happy about it.

Not long after hanging up, Han Jin came looking for her again.

Song Minglan’s expression was cold, while Han Jin looked wronged:

“Senior Sister Minglan, I didn’t know anything. I was completely in the dark about Li Yong and Xiang Li setting up the sign-in book and activity fund box to collect money.”

With so many people at the party, Han Jin had stuck close to Song Minglan, afraid others would get closer to her first, and truly hadn’t noticed when Xiang Li had the box set up for collecting money.

That box was meant to extort money from Xia Xiaolan.

Han Jin had never thought about getting money from Xia Xiaolan, she wasn’t that foolish.

Han Jin spoke with genuine emotion, and in her anxiety, her eyes had turned red.

Song Minglan naturally understood the situation from that day.

Han Jin’s family had some minor background, she wasn’t short a few hundred dollars in New York.

The ones truly short on money were Xiang Li and Li Yong.

Others said Li Yong had connections and an impressive background in China, but Song Minglan knew he was nothing. Li Yong maintained appearances himself, but his acting was so good he had all the Chinese students in New York fooled.

How could you say such a person wasn’t talented?

He certainly was.

He was quite adept at gauging leaders’ intentions and running errands, handling things very appropriately.

That personality and temperament were quite suitable for being a leader’s secretary… and a leader’s secretary, barring accidents, would be a future leader himself. Li Yong’s prospects of staying in America weren’t as good as returning to China and pursuing an official career.

That’s what Song Minglan had thought initially.

But Li Yong was too bold. A secretary serves the leaders, yet Li Yong dared to try to fool even her.

Interrupting the tearful Han Jin, Song Minglan sneered: “If it has nothing to do with you, then tell me what’s going on between Li Yong’s group and Xia Xiaolan. If you try to fool me again saying you don’t know anything, you’ll have to face my bad temper.”