Hanging up the phone, Chen Jiaojiao placed it down with a face ashen as gray, and said two words to her father.
"I'll marry."
Her father immediately beamed.
"That's my good daughter! Dad knew you were sensible!"
"Alright then, it's getting late, and I have to get up and get ready tomorrow. I won't bother you any longer. Get a good night's sleep."
How could she possibly sleep?
This night was destined to be sleepless.
While Chen Jiaojiao was in sorrow here, Lu Mingzhe was different.
He stayed home until six o'clock, tidied himself up, and drove to the office building where Xiang Wan worked.
He sent her a message via WeChat.
"I'm waiting downstairs for you to get off work."
Not long after, Xiang Wan came down from upstairs.
"Didn't I tell you to wait for me at home? Why did you come so early?"
"It's boring to stay at home, so I might as well wait here. Why did you come down too?"
Knowing he was waiting here, how could Xiang Wan still be in the mood to work?
"Let's go, let's go back. Everything is on track now, so I don't need to be there every day. It's okay to get off work a little early occasionally."
They drove their own cars and arrived at the apartment complex garage one after another.
Lu Mingzhe proactively offered his arm for Xiang Wan to link.
Xiang Wan was quite unaccustomed to this sudden formality, as if they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
"Just walk your own way. Why are you sticking your arm out?"
Lu Mingzhe took her hand and placed it in his arm.
"Can't you be a little more delicate? You always like to be difficult with me."
Her younger brother, who was preparing dinner at home, was naturally surprised to see the two of them enter hand-in-hand.
But his surprise was quickly replaced by joy.
"You're back so early today? I'm just making dinner, you can rest for a bit, it'll be ready soon."
"I'm not tired. What are you making? I'll help you."
Xiang Wan couldn't bear to see her brother so busy every day, so she changed her shoes and went into the kitchen with him.
The siblings washed and chopped vegetables by the counter, laughing and talking, and Lu Mingzhe also walked over.
He leaned against the doorframe, watching them. Although he didn't join the conversation, he found these moments filled with domestic warmth quite interesting.
During dinner, her brother suggested they all have a drink together.
"It's rare for my sister to get off work early. The three of us are all here together. Let's drink a little, relieve some fatigue, okay, sis?"
Xiang Wan did not approve of her brother drinking alcohol, but Lu Mingzhe said,
"A man should act like a man. You'll inevitably have to socialize with people when you enter society. How can you do without some drinking capacity?"
"Don't always treat him like a child, let him grow up."
Xiang Wan felt that there was some logic to it and did not stop him.
Before they knew it, the three of them had finished a whole bottle of red wine.
Her brother, who usually abstained from alcohol, was already feeling dizzy from this small amount of red wine.
Without bothering to clean the dishes, he went back to lie down.
Xiang Wan and Lu Mingzhe both had high alcohol tolerance and were unaffected.
After her brother left, Xiang Wan took the initiative to wash the dishes.
Seeing her nimbly clearing the plates, Lu Mingzhe stood up to join her.
"I'll help you clean up."
His hands were fairer and more slender than a woman's. Xiang Wan teased him.
"Young Master Lu, you probably haven't done housework at home, have you? How can I let you do such work?"
Lu Mingzhe nudged her with his arm.
"What's there to be embarrassed about? I didn't help with the cooking, so I should at least put in some effort with the dishes. Stop making fun of me."
They carried the plates to the kitchen, and Lu Mingzhe proactively squeezed dish soap into the sink.
While washing them slowly, he complained to her.
"You're not short on money, so why do you still live so frugally? Can't you get a dishwasher?"
"Life is long, it's not good for my brother to always be washing dishes,"
Xiang Wan said faintly, watching him from behind.
"After buying the house, we didn't have much spare cash left, and the renovation money was squeezed out while working. We saved wherever we could, so we didn't install one."
She was just stating the facts, without any other intentions.
Lu Mingzhe suddenly turned around.
"Then I'll have someone come install one tomorrow. Consider it a gift for your brother."
It sounded as if she had intentionally asked him for it.
Xiang Wan quickly refused.
"No need. I'm not short on money now, I can afford a dishwasher."
Lu Mingzhe knew she had a strong sense of pride and insisted,
"Saying that makes it awkward. I'm always eating your food and living in your place, not contributing a penny, do you think I'm a kept man?"
"It's settled then. Give me a time, and I'll have someone come over tomorrow."
As he said this, he suddenly remembered that tomorrow was not convenient, and he paused.
"How about the day after tomorrow? Tomorrow might not be convenient."
"What? Are you getting married tomorrow?"
Xiang Wan didn't know when he was getting married and didn't deliberately try to find out, she just said it casually.
Unexpectedly, Lu Mingzhe admitted it himself.
"It's just going through the motions."
Xiang Wan suddenly felt a strange discomfort in her heart.
After a moment of silence, she decided not to bother with him and turned to go to the bathroom to shower.
In the evening, they leaned against the headboard. Lu Mingzhe was looking at his phone, while Xiang Wan held her laptop, reviewing recent data.
Time quickly passed to ten o'clock. Lu Mingzhe urged her to rest early.
Xiang Wan closed her laptop and lay down. As he pulled her into his embrace and leaned in to kiss her, she couldn't help but tease him again.
"You're going to be someone else's groom tomorrow, and you're still here with me today. If your fiancée found out, would she rush over and tear me apart?"
Lu Mingzhe let out a low chuckle.
"Even if I brought you to her, she wouldn't react in the slightest."
"...Why?"
"She doesn't like me. Don't worry, her existence and yours don't conflict."
The next morning, Lu Mingzhe was sleeping soundly when his phone rang.
He hated being disturbed when he hadn't slept well, so he didn't want to answer the phone and continued to hold Xiang Wan.
However, the phone vibrated incessantly.
He had to grope for it and answer impatiently.
"What is it?"
His mother's voice on the other end was clear that he hadn't woken up yet, and she yelled at him anxiously.
"Where have you gone? You didn't come home last night?"
"Qingxu said no one was at your place. The wedding is today, and we still need to pick up the bride later. Why are you so unreliable?"
Is that so? He had to pick up Chen Jiaojiao early in the morning?
"What time?"
Forgive Lu Mingzhe for his lack of experience.
Most of his friends were not married. Only Zhan Beijue had gotten married early, but they hadn't had a wedding ceremony, so he really didn't know the procedures.
His mother scolded him soundly and urged him to go back quickly. Only then did he let go of Xiang Wan.
"I'm leaving now. It's still early, you can sleep a bit longer."
How interesting.
Being woken up from his own bed, and then immediately going to attend a wedding.
How could there be such peculiar men and women in the world?
Xiang Wan also sat up and watched him nimbly put on his clothes, and then asked in a wistful tone.
"Are you coming over tonight?"
After asking, she regretted it.
She realized she was asking for trouble.
It seemed as if she was eagerly anticipating him.
As Xiang Wan expected, Lu Mingzhe immediately smiled, leaned closer, and stared at her with a smile in his eyes.
"What? You've gotten used to sleeping with me, so you can't sleep without me for a night?"