Chapter 164 Impatience

"I cannot enter your dreams, so how can you prove that the person in the dream was me?" Sang Yijia was a little dazed, but her reason remained intact.

Lu Wenchuan chuckled softly. "Indeed, there is no way to prove it, but everything I said is true."

"I'll take your word for it for now." Sang Yijia turned her head away, noticing the camera drawing closer and realizing the seating posture between herself and Lu Wenchuan. She coughed lightly and stood up to move back to her original seat.

"We are still outside, behave yourself." Seeing Lu Wenchuan's hand reaching out, Sang Yijia glared at him and warned, "Keep your hands to yourself."

"Does that mean I don't have to behave once we go back?" Lu Wenchuan retorted.

"..." Sang Yijia found herself utterly speechless.

With a deep sigh, the phone Sang Yijia carried with her chimed—not a call, but a WeChat notification.

Sang Yijia glanced at it; it was the family group chat.

[The Flower of the Sang Family: Jiajia, is what's on the trending searches true?]

Looking at Sang Zheng's WeChat nickname, Sang Yijia twitched the corner of her mouth, still unable to associate it with Sang Zheng's actual image.

"What message is it?" Lu Wenchuan didn't deliberately peek; he only saw the WeChat interface.

"Your manager?" Lu Wenchuan guessed.

Sang Yijia shook her head. "No, it's the family group."

"My dad is asking whether my relationship with you is real or fake." Sang Yijia tapped her fingertips against the phone screen and replied.

Still not looking, Lu Wenchuan simply asked, "And how did you answer?"

"Guess?" Seeing that Sang Zheng had sent a few more messages, Sang Yijia couldn't help smiling. She raised her eyes to look at Lu Wenchuan, a faint smile dancing in her eyes. "Well?"

"Can you guess?"

"I imagine you admitted it," Lu Wenchuan replied. "Since you were willing to go public, you must have anticipated this and wouldn't deny my identity."

"That's right." Sang Yijia admitted, but Sang Zheng's reaction had been quite intense.

Mother Sang, on the other hand, had taken it rather well and cheerfully dropped a remark.

[Our family is going to have one more son from now on.]

Looking at that sentence, Sang Yijia tightened her brows slightly. "My mom said we'll have an extra son from now on."

"Lu Wenchuan, you mentioned before that you were willing to marry into my family and live with us. Was that true?" Initially, Sang Yijia had assumed Lu Wenchuan was just joking and hadn't taken it seriously, but seeing Mother Sang's attitude now, it didn't seem to be a joke at all.

"Yes, and our future children will carry your surname." Lu Wenchuan nodded, reaching out to wrap his arm around Sang Yijia's waist. "I will persuade Grandfather about this."

"Well, about this issue..." Sang Yijia felt it wasn't necessary; the Sang family already had too many children. Sang Yijia had three older brothers alone, not to mention how many nephews and nieces there might be once her brothers got married.

"Grandfather might have objections." Lu Wenchuan was the last remaining descendant of the Lu family. If he married into her family, Elder Lu would certainly disapprove and might even use his accumulated savings to somehow procure a grandson.

Lu Wenchuan imagined the scenario; Elder Lu had quite progressive thoughts, so such a thing wasn't entirely out of the question.

"Jiajia, if we have a second child, could that one carry my surname?" Afraid Sang Yijia would misunderstand, Lu Wenchuan quickly added, "After Grandfather passes away, the child can change their surname back."

"These are matters for the future. When that time truly arrives, we can discuss it then, alright?" It wasn't that Sang Yijia was unwilling to think about it; she was also afraid. No matter how wonderful things seemed now, and no matter how sweet the words sounded, they might end up being nothing more than a dream.

Lu Wenchuan murmured in agreement, "Alright."

"Once the show ends, I will go meet your parents, and then take you to meet my grandfather." Lu Wenchuan had it all planned out. "And then we'll strive to get our marriage license by the end of the year."

"With the wedding held next year."

Sang Yijia gave a soft assent. "Think whatever you like."

She had given up thinking altogether.

"Jiajia, I genuinely want to live my life with you." Lu Wenchuan pulled Sang Yijia closer into his embrace. Her recent attitude and reactions had left him feeling insecure, constantly worried that she might casually mention a breakup and vanish in the blink of an eye.

Sang Yijia's mind was in a turmoil, her brows furrowed. "Lu Wenchuan, let's both take some time to calm down."

"Before, I said we would just give it a try."

"But you're moving too fast, and I can't quite adapt." Sang Yijia confessed honestly.

"The pace is simply too fast." Sang Yijia was not yet prepared to build a family, and she found herself wanting to escape.

Lu Wenchuan fell silent.

The atmosphere between the two of them grew delicate.

The cameraman quietly retreated.

The cameraman never expected that Lu Wenchuan would be thinking of marrying Sang Yijia so soon. How long had they even known each other?

Believing he had stumbled upon some great secret, the cameraman sensibly walked far away.

The silence between Sang Yijia and Lu Wenchuan did not affect the others, whose attention remained entirely focused on the barbecue.

Lan Qing had thrown a tantrum, and the whole thing had been caught on camera. Now, if she wanted to salvage her image, she had to act magnanimous, sensible, and understanding, while also playing along with Shen Jing to maintain their "reconciled" couple persona.

Xu Wei had joined the show with a clear purpose: to become famous. But now she had developed an additional goal—to spark dating rumors with Shen Jing, even if only minor ones. As long as Shen Jing showed her even the slightest hint of preferential treatment, Xu Wei would have succeeded.

Yan Ningxi and Bian He had no particular hidden agendas; they simply ate, drank, played games, and had a genuinely good time.

With everyone well-fed and watered, post-meal entertainment was up next.

Director Chen cleared his throat. "Was tonight's seaside barbecue fun or not?"

"Did you enjoy it?" Director Chen hadn't dared to drink too much, limiting himself to just a few bottles of beer, but the alcohol had already risen to his head, flushing his cheeks red.

Director Chen glanced around at the guests present and continued, "Next up, we have only one gaming session."

"And that is to play games." Director Chen set down several decks of UNO cards. "Whoever loses must accept a punishment."

"We have prepared two stages here: singing and dancing."

"Those who lose must prepare a talent performance."

"Not only that, but they must also face a challenge of answering a truth question from everyone." This combined two different game formats, yet possessed a twist of its own.

Director Chen knew that the vast majority of viewers watching romance reality shows were young people, so he tried to align the entertainment as closely as possible with young people's ideas and methods.

"And tonight's winner will receive a mysterious super VIP membership card." Director Chen dropped a cryptic hint. "This membership card is related to the tasks in the next episode, oh."

"What kind of task?" Yan Ningxi's interest was piqued. She raised her hand high and chimed in, "I'm a singer-dancer, there's nothing I can't do."

Bian He rubbed his temples in resignation. "That's a punishment for losing."

"If we don't lose, we won't need it."

"But I want to perform anyway," Yan Ningxi replied with a straight face.

Bian He declined to answer.

Director Chen was amused. "Sure, little Sisi can perform as a special guest."

On the other side, Lu Wenchuan wanted to ask Sang Yijia if she knew how to play UNO, but suddenly noticed that after drinking the fruit wine, her cheeks were flushed with a rosy hue. Enhanced by the flickering firelight, her complexion looked even brighter and more radiant.

Like an apple.

Making one want to take a bite.