Chapter 245: Extra: Daily Life and Meeting the Parents

Chapter 245 Extra: Daily Life and Meeting the Parents

After coming clean about everything, the young couple were practically glued to each other for a while.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and considering Wen Xian and Jiang Zhiyi had been separated across two worlds, their reunion was like dry wood meeting a blazing fire—completely unstoppable.

That morning, workaholic CEO Jiang shockingly took time off and didn’t show up at the company. Assistant Yuan looked around anxiously, caught the elevator door, and made his first early escape.

The next day, CEO Jiang still didn’t come in.

For three or four days straight, Jiang Zhiyi was completely off the grid. Although he’d put in for time off properly in the schedule, Assistant Yuan began to worry about his job security. He couldn’t even enjoy his lunch anymore, and sneaking out early didn’t feel fun either.

He started fearing something might have happened to CEO Jiang.

After all, the last time he’d seen the CEO was before the divorce, and according to the original plan, they were supposed to hold a stock division meeting.

Nervously sweating bullets, Assistant Yuan finally sent his boss an email.

It was a long-winded message, but the core boiled down to one sentence: “Boss, should we still go ahead with the meeting?”

Jiang Zhiyi’s reply was brusque: “No.”

The email had no subject line, no greeting, not even a period.

It was as if he was too busy to bother typing anything extra.

Assistant Yuan, still uneasy, followed up: “When will you be back at work?”

As a mature enterprise, the Shen Group was perfectly fine with Jiang Zhiyi taking a short vacation.

Meanwhile, Wen Xian had also gone missing.

Though he had married Jiang Zhiyi, he still considered Zhang Xiaoping’s place home, often dropping by his “mother’s house” to mooch meals and stay for a few days. But one day, Zhang Xiaoping suddenly realized her second son had vanished.

“He said they were getting divorced, but where did he go? He used to come home all the time after getting married—why’s he ghosting home now that they’re divorced?” she complained to Wen Huarong.

The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became. Wen Xian had been replying to her messages, but there hadn’t been any video calls. That night before bed, she kept tossing and turning until a horrible thought hit her. She shook Wen Huarong awake beside her: “Oh no, do you think… our Xiao Er might’ve gotten into trouble with Shen Zhao over the stock split and gotten...?”

She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

Wen Huarong bolted upright, wide awake.

In their eyes, Wen Xian was just a poor helpless lamb constantly being bullied by Shen Zhao.

Zhang Xiaoping dialed Wen Xian’s video call, her pulse racing as the ringing tone played.

After just a few rings, the call got cut off.

Zhang Xiaoping’s heart jumped to her throat. Clutching her phone, she hesitated whether to call the police—but thirty seconds later, the video call came through.

Zhang Xiaoping answered, and Wen Xian appeared on the screen. She couldn’t tell where he was—the background was a disorienting swirl of flashing colored lights. He was wearing a puffy jacket, silhouetted against the light, making it hard to see clearly, but she could tell his lips looked slightly swollen.

“Mom, what’s going on?”

His voice was a little hoarse, his tone carrying the irritation of someone caught in the middle of something.

Zhang Xiaoping’s worries eased a bit. “Xiao Er, where are you? It’s been so long since we’ve seen you. Come home in a couple of days so I can check in on you.”

She squinted at Wen Xian’s background, trying to suss out if he was okay.

But Wen Xian held his phone close, as if he didn't want her to see clearly. The background was just a blur of colorful lights, and Zhang Xiaoping couldn't make out anything.

Wen Xian: "Sure, in a couple days. Got stuff going on, Mom. I'll call you later when I get home. Talk later."

He hung up the call.

The phone lagged slightly, freezing for two seconds at the moment of disconnection.

Wen Huarong leaned in: "Yo, this looks like the South City Eye to me."

Zhang Xiaoping: "?"

"What eye?"

"The South City Eye, that new Ferris wheel by South City Lake. It's massive—over 120 meters tall. Old Song's company built it a few years back, and he even invited us to ride it. Look here." Wen Huarong tapped the screen. "Isn't that the tower at South City Square in the background? From this angle, it's definitely the South City Eye."

After he spoke, both Zhang Xiaoping and Wen Huarong fell into deep thought.

—The hell? Wen Xian’s a grown-ass man in his twenties, not some student. Why would he go ride a Ferris wheel at the dead of night after getting divorced?

Meanwhile, as they puzzled over this, the cabin of Wen Xian and Jiang Zhiyi was slowly ascending to the highest point of the South City Eye, over ten kilometers away.

At 120 meters in the air, with his lover right beside him, Wen Xian cupped Jiang Zhiyi's face and shared a slow, deep kiss.

"Wen Xian..." Jiang Zhiyi muttered, eyes closed, his voice trembling slightly. "Move back."

Ever since the Ferris wheel started moving, Wen Xian had immediately crossed over to sit beside him. Now, both of them were squeezed on one side of the cabin, visibly tilting it.

Wen Xian pinched Jiang Zhiyi's cheek. "Really, President Jiang? You're scared of this too?"

Jiang Zhiyi stubbornly refused to open his eyes. "Move back!"

Wen Xian teased. "But you're death-gripping my hand, Zhiyi. How am I supposed to move?"

Jiang Zhiyi flushed and instinctively tried to let go. But Wen Xian grabbed his hand instead, pulling him up from the seat, and they both shifted to the opposite side.

As a result, the cabin tilted in the opposite direction.

Jiang Zhiyi: "!!!"

He clung to Wen Xian like his anchor—and the reason they were tilting.

The "anchor" who was also the "culprit" burst out laughing.

Seeing Jiang Zhiyi genuinely getting upset, Wen Xian finally soothed him with a gentle squeeze. "Chill, Zhiyi. I read the safety rules before we got on. It's fine for us to sit on one side. Open your eyes, or you'll miss the best part of the night view."

Jiang Zhiyi slowly opened his eyes.

The moonlight was beautiful tonight, hanging high in the sky like spilled mercury. In the distance, the lights of South City's CBD stretched into long lines, radiating outward from the center before dissolving into pinpricks of gold at the edges.

Wen Xian patted him. "There, we're steady now."

Nearby was an amusement park. After getting off the Ferris wheel, they bought tickets and went in. The place was filled with groups of young people and couples.

Wen Xian play-haggled with a vendor and bought cotton candy for five yuan.

He handed the cotton candy to Jiang Zhiyi, and they wandered through the amusement park together.

Their fear thresholds were completely different—Wen Xian could ride inverted roller coasters without even a peep, purely enjoying himself, while Jiang Zhiyi would grip the person next to him even on the teacup ride if it went too fast. Yet somehow, they made it work. "If Wen Xian wouldn’t laugh when I grab him," Jiang Zhiyi thought.

Wen Xian wasn't just laughing—he was practically rolling with laughter.

In such a public setting, Young CEO Jiang still had a bit of a public image to maintain.

They partied straight through till midnight, like they were making up for lost time from their youth. By the time they finished their wild fun, both were exhausted when they got home. Wen Xian checked his phone and winced. "Crap."

It was already past one in the morning—he had promised to call his mom.

Wen Xian quickly sent a message to Zhang Xiaoping to explain that he got carried away having fun. Zhang Xiaoping was already asleep and only replied the next morning, dragging out her words: "Oh? Out past one, were you?"

Wen Xian dodged Jiang Zhiyi and stealth-dialed his mom.

He hemmed and hawed at first, but under Zhang Xiaoping’s suspicious questioning, he finally confessed, "Mom, I need to tell you something, but you absolutely can’t get mad or scold me."

Zhang Xiaoping scoffed, "Go on. What’s the worst you could say? You’ve pulled every kind of stunt since you were little—how could I possibly get mad now?"

Wen Xian lowered his voice, "I’m calling off the divorce. Next week, I want to bring Jiang—uh, Shen Zhao—I want to bring Shen Zhao home for dinner."

Dead silence for three seconds before Zhang Xiaoping curled her lips and raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Wen Xian: "I’m not divorcing. I like Shen Zhao. I want to stay with him."

Zhang Xiaoping: "???"

She couldn’t decide if her son had lost his mind or was straight-up possessed. She weighed whether to haul him to a psych ward, hit up a temple, or just do both in that order.

"You like Shen Zhao now?" Zhang Xiaoping blinked. "Then what was that whole divorce tantrum about? Were you messing with us for fun?"

Wen Xian rubbed his nose.

He had no clue how to spin this. He couldn’t exactly say, *Your son is actually a reincarnated version of himself from a past life, and in that past life, he and Jiang Zhiyi were in love.* If he said that, Zhang Xiaoping would’ve called an exorcist on the spot.

So after struggling for words, all he managed was, "Mom, you don’t get it. It’s… couple stuff."

...

Zhang Xiaoping smacked the table. "Wen Xian, you little—!"

"Mom! Mom! Cool it and hear me out!" Wen Xian covered the receiver. "About Aunt Ji and Cousin Shen’s situation… I found out some things."

He rapid-fired the whole backstory, cutting off Zhang Xiaoping’s tirade. Trash-talking Shen Yuechuan as a total dirtbag, he emphasized how Jiang Zhiyi had it rough—his mother passed away early, he lived under someone else’s roof, endured poor living conditions, and was bullied by Shen Jixing. By the end, Zhang Xiaoping had gone quiet.

After a long pause, she finally said, "Is that really how it was?"

Wen Xian: "I had a PI dig into it. Top-tier guy—you’ve probably heard of him."

He name-dropped the PI without a second thought.

Another long silence followed.

Finally, Zhang Xiaoping sighed softly. "Alright. You… bring Jiang—bring CEO Jiang home in a few days. Let’s meet him. If you’re sticking with this, make it count."

Wen Xian perked up. "Mom, absolutely."

So, just before the New Year, the Wen family held a dinner, inviting Jiang Zhiyi over.

Jiang Zhiyi loaded up half the car with gifts and spent half an hour in front of the mirror trying on jackets until Wen Xian pulled him away. "Alright, CEO Jiang, you’d look good in a potato sack. My parents will love it. Let’s go."

Jiang Zhiyi held Wen Xian’s hand, his palm clammy with nerves. "Wen Xian, I’m a little nervous."

Wen Xian said, "Don't be nervous. Honestly, my parents might be even more nervous than you."

That was the plain truth.

Facing a former business rival, the person Wen Xian had chosen to marry, and someone who had suffered injustice for years, the Wen family members felt somewhat awkward. But once they were all seated at the table, Zhang Xiaoping started feeling sorry for him.

Without her previous biases, she realized Wen Xian’s partner was well-mannered, polite, and a bit shy—highly educated, capable, and good-looking. Sitting there obediently, combined with his complicated past, he was strangely lovable.

Zhang Xiaoping started passing dishes to Jiang Zhiyi.

After a while, Wen Huarong grumbled under his breath, "Stop passing things. I can’t even reach anything." Only then did Zhang Xiaoping pause.

She wanted to say something, so she glanced at her son and said, "Zhiyi, if Wen Xian ever bullies you, tell me, and I’ll set him straight."

Wen Xian, chopsticks mid-bite, froze: "?"

He looked up indignantly, mumbling, "Mom, what are you talking about? I’d never bully Zhiyi."

Zhang Xiaoping, well aware of her son’s nature, scoffed, "Who knows?"

Wen Xian was annoyed.

So, when Zhang Xiaoping wasn’t paying attention, he leaned in to whisper to Jiang Zhiyi, "Other than *those* times, I’d never bully you, right?"

Jiang Zhiyi’s ears turned red again.

The dinner went well for everyone—except for the unpleasant first encounter, this was truly Jiang Zhiyi’s real first meeting with the Wen family.

Zhang Xiaoping handed Jiang Zhiyi a large lai see (red envelope) and sighed, "I know you don’t need it, but this is tradition. You two had deep misunderstandings before, and we believed rumors too. We messed up before, but now that everything’s cleared up, you two should be happy. If you want to have another wedding or anything, we’ll help however we can."

Jiang Zhiyi accepted it with both hands: "...Mm."

As they were leaving, Zhang Xiaoping suddenly pulled out a gift box from nowhere and insisted on shoving it into Jiang Zhiyi’s arms. "It’s our family’s custom to give ‘san jin’ (three golds) when a new family member visits. Since you’re not a girl, I picked out a gold figurine instead. It caught my eye—it has good symbolism. See if you like it."

At that, both Wen Xian and Jiang Zhiyi were stunned.

Jiang Zhiyi held the box, staring at the familiar packaging, feeling slightly uneasy: "Mm."

Once they were back in the car, Jiang Zhiyi opened it and found—just like in his previous life—a shiny, cartoonish golden roc, engraved with the words "Soaring Ambitions."

After all these twists and turns, the item had still ended up in Jiang Zhiyi’s hands, given by Zhang Xiaoping.

Wen Xian laughed helplessly, "What’s with my mom’s taste? In both lifetimes, she’s obsessed with this dumb bird. It looks so silly—how is this supposed to be a roc?"

Just like in their past life, he teased Jiang Zhiyi, pretending to take the bird away. "This thing’s too ugly. If we put it in the entryway, it’ll ruin the vibe. If you don’t like it, let’s melt it down and make something else."

In their past life, Jiang Zhiyi had displayed the bird in their entryway cabinet. Their home had been decorated in sleek black, white, and gray—a minimalist, luxurious style. But with this gaudy thing on display, it dragged the whole aesthetic down to a tacky bathhouse look. Wen Xian had always hated it.

Frowning, Jiang Zhiyi raised the bird out of reach—just like before. "No, I want it!"

When they realized what they were doing, they locked eyes and burst into laughter.