208: Chapter 204: Dinner Date 208: Chapter 204: Dinner Date In the afternoon, Ye Fan went to work.
In the office, Ye Fan compared the renovation plans provided by three different companies using his own laptop.
More than their quotes, Ye Fan cared whether the martial arts gym’s renovation plan t his expectations.
In the sa office, Hu Jing busily handled a docunt and finally finished it.
She stretched her enticing body, picked up a porcelain cup from Jingdezhen, and sipped so floral tea before her gaze turned towards Ye Fan’s desk.
Seeing Ye Fan fiddling with sothing on his personal laptop, Hu Jing’s brow slightly furrowed, and then she asked with a playful giggle, “Hehe, Ye Fan, what are you up to?”
“Haha, nothing much,” Ye Fan replied, lifting his head and smiling casually without any awkwardness.
Hu Jing saw that Ye Fan didn’t mind being caught slacking off by her, his superior, which left her a bit helpless.
However, she imdiately let it go as she wouldn’t necessarily be happy if Ye Fan was too diligent.
“By the way, I asked you to help buy front-row tickets for Shen Yan’s concert, any news?” she asked with a smile, naturally throwing a flirtatious look at Ye Fan.
Ye Fan had grown accustod to Hu Jing throwing flirtatious looks anyti, so he naturally shook his head slightly, “Not yet, it’s tough to handle.”
“Oh.” Hu Jing replied with a bit of disappointnt, then put down the cup and continued working.
When Hu Jing ntioned the tickets, Ye Fan imdiately thought of Lu Xiaoman, worried that she might actually be suffering from depression.
Thus, he turned off his laptop and left the office to find Lu Xiaoman.
Upon seeing Lu Xiaoman in her office, he found her still subdued.
Her once lively and spirited eyes were covered with a layer of pessimism and despair, like a lancholy lilac, evoking Ye Fan’s sympathy.
After telling Lu Xiaoman a few slightly risqué jokes and making her face blush with laughter, Ye Fan smiled and said, “Sister Xiaoman, let’s have dinner together after work.”
“Hmm,” Lu Xiaoman replied, slightly shyly lowering her head.
Finally, at six o’clock in the evening, Ye Fan drove Lu Xiaoman out of Emali Corporation.
Lu Xiaoman thought they were going to the sa restaurant they had visited before but was surprised when Ye Fan drove into a four-star hotel’s dining departnt’s parking lot.
“Ye Fan, the expense here is too high, let’s go sowhere else,” Lu Xiaoman imdiately said.
Ye Fan shook his head and smiled calmly, “Don’t worry, I can completely afford it.” Then he joked, “It’s not the ‘sell blood, sell kidney’ kind of money.”
Lu Xiaoman laughed a bit, amused by the joke, but still didn’t want Ye Fan to waste the money, “But still…”
“No buts,” Ye Fan said sowhat assertively, “Sister Xiaoman, a woman as beautiful, gorgeous, and gentle as you should be in higher-end places.”
“Where am I as good as you say?” Lu Xiaoman shyly denied, though she felt quite happy inside.
As they talked, Ye Fan had already parked the car in the parking lot.
Getting out of the car, Ye Fan reached out and took Lu Xiaoman’s delicate hand, leading her towards the dining building.
Entering the four-star hotel restaurant, Lu Xiaoman noticed that Ye Fan was very natural and composed, familiar with the surroundings without any hint of restraint or unfamiliarity.
“Is he really just an ordinary retired soldier?” she couldn’t help wondering silently, but didn’t voice it.
While enjoying their al and chatting rrily, Ye Fan took the opportunity to pull out two tickets to Shen Yan’s concert and said, “Sister Xiaoman, let’s go to Shen Yan’s concert together.
You don’t have to worry about the mixed crowd, I’ll be with you the whole ti.”
Lu Xiaoman looked at the two tickets and really wanted to agree, but still sadly shook her head, “Ye Fan, I’m sorry, I really can’t make the ti.
My mom needs soone to take care of her.”
“Ah…” Ye Fan sighed inwardly.
He wanted to persuade her, but he couldn’t, for it was not possible to ask Lu Xiaoman to leave her sick mother and go out to have fun with him, even though he guessed it was just an excuse.
“Hehe, okay then,” Ye Fan maintained his smile and said, “It’s okay.”
Lu Xiaoman said with a sense of guilt, “Ye Fan, I…”
Ye Fan smiled and waved his hand, “I understand.”
“Mm.” Lu Xiaoman looked down gloomily.
After dinner, Lu Xiaoman wanted to go ho, so Ye Fan offered to take her.
As she had just declined Ye Fan’s previous request, Lu Xiaoman found it hard to refuse this ti, so she agreed.
“But you have to promise ,” she said, “that you’ll only take to the downstairs of my building and can’t follow up.”
Ye Fan agreed with a smile.
Twenty minutes later, following Lu Xiaoman’s directions, Ye Fan entered an old neighborhood.
Although the roads were also made of cent concrete, they were a bit rugged due to long-term disrepair.
“That building right in front is my ho,” Lu Xiaoman pointed at an old eight-story building.
Ye Fan looked at that building.
In the darkness, the old-style windows emitted the dim yellow light of incandescent lamps, and occasionally, the white light from fluorescent lamps.
“It seems like Xiaoman’s family really isn’t living that well,” he couldn’t help but think to himself.
When he parked downstairs at Lu Xiaoman’s place, Ye Fan also got out of the car.
As they stood in front of the car about to say goodbye, suddenly a middle-aged woman’s voice ca from the side, “Manman.”
Upon hearing the call, Lu Xiaoman’s complexion changed, and Ye Fan, guessing soone was calling Lu Xiaoman, turned to look in the direction of the voice.
He saw that about ten ters to the right was a small, inconspicuous grocery store where a group of elder ladies and n were chatting.
They were all looking toward Ye Fan and Lu Xiaoman, and one of the elder won ca over smiling.
Ye Fan took a closer look at the woman—she appeared to be in her late forties, about fifty years old, around five feet tall, slim, with sparse hair, and two protruding front teeth.
She was plain-looking, even sowhat ugly.
Just as Ye Fan thought this woman might be Lu Xiaoman’s neighbor, he saw Lu Xiaoman hurry up to her, holding the woman’s hand and saying, “Mom, you’re so frail, why did you co out to play at night?”
“Mom?” Ye Fan was taken aback; that short and thin woman turned out to be Lu Xiaoman’s mother, One might think there was a gene mutation!
Lu Xiaoman’s mother brushed off her daughter’s help and said loudly in protest, “Frail?
Who told you I’m frail?
I might be stronger than you!”
Lu Xiaoman held her forehead with her hand, clearly embarrassed.
Why can’t mom just play along?
I just told Ye Fan I needed to stay ho to take care of you instead of going to the concert, and now you suddenly co downstairs at night to chat with people?
And you loudly declare how healthy you are.
“Manman, who is this young man?” Lu Xiaoman’s mother looked at Ye Fan and asked.
Lu Xiaoman, clearly embarrassed, glanced at Ye Fan and bravely introduced, “Ye Fan, this is my mom.”
She felt her life was incredibly unlucky; she had told a little white lie to her crush, only to be blatantly exposed.
Usually, her mother didn’t go out in the evenings after she got sick, until tonight.
Just when Ye Fan was driving her ho, her mother ca downstairs to chat with neighbors and even ran over to greet her right away.
“Auntie, hello,” Ye Fan imdiately said with a smile, “I’m Ye Fan, Ye from Ye Gucheng, Fan from ‘extraordinary’…”
At this point, Lu Xiaoman interjected, “Mom, he’s just a regular colleague.
We were having dinner at the company, and he just happened to give a ride as it was on the way.”
While saying this, Lu Xiaoman’s face turned so red with embarrassnt, she couldn’t even look at Ye Fan.
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