BXBX NOVEL Chapter 185 - One-Hundred and Eighty-Five: Matchmake
Gu Fei was quite good-looking, especially when he smiled. He had a dimple on his left cheek, which made him look younger than his age and rather cute. He smiled at Shi Xiu and said, “I understand, but I want to ask you for a favor.”
Shi Xiu was a person more open to softer approaches and rejected forceful ones vehemently. Seeing Gu Fei’s genial attitude, she yielded slightly and replied, “I’ll listen, but I make no promises.”
Gu Fei was unfazed by Shi Xiu’s attitude and chuckled, “I want you to sit with me like this for a while so our elders inside will think we’re having a good chat. This way, they won’t bother me about this matter anytime soon. The next time
I go out to do something, I’ll say I went on a date with you.”
‘What?” Shi Xiu looked at Gu Fei in shock. “You mean, lie to them?”
Gu Fei shrugged. “Why not? After some time, when their enthusiasm wanes, we’ll find an excuse to say that our personalities don’t match and that we can’t get along. Isn’t it better to break up peacefully than to go against them directly?”
Shi Xiu’s eyes widened. “You seem like you have a lot of experience with this!
Gu Fei laughed and quickly waved his hand. “No, this is my first time doing something like this.”
“No way! That’s too well-thought-out for your first time. It’s clearly a lesson only learned from much experience! And it sounds very feasible, too, ” Shi Xiu commented.
Gu Fei cracked up and laughed. Shi Xiu gave it some thought and told him, “However, you don’t have to do this. My family respects my decisions. My grandfather, parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law won’t force me if I say I don’t want this matchmaking.”
Gu Fei’s smile crumbled, and he uttered, “That’s why I said I’m asking for your help. I know you don’t need to go through all that trouble to get your relatives to drop this matter, but my relatives are a different story. Please take pity on me and help me get through this. Your act has to be convincing, though. My peers and my family’s elders aren’t easy to fool.”
“My relatives aren’t easy to fool either.” Shi Xiu set him right. ‘My relatives aren’t stupid! Though it sounds like his relatives are quite dumb.’
Gu Fei hurriedly apologized, “No, no! That’s not what I meant. *Sigh* I don’t want to do this, but there are too many people in my family, and it’s really too tiring to reason with them one by one.”
“I have no choice but to do this. I tried my best to think up a plan where no one would get hurt as well as satisfy everyone. For this plan to work, I need your help, so I had to be upfront with you, no matter how unsightly I may now seem to you. I chose this plan because convincing you alone is much easier than convincing that whole group of people, after all. It’s just… I originally thought that you would have the same pressure as me. That way, I wouldn’t need to waste too much effort convincing you as we’ll benefit mutually—it’ll be a collaboration. Since that’s not the case, I can only ask for your help now.”
Gu Fei’s honesty instantly gave Shi Xiu a favorable impression of him. “It’s not a big deal; I don’t have a problem with helping you out,” she stated, “I’m just curious; aren’t you afraid I’ll sell you out?”
Gu Fei smiled and shook his head. “I can tell that you’re a very kind girl. There’s no way you’d be so cruel.”
Shi Xiu nodded. “Although you’re only being polite because you want something from me, I still accept your praise. Alright; I’ll do as you say—I won’t undermine you. However, you have to tell me in advance if you need to use going on a date with me as an excuse. Otherwise, it won’t look good for us both if they find out we’re lying to them.”
“Okay, sure.” Gu Fei nodded repeatedly. “That’s good thinking. You’re better at this than I am.”
Shi Xiu didn’t believe that Gu Fei hadn’t thought of this. ‘ This guy looks quite honest and well-behaved, but he’s very cunning. I’d better stay away from him,’ Shi Xiu thought.
At this moment, the Shi family and the Gu family members were also happily chatting happily inside, sharing embarrassing things about their kids and grandkids—specifically Shi Xiu and Gu Fei.
“When Gu Fei was young, he said that he would marry Shi Xiu when he grew up,” Gu Fei’s aunt told the others before she imitated the tone of a child and said, “She’s prettier than any of the girls in our family! I want a wife like her!”
Everyone laughed. “That’s right. There are many girls in our family. When they heard that Shi Xiu was quite good-looking, they were all unconvinced and unhappy at the comparison. Because of that, the girls beat him up quite often, but the more they did, the more Gu Fei felt that Shi Xiu was the best, all soft and cute,” Gu Fei’s other aunt added.
Gu Fei’s mother, Bai Jie, smilingly said to Xu Yun, “We haven’t seen each other for more than ten years. Shi Xiu has grown even more beautiful. She still looks more like you than her father and has a good temperament.”
Xu Yun modestly replied, “She’s a little spoiled, though. I’m afraid Gu Fei will have realized by now that the soft and cuddly girl he imagined doesn’t exist. Shi Xiu is clearly a little tyrant. She even bullies her two older brothers, and now she has two sisters-in-law who dotes on her, making her even more spoiled.”
Bai Jie chuckled, “There’s nothing wrong with that. Girls should be pampered.
Otherwise, they’ll grow up to develop an easily bullied and manipulated personality. That wouldn’t do, especially for families like ours. Shi Xiu has two older brothers, so it’s only right for them to spoil her. I took a peek at Shi Xiu and Gu Fei from afar, and they looked like they were chatting quite happily.. I’m afraid we’ll inconvenience you for a while as we’ll be staying here to let those two spend more time together!”