The Byoukidere Is Her Sweetie-Chapter 199 - : Fang Bao meets the parents, Jiang Zhi’s parents
Chapter 199: 199: Fang Bao meets the parents, Jiang Zhi’s parents
The next day, Jiang Zhi took Zhou Xufang to the Jiang Family’s banquet. Before leaving, Jiang Zhi specifically called over the drama crew’s stylist to pick out an expensive dress and jewelry for her, and then applied delicate makeup.
Zhou Xufang said she looked even more like a kept lover now.
Little Lover Zhou rarely wore makeup and found it novel. She spun around in front of the mirror several times, asking her “Golden Lord,” “Jiang Zhi, do I look good with makeup?”
“Pretty,” Jiang Zhi picked out a thick coat for her, “Old Lady Jiang doesn’t like to use heating; the old mansion still burns coal. It’ll be cold at night, wear long johns under your dress.”
Zhou Xufang, who did not want to wear long johns, said nothing.
Jiang Zhi had already gone to find long johns, and she followed, “…Alright.” She added behind him, “Don’t kiss me today, or you’ll eat off my foundation.” The makeup artist added so many layers to her face, making her look so white and tender.
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Jiang Zhi handed her the long johns: “It won’t poison you.” He leaned in, insisting on a kiss.
Zhou Xufang dodged, refusing to be kissed, “You’ll smear my foundation, and it won’t be even.” She would no longer look white and tender!
Jiang Zhi: “…”
He had thought she was worried about him getting sick from ingesting makeup.
Because of this, Jiang Zhi remained sulky the whole trip.
At seven o’clock, they arrived at Jiang Mansion.
Jiang Zhi looked outside; Zhou Xufang pulled at his clothing, “Jiang Zhi, we’re here.”
Jiang Zhi: “Mm.” She didn’t come to cajole him; he was still upset.
Zhou Xufang didn’t have pierced ears and was wearing clip-on earrings, which made her uncomfortable. She kept touching them until her ears turned red.
Jiang Zhi removed her hand, “Does it hurt?”
Zhou Xufang touched them again, “It doesn’t hurt, just a little itchy.”
“Then don’t wear them.” He unfastened his seatbelt, leaned over, and took off her earrings for her. Her ears were red where they had been clipped; he gently blew on those spots.
Zhou Xufang squirmed with ticklishness, retreating to the back of the seat, “Do we start acting as soon as we get out?”
Jiang Zhi placed the earrings in her hand, “Act what?”
Excited about acting, Zhou Xufang said, “We can’t let the Jiang Family see that we’re close. We have to pretend.”
She was unexpectedly eager for acting.
Jiang Zhi was amused, touched her still-warm ear, “As long as you don’t mind, you don’t need to try too hard.”
Zhou Xufang: “Okay.”
The two of them got out of the car, and as soon as they stepped through the Jiang Family’s gate, they ran into someone in the courtyard – it was Luo Changfang from the second branch of the family.
Luo Changfang, like a kind elder, came forward to greet them, “Brother Zhi is here.”
Jiang Zhi hummed in acknowledgment.
Luo Changfang had grown used to his cool demeanor, glanced past him at his companion, and asked with a smile, “Is this your girlfriend?”
He hummed again, about to walk into the house when Zhou Xufang spoke up, her tone accusatory, “What do you mean?”
Jiang Zhi: “!”
Zhou Xufang’s expression was full of grief, anger, and a reluctant and unwilling entanglement: “Why won’t you introduce me?”
Jiang Zhi: “!”
Indeed, her acting had improved a lot.
But this sudden outburst caught Jiang Zhi off guard; he was at a loss for words.
As the main character, Zhou Xufang immersed herself quickly. Although her expressions weren’t perfect, she purposefully turned her back to Luo Changfang and recited her lines convincingly, “My friend was right. You were just playing around, but I took it seriously.”
This scene was taken from “Demon’s Seven-Day Little Sweetheart.”
Zhou Xufang furrowed her brows, forcing her eyes to redden, and held out her hand with the palm open. The clip-on pearl earrings sparkled in her hand, looking expensive. She recited sadly, “This earring I just saw in your car, it’s not mine.”
This part was taken from “Arrogant Young Master Song’s Deep Love.” Zhou Xufang was smart to make use of her immediate surroundings.
Jiang Zhi: “…”
Director Jiang was befuddled by an actor for the first time.
Zhou Xufang sniffed, trying not to cry while stubbornly looking pitiful, “You can’t even be bothered to deal with me now, can you?” Not giving Jiang Zhi a chance to speak, she continued sorrowfully, “You always brush me off. All my friends know you’re my boyfriend, what about you?”
She yelled, “You won’t even let the media publish a single photo of me.”
Her effort was a bit too forceful, resulting in a somewhat strange and stiff expression, but that didn’t matter, the lines were great, taken right out of “President’s Secret Wife”.
Jiang Zhi turned his back, coughed twice, and then faced her again, his voice cold, tinged with anger, “Stop being unreasonable.”
“I’m being unreasonable?” Zhou Xufang mimicked the unruly sister of the male protagonist from a web series, jutting out her chin and saying stiffly, “Fine, I’m unreasonable. Then go find Sunny! Sunny isn’t unreasonable!”
The line was from “Goodnight, Mr. Prosecutor.”
Jiang Zhi: “!”
Sunny?
Who was Sunny?
Director Jiang was at a loss once again.
Zhou Xufang was close to tears, but of course, one shouldn’t focus on the expression; she sounded like she was about to cry, “My best friend saw it, you went to the hotel with Sunny last night.”
Jiang Zhi dismissively replied, “Your best friend saw wrong.”
She put on a sobbing tone, “You even took her to see a house.”
Jiang Zhi: “…”
What a rollercoaster of a plot.
“Think whatever you like.”
Jiang Zhi left her hanging and went inside first, appearing very impatient.
The young girl left at the door covered her mouth, on the brink of tears.
She really wanted to laugh, had to hold it in, and if she couldn’t, she’d cover it up.
Zhou Xufang covered her mouth and lowered her head, “I’m sorry for making a fool of myself in front of you.”
Luo Changfang shook her head, saying nothing.
Zhou Xufang nodded to her, then went inside.
“Jiang Zhi!”
“Jiang Zhi!”
She called out angrily twice, and when no one was around, and Luo Changfang couldn’t hear her anymore, her tone changed, and she called out quietly, “Jiang Zhi, Jiang Zhi~”
Jiang Zhi was waiting for her up ahead.
She immediately ran over to him.
Fula, the yard dog, saw a stranger and barked twice.
Jiang Zhi kicked a stone over to him, and Fula quieted down, the huge Tibetan Mastiff cowering in its kennel, looking timidly at Jiang Zhi with its tongue lolling out.
Even the dogs were afraid of Jiang Zhi at Jiang’s house.
Jiang Zhi, whom even the dogs feared, asked, “What were you acting out just now?”
Zhou Xufang, who had just acted to her heart’s content, was quite cheerful, “Lovesick girl, faithless lover.”
“…”
He was the faithless lover?
Alright, let her act how she liked, but: “Who’s Sunny?”
“She’s a malevolent supporting character from ‘President Gu, Your Petite Wife Has Fled Again’.”
He figured she had learned all this from novels and web dramas; their Jiang Wei’er was quite adept at picking up things and applying them broadly.
“How did I perform just now?”
She blinked expectantly, looking like the most obedient kindergarten kid awaiting praise.
His own girlfriend, and he couldn’t complain that she was being overly dramatic.
Jiang Zhi just said, “Not too bad,” and reached out to touch her head.
She dodged back, not allowing him to touch her, reminding him very seriously and solemnly, “We’re currently in a cold war, don’t come any closer, otherwise, our cover will be blown.”
She was still in the play, unwilling to come out.
Jiang Zhi pulled her over, “There’s no one here.”
Fine then, Zhou Xufang handed her hand over for him to hold.
Jiang Zhi said, “Let’s go to my room.”
Zhou Xufang replied, “Okay~”
Jiang Zhi led her to his room, and she still didn’t enter with him, insisting on going in one after the other. She had been to Jiang Zhi’s room quite a few times before but rarely ever through the main door, mostly climbing through the window; this time she noticed a photo on the cabinet by the entrance, placed at the very back.
Zhou Xufang picked it up to look, it was a young man and woman, the man looking sideways at the person next to him, his face not captured in full view.
The photo was rather old and not very clear, yet even in its blurriness, Zhou Xufang could see how extraordinary the woman’s features were.
She also had peach blossom eyes, very similar to Jiang Zhi’s.
“Jiang Zhi, are these your parents?”
“Hmm.”
She gently placed the photo back on the cabinet, “You never mentioned them to me.”
Not even once.
Jiang Zhi never spoke of his parents.
“There’s not much to say, they passed away soon after I was born, aside from their names, I don’t know anything about them. Old Lady Jiang never mentions them, and other people from the Jiang Family don’t dare to either,” Jiang Zhi said while pulling her to sit on the small couch by the bed, handing her a box of cotton candy from the table beside them, “I heard from Fifth Aunt that Old Lady Jiang didn’t like my mother, and she wasn’t willing to marry my father.”
It wasn’t a good marriage, and possibly for this reason, few in the Jiang Family dare speak of his mother from the Guan Family in front of Old Lady Jiang or Jiang Zhi himself.
Jiang Zhi, however, had heard from the servants in the house that his father was the most capable among Old Lady Jiang’s five children and the most favored by her.
“Was it an arranged marriage?” Zhou Xufang asked.
Jiang Zhi said no, “My father forcefully took her,” Jiang Zhi glanced at the photo on the cabinet, “He was an extreme man, intent on getting whatever he wanted, at all costs.”
And he was crazy.
“After my mother died in a car accident, he committed suicide while holding her portrait,” Jiang Zhi said, “He married my mother before he graduated, and he was only twenty-two when he passed away.”
“Your father loved her very much.”
Yes, he loved her a lot, so much that he left behind a son, still an infant in swaddling, to join his deceased wife underground.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Someone was knocking at the door, “Young Master.” It was Jiang Chuan summoning someone, “Old Madam is calling for you.”
Jiang Zhi told him to wait downstairs.
“If the Old Lady asks something you don’t want to answer or can’t answer, throw it to me,” he instructed.
Zhou Xufang replied, “Hmm.”
Jiang Zhi added, “Whatever dish I pick for you, you eat; the ones I don’t touch, you also don’t touch.” There were plenty of sly characters in the Jiang Family, one had to be cautious.
Zhou Xufang agreed to all, “Got it.”
Before opening the door, he lowered his head, “Kiss me.”
She pecked his face, and looking up she noticed, “Your face has got lipstick on it.”
Jiang Zhi stood leaning against the door, looking at her, “You did it, you clean it up.”
Oh.
She tiptoed, leaning in.
Jiang Zhi leaned down, and caught her squarely.
Zhou Xufang: “…”
Little rascal!
Thanks to a certain little rascal, Zhou Xufang had caught a fever. By the time it subsided, it was already ten minutes later. When the two of them arrived at the front hall, the Jiang Family had already been there for quite a while.
“To require such repeated invitations and urging just to have a meal, what kind of behavior is that?”
The one chiding was Jiang Zhi’s granduncle, Old Lady Jiang’s eldest son, Jiang Weikai.
Old Lady Jiang couldn’t bear to scold her beloved grandson and immediately retorted, “Why are you blaming Brother Zhi? Didn’t you notice his poor complexion?” She turned her head to look at Jiang Zhi and her expression softened, asking in a gentle and soft voice, “Are you feeling unwell?”
Old Lady Jiang took the seat of honor, and there were two empty seats on her left hand side.
Jiang Zhi sat down directly, not looking very spirited and short of breath as he spoke, “It’s nothing.”
A young girl followed behind him, who had been left quite far behind and only caught up now, looked at him with a face full of grievance and anger.
Old Lady Jiang’s gaze rotated between the two, “What’s the matter here?”
Luo Changfang replied with a smile, “The young couple had an argument.”
Old Lady Jiang glanced at the young girl with reddened eyes and half-jokingly, half-scoldingly said to Jiang Zhi, “Did you bully this young girl?”
Jiang Zhi remained silent.
The young girl bit her lip, smiling unnaturally, as if forcing a smile, “Grandma Jiang, hello.” Not knowing how to address the other people, she simply nodded in greeting.
Old Lady Jiang beckoned, “Don’t stand there, come sit.”
This was the first time Zhou Xufang had a direct encounter with the Old Madam, a lady in her seventies or eighties with almost completely white hair, very spirited, dressed in an elaborate satin jacket and skirt, her hair neatly bunned up. Even though she was smiling, there was an austere and imposing look in her eyes and brows.
Zhou Xufang sat down beside Jiang Zhi.
Old Lady Jiang observed her closely, “You are the first girl that our Brother Zhi has brought home. What is your name?” She asked in a whisper, as if afraid of frightening the girl.
Zhou Xufang replied, “My name is Xu Fang, Zhou Xufang.”
Old Lady Jiang asked further, “How did you get to know our Brother Zhi?”
Zhou Xufang sat up straight and answered directly, “I am an extra on his film set.”
The Old Lady lifted her teacup, took a small sip and asked, “Do you live in the Imperial City?”
“I have been living abroad until now.”
“What about your parents, are they here as well?”
Parents, huh.
Zhou Xufang didn’t know how to answer and sought help. She had just stretched her hand under the table, not yet touching Jiang Zhi, when Jiang Wei’er across from her took over the conversation, “Mother, why are you asking so many questions as if you’re conducting a census?”
Old Lady Jiang chuckled, “Well, this girl has straightened out our Brother Zhi, naturally I’m curious.”
“Cough cough cough…”
Jiang Zhi suddenly coughed.
Zhou Xufang immediately went to pour tea and water, to pat his back and soothe his chest.
He appeared to be used to it, leaning back in his chair to be attended to. He coughed for a while, his eyes reddened and breath uneven, gasping, he said, “Who else hasn’t arrived yet, why isn’t the banquet starting?”
Sitting to the right hand side of Old Lady Jiang was the lady from the fourth branch, Jiang Fuxi. Seeing Jiang Zhi coughing severely, she instructed the servants to move the charcoal brazier further away and ordered those beside her to fetch a blanket from inside.
Zhou Xufang couldn’t help but sneak a glance at her from the corner of her eye.
Jiang Fuxi appeared elegant; probably because she learned painting from a young age, she had cultivated an excellent temperament, composed and graceful.
Zhou Xufang felt she resembled an empress from historical dramas, dignified and composed, with a subtle depth of character.
Old Lady Jiang stated, “Bingxue hasn’t arrived yet.”
“For a Jiang Family banquet, why are you inviting Bingxue?” Jiang Wei’er’s dissatisfaction was evident.
The Old Lady glanced at her, “He has been traveling with you all around for so long, shouldn’t I thank him?”
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
A servant came to announce, “Old Madam, Mr. Xue has arrived.”
