Fan Shaoming merely glanced at Su Xiaoyue, the woman his mother had chosen, before sitting back down. He looked at his mother and explained helplessly, "Mom, I don't know her. And let me clarify, Su Xiaoyue is not the woman I like; she's Mingyu's new class teacher." If it hadn't been for his dear son, he wouldn't have had the slightest desire to look at Su Xiaoyue.
As he spoke, he rifled through the stack of profiles to find Su Xiaoyue's, pulling it out to place at the front. Pointing to Su Xiaoyue's insufficiently detailed information, he said to his mother, "It's her. Mom, take a look at her. If I really liked her, would you approve of her?"
"Why has Mingyu got a new class teacher again?" Fan Li muttered as she picked up Su Xiaoyue's sparse profile to read it meticulously. After a while, she lifted her head to look at her son sitting across, then looked back at Su Xiaoyue's photo again.
Fan Shaoming was shocked by his mother's actions. His mother couldn't possibly...
Slamming Su Xiaoyue's sparse profile back onto the table, Fan Li looked at her son seriously and said, "You're too picky. Although I do hope you'd marry a lady from a prestigious family, in extreme times, as long as the person is female, I have no objections."
"Mom!"
Fan Shaoming's handsome face darkened with displeasure, "What do you think your son is? Can't I find a wife? 'As long as it's a woman, it's okay'—should I just drag an old granny home from the street too?"
Fan Li replied with a smile that wasn't quite a smile, "If you can stomach it, naturally that's okay too."
Fan Shaoming: ...
What kind of mother is this?
He was so outstanding, young and handsome, and wealthy—a dream lover for countless women. If he wanted to marry, there were plenty of women who'd be willing to wed him. He could have his pick of the lot. He didn't want to marry because he didn't believe in love, nor did he trust marriage. Being an illegitimate son, even though he had acknowledged his ancestors and returned to his family now, without his mother officially marrying his father, he was still illegitimate.
In the Green Water Villa, there was the official Mrs., his father's legitimate wife. She was a gentle and demure lady, who'd never worked a day in her life and knew only to support her husband and raise her children. Her marriage to his father had been happy once, full of vows of eternal love, yet his father still betrayed his own wife and deceived his mother, unfaithful to both love and marriage, hurting two women and casting a shadow over his heart, making him distrustful of love and marriage.
After a long while, Fan Shaoming forced out a sentence, "Mom, in your eyes, is your son really that pathetic? That you worry constantly he can't find a wife?"
Fan Li leaned back in her chair, staring at her son across her desk, and answered, "You're excellent, but the more excellent a person is, the pickier they are. Shaoming, Mom knows you have issues in your heart, but not all love and marriages end in betrayal."
"Mom, I'm very busy."
Fan Shaoming didn't want to talk about love with his mother.
He had never loved; he didn't understand love.
Fan Li laughed, stood up, "Very well, you be busy then. I won't disturb you." As she said this, she turned to leave. After a few steps, she turned back, snatched up Su Xiaoyue's blank profile, and said, "I'm also interested in this Teacher Su. I'll take it to look it over."
"Mom, she is..."
"Mingyu's new class teacher, right? I got it."
Even though she knew, she still took Su Xiaoyue's blank profile. Clearly, his mother didn't believe him. The heavens knew he hadn't lied. Su Xiaoyue indeed was his son's new class teacher. His investigation into Su Xiaoyue was only to understand the woman who had boldly criticized him. There was no other intention. Assuming his mother would look down on Su Xiaoyue for just being a preschool teacher, not particularly outstanding in appearance, Fan Shaoming hadn't anticipated her reaction. He underestimated his mother's capacity for tolerance!
"Mom, it's equivalent to a blank page; there's no use in taking it," Fan Shaoming tried to retrieve Su Xiaoyue's blank profile, hiding the fact that he was even more eager to research this woman, to see whether she really had no background or whether her information was so blank because she had nothing at all to show for.
Fan Li countered him, "Since it's just a blank sheet of paper, why do you mind if I take it?"
Fan Shaoming pressed his lips tightly together.
Fan Li smiled, "I'm off to pick up Mingyu from school."
And take a look at Su Xiaoyue in person.
Fan Li who had scrutinized Su Xiaoyue's photo earlier, thought she wasn't ugly. With a bit of dressing up, she could indeed be a fresh and attractive beauty.
Actually, Fan Li wanted to know what had happened between Su Xiaoyue and her son; otherwise, her busy son, who barely had time to drink water, wouldn't bother investigating Su Xiaoyue for no reason.
She was certain that Su Xiaoyue must have caught her son's attention.
It's not as simple as just Su Xiaoyue being Mingyu's new class teacher. How many teachers had her darling grandson gone through? Why didn't she see her son investigating those teachers, only Su Xiaoyue?
Something was fishy!
And quite a big fish at that!
Fan Li left.
Only Fan Shaoming remained in the office.
He grabbed all the profiles that he hadn't intended to look at, crumpled them up, and tossed them into the waste bin. Thinking of his mother's suspicions and conjectures, Fan Shaoming scoffed: "Her, of all people..."
Yet he ultimately didn't finish his sentence.
No matter what his opinion of Su Xiaoyue was, the fact that she had captured his attention was undeniable.
As if remembering something, Fan Shaoming immediately hit the speaker button on the phone and instructed his secretary, "Xuexue, help me prepare a pair of glasses with lenses of eight hundred degrees. Deliver them to my office before the end of the workday."
Lin Xue responded respectfully, not daring to ask any further questions.
After giving instructions to his secretary, Fan Shaoming muttered to himself, "That boy only knows how to compensate by gifting glasses, not replacing the lenses. Letting her wear plain glasses to goof off really puts her in a tough spot." Su Xiaoyue didn't say the glasses were ruined by Fan Mingyu, yet Fan Shaoming guessed it was his son's doing. Otherwise, the boy wouldn't be so eager to give Su Xiaoyue so many pairs of glasses.
No wonder she wasn't at all afraid of him, able to look him in the eye and even dare to criticize him, because she was nearsighted with over eight hundred degrees of myopia. Without her glasses, her vision was blurred, and she couldn't see his expressions clearly, not knowing how intimidating he could be. She also couldn't make out his features and didn't know how handsome he was. Hence, unlike others, she wasn't afraid or adoring when she met him.
Evening.