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It was worth mentioning that Cheng Yu was also the only Chinese among the five disciples Master Caroline had taken on.

Thinking of his teacher, Cheng Yu's expression grew distant. Before graduating from university—more precisely, before Cheng Kaiyun and his wife died in a plane crash—Cheng Yu had never considered inheriting C&C Jewelry. He also knew that Cheng Kaiyun and his wife did not think highly of him. So, on the eve of his graduation ceremony, Cheng Yu signed a contract with Caroline Jewelry, intending to establish his own jewelry brand with Caroline Jewelry's support.

Unfortunately, life was unpredictable...

At that thought, Cheng Yu drew in a subdued breath and stopped letting his mind wander.

With Cheng Yu's current academic background, entering DMI's professional division was sheer fantasy. The only division he could compete in was the Rising Stars division. Considering the overall caliber of the Rising Stars contestants, Cheng Yu could responsibly say that any piece of jewelry he had designed after graduating university would easily win first prize there. Even if entered into the professional division for master-level judging, it would not fall short.

But Cheng Yu had always hated this sort of opportunism. Even in a dream, he did not want to treat the jewelry design he loved most with a perfunctory attitude. He decided to design a new piece of jewelry. This time, the theme would be a set of golden wedding anniversary rings. It could also count as a gift for his grandparents.

"Our Ah Yu is getting more and more impressive." Hearing their grandson lay out such a proper plan, Chen Simiao and his wife smiled with particular warmth and pride, as though their child had finally grown up, and gave Cheng Yu enthusiastic thumbs-ups.

Cheng Shao blindly joined in with praise. "Our Ah Yu is amazing. He can even design diamond rings."

"Not diamond rings. Golden wedding anniversary rings." Cheng Yu patiently explained. Then, feeling that it could not be made clear in just a sentence or two, he simply pulled over a sheet of medical record paper and began drawing on the back.

"Actually, five years from now, I also designed a set of silver wedding anniversary rings. I originally wanted to give them to my parents, but I never got the chance."

That had been Cheng Yu's graduation project at BJOP. It was a pair of diamond rings designed around Chinese zodiac signs and Morse code. Using channel setting, he embedded a row of small diamonds along the bands, with the arrangement of the diamonds following Morse code to represent Chen Lingyun's and Cheng Kaiyun's birthdays. Separately, the two diamond rings depicted Chen Lingyun's zodiac snake and Cheng Kaiyun's zodiac rabbit. Put together, they became a Black Tortoise, symbolizing protection.

Cheng Yu had spent nearly two years on the design, from the first draft to the final version. He had also spent a full two months practically camping in Caroline's studio to make the finished pieces himself. He had planned to give the gift to Chen Lingyun and her husband at his graduation ceremony, only to find that he would never have another chance to do so.

Now that he had returned to eleven years ago in a dream, Cheng Yu was still angry with Chen Lingyun and did not want to press his warmth against someone else's coldness. Besides, Cheng Kaiyun and Chen Lingyun's twenty-fifth silver anniversary was still a long way off. His grandparents, on the other hand, would celebrate their fiftieth golden anniversary next June.

Cheng Yu felt that giving the first jewelry design from his dream to his grandparents was clearly more meaningful.

In the hospital ward, the three generations watched Cheng Yu sit on the sofa, skillfully sketching on medical record paper with a pencil, and could not help exchanging glances.

Although they still could not understand the draft, with its constant annotations of measurements, shadows, and lighting, simply watching Cheng Yu's effortless, flowing movements told them that his foundation was anything but shallow.

"When did Ah Yu learn all this?"

French, jewelry design... Cheng Yu had always had many varied hobbies, but whenever Cheng Yu "fell in love with something new," Chen Simiao and his wife knew all about it. Yet so many unfamiliar skills had suddenly appeared, and judging by how practiced Cheng Yu was, he absolutely did not look like a beginner who had only just encountered them. The elderly couple could not help feeling bewildered.

By comparison, Cheng Shao was not nearly as surprised. Mainly because the filter he had for his little brother was far too thick; he simply felt that Cheng Yu should be capable of anything. After all, Cheng Yu was only sixteen and had never even gotten a driver's license, yet he had managed to drift a sports car in front of everyone and flip bottle caps. Something as minor as drawing jewelry designs with a pencil was hardly worth being surprised over.

After all, Cheng Yu had learned meticulous brush painting from their grandfather since childhood. Cheng Shao himself could imitate what he saw, let alone Cheng Yu.

After giving himself a thorough mental pep talk, Cheng Shao accepted his younger brother's self-taught new skill with even greater peace of mind and could not resist asking, "Ah Yu, you designed golden wedding anniversary rings for Grandpa and Grandma. When it's my birthday, can you give me a gift you designed yourself too?"

"Mm." Cheng Yu answered casually, his entire mind immersed in the design. He did not even notice what Cheng Shao had said.

But Cheng Shao was already overjoyed at those words. He even dragged his grandparents in as witnesses—after all, although Cheng Yu had a bad temper and was difficult to deal with, he had always kept his word and never gone back on a promise. Ever since childhood, as long as Cheng Yu promised something, he would definitely do it.

So now that Cheng Yu had promised to give him a gift, even if Cheng Yu got angry with him again by then, he would surely honor his promise. He just did not know what Cheng Yu would design for him while angry.

The more Cheng Shao thought about it, the more he looked forward to it.

"I say—" Chen Simiao cleared his throat, just about to ask what kind of ring set his grandson planned to design, when there was another knock at the door.

Pei Yan entered carrying a fruit basket. "Grandpa Chen, Grandma Lin, I came to see you."

Seeing Cheng Shao rise to greet him, Pei Yan nodded at him, then naturally shifted his gaze to Cheng Yu. "Ah Yu, I already told my dad about the matter you asked me to mention. He said he's free tonight. Can you come to my house tonight?"

"What?" Cheng Yu came back to himself and looked at Pei Yan with slight confusion.

Pei Yan patiently repeated himself. Cheng Yu nodded. "I'm free. I'll go."

Now it was the three generations' turn to be confused. They asked Pei Yan, "What could Ah Yu possibly have to discuss with your father?"

Pei Yan instinctively looked at Cheng Yu. Cheng Yu had not wanted to say much to his grandparents, but then he felt that if he did not explain certain things beforehand, they would only worry more. So he explained, "It's about the land. I just have a feeling Zhao Jinchui can't be trusted."