"I feel like they hate me even more than you do."

At this, he recalled his little apprentice's ruthlessness. It was as if she'd driven an excavator directly to their competitor's foundation to poach their people. Young people these days have no professional ethics, he thought. But still… well done!

"Don't worry," Sun Dasheng consoled her. "With your master backing you up, they won't dare do anything to you."

"Hehe... thank you, Master," Ouyang Jiani said, clinging to his arm.

Just as they arrived downstairs at the company building, Ouyang Jiani's phone rang. After answering and exchanging only a few words, she hung up impatiently.

"What's wrong?" Sun Dasheng asked.

"It's just my family, being annoying as hell!" Ouyang Jiani grumbled, her brows furrowed deeply. "They said they've arrived at the airport and want me to pick them up, but I'm not going. They're not welcome here anyway."

Sun Dasheng tapped her on the forehead. "Such a dutiful daughter. If you don't pick up your own parents, you're going to have people talking behind your back."

"Let them gossip all they want. I'm not going," Ouyang Jiani insisted.

"What's gotten you so angry? I've never seen your relationship with your parents this strained before."

"They even brought a blind date with them! They didn't notify me beforehand or even ask for my opinion. Master, isn't this just bullying?" Ouyang Jiani finally spilled the beans.

"Ah, so that's it..." Now Sun Dasheng didn't know what to say. This involved his apprentice's private affairs, so it wasn't his place to comment. "Well, you'll have to handle it yourself then," he said, turning to get on the elevator.

But just as he was about to step in, she stopped him.

"Now what?"

The one who had stopped him was, of course, his little apprentice, Ouyang Jiani. She blinked her clever eyes, a wide grin spreading across her face. I have a bad feeling about this, Sun Dasheng thought, feeling a knot of dread form in his stomach.

"I have to go handle some documents at the company, so I'll be leaving first," he tried to say, but she latched onto his arm, holding him fast.

"Master, please save your dear apprentice! You're the only one who can save me now."

Sun Dasheng sighed. "Let go of my hand first, then tell me how I'm supposed to save you."

"Yay!"

They walked over to a sofa in the ground-floor reception area and sat down. Ouyang Jiani still refused to let go of his arm, as if she were afraid he'd run away.

"Master, can you pretend to be my boyfriend? Help me ruin this blind date so my parents can go back home reassured?"

Sun Dasheng gave her a strange look. What era is this? Does such an old trick still work?

"Your parents don't watch TV dramas?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Heh... they're not interested in those overbearing CEO idol dramas. They watch historical series and anti-Japanese war dramas, so they won't know this trope." She insisted, "It'll definitely work!" Now that it's come to this, I have to make it work, even if it won't, she thought desperately. What better way is there to handle my parents' surprise attack?

Seeing his little apprentice's pitiful gaze, he relented. "Alright. But I have to warn you, this is just an act. Don't go overboard, or we won't be able to clean up the mess."

"Thank you, Master! Don't you worry about a thing," Ouyang Jiani beamed.

She called Da Yong, the driver on duty, and the two of them headed down to the underground parking lot.

On the way to the airport, Sun Dasheng stressed again, "Watch your tone later. It's one thing to be casual with me, but don't act that way with your parents."

"I know, Master. You've said that a dozen times already. I, Ouyang Jiani, haven't gotten arrogant!"

Sun Dasheng shot her a sideways glance. You haven't gotten arrogant? Then there's no one arrogant left in the world. He wouldn't say much about her being cocky at the company, since she had the results to back it up. But his biggest fear was that she would get full of herself and start putting on airs in front of her parents. That would be crossing a line.

Fortunately, his worries didn't come true. In front of her parents, Ouyang Jiani was the picture of a well-behaved daughter.

"Mom, Dad, let me introduce someone. This is Sun Dasheng, my new boyfriend." She looped her arm intimately through Sun Dasheng's, completely ignoring the feelings of the young man standing beside her parents.

Ouyang Jiani's parents had planned a surprise attack on their daughter, only to be hit with a counter-ambush of her own.

"Jia Nai, when did you get a boyfriend? Why didn't your father and I know about it? The last time I asked you on the phone, didn't you say you weren't dating anyone?" Ouyang Jiani's mother, Xiao Hui, was clearly displeased. Wasn't her daughter just making a fool of them? She cast a worried glance at the young man beside her.

His full name was Wang Youcai. He was handsome and had a master's degree from studying abroad. Although overseas returnees weren't as sought-after as they once were, he was still a high-caliber talent. He currently worked at a foreign-owned enterprise with an annual salary of three hundred thousand, was a Beijing native with his own house and car, and seemed like a perfect match for her daughter.

Fearing such a fine potential son-in-law would be snatched away by another mother-in-law, she had taken the initiative. She piqued his interest by showing him photos of her daughter, then brought him along for a blind date under the guise of a family visit. Perfect! Xiao Hui thought she was a genius.

But things rarely go according to plan. She never expected her daughter to hit her with such a huge surprise. The fact that she already had a boyfriend made the situation instantly and incredibly awkward.

"Youcai..." Xiao Hui began, turning to apologize to the man who had come all this way for the blind date. "Auntie is so sorry. I truly didn't know my Jia Nai already had a boyfriend."

Then she turned to her daughter, her eyes demanding an explanation.

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