Chapter 172: I’m Offended

Chapter 172: I’m Offended

After Lu Chenzhou said that single word, he walked out, wanting to see who this supposed “boyfriend” was.

And then he saw Lin Fan.

Lin Fan wasn’t employed at the moment, so he was dressed very casually. Today, he was wearing a deep blue shirt that paired well with a simple pair of black pants, still giving off a very gentlemanly look.

After the inappropriate shout from Cheng Xi’s colleague, both Cheng Xi and Lin Fan felt quite awkward. However, since he was unable to explain himself properly, he could only awkwardly say, “I’m not here for her. I’m here to visit my sister.”

The colleague who had yelled out earlier smiled. “Yes, to visit your sister, I understand. Don’t worry. Dr. Cheng should be quite free right now, so you can go into her office and talk with her.

And then Lu Chenzhou and Cheng Xi came out.

When Lu Chenzhou saw Lin Fan, his facial expression barely changed. In fact, his first move was to smile casually.

But that seemingly innocent smile made Cheng Xi feel absolutely terrified. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t appropriate for her to start shouting and explaining herself in the situation; she couldn’t shout out, “Don’t yell out like that in the future. Lin Fan’s not my boyfriend!” But actually, by this point, some of her other colleagues had already gone over to explain what had transpired in her absence. After that, the previously oblivious colleague immediately quieted down and left.

When the other colleagues noticed that the atmosphere between the two of them was starting to get heated, they wordlessly withdrew from the vicinity, acting as if they were very busy and hadn’t seen or heard a single thing. But Lin Fan couldn’t extricate himself as easily, and he walked over after glancing at Cheng Xi and her coworkers.

He acted quite graciously and calmly, first nodding at Lu Chenzhou, then turning to Cheng Xi and saying, “Sorry, I arrived a bit later than usual. Is there still time for me to see Jiaman?”

With that one sentence, he had explained the details of the situation quite clearly.

Cheng Xi knew that he was just covertly trying to help her out of an awkward situation. Normally, it would be fine for her to accommodate him back a bit, but currently, she really did have to draw a line between them. She looked at her watch and then apologetically said, “I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over. Why don’t you come over tomorrow? I’ll let Jiaman know.”

Lin Fan paused for a while, not saying anything. Then, after a brief thank you, he prepared to leave.

But would Lu Chenzhou let him just leave like that without saying anything? Ha, of course not. It would be very impolite to interrupt him, and showing his jealousy and starting a fight wasn’t something that Mr. Lu would do either. Instead, he merely walked over to the nurse’s station and found Cheng Xi’s colleague, the one who had created trouble for Cheng Xi and then pretended to work while actually listening in on the gossip. He asked her, “Hi, can I have a few words with you?”

That colleague glanced at Cheng Xi quizzically before walking out of the station and responding somewhat doubtfully, “Oh, hello. Is something the matter?”

“My name is Lu Chenzhou.”

The colleague was flummoxed. “......It’s nice to meet you.”

“I live with Cheng Xi.”

“Oh…… huh?” Her eyes were about to pop out at this comment out of nowhere. “You guys are…… living together?”

So are you actually saying that you’re Dr. Cheng’s boyfriend now?!

Lu Chenzhou nodded calmly. “It’s exactly as you think.” Then, he took out a card from his wallet with a lukewarm expression as he said, “This is a VIP rewards card for Donglai Hotel. I’ll treat you to a meal, but please, don’t call someone else her boyfriend next time, alright?”

The colleague was speechless. “……”

Her face was a little red, but this was a VIP rewards card from Donglai Hotel! A mythical card that represented free food and lodging! She’d be embarrassed if she didn’t accept it.

She grabbed it decisively, as she replied crisply and shamelessly, “Yes, Cheng Xi’s husband!”

This time, it was Cheng Xi who was rendered speechless. “……”

And before Cheng Xi could react, a crowd had formed around Lu Chenzhou, and then she heard everyone start exclaiming, “Cheng Xi’s husband!”

“Nice to meet you, Cheng Xi’s husband!”

“Cheng Xi’s husband, you’re really handsome!”

……

By the time Cheng Xi finally got off work, Lu Chenzhou had received the “acknowledgement” of everyone in her department.

Cheng Xi dryly asked them all, “Where are your morals?”

“What are morals? Can you eat them? If not, why do we need them?!”

Luckily, the department head wasn’t there that day, or else Cheng Xi would have likely earned herself another afternoon tea time chat with him.

Lu Chenzhou didn’t care about his expenditure at all, and he handed out a card to everyone who called him “Cheng Xi’s husband.” What would happen when he ran out of cards? Cheng Xi would cover it, of course! “Don’t worry. Just head over and give the employees my name. I’ll tell them that Cheng Xi’s covering the tab.”

Out of nowhere, Cheng Xi owed Lu Chenzhou yet another huge sum.

No one noticed when Lin Fan left, because the whole department was still in an uproar; the entire atmosphere was reminiscent of the New Year’s. Cheng Xi…… Cheng Xi felt a little apprehensive about it all, and after work, she even volunteered to take on the heavy burden of driving. Lu Chenzhou was surprisingly easy to convince; when she said she would drive, he tossed the keys without a word.

Cheng Xi sat down in the driver’s seat, ready to navigate. Yes, Mr. Lu hadn’t come to pick her up for nothing. Today was Baldy’s birthday, and Tian Rou had invited her and Lu Chenzhou to dinner a few days ago—ostensibly to thank her and Lu Chenzhou for their help in saving Baldy’s life.

After Cheng Xi got the GPS up and running, she didn’t immediately leave. Instead, she first turned around to glance at Lu Chenzhou. He was sitting in the front passenger seat. As his dark gaze reflected her look back at her, his jaw clenched tightly, his mien cold and severe.

He was taut, restrained, and silently enduring whatever emotions were running through his brain.

Cheng Xi carefully held his hand as she said, “Lu Chenzhou, I feel like I should give you an explanation regarding what happened earlier. That colleague of mine took a few months of maternity leave, and she never heard that Lin Fan broke up with me and married someone else. And this was her first day back at work, so she also didn’t know you were my boyfriend.”

In truth, not many people at the hospital knew that Lu Chenzhou was her boyfriend. Cheng Xi wasn’t someone who liked talking about herself, and especially when it was related to someone with an identity as sensitive as Lu Chenzhou.

Lu Chenzhou didn’t respond. He removed his hand from hers and then reached out to grasp her slender neck. He started slowly caressing it as he expressionlessly asked, “Why was he there?”

Cheng Xi rubbed back against his fingers in an attempt to curry favor. “Because Chen Jiaman’s his sister, remember? She’s at the most crucial stage of her recovery, and she needs her family’s help to overcome this trial. Thus, he’s been coming around fairly frequently to see her.”

Lu Chenzhou remained silent, his fingertips now resting lightly on her collarbone. After a while, he coolly said, “I don’t like my things being touched by other people.”

Cheng Xi thought that he was explaining his thoughts, but only later on did she find out that it was actually an announcement.

After that exchange, Lu Chenzhou retrieved his hand, and when Cheng Xi looked over, his expression was less severe than before, so she was finally able to relax. During Baldy’s birthday banquet, he formally introduced Tian Rou to his friends as his girlfriend. However, the pair had an unusual habit in that their conversations seemed destined to devolve into a quarrel, and almost nine out of every ten sentences were statements of mutual dislike.

And since Baldy had a different stance than Tian Rou on a certain matter, he was immediately locked onto as the target for Tian Rou’s derision. “Of course no one’s like you. Who would actually ruminate on all of their ex-girlfriends for years on end? And to think that you were even planning on going celibate because she left you. Honestly, I didn’t expect you to be the type at all.”

Baldy felt humiliated by her scathing words and became furious. He shot Tian Rou a supercilious glance as he countered, “You’re a pot calling the kettle black, huh? It’s not like you pined for your pretty boy male idol for years on end, right? Oh wait, don’t you still have his photos on your phone?”

“So what if I have his photos? So what if he’s my idol?” As Tian Rou continued arguing, she even dragged Cheng Xi down with her as she next grabbed Cheng Xi’s hand and raised as he said in a particularly proud tone, “Lin Fan’s Cheng Xi’s male idol too! When they were studying, the two of them were the model students for the entire class, the peerless duo. But look at what Lin Fan is to Cheng Xi now!”

Cheng Xi instinctively looked at Lu Chenzhou.

Luckily, Lu Chenzhou seemed preoccupied with talking to someone else, almost as if he hadn’t heard Tian Rou at all.

Then, three days later, Lin Fan’s mother forcibly transferred Chen Jiaman out of the hospital with Chen Fuguo’s guardianship transferral letter.

Lin Fan called Cheng Xi in desperation. “I couldn’t do anything about this, as Lu Chenzhou decided to help my mother. Cheng Xi, I didn’t know that even my insignificant presence was something that someone else would detest so much.”