"Don’t you want to go ho?" Luo Chu pouted. "Fine, why don’t you just marry into Yiyi’s family."
"Really? Can I?" Qian Xiao was overjoyed but then grew a little bashful. "But we’re still too young. The wedding will have to wait until we’re adults."
Yiyi: "..."
Ruan Tang: "..."
Ruan Lan showed no rcy, kicking Qian Xiao squarely in the butt. "In your dreams, you little brat!"
Xu Yaoyao couldn’t help but laugh. "Qian Xiao, why don’t you just wait a few years? You can get engaged to the little sister in my belly after she’s born."
"Thank you, Aunt Xu," Qian Xiao said with earnest stubbornness. "In this world, only my Boss is the most brilliant sight; all other won are just passing clouds."
"You little brat," Xu Yaoyao scolded with a laugh. "What’s that supposed to an? Your mom, Ruan Tang, and I don’t count as won?"
Qian Xiao hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping himself.
In the end, he just couldn’t bring himself to hurt Aunt Xu’s pride. Of course, the main reason was that he was afraid of getting beaten. Kid Qian understood the great principle that trouble cos from a loose tongue. To Qian Xiao, Yiyi was his one and only faith. Long live Empress Yiyi! All other won were rely skeletons painted in rouge, not worth a second thought.
...
Xu Lai didn’t co ho for dinner, so Luo Chu and Xu Yaoyao cooked instead. Ruan Tang and Ruan Lan offered to help but were simultaneously stopped. As her best friends, Luo Chu and Xu Yaoyao were well aware of Ruan Tang’s dark history in the kitchen.
"It’s one thing to ban my sister from the kitchen, but why can’t I go in?" Ruan Lan grumbled indignantly. "I’m a God of Cookery! No one understands food better than !"
"That miraculous skill of making kitchens explode might be contagious," Luo Chu said seriously. "For the safety of the pregnant won and children, you two are forbidden from entering."
"Sister, aren’t you going to say anything?!" Ruan Lan huffed, her cheeks puffed with anger.
"Just wait for the food," Ruan Tang said, rolling her eyes. "What’s all the fuss about?"
"Exactly," Yiyi muttered. "What if Little Aunt’s cooking turns out to be really bad?"
Being backstabbed by her own niece was a blow so painful Ruan Lan could hardly breathe. She sniffled. "Without , Ruan Lan, the culinary world has suffered a great loss!"
"On behalf of the kitchen, thank you for the grace of not blowing it up," Xu Yaoyao chid in.
"..."
「Half an hour later.」
Four dishes and a soup were served, all simple, ho-cooked fare. While not as delicious as Xu Lai’s cooking, the al was more than enough to fill their stomachs.
But Qian Xiao couldn’t help but mutter quietly, "This is nowhere near as good as Uncle Xu’s food..."
Then he received two sharp flicks to the head, one from his mom and one from Xu Yaoyao. But Qian Xiao hadn’t expected those two flicks to be just the beginning. What awaited him was a mixed-doubles beatdown.
After dinner, they all chatted for a while longer at Haitang Court before Luo Chu and Xu Yaoyao finally departed.
Ruan Tang walked them to the foot of the hill.
Xu Yaoyao waved. "Go on back, Ruan Tang. We’ll get together again soon."
"Text when you get ho," Ruan Tang said with a smile.
"Mhm, mhm, go on back!"
Once the guests had left, Ruan Tang returned to Haitang Court. She unpacked all the shopping bags on the floor, hanging the new clothes she had bought for her daughter and husband in their closets.
"Yiyi, it’s ten o’clock. Ti for bed."
"Mommy, I want to sleep with you tonight."
"Mommy has to wait for your daddy, so you have to sleep by yourself, okay?"
"Okay, then." Yiyi pouted and went back to her room.
The seashell girl followed with a skip in her step, warily scanning the corners of the staircase for any sign of the round, rolling figure of Xiao Hei.
After a quick tidying of the house, beads of sweat trickled down Ruan Tang’s forehead. She checked the ti; it was nearly eleven o’clock at night.
She changed into a swimsuit and soaked in the hot spring pool in the backyard. Resting her chin on her hands, she gazed at the moonlight that speckled the sky, illuminating the vast surface of the sea as she drifted into a slight trance.
From the mont she’d woken up, Ruan Tang hadn’t stopped. She and her two best friends had gone on a wild shopping spree at the mall, which had been genuinely fun. But after they left, her heart felt inexplicably empty. She missed Xu Lai.
In what felt like no ti at all, yet was less than a year, Ruan Tang had grown completely accustod to having Xu Lai in her life. Waking up and not seeing him, going to bed without him beside her—she didn’t feel the slightest bit sleepy.
"The one I wish to see but still await, not so many are there. It leads to heartbreak, shattered into a river. Through hardships I walk alone, vowing to live well," she humd softly, her voice light and gentle as she gazed at the moon. "But no matter how I keep busy, it cannot quench this thirst for love..."
Xu Lai, who had just happened to arrive ho and was now standing by the pool, found he couldn’t bring himself to interrupt. At this mont, Ruan Tang was breathtakingly beautiful.
"Junior Brother, I’m heading to my room to sleep," Yu Guiwan said with a smile from beside him. "I’ll shut off my Divine Sense. Even if you two do sothing, I won’t notice a thing."
"Ruan Tang is pregnant," Xu Lai said helplessly, starting to wonder just what kind of image his Senior Sister had of him.
"That’s not a problem," Yu Guiwan’s smile grew even more radiant. "But you must be gentle, just like your Junior Sister-in-law’s singing."
"..."
Xu Lai ignored his Senior Sister. Feeling she’d been snubbed, Yu Guiwan went up to one of the guest rooms on the second floor.
Xu Lai remained standing by the pool, closing his eyes to listen to Ruan Tang’s soft singing. His wife’s voice was like a lody from the heavens, and he was utterly captivated.
But the beautiful mont didn’t last.
Ruan Tang stretched languidly. Her perfect figure was revealed in all its glory under the moonlight, and you couldn’t even see the slight swell of her belly where a new life was growing. She turned, saw a figure, and jumped in fright.
When she saw clearly that it was Xu Lai, she cried out in delight, "Xu Lai, when did you get back?"
She stepped out of the hot spring and threw herself into Xu Lai’s arms, her eyes curved into crescents with a happiness she couldn’t hide.
"Honey, maybe you should put so clothes on first?" Xu Lai suggested gently.
"Yiyi and Ruan Lan are asleep. There’s no one else ho," Ruan Tang murmured, nestling into his embrace. She closed her eyes, her face flushed as she pursed her cherry lips, her expression screaming, ’Kiss now.’
"My Senior Sister might be peeking from the second floor," Xu Lai coughed. "Let’s save the intimacy for our room."
SWISH—
The sound of curtains being drawn ca from upstairs.
"..."
Ruan Tang’s face burned with embarrassnt. "Why didn’t you tell your Senior Sister was here too?!" she grumbled. "Thank goodness I was wearing a swimsuit! What if I had done sothing improper!"
"My bad, my bad," Xu Lai apologized, sweeping his dear wife’s delicate fra into his arms. "Let’s go back to our room."
"Wait—"
Before Ruan Tang could finish her sentence, they were already on the bed in their room.
"Xu Lai, don’t turn off the light! I should go say hello to your Senior Sister first," Ruan Tang urged.
"No need," Xu Lai said with a sigh. "She won’t mind."
"Right, right! You two go to sleep," Yu Guiwan’s voice of agreent drifted through. "This ti, I’m not only shutting off my Divine Sense, but my five senses as well. The five senses of an Immortal Venerable are a bit too sensi—"
Before she could finish, Xu Lai casually cast a sound-proofing Barrier, and the world was suddenly silent.
Ruan Tang covered her face, rolling back and forth on the bed. I’m so dead. Did Senior Sister see ask you to kiss just now?
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