Lin Chu was not bothered about them and continued to say, "Red packets are given willingly as a sincere blessing to the newlyweds. Since Mrs. Cheng does not care for our blessing, there is no need for us to spend this money for nothing."
"This…" The person in charge of the counter hesitated. Lin Chu had already reached her hand out, should he really return it to her?
Yan Beicheng had just pa.s.sed him the red packet. He had not managed to put it in the box as Lin Yuwen and the others had suddenly rushed out.
"Take it back!" Lin Yuwen ran to him and s.n.a.t.c.hed the red packet from his hands. Yan Beicheng"s name was indeed written on it. She threw it into Lin Chu"s face.
Unfortunately, the red packet only contained a thin cheque. It floated in the air and did not even touch Lin Chu"s face. It floated downwards right in front of Lin Chu, who quickly grabbed it with her hands.
"How can you take back a red packet that was already given out? This is such a low-cla.s.s, petty antic that is an embarra.s.sment to Master Yan! Can"t you see what kind of occasion this is before doing something so shameless?! With a thick skin like yours and that petty att.i.tude, you"re throwing your reputation away for a little money. You should be embarra.s.sed to be out in public!"
Lin Chu did not care. She laughed grimly and forced the red packed into Yan Beicheng"s palms. She then said to Yan Beicheng, "It won"t mean anything for you to give a red packet to this kind of person. They won"t remember what good you have done for them, it"s a waste for you to give them a red packet. Even if you have the money, there"s no need to squander it on someone like this. They may think that you owe them this money even though you were the one that gave it to them."
Lin Chu did not care if her actions were considered petty. These people would not dare say anything in front of Yan Beicheng anyway. She had seen many zeros written Yan Beicheng"s cheque and did not want Lin Yuwen to have it.
They would have left it there if Lin Yuwen had not run out to create havoc. But after Lin Yuwen"s ruckus, it"s obvious that there was no more civility between them, therefore, there was no reason to lose money over her.
Yan Beicheng was even calmer, he would leave the decision to his future wife. Moreover, he did not think that Lin Chu had done anything wrong. In fact, it was nice to see Lin Chu emboldened; she was not doing anything low down, somebody was losing their temper on her and she was still expected to pay for it? Who did the Lin family think they were? There was no point in getting on their good side.
So what if they took the money back? Did they deserve to be scolded and then after that, give their red packet with smiles plastered on their faces? No one deserved to be cheapened to that extent.
Today, he had destroyed this occasion, and so what if he did?
Of course, the occasion was held in Sheng Yue. Totalling ruining the day would cause a loss to Sheng Yue, which was why he did not go that far.
Yan Beicheng smiled as he kept the red packet, "Sure, I"ll let you make all the decisions."
Everyone was shocked. While Lin Yuwen was rash and stupid with her actions, everyone felt that Lin Chu too did not do too well. Even though it was quite appalling to pay after getting scolded, but the richer the family, the more prominent and dignified they would like to seem. Even if one was not happy about it, one would definitely force themselves through the situation and would not do what Lin Chu did.
Even if doing it would give them a deep sense of satisfaction.
However, Yan Beicheng did not seem to blame her and he did not even feel embarra.s.sed about it. He was all smiles and it seemed that praise for Lin Chu was all that was lacking. This had flipped the perception of everybody at the scene.
Yan Beicheng wanted very much to take back Lin Chu"s red packet as well. It might not be a lot but it was still quite ghastly to give it to Lin Yuwen and Cheng Ziming. Besides, his Lin Chu"s salary was not high, why should she give her hard-earned money to this cheap couple.
Lin Chu seemed to know what Yan Beicheng was thinking. She squeezed his hand and said quietly, "I can"t get mine back, it"s already in the box. It would be too much trouble to look for it in there."
Yan Beicheng nodded and decided to let it go. He walked away with Lin Chu without looking back, not even bothering to say goodbye to the Lin family.
All he heard was someone shouting from the back, "Mrs. Cheng has fainted!"
Cheng Jindong turned immediately at the shouting and managed to hold on to w.a.n.g Jinglin in time. Cheng Ziming rushed over as well. For a moment, it was chaos where they were.
Lin Yunwen and Su Changxin"s expressions were grim. This w.a.n.g Jinglin really could not hold her own. The situation was already out of control and here she was creating more chaos! Were they already not embarra.s.sed enough today?!
Both of them had gotten into the car when Lin Chu suddenly remembered Yang Zhiyuan smoking at the table. She had only frowned slightly but this man had noticed it. She suddenly realized that she had not seen him smoking when the two were together. She asked him the question on her mind.
"I don"t smoke so much now. I was addicted to it before but since Qi Chengzhi and Song Yu got together, Qi Chengzhi never allowed any of us to smoke when both of them are attending our gatherings because Song Yu doesn"t like the cigarette smell. After a while, I got used to it and started to smoke less. I"ll only smoke to relax when it gets very busy and I"m too tired. Otherwise, I don"t smoke much."
Yan Beicheng looked at her, "I guess you don"t like smoking either."
"Yes. I don"t like the smell of second-hand smoke. Besides, it"s also bad even if it"s first-hand smoke. It"s not good for your health."
Lin Chu continued, "I do hope you"ll smoke less, or even better, not smoke at all. It"s not because I don"t like the smell of smoking, but because it"s not good for your health."
"I don"t bring cigarettes around with me anymore. As long as I don"t have them on me, I can still tolerate it when I want a smoke. Besides, I also think that forcing non-smokers to take in your second-hand smoke is a very selfish act," said Yan Beicheng as his dark eyes looked at her seriously.
Yan Beicheng started his car as they continued chatting.
At the Yan family mansion, Old Lady Han had immediately given Old Lady Yan a phone call upon learning this news.
Old Lady Han was the gossip queen with these few families. Old Lady Qi now had a house full of children and grandchildren, and quite a few great-grandchildren as well. She was living the contented life, taking care of all these babies every day. Now, she did not have any time for gossip.
Old Lady Han, who was very concerned about Han Zhuoli"s lifelong happiness, has been busy looking out for nice girls to introduce to Han Zhuoli. She did not care about the girl"s background or career. All she wanted was a nice girl who knew her responsibilities, had a pleasant-looking face and for her grandson to like her. That will be enough.
As Old Lady Han was always on the lookout, she was constantly trying to obtain news about different kinds of girls. Because of this, she had developed a network of connections. The moment Yan Beicheng appeared at the Lin family wedding to publicly announce Lin Chu as his girlfriend, someone had immediately sent Old Lady Han a WeChat message.
Old Lady Han was anxious. Even Yan Beicheng had found himself a future wife and still, there was no news from her grandson.
Even though she was anxious, Old Lady Han still remembered to make it a priority to call Old Lady Yan to tell her about this. They went on for one and a half hours before ending the call.
Old Lady Yan ran to the study hurriedly and pushed the door open. Old Master Yan had his reading gla.s.ses on. He was holding a book on Feng Shui, looking like he knew what he was reading about. Old Lady Yan thought that the way his gla.s.ses were placed on his nose while studying Feng Shui made him look like a conman out to cheat people by claiming to be divine.
Old Master Yan lifted his head to see Old Lady Yan running in with her phone in her hands, "Guess what? Old Lady Han called me just now to tell us who our grandson"s girlfriend is!"
Old Master Yan immediately put down his Feng Shui book and with curiosity, took off his reading gla.s.ses while looking at Old Lady Yan, "Who is it?"
"It"s the adopted daughter of the Lin family. Her name is Lin Chu," Old Lady Yan was half worried, half excited.
She was worried about Lin Chu"s character. According to Old Lady Han, the Lin family was not good. At the same time, she was excited that Yan Beicheng was no longer single. She could finally join Old Lady Qi to make fun of Old Lady Han.
"Lin family?" Old Master Yan had a blank expression on his face.
"It"s Lin… Lin…" Old Lady Yan started racking her brain. Old Lady Han had just told her the name, it was just right at her lips but she could not work it out.
After quite a while, she clapped her hands and announced a bit too loudly in agitation, "Lin Mao!"
The sudden high pitch gave Old Master Yan a scare and he mumbled, "How can you be so immature at this age?"
"Is now the time to lecture me?" Old Lady Yan glared at him as she pouted unhappily.
Old Master Yan was taken aback, and slowly said, "I haven"t heard of Lin Mao before."
"It"s… It"s this man…" Old Lady Yan took out her phone and searched for Lin Zhenghe on Baidu and showed old Master Yan the picture that appeared on it.
"Old Lady Han had collected some information; this Lin family is not good. They adopted Lin Chu years ago because of superst.i.tion but did not take good care of her. They created an image of themselves as a charitable family but in fact, they were very unkind to Lin Chu. After that, Lin Yuwen s.n.a.t.c.hed her boyfriend of four years. The Lin family wedding today was the marriage between Lin Yuwen and Lin Chu"s ex-boyfriend. Our grandson attended the wedding today and stuck up for Lin Chu. He really made the Lin family mad. Lin Chu does not seem to be on good terms with the Lin family, otherwise, we should not allow our grandson to mess up other people"s wedding."
"Other than that, the Lin family are pretty unbearable. The Lin family does not have good characteristics. I"m worried about this. Although Lin Chu does not get along with the Lin family, what if her character is also bad?" Old Lady Yan said worriedly.
Old Master Yan frowned with worry as well, "No matter what, the Lin family did bring up Lin Chu. Even if they were unkind to her, it"s still not a good thing to make a mess of things. However, we"re not clear on the details, it would not be fair to judge this simply. But looking at the current situation, it would seem this Miss Lin is not a good character."
"Well, good or not, we would still need to meet her first to get a good grasp of who she is. Sigh, this is worrying. I can"t let this go without personally making sure what kind of a person she is! It"s okay if she is an orphan. Even if she has to carry the Lin family name around, it would be okay too, there"s nothing there for our family to be afraid of. It would not matter what her work is either. What matters most is her character. Our grandson had purposely picked such a public occasion to announce his relations.h.i.+p with Lin Chu and even stood up for Lin Chu"s sake to create such chaos during the Lin family wedding. He must be really serious with this relations.h.i.+p," said Old Lady Yan.
Old Master Yan started to go quiet. He could not think of a good plan either.
Old Lady Yan got distressed as she scratched her jaw and said, "I… I"ll give Old Lady Han another call to get her to find out where this girl is working."
"What are you doing? Don"t do anything rash. Our grandson is going to hash it out with you if he finds out," Old Master Yan glared at her. He was afraid of Yan Beicheng getting angry if he found out.
"But, I…"
Old Lady Yan was about to say something when a young, crisp voice was suddenly heard at the door, "Eldest Auntie."
"…" Old Lady Yan turned to see Yan Ningbai"s little round head peeking into the room.
His two little fat hands were resting at the door as his plump little body hid behind the wall. He was staring at them with his pair of big, black eyes, and looked adorable as he did so.
Old Lady Yan was especially happy about it. Hearing Yan Ningbai referring to her as Eldest Auntie made her feel young.
"Why are you hiding there? Come in if you need something," Old Lady Yan gave a wave of her hand.
Yan Ningbai"s little white teeth could be seen as he gave a laugh and ran in happily. He looked up with his pretty little face and asked, "Do you want to know more about my big niece-in-law?"
"Hmm? You know her?" Old Lady Yan was surprised, even Old Master Yan looked over.
Two pairs of bright, elderly eyes stared at him. He shuddered as he felt a strong pressure from it, "I… I have pictures!"
"Quick, show us!" Old Lady Yan said expectantly and carried Yan Ningbai over to sit on the sofa.
Yan Ningbai took out his phone from the big pockets at the back of his pants. He expertly turned on WeChat to find Yan Beicheng"s account. His actions had placed Old Lady Yan in a depressing situation.
Her grandson had added Yan Ningbai but refused to add her as a friend!
She later saw Yan Ningbai click on Yan Beicheng"s profile picture, "Look at this, this is my big niece-in-law"s two-inch photo. Dad, who is also your beloved little brother, said…"
Old Lady Yan, "…"
Old Master Yan, "…"
They really wanted to stop this jerk of a boy from talking!
Yan Ningbai did not notice Old Master Yan and Old Lady Yan"s gloomy faces. His fat little white hands were still holding onto the phone as he pa.s.sionately continued explaining, "She was hired by my nephew, Zilin"s company. This picture was supposed to be on her resume. Dear nephew Zilin wanted to show this to my big nephew but in the end, big nephew took the picture for himself and posted them as his profile picture.
As a member of the "8x8 is 64" chat group, Yan Huaian knew very well of the consequences of this action. Wei Zilin had already complained about this in the chatgroup.
Old Lady Yan was quietly sorry for Wei Zilin. He not only had to handle her grandson but had to be dragged down alongside him to become a nephew to this jerk of a boy. Just thinking about it was tiring.
As Qi Chengzhi and the others were close to Yan Beicheng, and everyone was of the same generation, it made Yan Beicheng feel unbalanced for Yan Ningbai to call him nephew and refer to the others as "uncles". This was why everyone followed Yan Beicheng"s footsteps and became Yan Ningbai"s nephews.
This was actually Yan Beicheng"s doing. He could not accept it so he took his brothers down as well.
Old Lady Yan took Yan Ningbai"s phone to take a good look at the picture. Old Master Yan had put on his reading gla.s.ses and got nearer to have a good look as well.
There was no make-up on her in the 2-inch pa.s.sport photo. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, which made her look younger.
"This girl looks nice and clean. There"s a gentle demeanor to her," said Old Lady Yan. While Lin Chu"s picture did not look exquisitely beautiful and could not be compared to those female celebrities who had plastic surgery, she looked naturally pretty. There was a comfortable look about her.
Her make-up free face looked pure and clean.
"Looks like someone who understands her responsibilities," Old Master Yan nodded at the side.
Old Lady Yan had a very good impression of Lin Chu"s photo, "This is a pa.s.sport photo, the kind that"s the ugliest. If she wasn"t a beauty herself, it would be difficult to get a good picture. This girl must be much prettier in person."
"Big niece-in-law is really nice. Her culinary skills are great. The meals she cooks tastes great!" Yan Ningbai had a soft spot for his big niece-on-law. Big nephew did not dare to glare at him if he taunted him along with Lin Chu. Big nephew would even try bribing him by taking him to have good food. This was why Yan Ningbai was so willing to praise Lin Chu, adding on good points for Lin Chu in front of his two elders.
Old Lady Yan rubbed Yan Ningbai"s head but did not say anything. She found Lin Chu pleasing to the eye. She would find the opportunity to personally test Lin Chu herself.
It was a Sunday the next day. Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng had visited the orphanage and had just come back after dinner there. The princ.i.p.al was so happy that she insisted on personally cooking their meal. Even Lin Chu could not stop her. In the end, she went into the kitchen to give the old princ.i.p.al some help.
The black Grand Cherokee stopped below Lin Chu"s house. Lin Chu unbuckled her seatbelt but did not get off the car. Instead, she said, "It"s cold out there. Don"t get off the car. This area is still considered safe even though the buildings are a little old. The security is good and the guards are strict."
Yan Beicheng gave a thought about it and agreed with her. When he first started seeing Lin Chu home, he was stopped by the guards at the door. Lin Chu had to show them the entrance card for the area and at the same time, the guards had recognized her before allowing him entry.
As he turned up frequently, the guards have started to recognize this car and no longer stopped him.
Yan Beicheng thought about it. This was out of Lin Chu"s concern for him, so he did not reject her request and nodded.
He looked up and saw the living room and one of the bedrooms had the lights on. Xu Moyan was home. So he said, "I"ll leave after I see your bedroom lights turn on."
Lin Chu nodded, "Okay. Please be careful on the road."
Saying that, she felt like she did not want to separate from him so soon. She did not want to leave. It seemed like the longer she was with this man, the more she wanted to stick to him.
She blushed as she boldly reached out for Yan Beicheng"s hand. She held it with both her hands as her thumbs gently rubbed against the back of his hand. She lowered her eyes to take a good look at it.
This man looked good everywhere. His hands were so exquisite that she was too embarra.s.sed to show hers.
She was too shy touching his hands for too long. Otherwise, she would have wanted to slowly, carefully fondle his every finger, every knuckle, and every bone.
She looked up red-faced and was momentarily stunned. She had looked right into the dark eyes of Yan Beicheng.
He had somehow moved close to her, very close.
She could feel his hot breath on her forehead as he breathed. A sudden breath of heat on her head, like a hot, dry breeze baking her.
"If you want to touch them, take your time to do so. I won"t say a thing," Yan Beicheng"s throaty laugh could be heard from the top of her head.
Lin Chu, "…"
What did he mean by this?!
He had already mentioned this before she even did anything. She could only imagine what else he would say if she really took her time to touch his hands.
"If you don"t want to separate from me, why don"t you come home with me?" Yan Beicheng"s five perfect, slender fingers went between Lin Chu"s thin, soft fingers and held her hands, intertwining them.
Lin Chu did not deny that she was heavy-hearted about leaving him. There was no need to hide anything from Yan Beicheng. Her soft hands pressed down the back of his hands.
"I"m going back," Lin Chu said quickly and let go of her hand. But Yan Beicheng did not let go, he continued to hold on to them.
"Wait a while more. I"d like to talk about something serious," Yan Beicheng lightly laughed as Lin Chu glared at him with some shyness.
"I"ve heard the princ.i.p.al mention that you"d like to sponsor Mo Jinxi?" Yan Beicheng asked.
Lin Chu nodded, "Yes. The person originally sponsoring Jinxi suddenly said he was unable to continue. He must have met with some trouble. The other kids already have sponsors and Jinxi should not allow his studies to fall behind. The princ.i.p.al is already old, we can"t be allowing her to use her money for this. She"s already got enough on her hands dealing with other big and small matters. I still have a month"s worth of probation. My salary will increase after that. If I can continue there, my income will rise every year and in addition to the business commission, my intake would not be too bad. Sponsoring Jinxi would not be too difficult, so I might as well take over as his sponsor."