FIO CH55

Chapter 55: The Shameless Way of Chasing His Wife

The day after the susceptible period, Lu Fangchi returned to the company after canceling his leave. He hadn’t even had the chance to settle into his chair when a commotion arose outside his office.

The secretary pushed the door open and reported excitedly, “Mr. Lu, the new koi carp has arrived. Would you like to take a look?” Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she spoke.

What koi carp? Lu Fangchi’s eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion for a moment, but he quickly made a guess. Without questioning why the koi carp had been accepted without verification, he stood up and headed towards the reception hall.

The reception hall was packed with people, all chattering and discussing among themselves.

One of the employees, noticing Lu Fangchi out of the corner of his eye, immediately poked the person next to him. Through a series of gestures and whispered messages, everyone took a half-step back, clearing a path for him.

Lu Fangchi stepped into the reception hall and saw the giant glass fish tank. Inside were three koi carp, colored red and white, yellow and white, and pure yellow. Each was quite large and plump, estimated to be 80-90 centimeters long and weighing around forty to fifty pounds, with a strong presence.

Especially the pure yellow one, which would be more accurately described as golden. As it swam, its scales shimmered like metal, reflecting a dazzling golden light that was almost blinding.

Lu Fangchi wasn’t very knowledgeable about fish, but from their demeanor and the reactions of the people around him, he inferred that these fish were quite valuable.

A small exclamation clearly reached his ears, “Wow, these are imported koi carp, Silver Fox. They’re so beautiful. The fish breeder must be envious, jealous, and resentful.”

“Are they expensive?”

“Of course. Judging by the quality of these few, it would be at least this much.” He held up two fingers.

An uninformed employee boldly guessed, “Two hundred thousand?”

“Add another zero!” He curled his lips.

“Wow,” the employee’s eyes widened in shock, “So expensive!”

Lu Fangchi’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown. He instinctively took out his phone to call Zhou Zheng but then realized that the employees at the entrance of the reception hall were all watching him and restrained himself.

He walked out of the reception hall and back to his office, opened WeChat, found Zhou Zheng’s name, and sent a message: Take them away.

Zhou Zheng almost instantly replied: ?

Zhou Zheng: I don’t understand. Take what away?

Zhou Zheng: What do you mean?

Pretending to be confused on purpose. Lu Fangchi pressed on the screen: The koi carp.

“The other party is typing…” It was intermittent, and no message came out for a long time.

As if he could predict, Lu Fangchi sent a message before he could come up with an excuse: Don’t play dumb. Those koi carp were sent by you, right?

Zhou Zheng’s message came late: Ah, those. They should have been sent by Liu Zhu.

Still looking for loopholes. What’s the difference between the koi carp sent by Liu Zhu and those sent by you? Lu Fangchi typed, pressing the keyboard firmly: Take them away!

The exclamation mark was serious. Zhou Zheng didn’t dare to quibble anymore and replied honestly: Didn’t I overfeed your koi carp to death? This is my way of apologizing.

Lu Fangchi: I don’t need it.

“The other party is typing…” After a while, there was no sound.

Lu Fangchi: ?

This time, not even the “typing” indicator lit up again. He wasn’t planning to reply and started playing dead?

Lu Fangchi frowned and widened his eyes, amazed at the alpha’s thick skin, and had to admit that he really had no way to deal with him.

In any case, he didn’t want to have anything to do with Zhou Zheng anymore, let alone financial dealings. As a second choice, Lu Fangchi licked his lips, slid his index finger across the screen to find Liu Zhu’s name, and sent him a message: Are you available? Can you take a call?

About ten minutes later, Liu Zhu replied: Yes.

Then a voice call popped up on the phone screen, and Liu Zhu initiated the call.

Lu Fangchi pressed the green answer button, skipping the formalities and getting straight to the point: When are you guys available to come and take those three koi carp away?

“Ah,” Liu Zhu hesitated, clearly pausing for a moment, and then confirmed again, “The three we just sent, right?”

Lu Fangchi nodded in agreement, “Yes.”

“This was purchased by Mr. Zhou through his personal account. I was just in charge of transporting them, so…” Liu Zhu’s tone was somewhat difficult, and the unspoken implication was a refusal.

Nice try, passing the buck.

Lu Fangchi took a deep breath and countered, “Please tell him to come and take them away right now.”

Considering all possible rejections, he added: The fish tank can be taken away as well.

“Ah,” Liu Zhu’s tone was conflicted as he said, “But Mr. Zhou is not here.”

Lu Fangchi: ?

Liu Zhu explained: “He seems to be sick and said he won’t be coming to the company for the next week. He’s taken a week’s sick leave.”

Lu Fangchi: …

First round of confrontation, failed.

“Alright, I understand,” Lu Fangchi said as he hung up the phone, tapping his phone lightly with one hand, looking pensive.

Was it that serious? To take a week off.

Was he lying? Hard to say. Lu Fangchi knew that alphas could have aftereffects from being bitten, but he wasn’t sure to what extent. He had never experienced it himself and had no experience to draw from.

While Lu Fangchi was thinking, the office door was pushed open again. The secretary walked in with a bag of thermal containers, placed them on the coffee table, and said, “Mr. Lu, your errand. I’ve put it here for you.”

Lu Fangchi’s mouth slightly opened as he was about to say that he hadn’t ordered an errand, but then a light bulb went off in his head, connecting some dots. He waved his hand, signaling the secretary to leave.

The secretary left the office and closed the door behind her. Only then did Lu Fangchi move, walking over to the sofa, sitting down, and opening the thermal container in front of him.
A colossal thermal container, three layers high, had just been unwrapped from its outer packaging bag when a burst of fragrance powerfully invaded the nasal cavity.

Layer by layer, the contents were revealed to be rich and luxurious. Each layer had two compartments; the first held shrimp with peas and charcoal-grilled eel, the second contained stir-fried shredded potatoes and lotus root slices with meat, and the last layer was filled with translucent white rice, topped with a soft-boiled egg.

Just by looking, Lu Fangchi knew that all these dishes were crafted by Zhou Zheng.

Inside the bag, there seemed to be two small round bowls. Upon opening them one by one, one bowl was found to contain tomato and egg drop soup, while the other was filled to the brim with fruits—strawberries and blueberries. The red and blue colors were interspersed, with the strawberries deliberately cut in half, a testament to the cook’s thoughtfulness.

At the very bottom, there was a pink note. Lu Fangchi took it out and read: “Love Heart Bento~” The word “Love Heart” was replaced with a graphic, making it look very cute.

Lu Fangchi pursed his lips, closed the lunch box with some force, then took out his phone, snapped a photo of the lunch box in front of him, and sent two words: “Take it away.”

Of course, Lu Fangchi could see that Zhou Zheng was trying to make amends, but he didn’t need it. He didn’t need any apologies or compensation; all he wanted was for Zhou Zheng to stay away from him, no, to just leave him alone.

Staring at his phone, the nickname bar changed to “The other party is typing…” back and forth three or four times, but no white box ever popped up.

He was playing dead again.

The next half-month was almost entirely spent in this state. Zhou Zheng would send daily greetings, three times a day via WeChat, and would find any opportunity to deliver a loving lunch, which, though late, always arrived.

Lu Fangchi took a series of measures to defend against this. For example, he tightened the control over errands, specifically instructing his secretary to reject all errands he had ordered.

The next day, the delivery came in a takeout package, but inside was still Zhou Zheng’s loving bento.

With no other choice, Lu Fangchi had to cut off all errands, takeout, and even courier deliveries. Finally, he managed to stop Zhou Zheng’s loving lunches, but this led to a few small misunderstandings, causing gift boxes sent by partners to be returned. They thought he didn’t like them and started to protest.

Lu Fangchi had a hard time calming the partners down, and he consoled himself that at least he had stopped Zhou Zheng, but he didn’t expect the alpha to change tactics and start sending loving dinners instead.

Every time Lu Fangchi stepped out of the elevator, he would see a loving dinner hanging on the doorknob.

When asked, he would deny it, and when Lu Fangchi got angry, he wouldn’t reply. No matter what, the loving meals arrived every day without fail, like a stubborn plaster that couldn’t be shaken off.

Lu Fangchi went from initially refusing, to becoming numb, and finally to reluctantly accepting.

This was a battle of who could be more shameless, and Lu Fangchi couldn’t stand by and watch food go to waste. He had tried to be heartless and let the lunch boxes hang on the doorknob, but they remained the same the next morning as they had been the night before, and sometimes a new one would be added in the evening.

If he didn’t take it for two days, the doorknob would soon be adorned with three meal boxes.

Sometimes Lu Fangchi wondered why Zhou Zheng didn’t use disposable containers.

It wasn’t until one day, after finishing his meal, he took the thermal container to the kitchen sink, cleaned it, dried it, put it back into the packaging bag, and walked to the door. He opened the door, hung the bag on the doorknob, and closed the door.

Only then did Lu Fangchi realize that he had fallen for Zhou Zheng’s trick.

But—

There was no way!

There really was no way!

There was absolutely no way!

Because if Lu Fangchi didn’t do this, every day his home would accumulate one giant lunch box plus two small round boxes, and in just two days, they would pile up like a mountain.

Lu Fangchi didn’t mind the cost, and he knew Zhou Zheng wasn’t short of money either. But money wasn’t meant to be wasted, and his home wasn’t a storage warehouse for kitchenware; there was no room for so many thermal containers.

On the twelfth day of this ongoing situation, Lu Fangchi, as usual, left and returned home. Passing by the reception hall, he stepped in to admire the three koi carp worth two million, and began to reflect on how things had escalated to this point.

If he couldn’t refuse the loving bento, why couldn’t he return the koi carp?

Oh, because Zhou Zheng was even more shameless.

The day after the loving bento was unilaterally forced upon him, Lu Fangchi had wanted to retaliate in kind, to return the favor with the same tactics.

But as soon as he called the workers, he heard that the neighboring Zhengxiang Technology was undergoing strict reforms, with facial and fingerprint recognition for entry and exit. Takeout and courier deliveries were managed downstairs, and construction and other maintenance personnel had to report upwards, effectively blocking all routes.

Lu Fangchi felt as if a wad of cotton had been pressed against his chest, not heavy but extremely bothersome, sticking to his mind and causing irritation. The more he thought about it, the more depressed he became.

Just as he was about to explode, Lu Fangchi’s phone rang. The caller ID displayed “Sui Zhuoyang.”