Xu Ai looked at Su Xuan wide-eyed.
She and Lin Shen had worked hard for two weeks to prepare for the bidding but still failed; it turned out Su Xuan was the reason.
She pointed at him but couldn't get words out.
Seeing her dumbfounded expression, he was amused despite his frustration. Catching her finger, he urged, "Let's go. They are waiting for us. The dishes are getting cold."
With her finger in his hand, Xu Ai followed him. Then she stopped and looked at him, asking, "I went to the restaurant later that night at about 11 o'clock but the staff said you left at half past ten."
Su Xuan was surprised. "You went there after I left?"
Xu Ai nodded. "I returned to school, but Sun Pinting found me and dragged me to the restaurant. I thought my date had long gone; but they told us that he didn't leave until 10:30."
Su Xuan smiled.
Xu Ai was curious. "Hey, why did you wait so long?"
Su Yu looked at her with glints in his eyes. "I wanted to see you."
Xu Ai rolled her eyes. "Liar. You didn't know me; how could you want to see me so much? My dad is so good to you that you didn't want to let him down?"
Su Xuan chuckled. "You don't believe me?"
Xu Ai pursed her lips. "No."
He sighed. "How about this? No one wants to be my girlfriend, so when someone introduced a girl to me, I worked hard to grab the opportunity."
Xu Ai snorted. "Hey. How dare you say this? If you can't get a girlfriend, then no man in the world can get a girlfriend."
Su Xuan looked surprised. After a long while, he laughed out loud.
"What are you laughing about?" Xu Ai felt she could never get the truth from this guy.
"Am I so good in your eyes?" Su Xuan looked down at her with laughing eyes; obviously, he was in a great mood.
He was handsome; when he laughed so happily, his charm was irresistible.
Xu Ai covered her eyes and said in a huff, "I don't think you're so good; but many people such as Autumn and Violet look at you with stars in their eyes."
Su Xuan coughed and said with a smile, "Then how about this? On that day, I had a laptop and documents with me, and I worked while waiting for you. I forgot the time and it was 10:30 pm when I finished the work."
Xu Ai thought this was a convincing explanation. Nodding, she mumbled, "What a workaholic."
Su Xuan looked at her, looking amused.
Xu Ai took two steps forward and stopped again. "It's not right."
"Huh?" Su Xuan turned his head to her. "What's not right?"
Xu Ai said, "After we heard you left, we went to a bar…" She recalled, "Why did you feed me wine? How did you know I was your blind date?"
Su Xuan raised his brows.
Xu Ai looked at him suspiciously.
Under her stare, he said with a faint smile, "You were my blind date; of course, I recognize you. Besides, you stood me up, so I got you back by feeding you a glass of wine." After a pause, he added, "You like to drink anyway."
"You are wrong." Xu Ai frowned.
"You don't like to drink?" Obviously, Su Xuan didn't believe her. He said slowly, "When I saw you in Nine Cloud, you were tipsy and needed help to walk. I thought you stood me up in order to drink in the bar, so…" He said with a smile, "So, I wanted you to drink until you have enough."
Xu Ai was speechless.
"Let's go. If we stall, the dishes will be cold." Smiling, Su Xuan pulled her forward and said, "we can settle accounts later. Today your roommate's boyfriend is the host; it's not polite to let them wait."
Xu Ai swallowed back her retort and followed him into the room in a huff.
Violet, Autumn and Wu Xiting were gossiping about the possible scenarios between Xu Ai, Su Xuan and Lin Shen, wondering if they'd put on a drama in which the girlfriend insisted on sending her loved man home, making the boyfriend sad. The more they talked about it, the more worried they got.
When Xu Ai and Su Xuan walked into the room, the three of them were whispering to each other.
"Hey! What are you guys whispering about?" Xu Ai was curious.
Startled, the three people looked up; seeing them come back hand in hand, they widened their eyes in stupefaction, looking quite ridiculous.
"Are you guys dumb?" Xu Ai glanced at the table. "Are the dishes cold? I'm sorry for making you wait."
"You're back finally." Violet jumped up immediately.
Autumn moved closer to her. "Hey, where's you-know-who?"
"Lin Shen isn't having dinner with clients. Today's his birthday and his mother and relatives have dinner here to celebrate it," knowing their curiosity, Xu Ai explained calmly.
Violet was surprised. "Why did he drink so much at a birthday party with relatives?"
"His uncle likes to drink," Xu Ai said.
Autumn understood the situation finally. "Oh, I see." After a pause, she asked curiously, "What took you so long?"
"No more questions! Let them sit down. We can talk while we eat. If we don't eat now, the dishes will need to be reheated," Wu Xiting interrupted.
"Okay. Okay. Sit down." Autumn waved her hand.
Xu Ai and Su Xuan sat down.
Su Xuan poured a glass of warm water and placed it before her.
"Let's drink some wine," Violet suggested.
Autumn raised her hand. "I agree."
Wu Xiting glanced at Su Yu. "I have no objection."
Su Xuan smiled. "I drive today and can't drink wine. Besides, Ai can't drink. If she got drunk, she'd not be able to visit Grandma Li tomorrow; she promised to go and can't let the old lady down again."
"You guys didn't visit her today?" Violet nudged Xu Ai's arm.
"I worked through the night on a file and slept until noon today; then I went with him to a meeting in the afternoon," Xu Ai drank some water and said.
Violet nodded and said to Su Xuan with a grin, "Then we'll pass wine today. Next time when you host a dinner, you must drink with us; I'm sure you have chauffeurs in your company to drive you guys home."
Su Xuan nodded with a smile. "Okay."
Despite the delay, the dishes were not cold since it was summer.
The dinner was quite eventful, but the young people got to know each other faster due to the unexpected disturbance. Violet and Autumn were straightforward girls who loved gossiping. Wu Xiting was an extrovert guy who loved talking and making jokes. The meal was lively with banters.
Su Xuan was the kind of person who'd mingle easily in any group he was in.
After the meal, Violet, Autumn and even Wu Xiting all regarded Su Xuan with admiration; they enjoyed the talk so much that they were reluctant to leave.
Xu Ai touched her forehead and rolled her eyes, lamenting that Su Xuan had taken over another piece of her territory.
He's despicable!
Violet suggested, "Let's go to MTV and sing songs."
Autumn raised her hand. "I agree! I agree!"
Xu Ai slapped their hands down. "It's late. I'm sleepy. Let's call it a night."
"Hey, Ai, you're not fun." Violet and Autumn protested together.
Xu Ai gave them a dirty look. "Aren't you going mountain-climbing tomorrow? You can't stay up late. Besides, I have things to do tomorrow." Before they could say more, she pulled Su Xuan up. "He has work tonight."
They knew Su Xuan was a busy man managing the big company Empyrean and he had squeezed time for dinner. Instantly, they stopped protesting and said, "Okay."
Outside the restaurant, Su Xuan asked them with a smile, "Let me drive you guys to school, okay?
"Ai, are you going back to school with us?" Violet asked.
Before Xu Ai could reply, Su Xuan said, "She won't return to school today since she'll come out tomorrow anyway."
Ai thought he was right and didn't object.
Violet glanced at them meaningfully and pulled Xu Ai to one side, whispering, "Um, Ai, learn some bedroom skills and teach me later."
Xu Ai saw the suggestive look on her face and blushed with sudden understanding; giving Violet a kick, she muttered, "Get out."
Violet screamed. "Ah! My new skirt! You ruined it."
"If you don't shut up, I'll give you two more kicks." Xu Ai lifted her foot; she wore a pair of medium heeled sandals.
"Savage girlfriend!" Violet brushed dust off her skirt and called out to Autumn and Wu Xiting, "Let's go now!" Then she waved at Su Xuan. "Young Master Su, you don't need to drive us. Don't forget the dinner you promised. By the way, don't hesitate to sleep with Ai; we don't mind that you're intimate with her."
Xu Ai took off her sandal and threw it at Violet.
Violet screamed and ducked it.
Before the sandal dropped to the ground, Autumn dashed forward and caught it. Panting, she brought it back to Xu Ai. "Ai, the shoes cost more than 2,000 yuan. How did you bear to throw it?"
Xi Ai looked at Violet furiously. "She was bullshitting."
Violet looked at her fearfully and then turned around to yell at Su Xuan bravely, "Young Master Su, look how savage and Violet she is. You'd better find another girlfriend."
With a chuckle, he looked at Xu Ai's bare foot and then at the sandal in Autumn's hand. He walked over slowly and extended out his hand to Autumn. "Give it to me."
Autumn immediately handed it to him.
Su Xuan walked back, squatted down, pulled back the shoe strap and said to Xu Ai, "It's cold on the ground. Put it on."
Xu Ai slipped her foot into the shoe reluctantly.
Su Xuan buttoned the shoe for her and stood up. Seeing the scowl on her face, he was amused. "What a hot temper you have."
Xu Ai gave him a dirty look.
"Alas! I can't watch anymore. You're torturing me, a single girl, with PDA. Let's go." With a scream, Violet covered her eyes and turned away from them, looking hurt.
Autumn waved at them. "Ai, Su Xuan, we're leaving."
Su Xuan nodded with a smile and waved at them.
Wu Xiting whistled and hailed a taxi; the three of them got into the car.
After the taxi entered the traffic flow, Xu Ai looked back, knowing her face was red with fury at Violet's teasing words.
Su Xuan glanced at her and asked with a smile, "Will you go back to the Cloud Nine?"
She answered stiffly, "I want to go home."
He glanced at the time. "Fine. I'll drive you home."
"I'll take a taxi." Xu Ai shook her head.
Under the neon lights, she looked awkward with her face as red as clouds at sunset or burning coal. Amused, he said, "It's late. Do you think I'd let you take a taxi?"
"Before I met you, I used to take a taxi by myself." Xu Ai snorted and turned to go.
Su Xuan grabbed her arm. "That's before you met me. Things are different now."
"What's different?" Xu Ai tried to shake his hand off. "Don't touch me. Let go."
Su Xuan gripped her hand and said with a low chuckle, "Everything's different. You're my girlfriend. If anything happens to you in the night, I'm the first person that the police want to see."
Xu Ai was furious. "I never agreed to be your girlfriend."
"It's not your decision to make." Su Xuan dragged her to the car.
Xu Ai tried to shake his hand off but couldn't. Resigned, she walked to the car with him.
Getting into the car, he fastened the seat belt for her as usual and drove the car into the traffic flow.
Yawning, Xu An asked, "Do you need me to show you the way?"
"No." Su Xuan glanced at her with a smile. "Sleep if you want. I'll wake you up when we arrive."
Nodding, Xu Ai lowered the back of the seat and closed her eyes.
Groggily, she heard her cellphone rang. Twisting her body, she found the cell phone and saw it was Sun Pinting's number. Pressing the Answer button, she asked, "What's up?"
"Ai-Ai, it's me," Grandma Li's voice came to her ears.
Immediately, she shivered and woke up, asking cautiously, "Grandma Li, it's you."
"I just wanted to remind you to bring Xuan to home. Today Xuan is busy, but he promised to come tomorrow. You can't postpone it anymore," said Grandma Li. "Or I'll be angry."
Xu Ai pursed her lips and looked toward Su Xuan who was concentrating on driving; she felt her head begin to ache.
"Ai-Ai?" Grandma Li called out to her as she remained silent.
"Grandma Li, tomorrow, I…um…" Xu Ai tried to find an excuse to cancel the visit.
"Auch! My heart is hurting again. Ting's mom, bring me the medicine." The old lady groaned over the phone; then she asked with difficulty, "Ai, are you coming or not?"
"Yes, yes. I will go," Xu Ai said immediately. "Grandma Li, go and take the medicine. I promise I'll go and see you tomorrow."
"How about Xuan?" Grandma asked.
"He'll come with me," Xu Ai said immediately.
"Okay. Good girl. I'll take medicine now." Grandma Li hung up.
Xu Ai put down her cellphone in defeat.
Su Xuan glanced at her from the corner of his eye and his lips curved up.
Xu An couldn't return to sleep. Frustrated, she looked out of the window. "Where are we now? How come I don't know the road?"
"I'm taking a shortcut," said Su Xuan.
"When will we arrive?" Xu Ai asked.
"In about 20 minutes."
Xu Ai fell silent.
Sure enough, 20 minutes later, Su Xuan stopped the car before her home. As Xu Ai unfastened the seat belt, she heard her grandma's voice from inside, "Are you home, Xuan and Ai-Ai?"
Startled, Xu Ai turned her head and saw her grandma opened the gate and beckoned at them with a big smile on her face. "Xuan, drive into the yard."
Xu Ai froze.
"Come on, drive straight in." The old lady beckoned at them again and said to Xu Ai, "Ai-Ai, step to one side; don't block the way."
Xu Ai strode over and grabbed her arm. "Grandma, what are you doing here? It's late; don't tell me you want to chat with him. He needs to drive back home."
"You know how late it is, huh? How can you let him drive back? It's dangerous." The old lady pushed at her. "Move away. I've got a room ready for him. Xuan must stay here for the night."