White Roses Dyed Blood Red

Lu Sheng Rong POV,

After saying their goodbyes to their best friend, Sheng Rong, Gebao and Mao Rong ran into Jiexu, Jian Nu, and of course, Gebao's older brother Guabo.

"When you said you had some business, you didn't tell me that it was meeting up with these two," Gebao's words were meant for both her boyfriend and her brother.

"What's wrong with that, huh?" Mu Jian Nu shot back as he fist-bumped Sheng Rong.

"We were just seeing off Angli and his family, they're heading to Europe for a vacation," Jiexu wrapped his arm around Gebao's shoulders.

"Does that mean that Mingou Jie left as well?"

"Sadly, yes," Guabo sulked just a bit more than he already was.

"Seeing that you guys are all here this early in the morning, I assume that you guys also skipped breakfast?" Maorong said.

At that exact moment, five other stomachs growled in unison, earning six loud laughs from the group.

"I say we get some breakfast, but at this time, I'll settle for an all you can eat lunch," Maorong grinned his signature lopsided grin.

They cheered in response and made their way out of the airport.

While Guabo drove the car to their designated destination, Lu Sheng Rong's mind drifted off into the distance.

Her brother, Lu Zhi Sai, had left a few weeks before her exams for another mission, and she was worried about his well being. Of course, this was a norm for her brother now, going out on dangerous missions that could potentially kill him, but what could they do? He was too old to study from the bottom up again.

Over the past few weeks, she only received one message from him. It was a 'Fighting!' message sent right before her exams begun, other than that, nothing.

But this was a common occurrence nowadays.

They would exchange one or two messages every few months or weeks, it was a wonder they remained so close over the years, but then again, they were each other's, only family.

"Alrighty kids, we have arrived at our destination!" Song Guabo said in his fatherly voice.

"Brother~~~~!" Gebao w.h.i.n.ed, "They beat us~," She pointed at the flashy red sports car in front of them.

"Suck it up sis, there is no way in hell are you ever going to get on the same car as that unruly child," Seriously! That boy's (Jiexu) driving was too risky and dangerous for his frail sister.

"I'm not that weak brother," As if reading his mind, Gebao counterattacked in protest.

"Remember when you cried because you were walking too fast?"

"Guabo! I was four!"

"So? Even a two-year-old could walk faster than you!" Gebao pouted in response.

As they alighted from the fancy car owned by the entertainment CEO Song Guabo, Zhang Maorong moved forward and offered a hand to Sheng Rong as a joke.

She graciously took his hand and acted like a spoiled princess while being assisted off the car.

They laughed it off as they entered the restaurant with arms supporting each other.

Mu Jian Nu, for a fact, was not pleased by this.

"Hey, guys!" Both Jian Nu's and Jiexu's heads snapped at the familiar voice.

"Ayyy! Sammy!" Mu Jian Nu moved forward to greet one of his friends

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I came here after saying goodbye to Yaorui,"

"Huh, we didn't see you,"

"I stayed behind for a bit longer," They nodded, the couple was clingy and couldn't go a minute without mentioning the other.

"Seeing that you're alone, come eat with us,"

"Oh no, it's okay,"

"No, we insist,"

"Well, I got some plans- who am I kidding, eat as much as you want, bills on me!"

"Did I hear that correctly?" Guabo came in with the girls and Maorong, "I don't have to pay the bills for once?"

"Aren't you one of the top three ric.h.e.s.t men in China?" Jian Nu looked at him like he was crazy.

"Yes and....?" This brought bursts of laughter to the group of six, now seven as they settled down.

A waiter came up to gather their drink orders and introduce to them the special of the day.

"Our special of the day is cho-,"

"We want everything on the menu!"

"E-everything?!" The waiter stared at Guabo wide-eyed. "But there are over 60 dishes here at our restaurant, not including the desserts and appetizers!"

"Right! Please, add those to our order," He smiled happily at the waiter, "What is it? For once, I don't have to pay for meals. I am going to take advantage of this! Free food? Yes, please!" The waiter nodded at him in respect to his statement. Free food was something only a few would reject.

While the waiter praised Guabo, everybody except Gebao gaped at him.

"Guys, meet my brother's gluttonous side, if you haven't seen this side of him, then you never really knew him."

"He's more of a glutton than the twins will ever be," Samuel carefully compared the two in his head, but as long as he had known the twins, they had never ordered a whole menu consisting of more than 60 dishes.

Even Song Gebao and Lu Sheng Rong nodded in agreement.

"That, we can confirm," Sheng Rong said.

"I say we all hang out for the rest of the day," Mu Jian Nu suddenly announced.

"I down," Jiexu nodded.

"Sounds fine," Maorong agreed.

"Sure," Gebao accepted.

"I need a new skateboard anyway," Sheng Rong threw in.

"I have company matters to handle, but I'll drop you guys off,"

"I can't either, Li Anshi's practice should be over soon, my parents want me to tour her around the house and get her settled,"

"That's right. She's staying with you guys, right?"

"Yup, her tour's coming up so she couldn't go on the family trip,"

"Don't remind me, I'm getting paranoid about what Long Ao has planned for my sister,"

"Could you not be so dirty-minded while I eat my appetizer?" Guabo said.

"Who's being dirty-minded? I never said that they'd do the nasty, my sister would eliminate his balls if he did that!" Goosebumps exploded on the boys' skin as shivers went down their spine at the horrifying threat.

"Remind me not to piss her off in the future," The others nodded in response. They had known that Zhang Wenshi was terrifying, but not to this degree.

"Don't worry darling, I'll make sure to preserve myself so we can make lots of babies in the future." Jiexu squished himself closer to Gebao and teased her.

BAM!

"Nobody will be making babies with my sister!" Song Guabo had a dark and ominous expression on his face as if he was going to commit murder at any second.

Ran Jiexu could almost feel cold metal knives being aimed at him.

"Brother~, don't scare my baby like that~,"

"I'm your brother Gebao, that's my job," He rolled his eyes at his sister.

"I'll tell sister that you don't want any babies then, imagine her face when she learns that she'll have to throw away all those hand-sewn baby clothes,"

"You wouldn't," As if to prove her point, Gebao pulled out her phone and made her brother watch as she dialled her sister-in-law's number. "OKAY, okay, I won't scare your boyfriend too much in the future,"

"Hmph,"

After a long, satisfying lunch, the group headed to their next stop, the mall.

This time Sheng Rong joined the boys on the flashy sports car and sat in the back with Jian Nu, leaving Ran Jiexu to his lonely self int he front seat.

He felt like their chauffeur! He owned the car for goodness sakes!

At the mall, they all went their separate ways and agreed to meet up three or four hours later to find someplace to eat dinner.

It wasn't a surprise that Jiexu stuck with Gebao and Jian Nu to Sheng Rong. This left the 'fifth' wheel, Zhang Maorong, to himself.

So what does he do? He calls up Yuan Fa Ren, his best bud. Then again, he could call the Kahn's, but they weren't exactly meant for shopping or walking around the mall.

"Shirling Mall, basketball court,"

"What?! Bu-,"

_____________

"That son of a b*tch thinks he just calls and expects me to show up," Yuan Fa Ren said all of this while grabbing his custom coat and gym bag.

_____________

Just like that, Zhang Maorong wasn't lonely anymore.

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Lu Sheng Rong's POV

While the couple went off to whatever they were gonna do, she and Jian Nu headed to the machine shop to look for anything worth her time. She came out with a few new tools and parts for the A.I. she was working on with Gebao and Aishi.

Next, they hit the grocery shop.

Right now, it was just her and Jian Nu residing in her three-bedroom apartment, and Jian Nu was the only one that could cook, so grocery shopping was a must if she didn't want to eat instant noodles for the rest of her life.

Plus, nothing could compare to his cooking.

They walked arm in arm as Jian Nu pushed the cart.

Every few minutes or so, she would reach for something seemingly appetizing from the shelves and threw it into the cart (not literally), Jian Nu would do nothing more than glance at them, smile, then return to his task.

When everybody regrouped, the two (ish) couples found that Maorong had invited a plus one, and both were drenched in their sweat.

"Why didn't you guys shower before you came back?" Gebao held her nose.

"We lost track of time,"

"Quickly! Go back and scrub yourselves clean!"

"Don't even think about coming out before an hour has passed!"

"We don't smell that bad," Fa Ren commented, offended.

"Take this from the guys, you smell, you smell bad,"

"Your lovesick puppies and listen to everything your girlfriends say, your words aren't valid," Even so, both returned to the locker rooms.

Mu Jian Nu snuck a glance at Sheng Rong and noticed her red ears. He smiled, she didn't say no.

At that moment, she too stole a glance at him, her face immediately reddened when she saw that he was already looking at her.

"W-what are you looking at!?"

Everybody but Sheng Rong laughed at the sweet interaction between the two best friends.