Chapter 216: You little brat, what good fortune

As the engagement day drew nearer, Wen Ling became somewhat more nervous than Zhou Yinhe.

Her nervousness showed in that she was bullying Zhou Yinhe more and more often, and also becoming more spoiled; if Zhou Yinhe said something wrong, he might get a scolding from her, and if it got serious, he would even be yelled at.

Zhou Yinhe hadn't gathered with his childhood friends for a long time; at this moment, being driven out of home by Wen Ling's disdain, it happened to be dinner time, so he had to drive to look for his childhood friends.

The gathering was at the hot pot restaurant he had once gone to with Wen Ling; he arrived early, and the boss, Xu Yi, was standing at the door holding a cigarette butt, waiting for him.

"What a rare visitor, how long has it been since I last saw you?"

Zhou Yinhe covered his nose in disdain; even though the other person wasn't smoking, he seemed to already smell the odor.

Xu Yi quickly put away the cigarette and tossed it, laughing: "It's been so long since I saw you, I forgot you dislike the smell of smoke."

He said two sentences that stabbed him twice; Zhou Yinhe pressed his lips, and although he had been kicked out tonight, the engagement day was approaching, so he was generally happy and didn't take it to heart.

Xu Yi had originally thought Zhou Yinhe would get angry, but seeing him with no reaction, he found it strange; as they walked inside together, he asked, "Your temper has improved now; back then you would have already scolded me."

Zhou Yinhe lifted his eyelids to glance at him and said lazily, "If I don't scold you, are you still unhappy? You're playing so fancy."

"……" Xu Yi rolled his eyes, helplessly saying, "I owe you, that'll do."

Not wanting to offend a sharp-tongued person, Xu Yi learned his lesson.

After entering the private room, Zhou Yinhe found a corner to sit down first, frowning and staring at his phone.

Xu Yi stood aside fiddling with the electronic menu and asked, "Can you drink tonight? I have a few bottles of good liquor just delivered; since you're all here, shall I open them?"

His words got no response; Xu Yi turned to look at Zhou Yinhe, puzzled, asking: "What's wrong? Did you have a falling out with your sister-in-law?"

Zhou Yinhe gave a muffled hum, weakly leaning on the sofa, and complained: "I don't know if I've done something wrong lately, but these past few days, even my breathing feels off."

"I thought you believed you were right about everything," Xu Yi said jokingly with a smile.

Zhou Yinhe turned his face to look at him; Xu Yi covered his mouth and waved his hand, whereupon Zhou Yinhe withdrew his gaze and sighed.

"How am I supposed to coax her? I can't let her stay angry all the time—what if she makes herself sick?" Zhou Yinhe asked seriously.

Xu Yi had been married to his wife for several years and naturally had his own set of methods for coaxing a wife; seeing Zhou Yinhe's sincere inquiry, Xu Yi sat beside him and listed them point by point.

"Coaxing a wife also depends on the occasion; if it's just ordinary household trifles, you can buy her a bag, or some jewelry—basically, buy whatever she likes."

Zhou Yinhe furrowed his brows; although he thought it was a bit unreliable, he still nodded.

Xu Yi: "In other cases..."

Zhou Yinhe: "What?"

Xu Yi sized him up from head to toe, smiling mischievously, and said word by word: "Kneel down—it works better than anything."

"……"

Zhou Yinhe looked at him speechlessly, withdrew his gaze, and thought he shouldn't have listened to those useless words.

"Does kneeling help? He hasn't never knelt before, and he even got beaten for it, yet he was still kicked out just the same."

He continued to sigh, and just then Ke Chengyu arrived, catching sight of this scene.

"What's going on?"

Xu Yi chuckled and said, "He made his wife angry, wants to coax her but doesn't know how."

Ke Chengyu clicked his tongue twice, leaned over to Zhou Yinhe's side, and said, "I see your wife dotes on you a lot—just act cute and it'll be fine."

Zhou Yinhe didn't want to deal with them, leaned against the sofa armrest, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Let me teach you." Ke Chengyu patted his thigh to signal him to move over, then said, "When you argue, you can't just storm out in anger; you have to pester her until she calms down, otherwise if you just say you're leaving and go, it will only make her angrier."

Zhou Yinhe pressed his lips; could he not know? He'd tried every trick, to no avail.

Seeing Zhou Yinhe still wearing that expression, Ke Chengyu furrowed his brows and seriously asked, "What exactly did you do?"

"I didn't do anything." Zhou Yinhe answered irritably, "All she does is call me annoying, so I said she doesn't love me—it was just an offhand remark, but she insisted I was doubting her feelings for me and kicked me out."

Ke Chengyu's phone rang once; he took it out, glanced at it, gave a perfunctory "oh," stood up, walked to the round table, sat down, and rolled his eyes speechlessly.

"You little brat, what good fortune."

"And yet you're teaching him how to coax his wife—pointless, his wife is at home preparing a surprise for him right now."

Seeing Ke Chengyu's expression, Xu Yi stood up, went over to Ke Chengyu's side, glanced at his phone, inexplicably let out a amused huff, then turned and walked out of the private room, saying as he went, "Call me again when everyone's here."

Ke Chengyu responded, propped his legs up, played with his phone, and no longer wanted to look at Zhou Yinhe lying not far away as if his soul had been sucked out.

Jiang Jibai and Qi Zhan came together; they had already seen Wen Ling's message in the group chat on the way, and upon entering the private room and seeing Zhou Yinhe in this state, it was no surprise.

Zhao Ningyan arrived a bit later, still wearing his work uniform from the Justice Bureau, obviously having rushed over from work.

He casually asked, "What's going on?"

Jiang Jibai pointed at his phone, indicating he should look; Zhao Ningyan then took out a phone he hadn't looked at in a long time, glanced at it, read the message clearly, and silently sat down at the round table.

He spends his whole day being tormented by his future wife, while the brother of the woman who torments him is currently waiting for his wife to prepare a surprise for him.

This made Zhao Ningyan feel especially unbalanced inside; he lowered his voice and gritted his teeth at the few people, saying, "I really want to hit him."

"We want to too." The others answered in unison.

Who wouldn't want a wife like that—who dotes on you in reverse, lets you throw tantrums without complaint, and still occasionally prepares surprises for you.

All this good fortune belongs to Zhou Xiao Wu; they toil away every day under their father's nose, Zhou Xiao Wu's company is set up right there, so they don't even need to go to the office—his older brother already manages it for him…

The more they thought about it, the angrier they got; they told Xu Yi, who had just entered, "Bring the liquor—more the better."

"Get him drunk, get him drunk, get him drunk—why does he have such good fortune?"

Usually generous and open-handed men, at this moment their mindset collapsed over Zhou Yinhe's good luck.

"How did that saying go again?"

"Afraid of brothers suffering hardship, afraid of brothers driving a Land Rover"—that phrase describes their mood perfectly right now.

Zhou Yinhe finally showed some reaction, rose from the sofa, walked to the table, propped his chin, and said, "I won't drink; I'll go home after finishing the meal."

"You must drink!"

Everyone speaking in unison instead aroused Zhou Yinhe's suspicion.