"Forget it, Auntie. It’s not convenient."

Xu Yun tactfully refused. "There’s no need to trouble my cousin. I’m fine taking a car."

"We’re family, don’t talk about it being a ’bother.’ It’s not like it’s a luxury car, just a Volvo that costs a little over 300,000."

Xu Yun: "..."

His aunt continued, "Wait a minute. You can contact your cousin yourself."

"Okay, I got it..."

Xu Yun gave a perfunctory reply.

He wasn’t close to any of his cousins.

Outside of family gatherings, they basically never contacted each other privately or hung out. They were practically strangers.

His cousins on his uncles’ side, on the other hand, were quite close. Since their fathers all had stable jobs and they were all building their lives in their hometown with nine-to-five schedules, they often hung out together. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

What’s more, whenever they saw his mom, they never bothered to greet her.

They had no respect for their elders at all.

The more he saw of them, the more he disliked them, and he figured the feeling was mutual.

When his mom, Zhang Sujuan, took the phone back, she stepped aside and told him to be safe on the road.

She also told him to tone it down after he got back tomorrow and not be too flashy.

Xu Yun nodded on the surface, but inwardly he was thinking, ’I’m absolutely going to rub this in my two aunts’ faces!’

Zhang Sujuan also mentioned something else.

She said she’d found out that Chen Xin’s birthday was tomorrow, a day before her own, and that he should prepare a thoughtful gift to bring back for her.

"Oh."

Xu Yun heard her and nodded.

’Mom is really going all out trying to set me up with Chen Xin; she’d even found out when her birthday was.’

He had, of course, already prepared for Chen Xin’s birthday. Why else would he be coming back a day early?

’Yu Xuan has probably already handled it.’

She had already rushed back to his hometown that morning to handle the preliminary preparations.

After hanging up the phone, Xu Yun took a shower and got ready for bed. The long four-to-five-hour drive tomorrow was going to be tiring.

Suddenly, he got a call from his cousin, Li Lei.

Apparently, his aunt had called Li Lei and told him to get in touch.

Xu Yun could hear the impatience in his cousin’s voice and calmly declined the offer. Li Lei didn’t press the issue and simply hung up.

’His attitude made it seem like he was just completing a task his mom gave him.’

Just then, he suddenly heard the system’s reward notification again.

[Gold is always beloved. For making a Do as You Please purchase of 4,000 grams of gold bars for his mother’s birthday, the Host is rewarded with 5,000,000 in cash.]

[Bank Card Balance: 35,000,000]

....

Next door, Su Mu and Li Jinshu were chatting after Su Mu got back, talking about work.

Eventually, the conversation turned to his mother’s birthday.

Li Jinshu said, "Susu, since it’s Auntie’s birthday, do you think we should send her a gift?"

"What would you want to give her? And in what capacity?"

"As friends, of course."

Li Jinshu replied, "Can’t friends give Auntie a gift?"

Su Mu laughed. "And how would we give it to her? Mail it?"

"That’s true."

Li Jinshu’s eyes lit up. She said tentatively, "Why don’t we just show up and give Xu Yun a surprise?"

"Er... if we went, we probably wouldn’t even be able to find the place."

"That’s simple."

Li Jinshu said confidently, "Yu Xuan has already gone ahead. We can just ask her for the address."

Su Mu considered the idea.

She thought it was a bit risky.

’What if showing up unannounced makes Xu Yun angry?’

But, to be honest, the suggestion was very tempting to Su Mu as well.

She had never met his mother and was eager to take this opportunity to do so.

So she thought for a moment and said, "Just the two of us is too few. If we’re going, we should bring more people!"

"Huh?"

"Let’s invite Ning Qian, too. And President Liang and Song Xiaowei."

’Safety in numbers,’ she thought. ’With a big group, even if Xu Yun did get angry, he wouldn’t know who to blame.’

"Great, you get in touch with them."

Li Jinshu said happily, "We can meet up tomorrow and buy the gift together."

That night, she lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Her heart filled with anticipation at the thought of going to Xu Yun’s hometown and meeting his mother!

’Does this count as meeting the parents?’

’I wonder if his mom will like me when she meets me.’

Su Mu, for her part, was also wide awake, feeling much the same way.

Meanwhile, back in Xu Yun’s hometown, Yu Xuan had been busy all day.

She had arranged for all the master craftsmen from Situ Town to be lodged at a hotel, then contacted the fireworks team before finally returning to her own hotel room to rest.

These past two days, preparing for both Chen Xin’s and the "Auntie’s" birthdays, she had truly been spending money like water.

She wasn’t envious of his mother, but she was a little envious of Chen Xin.

’If only someone could prepare a birthday surprise like this for me, I’d be so happy.’

’Too bad that’s impossible in this lifetime.’

Although her relationship with her boss went beyond that of a mere superior and subordinate, her position meant that receiving this kind of treatment was obviously out of the question.

’The only thing my boss could ever give me is money.’

’As for anything else, I shouldn’t even dream of it.’