Chapter 6 Love Affairs

That was only to be expected. In Wu Xiuli's eyes, Tang Songyuan was just a walking pile of money, and who on earth didn't love money?

"You are—Boss Wu Xiuli."

Tang Songyuan actually knew who she was!

Wu Xiuli was even more surprised than she had been when the God of Wealth suddenly appeared before her. Her face beamed with excitement as she grabbed Tang Songyuan's hand and shook it vigorously, the flesh all over her body jiggling along with the motion.

Watching this, Li Tian'er felt an inner cringe, her eyes burning with secondhand embarrassment.

"I've long heard that President Tang has met countless people yet possesses an unforgettable photographic memory, able to recall the name of every single client. I never imagined that someone as insignificant as me would be remembered by President Tang."

"Ah, you flatter me, Boss Wu. Old Wu left quite a deep impression on me."

Tang Songyuan had originally intended to offer a polite, brief handshake and let go, but Wu Xiuli shook his hand so hard it looked like they were about to dance. Even his usual composed expression faltered, and he had to exert some force to pull his hand back.

"It is President Tang who leaves a deep impression."

Wu Xiuli chuckled, her round cheeks flushing with a rosy glow as she gazed at Tang Songyuan with eyes full of adoration.

Had she seen Wu Xiuli looking at Tang Songyuan like this in any other setting, Li Tian'er would have definitely assumed that Wu Xiuli harbored a secret crush on him.

"I truly never expected you to know me! I thought that running such a small-scale business, I would never catch your eye."

"You are too modest, Miss Wu."

Tang Songyuan had no desire to prolong this conversation, nor did he wish to foster deep business ties with a minor client right here. He placed the paper bag on the bedside table, then leaned down and smiled apologetically at Li Tian'er.

"I went out to take care of some matters earlier, but I didn't expect the traffic to be so bad that I'd only make it back now. How are you feeling? Have the morning check-up results come out yet?"

"Not yet," Li Tian'er replied weakly, feeling a genuine sense of dread.

Tang Songyuan pulled a purple foldable screen smartphone out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"The model you had before is no longer in production. Have a look at this one and see if you get used to it. I've already had your SIM card reissued with your original number, and I've pre-installed all the apps you usually use."

As he spoke, Tang Songyuan guided Li Tian'er on how to operate the foldable screen. Looking at the cool, futuristic features of the new phone, Li Tian'er declared that the very moment she returned home, she would make sure to custom-order this exact model.

She glanced sideways at Tang Songyuan's profile close beside her, catching the scent of his Phantom Forest cologne, and her mind drifted into a momentary daze. It was no wonder Wu Xiuli had lost her emotional control upon seeing him; Tang Songyuan indeed possessed the unique charm of a mature man. Especially when meticulously styled, his appearance was handsome enough to make one's heart skip a beat.

"I know how to use it now."

Li Tian'er was afraid that staying so close to Tang Songyuan would shake her resolve. She was determined to separate from him and live her own life.

Wu Xiuli looked on with envy as Li Tian'er conversed with Tang Songyuan. The moment Tang Songyuan stepped outside, Wu Xiuli launched into a flurry of lavish compliments directed at Li Tian'er, immediately echoed by an endless stream of flattery from Wu Xiuli's mother. They praised Li Tian'er as the epitome of a virtuous wife and devoted mother who possessed none of the airs of a wealthy housewife, and commended her for having such a handsome and capable husband—a blessing others couldn't hope to cultivate even across eight lifetimes.

Li Tian'er merely smiled without a word. Although she felt Tang Songyuan treated her reasonably well, she had yet to harvest a single point of popularity from him. Based on her past experience, she should have started gathering popularity by the second day after transmigrating. Yet up to this moment, her pink popularity score remained frozen at 1,314,520—the final score she had accumulated back in Little Crow Village when she was still Li Taohua.

Tang Songyuan walked back in carrying a basin of water, smiling warmly as he wrung out a towel for Li Tian'er to wipe her face, followed by applying facial cream and brushing her hair.

Witnessing this series of attentive gestures, Wu Xiuli and her mother exhausted every flattering vocabulary word in the book.

"If my husband were even half as good as President Tang—no, even if he were just one percent as good—I would be content for the rest of my life. Sister Li Ya, you are so blessed! President Tang not only knows how to make money, but he's also so considerate and gentle. How on earth did you find such a wonderful husband? You must have saved the galaxy in your past life!"

Wu Xiuli was genuinely envious of Li Tian'er and desperately wanted to hear the story of how she and Tang Songyuan had fallen in love and gotten married.

Li Tian'er smiled silently, feeling an immense wave of awkwardness inside. How on earth was she supposed to know how Li Ya and Tang Songyuan had met and fallen in love? She only wanted to leave the hospital as soon as possible. No matter how comfortable a hospital bed might be, it could never compare to the freedom and joy of walking healthily down the street.

Wu Xiuli begged Tang Songyuan to recount their romantic history so that she could use his standards as a blueprint when finding husbands for her three daughters in the future.

Wu Xiuli herself was only thirty-one or thirty-two years old—just how old could her eldest daughter possibly be?!

"My partner and I were introduced by a matchmaker."

"Ah, a blind date!" Wu Xiuli looked rather disappointed.

"As for the matchmaker, it was her younger brother. At the time, her brother was ten years old and decided to be mischievous, smashing up my car. So she, as the older sister, brought her brother over to offer a formal apology and compensation. Since she couldn't afford the car repairs, she ultimately had no choice but to offer herself in marriage."

Tang Songyuan burst into hearty laughter upon finishing the story, while Li Tian'er listened and felt an urge to find a crack in the ground and crawl right into it.

Li Ya was quite the schemer! This routine sounded straight out of a web romance novel from years ago—the cliché plot where the heroine accidentally crosses paths with a wealthy sports car owner, leading to a Cinderella-meets-Prince-Charming romance.

Pui, pui, pui! Those old tropes had been run into the ground ages ago, yet Wu Xiuli still wanted her own daughters to pull off the same stunt!

"Actually, I think marriages where both families are of equal social and economic status are the most secure. Why do you think blind dates are making a comeback nowadays? One matchmaking show after another is on TV. Which successful couples aren't evenly matched? The rich seek the rich, and just being good-looking is useless. Couples like you two might have worked in the past, but it doesn't fly anymore."

Wu Xiuli's mother summarized their marriage with a definitive conclusion, then waited with a confident, knowing expression for Tang Songyuan to validate her verdict.

Tang Songyuan let out a quiet chuckle.

"Back then, I was punching above my weight. The men pursuing her easily numbered a reinforced platoon, and I was at the very end of the line. To win her heart, I had to resort to a relentless, shameless war of attrition. I even planted informants around her to sabotage all her other romantic prospects, and only through my unremitting efforts did I finally succeed in winning the beauty over."

Tang Songyuan briefly drifted into a nostalgic reverie.

"Then Sister Li Ya must have been drop-dead gorgeous when she was young!" Wu Xiuli rested her chin in her hands with a yearning expression.

"She is still very beautiful now." Tang Songyuan smiled gently as he looked at Li Tian'er.

Li Tian'er maintained her silent smile. This kind of casual banter was relaxing for both body and mind, and listening to it didn't feel noisy at all.

"An older husband is much better at doting on his wife!"

"Not necessarily, right? Old He is more than a dozen years older than his wife, and doesn't he still beat her up regularly..."

Wu Xiuli's mother tugged at Wu Xiuli's sleeve. Wu Xiuli instantly realized her mother was trying to help her butter up Tang Songyuan with flattery, especially since anyone with eyes could see that Tang Songyuan was considerably older than his wife.

"It all depends on the person! Only a mature, well-bred man like President Tang knows how to pamper his wife."

"President Tang looks like an absolute saint! Unlike those men outside who fool around and get rich only to keep mistresses—number twos, threes, fours, and fives."

"It's already one o'clock. The patient needs to take a midday nap."

Tang Songyuan cut off the mother-daughter duo and helped adjust Li Tian'er's bed to a flat position.

Wu Xiuli tactfully zipped her mouth shut, though barely a minute later, she and her mother resumed whispering about what to buy to eat before five o'clock. Having reached a consensus, the two of them greeted Tang Songyuan and stealthily slipped out of the ward on a massive shopping spree.