17 Imperial Jade

"Why did your parents name you Lengxin? I don't think you're that cold-hearted..."

"It was my mom."

Xia Minghua detected that something was not right with her tone and glanced over. Zhou Lengxin turned away and looked out the window, not speaking.

It seemed that he had stumbled upon a sensitive topic.

"Where are we going?"

She looked a bit pitiful with her head hanging down.

Zhou Lengxin felt a weight on her head. Xia Minghua's hand ruffled her hair before patting her head a few times.

"What are you— Hey! It's all messed up now!"

She grabbed his hand and smacked it.

But when she let go, he did not. Instead, he let it rest on her hand while faced straight ahead.

His hand was really beautiful. Fingers long and slender, nails neither long nor short and perfectly manicured. She bet he played the piano. Xia Minghua's hand was much larger than hers, completely covering them in a layer of warmth.

Xia Minghua made a turn into a parking lot.

"Are we allowed to park here? I don't see many cars here despite the congestion on the road."

"It's fine la." He pointed to a pendant hanging off the rearview mirror.

Zhou Lengxin took her free hand to touch it. The translucent green jade was cool to the touch. She could tell it was extremely valuable.

"Is this jadeite?"

"Mmm hmm."

It had the character, "Xia" engraved on its polished surface.

"Judging from its emerald color and its natural transparency, this... this is imperial jade?"

Xia Minghua made another noise of affirmation.

Imperial jade was considered the highest grade of jade, characterized by its beautiful green color and its sky-high price. To have such a big piece of it just casually hanging from—

"Just how rich is your family?"

Xia Minghua frowned and paused midmotion as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

"That's not important. I want you to focus on me rather than my family background."

Zhou Lengxin did not expect him to suddenly be so straightforward. From his answer, she could already tell that his identity was not simple, his entire aura was one of royalty and prestige, people liked to gossip about those with money and prestige and those with it liked to flaunt it. But powerful and wealthy families are commonplace in this country... unless he was the elite among the elite.

While she was still thinking, Xia Minghua leaned over and unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Come on, aren't you hungry?"

He vey naturally held her hand and led her into "Jade Palace".

She gave him a weird look. The name of the restaurant... it sounded like the ones of cheap Chinese takeout places she encountered in America.

"Sorry, he insisted on naming it that."

"Oh, does this belong to your family as well?"

"No, this under the Zhang's, but I'm on good terms with them."

If Zhang Liwei could hear his childhood buddy described their relationship as simply "on good terms", he would've spat out a mouthful of blood.

'Xia Minghua, you bastard! We've been close friends for over two decades!'

But Zhang Liwei was in England, he could not witness the astonishing sight of Xia Minghua holding hands with the opposite sex.

The way Xia Minghua walked in showed how familiar he was with the place.

He led the way while two serving girls immediately scurried behind them.

"Here we are."

They had walked to the second floor and then all the way down a long and winding hallway to an expensive-looking door with a dragon carved into it.

Suddenly, Zhou Lengxin's phone began buzzing.