Lu Jinting pinched her bulging cheeks. Ye Guanguan’s thin chin looked so round and cute now.
“Well, I won’t mind it if you can get a bit plumper.”
Ye Guanguan wiped her mouth and intended to leave, but she was stopped by Lu Jinting. “Let’s stay a bit longer,” said Lu Jinting.
“What’s wrong?”
Ye Guanguan found that though Lu Jinting appeared not so interested in Qiao Xinyi, he just kept glancing at the study on the second floor. It seemed that he cared about the girl pretty much.
Ye Guanguan snuggled up to Lu Jinting with dissatisfaction, making no secret of her jealousy.
“Are you sad because she leaves?”
Lu Jinting was so surprised and amused to see her furious but funny reaction. Was she declaring her sovereignty now? Naughty girl.
“You will get to receive another ‘training program’ soon after you finish this meal. So, let’s make it last a bit longer.”
Lu Jinting said so while taking more food into Ye Guanguan’s bowl. It was the first time that Ye Guanguan had ever seen someone had described his home as the training ground. She laughed and took some food back to Lu Jinting’s bowl.
Finishing the meals, they already missed the time of getting Ye Guanguan’s permanent residence booklet transferred into Lu Fmily due to Old Mr. Lu’s interruption. In the afternoon, Lu Jinting was roped in to play Go with Old Mr. Lu. Soon, it was the time to pick up Tuanzi.
Though Ye Guanguan didn’t give birth to the boy herself, he clung to her as if she were his birth mother. Of course, Ye Guanguan would care about him pretty much. It was the forty fifth time that she had yawned. While Qiao Xinyi, who was also watching the game aside, behaved much less freely.
Ye Guanguan stayed behind Lu Jinting and pulled his sleeve, saying in a small voice, “Uncle, we should set off to pick up Tuanzi now.”
Hearing this, Lu Jinting put the piece in the air back into the box.
Though Old Mr. Lu was old now, he still had acute hearing. He just cast a glance at Ye Guanguan and began uttering.
“Now that you have married into Lu Family, you should stay here today. How can you leave after just finishing lunch? Making yourself like a guest here, that’s really impolite.”
Ye Guanguan dared not to defend herself. But she still tried to explaine a low voice, “We have promised Tuanzi to pick him up after school.”
“Why are you so nervous? Jinting should pay his attention to important business. Do you have to bother him with those small things?”
Though Old Mr. Lu said those words, he was still clear that Tuanzi was his own grandson. He turned back and said to Lu Zhencong, “Tell my driver to pick him up.”
Old Mr. Lu’s driver was his guard who had worked for him since a very young age. And he was still serving Old Mr. Lu even though he was old now.
Lu Jinting cast a glance to Ye Guanguan to tell her that Old Mr. Lu finally agreed their marriage. Then he quickly held the chess piece again and kept playing.
“Grandfather, you are going to lose the game.”
The white part assumed a good situation and had encircled the black part. But Old Mr. Lu was not that kind of person who would give in so easily. Instead, he just calmly put down his piece.
“It’s hard to say.”
As the game got more and more complex, Ye Guanguan got rather bored. She couldn’t help yawning again. Seeing that made Qiao Xinyi burst out laughing.
“Sister, do you want to look around here? You are really sleepy now.”
It was true that Ye Guanguan was also a graceful girl but she wasn’t from a family of scholar. She liked watching soap operas from a young age. Actually, she had also tried to keep quiet and had ever learned embroidery but eventually stopped halfway.
Ye Guanguan had forced herself to watch them playing Go for hours and this boring game was driving her crazy. Ye Guanguan firmly believed that only soldiers would love it.
Seeing that Ye Guanguan couldn’t stand it anymore and was about to fall asleep, Lu Jinting turned around asking with great concern, “Do you want to walk around here?”
Ye Guanguan rubbed her sleepy eyes. The moment she caught sight of the distain in Qiao Xinyi’s eyes, she got awake quickly. She couldn’t be so relaxed and careless in front of her enemy, though she stayed up late last night.
Of course, she was not willing to go out with Qiao Xinyi. But she would seem to be afraid of Qiao Xinyi if she refused. She was not that kind of person who would give up easily. So Ye Guanguan immediately agree to get out with her.
Before Ye Guanguan and Qiao Xinyi walked far away, Old Mr. Lu averted all his attention from the game to the girls. Seeing Ye Guanguan’s figure fading gradually, Old Mr. Lu shook his head negatively.
“That girl is no more than a kid.”
Lu Jinting simply thought that his grandfather was praising Ye Guanguan, so he confidently put down the piece in his hand.
“Grandfather, you’ll lose it this time.”
Ye Guanguan could see the fiery red maples and as they walked forward, each of their steps would make crisp sound.
Ye Guanguan originally thought that Qiao Xinyi just pretended to be polite and graceful in public. But as she walked with the girl for a while, Ye Guanguan just found that Qiao Xinyi still kept extremely graceful even though there were no other people.
“These are acer truncatums and they will grow large enough to cover the whole sky. You can enjoy them all year long.”
Gazing at the innocent smile on the girl’s face, Ye Guanguan took her time to observe the changes of her expression but found nothing unusual.
“Do you come here frequently?”
“I often came here when I was small.” Qiao Xinyi nodded her head quickly and began recalling the happy past days. Ye Guanguan could see that she was not showing off but telling a precious story. “Jinting hadn’t joined the army that time and we always spent a lot of time playing together,” said Qiao Xinyi.
Ye Guanguan kept peaceful. Actually, she was willing to learn those things that she didn’t know, asking, “So, you grow up together?”
Hearing Ye Guanguan’s question, Qiao Xinyi blushed in a sudden. “No, we are not. Jinting seldom goes back home. We could meet frequently a few years before. But there’s no such chances now.
A few years ago.
Hearing Qiao Xinyi mentioned the word, Ye Guanguan felt some pictures appeared in her messy mind. It seemed that there was someone smiling at her but she could not figure out who the person was.
A ward bed appeared in her mind then, after which she felt a sudden pain on her inferior belly. Soon after, she heard a baby’s crying.
What happened? The strong pain made Ye Guanguan feel that there was something wrong about her. But she failed to make it clear what exactly it was.
She had never given birth to a baby. And in her memory, she just kept struggling to get rid of Lu Jinting. Was that baby Tuanzi? Who is his biological mother?
“What’s wrong with you, sister?”
Qiao XInyi’s face seemed to be shaking slowly in front of Ye Guanguan. And her voice seemed to be fading.
Ye Guanguan shook her head and managed to calm herself down. But thinking about that Qiao Xinyi just mentioned the thing happened a few years before, Ye Guanguan quickly seized her wrist.
“What happened a few years before? Lu Jinting and you…”
“Sister, are you feeling uncomfortable? All those things had already passed. Though I still feel pitiful, you two have gotten married now. I think I shouldn’t stick to it any longer.”
Qiao Xinyi’s generous behaviour made Ye Guanguan feel dizzier. Ye Guanguan couldn’t help thinking if she was Tuanzi’s biological mother.
So many puzzles made her feel more curious about the memory that she had lost. Finally, she lost her balance and fell down on the ground in a faint.
It was dark outside when Ye Guanguan woke up. She could vaguely hear the sweet voice of Tuanzi. The moment Ye Guanguan opened her eyes, she saw Lu Jinting, who looked a bit nervous while staring at her.
“What happened? The doctor said that you are suffering from hypoglycemia.”
“Nothing serious.” Ye Guanguan slowly sat up. Before she sat up straight, she saw a cute round little thing get to hold her body and eventually lay into her arms.
“Mom, are you sick?”
Ye Guanguan touched Tuanzi’s head slightly. Before she answered his question, Ye Guanguan noticed Qiao Xinyi standing outside the door and staring at her enviously. Seeing that suddenly made Ye Guanguan feel guilty in her heart, though Ye Guanguan couldn’t make it clear why she could have this kind of feeling in her heart.
“I’m okay. Maybe it’s just because I ate too much this noon.”
Tuanzi tilted his head and said, eyes filled with puzzle as well as innocence, “Will we feel dizzy if we eat too much? Papa, remember to take good care of mom next time.”