STD CH10

Chapter 10: Meeting the Parents

While waiting for Xu Chen to get his makeup done, Lu Wenxi pulled out his phone and replied to Han Fanming’s message: I’ll prepare well for the audition.

Han Fanming replied almost instantly: Do you need coaching?

Lu Wenxi: I’m heading back to my family’s place for a bit, and I still have some matters to handle over the next few days. I’ll message you once everything’s sorted.

Han Fanming: Don’t stir up any more trouble. Also, the audition date is October 16.

Lu Wenxi: Got it.

Lin Xiao’s greatest specialty was styling youthful, boyish looks.

That was the exact style she crafted for Lu Wenxi—brimming with youthful energy and vitality to highlight his “fresh meat” idol appeal. After all, the majority of Lu Wenxi’s fans were quite young, and younger fans loved visually striking, handsome youths.

The company had deliberately paired Lu Wenxi with the makeup artist who best matched his image.

Since this was meant to be a natural everyday look—and given that Xu Chen’s skin was already naturally fair with pitch-black pupils—the makeup needed to soften his features; otherwise, he constantly gave off an eerie, unapproachable vibe.

Staring at Xu Chen’s handsome face for a long moment, Lin Xiao suddenly blushed, though there was no telling what had crossed her mind.

“Little Chenchen, let me dot a teardrop mole under your eye, alright? Otherwise, your aura looks way too sharp, even though you clearly have such a sweet, well-behaved personality,” Lin Xiao said, picking up an eyeliner pencil and carefully dotting a tiny mole beneath Xu Chen’s eye.

Thanks to her “handsome guy filter,” Xu Chen’s icy aloofness translated entirely into docile cuteness in Lin Xiao’s eyes.

Lu Wenxi felt rather indignant, suspecting Xu Chen treated everyone else far more politely than he treated him—completely forgetting that he had mocked Xu Chen twice already and was lucky Xu Chen hadn’t beaten him up.

After dotting the teardrop mole, Lin Xiao immediately marveled, “So handsome! Your visuals are practically defying the heavens!”

Hearing that, Lu Wenxi chuckled—had Lin Xiao started picking up his own habit of shameless self-praise? He casually glanced over at Xu Chen, only to find Xu Chen looking right at him too.

Their eyes met, and neither of them looked away.

Indeed, adding that single teardrop mole had somehow transformed Xu Chen’s entire aura.

Xu Chen’s natural demeanor had been freezing cold, like a plum blossom blooming proudly in the dead of winter, carrying a chilly beauty that kept people a thousand miles away. With the addition of that teardrop mole on his face, his features abruptly softened—his indifference turned into gentle melancholy, and his aloofness shifted into a captivating vulnerability that made Lu Wenxi’s chest skip a beat.

For a fleeting second, he actually had the urge to drag Xu Chen straight to a tattoo parlor and have a permanent mole inked at the corner of his eye.

However, he quickly snapped back to his senses, acting as though that brief moment of shock had never happened. “Let’s head out.”

Brother Liu drove the car up to the gates of the villa and brought it to a stop.

Yin Hanwei and Lin Xiao stayed inside the vehicle without getting out. Likely still convinced Lu Wenxi was bringing Xu Chen home to meet the parents, they decided not to intrude, saying tactfully, “Boss, we’re heading over to the golf course nearby. Give me a call once you two are done.”

Lu Wenxi couldn’t even be bothered to explain anymore and merely reminded him, “Don’t forget about getting that SIM card.”

Yin Hanwei immediately thumped his chest in guarantee: “Leave it to me. Not even a private investigator will be able to trace that number back to either of you.” He acted as though he had already done extensive homework on protecting his artist’s secret romance.

Totally unnecessary…

Lu Wenxi let out a helpless sigh and pulled the car door shut.

Since it was still working hours, Lu Yushang wasn’t home; only Lu Wenxi’s mother, Qu Qiaoyi, was at the villa.

Having known well in advance that her son was coming back, Qu Qiaoyi had personally gone into the kitchen to prepare pastries for him and was currently waiting. The moment Lu Wenxi walked inside and caught a whiff of the aroma, he swallowed hard on instinct, tears practically welling in his eyes.

He was trying to lose weight and maintain his physique.

His mother knew this.

So why did she still make them?!

Back in the day, chubby Lu Wenxi had been fattened up entirely by Qu Qiaoyi’s cooking. He genuinely wanted to tug at the faint stretch marks on his body and sing Grateful Heart right in front of her.

“You brought a little friend home with you?” Spotting Xu Chen, Qu Qiaoyi paused briefly in surprise before sizing him up discreetly and asking with a gracious, poised smile.

“My new assistant,” Lu Wenxi explained casually before immediately starting to complain to Qu Qiaoyi, mildly reproaching her for baking pastries to tempt him.

“Quit being a celebrity already. It’s exhausting, and people gossip about you all day long—it makes my heart ache. How nice would it be to come home and run the family business? You can eat whatever you want, and you really need to eat more—just look how skinny you’ve gotten,” Qu Qiaoyi grumbled the instant she laid eyes on him.

Paying no heed to that spiel, Lu Wenxi firmly declared he wouldn’t eat a bite and steered Qu Qiaoyi out of the kitchen into the living room.

Not quite sure what to do with himself, Xu Chen simply sat quietly beside Lu Wenxi. Before long, Qu Qiaoyi pushed a plate of macarons over toward him, saying, “Eat up, child.”

“Thank you.” Never having tried macarons before, Xu Chen immediately took a bite.

After eating a single one, he stopped—way too sweet.

While Qu Qiaoyi couldn’t resist glancing back toward the pastries, Lu Wenxi leaned over to Xu Chen and whispered, “How does my mom look?”

“Completely normal. In fact, she also carries a trace of Purple-Gold Qi, though not very dense.”

“That’s good.”

“Your family home has remarkable Fengshui,” Xu Chen remarked, glancing casually around the hall. “The energy throughout the residence is bright, vibrant, and flourishing—a classic sign of a prosperous household.”

Lu Wenxi plucked a grape from the coffee table, popped it straight into his mouth, and replied, “My family is in business, and my dad believes in this stuff. Whenever he buys land or builds houses, he specifically hires masters to inspect it. Before meeting you, I never believed in any of this, so I didn’t pay much attention. In a bit, I’ll take you around the grounds so you can check if anything is off at my house.”

“Alright.”

By then, Qu Qiaoyi had brought out additional pastries, while the household staff set down platters of dried fruits and nuts. Though meant merely as casual hospitality, the spread was lavish enough to make anyone’s jaw drop.

Long accustomed to it, Lu Wenxi sat cross-legged on the sofa chatting with Qu Qiaoyi, popping a few grapes into his mouth every now and then.

Xu Chen, meanwhile, simply listened quietly, occasionally glancing at the domestic staff without uttering a sound. Qu Qiaoyi tried asking Xu Chen a few questions—such as his age and what his family did for a living—only for Lu Wenxi to smoothly interrupt and steer the conversation elsewhere every time.

“Mom, I’m going to show him around the house,” Lu Wenxi said, tossing a grape skin into the trash bin before standing up with Xu Chen.

Qu Qiaoyi looked slightly puzzled as to why her son would give an assistant a tour of the mansion, though she refrained from commenting, merely saying she would go oversee the kitchen staff preparing dinner.

“Where do we check first?” Lu Wenxi asked.

“Your bedroom.”

“Makes sense.” Lu Wenxi understood the logic—if someone had tampered with anything, his own room was the most likely target, so starting there was the right call.

Leading Xu Chen upstairs, Lu Wenxi filled him in along the way: “I rarely come back to stay here. I only lived in this room from childhood up until my first year of high school—I debuted in my second year of high school.”

“Mm,” Xu Chen acknowledged.

Though unoccupied, Lu Wenxi’s bedroom was kept spotless and neatly arranged, clearly cleaned on a regular basis—meaning there shouldn’t be anything overtly bizarre or filthy lying around.

Stepping inside, Xu Chen swept his gaze around the room.

The decor of Lu Wenxi’s room stood apart from the rest of the house: pale blue walls, with a massive framed photograph hanging in the most prominent spot. It was a portrait of Lu Wenxi himself; during a magazine shoot, he had thought the shot looked particularly handsome, so he had an oversized print made to hang at home.

Several guitars were mounted on the wall, with instrument cases lined up on a rack nearby. Pointing them out, Lu Wenxi introduced them proudly: “There’s a violin, guitars, and a bass. Inside that inner lounge, there’s a grand piano too—I can play all of them.”

Truth be told, his parents had forced him to learn the violin and piano, whereas he had requested lessons for the guitar and bass out of genuine interest. Later realizing those skills came in handy in the entertainment industry, he had kept up with practicing them.

Xu Chen stepped into the inner room to inspect it. It looked like Lu Wenxi’s personal hideout—complete with a loveseat facing a massive screen for watching movies, along with what appeared to be recording equipment. The piano sat tucked away in the far corner, clashing completely with the modern vibe of the rest of the setup.

On the opposite side of the bedroom were the walk-in closet and en-suite bathroom, with the closet serving as the entryway to the bath.

Given Lu Wenxi’s relentless shopping habits, even though he rarely lived here, the racks were still packed to the brim with clothes.

While Xu Chen examined the room’s Fengshui, Lu Wenxi browsed through his wardrobe, thinking about picking out a couple of outfits for Xu Chen to take back. Mid-thought, he suddenly caught himself—when had he gotten so stingy? What was the point of giving Xu Chen his own hand-me-downs? Why not just buy Xu Chen brand-new clothes?

Sighing internally, he realized lending Xu Chen his clothes over the past two days had gotten him strangely used to it—even if seeing Xu Chen dressed in his outfits stirred a subtle, indescribable feeling in his chest.

He chalked that feeling up to having gone without a man for far too long; naturally, seeing someone as good-looking as Xu Chen made his imagination wander.

Xu Chen inspected the space thoroughly, observing for a while and pausing to think. While Lu Wenxi sprawled back on the bed waiting, Xu Chen finally spoke: “There is nothing wrong with this room.”

“I figured as much.”

“I ran through every unorthodox and sinister method I know, mapping out where someone would need to place a curse inside this room and inspecting every viable spot. Everything is clean, and the room’s flow of fortune is completely normal.”

“So the problem isn’t in my room?”

Xu Chen walked over to the edge of Lu Wenxi’s bed and pulled a blank slip of yellow talisman paper from his pocket. Seeing it, Lu Wenxi couldn’t help marveling, “You even remembered to bring those after changing clothes?”

“Mm,” Xu Chen replied. Lifting the hem of his sweatshirt, he drew the folding fan tucked at his waistband, tossed the blank paper into mid-air where it hovered effortlessly, snapped the fan open, and murmured an incantation under his breath. A string of glowing characters lifted off the fan’s surface and imprinted themselves onto the talisman.

Seeing this unfold in broad daylight made the spectacle even more astonishing to Lu Wenxi.

The floating characters drifted like wisps of smoke—formless and incorporeal, yet imprinting cleanly onto the paper.

Afterward, the patterns on the fan remained completely intact; what had floated off was merely an ethereal imprint.

Simply miraculous.

Once Xu Chen plucked the finished talisman out of the air, Lu Wenxi couldn’t resist asking, “I always assumed those patterns were drawn by hand.”

Xu Chen looked at him for a beat, hesitated briefly, and tucked his fan away before answering, “Taoist priests do indeed write them by hand.”

“You’re not a Taoist priest?”

“I am ashamed to admit that my lineage is not Taoist, but rather Ghost Catchers. However, ordinary people rarely know of Ghost Catchers; calling oneself a Taoist priest is far more readily accepted, so when I first introduced myself, I referred to myself as Pindao to save unnecessary explanations.”

Only then did Lu Wenxi realize Xu Chen had actually lied to him too—so his initial suspicions hadn’t been entirely unfair after all.

Still, driven by curiosity, he pressed on: “What’s the difference between a Ghost Catcher and a Taoist priest?”

“We specialize in arts for capturing ghosts and dealing with evil spirits, whereas Taoist priests are far more proficient in Fengshui and geomancy. Our fields of expertise differ.”

“So do I still need to find an actual Taoist priest to take a look for me?”

“If you wish to, you certainly may. I am indeed not well-versed in that domain,” Xu Chen replied. Holding the talisman, he lifted the quilt beneath Lu Wenxi until the mattress was exposed and slapped the talisman directly onto it.

Lu Wenxi had already scooted out of the way. The instant the talisman touched the mattress, the air in the room rippled faintly before settling back into stillness.

Having witnessed Xu Chen’s capabilities firsthand multiple times now, Lu Wenxi trusted him completely. Meanwhile, he still suspected most self-proclaimed Taoist masters out in the world were charlatans, making Xu Chen by far the most reliable option.

“Forget it, I’m not looking for anyone else—having you is enough,” Lu Wenxi said, pointing at the talisman. “What kind of talisman is this?”

“A House-Calming and Home-Guarding Talisman. It will keep this residence safe and peaceful. Later, take me to inspect the apartment where you usually live.”

“Oh, sure. Let’s do that tomorrow—I need to dodge reporters right now.” Lu Wenxi agreed immediately, helping smooth the bedding back into place. “Come on, I’ll take you to check out the rest of the house.”

Not long after the two left the room, the maid who regularly cleaned Lu Wenxi’s bedroom stepped inside. Glancing around the room, she abruptly turned and hurried briskly downstairs.

Sitting in the dining room looking visibly restless, Qu Qiaoyi immediately asked the moment the maid came down, “What were they doing up in his room?”

“Nothing was touched, ma’am, except… the bedsheets were remade.”

Hearing that, Qu Qiaoyi felt her vision go dark. She sternly instructed the maid to keep her lips sealed tight before dismissing her.

Seated beside Qu Qiaoyi was a young woman around twenty-five or twenty-six—the daughter of a longtime Lu family housekeeper who had practically grown up alongside Lu Wenxi. Having just gotten married earlier that year, she had dropped by today to visit Lu Wenxi.

Seeing Qu Qiaoyi look as though she had suffered a massive shock, the young woman immediately tried to console her: “There’s nowhere else to sit in his bedroom, so they probably just sat on the bed for a bit.”

“Why on earth would he take an assistant on a tour of his own bedroom?!”

“Maybe he was planning to put on a little performance for his new assistant?”

Qu Qiaoyi raised a hand to rub her temples, unwilling to dignify that with an answer.

“Auntie, you’re not going to turn into one of those mothers who disapproves of Xixi’s partner, slaps down five million yuan, and tells him to leave Xixi, are you?”

To her surprise, Qu Qiaoyi instantly bristled, shooting Rong Ying a sharp glare. “Is my son only worth five million?!”

“Auntie, that’s really not the main point here, is it?” Rong Ying didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“It’s not that I want to meddle—my own family background wasn’t particularly wealthy, and your uncle married me anyway. It’s just… a young boy… even if he is good-looking…” Qu Qiaoyi trailed off, unable to finish.

“Don’t let your imagination run wild. Maybe Xixi just isn’t interested in dating yet—besides, he’s still young and hasn’t settled down.”

“Sigh.”

After Lu Yushang returned home, Xu Chen inspected the rest of the estate as well, activating his Yin-Yang eyes out in the courtyard and confirming that everything throughout the household was completely normal without a single anomaly.

Over dinner, Lu Yushang’s main agenda remained persuading Lu Wenxi to quit the entertainment industry—no matter how steep the breach-of-contract penalties were, the family could easily afford them, sparing him all this grief. Once again, Lu Wenxi turned him down flat.

“My ambitions don’t lie there. Saying more is pointless,” Lu Wenxi refused.

“You should have focused on school back then instead of insisting on becoming some big celebrity. Your grades were perfectly fine, yet you never even properly attended university,” Lu Yushang grumbled, still harboring regrets on the matter.

Lu Wenxi was fairly quick-witted and had done well academically during his school days, until he debuted in a boy group during his second year of high school. Busy working nonstop, he had arrogantly thought himself light-years ahead of his peers.

Now all his peers had graduated from college, while his own education remained frozen at the eleventh-grade level.

Of course, he was already a wildly popular idol, yet in Lu Yushang’s eyes, that still amounted to lacking proper learning and left him ill-equipped to eventually take over the family conglomerate.

Lu Wenxi stayed silent and kept eating, setting down his chopsticks after a few bites. “I’m full.”

“Still throwing a tantrum at me, are you?”

“How could I dare? How many people have you ever seen throwing a tantrum at their own financial backer?”

“I am your father!”

“Dad, my dear biological dad, eat your meal properly. You shouldn’t get worked up while eating—it’s bad for your stomach.”

Utterly helpless against his son, Lu Yushang quickly finished his own dinner and trailed behind Lu Wenxi, continuing his lecture: “Don’t you dare pick up habits like getting plastic surgery.”

“Your son has zero need for plastic surgery.”

“Don’t get injections either—hyaluronic acid or whatever else they inject.”

“I’ve already gotten them,” Lu Wenxi answered, sprawled lazily across the sofa.

“What?!” Lu Yushang flared up instantly.

“Otherwise, how could I possibly avoid breaking out? With a schedule that intense and practically zero sleep, anyone’s hormones would go haywire. A while back I got hydro-lifting mesotherapy injections with a few extra ingredients to suppress acne. Relax, there are no side effects—my face won’t freeze up,” Lu Wenxi replied in a completely nonchalant tone.

“Nothing but bad habits! Quit that circle immediately and come home—your dad will support you!”

“No need!” Lu Wenxi rejected him once more, leaving Lu Yushang huffing in exasperation.

The family visit concluded amidst Lu Yushang’s scolding, with Lu Wenxi beating a hasty retreat alongside Xu Chen. Walking out of the villa toward the nanny van, Lu Wenxi asked Xu Chen, “What about my dad?”

“The Purple-Gold Qi surrounding him is even denser.”

“Makes sense—his business wouldn’t be thriving if his luck weren’t great. Did you notice any signs of romantic affairs or peach-blossom trouble on his face?” Lu Wenxi wanted to probe whether Lu Yushang had ever cheated.

“No peach-blossom entanglements, though he is severely exhausted and ought to rest and recuperate properly.”

Hearing that answer, Lu Wenxi couldn’t help feeling a pang of melancholy, genuinely aching for his old man. He really couldn’t imagine how devastated his parents would be if he suddenly died—should he encourage them to have a second child? They were probably way too old for that…

Weighed down by heavy thoughts, Lu Wenxi didn’t say another word the entire ride back. Naturally taciturn himself, Xu Chen remained silent as well.

Everyone else in the van assumed the two had just endured a rocky coming-out session with the parents and tactfully kept quiet, escorting Lu Wenxi and Xu Chen home in a somber atmosphere before silently leaving behind a mobile phone and departing.

The very first thing Lu Wenxi did upon returning to the apartment was head straight into his master bedroom to take a bath. Yet barely moments after stepping inside, he marched right back out, walked up to Xu Chen, and gripped his wrist with a grim expression—clamping down with considerable force.

“What happened?” Xu Chen asked, instinctively assuming a ghost was hiding in the bathroom.

“Blood…”

“What blood?”

“The water coming out of the bathtub faucet is all f*cking blood! How am I supposed to bathe in that?!” Lu Wenxi was practically on the verge of a breakdown, his voice cracking upward uncontrollably.

Caught slightly off guard, Xu Chen looked surprised for a split second before following Lu Wenxi into the bathroom. Staring at the water filling the tub, he said, “What I see is clear water.”

“What I see is blood, and it even reeks of iron,” Lu Wenxi replied, wearing the expression of someone who had eaten shit and was still forced to savor the aftertaste.

Xu Chen walked up to the edge of the tub and rested a hand on the rim to check if anything was amiss with the water—only to hear Lu Wenxi gasp aloud: “Holy f*ck! It’s normal!”

Xu Chen let out a soft “Oh.” The instant he lifted his hand off the tub, Lu Wenxi watched the water inside instantly turn back into crimson blood.

Lu Wenxi swallowed hard, his throat bobbing heavily.

He could tolerate bloody footprints across his living room floor, tolerate bloodstains on his sofa, and tolerate puddles of blood left behind by fighting ghosts in his dining room. What he could not tolerate was taking a bath in literal blood.

He was truly not the type of guy cut out to “bathe in blood and fight valiantly.”

Yet the situation right now was simple: whenever Xu Chen touched the bathtub, it became normal water; the moment Xu Chen let go, it turned right back into blood. Did that mean if he wanted to take a comfortable bath from now on, Xu Chen would have to stand there holding onto the tub the whole time?!

How was that any different from needing someone else to hold Little Xixi for him every time he took a piss?!