"???"
Lu Jingming likes her?
Xu Yanxia was about to refute out of habit.
However, Luo Jiajia raised her hand first and said, "Don't be in a rush to refute me. Let me ask you first, how did President Lu think of coming to eat teppanyaki with you tonight?"
Xu Yanxia replied, "Tonight, a senior of mine, Lin Hengnan, the one who introduced me to my mentor before, said he needed to see me for something. Since I happened to be off work, I was going to take a taxi there. President Lu happened to be heading to his company to pick something up, so he gave me a ride on his way."
"And then he waited there for you to finish meeting that senior, and conveniently dropped you off at our stall on his way again?"
Before she could finish, Luo Jiajia automatically filled in the rest of the story.
"Yeah,"
Xu Yanxia nodded. "Actually, when I went to Jiushan with him for a food tasting before, I mentioned that I would treat him to our teppanyaki on my day off. But I forgot about it later. It just so happened that he brought it up himself today, saying he wanted to try it, so I hurriedly brought him over. I actually felt quite embarrassed about it."
"Oh, you!"
Luo Jiajia shook her head in disbelief. "Didn't you ever think about it? He is the dignified president of such a massive corporation, such a busy man. Would he really have the free time, let alone willingly volunteer to be your driver, just to take you to such a faraway place?"
Xu Yanxia said, "Didn't I say he happened to be going to the company to pick something up?"
"So did he pick it up later?"
Luo Jiajia raised an eyebrow at her.
Xu Yanxia froze for a moment. "It seems... he didn't."
To be exact, he didn't while he was with her, but maybe he went to get it after eating the teppanyaki?
However, as if possessing telepathy, Luo Jiajia asked her again, "If such a busy president has to go pick something up in person, it must be very important, right? Yet he actually accompanied you on a sixty or seventy-kilometer round trip, and then leisurely had a late-night snack. Three or four hours went by, and who knows if he even got it?"
"..."
Xu Yanxia was stunned.
Then, she heard Luo Jiajia continue, "And what about that day we went to the urban village to catch Yuan Jincai? Who else but family would be willing to get involved in such a messy situation? Yet a big boss like him personally drove you there in his luxury car, followed you upstairs because he was worried you'd get hit, and even stopped Yuan Jincai for you."
"You just haven't seen how normal bosses act..."
Luo Jiajia tried hard to express herself in a civilized manner. "Normal bosses would let you witness the ugliness of the human world."
Xu Yanxia replied, "...So is that why you resigned and came to find us?"
"For the most part, yeah."
Luo Jiajia sighed, then got back to the main topic. "Not to mention, he even went out of his way to put in a good word with the people back in our hometown, saving us so much trouble this time. Of course, these are just the things I know about. As for the rest that I don't know, the times when it was just the two of you, you can reflect on those yourself."
"In short, if he didn't like you, there's no way he would accompany you in doing so many unrelated things. What's more, his attitude towards you and the way he looks at you are completely different from how he treats others. He absolutely! Two hundred percent! Likes you!!!"
Is that really true...
Xu Yanxia still frowned and said, "I went to thank him that day, and he said it was just normal interaction between friends."
To her surprise, Luo Jiajia let out a scoff. "Since when is there any true friendship between men and women?"
"..."
But Xu Yanxia remained unconvinced. "Then according to what you're saying, him inviting me to be the quality director and wanting to invest in our family's business are all because he likes me?"
Luo Jiajia replied, "That, of course, is because you're capable yourself, and our family's business is indeed worth his investment. But his feelings for you definitely play a part in it."
"Otherwise, just think about it. Which businessman doesn't want to maximize their profits? Why would he make such huge concessions for us for no reason?"
Xu Yanxia was left speechless. "..."
That was actually true.
Just like she said tonight, when their family restaurant was facing demolition before, she specifically looked into quite a few catering investment cases. The terms Lu Jingming offered her tonight were indeed unprecedentedly lenient.
But...
She still couldn't quite believe it. "He is usually a very rational person. He couldn't be that love-struck, could he?"
Luo Jiajia clicked her tongue twice. "Would a very rational person show his face in your live stream last night? Before, you could barely even find a few photos of him on the internet. I watched that video clip of you two several times in the car today, and it was so incredibly sweet. Oh my god, I've become a shipper of you two!"
Xu Yanxia said, "...Him showing his face in the live stream was indeed a bit out of my expectations, but that was his own sister's live stream. By showing up, he was boosting his sister's popularity. I heard from Jingxi that because of this, her manager negotiated three endorsement deals for her overnight!"
Luo Jiajia countered, "Does he lack that bit of money? If he really needed it, wouldn't he have shown his face long ago? Why did he specifically choose the time when you were there?"
"Uh..."
Xu Yanxia couldn't find a way to refute that for a moment.
Instead, Luo Jiajia continued, "Is this really so hard to believe? You're so outstanding, so talented, capable, and beautiful. Isn't it perfectly normal for a guy to like you? I remember people writing you love letters back in junior high, and didn't you have a lot of suitors in college too?"
Just as she finished speaking, Xu Yanxia's phone suddenly rang.
Glancing over, she saw Lin Hengnan's name appear on the screen. Xu Yanxia directly pressed the mute button.
Luo Jiajia's gossiping instinct immediately kicked in, and she hurriedly asked, "Who's this? Why aren't you answering his call? What happened?"
Xu Yanxia didn't hide anything from her and straightforwardly recounted the whole story.
After listening to everything, Luo Jiajia's eyes widened in anger. "Hey, does he think he's all that just because he's a graduate student? How dare he look down on chefs? If it weren't for chefs, ungrateful jerks like him would all starve to death!!!"
Saying that, she spoke to her earnestly, "See? This is the difference between a high-quality man and a low-quality man. A high-quality man will do everything he can to help you improve yourself. A low-quality man will only suppress and control you, dragging you down to be mediocre with him, or even worse than him, and in the end, he'll still despise you."
"This ungrateful jerk must like you. Just ignore him!"
Xu Yanxia nodded. "I don't plan on paying attention to him either."
Therefore, she didn't even bother to hang up, simply waiting for the call to end on its own.
...
Watching the phone vibrate for a while, sure enough, it eventually went silent.
Xu Yanxia's documents were also pretty much finished.
The hour hand on the wall clock already pointed to twelve. Luo Jiajia yawned, lay down on the bed, and said, "Go to sleep early, Xiao Xia. Beautiful girls can't have dark circles under their eyes."
"Okay."
Xu Yanxia smiled and lay down on the bed with her.
Having traveled for most of the day and then bustled about at the night market for another half of the day, Luo Jiajia quickly drifted off to dreamland.
But Xu Yanxia couldn't fall asleep for a while.
