Perfect Fiancé Chapter 12

h.e.l.lo everyone! Here we are at the birthday arc and someone is getting a slapdown today! Are you excited to see this happen? XD I am!

Also, the  likely ends today, there is a milestone reward for a 100 partic.i.p.ants so why not do it in a quick few minutes? There’s up to two chapters of Perfect Fiancé, Rebirth, Young Miss, three of Master Devil, and one of In my Lifetime and Imagining Hugging each! That’s eleven chapters worth right there if you manage to get the answers right! Help boost the quiz answers~ I’m crossing figures that we can share more of Meraki’s lickety goodness with you~

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Chapter 12: Making an example of someone The food is taking a sideline today in the drama, but don’t these egg tarts look absolutely delicious? Sweet with a cup of lovely tea~ Mm mm~

Or perhaps, it should have been changed to "Seeing how lovely my sweetheart is"(1).

(1) qīng qīng (卿卿) – 'qing qing' is an old term of endearment that was used between spouses in the past. It describes an extremely intimate and loving relations.h.i.+p between spouses, but over time, it has also evolved for use between lovers as well.

Sweetheart…

As he savoured this endearment on his tongue for a while, Lu Xi's heart became a little warmer and a slight trace of a smile appeared at the edge of his lips.

After the dance was over, the four of them made their way towards a dinner table to sit.

Su Jin and Lu Xi sat on bar stools beside the dinner table, however, before they could sit Lin Xiyue and Su Yue were detained.

Standing before them was a lady with her neat,

short crop hair and wore high heels that brought her to just about the height of Su Yue's eyebrows. She was obviously a woman, and yet for such an occasion, she was not wearing a dress but instead a tailored oxford blue ladies suit.

Su Jin only saw her profile, but secretly she could not help but be mesmerised. With such bright, beautiful and stylish features and an imposing queenly presence about her, who else could it be other than the Ming family's successor, who was raised like a male heir, Ming Xuan?

Only… she frowned slightly. Although Ming Xuan and Su Yue mutually had feelings for each other, neither one of them had ever made it clear. For Ming Xuan to suddenly block Su Yue like this now, could it be she was thinking that…

"Gege likes Miss Ming?" Lu Xi asked.

"How did you-" Su Jin was shocked and reacted immediately with a remark. Then, with a slight arch of her long eyebrows, she chillingly replied, "that's my brother!"

"A slip of the tongue." Lu Xi grinned and admitted his mistake without the slightest hesitation. He then continued, "your brother likes Miss Ming."

Previously he was just asking, however, this time it changed into a tone extremely full of certainty.

Seeing that Lu Xi swiftly changing how he addressed her brother, Su Jin let it slide. Furrowing her eyebrows, she asked in suspicion, "how did you know?"

"His gaze." Lu Xi smiled wryly.

Standing a short distance away, the three people stood facing them. As she observed Ming Xuan's profile, he too caught the look in Su Yue's eyes.

"The gaze that Su Yue has when he looks at Ming Xuan…" He paused for a second before he added on, "it's identical to when I look at you."

Su Jin was surprised and turned to look at him.

The man sitting beside her had distinct and handsome facial features that were filled with gentleness. In his peach blossom eyes, there was a heat that she could not comprehend.

It could be like… right?

Then she blinked as she turned her head back to look at the trio.

With her long hair swept to one side, the girl sitting beside him exposed her slender jade-white neck. Lu Xi could not help his gentle sigh as disappointment flashed across his eyes.

Su Yue and Ming Xuan were now holding hands and walked towards the door as they headed outside. Lin Xiyue walked towards a seat that was a slight distance from Su Jin and sat down. Shooting a look at Lu Xi, she blinked and showed her own tactfulness, electing not to intrude on their own cosy couple time.

However, not everyone had this sort of tact

Lu Xi saw a man holding a gla.s.s of champagne walking towards them. He lowered his head lightly and downed his gla.s.s of red wine as he tried to suppress the flash of iciness in his eyes.

"Su Jin Xuemei, happy birthday(2)." The person who stood before them was dressed in a fitted sapphire blue suit. His features were defined, and he had a refined and gentle smile on his face as he raised a gla.s.s to Su Jin.

(2) xué mèi (学妹) – A younger female schoolmate that is usually a year or more younger, a junior. In this situation or in the Chinese culture, people are called by their social hierarchical status instead of their name. Similar to the j.a.panese, only those of close relations with the person can call them directly by their name. Otherwise, it is considered impolite and overstepping of boundaries and respectfulness.

Zhao Wenhua uses this phrase ‘Xuemei’ as half an endearment to show his feelings and earnestness and the other half as a polite appellation. This is also the reason why Su Jin initially referred to Lu Xi as Mr. Lu until she got closer to him. Also shown here, it is ill.u.s.trated clearly with her address of Lu Xi in comparison with how Su Jin addresses Zhao Wenhua with an extremely formal greeting of Mr. Zhao.

"Xuemei?" Su Jin was a little suspicious.

"I am a student at Shenhai university too. Although I graduated two years ago, I think I can still address you as my junior." Realizing that Su Jin had no intention of toasting with him, he paid it no mind and smoothly placed his wine gla.s.s onto the dinner table. He extended his right hand as he introduced himself, "Zhao Wenhua."

Zhao Wenhua, the successor of the Zhao family; and in comparison to the top three families, the strength of the Zhao family was just a notch below.

After thinking for a moment, Su Jin stood up and was preparing to courteously shake his hand. However, beside her, another hand had stretched out.

"Mr. Zhao right?" Lu Xi stood up and grasped Zhao Wenhua's outstretched hand, "nice to meet you. I'm Lu Xi, Jin'er's-"

Glancing at the girl beside him, he then intimately placed his right hand on her shoulder blade as his thin lips formed a half smile. He then spat out the word.

"Fiance."

Su Jin was momentarily taken aback by Lu Xi's sudden action, however, she did not resist. After all, compared to this lousy compet.i.tor that had suddenly appeared before them, she was definitely closer to this man that she had been spending some time with. Since he had already taken the initiative to deal with the current situation, then she was happy to remain idle.

After a grasp, the two men's hands immediately separated.

Seeing the unavoidable intimacy of the two people and this unforeseen move from the man before him, the smile on Zhou Wenhua's face was stilled.

Shooting a nod towards Lu Xi, he then took a red brocade box from his chest pocket and opened it as he held it before Su Jin. He laughed, "this gift is Xuemei's birthday present. I hope that Xuemei will like it."

In the box, there was a platinum bracelet that had two diamonds, the size of soybeans, set into it. Under the light, it was dazzlingly bright.

"Mr. Zhao, this is too precious." Su Jin shook her head and did not reach out to receive it.

"In the past, a rare sword is gifted to the hero. Now, this bracelet should naturally match up to a beauty." Zhao Wenhua laughed with ease and confidence. In his tone, the emotion was deep and heavy with latent meaning, "Su Jin Xuemei deserves the best."

"Well said." Lu Xi nodded as he continued, "Jin'er deserves the very best. However, this bracelet of Mr. Zhao's does not match up to Jin'er though."

With his intentions interrupted numerous times, Zhou Wenhua furrowed his eyebrows and stared at Lu Xi, "this bracelet was personally designed by the Zhou family's chief jewelry designer. The diamonds used for the bracelet are the purest FL (flawless) grade(3). In itself without the diamonds in place, the cost of producing the bracelet reached about 3.87 million," he raised his head and his facial features had a hint of arrogance to them, "does it still not match up to Su Jin Xuemei?"

(3) FL – FL is the abbreviation for the term 'flawless' for the grading of diamond and their clarity. The Gemological Inst.i.tute of America's (GIA) modern grading system goes from I3, I2, I1, SI2, SI1, VS2, VS1, VVS2, VVS1, IF to FL. Diamonds with higher clarity grades are more valued and the flawless graded diamonds are extremely rare. Therefore, they fetch the highest price on the market. These flawless diamonds have no inclusions or blemishes visible under 10x magnification of a microscope and out of all the diamonds mined in the world, only 20% is fit for gemstone use. FL diamonds can be found in only 0.02% of that 20%.

His voice was not low, therefore, the guests in the living room were all attracted to the conversation and gradually, they gathered around the three of them.

Glancing around at his surroundings, the curl on Lu Xi's lips gradually revealed a smirk.

Reaching out his hand, he fiddled with a lock of Su Jin's long hair and replied carelessly, "naturally, it doesn't."

Zhao Wenhua was not upset and instead, he laughed, "then, that means Mr. Lu can produce something even better?" Inwardly, he let out a snort of indignation. Although the Lu family was formidable, Lu Xi was after all not the successor to the Lu family. The amount of funds he could utilise would likely not be much. Furthermore, in such a short time, where would he find a bracelet that could compare to the one in his hand?

"As luck would have it," Lu Xi shook his head as the smile on his face grew even more p.r.o.nounced, "the gift I have prepared for today is also a bracelet."

"Oh?" Zhao Wenhua faintly felt that something was amiss but still continued, "then why don't you bring it out for us to have a look, Mr. Lu?"

"Heh-" Lu Xi sneered and glanced at Zhou Wenhua, "the present that I have brought was handed over to Aunt Xu the moment I stepped in the door. I am unlike you, Mr. Zhou, who kept the gift to himself with the intention to curry favour from a beauty. Moreover, it is only a single gift."

This statement was said flatly and yet, the crowd around them laughed.

At this sort of birthday soiree, the things that could be gifted were only a handful of items. Therefore, to avoid the awkwardness that would inevitably come from bringing similar gifts, most people would have handed the presents to the person in charge of them to be kept securely with their names labelled. For someone to conduct himself like Zhou Wenhua, there truly weren't that many who would act this way.

Additionally, today was obviously the birthday of the two young ladies of the Su family, yet Zhou Wenhua had only given a gift to one. What could be the meaning of this?

"Is Mr. Lu afraid of bringing it out?" Hearing the laughter of the people around them, Zhou Wenhua's face had turned dark. He did not directly respond to what Lu Xi had said but questioned him instead.

"This truly is…" Lu Xi was slightly taken aback, and arched an eyebrow slightly as he remarked, "refusing to be convinced until one is faced with the grim reality huh." Raising his voice, he called out to the server that had just brought out the egg tarts and sought her help to retrieve his present from Aunt Xu.

The server responded and left.

Lu Xi reached out for a freshly delivered egg tart, peeled off half of the aluminium foil and brought it to the lips of the girl who stood beside him.

Su Jin was slightly surprised and raised a glance towards Lu Xi. Then, she peeked at Zhou Wenhua, who stood in front of her and took a bite.

Smiling, the melancholy feeling in Lu Xi's heart cleared away and a shallow happiness could be fully seen on his features.

Not too long after, the server brought back an ocean blue brocade box.

Lu Xi placed the egg tart down and pulled a few pieces of tissue to clean his fingers. Only then did he take the brocade box and reach out to untie the ribbon.

As the box was opened, the audience had not even had a clear look before Zhou Wenhua suddenly laughed aloud.

"Hehehe." He pointed at the embedded diamonds around the bracelet and sneered, "this is what Mr. Lu mentioned as the best? Not only that, it is also only for one sister."

Curiously, the audience looked towards the box.

In the ocean blue brocade box, a platinum bracelet lay still inside of it. The main focal point of the bracelet was the intertwining of two thin chains to form it. Also, set in the bracelet were small red and blue diamonds. Due to the distance, the shape could not be seen clearly, only… It did not seem as valuable when compared to the previous bracelet.

Of course, the above-mentioned thread of thought was from those who did not know their jewelry.

Lu Xi raised his eyebrows as he lightly laughed and did not say a word.

For a short while, the hall turned silent.

Until a soft and sweet voice broke through it.

"Gemini?" Lin Xiyue, who had been observing for a while, asked with a trace of excitement in her voice, "is this the Gemini bracelet?"

Gemini bracelet? Su Jin turned her head and looked at Lu Xi; it was the gift their father had originally given to his two daughters in the novel.

Lu Xi nodded.

Seeing Lu Xi's nod, in the crowd, those that were experienced immediately became excited.

"What Gemini bracelet?" Zhao Wenhai felt that something was wrong and he asked with an anxious look on his face.

"To think that your family is in the jewellery business, how could you not even know about the Gemini." Lin Xiyue glanced disdainfully at Zhao Wenhua. Her impression of him reached to the bottom. Her major was in jewellery design, therefore, she paid attention to these things closely. As for this bracelet named as Gemini, she adored it.
"The Gemini is this spring's latest work by the international jewellery design master, Mr. Qi. His inspiration for the design came from the Gemini constellation and the focal point of the piece was the multicoloured platinum which was last year's latest successful technological development." As she said this, she reached out to take the bracelet out and exposed it entirely into the light. The silver bracelet instantly reflected a rainbow coloured l.u.s.tre.

The audience was stunned and Zhao Wenhua's face turned slightly pale.

"There are a total of sixteen pentagram shaped small diamonds embedded on the bracelet together with eight red coloured diamonds and eight blue coloured diamonds. This represents the sixteen stars of the Gemini constellation," Lin Xiyue did not notice the audience's astonishment and continued, "the most unique part is…" She dragged her last word as she laughed. It was uncertain where her fingertips were touching, however, the originally intertwined chained bracelets actually separated into two in an instant, "that this is actually two bracelets."

"I'm guessing," She shot a look at Su Jin and chuckled, but her words were actually directed towards Lu Xi, "this red bracelet is for Jiejie, right, Mr. Lu?"

His lips curled and Lu Xi nodded with a look of praise. He reached out to receive the bracelet from Lin Xiyue and personally put it on Su Jin's wrist.

A combination of the elegant red diamonds on a bright and snow-white wrist- it looked especially moving.

"Only this measures up to you." Lu Xi smiled and gently stated.

Su Jin smiled politely.

"Its… Its value…" With an ashen face, Zhao Wenhua asked with a somewhat hoa.r.s.e voice.

"A month ago, in the auction at the Sotheby's auction house, this Gemini bracelet's sale price," the person who spoke was someone in the crowd and he swallowed a gulp before he continued, "was 13.9 million dollars. Young master Lu is rather generous."

More than 10 million dollars… Everyone present could afford it, however, to use more than 10 million to buy a bracelet was too much of an extravagance. So, not everyone would be capable to do so.

With this figure, the living room immediately was hushed and afterward, exclamations of admiration resounded.

"This was ordered by my brother, I was just winning favour with borrowed flowers." Lu Xi replied with a smile.

The remarks of "Young master Lu is being too modest," resounded among those present and the win-win situation was then completely unveiled.

Lowering his head to take a sip of his wine, Lu Xi lightly smiled. After making an example out of Zhao Wenhua, there should not be any more restless monkeys that would dare to covet after his woman anymore, right?

However…

"Winning favour with borrowed flowers?" Suddenly, a charmingly girlish voice broke through the scene, "Young master Lu's gift is truly ingenious and does not even differentiate between both of my cousins."

At hearing this, the expressions on the faces of the people present were rather complicated.

The two birthday girls of the Su family; the eldest young miss Su Jin and the second daughter Lin Xiyue. Yet today as the fiancé of the eldest young miss, young master Lu had given these two young ladies the exact same present.

Just a moment ago, no one had brought it up. However, now that someone did, the implications of his actions were certainly worth pondering over.

Was the young master Lu trying to have two cakes and eat both of them or was the marriage alliance between the two families not firmly set yet? Or perhaps… The young master Lu had originally set his choice on the second daughter?

Su Jin turned to look in the direction of the voice with a slightly cold look on her face.

Han Xuelan.

Lu Xi frowned too and followed Su Jin's gaze. Those peach blossom eyes that were always full of merriment became icy-cold.

After a while, the side of his lips curled as he gave a tight smile.

Hah… There truly were many restless monkeys.

Translated by irisu-san

Edited by Ely and Th.o.r.n.yan

TLC-ed by Minodayz