Chapter 19: How Could Anyone Find Him Disagreeable?

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“I knew my big brother would be able to help me!” Tang Yu said happily.

The male reporter wanted to interview Chairman Chen of Prosperity Technology. Chairman Chen was usually reluctant to involve himself in such matters, but he had business ties with the Lou family. So, if she wanted to arrange an interview with him, she would have to ask Lou Xizhou to make the introduction.

But now she would not have to trouble Lou Xizhou. That was wonderful.

Tang Youjin’s helpless voice came through the phone.

“That’s because Dad has a personal connection with Chairman Chen. You’re relying on Dad’s favor. But if it were President Lou, you wouldn’t need to ask me at all. If I wanted to get in touch with him, I’d have to rely on your connections. He’s such a low-profile man, yet you, Miss Tang the reporter, have made him known throughout the country. The important thing is that he hasn’t even gotten angry. You’re pretty lucky!”

Tang Yu was astonished. “Brother, aren’t you terribly busy? How do you even keep up with this kind of news?”

The story of how she had managed to interview President Lou was a long one, and of course, there were personal reasons involved.

Naturally, she would never mention those personal reasons publicly. Caution and discretion were the rules of survival in society.

“Your sister-in-law saw it and told me,” Tang Youjin said. “I still have work to do. Come home when you have the time. There’s no need to be so stubborn with the family. You haven’t come home for two years just because we said your boyfriend couldn’t give you a good future. Do you know how much that hurts Mom and Dad?”

Tang Yu listened obediently to his lecture. Only after he had finished did she speak in a small voice.

“I really haven’t had the time. I’ll do my best to make it home this New Year.”

“Think it over yourself. In any case, you’ve used Dad’s favor.” Tang Youjin made sure to remind her.

Thinking of how her father might urge her to go on blind dates, Tang Yu furrowed her brows and puffed out her cheeks.

“I know, I know! Thanks, Brother. Bye!”

Returning to the present, Tang Yu still sighed inwardly.

Was she really obliged to go through with this blind date?

“Is that truly all you’re thinking?” Lou Xizhou stared at her with piercing eyes. “Isn’t it because you want to reduce your contact with me?”

She had not expected him to see through her. Tang Yu stopped concealing her thoughts.

“President Lou, to be honest, the more I’m in contact with you, the more restless I become. So I can only instinctively try to avoid having too much contact with you.”

She always felt as though fate were pushing her toward him. That sense of losing control left her anxious and unsettled.

As he gazed at her, Lou Xizhou was troubled as well. Why couldn’t she try accepting him? It was not difficult, was it?

If they suited each other, they could continue developing their relationship. If they did not, they could simply return to being ordinary acquaintances.

She could even move out without abiding by the lease.

Neither of them would suffer any loss.

The two sat in silence, and the dining room was quiet.

After a long while, Lou Xizhou reached out and lightly pressed his hand against the crown of her head before withdrawing it.

“Eat up. It won’t taste good once it gets cold.”

“Oh.” Tang Yu answered listlessly and lowered her head to continue eating the porridge, which was nearly gone.

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“Are you going to the newspaper office later?” Lou Xizhou asked, glancing at his watch. It was already past ten.

“Yes,” Tang Yu murmured. The next moment, she finished every last grain of porridge in her bowl. “I’m done.”

Lou Xizhou glanced at the empty bowl before her and said calmly, “All right. Be careful on the way.”

“Thank you for the ginger porridge, President Lou. Auntie Liu’s cooking is delicious.” Tang Yu rose as she spoke. Seeing that he seemed about to stand as well, she hurriedly added, “I can go out by myself. You don’t have to see me off.”

The feeling stirred a trace of unease in Lou Xizhou’s heart as he watched her departing figure.

He still could not help standing and following her outside. Just in time, he saw her slender silhouette merge into the morning sunlight, suffused with a hazy, poetic beauty.

“Tang Yu.” He stopped on the steps.

Tang Yu had already reached the entrance. She turned sideways to look back and saw that he had come outside at some point. He stood beneath the veranda, tall and steadfast as a pine or cypress. The morning sun spilled across the wooden floor, its pale reflection brushing one side of his figure, and once again her heartbeat lost its rhythm.

From a distance, Lou Xizhou asked her, “You don’t want to avoid having too much contact with me because you dislike me, do you?”

Tang Yu slowly shook her head.

How could anyone dislike him?

She merely felt that although her family background was not poor, it only served to embellish the conditions of a marriage match. In terms of her own circumstances, she was far behind him.

Or perhaps… she was simply worrying too much.

Lou Xizhou felt relieved. The corners of his lips curved into a faint smile.

“Go on.”

How strange. Those two ordinary words somehow sounded to Tang Yu as though he were indulgently speaking to a child.

After she left, Lou Xizhou returned to the dining room and finished his breakfast. He went upstairs to change, then left the house, where his driver was already waiting outside.

In the kitchen, Auntie Liu was preparing the ingredients for medicinal cuisine.

North City Business Daily Group

As soon as Tang Yu entered the office, every colleague told her that the Feng Group report had thoroughly crushed World Finance’s coverage this time. One colleague who knew people there even described how furious the senior management had become.

Sister Li declared outright, “Yu Shuang won’t amount to anything even after going over there.”

Tang Yu remembered the unhappy final scene between Feng Group and Yu Shuang in Sea City. With some reservation, she replied, “Not necessarily. If Yu Shuang is willing to work hard, she’ll keep improving. Otherwise, how could she possibly have made it to North City?”

“You’re giving her too much credit!” Sister Li said.

“Not at all. I’m only stating the facts,” Tang Yu said objectively.

Yu Shuang’s only problem was that her thinking in matters of love was misguided, and her career had been affected by her romantic entanglements.

“Little Tang, I’ll go with you to Equestrian Culture Week,” a male colleague said.

“Sounds good!”

After chatting for a while, Tang Yu began working, catching up on everything she had failed to finish the previous day.

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She worked until noon, when Lou Huainan called. Tang Yu answered while continuing to work on something else.

“Sister Tang Yu, come have lunch at our house! Auntie Liu made some delicious dishes from her hometown. I called you last night, but you didn’t answer.” Lou Huainan sounded delighted.

Tang Yu had intended to continue working at the office over lunch, so she declined his invitation.

“I still have work to finish. I’ll just eat something simple.”

Lou Huainan then asked, “What about this afternoon… can you still make time to go to the equestrian club?”

Tang Yu remembered that she had promised him she would spare an hour to go there each day before the competition, so she agreed.

“Then we’ll go to the equestrian club together later!”

“All right. We’ll keep in touch by phone.”

After hanging up, Tang Yu continued working. But before long, she unexpectedly received a call from Auntie Liu.

“Miss Tang, I made some medicinal cuisine for you. Come over for lunch, all right? Try it and see whether it tastes like your mother’s cooking.”

That put Tang Yu in a difficult position. Her first thought was that she should reduce her contact with Lou Xizhou.

“Auntie Liu, I’m rather busy. I’m still at the newspaper office.”

“I can bring it to you,” Auntie Liu said. “I’ve been busy all morning and simply want you to try my cooking. Then it’s settled. I’ll call you when I arrive!”

The words at the tip of Tang Yu’s tongue were swallowed back down. Helplessly, she rested a hand against her forehead and stared at the computer.

Auntie Liu was getting on in years. She had kindly prepared food for her and was even going to deliver it herself. Refusing seemed terribly pretentious.

Sigh… Never mind.

Tang Yu shut down her computer and called Auntie Liu back to say she would return home for lunch.

As it happened, just after she got out of the car at the entrance to the house, she ran into Lou Xizhou, who had also just returned.

His manner was as gentle as ever, like a breeze.

“Have you come to eat at my house?”

“I just…” She felt rather awkward. “I came to freeload a meal at your place, President Lou.”

It had only been a few hours, and she was already contradicting herself.

At her words, delight filled Lou Xizhou’s deep eyes. He raised a hand and gestured for her to enter.

How was she supposed to avoid him now?

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