Rebirth: He Decides to Lie Flat
Chapter 537 - 537 532 Rumors

Chapter 537: Chapter 532: Rumors Chapter 537: Chapter 532: Rumors “Drinking wine? That’s doable. Yu Hang’s dad made him a wine cabinet, right downstairs, filled with lots of white wines, sweet and really good to drink.”

Zhu Jin clapped her hands and said, “Tonight Yu Hang has booked a private room at his family restaurant. How about letting the guys go and we take a few dishes to eat at home, then drink to our heart’s content? What do you think?”

“Great idea!”

Wang Xiaole and Xu Yan both agreed, while Mu Jiawen wondered if she could drink liberally now that Jiang Yan wasn’t around?

So, she too nodded in agreement.

It was already half past five in the afternoon, and in winter it gets dark early; after the sun had set, the distant horizon glowed a beautiful shade of orange.

Zhu Jin went downstairs and told Yu Hang about the girls’ plans—not mentioning the part about drinking until they couldn’t anymore, but instead saying they wanted to have a private chat and wouldn’t be joining the guys at the restaurant.

Yu Hang immediately called his family’s restaurant and ordered a few dishes for the girls, asking for them to be delivered as soon as possible.

After placing the order and putting down his phone, Yu Hang called the guys to head to the restaurant.

Zhu Zhen, who hadn’t caught what Zhu Jin had said earlier, looked up at the upstairs, somewhat confused. He asked, “Zhu Jin, why aren’t the three of them coming down?”

“We’re eating at home and won’t be going over.”

At her words, Zhu Zhen hesitated, then lagging behind as everyone else left, he quickly turned to Zhu Jin and asked, “Could you ask Xu Yan if she wants to walk with me after dinner? Our homes are close to each other.”

Zhu Jin didn’t think much of it, as Zhu Zhen’s neighborhood and Xu Yan’s were indeed next door to each other.

“Alright, I’ll have her text you later.”

Zhu Zhen seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and turned to walk out with a lighter step.

Jiang Yan rubbed his chin, looking at Zhu Zhen’s retreating back, feeling something was off.

Realizing Jiang Yan hadn’t followed him outside, Zhu Zhen stopped, looked back and called out, “What’s the delay? Hurry up.”

Jiang Yan quickened his pace to catch up. As they descended the stairs together, he asked, “Why didn’t you agree when Zhu Jin’s roommate chased after you? I’ve seen that girl, she’s quite pretty.”

Zhu Zhen turned and gave him a glance, “Pretty, huh? Since you’ve met her, why don’t you tell me what she looks like?”

Jiang Yan: …

Zhu Zhen scoffed, “Besides Jiawen, are there any other girls you would describe as ‘pretty’? Who are you trying to fool?”

Jiang Yan said discontentedly, “Is that the point? The question is why you didn’t accept. Don’t you like her?”

Zhu Jin’s roommate, who would be there tomorrow for the wedding, had pursued him for almost half a year. It’s said a woman’s pursuit of a man is separated merely by a veil, but was he behind an impenetrable veil?

Her beauty wasn’t just Jiang Yan’s assessment; Zhu Jin and Jiajia had also said she was a fine person, with outstanding demeanor and looks. With Zhu Zhen’s stern face, she was more than good enough for him.

But he had refused.

Combining this with the gossip they’d discussed earlier downstairs, Jiang Yan dimly sensed an implication, “Did you reject her because your mom doesn’t want you to find someone from out of town?”

Zhu Zhen nodded readily, “Yes, my not accepting did have a lot to do with my mom. It was my cousin who left her with a prejudice; she staunchly disapproves of brides from other regions.”

“Even if your cousin left a shadow, it should be on your aunt, not your mom, right? How did it spill over to your mom?”

“Because my cousin had grown up in my family’s home until he was ten, my uncle and aunt were quite busy with work, and my grandma took care of me at our house, so it was only natural she took care of him too. However, my grandma wasn’t in the best health, so it’s more accurate to say it was my mom who took care of us. For that reason, my mom has always been very fond of my cousin. But since he settled down and got married in another place after graduating from college, how should I put it, it’s not that he doesn’t remember my mom’s kindness, but when he comes back to visit her, it’s always just him; his wife and kids either stay behind in the other place, or if they come back, they just stay indoors and go nowhere else.”

“It might not seem like a big deal, but you know how older people are, they think, ‘If I treat you like my son, then your wife is my daughter-in-law.’ They prepare red envelopes for the kids every year, but how can they give them if they don’t come to visit? And since they only see each other once every few years, there’s no sense of closeness. That’s why the old lady got scared and repeatedly told me it’s best to look for a local when finding a partner.”

Jiang Yan grinned with malicious glee, “So that’s why you’ve taken a liking to Xu Yan?”

The dark-skinned burly man suddenly became bashful, but it was hard to see him blush due to his dark complexion; his shyness came off rather fierce, “How, how did you realize it? Is it that obvious?”

Jiang Yan felt goosebumps all over his leg and raised his hand to slap the back of the other man’s head, “Talk properly, man, you’re creeping me out.”

Zhu Zhen coughed lightly, “It just feels about right, you know? I’ve already asked her; she doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

Oh? That’s pretty daring.

“Did you just ask her directly?”

“Kind of. I ran into her at the gate of her residential complex and asked her, ‘Heard you brought a boyfriend home this year to meet the parents, where is he?’ She got so angry, stamping her foot and cursing, ‘Which bastard is making up such nonsense? I’m still single right now!'”

Jiang Yan: …

He looked at the jubilantly foolish Zhu Zhen with a complex expression. Happy being called a bastard?

…

After all the guys had left, the four girls moved their base from upstairs to downstairs.

Zhu Jin relayed Zhu Zhen’s words to Xu Yan, only to see her suddenly frown and appear agitated. She asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xu Yan knew that Zhu Jin didn’t interact much with classmates, and Mu Jiawen even less so, so she asked Wang Xiaole, “Did you hear anyone say I brought a boyfriend home to meet my parents?”

“Huh? Boyfriend? You have a boyfriend?” Wang Xiaole’s face was full of surprise, “Why didn’t you mention it before? Where’s he from? A college classmate or a coworker?”

Zhu Jin and Mu Jiawen also turned their curious gazes toward her.

Seeing their reactions, what else was there for Xu Yan to not understand? This meant they hadn’t heard anything.

How strange!

She puzzledly said, “The reason I find it weird is exactly that I don’t have a boyfriend. Who in the world is spouting such nonsense? Isn’t this just sabotaging my chances of getting out of singlehood?”

Zhu Jin asked, “So where did you hear this from?”

“Zhu Zhen, he wouldn’t lie about this, right?”

“Zhu Zhen lying? I’d sooner believe pigs can climb trees than that Zhu Zhen would lie,” Wang Xiaole had complete faith in the honesty of their former class monitor, “If Zhu Zhen said it, then there’s a very high chance that these rumors exist. Right, why didn’t you ask him where he heard it from at the time?”

“I did ask, and he said he heard it from Teacher Gao when he went to visit him. It seemed like someone had mentioned it to Gao in passing; Zhu Zhen couldn’t just press the teacher about who it was.”

That leaves it unsolvable; you can’t exactly confront a teacher about it, can you?

Plus, the teacher might not have given it a second thought and just casually mentioned it in passing.

Mu Jiawen sat by, listening quietly, but couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.