A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

Chapter 204 A Simple Dinner

"Hey, I'm done. I'm on my way to the airport now."

"Not eating?"

"Everything's prepared in advance. Tonight's dinner is boiled lettuce leaves, eight shrimp, and a little bit of steamed potatoes."

well."

The voice, which had been full of enthusiasm, turned into a sigh after saying this.

Obviously, this food wasn't very tasty.

"Haha, keep eating! After each bite, tell yourself, 'With this bite, I've lost a little weight—'"

Li Mu tried to comfort her with jokes, but the person on the other end of the phone seemed to be losing their composure.

"I want to eat your cooking—"

"Then think about it a little longer."

"Ouch! I'm going to stab you to death!"

"Haha~"

Li Mu didn't know how this phrase became his girlfriend's catchphrase.

But I have to admit, when used in the right place, it can be quite witty.

"What are you doing?"

"I just finished eating and I'm planning to exercise. Oh right, Zhao Wei contacted me today."

Hearing her boyfriend's words, Fan Taobing became interested: "What did she say? I haven't seen her in a long time. Did she ask you out?"

"It wasn't her who contacted me, it was her brother and sister-in-law."

"Zhao Jian and Chen Rong?"

"Um.

""

Li Mu responded, recalling Zhao Jian's tone on the phone, and said, "Zhao Jian—why does he sound like someone involved in organized crime?"

"What's wrong?"

"He called me at 4:30 this afternoon, and the first thing he said was: 'Hello, Reporter Li, I've arrived in Guangzhou—'"

After briefly recounting the events, Fan Bing understood her boyfriend's dissatisfaction and said with a smile, "He's not involved in the underworld. On the contrary, I've heard Zhao Wei say that Zhao Jian has always been an excellent student since childhood."

"But judging from his attitude, he doesn't seem like someone who is both academically excellent and morally upright."

"Haha, that's because his sister is amazing. After becoming his sister's manager, she's always seen as an outstanding person wherever she goes. In my opinion, his attitude isn't just being arrogant, it's just being haughty. Get it? He's always been a good student since he was little; he's a top student from Wuhan University of Technology."

"laugh."

Li Mu scoffed, "What? Is our Sun Yat-sen University worse than it? Wuhan University of Technology doesn't even exist anymore; it merged into Wuhan University of Science and Technology. You're really underestimating us, aren't you?"

"Oh, that's not what I meant. I didn't go to university, so I don't know much about him. Anyway, I know that Zhao Jian is the kind of person that everyone talks about since he was a child. Now that he's grown up, his sister has become very successful, and after he quit his job, he's been following her around. He's bound to be a little arrogant now."

"So I ignored him. He invited me to dinner, and I turned him down immediately. But later, his wife, Chen Rong, called me again—and I found that this guy was quite different. He was very humble, and his attitude was very sensible. The way she asked me out was incredibly polite. She basically said: 'Mr. Li, please do me the honor of inviting you to dinner, even though Zhao Wei can't come. As her sister-in-law, please allow me to do you a favor.' I thought she was quite nice."

"She's definitely stronger than Zhao Jian—well, how should I put it? Back when we were filming 'My Fair Princess II,' both Zhao Jian and Chen Rong were on set. Zhao Jian felt more like a bodyguard to me; he was always the one rushing to stop reporters and paparazzi. But Chen Rong handled everything else. And strictly speaking, Chen Rong was originally her primary manager. So she's definitely more professional. Has she mentioned what Zhao Wei has been up to lately?"

"I told you, there's an awards ceremony in Hong Kong on the 25th—"

"—The Criticism Society Award?"

"right."

"Tsk, look at him, he's the real big shot. He goes to Hong Kong to attend award ceremonies, while I can only do voice acting for movies~"

Seeing her start to act sarcastic, Li Mu decided to stab his girlfriend in the back again: "She has to go to New York for a magazine shoot on Monday."

"Huh? Going to New York? Which magazine?"

"have no idea."

"Tsk tsk tsk, sigh, people are all the same, but their fates are different."

"Envious, aren't you?"

"—I'll kill you right now, you believe me!"

"Ha ha----"

After joking around with my girlfriend for a while, she arrived at the airport.

So, Li Mu hung up the phone and simply began to enjoy his weekend.

He actually wanted to go to Hong Kong to be with her, but considering the paparazzi there—he decided against it.

You can go to Macau freely. To put it bluntly, no matter how much the paparazzi do, they wouldn't dare to go to the Lisboa Casino to cause trouble for the gambling king.

Customer privacy is definitely guaranteed.

But Hong Kong—he can't afford to mess with it right now.

Two days passed in a flash, and on Monday night, he arrived at the appointment on time.

The restaurant that Chen Rong chose was also quite luxurious.

When Li Mu arrived, her assistant was already waiting outside the restaurant.

With a very enthusiastic attitude, he led Li Mu into the private room.

When Li Mu pushed open the door, he saw someone sitting on the sofa in the waiting area, struggling to stand up with their arms supporting their body.

When he saw the woman, he was stunned—

My gaze instantly focused on the other person's stomach.

Is she pregnant?!

"Hello, Ms. Li, this is Chen Rong. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry I couldn't greet you in person."

""

"Well----"

Li Mu quickly snapped out of his daze, took two steps forward, and took the other man's hand: "Manager Chen, you're too kind. It was my fault. I didn't know about your health condition before. Why don't we sit down and talk it over?"

Judging from the shape of her belly, Li Mu estimated that she was definitely quite far along in her pregnancy.

When Li Juan and Li Qing were this pregnant, they were already eight or nine months along.

So, regardless of whether they were familiar with each other or not, just like giving up a seat to a pregnant woman on a bus, he quickly and gently helped her to the dining table.

"Thank you, Reporter Li — Phew — I'll sit here then. Reporter Li, please take a seat. I can't drink tonight, so I'll have Xiao Liu keep you company."

"Don't."

Seeing that she had her assistant accompany her for drinks, Li Mu shook his head directly: "Given Manager Chen's health condition, let's just have a simple dinner tonight. Order some of Manager Chen's favorite dishes, we can eat a little something, drink some tea, and chat. Let's skip the alcohol."

"No, Reporter Li, I brought the wine!"

Following the direction she pointed, Li Mu saw a very old box of Moutai and two bottles of red wine with equally old labels on the serving table.

Unfortunately, Li Mu did have concerns.

What if something happens—who can guarantee that?

Therefore, I definitely can't drink alcohol tonight.

So he shook his head again: "Mr. Chen, please don't be so polite. May I ask how many months pregnant you are?"

"It's only been nine months."

"Well, isn't your due date approaching? Pregnant women should rest more at this time; it's very bad to be out of energy. To be honest, when my second sister gave birth, she was exhausted from helping with the wheat harvest that month, which prevented her from having a natural birth, but she ended up having a C-section. So, let's just have a simple meal and chat. No alcohol, please."

Li Mu's words set the tone for tonight's dinner party; no matter how much Chen Rong tried to persuade him, he resolutely refused to drink.

So, he, Chen Rong, and the other party's assistant, Xiao Liu, started their meal.

He doesn't drink any alcohol, and only drinks a pot of tea; his lifestyle is extremely simple.

"Reporter Li, first of all, I want to apologize to you—"

"?"

Under Li Mu's somewhat questioning gaze, Chen Rong proactively explained, "Actually, we should have visited you immediately after the New Year. But—as you can see, I'm quite far along in my pregnancy, which makes movement inconvenient, and more importantly, my morning sickness is severe. Especially during the entire Lunar New Year period, the amniotic fluid had insufficient oxygen, so I basically stayed at home every day using oxygen. In addition, Aunt Qiong Yao has some new developments this year, so while I was in Taiwan with Zhao Wei, my husband took care of everything on the mainland. But we were already quite busy at the beginning of the year, and on top of that, we had to be mindful of me, so we didn't do a lot of work properly. Please don't mind, Reporter Li—"

"Haha, not at all. Besides, Zhao Wei already sent her greetings during the New Year. There's no need to be so polite~"

Putting aside the truth of the matter, just the fact that the woman in front of him was pregnant made Li Mu know that he could no longer hold a grudge.

He witnessed the state of mind of both his older sisters during their pregnancies.

Of course, I know what kind of suffering expectant mothers will endure during this period.

To be honest, every pregnant woman in the world is a "hero".

They've already gone this far; if he still argues, it's just that he's petty.

But—perhaps it was because he responded too quickly? Or perhaps his attitude was too—too nice?

Chen Rong, however, did not feel at ease.

She quickly added, "My husband is a bit too oblivious, to be honest, I know—didn't our newspaper's arts and sports department get a new director?"

Li Mu was taken aback.

She was thinking to herself, "Does this mean she knows Zhou Long?"

He nodded subconsciously: "Yes, Zhou Long, Director Zhou."

"Yes, Editor-in-Chief Zhou—we met back in the Southern Weekly, and have known each other for many years. When he took office, I was surprised to hear that he was in the Arts and Sports Department where Reporter Li works, and I thought, 'Isn't this a perfect match?' I thought that if Reporter Li needed anything, we could help matchmake since we have a good relationship with Director Zhou. But as soon as I brought it up, my husband suddenly slapped his thigh and said, 'We were supposed to invite you to dinner a while ago, but we neglected it because we were taking care of me, and now we both regret it—'"

As Chen Rong spoke, she propped herself up on her arms and stood up again, picking up her teacup: "Reporter Li, we were all in the wrong. We were indeed negligent this time. I'll offer you this tea instead of wine to apologize—"

"No, Manager Chen, let's sit down and talk."

"No, we really acted very unfairly, please don't mind—"

To be honest, Li Mu was a little overwhelmed by her politeness.

A pregnant woman with a large belly, who was struggling to walk, was now panting heavily as she served tea.

All Li Mu could do was quickly pick up his teacup, drink the "apology tea," and then hurriedly invite the other person to sit down.

As for the relationship between the other party and Zhou Long that the other party had vaguely mentioned, he didn't care.

We were never on the same path to begin with.

There's no need for any so-called "matchmaking" involved.

Why bother?

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