After Ruan Mian returned to his room, he ate the pear, washed up, and went to bed early. He tossed and turned last night and didn’t sleep well. After seeing Baby Lu today, he felt at ease for some reason and fell asleep in a short while. He had no dreams all night.
When he woke up in the morning, the first thing he did after opening his eyes was to take Lu Yang’s birthday present out of the cabinet.
The gift he prepared was a photo album, which contained the photos he had taken of Lu Yang since he was a child.
He had prepared this album with great care for a long time. Originally, he wanted to wait until Lu Yang’s eighteenth birthday to give it to him. But now, because of the blind date situation, he isn’t sure where he will be when Lu Yang turns eighteen, or if he’ll even be by Lu Yang’s side. So he decided to give this album early as a sixteenth birthday gift to Lu Yang.
Although he was going to give it in advance, his feelings remained the same.
If he could continue to stay with Lu Yang two years later, he would definitely insist on putting new photos every year in it to record the growth of Baby Lu.
He lay on the bed, looked down at the photos, and saw Lu Yang in the photos growing up little by little. His dark eyebrows and eyes became more and more delicate, and he looked more dazzling. Fortunately, he had been watching these changes, accompanying him, and remembering them in his heart.
After looking at them, he couldn’t help but smile, closed the album with satisfaction, put it into a gift bag, and prepared to go to Lu’s house with the gift after washing up.
There will be many guests at Lu’s house today, and he usually goes there to help in advance.
He stretched lazily, walked to the window, pulled open the curtains, and looked outside with satisfaction at the sunny weather. He couldn’t help but curl his lips slightly, close his eyes to feel the morning sun, and then quickly run to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. He took out the set of clothes that Ning Muxiang had bought for him yesterday from the wardrobe, preparing to put them on.
He knew that Ning Muxiang had specially bought clothes for him and Lu Yang yesterday, intending for him to have new clothes to wear at Lu Yang’s birthday banquet. Lu Yang’s birthday banquet usually attracted many influential people from the galaxy, and Ning Muxiang was worried that he wouldn’t have suitable clothes to wear and would be laughed at by others.
Ruan Mian smiled while changing clothes. Aunt Ning seemed to be very careless, but in fact, she was very attentive to the people she cared about. Lu Yang was a bit like her in this respect. He was cold on the outside but warm on the inside. Even when they cared deeply for someone, they wouldn’t easily say it out loud.
Ruan Mian finished putting on the clothes, gently smoothing out the wrinkles. His gaze held an unusual sense of appreciation for the kindness of the Lu family toward him. He silently cherished their kindness in his heart, determined that if given the chance, he would definitely repay them well.
There were several knocks on the door. He was a little confused about who would come to see him. He put the remaining clothes back into the closet and walked over to open it.
Wu Yongjuan stood at the door. Seeing him open the door, she withdrew her knocking hand and leaned against the door frame with her arms folded across her chest to look at him.
Ruan Mian’s expression darkened. Wu Yongjuan never came to visit without a reason. She came so early; there must be something going on.
“Second Aunt.” He called respectfully, praying silently in his heart that no matter what Wu Yongjuan was doing, she would not delay him from celebrating Baby Lu’s birthday.
“Hm.” Wu Yongjuan responded lightly, looked him up and down, and said indifferently: “You have new clothes to wear again? This Lu family really has money with no place to spend it, so fond of spending it on outsiders, but it’s just as well, you can just wear this set of clothes to your blind date today.”
Ruan Mian was stunned for a moment, “Blind date?”
Although he knew that since Wu Yongjuan had this intention, this day would come sooner or later, he was still shocked when it was so sudden.
“Yeah.” Wu Yongjuan stretched out her hand to hold the hair by her ear and responded indifferently.
“But I have something to do today.”
“I’ve already made an appointment with the other party, you can’t just push it off no matter what you have to do.” Wu Yongjuan glanced at him sideways, her tone unhappy, “You have to go today, whether you want to or not.”
“Is it not possible tomorrow? I really have something to do today.” Ruan Mian said anxiously and sincerely.
He knew that he couldn’t avoid the blind date, so he could only try to postpone it for a day, at least so that he could go to celebrate Lu Yang’s birthday first.
“No.” Wu Yongjuan refused without hesitation, with an unusually firm attitude, “You’d better be honest and obedient; otherwise, don’t blame me for tying you up directly.”
Ruan Mian frowned, “Then I’ll go out for a while and come back soon, okay?”
He wanted to send the birthday present to Lu Yang.
“No, your second uncle has already gone down to drive the car, and we are ready to leave immediately.” Wu Yongjuan did not give him a chance to refute. She looked at him and threatened: “If you want to continue studying, you must be obedient, otherwise, don’t blame me for applying for a leave of absence for you.”
“……Okay then.” Ruan Mian lowered his eyes in disappointment. If he could not go to school, he would not be able to see Lu Yang. Going to school was his only chance to escape from this home.
His good mood in the morning was gone. After thinking for a while, he asked: “Where is the blind date, and how long will it take to end?”
He did not care who he was going on the date with, but only when he could come back.
“The next city, if it is too late, just stay there today and not come back. Stop talking nonsense and come down quickly.” Wu Yongjuan glared at him and walked away in high heels.
Ruan Mian closed the door and was silent for a while. Thinking of Lu Yang, he couldn’t help but have a headache. If Lu Yang knew that he could not go to his birthday party today, he would definitely be angry. It is unknown how long it would take to coax him.
He leaned against the door, sighed silently, adjusted his mood, picked up the phone, and called Lu Yang. As soon as the call was connected, he immediately shouted in a cheerful tone: “Baby Lu! Happy birthday! I wish you health, peace, happiness, pleasure… joy, wealth…”
If possible, Ruan Mian wanted to give all the blessings to Baby Lu.
“Stop!” Lu Yang interrupted him, his voice was a little soft after waking up, “I have received your blessings, when will you come?”
Ruan Mian paused, barely cheered up, and tried to speak clearly: “Baby Lu, I’m sorry, I may not be able to attend your birthday party today, but I will definitely give you all the blessings…”
“Why?” Lu Yang’s voice became cold.
Ruan Mian lowered his head, his voice a little muffled. He tried his best to suppress the bitterness in his heart and whispered: “I have something to do today, I may not be able to make it…”
“What is it? Don’t let me ask a second time.”
Ruan Mian pursed his dry lips. He was not used to lying to Lu Yang, so he had to say bluntly: “I’m going on a blind date.”
Lu Yang’s breathing suddenly became heavy, and he was so angry that he didn’t say a word for a long time.
Ruan Mian knew that he must be angry, and hurriedly persuaded: “I will try to come back as early as possible, Baby Lu, today is your birthday, you have to be happy, don’t be unhappy about such a small thing.”
Lu Yang knew Ruan Mian didn’t do it on purpose. Ruan Mian couldn’t make decisions about such matters; it must have been his aunt causing trouble. If he said too much, it would only pressure Ruan Mian and make him sad. So, even though he was angry, Lu Yang endured it and didn’t say anything.
After much restraint, Lu Yang held back the angry words that were about to burst out. He reluctantly said, “I know.”
Ruan Mian couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, and say a few more words of blessing to Lu Yang before hanging up the phone.
After hanging up the phone, Ruan Mian picked up the photo album and touched it gently, then took out a gray backpack and put the photo album in it.
He secretly thought that he had to rush back today to celebrate Baby Lu’s birthday and give this gift to him. For so many years, they have never been separated on birthdays.
He encouraged himself and then went downstairs with his backpack on his back. His backpack had been used for many years, so it was a little old. Although it was washed clean, it had been washed too many times, and the straps had turned slightly white.
Wu Yongjuan couldn’t help but frown when she saw him carrying the bag, and said with disdain: “What’s the use of a backpack? It’s so ugly. If someone didn’t know better, they’d think we were mistreating you.”
She wouldn’t buy a new bag for Ruan Mian; she would only tell him not to carry a bag anymore.
Ruan Mian tightened his grip on the bag strap and whispered softly, “It’s convenient for carrying things.”
Although Wu Yongjuan really wanted to snatch his bag off and leave it at home, she thought about it and decided to appease Ruan Mian for today. It was more important to let him complete the blind date smoothly. So she restrained herself from saying more and pretended not to notice the shabby bag.
Her eyes turned, she frowned slightly, forced a smile, and admonished like a kind-hearted elder: “Behave well later. When you have your own Alpha or Beta, he will definitely buy you more bags, better and more expensive than this one. The people I introduce to you are all carefully selected by me, one better than the other. When the time comes, you can expect to eat delicious food and drink warmly.”
Ruan Mian clenched the bag strap and nodded without comment, thinking about how to end the blind date quickly and come back early to celebrate Baby Lu’s birthday.
The three members of the Ruan family seemed to pay special attention to his blind date this time. They all followed him to the next city. When they were sitting in the car, they kept admonishing him to behave well.
Ruan Mian listened with one ear and let it out with the other, feeling a little confused.
Ruan Heng folded his arms across his chest and leaned back on the seat. His expression was seven points similar to that of his mother.
He looked at Ruan Mian for a long time, and when he saw that Ruan Mian had not paid attention to him, he suddenly complained, “Mom, Ruan Mian scolded me yesterday.”
Ruan Mian was stunned when he heard his words, and suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to practice swear words after waking up from sleep. He couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed, thinking that he should continue to practice and work hard to reach the standard as soon as possible. Maybe when he swears, Baby Lu will not be angry about what happened today.
Wu Yongjuan looked back at Ruan Mian and asked Ruan Heng, “What did he say?”
Ruan Heng thought about what Ruan Mian said yesterday and watched his mother as he continued to complain, “He said damn you and fuck.”
Wu Yongjuan looked at Ruan Mian silently and suddenly slapped Ruan Heng on the head, angrily saying, “You can’t even lie; do you believe that yourself?”
