The date 5

"Okay, my sweetheart. I want you to go on a date with my friend's grandson." Grandma Liu said.

Badum.

Badum.

Badum.

Xinyi almost dropped her phone in fear, her grandmother's words startling her. She knew her grandmother wanted to make a request relating to her relationship life but she'd assumed her grandma would ask her to go on another blind date.

This time her grandmother even did the unexpected by asking her to do something so outrageous.

Go on a date with her friend's grandson? She knew most of her grandmother's friends and she knew all their grandson's too. Or most of them, at least. She grew up with them and knew all of them. Recalling back to all the boys she grew up knowing, Xinyi couldn't, for the life of her, determine exactly who her grandmother could be referring to.

And it was due to this that Liu Xinyi felt she might've heard wrong, blinking away the surprise.

"Sorry grandma, I didn't hear you well. What did you say?" She leaned away from the chair and tilted her head sideways, hoping she'd heard wrong.

"You brat. You heard me well and clear. Go on a date with my friend's grandson, Xin Xin. That's why I called you."

"Grandma...you know I can't." Xinyi trailed off with a groan, tapping the butt of her pen on the table. 

"Why?"

"Please don't do this, grandma. Not now." Lu Xinyi could feel her heart shattering slowly at her grandmother's words.

For a moment, her eyes clouded with a truckload of resentment and bitterness but she tried her best to come back to a full state of sanity and not allow her thoughts pull her back into the dark place she'd struggled to get out from for so long.

No, she wouldn't tread that path anymore. She would make sure that the door she closed four years ago would remain permanently shut and never opened to any man. Going down that road was painful enough and she wouldn't dare do that to herself.

Not anymore.

"Xin Xin, you are no longer a child. You're growing older and also meeting people in the business world. Give someone a chance to blow your heart away and love you like you deserve to be loved. At least one man." Grandma Liu advised softly.

Lu Xinyi cringed, shaking her head at her predicament. Had her life become so bland that she now had to take love advices from her own grandmother? 

Frowning, the young lady heaved a sigh of annoyance. Whenever her grandmother picked a topic for debate, she would argue it till the other person succumbed to defeat. She had seen it play out since she was a little girl and she had no doubt her grandmother would want to have her way this time as well.

Though, Xinyi couldn't help but admit to the fact that whenever her grandmother mentioned something, the probability of it being true or being for the benefit of the person being advised was always high. Whenever she asked someone to do something, there was a certainty that something good would come out of it.

Liu Xinyi just didn't want to think about dating at the moment. Her heart had been locked with a large figurative padlock and the key had even been thrown into the sea. Even the biggest and most skilled fishermen and sea divers wouldn't be able to find the key and unlock her heart.

To her, love and relationship had become a distinct issue that she wasn't familiar with but at the same time, she had once been familiar with it and that fact could never be erased.

She wasn't interested in falling in love a second time because the first time she tried it, it had left her in a bitter and angry state.

Bitter and angry at herself and at the world for moving on while she had to carry such fear and burden. The thought of the concept referred to as 'love' alone made her heart go heavy. 

She was done with love.

No man could ever win her heart again. She would rather remain single and adopt a cute baby with two cats and a dog. That would suffice.

As she thought about this, Liu Xinyi realized to her dismay that she wasn't at all bothered by the idea of living alone with an adopted child and a few pets.

"You speak as if you don't know the reason I can't date again. At least not now. Try and understand me, grandma." Xinyi pleaded gently.

"Aish, it's fine. I knew you wouldn't be able to do it and I only wanted to try my luck. I have several grandchildren and they're always looking for ways to please me and get in my good books. Still, my favorite granddaughter gives me headaches and sleepless nights because she doesn't want to see me carry her children or meet her husband before I go to the grave."

"Don't say it that way, grandma." Lu Xinyi pleaded, already knowing her choice in singleness was now a worry for her doting grandmother. "You won't go to an early grave. We still have many more years to spend together."

"How else should I say it? Of course I can die tomorrow. How will I face my ancestors? It's been years and you still don't want to face your fears. I'm not trying to force you but I would've thought that by now, I would be preparing to get a few baby clothes for your child. Don't you wish for me to see my favorite grandchild's babies?"

"How do you know I'm fertile?" Xinyi diverted.

"If you're not fertile then that'd fine. No need to wake a dead horse. You'll do IVF or adopt a cute little child if you try conceiving and it doesn't work. I know you've never tried to have a baby, Xinyi so don't bring that up. Aish, it's all his fault. I know you still haven't gotten over-"

"I have. I have." Xinyi cut the elderly lady off before she would mention the name that should not be mentioned. "I've gotten over him a long time ago."

"Then what is it? Why can't you date again? Why do you keep declining every gorgeous and eligible bachelor I send your way?"

"I've been busy at the company lately." Xinyi looked at her table filled with several unsigned works and shook her head. At least she wasn't lying when she said she was busy at the office. Being an acting CEO wasn't much different than actually being a CEO since she was still doing most of the work and authorizing things.

"That's not an excuse. You close at five pm every day and you don't work on Saturdays and Sundays."

"Yes and I go home feeling tired then I have to review reports and sign documents and also get feedbacks from my dad before taking some steps which will be implemented the next meeting every new week. All these things takes time, grandma."

"Fine! I won't take any of my medications till you agree to go on a date, Liu Xinyi." Grandma Liu said with finality.

Liu Xinyi's brows furrowed. "Grandma, please don't do this-"

"I won't sit and watch you ruin your young and beautiful life just because of...hah! They don't even matter anymore. You have a bright future and you deserve to be treated right by the right man. I will starve myself of my medicine if that will make you change your mind."

"Please don't do this grandma." Xinyi groaned in abject dismay.

"I promise I will. You should resign as the acting CEO. Let your uncles kill themselves fighting to take over the company, I don't care. My share of my own will is enough to sustain you till your fifth generation. And you'll get some nice estate lands and other properties from your grandfather as well."

A knock on the door divided her attention between her grandmother and her work. If she didn't get her answer, Xinyi knew her grandmother would keep calling and asking.

"Grandma, can we at least talk about this later?"

"No. It's either you make your decision now or hear from my doctors later tonight. You pick your choice." Grandma Liu humphed.

Xinyi could imagine her grandmother frowning as she spoke. The contours on her face were already beginning to show little by little on the sides of her mouth and her eyelids but with the advises she strictly followed from both her health specialist and beautician, she looked more like a woman in her late fifties even though she was already in her late sixties.

"Ugh. I've heard you grandma. I'll go on the date."

"Aiya, are you sure? This child is tricking me again." The old lady grumbled and Xinyi giggled at her words. The sound of her giggles was so entrancing and beautiful that it would turn the heads of many if she was in a public space.

"Yes grandma, I'm very sure. You must take your medications on time. Send me the address and details of the date and I will be there." Lu Xinyi said distractedly,  remembering the meeting she had with a new partner company on Friday night and she mentally noted some important points she had to discuss during the meeting.

"That won't be necessary, my precious granddaughter."

Liu Xinyi's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Why?"

"Look at this granddaughter of mine. Of course it isn't necessary because I'm coming on your date with you." She laughed heartily.

Liu Xinyi's eyes widened in disbelief and she coughed. "W-what?!"