Chapter 44: The Old Man’s New Identity
“Hello… second floor of Kailisha Hotel, okay!”
Just as Cheng Fei was feeling emotional while thinking about her own feelings, Gao Ming suddenly spoke on the phone behind her.
The moment he hung up, she quickly asked,
“What? Besides those two, did you invite someone else too?”
“Mm.”
Out of habit, Gao Ming answered the phone with his left hand. After hanging up, he also instinctively tried to put it into the pocket on the right side of his jacket using that same hand.
But because his hand was injured and wrapped in bandages, the simple action twisted his face in pain.
“I’ve been wondering this for a while,” Cheng Fei said. “Why not just use your right hand and put it in the left pocket?”
“It’s too close to the heart. Bad for health.”
“…You really care about health stuff…”
Then she remembered something.
“Wait, who else did you just invite? If it’s someone I don’t know, tell me first so I don’t accidentally expose anything.”
“Not an outsider,” Gao Ming replied with a strange smile.
“Your good buddy, Zhou Lin.”
Hah?!
Cheng Fei almost missed the step beneath her feet.
If she had not grabbed the railing in time with her long arm, she probably would have rolled all the way down the stairs.
What was wrong with Gao Ming?!
Why did he suddenly bring Zhou Lin here?
Standing on the stairs, Cheng Fei quietly stared at Gao Ming.
Her phoenix-shaped eyes moved slightly, her eyelashes trembling gently.
All her confusion could be seen clearly in those beautiful eyes.
Besides confusion, she also felt a little angry that Gao Ming had not told her beforehand and suddenly dropped this bombshell at the last second.
But it was not the kind of furious anger that exploded out uncontrollably.
And strangely enough…
That only made her look even prettier.
Normally, anger gave people a feeling of threat, pressure, and emotional outburst.
But Cheng Fei’s expressions during these days had completely overturned Gao Ming’s understanding.
Who would have thought there could actually be a woman who still looked beautiful even when angry?
Even if her “core settings” had problems, she still had this gorgeous appearance.
Gao Ming did not think of himself as some saint.
He was just a normal man.
And normal men naturally could not help looking a few extra times at beautiful things.
Looking ahead calmly, Gao Ming said lightly,
“There’s a dashcam in the car.”
Damn it!
All the anger inside Cheng Fei instantly disappeared like a balloon pierced by a needle.
She suddenly wanted to smack herself in the forehead.
It was Gao Ming’s car. She had only borrowed it.
Yet she completely forgot about the dashcam! Such a huge mistake!
Back then, she had relaxed too much after meeting Zhou Lin. Combined with alcohol and that strange lightning incident, who would still think about things like that?
And she had even bragged about having the talent to become a secret agent?
Pah!
With a mistake this huge, she would have died hundreds or thousands of times already if she really were a spy.
“So why exactly did you bring Zhou Lin here?”
“To be the best man at the wedding.”
Cheng Fei’s jaw nearly dropped from shock.
“I feel like I don’t have many friends,” Gao Ming explained. “Other than Ye Dong, there’s no one I’m really close to. A wedding with too few people would look bad. Besides, letting him personally witness his friend’s wedding isn’t a bad thing either.”
“But Zheng Qi and Bai Xi…” Cheng Fei stared blankly at the second floor just ahead of them.
“Relax,” Gao Ming said with a smile. “During the days at your parents’ house, I already talked everything through with Zhou Lin. Everything will stay exactly the same, the reason for our marriage, your situation, all of it.”
“As for his identity…”
“One word, relative.”
“I… but those girls have been my ‘best friends’ since high school! What kind of relative could exist that they’ve never heard about?”
Gao Ming smiled again.
“We’ll say he’s related to your father-in-law and mother-in-law… or in other words, your godfather and godmother’s side of the family. We can even mix in some fake childhood stories.”
Actually…
That really could work.
At this point, Gao Ming had already planned things so carefully for her.
What else could she even say?
Cheng Fei gritted her teeth and clenched her small fists tightly.
“Fine!”
Meanwhile, while the two chatted outside and lost track of time, the people waiting inside the private room had long since become impatient.
Cheng Fei had always been the honest and obedient type.
Among girls, “good girl” suited her perfectly.
Normally, even if she only caught a cold and went to the hospital, she would still inform the others first so they would not worry.
But this time?
She disappeared without a word for an entire week.
For Zheng Qi and Bai Xi, this was absolutely unheard of.
In front of Zheng Qi sat bowl after bowl of tea.
The tea leaves had already been replaced once, yet the sound of her high heels still kept echoing as she paced back and forth between the balcony and the restroom.
Bai Xi looked calmer on the surface.
She held a stack of student homework in her hands as if using it to calm herself down.
But inside, she was just as anxious. Her mind was completely elsewhere.
She did not even properly look at several questions before marking huge X’s across them.
Gulp.
Another cup of tea emptied. This time, both women finally set down the old-fashioned tea bowls.
The people still had not arrived. Neither of them could endure waiting anymore.
“Let’s go!”
The two looked at each other and shouted at the exact same time.
They stood up and walked toward the door with matching steps.
Click.
Before they could even turn the doorknob, the door suddenly opened from the outside.
The two women froze for a moment.
Cheng Fei was back.
Safe and unharmed. Not even a scratch.
But…
Her hair.
Because of the angle during the video call earlier, they had not seen it clearly.
Only now, standing face-to-face, did they realize her shoulder-length hair had been cut into short messy layers.
And on top of that, she had deliberately worn a wig when coming back. It almost felt like she intentionally wanted to surprise them.
“Where are you two going?”
Bai Xi looked doubtful and kept touching the back of Cheng Fei’s head again and again.
Then she narrowed her eyes and suddenly pulled the wig right off.
“So you wanted to become a fake tomboy now…”
“My little Feifei, if you wanted a cleaner and fresher style, you should’ve waited. I could’ve found you a professional hairstylist. Otherwise how are you going to wear a wedding dress? During the ceremony—mmph!”
The groom himself was standing right there beside them, so why were they worrying so much about this?!
The moment Bai Xi noticed Gao Ming lowering his head silently nearby, she quickly covered Zheng Qi’s loose mouth with her hand.
But Zheng Qi’s attention was completely focused on Cheng Fei. She had not noticed Gao Ming at all and struggled to pull Bai Xi’s hand away.
A hand poked Zheng Qi lightly in the waist from behind and gestured toward Cheng Fei beside her.
Only then did Bai Xi, this stubborn little donkey, finally calm down a little.
Honestly, whether it was sincere or just polite words, Cheng Fei truly felt short hair was much more comfortable after living as a man for so long.
Long hair definitely looked prettier, but washing it was way too troublesome.
Especially in this weather.
After drying it, the hair would stick around the neck in a damp and hot mess. Sweat sliding down the back afterward felt absolutely unbearable.
“Hehe…”
The three women laughed awkwardly for a moment.
With Gao Ming, someone still relatively unfamiliar, standing nearby, things felt a little unnatural.
But just standing there forever was not a solution either. Gao Ming cleared his throat.
“Let’s sit inside first.”
“Ah, right, right! Feifei must be tired after driving so long.”
Zheng Qi immediately hugged Cheng Fei’s arm.
But the moment she noticed Bai Xi’s warning look, she quickly let go and changed to simply holding her hand instead.
Everyone was already used to it.
After all, their best friend now technically belonged to someone else.
Whoa…
This felt amazing.
Who was Zheng Qi? She was the dream goddess of countless young men.
A hug from a beauty like her…
And a hug at that!
This was not something you could casually dream about!
Hey! Why let go so quickly? Hold on a little longer!
Even without looking at Bai Xi’s expression, Cheng Fei roughly understood what was happening.
They were clearly being considerate of Gao Ming, the giant third wheel standing nearby.
Without him around, things would have felt much freer.
Cheng Fei suddenly became anxious and directly hugged Zheng Qi back instead.
Ah…
That refreshing fragrance was wonderful.
“So, after having enough fun outside, I came back to properly spend time with you two.”
“Hehe~ At least you still have a little conscience left.”
Zheng Qi poked Cheng Fei’s forehead lightly with her finger, carrying a somewhat doting tone.
“Hmph.”
Bai Xi, however, wore a different expression.
She immediately put on her strict teacher face, looking like she was about to lecture someone.
After all, Cheng Fei disappearing for so long had truly worried them badly.
“Feifei,” Bai Xi asked seriously, “where exactly did you go to have fun this time?”
Hearing that, the two people joking around immediately straightened up.
After glancing at Gao Ming, Cheng Fei answered firmly,
“Hehe… Fuxian.”
Zheng Qi and Bai Xi both narrowed their eyes.
That tiny unknown county barely had any tourist attractions except for one ancient tomb that had never been excavated.
Why would she go there?
Was she visiting relatives or something?
Cheng Fei then smoothly poured out the explanation she had prepared long ago.
After all, later on Lu Shengdong and Qin Yi would need a proper identity if they were going to attend this “forced onto the mountain” wedding.
By now, Cheng Fei had already learned enough details about the original Cheng Fei’s life.
When she was young, the real Cheng Fei had once recognized one of her biological father’s friends as a godfather.
And by coincidence, that man’s surname was also Lu.
So Gao Ming simply decided to build their whole story around that fact.
“He… moved to Fuxian?” Zheng Qi asked.
“Mm. Back then, their home in Shannan County was destroyed by a mudslide. Later they went south to work, but…” Cheng Fei sighed, mixing truth into the lies naturally.
“They were really unlucky. We lost contact for years, and in the end they went back home to farm.”
“A few days ago I met an old acquaintance and learned about all this, so I wanted to go visit them. Besides you two, they’re basically my only remaining relatives in this world.”
“I originally planned to tell you before leaving, but I lost my phone halfway there…”
“Oh…”
Zheng Qi nodded, but Bai Xi quietly adjusted her glasses.
Smart women really were hard to fool.
Gao Ming knew his silence itself had already attracted suspicion.
“Fuxian has beautiful mountains and rivers,” he suddenly said, “but tomb robbers have been targeting the place lately.”
He pulled his hand out from his pocket and placed it on the table for everyone to see clearly.
Then he opened the local Fuxian discussion forum on his phone.
The pinned top post was a news article about the tomb robbers caught a few days earlier.
The title read: “Brave Man Captures Two Criminals Bare-Handed!”
The first thing they noticed was the robbers’ strong muscular builds.
Compared to Gao Ming, they looked like completely different weight classes.
Two armed men against him alone. Zheng Qi’s eyes widened immediately.
“Hero! Teach me some moves someday!”
He was injured badly enough already, so his mood definitely could not be good.
Zheng Qi only wanted to lighten the atmosphere. Unfortunately, her thoughtless comment stunned everyone instead.
With injuries like this, calling him a “hero” almost sounded insulting!
Even Zheng Qi herself realized something felt wrong. Under Bai Xi’s sharp stare, she laughed awkwardly.
“No matter how good your martial arts are, you still fear kitchen knives. And no matter how tough your muscles are, one brick can still knock you down!”
“Huh?”
Gao Ming simply kept smiling mysteriously.
Meanwhile, Cheng Fei took a sip of tea and calmly explained what had happened in detail.
After hearing everything, Zheng Qi slapped her thigh excitedly.
“What a combo! Frontline tank taking damage head-on while the ranged ADC sneaks attacks from behind!”
Bai Xi frowned.
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Addicted to Honor of Kings again?”
“Aiyo~”
Zheng Qi immediately leaned against Bai Xi’s shoulder and spoke in a spoiled voice.
“So our hardworking teacher Bai actually knows that game too?”
Bai Xi pushed her away with a face full of disgust while smoothing out the wrinkles Zheng Qi made on her shirt.
“Of course I know it. I confiscate student phones every few days!”
“Exactly! Confiscating them is great! Those little brats ruin the game environment anyway. Because of them, I’ve been stuck in Gold rank for an entire year!”
“......”
Everyone fell silent again.
An entire year…
Still stuck in Gold rank.
Just how terrible was Zheng Qi at games?!
Or maybe the old saying was true. Big chest, no brain.
Whenever awkward silence reached its limit, someone always appeared to save the situation.
This time, when the door opened, it was not a waiter entering. But Zhou Lin, the unexpected “guest.”