“Okay.” With one word from Yan Yunning, Xuan Yanyu immediately reined in his anger, started the car, and drove toward the restaurant.
——
Once they arrived at the restaurant’s private room, Xuan Zhaoران had said she didn’t treat Xuan Yanyu and Yan Yunning as outsiders — so she truly didn’t. By now she and Jiang Xian were feeding each other.
Xuan Yanyu leaned back against the sofa cushion, his elegant fingers flicking an unlit cigarette. “Go on — light it outside the room and come back in once it’s finished burning.”
Xuan Zhaoران treated him as if he were invisible, her cheeks faintly flushed as she looked at Jiang Xian, opened her mouth, and took a small bite of the red sugar glutinous rice cake he was feeding to her lips. The amber sugar strands stretched long, swaying gently in the air.
Yan Yunning rested her cheek on one hand, watching the two of them with sticky, affectionate gazes, and a smile spread across her face.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of her husband’s handsome face clouded with displeasure. Yan Yunning suppressed the smile on her face.
Xuan Yanyu’s eyes lingered lazily. He said slowly and deliberately, “Xuan Zhaoран, can you eat your meal properly? If you can’t, do me a favour and go outside.”
“Brother, can you eat your meal properly and stop watching me?” Xuan Zhaoران’s fingertips pinched the cigarette from Xuan Yanyu’s hand and tossed it into the rubbish bin.
“Brother, eat properly.” Jiang Xian stood up, with great courtesy and poured a glass of water for Xuan Yanyu, then with a warm smile turned and poured a glass of juice for Yan Yunning. “Sister-in-law, try it and see if you like it. If you don’t, I’ll ask the server to change it.”
“Thank you.” Yan Yunning accepted the glass and took a light sip. “It’s quite nice.”
“I’m glad you like it, sister-in-law.” Jiang Xian topped up Yan Yunning’s juice a little more.
Yan Yunning smiled and held the juice out to the man beside her. “Try it — it’s very sweet.”
Xuan Yanyu gripped Yan Yunning’s wrist, tilted his head, and drank a large mouthful directly from the rim of the glass, following the faint red lipstick impression on it. After swallowing, he languidly and enticingly ran his tongue over his lips. “Truly very sweet.”
Yan Yunning raised her eyes and glanced at the dining table. “Husband, if we don’t eat the food will go cold.”
Xuan Yanyu narrowed his eyes at Jiang Xian and Xuan Zhaoران in front of him, still feeding each other, and draped his long arm around Yan Yunning’s shoulder. He genuinely puzzled out loud, “Do they not have hands of their own?”
Yan Yunning was mortified — that was exactly what he himself was known for doing.
At the same time, in the barbeque area on the ground floor.
Two servers stood on either side of a dining table, one holding a barbeque tong, the other wielding scissors to cut the steak.
Qi Qingchen and Jiang Jin sat across from each other, and Qi Xingyou sat on one side with Jiang Jin.
By coincidence, the server cutting the steak with scissors was none other than Shiyao.
Having been convicted of intentional harm, she had applied to large companies numerous times, always suspected of having character issues and turned away. In the end she could only find work as a server.
“Dad, Mom, after dinner can you take Youyou to the amusement park?” Qi Xingyou blew on a freshly grilled black pepper beef slice.
“Of course — if Mom has time, we’ll go.” Qi Qingchen poured two cups of red date barley tea to relieve the greasiness and passed them to Jiang Jin and Qi Xingyou.
“I have time. After dinner, Dad and Mom will go with you.” Jiang Jin wrapped a lettuce leaf around some pork belly, added the dipping sauce, and fed it to Qi Xingyou.
“Yay!” Whether it was the barbeque that tasted good, or the excitement of going to the amusement park soon, the little girl gave a satisfied shake of her head.
Shiyao, wearing a face mask, absent-mindedly watched Qi Qingchen. If only…
If only she hadn’t done those foolish things back then, hadn’t gotten rid of that child, the one sitting in Jiang Jin’s place right now would have been her.
“We don’t need help grilling anymore — everyone can step down.” Qi Qingchen said in a calm, flat tone.
“Of course.” Shiyao’s colleague, seeing her standing there in a daze, took the scissors from her hand, and led her away to attend to other guests.
After watching Shiyao walk far enough away, Jiang Jin raised an eyebrow and looked at Qi Qingchen. “Are you going to help her? She looks a bit pitiful.”
Qi Qingchen held a fork and fed a piece of steak into her mouth. “Eat.”
Jiang Jin chewed the steak in her mouth slowly and said very quietly, “Qingchen, be honest with me — when she got to know that Mr. Xu back then, was that arranged by Mr. Xuan? And was it within Mr. Xuan’s calculations that she later harmed that Mr. Xu?”
“Mr. Xuan knew that after Mr. Xu broke up with her, she would lash out in a rage and hurt someone — so he arranged for Mr. Xu to meet her in the first place. That’s right, isn’t it?”
“The purpose was to get back at her for trying to destroy his relationship with his wife, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know.” Qi Qingchen rolled up his shirt sleeves, spooned some of the sizzling fatty beef from the border strip onto plates for Jiang Jin and Qi Xingyou, and said in an even tone.
“What I do know is — no matter how she came to meet that Mr. Xu, everything that happened afterward was of her own free will.”
Jiang Jin lifted the red date barley tea and took a sip. “This whole thing has Mr. Xuan written all over it — ten out of ten. Otherwise how could it be such a coincidence that Shiyao suddenly met that Mr. Xu?”
Qi Qingchen had no desire to say more. “Don’t bring her up again. Eat.”
Jiang Jin shook her head, glanced at Shiyao in the distance holding a grill tong and tending to a guest’s meat with her head bowed, and sighed, “She’s actually much more well-behaved now.”
Qi Qingchen remarked languidly, “If you’re rude to customers they’ll have you fired by the boss. Can she afford to misbehave?”
Jiang Jin: “……”
——
After dinner, Jiang Xian called a driver to go home. Xuan Zhaoران clung to Yan Yunning and wanted to stay at the Xuan residence for the night.
Xuan Yanyu clenched his fist, infuriated from every angle. “Xuan Zhaoران, clinging to your boyfriend is one thing — but where my wife goes to sleep is also something you want to manage?”
Xuan Zhaoران pressed her palms together and pleaded, “Brother, I have something I want to ask sister-in-law. Can you lend me sister-in-law for just one night?”
“No.” Xuan Yanyu took Yan Yunning’s hand, fingers interlaced. “Call a taxi, or have the driver come pick you up.”
Xuan Zhaoران got anxious. “Brother, Xiaoxiao and the others are still at the old house — how can you two not go back?”
Xuan Yanyu pulled open the front passenger door for Yan Yunning to sit in, and swept a glance at Xuan Zhaoران from the corner of his eye. “With Dad and Mom there, how can we not go back be a problem?”
“Brother, just one night — I really do have things to talk to sister-in-law about.” Xuan Zhaoران looked at Xuan Yanyu with pitiful, blinking eyes.
Xuan Yanyu lowered his gaze to the fingers tugging at the hem of his jacket, his brow creased. He relented, “One hour.”
Xuan Zhaoران’s eyes lit up immediately. “Okay! Thank you, brother!”
Xuan Yanyu gave her a sidelong glance. “Get in the car.”
“Coming right up.” Xuan Zhaoران nimbly opened the rear car door and got in.
Arriving at the Xuan residence, Yan Yunning finished washing up and had just completed her skin care routine when Xuan Zhaoران pulled her off to her room.
“Sister-in-law.” Xuan Zhaoران grinned at her.
“Go on then — what did you want to talk to me about?” Yan Yunning lightly smoothed her slightly damp hair at the roots.
In an instant, a clean, sweet fragrance diffused through the air. Xuan Zhaoران sniffed instinctively and blurted out, “Sister-in-law, you smell so good.”
Yan Yunning’s eye twitched slightly. She adjusted the strap of her top that had slipped. “Is that what you wanted to tell me?”
“No, no.” Xuan Zhaoران cleared her throat and stammered, “Sister-in-law, you and my brother… the first… first… first time……”
“Ahem.”
At Yan Yunning’s cough, Xuan Zhaoран bit her lip lightly and became too embarrassed to continue.
Yan Yunning raised an eyebrow. “Why are you asking this?”