"Lu Bochuan! You scared me to death!"
Her face was clearly filled with worry.
Lu Bochuan pulled her into his arms to comfort her, frowning at Chu Wei as he waited for an explanation.
Chu Wei chuckled and took a half-step back. "Well, Bochuan, I was just trying to create a little contrast so the surprise would be even bigger. Anyway, you two talk, I'll get going."
Lu Bochuan knew Chu Wei's personality and could guess what he had probably said to Shu Qingqing without even asking.
"It's okay, it's okay. Chu Wei was just joking with you," Lu Bochuan said, gently patting her back to soothe her.
After her emotions settled, Shu Qingqing finally peeked out from his embrace.
She walked over to take a look at the car. "Lu Bochuan, you said this is a gift for me?"
Lu Bochuan replied, "Yes, I said I would get you one before, but it got delayed because of some things."
Shu Qingqing knew exactly what he was talking about.
During Lu Yu's birthday, the banner Shu Qingqing ordered said she wanted to drive a G-Wagon. At the time, it was just for the sake of rhyming, but Lu Bochuan immediately said he would take her to buy one. However, the incident with the Jiang family happened right after.
Shu Qingqing had actually forgotten all about it, but to her surprise, Lu Bochuan still remembered.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't touched.
Shu Qingqing acted uncharacteristically coy. "It's your birthday. Why are you giving me a gift?"
Lu Bochuan pulled her into his arms. "Because you gave me the best gift."
Shu Qingqing subconsciously assumed he was talking about the pair of cups she had made by hand. "Right? I really like them too. I spent two whole days making them, and I even designed the patterns myself. You have no idea, working with clay is..."
Shu Qingqing babbled on about the process of making the cups, only to realize that Lu Bochuan wasn't really listening. "Hey, didn't you say you really liked my gift?"
"That's not what I was talking about," Lu Bochuan said, lowering his head to kiss her lips.
On the empty mountain road, besides the sound of their kiss, there was only the beating of their hearts.
When the long, lingering kiss ended, Lu Bochuan pressed his forehead against hers and murmured, "Qingqing, my favorite gift is this."
It was 3:00 AM by the time their group of friends finally headed home.
Ren Qiuyang left in a friend's car. Just as they drove out of the villa, a pink G-Wagon drove down the mountain road.
In the pitch-black night, the pink G-Wagon looked exceptionally eye-catching.
Ren Qiuyang glanced at it and casually remarked, "The color of that car is actually pretty nice."
Her friend, gripping the steering wheel, replied, "Right? I heard from Chu Wei that Bochuan specially had the color changed so his wife would like it."
Ren Qiuyang frowned. "You're saying this is the car Bochuan gave to... Shu Qingqing?"
Her friend said, "Yeah. People in our circle used to always gossip that Bochuan didn't like her. If he didn't like her, why would he specifically choose his own birthday to gift his wife a car? I think he's completely smitten. Plus, I also heard..."
Her friend kept talking, but Ren Qiuyang couldn't take in a single word. She remembered how Lu Bochuan and Shu Qingqing had been missing the whole time earlier.
So, during that time, Lu Bochuan had gone to give Shu Qingqing the car.
Lu Bochuan giving Shu Qingqing a gift on his own birthday...
Did he really like her that much?
Lost in her thoughts, their car stopped at a red light, pulling up right next to the pink G-Wagon.
Her friend rolled down the window and honked the horn.
The window of the pink G-Wagon rolled down as well.
Her friend chatted with Shu Qingqing and Lu Bochuan for a bit.
When the light turned green, Shu Qingqing rolled up her window.
At the very last second, she raised an eyebrow at Ren Qiuyang.
Ren Qiuyang gripped her seatbelt tightly.
Shu Qingqing did that on purpose, absolutely!
She wouldn't let her stay smug for long.
At the end of January, Jing City welcomed its first snow of the year.
Shu Qingqing was enjoying the snowy view while eating breakfast when she suddenly received a transfer notification on her phone—
"Your account ending in 1117 has received a deposit of 1,380,000 yuan. Account balance: 10,058,000 yuan."
A while ago, she had filmed another drama with Director Fang, but it hadn't become a massive hit. She originally thought she wouldn't make much money from it, but unexpectedly, she ended up getting over a million yuan as her share.
Shu Qingqing leaped to her feet, counted the string of Arabic numerals three times, and then couldn't help but scream, "Ahhh! I'm a person with ten million yuan now!"
She wolfed down her breakfast in a few bites and immediately got up to go to the bathroom to do her makeup.
She had promised herself before that once she saved up ten million, she would go buy a house of her own.
Now that she had enough money, she naturally had to go fulfill this dream right away.
After finishing her makeup, Shu Qingqing drove her G-Wagon out.
She drove all the way to the Third Ring Road and walked into a real estate sales office.
Ever since she made money from her first two short dramas, she had started researching housing prices.
The economic environment hadn't been great these past two years. Although Jing City's housing prices were relatively stable compared to other cities, they had still dropped quite a bit. For example, over here by the Third Ring Road, a nice new development was only priced at around fifty thousand yuan per square meter.
Shu Qingqing had no intention of buying a massive mansion; a little over a hundred square meters would be plenty.
So her ten million was more than enough.
As soon as she walked in, a sales representative enthusiastically greeted her.
Shu Qingqing looked around for a while and quickly set her sights on a 160-square-meter unit.
The sales rep showed her the model apartment and then took her to see a new unit.
Shu Qingqing liked it as soon as she walked in. Most of the apartments here were fully furnished and move-in ready. Best of all, it had an exceptionally large balcony.
Shu Qingqing was a decisive person; she immediately made up her mind to buy this apartment.
When the sales agent learned that she was going to pay right away, and in full, he beamed with joy and promptly escorted Shu Qingqing to the finance department.
Just as Shu Qingqing pulled the door open to go inside, a man with a buzz cut hurried over in surprise. "Mrs. Lu, what brings you here?"
For a moment, Shu Qingqing couldn't recall who this person was. "Oh, I'm here to buy an apartment."
The sales agent immediately chimed in, "Manager, this lady wants to buy the 160-square-meter apartment on the seventh floor of Building Six. The total price is 8.69 million."
The buzz-cut man frowned at once. "What do you mean, 8.69 million? This is President Lu's wife. Here, use my discount and recalculate the price for Mrs. Lu."
The sales agent's fingers flew across the calculator. "Manager, with your discount, the final total comes to 7,933,200."
With a flattering expression, the buzz-cut man turned to her. "Mrs. Lu, does this price work for you?"
Although she still couldn't remember who this man was, since he was offering her a discount, she wasn't foolish enough to insist on paying more.
In the end, Shu Qingqing secured the apartment for just over seven million.
As soon as Shu Qingqing left, the buzz-cut man made a phone call to Zhou Zheng.
"Ah, Assistant Zhou, sorry to bother you. I'm Chen Youfa, the sales manager at Shanshui Mingjing. Mrs. Lu came to our sales center to buy an apartment today. Please rest assured, I've already given Mrs. Lu the maximum possible discount. Yes, yes. Alright, I won't disturb you any further."
Hanging up the phone, Chen Youfa walked out with his hands clasped behind his back, looking incredibly smug. Thank goodness he had asked for Assistant Zhou's phone number previously. Now, he could finally say he had established a connection with Assistant Zhou.
After Assistant Zhou hung up the phone, he immediately went to the CEO's office to report the matter.
Lu Bochuan simply acknowledged the information.
They already owned numerous properties. Although he was somewhat surprised as to why Shu Qingqing suddenly wanted to buy an apartment, Lu Bochuan immediately instructed Zhou Zheng to contact the best interior designer available.
Upon returning home, he initially assumed that Shu Qingqing would tell him about the apartment purchase. To his surprise, several days passed, and Shu Qingqing never even mentioned it.
