The Beautiful Time With You

Lu Benlai replied with a ‘pitiful emoji’ before sending: [Daddy…]

Again, ignoring Lu Benlai’s message, he continued as if he was doing a monologue: [In order to brag to others, you hugged my laptop and took a selfie, claiming that you just bought it?]

Lu Benlai sent a ‘kneeling’ image before hurriedly adding: [The recipient is currently on his way over to the stated KTV and will arrive in roughly ten minutes. So, he will be unable to respond to your messages for the time being. He seeks your understanding for this matter.]

Wouldn’t it be so much better if you did that right from the start? I really wasted my time typing those words out.

Lin Jiage continued typing swiftly: [There won’t be an understanding for you but a request: to coax Yaoyao.]

Lu Benlai: [What?]

Lu Benlai: [Boss, how can I do that? Little Junior belongs to you, so if anyone should coax her, it should be you! And if my future wife finds out that I went to coax Little Junior, wouldn’t she make me to kneel on durians?]

Is Lu Benlai haggling with me?

Lin Jiage couldn’t even be bothered to type anymore. He copied the message above and sent it again: [I heard that two days ago, in order to quickly get to the Mai Dong, you stepped on my bed with your dirty feet?]

[The 3 Mai Dong a day quota, I heard that you fed your Mai Dong to the toilet bowl instead?]

Lu Benlai: [Alright, alright! I’ll do it, alright?]

You should have done that right from the start…

After dealing with Lu Benlai, Lin Jiage tapped into Xia Shangzhou’s WeChat and began typing out a message.

Having learned his lesson from Lu Benlai, he was much more decisive and concise this time around: [Half an hour later, let’s meet in the KTV near our school.]

[There’s only one request: coaxing Yaoyao.]

[I won’t accept any rejection because—]

[You secretly took twenty bottles of Mai Dong and sold them to the neighbors at a discounted price, and then used the money earned to buy duck neck for yourself.]

[You took a pair of socks from my cupboard because you didn’t have any to wear this afternoon.]

[You accidentally used my hand towel after washing your hands.]

Before Lin Jiage could finish sending his entire string of messages, Xia Shangzhou had already replied: [Daddy, rest assured! It’s only right that I help you coax Mommy. Only when Mommy is happy will I be happy as well. I’ll definitely use everything I have at my disposal to bring a smile to Mommy’s face!]

Lin Jiage finally stopped typing after seeing those words. He backed out of his chat with Xia Shangzhou and tapped into the chat with Lin Jiayi. There, he sent a pin location and typed: [Half an hour later, this KTV.]

In order to avoid Lin Jiayi’s expensive appearance fee, he added: [Yaoyao will be there.]

For quite a while, the screen displayed that Lin Jiayi was typing, and this was the eventual message that Lin Jiage received: [At first, I decided on the prices of my appearance fee—8,888 for an hour, 18,888 for two hours, and 28,888 for three hours. However, for the sake of my Yaoyao, I’ll waive those fees this time around!]

Lin Jiage didn’t respond to Lin Jiayi’s message. Putting away his phone, he walked out of the KFC and returned to the car.

After fastening his seatbelt, Lin Jiage glanced at Shi Yao and asked, “You don’t have to worry about tonight’s dinner. If you really feel bad, why don’t you join me for a gathering?”

Shi Yao stared at Lin Jiage and blinked her eyes in confusion. “Gathering?”

Instead of replying to Shi Yao’s question, Lin Jiage asked, “Can you drive?”

Shi Yao nodded. She obtained her driving license during the summer break after she took the National Higher Education Entrance Examination.

Lin Jiage nodded. As he turned the steering wheel to move the car out of its parking lot, he continued with a nonchalant tone, “I’m probably going to get drunk during the gathering, and I won’t be able to drive by then. If you really feel bad, you can chauffeur me around later on. The tip will be tonight’s dinner.”