A woman was in the midst of questioning a man.
“Do you actually love me or her? You can only choose between me and her!”
“Darling, you need to trust me. You’re the only person whom I love. It was never her.” Or maybe it went like this: “B*tch slave, I will show you the true meaning of rules and tradition today!”
If it wasn’t some dramatic romance television series, it would be a palace drama. It could’ve been either, since they repeatedly alternated between these two genres on TV. At first, Xiao Su felt weird hearing the scenes, but he was surprised afterward when he discovered that such plots really existed in the amazing television world. However, there were still many people who watched plots like this.
Xiao Su never understood the minds of those people. Jiang Xiaobai was an example and she could even make herself cry just by watching it. There was once that Xiao Su found her hugging a pillow with a bunch of tissues thrown in front of her when he returned. Her eyes were swollen due to her crying at that time. He thought that something had happened to her, but when he asked Jiang Xiaobai, she immediately pointed at the TV screen, which featured the female lead who had a miscarriage in the television series. “You see how miserable she is. I’ve never seen such a miserable female lead. Ugh…”
Xiao Su was rendered speechless as he realized his mistake. I shouldn’t have asked this much.
This time, he smelled the scent of cooked rice along with Jiang Xiaobai cursing at someone after he pushed open the door. “Ah. That damn supporting woman. How could she be this evil? Give me a knife and I’ll slash her!”
Xiao Su remained silent. She sure is lively. After closing the door, he went into the house and changed his shoes stoically. When he walked in, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Jiang Xiaobai heard his footsteps, so she simply said to him, “You’re back.”
“Yes,” Xiao Su answered her before remembering what the female employee in the company said to him earlier. Do they actually think that making food for someone means that they are married? If they see this scene in my house, I’m afraid they will…
Just as he entered, he realized that she was watching a palace drama television series. In her words, this was the one that was trending lately. “I’ve already prepared the meal, but this episode is almost over. You need to wait for it to finish before I bring it out for you or you can bring it out yourself too.”
Naturally, Xiao Su never said much to her, so he rolled up his sleeves and went straight into the kitchen. A while later, he brought out everything to the table. When Jiang Xiaobai was done with her series, she switched off the television and realized that he had arranged everything perfectly on the table. She smiled as she walked over to him. “You’re quite self-conscious unlike those male chauvinists.”
As she was about to sit down, Xiao Su said to her coldly, “Did you wash your hands?”
Upon hearing that, she finally realized with a shock. “I forgot about it. I’ll wash them now.” Then, Jiang Xiaobai turned toward the washroom to wash her hands. When she was washing her hands, she thought to herself, I never expected that the tide would turn one day. Back then, I was the one who asked him to wash his hands. Now, it’s the other way around.
She pouted as she dried her hands. After that, the two of them sat facing each other and ate their meal. Actually, it would be a lie if they said that they weren’t initially awkward with each other. After all, it was quite awkward for a man and a woman unfamiliar with each other to have a meal together while sitting face to face. However, Jiang Xiaobai endured it all with her thick skin and became used to it as the days passed. Not only that, she was even able to handle all the calls from her mother lately. She spoke of how she lived her life in her boyfriend’s house, and her mother always squinted her eyes while being fooled by the former.
However, her grandmother’s 70th birthday fast approached—it was a few days later. Her mother had called this morning and asked Jiang Xiaobai to bring her boyfriend along to the birthday party.
In fact, Jiang Xiaobai wasn’t never interested in that eccentric grandmother of hers—never mind attending the latter’s birthday party. Not only was her grandmother eccentric, she was also biased toward the males in the family. She was the only daughter in the family, so her grandmother had always been dissatisfied with her mother—even commenting privately once that the latter wasn’t capable of giving birth to a son. Her grandmother had also sometimes insulted her mother directly.
Yet, Jiang Xiaobai’s mother wouldn’t let herself be bullied easily, so she would talk back to Jiang Xiaobai’s grandmother no matter what. Despite talking back to her all of the time, Jiang Xiaobai’s mother still harbored the sorrows within her. That was why Jiang Xiaobai was personally unwilling to attend her grandmother’s 70th birthday. However, Mrs. Jiang had forced her to attend because her grandmother was already unsatisfied with her granddaughter. If Jiang Xiaobai chose not to attend the birthday party, her grandmother would probably scold her right through the latter’s bone. Therefore, Jiang Xiaobai agreed to her mother’s request resignedly.
At the end of the conversation, Mrs. Jiang also asked Jiang Xiaobai to bring her boyfriend along with her.
Jiang Xiaobai would have actually been fine with it because if Xiao Su was really her boyfriend, she could bring him there for him to understand the kind of person her grandmother was, but the problem was that the two of them were a fake couple. If he followed her to the party, they were bound to be questioned from all sides and there might even be people who would come up to attack them. Just the thought of it annoyed her.
“Aren’t you eating? What are you thinking of?” Suddenly, Xiao Su’s question came from her front. As Jiang Xiaobai returned to her senses, she realized that she had zoned out while wondering about something else. However, Xiao Su now stared at her curiously, so she could only explain to him awkwardly, “Nothing. I’m just thinking of my grandmother’s 70th birthday.”
“70th birthday?”
Jiang Xiaobai nodded while she rolled her clever eyes. Instantly, she smiled brightly while watching Xiao Su in front of her before asking with a smirk, “There will be a lot of delicious food at my grandmother’s 70th birthday party. Are you interested in—”
“No,” Xiao Su rejected her immediately without any hesitation.
Even though it was expected, she was still surprised at how fast and ruthless he refused her. She felt empty inside as a result, but she still maintained a smile. “Can’t you just make it less embarrassing for me? You could’ve just been tactful when rejecting me, such as saying that you need to work or you need to attend a meeting so that you won’t need to come along with me.” Listening to her, Xiao Su frowned his eyes and looked at her while his expressions clearly asked her why all the trouble for this. “You really are a straightforward man. You have no idea on how to care for a girl’s fragile heart.”
“Fragile?” Xiao Su pressed his lips before asking her, “You?”
“Fine. Fine.” Jiang Xiaobai waved her hand indifferently. “I’ll go there alone when the time comes. Let’s not talk about it anymore. Let’s eat.”
The birthday party wasn’t far away as it was only three days later. Jiang Xiaobai sent a text to Xiao Su early in the morning, informing him that she would probably be unable to cook for him for the entire day, so he needed to take care of himself today. Xiao Su was startled for a moment after he saw the text before replying to her, ‘Are you going to attend your grandmother’s birthday party?’
She answered him with a ‘yes’.
He then remembered her joyful face that day when she asked him to come along. She looked quite happy that day, so there shouldn’t be a problem. However, for some reason, he asked another question. ‘Are you alright going alone?” After he sent the text, he felt that he was being a little nosy, but she quickly replied to him, ‘I’m fine. You just need to take care of your own meals today.’