Cheng Lele had thought that since the daughter of the sea’s family had made their fortune from the ocean, and even the father and daughter’s names were so “ocean-themed,” this lunch would surely be an authentic seafood feast. However, the place Li Chaoxi took them to only served vegetarian food.
Although several dishes tried their best to imitate the feel of meat dishes, Cheng Lele still felt they weren’t as delicious as the real thing.
The private room’s environment was very elegant, but unfortunately Li Chaoxi spoke as if she had English starvation syndrome, constantly throwing out a few elementary-level English words that ruined the atmosphere.
Cheng Lele remembered that in the fairy tale, the daughter of the sea was a mute who had lost her voice. However, the real-life version of the daughter was quite noisy, and her content was also very boring—eight out of ten sentences were showing off and flaunting the empire her father had built.
But also because she could talk so much, the other people could focus on eating, with the exception of Chen An. After all, the other two sentences out of Li Chaoxi’s ten were questions directed at Chen An, from “where are you from” to “how many people in your family”—like a household registration survey, and also very much like a matchmaking session.
Chen An selected a few to answer simply. Li Chaoxi seemed very satisfied. Cheng Lele guessed there was a high possibility that tomorrow the Li family’s betrothal gifts would be delivered to Chen An’s doorstep. She also guessed the betrothal gifts might be pearls and sea cucumbers or something—all treasures from the ocean.
Thinking of this, Cheng Lele burst out laughing with a “puff,” then felt embarrassed. She took a sip of water but still found it funny, her shoulders shaking. She could only cough desperately to cover it up.
Chen An patted her back: “Did it go down the wrong way? What did you eat?”
Cheng Lele waved her hand and wiped away tears: “Nothing.”
Chen An took the opportunity to say: “President Li, why don’t we end this meal here today? Thank you for your hospitality.” But he really couldn’t bring himself to say the polite words “we’ll treat you when we return to Taixi.”
Li Chaoxi said: “No need to thank me. I still need to trouble President Chen. In a bit, Zhang Wei is going to check out a nearby small food expo. Would it be convenient to catch a ride back in President Chen’s car?”
Cheng Lele kicked Chen An. Chen An looked at her.
Li Chaoxi thought Chen An was going to ask Cheng Lele’s opinion again and said: “Huh, Manager Cheng isn’t going to the expo? I heard there are many packaged food and semi-finished product suppliers participating. We at Ocean Cinema received an invitation—didn’t Star Cinema receive one?”
Cheng Lele felt this tedious lunch finally had some practical significance. She wasn’t affected at all by the mockery in Li Chaoxi’s words and asked Zhang Wei: “Brother Zhang, can you bring us in?”
Li Chaoxi overstepped: “For this kind of operational matter, you and Zhang Wei going would be fine.”
Cheng Lele kicked Chen An again. Chen An said: “I’ll go learn as well.”
Li Chaoxi said with displeasure: “President Chen, that’s too over.”
Cheng Lele thought, if you keep talking like this, President Chen will be completely over it.