'He's back too soon?' She thought.

When she opened the door, she didn't see Chen Linyun. Instead it was Grandfather Xue.

"Grampa! Come in."

"Little princess, I heard you were sick. I'm here to check on you. Why do you stay here alone?"

"Let's sit first Grampa. I'll serve tea."

"Well, I'm fine now. See?" She flexed her limbs and even turned around to convince her grandfather.

"Come back home to the old house. You will be taken care of there."

She gave off a gentle laugh, "Grampa, you're overthinking and overreacting. I'm really fine now." She smiled.

"We have to hasten the engagement. I've talked to your parents about it. They are taking care of it. You simply need to attend the meet up of the two families. It's that simple. Can you do it, princess?"

"Grampa! I still don't want to get married. And if I already want to, I will marry with my own terms!" She grumpily expressed her thoughts.

"We cannot afford that. Can't you see, people are attacking our family from all sides now. They even tried to get rid of Guangxi! Unforgivable! Good thing it turned out quite well, the boy had been shaken out of his ideal world. But you, you're not stable yet!"

"Just listen to your elders! Be an obedient filial daughter!"

She could sense a headache was about to come. Her grandfather was really tenacious. She took after him after all.

Then the doorbell rang again.

'Oh no. Not now.' She was reminded of Chen Linyun who promised to return to her apartment earlier.

She was ignoring the doorbell.

"Why aren't you getting the door?" Grampa inquired.

"Well, we're still in the middle of a discussion. I'll get it now."

She stood up and headed to the door. She was racking her head for whatever plausible excuse that she could think of. The two should never meet.

Grampa was getting impatient. He stood up and also headed for the door.

"Grampa! Just stay seated. I'll take care of it myself. Hehe."

"Hmph. You're taking too slow." After saying that he really beat her into it, and finally opened the door.

-----

Chen Linyun was befuddled, staring at the old man who answered the door. He checked the apartment number. It was correct. He was here just a few minutes ago.

Before he could utter a word, the old man spoke. "Speak. Who are you and why are you here?"

The door opened wider. Xue Jinxu appeared. "Grampa, he's my neighbor. He heard that I was sick so he called earlier to let me know that he'd drop some abalone porridge."

She turned towards Chen Linyun and laughed awkwardly. "You shouldn't have bothered, Bro Chen. I'm sorry I cannot let you in. I have a guest, my Grampa is here to visit me too." She was trying to signal Chen Linyun to ride on.

"ahh yeah, it's no problem. We, neighbors should look after each other." He handed her the thermos with the abalone porridge. "I better get going now. It's great to meet you sir. Your granddaughter is wonderful."

Grampa Xue was sharp and discerning even at old age. He could see what these two youngsters were doing. He had not seen his precious granddaughter behave so agitatedly before. She looked like she's keeping a secret, probably related to this man.

"If you are not so occupied at the moment, you can come join us for a little chat."

"Grampa! He's busy, of course!"

Grampa Xue grew stern and shot his granddaughter a look.

"ahhh. I have some time in my hands right now." Chen Linyun did not have any other choice. Xue Jinxu shot her some sort of signal with her face. He did not know which was scarier between the grandfather-granddaughter duo.

It was a weekday. Guangxi was in the office currently since it was still working hours. She had not thought it before why Chen Linyun was there by her side, on a weekday, during office hours, when she had woken up earlier. .

Once they were all seated, Grampa started his interrogation.

"What is your complete name? What do you do for a living?"

"My birthname is Chen Linyun. I had been affiliated to Tiankong Investments. I have strong background in IT, investments and trading."

"Had been affiliated to? What does that mean?" Grampa raised his eyebrow.

"I recently left for better plans. I have plans of founding my own company."

"Oh, impressive. However at the moment, you don't have an occupation?"

Chen Linyun gritted his teeth. "I'm part-time tutoring your grandson, Guangxi. I'm also doing some personal stocks trading."

Xue Jinxu, who was brewing tea in the kitchen turned her head towards the living room. She was perplexed. Her hand trembled and dropped the gla.s.s that she was holding. It was shattered on the floor.

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was being clumsy. Don't mind me!" She stooped low and tended to the broken gla.s.s.

However, Chen Linyun got up, went straight to her and helped her clean up.

"I'll clean it up, you might get yourself wounded from the shards. It's sharp." He warned.

"Sorry sir, I'll clean this first then we can resume our conversation."

"No need. I have to get going. It was a great little chat we had, Mr. Chen Linyun."

"Little princess, don't forget about the engagement dinner. Be there." Grampa stared at her for a while but did not say anymore.

He motioned towards the door and left shortly afterwards.

Chen Linyun stopped momentarily what he was doing at the mention of 'engagement'. It seemed that the two needed to clear things up between them. He knew that Xue Jinxu was also surprised by how the news of his employment had reached her. That was why she had dropped and broken down the gla.s.s. The way it had been unfolded was humiliating and downright degrading.

He quietly finished cleaning the broken shards of gla.s.s on the floor. She also finished brewing the tea. She served two sets of teacups and the little kettle of newly brewed tea on the living room.

Xue Jinxu called him over. "We have to talk."