Zhou Cheng was being cautious.

He had always been such a proud person, yet the previous disagreement between them had left him with psychological shadows.

His wife said that men shouldn’t make arbitrary decisions and must respect others – principles Zhou Cheng fundamentally agreed with.

Xia Xiaolan held the pen case without speaking. Zhou Cheng hastily explained further, “It’s just a meal, not forcing marriage… I heard everything you said last time. Besides, we’re both not of marriage age yet. Having one meal doesn’t mean I can tie you to the Zhou family, right? Trust me, I just think since you’re studying in Beijing, if something happens at school and I can’t help you immediately, you should have other people in Beijing you can turn to for help.”

His tone was like a marriage proposal – fortunately, Xia Xiaolan was holding a pen case rather than a ring box.

Zhou Cheng was right – she still had four years of university ahead in Beijing, and it would be impossible to completely avoid interaction with Zhou Cheng’s family.

Even just as friends, out of politeness, she should meet Zhou Cheng’s parents. After all, Zhou Cheng hadn’t just met her mother, he’d also met her uncle and aunt, and was quite familiar with all her family members.

“Alright, when?”

Xia Xiaolan was a decisive person. Once her thoughts were clear, she agreed readily.

Zhou Cheng was somewhat surprised. “…How about this time?”

Although he didn’t know why his wife agreed so quickly, Zhou Cheng immediately seized the opportunity to confirm. Bringing Xiaolan home early meant their relationship would be officially acknowledged by the Zhou family. He couldn’t be bothered with Zhou Yi’s little schemes. Zhou Yi was just a cousin sister, and not a particularly capable one – she had no say in the Zhou family. Her intelligence was lacking too, only knowing how to spread rumors and create trouble. Zhou Cheng was quite exasperated with this cousin.

Fortunately, as just a cousin, Zhou Cheng didn’t have to meet her often, and his wife wouldn’t need to deal with Zhou Yi in the future.

Zhou Cheng never thought his family would look down on Xiaolan. Once they truly got to know her, they would realize how exceptional his wife was!

Zhou Cheng had long recognized this excellence, though others didn’t know yet.

He didn’t want his family to inadvertently cause trouble due to a lack of understanding, so he wanted to bring Xia Xiaolan home early to gain their support – there was also an attitude of “my wife is so exceptional, I want to show her off!”

He looked at Xia Xiaolan with great anticipation, and she found it impossible to refuse.

Calculating her time, since she had already come to Beijing, having a meal at Zhou Cheng’s home wouldn’t waste much time.

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “I’ll follow your arrangement.”

Seeing his wife so compliant, Zhou Cheng desperately wanted to kiss and hug her. He had just grabbed his wife’s small hand and hadn’t even managed to lean in for a kiss when an uninvited guest arrived.

“They want you to go over… Fang Shizhong has complained to the leadership above.”

Zhou Cheng was so angry he wanted to curse!

Xia Xiaolan saw his frustration and defeat, and chuckled, “Go ahead, I don’t want to see those two people. I’ll wait for you in the room.”

After Zhou Cheng left, Xia Xiaolan sat in the chair massaging her hand.

Just now Zhou Cheng had tried to grab her right hand several times, and she couldn’t avoid it completely – she almost gave herself away!

The white Montblanc pen had a small diamond embedded in its cap. This was a luxury item at present – a pen costing over a hundred dollars was expensive even for foreigners, let alone its astronomical price in China. But the pen was much more low-key than a four-wheeled car, which couldn’t be hidden – wherever you drove it, people’s eyes would follow! Displaying a Montblanc wouldn’t necessarily be recognized by many people. It was small and delicate, useful in daily life, and Xia Xiaolan could carry Zhou Cheng’s sentiment with her wherever she went.

After admiring the pen for a while, Xia Xiaolan thought about visiting Zhou Cheng’s home.

If the Zhou family were to be picky about her, she certainly had the backbone to turn and leave, no matter how good Zhou Cheng was.

However, she couldn’t condemn the Zhou family without even meeting them. The few thousand yuan her uncle had stuffed into her hands before boarding the plane was still with her, making it convenient to buy gifts. Xia Xiaolan hadn’t thought about showing off at Zhou Cheng’s home – that was different from helping Zhou Cheng entertain his subordinates at work. Bringing several sheep would be laughable unless her family raised sheep and she could say they were specially brought local products.

She had flown directly from Yang City, so she couldn’t possibly bring any specialties from Shang City.

Housewarming gifts shouldn’t be judged by their value, but the thoughtfulness behind them made a difference.

Xia Xiaolan thought she would be very open-minded, but she cared – Zhou Cheng was different from her blind date in her previous life, he was the boyfriend she had chosen herself. She was even willing to study in Beijing for Zhou Cheng, and if she had to break up with him, she would feel hurt and reluctant.

But would the Zhou family like her?

Xia Xiaolan herself wasn’t sure.

When Zhou Cheng arrived, Gao Fei and Fang Shizhong were no longer with the leader.

The leader’s expression was serious as he criticized Zhou Cheng for quite a while, but Zhou Cheng remained stubbornly passive-aggressive.

The leader was getting a headache from his attitude: “Zhou Cheng, you know better than anyone what should and shouldn’t be said. You and Old Fang are colleagues, brothers-in-arms… The unit is only so big, don’t you see each other every day? Old Fang’s marriage wasn’t easy, and you’ve scared his wife away. Are you going to compensate him with another one?”

Fang Shizhong was the type who was slow to understand women, and if he didn’t get married soon, the organization would have to treat his marriage as a task to be solved.

Fang Shizhong happened to fall for a Beijing belle, and the leader had no choice. With Gao Fei crying tears everywhere, he could only ask Zhou Cheng to give the couple a way to save face.

But Zhou Cheng wasn’t so easy to persuade. After the leader’s long speech, he only replied with one sentence:

“Leader, if my wife gets scared away, will you compensate me with another one?”

The leader couldn’t help but laugh despite his anger. “Your wife… she’s not even your wife yet! But you’re something. I’ve been thinking, when did you have time to find a girlfriend while being cooped up in the unit all day? It must have been during that long disciplinary leave! The organization sent you home to reflect on your mistakes, and instead, you went and found yourself a girlfriend!”

And such an exceptional one at that!

Zhou Cheng was his subordinate, a young cadre favored by the unit’s leadership. Even the daughter of a high-ranking leader had shown interest in Zhou Cheng, but he had firmly refused.

Some thought Zhou Cheng was foolish, others thought he was arrogant – but Zhou Cheng indeed had the right to be proud. Even his choice of girlfriend was exceptional. Not everyone in the unit was uncultured, and finding a provincial top scorer who attended Hua Qing University showed that Zhou Cheng could attract educated people, which also gave face to the leadership!

The leader had unconsciously been led astray from the topic by Zhou Cheng. Originally, Zhou Cheng was called in to be scolded, but in the end, the leader even agreed to let him use the telephone.

When Zhou Cheng said he wanted to bring his girlfriend home to meet his parents, how could the leader stop him?

When Zhou Cheng made this call from the unit back home, the entire Zhou family was in an uproar!

Zhou Cheng was serious about bringing that rural girlfriend from another province home.