A perfectly fine student who was doing well in school suddenly came back saying he wanted to buy a luxury car, and even said he had been looked down upon. Without even needing to think, Lu Chenghe already knew that this had to have something to do with that Lu Jinsheng.
Seeing Little Pudding on the phone checking his account, Lu Chenghe didn’t stop him. After waiting a while, he noticed that the originally aggressive and full-of-momentum look on his face slowly turned into one of blank expression. Then he turned his head and asked him, “How much does a luxury car usually cost?”
Lu Chenghe replied calmly and unhurriedly, “What level are you trying to know about?”
Zuo Ning thought about it for a moment, then cautiously asked, “Your level?”
Lu Chenghe chuckled, “Among all car series, the ones you can actually drive out aren’t even enough to be called ‘luxury’. The ones that can truly be called luxurious are usually antique cars or those that exist only as collectible artworks kept in garages for display.”
“So, for you, even the most expensive car that can be used for daily transportation doesn’t count as a luxury car?”
Seeing Little Pudding’s defeated expression, Lu Chenghe nodded, “You could put it that way. After all, no matter how expensive those cars are, they still have a price tag. They definitely can’t compare to priceless pieces of art.”
Zuo Ning silently looked at the card in his hand, let out a mournful wail, and flopped himself onto the sofa.
Seeing him like that, Lu Chenghe just found it amusing. As if he still hadn’t dealt enough of a blow, he deliberately asked, “Finished checking? How much money is there? Is it enough to buy a car?”
Zuo Ning lay on the sofa, pouting as he stared at the card in his hand and grumbled discontentedly, “It’s not even enough for you to buy a basic car for getting around, let alone a luxury car.”
Lu Chenghe laughed and said, “Did that Lu Jinsheng provoke you? Or did he have a conflict with Lu Nianqi, and you’re just trying to help Lu Nianqi save face? If you think driving a more expensive car will help you regain face, there are so many cars in the garage at home. Just pick one tomorrow and have the driver take it out.”
Zuo Ning snorted, “How can that be the same? That’s not something I bought with my own ability. I’d have no confidence.”
Hearing this, Lu Chenghe raised his eyebrows slightly. “There’s actually a time when you don’t have confidence? I think you have more confidence than anyone. Come on, tell me, what happened at school today?”
Zuo Ning was never someone who could keep things to himself, so he immediately blurted everything out in a jumbled rush, exaggerating as he went: “Don’t you think that guy has something wrong with his brain? Totally baffling! He comes over, says all that stuff, and thinks that alone shows how extraordinary his status is? And he even looked down on me. Before he left, he looked down on me!”
Lu Chenghe looked at his face full of righteous indignation, and, amused, poked him on the forehead. “Don’t get involved in the stuff between him and Lu Nianqi. If Lu Nianqi needs someone else to stand up for him over something like this, then what’s he going to do in the future?”
Zuo Ning pouted. “Lu Nianqi’s just unlucky, getting tangled up with some crazy person for no reason. But actually, if you think about it, this whole thing kind of started because of me. If it weren’t for me being close with Lu Nianqi, that guy wouldn’t have looked him up, and then he wouldn’t have dug into his background, and then he’d still be just a nobody right now. Wait—no, this whole thing is because of you!”
Zuo Ning pointed at Lu Chenghe and said, “If it weren’t for you pulling strings so obviously and getting me into this course, none of this would’ve happened!”
Lu Chenghe picked up a folder and smacked it down onto his head. “Where’s your conscience? Did you eat it yourself?”
Zuo Ning rubbed his head and accused, “You hit me! You’re going to knock me stupid!”
Lu Chenghe explained to him, “Even if it didn’t blow up now, with someone like Lu Jinsheng, given the kind of person he is, there would’ve been a conflict sooner or later the moment he gets a chance.”
Zuo Ning quickly asked, gossip-loving as ever, “Why, though? Lu Nianqi said he doesn’t even know him.”
Lu Chenghe pulled down the hand Zuo Ning had over his head and gave his hair a gentle rub. “The Lu family also has involvement in real estate. Not long ago, they developed a hot spring villa project. Besides the units open for public sale, a few were reserved for internal Lu family members only. At the time, Lu Nianqi had just returned to the Lu family, and as a form of compensation, they gave him one of those villas. But that particular villa was one Lu Jinsheng had his eye on for a long time. He’d always wanted it.”
If it hadn’t been for how abrupt Lu Jinsheng’s sudden targeting of Lu Nianqi seemed, and the concern that it might somehow affect Little Pudding as well, Lu Chenghe, who habitually kept everything under his control, wouldn’t have looked into the past so carefully. But once he did, it turned out that the only connection between them was that single incident.
This wasn’t even that big of a deal to begin with. It wasn’t like Lu Jinsheng had already bought that villa and then got it forcibly taken away. He had just taken a liking to it earlier and seemed to be in the middle of trying to get a senior member of the Lu family to help him secure an internal discount. But by sheer coincidence, a timing gap occurred, and the house ended up going to Lu Nianqi, who appeared halfway through.
It was precisely because of this that Lu Chenghe had earlier told Little Pudding not to get involved in their affairs. Lu Jinsheng’s heart was just too narrow. If it were a direct confrontation, of course, Lu Chenghe wouldn’t be worried. But if there were any behind-the-scenes tricks, Little Pudding couldn’t always be under his nose. And even if it was just a one-in-ten-thousand chance, as long as the possibility existed, then it could still happen.
Zuo Ning, however, clearly hadn’t thought that far. His life had always been very simple. The most scheming things he’d ever seen were probably just people talking behind others’ backs or secretly tattling to the teacher. Even though he had seen some of the darker sides of society after being with Lu Chenghe, he still instinctively used his old lens to view things. Naturally, he wouldn’t assume the worst of people.
Even with someone like Lu Jinsheng, who seemed like he had a screw loose, the worst Zuo Ning imagined was just all kinds of dissing or trying to rally people he could influence to exclude them. Things like campus bullying—Zuo Ning wasn’t scared of those at all. Whoever dared to bully him, if he couldn’t bully them back, he could always go complain to Lu Chenghe. Who’s scared of whom?
Lu Chenghe saw that Little Pudding hadn’t taken in a word of what he’d said and was still there fishing for gossip. He barely managed to hold back from smacking him on the forehead. This little thing. Who knows if it’s from watching too many of those brain-dead TV dramas about underdog revenge stories, why did he always fantasize about such juvenile stuff?
Even though he said “no” with his mouth, his body was very honest. When Lu Chenghe picked out one of the flashier, newer cars from the garage for Little Pudding, the dog was so excited he looked like he was about to pounce on it.
Watching him pat the car, then pat his own furry chest with his paw, tilting his head and barking at him: “Woof?”
Lu Chenghe saw his pushy little expression and let out a cold laugh. When he ran over, all fawning, hugging his leg and trying to climb up, Lu Chenghe finally bent down and scooped him up in one motion: “Fine, fine. The whole garage is yours, how about that?”
Zuo Ning, of course, agreed with a delighted little sound. Even though he obviously didn’t take it seriously, that feeling of Lu Chenghe giving him anything as long as he asked was just so amazing. He could pretend they were dating, 23333333.
Seeing how shameless he looked, Lu Chenghe reached out and tugged gently on his ear: “You really don’t know how to be polite.”
Zuo Ning barked several times in a row. Politeness can’t be eaten, so what’s the point of having it?
Unfortunately, all the Mary Sue-style plots he had fantasized about never came true. He always felt like this world held a deep malice toward him. This world was not willing to play along with his scripts.
Ever since that day when Lu Jinsheng had inexplicably run over to look down on him for no reason, he hadn’t shown up in front of them again. And Zuo Ning couldn’t very well just go flaunting himself in front of him on purpose, right? That would be way too… whatever. Life, which had briefly shown a ripple of drama, seemed to have returned to still waters again, settling back into the routine of going to class, getting out of class, and coming home to eat.
As for the matter with that house, Zuo Ning had naturally told Lu Nianqi. Otherwise, if someone bore a grudge against him and he didn’t even know why—that would be beyond dumb.
Lu Nianqi, of course, was quite surprised by the origin of the matter. But no matter what, it had already happened. He couldn’t possibly hand over the house for the so-called sake of family harmony. Anyway, as long as that Lu Jinsheng didn’t come looking for trouble, he certainly wouldn’t go looking for him either.
Zuo Ning grinned and asked, “Then what if he doesn’t give up and keeps bothering you?”
Lu Nianqi glanced at him and replied without even thinking, “Then I’ll definitely just hide however I can.”
Zuo Ning rolled his eyes right away. Lu Chenghe was always saying that he was timid and cowardly. He really ought to take a look at Lu Nianqi and see who’s actually worse!
And just like that, living their day-to-day life by the book, time swiftly passed and summer arrived.
Zuo Ning’s course had about half a month left. After his class ended, the school would enter exam month, followed by summer break. But before that, for the soon-to-graduate seniors of the fourth year, the school would hold a series of lectures, inviting some alumni who had achieved notable success to come back and speak. Or they’d invite renowned experts and professors to give talks about society and the workplace.
Even though many people thought this was all just for show, and that it was always the same few things being said, for those who hadn’t yet stepped into society, some examples and pieces of advice really did help them avoid quite a few wrong turns.
As for these kinds of seminars, if you really listened with intent, you could actually learn something. So when the invited guest was particularly renowned, not only would the fourth-year students attend, sometimes even second- and third-year students would come by to join the excitement. And this time, the school had managed to invite Lu Chenghe, who, though a graduate of the school, had never once returned to participate in any activities, no matter how many times he’d been invited in the past.
Originally, this time was meant to just go through the motions, too. After all, that man really was swamped with affairs day in and day out. Where would he find time to waste a few hours talking to a bunch of kids who might not even listen? And the Lu Corporation didn’t need this kind of publicity either. It was already the top employment destination for graduates. But unexpectedly, this time, the teacher who went to invite him actually got a yes.
Clearly, it was because this year, President Lu had pulled strings to get a kid into the school, and that’s why he was giving the school face. Regardless of the reason, as long as he was willing to come, that was all that mattered. And once the school announced the name of this heavyweight guest speaker, the entire campus exploded.
Regarding this, Zuo Ning was extremely dissatisfied and complained to Lu Chenghe: “You never used to go before, so why go now? They’re not there to hear about your life experience—they just want to see your face. You don’t even know how many girls are already fantasizing about some Cinderella and white-horse prince story. Just wait and see. There’s definitely going to be more girls than boys showing up!”
Sitting cross-legged on the bed playing a video game while still muttering nonstop, Little Pudding was wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of loose pajama pants. The skin exposed was almost glowing white, and the back of his neck had a layer of soft down, slightly curly—it looked like it should be really soft and pleasant to touch.
And with that thought, Lu Chenghe had already reached out his hand.
When the back of his neck was touched, Zuo Ning only shrank back slightly from the ticklishness but didn’t dodge, still fully focused on the game controller in his hands and the TV screen. After all, he could say that from head to toe, he had already been touched all over by Lu Chenghe since childhood. He was long used to this kind of contact.
However, when he lost that round of the game, he immediately tossed the controller onto the bed in frustration and accused Lu Chenghe: “See? You distracted me by messing with me—now I lost!”
Faced with the accusation from someone completely lacking in gaming skill, Lu Chenghe just looked at him coolly and said, “Your hair’s getting long again. Time for a trim.”
Zuo Ning instantly backed away, clutching his head: “Don’t even think about it! I already can’t show my dog form to anyone, and now you want me to not even be able to go out as a human?!”
Lu Chenghe just leaned there on the bed, watching him as he said, “Fine, don’t cut it. Let it grow a little longer, and when you go out next time, you can wear a dress. It won’t look out of place at all.”
Zuo Ning scratched his own hair, then hopped off the bed to look in the mirror. He was clearly handsome and dashing. No matter how he looked, there wasn’t the slightest hint of femininity. He was downright striking. But after hearing what Lu Chenghe said, he hesitated a bit and asked, “Do I really need a haircut?”
Lu Chenghe’s attitude was completely indifferent: “Up to you.”
Zuo Ning thought it over. When humans get a haircut, there are so many styles to choose from—it was definitely better than getting his fur trimmed as a dog. And honestly, his hair had gotten a little long—it couldn’t stay that way forever. In the end, he acted like he was reluctantly giving in and said, “Alright, fine, I’ll cut it. But you have to find me the top hair stylist! And if it ends up looking bad, you have to get the exact same haircut as me!”
However, once Little Pudding actually got his hair cut, Lu Chenghe wasn’t entirely pleased. Originally, his hair had grown long enough to start covering his eyes. Now that it was trimmed short, he looked much more refreshed. His facial features were fully revealed, and to use the stylist’s words, he was fresh and dewy enough to drip water, a true little pretty boy. That milky white skin of his made everyone who saw it want to reach out and pinch him.
Seeing Little Pudding spinning in front of him to show off his new haircut with great satisfaction, Lu Chenghe directly pinched his smiling face and commented, “Ugly to death.”
Zuo Ning’s smile disappeared instantly. He puffed out his cheeks and glared at him. Lu Chenghe poked his cheek again, which made a little pfft sound. Little Pudding slapped his hand away with a smack.
Zuo Ning let out a helpless sigh: “Men’s hearts are like needles at the bottom of the sea—you’re impossible to please.” And before Lu Chenghe could react, he quickly ran off.
Watching that retreating figure, Lu Chenghe really wanted to drag him back for a beating. Who had been doing all the pampering all along, anyway?