Chapter Twenty: The Gift

In the steel jungle of the city, neon lights flickered brilliantly. Rain slid down the car window, tracing streaks like tears. The soft patter of rain mingled with the deep hum of the engine, creating an inexplicable sense of calm and reassurance.

Li Cheng sat in the back seat, his fingers lightly tapping his knee. The seat’s ventilation and heating functions were both on, the warm air circulating swiftly drying the dampness clinging to him.

After a moment of thought, he smiled at Shao Wangshu. “Thanks for earlier.”

Though he found Luo Zhengxin and his group’s melodramatic behavior somewhat pointless, the goodwill of others was still goodwill.

“Just a little something, hehe,” Shao Wangshu replied shyly, tilting her seat back then straightening it to align with his. She happily swayed the pointed tips of her glossy PRADA shoes from side to side.

“But what a coincidence to meet again like this.”

Li Cheng brushed his bangs aside. With over ten districts and more than twenty million people in Yin City, running into each other two days in a row was truly remarkable.

“Not that extraordinary,” Wei Caiyan, the housekeeper behind the wheel, said, “We just finished dinner at the Bright Village you recommended yesterday. It’s on the road nearby.”

“Oh, that explains it.”

Li Cheng nodded, dismissing his doubts—recent unexpected events had forced him to scrutinize every matter carefully. “By the way, how did you find the place? What did you order? Was the food to your liking?”

“Um… we had four-joy braised gluten, smoked fish, stir-fried rice cakes with shredded pork and yellow sprouts, sautéed shrimp, marinated fish slices, and shredded eel in spicy oil…” Shao Wangshu counted on her fingers, smiling sheepishly. “It was quite good, just a bit on the sweet side.”

“Alright,” Li Cheng said resignedly. The hallmark of Yin City’s local cuisine was its rich, oily, and sweet flavor. The more authentic the dish, the harder it was for outsiders to adjust.

“Next time, I’ll take you to try other cuisines?”

“Sounds great.”

The conversation was light and pleasant. Before they knew it, the car came to a stop at an intersection, waiting for the traffic light to change.

“Hoo—”

A white BMW 7 Series rolled to a gentle halt. Xue Jingming, gripping the steering wheel, yawned and blinked vigorously to shake off his drowsiness.

The family was dressed formally: his wife Li Zhao in a black long dress sat in the front passenger seat, while their two children, Xue Lingyu and Xue Luomeng, played with their phones in the back.

With some time before the light changed, Li Zhao took out a thermos of warm tea and handed it to her husband, softly saying, “Get to bed early tonight.”

“Okay.”

Xue Jingming nodded. As the sales manager of a shipping machinery equipment company, he had just attended a company dinner with the boss.

The atmosphere had been amicable, and the boss had hinted at promoting him to sales director.

“It’s going to get busier from now on.”

Thinking of this, Xue Jingming gently clasped his wife’s hand. “You’ve worked hard at home.”

“You too, my love,” Li Zhao said, stroking his hand with a soft, tender gaze.

The Xue family wasn’t insignificant; on the contrary, it was a venerable lineage with two or three centuries of history.

As a direct descendant, Xue Jingming’s achievements might have been far greater if he had followed the path laid out by his elders—likely serving as president or manager in a family-run enterprise.

But twenty years ago, he resolutely chose to marry Li Zhao, a woman from a remote mountain village who hadn’t even completed high school. He defied his parents, moved out, found work, rented a place, married, and built his success step by step, without any family backing.

Now with a harmonious family and a thriving career, he had proven wrong the disparaging whispers about him being fooled by a rustic village girl or losing his mind.

After so many hardships, the couple, married for twenty years, remained as affectionate as ever, never shying from expressing their love—even sharing a kiss every morning before leaving.

It was just tough on Xue Lingyu and Xue Luomeng in the back, forced to endure such saccharine displays of affection.

Xue Luomeng silently rolled her eyes, lowered the window, and breathed in the fresh air outside.

“Huh?!”

Suddenly, her eyes widened in disbelief.

Not far to the left, inside a Bentley worth nearly four BMW 7 Series cars, a gentle and graceful young woman in a white dress was chatting and laughing with a familiar figure.

“What’s wrong?” Li Zhao followed her daughter’s gaze and also spotted Li Cheng and Shao Wangshu, her eyebrows rising in surprise.

“Wait, is that Li Cheng? Am I seeing things?” Xue Lingyu hesitated. “That Bentley looks like a limited edition…”

“Probably around four to five million yuan,” Xue Jingming said, clicking his tongue. He was quite knowledgeable about cars.

Only a handful of manufacturers still developed new models in the ultra-luxury sedan market these days.

Compared to Rolls-Royce and Maybach, Bentley wasn’t the most expensive, but it was elegant and understated—classic and timeless, appealing to old money aesthetics. When the Queen was alive, the royal family had switched their official car from Rolls-Royce to Bentley.

It was also fitting for a young lady to ride in.

“Um… this,” Shao Wangshu hesitated, then took a white gift box wrapped in brown paper from beside her and gently placed it between them. “I saw on QQ that today’s your birthday, so I took the liberty of picking out a gift.”

“Eh?”

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow and peeked inside the package, discovering a DJI drone of a model he’d never heard of.

He didn’t reach for it, hesitating. “Isn’t this a bit too extravagant?”

If it had been an entry-level drone just over a thousand yuan, it wouldn’t be a big deal—he could just accept it and maybe treat her to a meal next time. But clearly, this gift was far from cheap.

Debts of kindness were the hardest to repay, especially since he’d only known her a few days and had no idea why she was so enthusiastic.

“It’s not expensive, not expensive. My family has been doing business with the drone company for years—we’re longtime clients. This model is the next-generation product, not yet on the market, and it was given as a free gift. You don’t have to pay. See, there’s no price tag on it.”

Shao Wangshu shook her head vigorously as if it were a rattle, emphasizing the word “free,” afraid he wouldn’t accept it.

‘…This girl is hopeless.’

Wei Caiyan, who was driving, had to exert great effort to suppress an eye roll.

She’d heard Shao Wangshu’s nagging quite a bit lately. Yesterday’s “chance encounter” with Li Cheng at the flower and bird market had already felt contrived, giving off a vibe of suspiciously eager intentions.

According to the original plan, they should have waited a few days for the two to become more familiar. Then, Shao Wangshu would “discover” that Li Cheng’s birthday had just passed and gift this drone worth tens of thousands as a make-up present.

That would have seemed less abrupt.

But this girl was so head-over-heels that she completely forgot her planned strategy upon seeing the man she liked walking in the rain.

Her intentions were far too obvious! They say love is blind, but being this forward might scare a person away!

Anyone would suspect she was trying to sell him off to Myanmar or something.

“Well…”

Seeing Shao Wangshu’s desperate explanations, Li Cheng doubted she might cry if he refused. So he accepted the gift, then pulled out his phone to check her QQ profile.

“Your birthday’s January 1st, New Year’s Day? Then next time I give you a birthday gift, you can’t refuse either.”

“Okay!”

A light flickered in Shao Wangshu’s eyes as she extended her right pinky solemnly. “Pinky swear?”

“Ha.” Li Cheng smiled, hooking his pinky with hers. “Pinky swear, a hundred years no change.”