"Secretary Lan, what did you say? The issue hasn’t been resolved yet?"
Lu Tianxing’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at Lan Xin and said, "Secretary Lan, you’re not thinking of asking me to find you another husband, and only then this matter would be completely over, are you!"
Lan Xin let out a sigh and said, "My parents want to invite you over to our house for dinner."
"Your parents are inviting me for dinner? To your place? Are you sure?" Lu Tianxing asked with wide eyes.
"Of course, is there a problem?" Lan Xin asked, puzzled.
Lu Tianxing sighed and said, "Of course there is a problem, Secretary Lan. Do you really think your parents genuinely want to have me over for dinner? They clearly view me as your real boyfriend; otherwise, why would they invite me to your house for dinner? If I go, it’ll be impossible to clarify our relationship."
Lan Xin looked at Lu Tianxing and said, "Lu Tianxing, is it necessary? It’s just a dinner, is it as terrifying as you’re making it out to be?"
"Of course, it’s terrifying. I ask you, are your parents inviting me for lunch or for dinner?"
"Obviously for dinner. It’s the middle of the day now; who would invite someone for lunch?"
Lu Tianxing clapped his hands together and said, "Think about it carefully. We don’t get off work until six-thirty, and it will take about half an hour to an hour to get to your place. Then with your parents preparing the meal and everything, the actual dinner time will definitely be around eight or nine o’clock. We’ll surely talk and have a few drinks during dinner, and by the time we’re done, it’ll be past ten o’clock. At that point, your parents will definitely want me to stay over, right? So, what happens next? As supposed boyfriend and girlfriend, what if your parents arrange for me to stay in your room?"
"That’s not an issue."
Lan Xin laughed and said, "When it comes to that, you can just sleep on the floor. My room is big enough, there’s no problem accommodating you."
"But the problem is with me. I’m a normal man, and if I’m in the same room with a beauty, what if something that shouldn’t happen does happen? You know what I mean."
Hearing Lu Tianxing’s words, Lan Xin’s expression changed. She began to doubt Lu Tianxing’s character. If in the middle of the night he wanted to do something to her, she, being a frail girl, would not be able to stop him.
"So, what should we do? If I don’t go to your house for dinner, my parents will definitely start doubting the nature of our relationship. If we get exposed, it will be problematic."
Lan Xin started to feel a bit panicked. Had she known this would happen, she should have told Lu Tianxing not to be so outstanding. Now she found herself in a difficult position.
"Why not just decline? I’ll be leaving Modu in a few days for something anyway. You can tell them I’m not in Modu. And after a while, you could tell your mom that we broke up because our personalities didn’t match."
Lu Tianxing gave Lan Xin a suggestion.
"No, that won’t work. If I say we’ve broken up, who knows, they might arrange another blind date for me which would bring me back to square one. Then what would have been the point of having you pretend to be my boyfriend?" Lan Xin refused, shaking her head.
"So, what do you want to do?"
Lu Tianxing also felt a headache coming on, "Why can’t you just find a boyfriend and be done with it?"
"You think finding a boyfriend is as easy as eating or drinking water, that I can just find one whenever?"
"Then what exactly do you want?"
Lu Tianxing just felt a wave of headache wash over him. Being a good person really wasn’t easy these days. Who would have thought that doing a good deed could lead to so many troubles.
"How about you come home with me for a meal?" Lan Xin said tentatively.
"Aren’t you afraid I’ll do something to you in the middle of the night?" Lu Tianxing rolled his eyes as he spoke.
"I’m not afraid of you."
After thinking it over, Lan Xin took out an anti-wolf taser from her pocket and said, "I’ve already prepared myself. If you dare touch me, I’ll tase you, and then there won’t be any problems. Moreover, I asked the owner of a certain treasure shop. They told me the electric shock from this taser could at most knock you unconscious without causing any bodily harm; you can just think of it as taking a nap."
Upon hearing this, Lu Tianxing’s face was filled with dismay. This little beauty was really ruthless, actually thinking about tasering him, that was just too much.
"Hey, Secretary Lan, instead of all this, you might as well just come clean to your parents. You can’t hide the truth forever; they’ll find out sooner or later. Since they’re bound to find out, you might as well be honest now," Lu Tianxing sighed as he spoke.
"No way," Lan Xin rejected the idea without a second thought.
"Secretary Lan, you have to agree whether you like it or not. I’ve told you, I’m married. I have a wife and a family. I might be able to help you once or twice, but in the long run, what will you do? Are you planning to keep this up for a lifetime? What if your parents want you to marry me? What will you say? You can’t delay it forever. You can stave it off for a year, two years, but eventually, you have to marry someone. What then?"
Lu Tianxing sighed again and continued, "If you find someone you truly like in the future, how are you going to explain our relationship to him, saying that I’m just your pretend boyfriend, that your parents have met me, that we slept in the same room? Even if you say it’s all fake, who’s going to believe that?"
Lan Xin was momentarily at a loss for words. Lu Tianxing was right; he could help her out once or twice, but what about later? He couldn’t keep helping her forever. Besides, if she found a man she truly loved, what was she to do next? Who would believe that a man and woman who had already shared a room were just pretending to be a couple?
Lu Tianxing sighed once more and went on, "While I can help you overcome a problem once or twice, or maybe even three times, I am, after all, a married man with a wife. Imagine, if one day it comes out that you have intervened in someone else’s marriage, that you’re a full-blown mistress, what do you think your parents will do? Are you willing to see them ridiculed and pointed at whenever they leave the house?"
Upon hearing this, Lan Xin’s complexion turned ugly. Lu Tianxing wasn’t wrong; he could help her once or twice, but not for a lifetime. If the matter came out, it would turn into an outright scandal, and her parents would be the laughingstock wherever they went.
"Ah, Secretary Lan, think carefully about this. The sooner it’s over, the sooner you can move on. Dragging it out will only complicate matters further."
Lu Tianxing let out another sigh, patted Lan Xin on the shoulder, and turned to walk toward the CEO’s office. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help Lan Xin, but rather that he was powerless to do so. He hadn’t even figured out how to deal with Lin Yafei’s issues yet. Adding Lan Xin to the mix would totally disrupt everything.
Moreover, he had met Lan Xin’s parents only once, and to be invited to their home for a meal after just one meeting was definitely not a good sign. Anyone with a bit of sense would understand what that truly implied.