Chapter 45: Is He Celebrating His Birthday?

  A white Mercedes sped by in the opposite direction, causing people's pupils to dilate in shock. At this moment, Ling Hao Yu turned his head and narrowly avoided brushing against the window of that Mercedes.

  "You young people are playing with fire, be careful with your lives!" Only to see the old and muffled voice coming from that Mercedes, couldn't see what the driver looked like inside, just a sentence of advice, without getting out of the car to scold before walking away.

  "Hey, are you okay?" Gu Xi hastily got out of the car and quickly covered it up, looking at Ling Haoyu who shook his head as if something was wrong.

  "How could anything happen to me? Don't worry, I'll be with you for a lifetime."

  He just recovered normally, was it because of the illness attack just now? He tightly grasped the steering wheel and spoke with a smile on his face. At this point, he should take medicine. ?? CEO's First Love: Ah Niang, don't be too bad 45

  "What? Who wants to play this kind of joke with you at your age? Still playing with passion? Be careful, or your life will be gone and all your property will be confiscated." Gu Xi didn't know why he had such a big grudge. It was as if something had taken control of his temper, which surged violently.

  "It won't happen again, don't be angry, okay? You're not cute when you're angry. I promise it won't happen again."

  He gazed at Gu Xi with deep affection, his tone becoming increasingly gentle as he gave her a meaningful glance. However, upon discovering that Gu Xi had no reaction, he reached out to gently stroke her chin.

  "Huh, you've been watching too many TV dramas! Remember our relationship is a creditor-debtor one, until I pay back those 20,000 yuan it's over, nothing to do with each other. Let's go our separate ways."

  She repeatedly emphasized the relationship and silently thought about when she would start talking about this uninteresting topic.

  "Then I'll lend you another 500,000 and let you pay it back for the rest of your life, how about that?" Ling Hao Yu said with a smile.

  "What's the point of taking 500,000? To find a boyfriend? Drive carefully, I don't want to die with you, how useless."

  "You think I have the potential to be a gigolo?" Ling Hao Yu tapped her nose tip and said with a sly tone.

  "Alright, those women in their 40s and 50s are really good at this!" Gu Xi was about to blow his top from anger, why did he always have to find a way out?

  "Okay, my phone is in my pocket, can you pick it up for me!" Ling Hao Yu was holding the steering wheel with one hand and trying to open the lid of a mineral water bottle with the other. Just as he was about to take a drink, his phone rang. Hearing the familiar ringtone, he immediately knew it was a call from home.

  Gu Xi somewhat awkwardly reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his phone, touching the solid skin. Although it was through a layer of fabric, that feeling still had a strong presence, making her unable to help but linger in the pocket for a few moments before pulling it out. The screen displayed "Mom", thinking that this guy was really bad, intentionally letting her answer.

  "Hey, yeah, it's Xiaoxi, I'm just at the door." Gu Xi made an effort to calm down and responded in the friendliest tone.

  He guessed it right away and smiled after Gu Xi hung up the phone, "Haven't they started yet?"

  "You're the biggest in your family, making everyone revolve around you. What time is it now?" Gu Xi complained again, making the whole family wait for one person to come back and eat dinner for five hours. This kind of thing wasn't unheard of. In the past, Father often neglected his family like this, while Mother made delicious food, always making her siblings drool. They looked at the dishes on the table waiting for Dad to come back, but the food had gone cold. They were dozing off on the table, and Dad still hadn't returned.

  That night, my mother cried all the time. At first, she was crying because she had not given birth to a son for the family. Later, after giving birth to a son, her husband came home every day with a strong smell of wine and only returned home in the middle of the night. This pain of my mother's has been deeply etched in my heart.

  "It's almost 10 o'clock, I'm really... I should call home first."

  After arriving at the villa, Gu Xi and Ling Haoyu walked in as usual, with Gu Xi still walking ahead to ring the doorbell.

  "Xiaoxi, we've finally waited for you." Ling's mother was wearing a white evening gown with an adorable bow tie on her chest and her hair was styled in a beautiful bun.

  "Sorry to keep you waiting." Gu Xi said smoothly, and she didn't even know that these "thank you"s and "sorry"s had refreshed her record recently. She used to not even know how to say "I'm sorry". CEO's First Love: Naughty girl, don't be too bad 45

  "Dad and Mom, Xiaorong has kept you waiting for a long time." Ling Haoyu walked to the dinner table with deep apologies, then looked at the rich and varied dishes that were all his favorites.

  "Brother is the most annoying person in the world, I'm really starving to death, let's eat first." Lin Xiaorong was bored, playing with the spoon and splashing water from the cup onto the table. When she heard the knock on the door, she jumped up and walked over to Gu Xi's side, pulling him down to sit beside her.

  Last year on this day, the whole family celebrated my birthday at a high-end restaurant and many relatives and friends came. Even my aunt was there, but this year he chose to have a low-key celebration at home, just treating it as a simple reunion.

  Ling Fu and Ling Mu were very considerate, when the guests arrived, they instructed Zhang Xiao Hui to take some soup to reheat it. "Xiao Hui, come over and eat together." Ling Hao Yu called out.

  The servant and master cannot dine together, it has always been a family rule. Zhang Xiaohui often voluntarily prepared meals for herself and then hid in the kitchen to eat alone.

  Day after day, she has become accustomed to this ritual. Every time there is a holiday, Ling's mother would especially call her over for a meal, and seeing how well-behaved the child was, special treatment was only natural.

  "Oh, right, let's add a bowl and chopsticks for Xiaohui!" Ling's father seemed to be somewhat uneasy about these formalities, his thinking not as open-minded as Ling's mother. Just as he was about to pick up his wine cup to take a sip, he heard his son's voice, of course, he couldn't let him feel embarrassed in front of the girl he liked because of his own thoughts, so his attitude wasn't very good, but it was enough to satisfy Zhang Xiaohui, this old man being the most difficult to accept in the family.

  "Right, sit to my left." Lin Xiaorong proactively got up and invited Zhang Xiaohui out of the kitchen, squeezing her own chair towards Gu Xi's side to make room for an empty seat.

  She added a bowl and chopsticks, looking at Zhang Xiaohui with her head down in some surprise. Every time she came to this holiday, she would find an excuse to leave, but today she was exceptionally happy.

  Even serving the Ling family for a long time had become a distant goal, every member of the Ling family was very good to her, only to see a slender hand holding a piece of pork ribs and sending it to her bowl, still lowering her head and looking at the chopsticks but not knowing what to eat. Everyone's eyes were cast towards her, saying in a low voice, "Thank you, sister!"

  Gu Xhi didn't know where she was, but she played her role so perfectly, everything she did seemed so natural, perhaps it wasn't acting at all, but a trait she was born with.

  This meal wasn't unpleasant due to the long wait and everyone's tense emotions. Gu Xi paid attention to every detail, every move, so this gathering didn't make Cinderella feel as nervous and embarrassed as it did in TV dramas, afraid of offending etiquette. For her, the Ling family parents really made her relive a memorable family dinner from many years ago.

  That was when she had just turned two years old, during the Chinese New Year, which should have been a time of joy and celebration. Although they were not well-off at that time, they lived happily with simple food and drink. Since her mother became pregnant with their second child, the family began to look forward to new things, and her father's views also changed, even doing things with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the result was a stillborn baby boy.

  The villagers' whispers and pointing fingers, the father began to be cold towards the mother, often using his drunkenness as an excuse to beat her. The mother suffered in silence, pregnant with their third child, a glimmer of hope that was once again extinguished. It just so happened that it was around the Ghost Festival, Double Ninth Festival, and she was only six years old at the time, her beautiful childhood had just begun, but turned into a gloomy shadow.

  The rain was pouring down heavily, and the mother's cries of pain prompted them to call for a midwife. The result was just like last time - the newborn baby was completely lifeless. "It's like this again, I helped you calculate your fate last time, it must be that your eldest daughter is dead."

  At that time, she didn't know who to hate. She clearly saw the blood on her mother's body, while her father had walked away with a swing of the door. The next day, at dinner time, everyone's eyes were not right towards her, including her grandmother who used to be very fond of her, suddenly became indifferent to her.

  "Eat, eat, eat! What's the use of eating so much? You're really an inauspicious child!" Father had actually believed that midwife's nonsense. People in the village called her Guan Po, with rich experience in childbirth and feudal superstition, often helping with deliveries in neighboring villages.

  She just ate a mouthful of white rice, and then ran out alone to sit on the bridge by the river. Only listening to the desolate sound of flowing water could make her own terrible mood slightly better.

  "Where are you going, Xiaoxi?" The rural environment was harsh, and her mother had just lain in bed for less than twenty hours before getting up to do chores again. This dinner was all made by her mother. It's really pitiful, if it were a woman from a family with some conditions, she would be in the hospital undergoing postpartum recovery treatment, at least she wouldn't be driven to work.

  She loved to go wherever she pleased, and it was not that the family door was unfortunate! Even if she walked to the edge of the door, her father's words fell deeply into her mind, crying as she walked, sitting on a small wooden bridge, dusk falling, thunder rumbling. And for some reason, this autumn rain was particularly heavy, pouring down and soaking her whole body.

  A bit of painful memories gushed out of her mind like a spring, "Xiaoxi, sleep here tonight." Ling's mother took out a plate of cut fruit from the kitchen and walked to her side, calling out.

  At this time, only the Ling couple was left in the living room, and the nanny was washing dishes in the kitchen. Ling Hao Yu sent his cousin Lin Xiao Rong back first. Looking at her father reading the newspaper with a black-rimmed glasses on the side, she remained silent for a long time, unknowingly bringing up so many memories. ?? CEO's First Love: Girl, don't be too bad 45

  "No need, auntie. I think I'll just head back to my apartment!" Gu Xi had just come to and people say that those who have just woken up from a daze tend to speak the truth, and she really did let something slip.

  "An apartment? Aren't you kids living together?" Ling's mother said with a frown, patting her shoulder.