Before Chen Yuncheng went out, he took out the new clothes that Ning Junyan had given him and put them on. After changing his clothes, he stood in front of the mirror for a long time and looked at them carefully. When he felt that nothing looked out of place on his body, he went out with Ning Junyan.
Originally, Chen Yuncheng wanted to go to a nearby shopping mall to buy a New Year’s gift for Ning Junyan’s parents, but Ning Junyan said it was not necessary, and that he had gifts for others in his car, so Chen Yuncheng could just carry them over when the time comes.
“Isn’t it inappropriate?” Chen Yuncheng said.
“It’s nothing inappropriate,” Ning Junyan didn’t even discuss it with him, nor did he plan to drive to the mall.
Chen Yuncheng had no choice but to accept it.
They were not out early enough, and it was almost eleven noon when they drove to Ning Junyan’s parents’ house.
Ning Junyan’s parents lived on the outskirts of the city, which was also a villa area. As it was still relatively new, it had a wide view of the surrounding area and a good environment.
Chen Yuncheng was a little apprehensive all the way to the villa. After he got off the car, he saw a lawn in front of the villa. Perhaps it was because of the good weather today and the abundant sunlight, a small square table was placed on the lawn, and a few people sat beside the small square table, drinking tea and chatting.
One of them was Ning Junyan’s mother, Shu Rong, and it seemed that their guests had already arrived.
Chen Yuncheng was holding the New Year’s gift box given to him by Ning Junyan, he didn’t know how much the box was worth, but it was beautifully packaged.
Ning Junyan walked beside him and walked with him along the stone path on the lawn.
One of the guests saw Ning Junyan and the others first and said to Shu Rong, “Your son is back.”
Shu Rong turned her head with a smile on her face, and the moment her eyes touched Chen Yuncheng, her smile very visibly stiffened for a moment, then she stood up and walked towards Ning Junyan and the others with a natural expression.
“You’ve returned?” Shu Rong asked.
Ning Junyan nodded.
Chen Yuncheng smiled and said to Shu Rong, “Auntie, Happy New Year.” He handed the gift box in his hand to Shu Rong.
Shu Rong looked down at the gift box but didn’t immediately reach out.
Ning Junyan first took the gift box from Chen Yuncheng’s hand, and handed it to Shu Rong, “Yuncheng is here to give you New Year’s greetings.”
Only then did Shu Rong raise her hand and said with a smile, “You’re too kind.”
She didn’t say much and led Ning Junyan and the others to greet several guests.
“Uncle Zhang and Aunt Xia, you both know each other,” Shu Rong introduced to Ning Junyan.
Ning Junyan, Zhang Chong and Xia Wenjuan knew each other. They had been doing business with Shu Rong, and Shu Rong’s plastic surgery hospital was jointly opened with them.
Then Shu Rong continued to introduce, “This is Boss Yu. This should be the first time you meet him, and that’s Boss Yu’s daughter, called Yu Mingli, she just came back from studying abroad.”
Ning Junyan just nodded.
Shu Rong took Ning Junyan’s arm and said, “This is my son Junyan, who works in the hospital.” After she finished speaking, she saw other people’s eyes falling on Chen Yuncheng, and said, “This is my son Junyan’s friend.”
Chen Yuncheng didn’t say anything. Ever since he saw the guests from Ning’s family, his eyes had been on Boss Yu.
Boss Yu sat on a white chair, looked up and saw Chen Yuncheng. He then smiled at him politely.
Chen Yuncheng could not smile, he had met this Boss Yu, and although not for many times, he left a deep impression. This person was the same Boss Yu who said he would take Guan Anlin to do business together, but later caused Guan Anlin to do two years in jail. Chen Yuncheng remembered his name was Yu Jie.
Zhang Chong got up and greeted Ning Junyan as they sat down.
Ning Junyan noticed that something was not quite right with Chen Yuncheng. He lightly touched the back of Chen Yuncheng’s hand, and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong?”
Chen Yuncheng shook his head, turned his eyes away from Yu Jie, and said, “It’s nothing.”
After he sat down, Ning Junyan asked Shu Rong, “Where’s dad?”
Shu Rong said, “He’s still dawdling upstairs, the guests are all here and he hasn’t come down yet, why don’t you go and call him?”
Ning Junyan refused, “He will come later by himself.”
Xia Wenjuan looked at Chen Yuncheng, and asked Ning Junyan, “Junyan, what’s your friend’s name, you haven’t introduced him to us yet.”
Ning Jun replied, “His name is Chen Yuncheng.”
Chen Yuncheng greeted Xia Wenjuan politely.
Seeing that Xia Wenjuan was still looking at Chen Yuncheng, Shu Rong asked Yu Mingli who was sitting opposite her abruptly, “It’s no fun for you youngsters to listen to us chat, is it? Would xiao Li like to go for a stroll?”
Yu Mingli glanced at Ning Junyan, then at Shu Rong, and said, “Okay.”
Shu Rong said to Ning Junyan, “You can go take a walk with Xiaoli.”
Ning Junyan didn’t agree, he just asked Chen Yuncheng, “Want to go for a walk?”
Chen Yuncheng shook his head, and he couldn’t help looking at Yu Jie again. However, Yu Jie didn’t look at him and only looked at Ning Junyan with a smile on his face.
Ning Junyan said to Shu Rong, “I’m not going, I’ll take Yuncheng to see Dad.” After he said that, he stood up, held Chen Yuncheng’s hand at the same time, pulled him up, and led him towards the villa’s front door.
The rest of the group seemed a little embarrassed, and after a brief moment of silence, Shu Rong smiled and said to Yu Mingli, “Then let’s have dinner before we go take a stroll, Junyan will take his friend to see the old Ning first.”
Yu Mingli nodded her head and forced a smile.
When they entered the house, the busy voice of the nanny came from the direction of the kitchen. There were several New Year gifts, fruit plates and flower arrangements on the coffee table in the living room.
Ning Junyan did not take Chen Yuncheng upstairs immediately, but stopped at the stairs and asked him, “What’s wrong?”
Chen Yuncheng seemed to have been lost in thought, but when he heard Ning Junyan’s question, he looked up at him, “What? We’re not going to give New Year’s greetings to your father?”
Ning Junyan frowned, “Do you know that Boss Yu?”
Chen Yuncheng didn’t know if he should say it at this time, he hesitated for a moment and said, “I don’t know him, let’s go upstairs first.”
Ning Junyan raised his hand to pinch Chen Yuncheng’s jaw, and looked at him seriously, “What do you keep looking at him for if you don’t know him?”
Chen Yuncheng pushed Ning Junyan’s hand away, “What are you thinking?”
Ning Junyan said, “Or else we will go back.”
Chen Yuncheng was stunned for a moment, “Why? You came here especially to spend the New Year with your parents today.”
Ning Junyan said, “You don’t look happy.”
Chen Yuncheng looked at him and smiled, “I’m not unhappy.”
Ning Junyan said coldly, “You keep looking at other people.”
“Looking at who?” Chen Yuncheng was baffled by what he said, and after a while, he realised, “You mean Boss Yu?”
Ning Junyan had a stoic expression on his face and did not speak.
Chen Yuncheng smiled and raised his hand to pinch his face, “Do you think I’m crazy?”
Ning Junyan stared at him for a moment, then took his hand again and continued walking upstairs.
They met Ning Zhanghong in the study room on the second floor. Ning Zhanghong was reading a book and obviously didn’t want to go down to chat with Shu Rong’s guests.
When Ning Zhanghong saw Chen Yuncheng, his usually calm face also showed some surprise, “Are you Chen Yuncheng?”
Chen Yuncheng said, “Uncle, happy new year.”
Ning Zhanghong nodded, “Happy New Year.” He stood up from the desk, stretched out his hand to flatten the book in front of him, went to the window and looked downstairs. When he turned around, he asked Ning Junyan, ” Have you met your mother?”
Ning Junyan said, “I’ve met her.”
Ning Zhanghong’s tone was slightly nervous, “She didn’t say anything?”
Ning Junyan said, “There are still guests at home, and she is busy keeping Uncle Zhang and the others company.”
Ning Zhanghong nodded to show that he understood. With his hands behind his back, he stared at the people downstairs for a while, and said to Ning Junyan, “Then you can accompany your friend to have fun.”
Ning Junyan opened the door and wanted to take Chen Yuncheng out when Ning Zhanghong suddenly called out to him again, “You know your mother has a bad temper.”
“I know,” Ning Junyan said, and left the study with Chen Yuncheng one after the other.
Ning Zhanghong didn’t care who Ning Junyan associates with, he only cared that Shu Rong would lose her temper because of this, and make him no longer have a day of peace.
When he came out of the study, Chen Yuncheng said, “Uncle seems strange.”
Ning Junyan asked him, “In what way?”
Chen Yuncheng said, “I can’t tell, but he seems a bit nervous.”
Ning Junyan hummed and said, “He’s always like this, don’t worry about him.”
It was only at lunchtime that Ning Zhanghong came down from upstairs and sat down at the round table to accompany the guests.
Shu Rong opened a bottle of red wine, but Ning Zhanghong didn’t drink, so she drank with the guests by herself.
Chen Yuncheng felt that Yu Jie acted as if he didn’t know him anymore. He didn’t pay attention to him from the beginning to the end, and he didn’t deliberately avoid his gaze, as if he was facing a complete stranger.
As he listened to their conversation while eating, he learnt that Yu Jie met Shu Rong through Zhang Chong. He had a sum of money in hand and wanted to work with them to set up a branch of a plastic surgery hospital in the east of the city.
Shu Rong didn’t seem to know Yu Jie very well, but she was clearly more interested in his daughter and had been taking the initiative to chat with Yu Mingli.
When he first arrived at Ning’s house, Chen Yuncheng’s attention was all on Yu Jie, and now he suddenly realised that the main purpose of Shu Rong’s banquet today was to introduce Ning Junyan and Yu Mingli to each other.
When he realised this, Chen Yuncheng couldn’t help but look at Ning Junyan.
He didn’t know if Ning Junyan noticed it, but then he couldn’t tell anything from Ning Junyan’s face anyway. After he noticed Chen Yuncheng’s gaze, he gave Chen Yuncheng a chopstick of fish and said, “Concentrate on eating.”
Shu Rong tried her best to find something in common between Ning Junyan and Yu Mingli, asking them about their experiences studying abroad.
Yu Mingli said that she worked very hard and that there was a time when she had to prepare a report every week and couldn’t even sleep well at night.
Shu Rong looked at Ning Junyan.
Ning Junyan said with an expressionless face, “It’s nothing, I think everything is very simple and easy.”
Yu Jie laughed and said, “That’s because Junyan is smart, and xiao Li is not so smart, so she has to work harder.”
Shu Rong’s face darkened slightly, and she looked at Ning Junyan with disapproval.
Chen Yuncheng looked at Yu Mingli and saw that although Yu Mingli was smiling, she looked a little embarrassed.
Yu Jie seemed to be trying to help his daughter out as he asked Ning Jun Yan, “From what your mother said, you haven’t been in a relationship for so many years?”
Ning Junyan replied politely, “That’s right.”
Yu Jie asked him, “Is it because you haven’t met the right one or are you asking too much?” He asked with a smile, and his tone sounded very kind.
Ning Junyan put down his chopsticks and looked at Yu Jie.
Chen Yuncheng’s heart suddenly jumped heavily. He had a premonition that Ning Junyan might talk nonsense, he was very nervous and stretched out his hand to pull Ning Junyan’s arm from under the table.
Ning Junyan’s attention shifted to Chen Yuncheng. He saw that the fish that he has just given to him hadn’t been touched, so he asked, “The food is not delicious?”
Chen Yuncheng replied in a low voice, “No, it’s delicious.”
Ning Junyanlifted his hand and pressed it against the back of Chen Yuncheng’s neck, “Then eat well.” Then he turned to Yu Jie and asked, “When is Boss Yu referring to? Before or now?”
Yu Jie smiled and asked, “Is there any difference?”
Ning Junyan said, “Before I never come across anyone yet, but now I have someone I like.”
The author has something to say:
You are all looking forward to it, which puts me under a lot of pressure. I must slowly lower your expectations…
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