Destined to be his Wife

Chapter 38 - Let Our Hair Down

"Come on, baby!!! You know you want to!" Linlin was bouncing up and down, tugging at TangShi's sleeve as she tried to finish washing up after dinner. "Zhengy promised me that when he got off work he would take me out, and you two should totally come. A double date to celebrate your best friend's first serious boyfriend! This is a big deal."

"I know it is, and I'm really happy for both of you. I love you two together. It's not that I don't want to. It's just YuZhi has been tired the last few days with work and the arrangements for the engagement announcement. I don't want to pressure him into a night out when he already seems exhausted." TangShi defended, not entirely being truthful. Since the awkwardness of a few days ago things seemed a little off between them and he was being distant and overly subdued. Like he was overthinking again, the same as the time they kissed.

They got home in relative silence that night and he worked in his study, barely spending two minutes of conversation the whole night and she had gone to bed depressed. He had his driver take her to school every morning this week and Linlin had been collecting her due to their work Rota at the moment. She really felt like he was avoiding her again only, still being nice enough when passing at home. It was strange. She couldn't read his mind over it.

"Fine, leave him here then, although I can almost guarantee he'll come. He's YuZhi Leng, do you know what kind of mad party animal he's been all these years? You only see the tamed version since you got married but that boy has been a headliner since he was too young to drink." Linlin pointed out, hand on her hip and way too sassy for a late Friday evening.

"If he was that bad there's no way he would have been approved as CEO by the board of directors. They would rather not have someone like that representing Leng group. Stop exaggerating." TangShi eyerolled at Linlin's dramatics and carried on with her chores. Shaking her head and sighing at her.

"He was that bad! We just paid lots of money to keep his reputation untarnished!" ZhengLi strolled into the kitchen and surprised them both with his stealth approach of showing up without them hearing the door. Linlin broke into a happy grin at his appearance, visually melting into goo at her handsome boyfriend and rushed to slide into his open arms.

"That's only half true." YuZhi popped up behind him, sliding his jacket and tie off and TangShi swallowed her nerves, trying to act normal around him and hoped he was back to his usual self. "It took way more than money to keep my antics quiet." He grinned, high fiving ZhengLi for what TangShi assumed was shared guilty memories of two wild boys pasts. She really didn't want to know and tarnish how she thought of him.

"Well, we also romanced many female reporters to write nicer things about us." ZhengLi grinned, full on mischievous reminiscing with a wistful look and Linlin smacked him in the shoulder. Jealous fury on show and then jabbed him in the abdomen to snap him out of it.

"Yah!!!!" She pouted, ready to cause bodily harm and ZhengLi pulled her into his chest so he could hug her from behind. Pinning her arms down and resting his chin on top of her head to keep her prisoner and save himself injury. Crooning at her and swaying in time to her wriggles.

"Are you in denial about my previous littered dating history? How do you think I got so good at ...... " He ducked in, nuzzling against her ear and whispered the remainder of the sentence, turning Linlin's face scarlet as she spun in his arm and slapped a hand over his mouth. Shocked he would be so brazen about something so personal as that in front of their friends. Aware he wasn't exactly wrong but still, what happened between them at night should stay in the bedroom. TangShi pretended not to hear and YuZhi shook his head at them, not even shocked at his besties shameless behavior after years of living it with him.

"What are we discussing anyway?" YuZhi slid into the kitchen to bypass the public display of affection and lifted the dish out of TangShi's hand she was drying. Taking over for her and moving her aside. They had been sharing chores and cooking since moving here but he always felt like he didn't do enough because of his long hours at the office.