Chen Feng originally didn’t want to personally receive the assessment personnel sent by Zhao Shengsheng’s headquarters. Now he feels even more stressed because of Wu Mengting’s pressure about marriage, making him even less inclined to deal with these people.

Fortunately, Yu Xiaohui can help him handle these matters, including all the preparations for the jewelry store afterward, so he doesn’t have to worry much.

And honestly, he doesn’t have much to do; he just purely wants to be lazy.

After entrusting the matter to Yu Xiaohui, he quickly adjusted his mindset, went to the bedroom in the back to take a shower, and then lay in bed browsing his phone.

The issue of Wu Mengting pushing for marriage was indeed a headache, but Chen Feng is pretty open-minded, thinking that things will naturally sort themselves out when the time comes, so he didn’t worry about it for long.

Besides death, there’s nothing major in life, and since he’s already indifferent to the idea of dying, everything else should come as it is; thus, as long as he doesn’t harm others or let himself down, it’s fine.

Therefore, he quickly adjusted his attitude and kept scrolling through short videos and reading novels as usual.

Towards noon, Yu Xiaohui sent him a WeChat message, saying she had already met with the assessment crew and was treating them to lunch at Yujing Hotel.

Not going to the airport to pick them up might pass, but since they’ve come from afar, it wouldn’t be nice not to treat them to a meal.

Hence, Chen Feng naturally had no objections and instructed her to host them according to a ten-thousand-yuan standard.

Yu Xiaohui acknowledged the instructions.

Once that was settled, Tian Xiaoman also sent a message stating she had asked her friend, an interior designer, to visit the villa and could produce a design plan within a week, querying Chen Feng if he had any other requirements to mention early to her friend.

After thinking for a while, Chen Feng realized he had no additional requirements; he had already mentioned everything before and just emphasized the need for quality assurance in renovation.

Tian Xiaoman then asked if he was free in the afternoon, as she’d be starting work the next day, suggesting if Chen Feng had time today, they could go shopping together.

Cherishing his day to himself, Chen Feng refused her invitation.

At noon, since his parents didn’t come home for lunch, Chen Feng went to a small restaurant in town for a stir-fry meal. He ordered five dishes: two meat and three vegetarian dishes, costing one hundred and fifty-two yuan, with the owner rounding off the bill to one hundred and fifty yuan.

A one-hundred-and-fifty yuan meal for one person is indeed costly for most people.

However, since one of the dishes was squirrel fish, which costs 78 yuan, it wasn’t that expensive after all.

The most important thing is that the food at this small restaurant tastes pretty good, so Chen Feng decided to return here whenever he dines alone.

This time, he drove to the restaurant, and on both his way out and back, he didn’t run into any acquaintances, sparing himself from unnecessary social interactions.

He continued lying in bed at home, browsing his phone until around three in the afternoon when Yu Xiaohui sent a message, informing him that the three members of the assessment crew had completed the assessment of the store at Baijia Square and passed it. They were also assessing the customer flow at Baijia Square and several other required aspects.

The prospects of passing are quite high, mainly attributed to the lunch, as the three members responsible for the assessment were quite satisfied.

It is expected that within two more days, all assessment items will be successfully passed, and by then Chen Feng can formally sign the franchise contract with them, paving the way for recruiting staff.

Therefore, Chen Feng needs to stay in his hometown for another two to three days.

Chen Feng isn’t bothered by this; even if he returns to Xiu Zhou, he’d be a stay-home guy, and now back in his hometown, he’s still a stay-home guy aside from going out occasionally; there’s no fundamental difference.

Through WeChat, Chen Feng directly arranged to meet Yu Xiaohui at Yujing Hotel.

Before his parents finished work and came home, Chen Feng drove over first.

After waiting at the hotel for almost an hour, Yu Xiaohui finally arrived around five o’clock.

"Sweetheart, you’ve worked hard."

Chen Feng opened the door, let her in, and unusually said this sentence before embracing her.

This instantly moved Yu Xiaohui, recalling her days partnering with her husband in entrepreneurship while pregnant, staying in the shop all day, sometimes from eight or nine in the morning until eight or nine in the evening, sometimes for ten or more hours.

But her husband never said anything similar, instead, after earning money, he cheated on her with a mistress, becoming increasingly extravagant.

As a woman, it’s sometimes easy to feel content with just a caring word or acknowledgment from the person one cares about.

But, many women haven’t received such satisfaction.

Yu Xiaohui felt very fulfilled now, smiling and saying, "What hard work, I had a free meal and drink at noon, and the rest was just chatting with the three of them."

"Receiving people and handling affairs is exhausting. I’m really not fond of such stuff." Chen Feng hugged her shoulders, guiding her into the room, "Thank goodness you help me with these tasks, let me give you a relaxing full-body massage later, I guarantee you’ll feel comfortable."

Hearing Chen Feng’s somewhat teasing words, Yu Xiaohui looked him in the eyes, saying, "Your sudden gentleness makes me a bit flustered. You haven’t done anything to make me angry or are not asking something from me, right?"

"Really now, wasn’t I gentle with you before?" Chen Feng replied, slightly exasperated.

Yu Xiaohui seriously pondered, then shook her head saying, "No, honestly, you used to be quite impatient and sometimes curt with me, this started even back in junior high school."

Considering it deeply, Chen Feng realized it was true.

Although he wasn’t a particularly insensitive guy, he hadn’t actually spoken many sweet and gentle words to women, including his ex-wife.

To put it simply, he really isn’t great at sweet-talking women.

Saying he’s an honest person isn’t truly a compliment.

"Alright, the past is past, now is now. I’ve learned to appreciate women, especially cherishing and loving you for being such a gentle and lovely woman."

Listening to Chen Feng, Yu Xiaohui’s eyes glimmered even more.

"Have you eaten dinner yet?"

Chen Feng asked, sitting on the bed edge with his arm around her shoulders.

"Not yet, but I ate quite a bit at noon, so I’m thinking of skipping dinner."

"Eat a little, have some porridge, I’ll call room service to bring it over."

"Alright then, how about some white fungus and lotus seed porridge?"

Too lazy to go out for dinner, Chen Feng dialed for two bowls of porridge, choosing black rice porridge for himself.

Being a hotel VIP now, the porridge was delivered in less than half an hour.

One bowl cost 88 yuan; over one hundred yuan for two bowls in a five-star hotel seemed reasonable, focusing mostly on service charges.

Moreover, the porridge tasted better compared to other places, with a large bowl filled with thick porridge, indicating reasonable pricing.

While they were drinking porridge, Guo Mengyao happened to call Yu Xiaohui.