After Jiang Fei and Bai Ruoxi graduated from university, they met each other’s parents. Both families were very satisfied, so their marriage was practically a done deal. But since the two weren’t married yet, the two families couldn’t exactly gather together for a New Year’s Eve dinner as one.
However, after Jiang Fei showed off his cooking skills, the idea suddenly became perfectly natural.
With a son-in-law who could cook the most delicious food in the world, it would be pretty disappointing not to have his dishes at a New Year’s Eve dinner.
It also happened to be the perfect time. Bai Ruoxi had changed a lot since coming back this time, and she was already preparing to quit her insanely busy job as a journalist. Her parents wanted to use the occasion of the New Year’s dinner to finally nail down a wedding date for Jiang Fei and Bai Ruoxi.
Neither of them was getting any younger. Dragging things out like this wasn’t great.
Unfortunately, Bai Ruoxi’s answer and attitude once again left both sets of parents feeling rather helpless. Bai Ruoxi said that although she was quitting her job, it wasn’t because she was about to get married. It was simply that she didn’t really want to be a journalist anymore and wanted to try a different line of work.
As for marriage, she felt she and Jiang Fei still hadn’t had enough time enjoying their world as a couple. She wanted to wait another two years before thinking about it. And just like always, her attitude was unwavering. Once she made up her mind, neither Jiang Fei’s parents’ earnest persuasions nor her own parents’ sighs of exasperation and scoldings out of concern could move her. No matter what, her reply stayed the same: she wanted to wait two more years.
Both families knew Bai Ruoxi’s personality well. Seeing her resolve, after a while of trying to convince her, they all just sighed helplessly and decided to back down for now.
But after the New Year’s Eve dinner, Bai Ruoxi’s mother found a moment alone with Jiang Fei and pulled him aside. She normally had a gentle and refined temperament, but now she gathered her courage, lowered her voice, and offered some advice: “Jiang Fei, I’m completely out of ideas when it comes to my daughter. Now it’s all up to you. She says she wants to wait another two years—that’s really not right. You can’t wait that long either, can you? Neither of you is young anymore. Right now is the best time to have a child after getting married. Waiting any longer won’t be good! So, here’s my suggestion: why don’t you two… reverse the order of getting married and having a child? That way, no matter how stubborn my daughter is, she’ll have to give in. You’re a doctor, and an incredibly skilled one at that, so your chances in that area should be much higher. You understand what I’m saying… right?”
After all, she was a mother-in-law, not some young girl, so saying something like this was a bit awkward at first. But as she continued, the words came more and more smoothly.
When she finished, she stared at Jiang Fei with wide eyes and asked if he understood.
From the look of it, if Jiang Fei didn’t get it, she was ready to keep explaining.
Jiang Fei wasn’t an idiot, so of course he understood. What Bai Ruoxi’s mother meant, naturally, was for him to do a little maneuvering—get Bai Ruoxi pregnant first, and then…
“Isn’t this plot a bit backwards?” Jiang Fei sighed inwardly.
Generally speaking, when a daughter has a boyfriend, parents are always warning her not to lose her virginity before marriage. It’s considered absolutely off-limits. The idea is that once a man gets what he wants, he won’t treasure it anymore; only saving it until the very end is best. If she does lose it and they don’t end up marrying, the girl is the one who ends up at a disadvantage.
If it can’t be helped and she has already lost her virginity, then they absolutely must be careful not to get pregnant and take proper safety measures. If a girl not only loses her virginity but also gets pregnant, then the situation becomes a serious problem. It means losing all leverage and having no grounds to negotiate anything anymore.
And yet here was Bai Ruoxi’s mother, actually taking the initiative to tell Jiang Fei to get her daughter pregnant first.
Hearing this, Jiang Fei didn’t know quite what to feel. Finding a girlfriend like this in this lifetime, he thought, must mean I saved the entire planet in my last life…
After the New Year’s Eve dinner and the passing of New Year’s Day itself, the holiday was nearly over. Although Bai Ruoxi’s parents had been completely won over by Jiang Fei’s cooking over those few days, they still had to leave the Jiang household. They had relatives to visit or were expecting relatives to come calling.
Jiang Fei’s parents were more or less in the same boat—necessary social calls during the Spring Festival still had to be made.
Jiang Fei and Bai Ruoxi, however, were both not particularly fond of those kinds of social situations. After visiting a few of their closest direct relatives, they both gave up on the plan of tagging along with the older generation as they traveled here and there. Instead, they spent the new year together peacefully, enjoying days of sweet affection and shameless bliss.
Jiang Fei naturally wasn’t bound by a schedule like a regular office worker who has to return to the office as soon as the holiday ends. The affairs of Jiang’s Pharmaceutical had been wrapped up before the new year, and the training program for the Traditional Chinese Medicine Association hadn’t started yet. The association’s elders and Cui Xiuping were still in the process of selecting qualified candidates, which probably wouldn’t formally begin until a month after the new year.
As for Bai Ruoxi, she had already resigned and just needed to complete the final procedures, so she could also delay returning to the capital for a while.
The two of them were just like any ordinary couple: shopping at malls, watching movies, sipping drinks, and visiting famous historical sites day after day…
“The jewelry stores here in our Meizhou really aren’t up to standard,” Jiang Fei remarked. They had roughly browsed the biggest jewelry shop in Meizhou’s largest commercial complex, Lidu Plaza.
Jiang Fei had wanted to buy Bai Ruoxi a diamond ring or some beautiful jewelry accessories but couldn’t find anything he liked. The prices might seem quite high to the average person, but to Jiang Fei, the quality seemed a bit low.
In the end, Bai Ruoxi didn’t choose a diamond ring. She only picked out a very nice pair of matching platinum couple rings, the two together costing just over eight thousand yuan.
This made Jiang Fei muse inwardly about whether he should take some time to check out jewelry stores in the capital or Shanghai, or even make a trip directly to Europe, to buy some truly fine rings or necklaces.
Rings and jewelry are different from other things. While the most expensive isn’t necessarily the best, something too cheap is almost certainly not very good. Something a bit pricier and with a touch more class is always the right way to go.
There’s a saying, isn’t there? A man who buys you a diamond ring might not be entirely reliable, but a man who won’t even buy you a diamond ring is definitely unreliable.
These things are still pretty important to women.
Bai Ruoxi didn’t have any particular obsession with diamond rings. Looking at the platinum rings now on both her and Jiang Fei’s fingers, her face was all smiles. She said, “I think these platinum rings are lovely to wear right now. As for a diamond ring, there’s no need to buy one yet since we aren’t married.”
Jiang Fei didn’t say anything, but in his heart, he’d already made a firm decision: he had to find time to buy a big diamond ring… Wait, no. Shouldn’t it be two rings?
Just after paying, before they could even walk out of the jewelry store, a young man with hair slicked back so shiny it gleamed approached them. This man was actually about the same age as Jiang Fei and Bai Ruoxi, but his style of dress made him look much older. Dressed like the standard image of a successful person, the type you see frequenting various social events, he appeared to be over thirty.
“Ruoxi, you’re shopping at the mall too?” the man said with surprise as he spotted Bai Ruoxi.
“Mm,” Bai Ruoxi nodded, giving him a polite smile.
“Wow, what a coincidence! We haven’t seen each other since we graduated high school. It’s been almost ten years now, hasn’t it? I’ve attended the class reunions a few times, but I heard that since you became a journalist, you’ve been super busy with work and often abroad. That’s why you, our class president, never showed up. I never got to see you. Running into you this time must be fate!” As the man spoke, he extended his hand, aiming for a warm handshake with Bai Ruoxi.
This man was named Li Hao. He was a high school classmate of Jiang Fei and Bai Ruoxi. His family had always been quite wealthy and well-connected. He never had good grades, relied on his family’s connections, and was somewhat of a troublemaker—the type of student who gave teachers a headache. If the term “spoiled rich kid” applied back in their high school days, he was pretty much that type.
“Let go!” Bai Ruoxi had intended to just pull her hand back after a quick shake since he was an old classmate, but when she realized he was holding on and not letting go, she frowned, her expression turning cold.
Jiang Fei’s eyebrows lifted slightly too. Seeing the way this guy looked at Bai Ruoxi, with undisguised desire, already irritated him.
Just as Jiang Fei was about to make a move, Li Hao released her hand, laughing, “Oh, oh… I let go. I got a little carried away in my excitement…”
His eyes flicked over, and only then did he size up Jiang Fei, a flicker of disdain crossing his gaze. He had long heard that Jiang Fei, from their old class, had pursued and won over class president Bai Ruoxi after university. And they were still together, even preparing to get married.
As for what Jiang Fei had been up to, he’d asked around among high school classmates in earlier years. Just some ordinary little doctor, he’d heard. Even if he’d saved up a bit of money and could buy a car, he’d still have to struggle for years to afford an apartment in Jincheng. An opponent of that level wasn’t even worth his consideration.
So, he’d always harbored the thought that if he ever ran into Bai Ruoxi—now a mature, beautiful woman, not that righteous and innocent class president from their student days—she would surely be swayed by his current circumstances.
After all, how many ordinary women nowadays could resist the temptation of a Mercedes-Benz and lavish spending?
Unfortunately, he had looked for many opportunities. He made time for every boring class reunion, but he never once ran into Bai Ruoxi. Not once did he get the chance to show off and rub it in. What he did get at those reunions, however, was the chance to hook up with several of the “good girls” who had once ignored him in school but were now giving him flirtatious glances.
This time, he’d finally gotten his chance, and he definitely wasn’t going to miss it.
His gaze shifted to the boxes in their hands, to the platinum rings, and a slight smile curled at the corner of Li Hao’s mouth.
With a grand wave of his hand, he called out towards the side, “Waitress, come here. Go and bring out the most expensive ring in your store!” As he said this, he looked at Bai Ruoxi with an indignant expression and said, “Ruoxi, how can a beautiful woman like you not wear a diamond ring? A man who won’t even buy you a diamond simply isn’t worthy of you! Today, in this jewelry store, no matter which ring catches your eye, I’ll buy it for you as a gift!”
