Chapter 1024

Silly And Naive

In Yang Chen’s opinion, exchanging pleasantries and engaging in social niceties were the most boring things in the world. It made weddings unbearable for him but he was fortunate this time around as no one dared to strike a conversation with him.

On the other hand, Lin Ruoxi valued this kind of social conventions more than him. With Guo Xuehua by her side, they met many influential people with political and military backgrounds alongside Yang Gongming.

It was good practice for her since despite being good at business, she was still inexperienced with social convention.

Yang Chen was originally planning to pass the Bodhi pills to Cai Ning and Tang Wan during the wedding, but he decided against it when he saw how busy they both were.

Time passed and most of the guests had already left the venue. Cai Ning and Tang Wan left with their respective clans. They dared not approach Yang Chen with Lin Ruoxi in their midst.

Yang Chen was slightly frustrated by it but at the very least, he could finally catch his breath now.

With Lin Ruoxi at his side, they walked towards Li Dun and Tang Xin.

Li Dun had been drinking the whole day but showed no signs of drunkenness. Well, it was basically impossible to get him drunk since he was already in the Full Cycle. He also drank Tang Xin’s portion since she was pregnant and most of the guests knew about it too.

Li Dun curled his lips when he saw them. “Old Yang, you’re so mean. Why did you show up so late?”

“You know that I’ll always get everyone’s attention wherever I go. I couldn’t possibly outshine you on your big day huh?”

Lin Ruoxi’s eyes twitched when she heard his shameless statement.

Li Dun was conflicted at first but he laughed mischievously eventually. “Don’t disgust me on my wedding day. Let’s talk about something else, how much did you give me in the red packet?”

“Zero,” Yang Chen said straightforwardly.

“What?”

“Zero, which means I didn’t give you any.” Yang Chen sounded proud of himself.

Li Dun yelled out in frustration. “Damn you! I bought you a bowl of noodles when I was broke!”

“I don’t have a red packet but I’ve something else for you.” Yang Chen let out a mysterious smile.

Li Dun’s eyes gleamed. “What is it? Let me see it, is it a huge diamond?”

Yang Chen chuckled and he turned around to face Lin Ruoxi. “Dear, Li Dun is like you. He wants a huge gem too.”

“I did not…” Lin Ruoxi mumbled but she did remember it vaguely.

Tang Xin felt embarrassed at the side and she pinched Li Dun’s waist silently which was ignored by him.

Yang Chen pointed outside the hall. “It’s outside. We have to drive there so we’ll leave if both of you are done.”

“So secretive…” Li Dun smacked his lips out of annoyance. He turned to ask Tang Xin. “Xin Er, are you tired? We can stay here if you’re tired.”

Tang Xin’s heart swelled up at his thoughtfulness. Li Dun always cared about her and she really appreciated it. She couldn’t stop cursing herself whenever she was reminded of the time she had almost missed out on a man like him.

Fortunately, they were both pleased with how things turned out.

“Let’s go take a look, I’m curious about it too.” Tang Xin smiled sweetly.

After telling the Li clan members about it, Yang Chen drove the car and the four of them left the State Guesthouse together.

Li Dun and Tang Xin changed out of their white suit and wedding dress so they wouldn’t look out of place when they got outside.

Even though Lin Ruoxi wasn’t on good terms with Tang Wan, her cousin was an entirely different story. It was rare for her to do this but it made Yang Chen glad.

The traffic in Beijing wasn’t so congested since it was already late at night. About half an hour later, they reached downtown which was near the Third Ring Road.

After getting out of the car, the two] couples walked down the bustling streets with their arms around their respective lovers.

Somehow with the chilly night breeze and different smells from the streets, the unique rhythm of the mundane world made them feel at ease.

They strolled around for ten minutes until Li Dun was reminded of their purpose for coming here. He asked Yang Chen, “Old Yang, where’s your gift? Were you lying?”

Yang Chen gave him a side-eye and pointed at a shop with coffee-colored walls and white LED lights. There was only the phrase ‘ice cream’ written on it.

“That’s the gift.”

Li Dun and Tang Xin exchanged confused gazes with each other.

“Isn’t that an ice cream parlor? Your gift is ice cream?” Tang Xin asked.

Li Dun’s facial muscles twitched. “Xin Er, I bet he took advantage of the fact that you like to eat ice cream.”

“That’s enough. Let’s go in.” Yang Chen ignored him and walked into the shop with Lin Ruoxi.

Only when they stepped into the shop, they realized that its interior was renovated in a gorgeous and elegant style.

It was retro and nostalgic with Italian style architecture. Their eyes lit up at the sight of the rich Baroque style color choices.

In the middle of the shop was a counter which was surrounded by ice creams. Two Caucasians and a few other workers were busy scooping ice creams for the customers.

All the ice creams were stored in delicate glassware and they could smell the rich scent of vanilla and cocoa from afar.

“Do you like this place, Madam Li?” Yang Chen teased.

Tang Xin blushed and she nodded her head with glinting eyes. “I’ve been here before but I haven’t seen this place.”

“This shop was opened recently by a Frenchman. He opened this shop in China after working for the Vivoli clan for years. I can assure you that the quality of the ice-cream here is top-notch.”

Yang Chen introduced the shop to them.

“Old Yang, we can’t be here just for ice cream, right?” Li Dun was hurt.

Yang Chen exchanged glances with Lin Ruoxi and they smiled at Li Dun’s miserable face.

“Dear, tell him yourself. I can’t bear to see his face anymore.” Yang Chen shook his head helplessly.

Lin Ruoxi smiled through pursed lips and said, “I heard from Yang Chen that Tang Xin likes ice cream so naturally Li Dun liked it too. We thought that giving you two gems was meaningless so we bought you this shop instead.”

“This shop?!” Li Dun was stunned.

Tang Xin took some time to react and she waved her hands. “We can’t take it, it’s too much. The shop lot itself costs more than five million and the ice cream parlor is so classy. It’s too valuable…”

“Haha! Xin Er, you don’t have to worry about them. It’s nothing for them.” Li Dun grinned. “I was thinking you wouldn’t be so stingy, you’re really my true brother. It’s fine. The shop works for me too. I can always sell it for the money…”

“Don’t you dare!”

Tang Xin reprimanded him. “How can you do something as rude as that! It’s still a gift from them!”

Li Dun smiled sheepishly. “Xin Er, I’m only joking...”

Tang Xin grunted, “I bet you wouldn’t dare to do that.”

Li Dun lowered his head in an obedient manner. He was just joking around and it wouldn’t do him any good if she got mad at him.

Yang Chen looked down at him secretly. He really was whipped.

“Alright, stop it.” Lin Ruoxi cleared her throat. “I’ve purposely asked them to leave the shop’s name blank. Take your time to think of a name for this place.”

“You’re really thoughtful, Ruoxi.” Tang Xin smiled at her gratefully.

Lin Ruoxi felt accomplished, seeing that they were both satisfied with the gift.

Following that, the four of them sat at the booth by the window and chatted after ordering their favorite ice cream flavors.

Probably because Tang Xin was still young with a girly and innocent personality, it made it easy for Lin Ruoxi to talk to her.

They started talking about their Hello Kitty collection to the hottest K-drama, discussing which men and women were the worst in it. They were so into it that they completely ignored their husbands!

Tang Xin knew about these things since she had a lot of free time back when she was only taking care of Tang Zhechen.

Their conversation then shifted to Tang Xin’s child and they started talking about childcare and child education.

Initially, Tang Xin felt awkward over the fact that she wasn’t pregnant with Li Dun’s child but she got over it eventually since even Li Dun himself didn’t care about it.

Yang Chen and Li Dun had nothing to do so they both ordered another serving of ice cream for themselves.

When it was almost dawn, Tang Xin took out her cell phone and started showing Lin Ruoxi some photos.

“Ruoxi, look, these are Li Dun’s childhood photos. Grandfather showed it to me, doesn’t he look especially silly and naive?” Tang Xin giggled while pointing at a chubby boy who was wearing boxers with a wooden gun in hand.

Li Dun wanted to crawl under the table. “Xin Er, you can’t bully your husband like this!”

“It’s fine, we were just looking at it, it’s not like I’m posting it.” Tang Xin refuted him and continued to show Lin Ruoxi other photos.

In the end, she even shared her own photos and photoshopped childhood photos of her and Li Dun which showed how bored she usually was.

Lin Ruoxi got excited over it. She actually enjoyed gossiping so even though it looked meaningless to the guys.

Lin Ruoxi even took out her cell phone and showed her own photos. It was mostly her childhood photos and she could show it easily from having it saved online.

Tang Xin exclaimed in admiration. “Ruoxi, you were so pretty even as a child! You would have been a child superstar.”

Yang Chen was intrigued too. He said proudly after looking at the photos, “What’re you talking about? How could anyone measure up to our Ruoxi?”

“True.” Tang Xin nodded in agreement. “Oh yeah, what about yours? We showed ours and you haven’t shown yours!”

Yang Chen’s face stiffened. He turned silent as his smile was wiped away from his face.