Chapter 229

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Protagonist:

Lin Xiyu

Lin Xiyu agreed without any hesitation, and on her way home, she picked up Guben's favorite braised pork hock, humming a little tune as she entered the door.

"Encountered some good news? You seem so happy."

Guben had been wholeheartedly supporting her pursuit of her own dreams lately, taking on all the housework.

When Lin Xiyu entered the door, he was busy in the kitchen wearing an apron, preparing dinner.

Seeing his wife humming a song, looking in good spirits, he poked half his body out of the window, observing her with great interest.

"Braised pork hock, a reward for you."

Lin Xiyu smiled charmingly and handed him the bag containing the braised pork hock.

"Still, my wife understands me best."

Guben reached out to take it, and flattery rolled off his tongue: "Knowing I love this flavor, you specially bought it back for me. Such a good wife must be treated well. Tell me whatever you want to eat tonight, and I'll make it for you."

"Let me think..."

Lin Xiyu pretended to consider it seriously: "I'm tired of home-cooked dishes. How about we change the flavor?"

"Fine."

Guben agreed without thinking.

Lin Xiyu laughed and scolded him playfully: "You don't even ask what I want to eat, and you just agree."

"As long as you want..."

Guben was a master at coaxing his wife: "No matter what flavor you want, leave it to me. I guarantee I can satisfy your taste buds, and I won't say no to anything."

"That's what you said..."

Lin Xiyu smiled playfully, a glint of cunning flashing in her eyes: "Then I won't be polite. I'll order my own dishes."

"Go ahead, tell me."

Guben's curiosity was piqued by her, and he was very eager to know what she would say next.

"I want to eat..."

Under his expectant gaze, Lin Xiyu smiled cunningly.

She stepped forward, leaned close to his ear, and softly said one word.

Guben's spine stiffened. Even though she spoke very softly, he heard it very clearly: it was the word "you."

Someone who always liked to flirt ended up being flirted with.

The sudden role reversal made him feel unadjusted for a moment.

"I want to eat... you."

How ambiguous those words were, Lin Xiyu knew better than he did.

Having blurted it out on impulse, her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. Without waiting for him to react, she darted back to her own room like a puff of smoke.

"Hehe."

Guben lowered his head, glanced at the braised pork hock in his hand, and smiled meaningfully.

His wife's kindness could not be let down.

It seemed he had to bring out some real skills and prepare a sumptuous dinner.

She wants to eat? He must let her eat her fill!

—

Grandpa Gu left Shanghai, but dancing wasn't delayed. Not long after returning, she became a mainstay of the square dancing in the residential area.

The elderly ladies liked to gather by the Moat to dance. Guben, thinking of Lin Xiyu's health, would accompany her for a walk along the riverbank every day after dinner.

Ruirui and Niuniu occasionally followed along, the two little ones running and playing wildly back and forth.

Lin Xiyu watched them closely, fearing they might fall into the river.

"Ruirui is eight years old now; it's time she learned to swim."

Guben found it amusing and felt like teasing her: "Falling in wouldn't be a bad thing. The Neighborhood Committee doesn't allow swimming, but it gives them a suitable excuse to go down and experience the joy of swimming in the river water like we did when we were young."

"How can that be the same?"

Lin Xiyu was quite speechless at his peculiar train of thought: "They don't know how to swim. Falling in wouldn't be a surprise but a fright. They might develop a psychological shadow and never dare to swim again."

Guben sighed wistfully: "The Wangfu Pool and the Moat don't allow swimming. Nowadays, children have lost so much joy."

"That's true."

Lin Xiyu agreed wholeheartedly: "It would be great if a free public swimming pool could be built by the Moat. For children, swimming is not just play; it's a skill they must master. Children who can swim have greater courage and ability than those who can't, and they can handle sudden accidents with more ease."

"Just like his aunt..."

Guben laughed and teased: "She even saved someone during the college entrance exam. Her courage is astonishing, and she wasn't afraid it would delay the exam."

"Ay ay."

Lin Xiyu gave an awkward laugh: "Back then I was only eighteen, the most impulsive age of puberty. If you asked me to jump into the water to save someone now, I'd have to think it over. After all, my physical condition can't compare to back then. I'm afraid that if I jumped in, I wouldn't save the person and would end up losing myself too."

"So, you admit that you were very impulsive back then?"

Guben was formally trained as a lawyer and was good at seizing on words.

"Uh."

Lin Xiyu was stunned for a moment, then gave the expected answer: "Although looking back, it was very dangerous back then, and I almost missed the exam, which would have changed my life. But I think, if I could do it again, I would still jump into the water without hesitation to save them. I couldn't just watch that mother and son drown and do nothing."

"Have you ever thought..."

Guben deliberately bickered with her and asked, "Even if you hadn't saved anyone back then, someone else would have jumped in; it's just that your movements were comparatively faster, so you took the lead by one step."

"That possibility does exist......"

Lin Xiyu smiled with a sense of luck: "If that were the case, I wouldn't have been that lucky to meet Sister Yan and them, film a documentary, and it would have been impossible to have further development with you......"

"You think......"

Guben gave her a meaningful look: "It's because you filmed a documentary yourself that you would have an intersection with me?"

"Isn't it?"

Lin Xiyu froze for a moment, unable to comprehend his deeper meaning.

"Fool."

Guben dotingly rubbed her head: "All these years, and you still haven't understood......"

"Understood what?"

Lin Xiyu lifted her eyelids, glanced at the hand ravaging the top of her head, and hesitated over whether to swat it away.

Guben smiled helplessly: "Have you never wondered why I would help you?"

"Why then?"

Lin Xiyu gave him face, pretending to think very seriously.

"Thought of anything?"

Guben was amused into laughter by her playing dumb.

"Although, however, maybe, the chance of that is very small......"

Lin Xiyu locked eyes with him for several seconds, a trace of cunning flashing in her eyes: "I'll still pluck up the courage to ask one thing — our No. 1 High School's School Grass, wouldn't have already harbored affection for me during school, right?"

"Your courage is indeed not small......"

Guben didn't say it explicitly, but the doting in his eyes was obvious.

"Wow......"

Lin Xiyu returned an extremely astonished expression: "Too inconceivable, I actually have that kind of luck? Did I save the Galaxy in my past life? The most romantic classic plot in romance novels — a domineering School Grass falling in love with me — actually happened to me for real?"

"Hehe."

Guben was teased into laughter by her exaggerated expression, letting out a pleased laugh from his throat.

"Husband, tell me......"

Lin Xiyu immediately activated her clingy coquettish mode: "When did you start liking me? I want to hear it......"

"High school matters......"

Guben found it funny and deliberately left a cliffhanger: "It's been so long ago, I've almost forgotten it clean."

"I don't believe it......"

Lin Xiyu was unwilling to let it go, shaking his arm and continuing to pester him: "Your IQ, how could you possibly forget? Saying you have a photographic memory would be more like it......."

"A person's brain cells are limited......"

Guben smiled black-belliedly and continued teasing her: "I have selective memory — what I want to remember I can retain, what I don't want to remember I forget."

"You put it like that......."

Lin Xiyu stopped smiling and pinched his arm hard: "Matters concerning me are unimportant, so you selectively forgot them?"

"Hiss."

Guben sucked in a sharp breath of cold air from the pain: "Pinching this hard, my arm is bruised."

"Is it?"

Lin Xiyu huffed tsundere-style: "How come I didn't see it?"

"Don't get cocky......"

Guben laughed in anger: "We'll settle accounts in the evening."

These words were a bit ambiguous; Lin Xiyu choked, her ear roots turning hot.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

Guben finally gained the upper hand and seized back the initiative: "Wasn't it you who deliberately teased me, wanting to eat me? How come you're chickening out now?"

"Did I?"

Lin Xiyu refused to admit it: "You're the one who thought crookedly; I didn't mean that at all."

"Which meaning then?"

Guben continued black-belliedly: "Please say it clearly, I don't understand?"

"Cough cough."

Lin Xiyu was embarrassed again, a mouthful of spit nearly choking her.

"Don't chicken out......"

Guben was addicted to teasing and didn't want to let her off.

"You're the one who doesn't understand......."

Lin Xiyu's ear roots reddened in shame.

"Study Committee Member......"

Guben deliberately used her high school era title to address her: "You mustn't slander me; I was such a pure-hearted high school student, I didn't have so many twisted intestines."

"You weren't pure-hearted even in high school......"

Lin Xiyu was startled by his pinched-voice 'Study Committee Member' into goosebumps, shivering her arm in a creeped-out way.

"What you're saying......"

Guben found it funny and continued teasing her: "We need to hash this out properly — how was I not pure-hearted during school? You can't slander me based solely on your own imagination."

"I didn't......"

Lin Xiyu felt a bit guilty and averted her gaze, not wanting to deal with him.

"You have......"

Guben smiled black-belliedly, leaned his body forward, and stepped closer by one step.

"No."

Lin Xiyu refused to admit it, and also retreated backward.

"If there's nothing, why are you acting all guilty?"

Guben got addicted to teasing her; she retreated one step, he advanced one step, always staying no more than half an inch from her front.

Lin Xiyu retreated two more steps, her back bumping into a willow tree, with no way back.

"Dodge, keep on dodging......"

Guben braced his hand against the tree trunk, just about to tease his wife a couple more sentences, when a football abruptly flew over, smashing toward his shoulder.

"These kids, where are they kicking it to?"

Guben originally thought the culprit was an ignorant little kid, dodged aside, and didn't think too much of it.

Lin Xiyu faced him face-to-face, and upon seeing the comer clearly, her complexion changed slightly.

Guben sensed something was off, followed her gaze to look over, his eyes darkened, and his smile froze on his face.

——

"Not welcome me, huh?"

Wang Fan clamped a cigarette in his mouth, wearing a roguish smile: "Seeing an old classmate, why the constipated expression?"

"When did you return to Jinan?"

Guben glanced at the football fallen on the ground, staring at him quite speechlessly.

"That line I still want to ask you guys."

Wang Fan seemed to be complaining about him, but in fact his gaze landed on Lin Xiyu: "Returned to Jinan and didn't even give a shout to me this shareholder, went to the company to find you guys, didn't see anyone, thought you guys had disappeared."

"Xiyu ran into some trouble at the unit......"

Guben answered for Lin Xiyu: "Mood not too good, it was me who wanted her to keep her post without pay, rest for a period of time."

"Ran into what trouble?"

Wang Fan ignored him, still looking at Lin Xiyu: "Need me to help you settle it?"

"Not needed."

Guben's sword brows furrowed slightly, he turned sideways blocking his ambiguous gaze.

"I'm speaking with the Study Committee Member, what right do you have to say not needed?"

Wang Fan mimicked his earlier wording, using Study Committee Member to address Lin Xiyu.

"Wang Fan, you'd best be clear on one thing."

Guben could bear it no longer, coldly rebuked: "Xiyu is my wife, her matters don't need outsiders to meddle."

"Your meaning, I'm that outsider then."

Wang Fan spoke in a yin-yang weird tone: "You can't even take care of your own woman, let her suffer grievances at the unit, and still have the face to say you're her husband?"

"If you came this time looking for trouble, you can leave right now."

Guben's face completely darkened, rudely chased him away: "We still have other things to do, no time to listen to your nonsense."

"I didn't come for you, what right do you have to chase me?"

Wang Fan, relying on his substantial family wealth, had much more confidence than before.

If this line were placed ten years ago, he wouldn't dare say it even if beaten to death; now it's different, he has already ridden the construction industry's east wind, becoming a powerful big shot with strong capital.

Even though Guben's game company has already gone public, worth over a hundred million, in his eyes it's still not enough to look at.

Guben narrowed his eyes, displeasedly glaring at him.

Wang Fan didn't care, the two stared at each other, sparking not small sparks again.

"This is how you come to care about me?"

Lin Xiyu couldn't watch anymore, a cold shout separated the two: "Wang Fan, I warn you, don't provoke me again, you believe it or not, I dare push you off the riverbank, make you drink a few mouthfuls of water to wake up your brain?"

"I believe."

Wang Fan instantly wimped out, switched to a fawning smile: "Whatever the Study Committee Member says I believe, even if you say I wasn't pure in high school, I'll admit it."

"You're itching for a beating, want to come find a fight, right?"

Lin Xiyu laughed from anger, waved her fist threatening him.

"No."

Wang Fan playfully denied: "I came to discuss business with you guys......"

Fearful Lin Xiyu wouldn't believe, he nimbly added a sentence: "Legitimate business, guarantee you guys can make big money."

"I'm not interested in doing business."

Lin Xiyu didn't want to deal with him: "If you want to talk, you talk with Guben, you two chat, don't come bother me."

"Study Committee Member, that's not right of you......"

Wang Fan deliberately pretended to be very wronged and complained: "Back when you wanted me to invest your attitude was quite tough, forcing me to cooperate with you guys, now the company's gone public, you want to cross the river and demolish the bridge?"

"I don't talk business with lechers who covet other men's wives."

Guben couldn't stand his posturing appearance, his face darkened further.

"I admit I'm flirtatious, damn it you're no good person either."

Wang Fan was poked at his sore spot, retorted sarcastically: "I only know now, it was you instigating Li Qing behind the scenes, making her come find Xiyu before the proposal, wrecking our two's relationship."

"Only knowing now shows you're stupid."

Guben hit the nail on the head, straight poked his heart's nest.

"You son of a bitch..."

Wang Fan was furious, raising his fist, wanting to strike.

"The two of you, that's enough, know when to stop!"

Lin Xiyu's pretty face darkened, and she rebuked sharply.

Wang Fan's movement stiffened, and the fist about to hit Guben's face was forcibly pulled back.