She Is Coming

As soon as Chen Hai entered the house, he headed straight for the kitchen. He even gave Ye Shuang a smack on the butt. “What good food have you made for me?”

“Just ordinary home cooking,” Ye Shuang replied without turning around. Perhaps he had noticed the commotion outside, because he glanced toward the kitchen entrance, his eyes landing on An Yao. After a few seconds of silence, he still asked, “Why did you bring An Yao here?”

After all, An Yao was a stranger to Chen Qin. On top of that, Chen Hai had previously caused Chen Qin to become angry by making a fuss about getting a divorce. Bringing someone over so casually was clearly inappropriate. A family dinner like this was also not a suitable occasion for introductions, since everyone else was familiar with one another. Chen Hai should have understood that himself.

Hearing Ye Shuang’s question, Chen Hai merely smiled. “The little girl hadn’t eaten, so I brought her over for dinner. It shouldn’t be a problem for her to have a free meal, right?”

“If she’s only here for dinner, then of course it isn’t a problem. But…” Ye Shuang said, “You should know where to draw the line.”

“What line? There’s no line in my heart.”

Ye Shuang didn’t know whether Chen Hai was pretending to be stupid, so he said irritably, “Forget it. It’s like talking to a brick wall.”

Chen Hai wasn’t a child. Ye Shuang clearly wasn’t in the mood to lecture him about this sort of thing.

“Here, help me carry this out.” Ye Shuang pointed at a dish nearby. Since Chen Hai was already here, he might as well do some work before going back out.

“Oh.”

Not long after Chen Hai left, Fugui arrived with Taozi. After greeting everyone, the two of them went straight over to Little Yi’an.

Once Ye Shuang had finished preparing almost everything, he glanced outside and asked, “Is everyone here?”

“Little Yu doesn’t seem to have arrived yet,” Tang Keke said.

Ye Shuang looked around and indeed couldn’t find the two fishes. Just as he took out his phone to ask An Shiyu whether they were coming, the doorbell rang.

“Looks like they’re here.” Ye Shuang smiled faintly.

When he reached the door and opened it, he found An Shiyu and Anshi Yi standing outside, both wearing warm coats. When they saw Ye Shuang open the door, they raised their hands slightly.

“Yo.”

Perhaps feeling the warm air from the air conditioner rushing toward her, An Shiyu wrinkled the tip of her nose. “Mmm… It really is hot in here. What temperature did you set the air conditioner to?”

“There’s a baby in the house, so it’s better to keep things warmer,” Ye Shuang said.

“True. We don’t even need scarves anymore,” Anshi Yi remarked from the side, though she didn’t expose Ye Shuang’s other intentions.

After entering, the two fishes headed straight for the dining table. After all, they had come here to eat.

“Come on, everyone, gather around,” Ye Shuang called, beckoning to the others, who had all been sitting in the living room watching the baby.

“Today’s party is to celebrate Chen Qin being discharged from the hospital, and of course, the birth of my son, Little Yi’an.” Ye Shuang raised his glass with a smile. “Come on, don’t hold back. Eat and drink your fill.”

Everyone else raised their glasses as well.

“(゜-゜)つロ Cheers—”

Compared with Chen Qin, who was seated at the dining table, the other little guest of honor was still in the living room. There were too many people at the table, and it was rather noisy, so it wasn’t suitable to bring the baby over.

“Baby Qin, you’re not planning to go back to the company after resting for a while, are you?” Fugui asked.

“Yes. Ye has been working so hard, so I definitely have to go back and help him.” Chen Qin smiled sweetly. “Then he’ll be able to get some proper rest. He really has been exhausted lately.”

“I’m actually doing fine,” Ye Shuang said. Apart from traveling abroad to negotiate business deals, he hadn’t had to work especially hard. The two fishes would organize documents ahead of time and even condense them into key points. With just two or three simple sentences of analysis, Ye Shuang could understand how a document should be handled and whether it needed to be signed.

“Little Yu and Xiaoyi are my trump-card assistants,” Ye Shuang said with a smile.

“Are they really that capable?” Tang Keke asked.

“More or less,” Anshi Yi replied. “It’s just that Uncle is already shaped by me. He can’t live without us anymore.”

“Uh…”

Anshi Yi had made outrageous remarks like that before, so no one paid much attention.

At that moment, Fugui’s gaze fell on An Yao, who was sitting beside Chen Hai. “And this is…”

“She works for me. An Yao,” Chen Hai introduced her.

“Hello, everyone…” An Yao said shyly. “I’m An Yao. I currently work part-time under Brother Chen.”

“…”

Chen Qin said nothing, merely watching An Yao in silence.

Fugui, meanwhile, wore a bright smile, as if he had something to say but couldn’t quite bring himself to say it. After letting his gaze linger on Chen Hai’s face for a moment, he asked, “Oh my, little An Yao, you’re still a university student, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes. I’m a freshman.”

An Yao still had a youthful, innocent air about her. She really didn’t look like someone who had entered the workforce.

“You work for Chen Hai, so be careful not to let him trick you,” Fugui said with a covered-mouth giggle. His slender fingers, decorated with glittering purple nail polish, shimmered faintly beneath the lights. “That boy Chen Hai isn’t exactly honest.”

“What the heck? What do you mean, trick her? I haven’t done anything!” Chen Hai immediately protested.

“After all, you brought her along with you. Your relationship can’t be ordinary,” Fugui said.

The implication was obvious: Chen Hai shouldn’t have brought An Yao here. This was a family dinner celebrating Chen Qin, after all.

Chen Qin finally spoke, though she didn’t address Chen Hai. Instead, she asked An Yao, “Little girl, what school do you attend?”

“I study Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University…”

“You came from Beijing?”

“No, there’s a branch campus here in Haizhu City. She’s a student from Haizhu City,” Ye Shuang explained to Chen Qin.

“Oh?” Chen Qin wasn’t very familiar with the universities in the city, but her attitude toward An Yao remained friendly. “Chen Hai really isn’t a very reliable man. You should keep your eyes open. Don’t let him take advantage of you completely.”

“Eh—”

“Hey, hey, hey! Leave me a little dignity, will you? What do you mean, I’m unreliable?” Chen Hai immediately objected.

“Are you reliable?” Chen Qin countered.

“I set up my stall every day now. I’m working hard to make an honest living, all right?” Chen Hai declared proudly.

“You’re just heading in the wrong direction.” Chen Qin felt that Chen Hai was merely wasting his time.

He had quit his job at the company and run off to set up a street stall simply to prove himself to his parents. To her, the whole thing was childish.

“You…”

Seeing the atmosphere beginning to turn sour, Ye Shuang quickly intervened. “Today is a family dinner. Let’s talk about something happy.”

“You’re the guest of honor, so I won’t argue with you about this,” Chen Hai said as he began drinking. Still, he added, “But I’m not the kind of person you think I am.”

Chen Qin suddenly said, “There’s something I forgot to tell you, Chen Hai.”

“What?”

“Feng Shan is coming over later.”