Chapter 34: How Can the Sparrow Fathom the Ambitions of the Swan?

"Hey, hey, hey!" Lian Youyou patted Richard triumphantly. "Look at my boyfriend! Isn't he handsome? Hahaha! Have you ever considered recruiting him to be a star?"

"Star?" Richard scoffed, "How could a sparrow understand the ambitions of a swan, Youyou?"

Lian Youyou rolled her eyes, displeased at being likened to a mere sparrow. "What great ambitions could he possibly have? He's just a university professor, a PhD from MIT, right? What else could he do—get a postdoc or invent something world-shaking to win a Nobel Prize in Literature?"

A doctorate from MIT was certainly impressive, but Richard was making Lu Ming sound almost too grand.

Richard looked at the naïve Lian Youyou. "You really don't know your boyfriend at all, Youyou."

He had met countless people in his life, and from the moment he entered, he had noticed Lu Ming. Everything about Lu Ming—his speech, manner, the look in his eyes—told Richard that this was a man destined for great things.

"You mean... my Lulu is cheating on me?" Lian Youyou was sensitive to Richard's words. "Impossible, he's not that kind of person!"

After all, it was Richard who had first warned her to keep an eye on Fan Chi and Qu Wuyan back in the day. Don't be fooled by Richard's tough exterior; he was unusually perceptive, with a keener mind than most men.

"No, no, no, you've misunderstood me." Richard almost burst out laughing and waved his hands. "What I mean is, your boyfriend is exceptional."

Still, there was something oddly familiar about Lu Ming, though he couldn't quite recall where they might have met.

Was this man really just a university professor?

Lian Youyou glanced up at the clock on the wall. "It's almost noon. Richard, why don't you stay for lunch? I'm making Spanish seafood paella today."

"You can cook?" Richard exclaimed in surprise.

He remembered well that the meals Lian Meng used to make were the stuff of his nightmares.

"Of course! You have no idea how good my cooking is," Lian Youyou said, grinning with pride. "No matter what I make, Lu Ming always finishes every last grain of rice!"

...

Regardless of whether Youyou's food was delicious or terrible, it seemed clear that Lu Ming truly loved her.

Those two really were as different as cats and dogs—perfect for each other.

"I won't stay for lunch. I have a dinner engagement to attend," Richard said, getting to his feet. "I should be going."

He glanced once more toward the study, then lowered his voice and said to Lian Youyou, "Youyou, although I've told you I won't interfere in my artists' private lives, it's better for you not to make your relationship with Lu Ming public, at least not while you're just getting started."

"Yeah, yeah," Lian Youyou replied, treating Richard with a casual familiarity that made them seem more like equals than boss and employee. "Keeping my relationship private is easy—as long as you don't ask me to break up with him."

She'd been in the entertainment industry before and knew its rules.

She was just starting out and needed to build popularity and a fanbase.

There are many types of fans: casual fans, boyfriend/girlfriend fans, anti-fans, diehard fans, shipper fans, bandwagon fans...

Among these, a significant portion are boyfriend/girlfriend fans—especially among male celebrities. When a male star goes public with a relationship, he typically loses a large number of his "girlfriend" fans.

Female stars have fewer "boyfriend" fans, but their numbers are still not insignificant. Then there are the shipper fans—those who imagine their favorite star in a relationship with another celebrity, creating elaborate fantasies to satisfy their own desires. If the idol's real-life partner isn't the one they imagined, these fans may also lose interest.

Although Lian Youyou only wanted to be an actress and had no desire to be a traffic-grabbing star, it was best to keep things private for now. Once she had enough popularity, she could go public with her romance.

After seeing Richard off, Lian Youyou tied on her apron and began preparing lunch.

Before this, she rarely cooked.

Before she started working, her mother cooked for her, or she ate in the school cafeteria. After she began working, there were set meals on set and countless social banquets.

After getting married, she had tried to be a good wife who could shine in the living room and the kitchen. But every time she went to the trouble of cooking, Fan Chi was never satisfied, always finding fault.

It wasn't just that Fan Chi was picky—their tastes were simply too different. Lian Youyou was from Binhai, a major northern coastal city. She loved seafood, preferred noodles, and liked her food light. Fan Chi was from W City, a small inland city in the south.

People often assume that southerners prefer lighter flavors and northerners heavier ones, but that's not always true—it depends on the region.

W City's cuisine was salty and spicy, heavy on oil and seasonings. Being inland, they had no seafood, so their diet revolved around pork, beef, chicken, mutton, duck, and other meats.

Lian Youyou wasn't fond of meat; she could tolerate a bit of beef or pork, but she was allergic to mutton and wouldn't touch it. Fan Chi, meanwhile, couldn't get used to seafood. With their tastes so different, it was rare for them to agree on a meal. Eventually, neither of them cooked, leaving everything to their housekeeper.

For the paella, the rice was a special Spanish variety bought specifically for this dish. The scallops, squid, prawns, clams, and other seafood were all fresh from the morning market. The seafood and vegetables were easy enough to prepare, but the most important spice—saffron—wasn't available at the market. Lian Youyou had to go to a mall to find it, only to discover that Lu Ming already had some at home...

What should have been a relatively simple dish ended up taking her over an hour, and she still hadn't managed to prep the seafood and vegetables properly.

"I'll do it," Lu Ming said at last, unable to watch any longer. Rolling up his sleeves, he came to help in the kitchen.

Watching Lu Ming skillfully clean the seafood and slice the vegetables with practiced speed, Lian Youyou realized that he was the one who could truly handle both the living room and the kitchen.

She sat at the dining table, laying down the trivet in the center and waiting for the paella to be served.

Just then, Lu Ming's phone buzzed on the table. The screen lit up with a WeChat message.

Lian Youyou picked up the phone to bring it to him, but saw that the message was from a girl named Gu Mosi. The message read: "I'll come back home as soon as I finish things here. Wait for me, senior. Love you."