Her Archenemy Asked Her Family to Make Their Relationship Official

Shao Enci drove straight to the Lu family home without tending to his injuries.

As the car entered the villa compound, he raised a hand to the rearview mirror and smoothed his slightly disheveled hair and wrinkled clothes.

It was his first visit to meet her parents, and he hadn't expected to look such a mess.

To tell the truth, he wasn't confident.

He couldn't even understand why Lu Xiaoxiao had forced a kiss on him at the airport, or why her brother had happened to catch them.

It was as if... she had some task she had to complete.

Shao Enci stood at the door, and before he could knock, he heard voices inside.

"Mom, you shouldn't keep indulging Lu Xiaoxiao." Lu Jiayan couldn't keep the anger out of his voice. "A girl kissing a strange boy in public? If she dared do that in front of me today, what about next time?"

Lu Xiaoxiao sat on the sofa, curling her fingers as she let her brother tattle on her.

Lu Yifei's expression was grave, his tone somewhat stern. "Your brother's right. You're only eighteen. What's the rush? Do you know what kind of person he is?"

"Both of you, that's enough."

Ms. Wen swept a cold glance at them, and Lu Yifei and Lu Jiayan both fell silent. She sat down beside Lu Xiaoxiao and held her daughter by the shoulders, her voice softening. "Xiaoxiao, tell Mom what happened."

Lu Xiaoxiao looked up and met her mother's gentle gaze, then lowered her head again, her throat too tight for her to speak.

Once she started a lie, there would be holes she could never finish patching.

Just a few days ago, she'd lied and said she was dating someone, and now the system wouldn't let her make the relationship official. She didn't know how to make the story hold together, or how to explain.

"Mom, I..."

She had just begun to stammer out an answer when the doorbell suddenly rang.

She jumped up as if grasping a life-saving straw. "Someone's here. I'll get the door."

The moment she opened the door, Shao Enci was standing outside.

The young man had a wound at the corner of his mouth, and his handsome face was slightly swollen, but it didn't diminish his charm in the least.

His finger was still poised as if pressing the doorbell. When he saw her, he instinctively drew it back and rubbed his fingertips together.

Lu Xiaoxiao was stunned for a moment, then an indescribable flicker of pleasant surprise welled up in her heart.

"I thought you wouldn't come."

"I'll help you sort this out."

Shao Enci had paused outside the door earlier and heard their entire conversation.

He followed Lu Xiaoxiao inside. The three people in the living room heard them and turned to look, their gazes landing on the young man who had suddenly appeared, each wearing a different expression.

"Professor Wen, Professor Lu, Senior Lu, sorry to disturb you." Shao Enci gave a slight nod and said politely, "I came on such short notice that I didn't have time to prepare gifts. I hope you'll forgive me."

Ms. Wen looked at him, her gaze sweeping over his handsome face before settling on the bruises at the corner of his mouth and on his cheekbone. Her delicate brows knitted together. "What happened to your face?"

She wondered if her own son had done it.

Shao Enci turned his head to glance at Lu Jiayan, then looked away. "I bumped it by accident," he said evenly.

Hearing that, Lu Jiayan twitched the corner of his mouth and said coldly, "I hit him. You don't need to play the good guy."

"Lu Jiayan!" Ms. Wen's voice suddenly sharpened.

Lu Yifei had taught Shao Enci several courses. As his teacher, he remained courteous. "Shao, come sit down and let's talk."

"Dad?" Lu Jiayan could hardly believe it. His father hadn't had that attitude just now.

Lu Xiaoxiao stepped forward at just the right moment, took Shao Enci by the arm, and led him to the sofa to sit down, her movements as natural as if she'd done it many times before.

The father and son's faces immediately darkened.

"Lu Xiaoxiao," Lu Jiayan said, his handsome face darkening as he watched her sit close beside Shao Enci. "Can't you show a little restraint in front of Mom and Dad?"

Lu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes at him, her shoulder pressed against Shao Enci's body as she tilted her head and gazed at the young man's sharply defined profile.

Ms. Wen and Professor Lu sat across from them.

The atmosphere instantly grew awkward.

"Enci, I'm terribly sorry. My unfilial son cares too much about his sister and hurt you on impulse. I apologize to you on his behalf." Ms. Wen was the first to break the stalemate, her voice apologetic.

After a pause, she glared sideways at her son, her tone serious. "Hurry up and apologize to Shao Enci."

"Why should I apologize?" Lu Jiayan protested, utterly unconvinced. "He took advantage of Xiaoxiao!"

"Apologize," Lu Yifei said, adding his own pressure. "Listen to your mother."

Lu Jiayan straightened his back and pressed his thin lips together, stubbornly refusing to apologize.

Shao Enci picked up the conversation instead. The corner of his mouth moved, tugging painfully at the wound, as he said in a low voice, "There's no need to apologize. If it were my sister, I'd do the same."

His gaze fell on Lu Xiaoxiao's fair face from the corner of his eye. After a pause, he added meaningfully, "She's still young. If she's casually intimate with a boy, she could easily be taken advantage of."

Although Lu Jiayan still looked cold, those words had clearly dampened his anger somewhat.

Shao Enci sat with his back straight, his long, narrow, beautiful phoenix eyes turning toward the two elders across from him. "I came today because I wanted to explain everything to you in person."

The couple nodded and listened to him attentively.

Lu Xiaoxiao gazed at the young man's profile with clear, starry eyes. For the first time, she felt somewhat safe with him there.

"Lu Xiaoxiao and I have known each other since high school." A trace of barely perceptible tenderness flickered in his deep eyes. "For all three years of high school, she and I were archenemies. But as she saw it, we hated each other. In truth, though, every moment I spent with her was happy and joyful."

Lu Xiaoxiao's fingers tightened unconsciously, and her heart gave a sudden jolt.

"What she likes, what she hates, the date of her birthday, her height, her taste in food—I know all of it."

Shao Enci's voice was neither loud nor soft, as though he were speaking of something he'd gone over in his heart countless times. "I just don't know how to speak. I turned things I liked into awful words. If I weren't so concerned about saving face and unwilling to set aside my pride to win her over, perhaps she wouldn't have needed to do this..."

Shao Enci curled his fingers, a thin film of sweat quietly forming in his palms.

At last, he had confessed the love he'd kept hidden for years to the person he loved, and he felt as though a great weight had lifted from his heart.

Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes widened, and she froze.

What?

Shao Enci said... he liked her?