Chapter 18: A Sunny and Cheerful Boy

Chapter 18: The Sunny, Cheerful Boy

Seeing that he was merely smiling and not like before—always trying to take everything upon himself for fear of spending her money—Gu Lanxi felt a surge of joy. She couldn't help but smile along with him. Halfway through her laughter, after resisting for a while, she finally couldn't help but slap the table

"You talk too much! Are you going to eat or not?"

"I'll eat! Why wouldn't I? All the world's delicacies are nothing compared to the sweetness of 'soft rice' [living off a woman]."

Seeing the faint trace of pride in his wife's expression—as if she wanted to stand with hands on hips and chest out to ask him, "Am I impressive or not?"—Lu Dingliu's romantic heart couldn't help but flutter again.

His smile was brilliant, his dimples round.

His emotional shifts were as fast as a tornado.

"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll really get angry!"

Gu Lanxi widened her eyes and gave him a reproachful glare.

She never needed Lu Nanting to degrade himself just to exalt her.

Talking about "eating soft rice" was too unpleasant; she didn't like it.

"Wife, have I ever told you? You're so cute when you're angry! Your big eyes go wide like a cat's."

Seeing him call her "wife" so skillfully, Gu Lanxi gripped her chopsticks and narrowed her eyes dangerously

"Didn't you say I was like a lion? Now that we've just registered our marriage, I've become a kitten?"

Lu Nanting couldn't help but laugh again.

"Can you please stop! Stop laughing!"

"Sorry, I am currently the world's most cheerful, sunny boy! I'm just letting a tiny bit of my true nature leak out, and that's just how it is."

Seeing his triumphant smile, Gu Lanxi couldn't help but cover her face.

Every time she trended on the hot searches, there was inevitably this comment: "If I could marry Gu Lanxi, I would definitely become the world's most cheerful, sunny boy!"

As a "National Girlfriend," Gu Lanxi's "boyfriend fans" could probably line up from Hegang to Guangzhou.

She hadn't expected that he would actually take this internet meme to heart.

What was there to be proud of?

Gu Lanxi couldn't help but glare at him again.

Lu Nanting was capable, and his traffic was considerable. Since his debut, he had been inundated with endorsements, his music copyrights were valuable, his albums sold well, and with multimedia monetization from various platforms and concert income, he earned quite a lot every year. He was certainly not the type of person who couldn't support a family.

His claim of "eating soft rice" was merely a joke.

In fact, he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had never known hardship. To him, there wasn't much difference between having a lot of money and having even more.

More than money, he cared about whether the things he did were meaningful and whether his life had value.

"When your aunt comes to Beijing, the two of us will go together to transfer the title, and we can look at the house at the same time to see if anything needs changing. We'll settle it early and move in sooner."

That house had been vacant for over two years and didn't even need ventilation.

Lu Nanting understood the implication immediately.

"Are you putting the house deed in my name?"

He hadn't expected that Gu Lanxi wasn't just buying a house for them to live together.

"When you prepared the wedding rings, didn't you prepare a pair? Is it strange to put both our names on the marital home? Do you think I'm a very stingy person in your heart?"

Wasn't her pursuit of wealth simply to live life as she pleased?

In the past, when Lu Nanting gave her a designer necklace, she would be so anxious she'd suffer from insomnia every night because she couldn't return a gift of equal value.

Over time, it would make the relationship feel unbalanced.

Now, she finally didn't have to deal with that.

She had accepted his priceless ring, and she could immediately return the favor with a house.

This was the meaning behind her hard work.

"Not at all."

Lu Nanting answered without hesitation.

Even when Gu Lanxi wasn't wealthy, he had never been stingy with her.

There was a massive difference between having ten thousand yuan and spending a hundred on his partner, versus having a hundred yuan and spending all hundred on her.

In the past, Gu Lanxi had always given him her all.

No one understood better than him how happy it was to be loved wholeheartedly by Gu Lanxi.

And no one understood better than him just how wonderful she truly was.

It could be said that because he had met someone so compatible in his teens, every other girl from then on had become a mere passerby in his eyes.

Gu Lanxi looked at the air conditioner switch, feeling that it was unusually hot today.

She cupped her face, leaning on the edge of the table, and tilted her head slightly to smile at Lu Nanting

"Then what is there to be surprised about?"

The marriage was rushed, and many things hadn't been prepared; the two of them could just take things slow together.

Whenever he took a bold step toward her, she would dare to testingly approach him by half a step.

She spoke candidly; she did this only for the sake of fairness, not because of love.

She didn't care whether Lu Nanting's burning heart would be tempered by her "cold water" and become incredibly hard.

Lu Nanting took a tissue to wipe his mouth and looked at her with a smile: "You want everything to be fair. Does that mean if I kiss you, you have to kiss me back? Come on, I'm ready!"

Gu Lanxi rolled her eyes. "When did you ever kiss me?"

"We can make it up anytime."

"What kind of logic is that?!"

Gu Lanxi could swear on her deadbeat father's life that this man named Lu was definitely not this silver-tongued in the past!!

Seeing her getting annoyed, Lu Nanting hurriedly said, "The house is great, but..."

The man glanced at her cautiously before whispering, "My great-aunt's family also lives there... our two bosses, who is my cousin, is her only son. The old lady is getting on in years, so the whole family lives together..."

Gu Lanxi knew that his grandfather had a sister and that the two families were very close.

She hadn't expected them to live in the same residential complex.

If they accidentally ran into them, the whole family would know about their cohabitation within minutes.

And if they found out they had registered their marriage, the Lu family would likely be furious with her!

Gu Lanxi frowned slightly. After some hesitation, she eventually thought it through.

"The complex is huge. Once we move in, we'll have cars picking us up and dropping us off; we won't run into many people. As long as we don't wander around aimlessly, if we get along well after a year or so, we can tell the family then. They should be able to understand."

The reason she was unwilling to go public was simply because she lacked confidence in this relationship; she feared they might not last long.

She herself didn't mind, but it wouldn't be good to let the elders get their hopes up for nothing.

Seeing her arrangement, Lu Nanting could only agree.

There was no other way; his way of pursuing this girl was somewhat special. She lacked a sense of security in relationships and was also quite reserved, often unwilling to say what was on her mind.

Especially regarding bad things; she basically never spoke of them in front of him.

He hadn't known before and had suffered for it; he wouldn't make that mistake again.

After the meal, the two went to the study to continue discussing their respective situations.

"Currently, the family only employs Auntie Wang as a live-in housekeeper, responsible for household chores and the three daily meals. For closet organization and cleaning, we hire people to come by on schedule. Once we move, we'll need to hire at least three more people to handle cleaning and look after you, since Auntie Wang will be coming to the film set with me."

Since the house was large, hiring domestic help based on square footage wouldn't be cost-effective.

Gu Lanxi didn't want to waste time and started by explaining her side.

"The company has assigned me two assistants, a driver, and a manager.

"There's nothing much to say about the driver; he's just responsible for driving. Because my schedule isn't very busy, he also serves other artists. So, it's best not to let him know about any private matters.

"As for the two assistants, one is a general assistant responsible for taking care of me, and the other is an executive assistant responsible for liaising with various parties and managing my schedule.

"As for the manager, they don't just manage me. Since I don't do much promotion outside of acting, the manager needs to earn a living, so they also manage a fairly popular boy band. When there are no major issues, they are basically with that group."

Having finished speaking, Gu Lanxi picked up her phone and sent a file to him.

"Look at their resumes; their photos are on there. Once you've read them, you'll have an idea of who they are."

These people were strictly professional connections sent by the company; she had almost no personal relationship with them, so she had to maintain proper boundaries when interacting.

"Additionally, I maintain a team to handle my investment matters. I pay them top-tier industry salaries, and we get along quite well, though you probably won't have much opportunity to deal with them."

When they had done the property notarization earlier, they had laid out all their assets, so Lu Nanting naturally knew she had a high-end venture capital studio. Hearing her mention it didn't surprise him.

Lu Nanting nodded to show he understood.

"I am not good at handling PR crises. If our marriage is exposed, I hope you can handle those matters. If I need bodyguards or something similar, I'll need you to arrange them. As you know, modern security and traditional martial arts are completely different paths; I don't have any connections in that field."

She laid everything out clearly and openly, hiding neither her strengths nor her weaknesses. Just as she had said before, in front of him, she was her true self, without pretense.

As for nutritionists, beauticians, fitness trainers, image consultants, and her regular tailor, these had little to do with Lu Nanting, so she didn't bother mentioning them one by one.

"Public schedules are arranged by the company, but for private outings, I usually drive myself."

She didn't follow the "traffic/idol" route; often, viewers felt she looked familiar but didn't dare to recognize her.

Whenever that happened, she only had to casually ask, "Do I look like her?" and people would subconsciously assume they were mistaken.

So, her approach was perfectly fine.

It was just that, in the future, things would likely change.

Gu Lanxi felt a hint of anxiety, though it wasn't severe.

When reading CEO novels, she often felt angry because the female lead would give her all and still not be valued by the male lead.

Our Young Master Lu was different; he had long since seen through materialism and was a sunny boy with high spiritual needs who was very capable of feeling the kindness others showed him.

That was why, after many years, he still thought of her incessantly and went to great lengths to marry her.

Baby Xixi is truly a very, very good person!

It was just that because her upbringing was somewhat unique and different from ordinary girls, her psychological state wasn't very healthy.

Once she grows up a bit more and becomes stronger, she will slowly get better.

Thank you everyone for voting, tipping, and leaving encouraging messages.

I've received a lot of positive feedback, and I can write happily every day.

The new book chart is climbing so fast; forgive my lack of experience, I woke up thinking I was going to be famous.

Good morning, friends~

(End of Chapter)