CHAPTER 289: CHAPTER 286: CINDERELLA’S COMEBACK 31

Xiao Meifeng shrieked again, "What? You, you’re dating someone? Where is the person from? How old are they? What do they do? Are they pretty?"

She kept asking, and Xiao Yuan sighed silently.

"Why are you asking so many questions? They haven’t even accepted me yet, you don’t need to worry about this; I have my own plans."

Xiao Yuan bluntly refused to answer anything about Anning.

Xiao Meifeng exclaimed angrily, "You ingrate, I birthed and raised you for so many years, and you’ve never been this attentive to me. Now look at you, protecting your darling so fiercely."

"Okay, enough, I’m hanging up now."

Xiao Yuan truly didn’t want to continue this conversation with Xiao Meifeng and promptly hung up the phone.

However, it seemed like it wasn’t his day for peace and quiet.

Not long after he hung up, his phone rang again.

Xiao Yuan answered with resignation, "What is it now?"

This time, it was his father, Jin Jianye, calling.

His characteristically loud voice came through the phone, "You little punk, actually dating someone, huh? Good, good, you’ve got your old man’s charm."

Xiao Yuan was even more speechless, "It was Miss Xiao who told you, right?"

Jin Jianye chuckled, "Son, your mother indeed told me about it. Actually, she still has feelings for me, she just won’t admit it. She used it as an excuse to have a chat with me on the phone."

"You’re welcome to think that way, I have no objections."

Xiao Yuan found talking to his parents rather exhausting, "If you’re just calling to ask about this, you might as well hang up now."

Jin Jianye laughed, "I’m just passing on some wisdom. Listen, if you really like a girl, you have to treat her well, be extremely good to her, and to her family as well. You have to be ahead in thinking of and doing anything she needs. You have to be more anxious about her family’s matters than she is. And remember, you’ve got to show some manliness, behave like a man, not like some woman, tepid all the time. Coming on slow in courting a girl will lead to somebody else snatching her away. The good-looking and all-rounded girls are even more in demand. If you are slow, there will definitely be someone faster. By then, you’ll just regret it."

Xiao Yuan actually took this to heart.

He thought about his dad’s history with his mom.

Back in the day, Jin Jianye and Xiao Meifeng were a real mismatch.

Xiao Meifeng was the esteemed daughter of the Xiao Family, from a good background, beautiful, and delicate, yet, she ended up being won over by Jin Jianye, a simple and crude man.

Even though they eventually divorced, Xiao Meifeng hadn’t remarried to this day, and Jin Jianye also hadn’t taken another wife, which shows that there were still lingering feelings between them.

Thinking of this, Xiao Yuan considered learning from Jin Jianye.

After all, when it comes to pursuing girls, Jin Jianye had more experience than he did.

"You talk as if you have a lot of experience, you’ve only ever chased one girl, my mom..."

Xiao Yuan couldn’t help but feel disdainful with this comment.

Jin Jianye became agitated, "You should listen to your old man. I have way more experience than you. You’re nearly thirty and haven’t even held a girl’s hand, while back in my day, I was quite the catch. Girls were lining up for me, and before dating your mother, girls were always chasing after me."

"Then you didn’t date anyone else?"

Xiao Yuan was deliberately digging at his old man’s past.

Jin Jianye hadn’t expected his son to be so cunning, "I did, how could I not? Do you think your old man is like you, always abstaining?"

So, there had been entanglements with other women before Jin Jianye set his sights on Xiao Meifeng.

Thinking about the reasons for their divorce, Xiao Yuan sneered, "You’re not afraid I’ll tell Miss Xiao about this?"

"Your mother knows."

Jin Jianye wasn’t afraid at all, "Anyway, whether you tell her or not, she won’t reconcile with me. It doesn’t make a difference. Now, let’s talk about your situation. You’ve got to be steady, accurate, and ruthless when pursuing a girl. You can’t miss the opportunity. By the way, how old is the girl, and what does she look like?"

It seemed that he was still following Miss Xiao’s orders to probe for information.

Xiao Yuan promptly hung up the phone.

On the other end, Jin Jianye handled his phone and chuckled with a few teasing curses: "You stinker, so crafty, you don’t even seem like my son anymore."

Xiao Yuan had hung up the call, but what Jin Jianye said had indeed made an impact on him.

He began to reflect deeply, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that Jin Jianye was right.

This excellent girl, naturally, is on the radar of many eager young men; if he’s too slow to act, he fears he might miss his chance.

But when it comes to making a move, he really doesn’t have the guts, nor could he bring himself to do such a thing.

Anning is just too young now, not even sixteen, and she is fully focused on her studies. If he suddenly tells her he likes her, he’d probably scare her off.

Then there’s the Gu family; right now, Mr. Gu and Mrs. Gu are quite nice to him.

But that’s because he is a doctor and a neighbor. If they knew he had designs on their daughter, they would probably break his legs.

Xiao Yuan sighed. This is truly difficult.

Regardless of his thoughts, at noon, Xiao Yuan still went to First Middle School to meet Anning for lunch.

The weather is cold now, and lunch breaks are quite short, so Xiao Yuan didn’t go far, just to a nearby restaurant.

He and Anning found a quiet spot to sit down and ordered a few homestyle dishes.

After sitting down, Anning remembered something.

She quickly rummaged through her pocket and put the spare key to Xiao Yuan’s house on the table: "This is the key you left before; now I’m returning it to its owner."

Xiao Yuan chuckled as he took it: "Okay, next time I travel far, I’ll hand this key directly to you."

"Alright."

Anning responded with a smile: "Just send me a message before you leave next time, and I’ll come pick up the key."

Xiao Yuan got Anning a hot drink, which she held and sipped slowly.

The dishes gradually arrived, and Xiao Yuan began serving food to Anning.

Anning quickly stopped him: "I can take what I want to eat myself; you don’t need to be so formal."

She drank her beverage and then started eating her meal, head down.

Seeing her eating heartily, Xiao Yuan asked: "Did you have PE class today? You seem quite hungry."

Anning shook her head: "No, but I guess I’ve been growing lately and always feel hungry."

Xiao Yuan looked at Anning’s tender and slightly childish face, and couldn’t help sighing in his heart. The child hadn’t grown up yet, and he was already so fixated on her; he always felt this was somewhat immoral.

But no matter what, he was unwilling to give up.

He also took a few bites of the food: "This morning, when I dropped you at school, I saw you chatting and laughing with a boy at the school gate."

"Oh."

Anning responded with a low "Oh."

Xiao Yuan couldn’t help asking: "Is he your friend?"

Anning didn’t care much: "Not really; just a former classmate who had something to discuss with me."

Xiao Yuan’s mood brightened considerably: "I thought he was your boyfriend. You’re still young and in school; you definitely shouldn’t be dating, it can really affect your studies."

Anning looked up, her eyes shining bright as she stared at Xiao Yuan.

Xiao Yuan felt so guilty under Anning’s gaze.

His palms were sweaty, fearing that Anning might start to dislike him because of what he said.

After all, he wasn’t her parent, nor any kind of elder relative; he had no right to say such a thing.

Anning saw Xiao Yuan’s guilt and purposely said: "Why do all you adults love to talk about this? My parents said the same before."

That really hit home.