Chapter 61: Wearing Two Pairs in Turns

"Damn it, the Building Z administrator only gives me broken tables and old chairs; if I'm not careful, I'm going to fall. And that's after I even slipped him some Zhonghua cigarettes."

Yang Tianxing grumbled as he climbed up, shifting the blame onto the furniture and the administrator.

Once he was seated again, Yang Tianxing kindly reminded Liu Jiaoyue: "You should be careful when you sit in these chairs from now on, don't fall."

"I understand."

Liu Jiaoyue's voice was as soft and weak as it had always been.

Yang Tianxing's heart was beating very fast at this moment, "thump-thump-thump" like a heavy hammer striking a drum, but his voice and tone remained as steady as usual.

He wasn't afraid of Liu Jiaoyue meeting Empress Dowager Gao at all; the main thing was who the person accompanying Gao Meilan was.

Whether Tan Zhizhi was accompanying her or not, that was what mattered most.

However, Yang Tianxing certainly couldn't ask directly; that would make his intentions too obvious, even if Liu Jiaoyue might not necessarily see it.

"Ahem."

Yang Tianxing coughed once and began to make small talk as if nothing were the matter: "My mom too, why did she come to my school from the hotel all by herself so late? The roads aren't easy to walk at night."

"Auntie Gao and Uncle Yang came over together."

Liu Jiaoyue explained very earnestly.

"Whew..."

Yang Tianxing took the opportunity of exhaling smoke to let out a long breath; so it was only Old Yang, he could finally set his mind at ease.

"How was it, did you have a pleasant chat?"

Yang Tianxing finally smiled; he could already guess the content of their conversation.

He knew his mother best; it was nothing more than prying into the relationship between Liu Jiaoyue and himself, or perhaps digging deeper into her family background and such.

"It, it was okay."

Actually, Liu Jiaoyue didn't know what a "pleasant chat" was supposed to look like, but she could feel that Auntie Gao's attitude toward her had been very kind all along.

"Alright then, I'm going to find my mom now, do you want to come along?"

Although he knew full well that Liu Jiaoyue's personality wouldn't lead her to come along, Yang Tianxing asked anyway.

Liu Jiaoyue shook her head as expected: "I, I won't go, I'll stay here to tidy up the room."

However, just as Yang Tianxing was about to head out, Liu Jiaoyue pulled a pair of knitted gloves out of a cloth bag and handed them over.

"What, for me?"

Yang Tianxing tried putting them on and found they were much too small.

"For Auntie, she said her hands were cold last night."

Liu Jiaoyue said in a low voice.

Only then did Yang Tianxing notice that Liu Jiaoyue had heavy bags under her eyes.

"Did you stay up all night knitting these?"

Yang Tianxing asked.

Liu Jiaoyue blushed and didn't speak, taking out a rag to start cleaning.

"Sigh."

Yang Tianxing sighed, tucked the gloves into his pocket, and without saying anything else, headed straight for the hotel.

…………

He hadn't expected Tan Zhizhi to be at the hotel too; she was sitting by the bed chatting with Yang Jianjun and his wife.

"Yo, the whole family of three is here, looks like I'm the outsider."

Yang Tianxing greeted them with a smile.

Tan Zhizhi turned her head and revealed a sweet smile; her skin was as fair as snow, and her dimples were like blooming peach blossoms.

"Aren't you an outsider?"

Gao Meilan rolled her eyes at Yang Tianxing: "I got a little frostbite on my hand when I arrived in Chang'an, and Little Zhizhi took time off this morning to go to the department store and buy me genuine leather gloves. What about you?"

Yang Tianxing was slightly taken aback; Gao Meilan was indeed holding a pair of black crocodile leather gloves, which looked quite lustrous and couldn't have been cheap.

He nonchalantly pushed the knitted gloves deeper into his pocket—he absolutely couldn't let them be seen right now—and said dismissively: "Why go all the way to the department store? Just buying a pair around Hejiaying would have been fine."

"Look at that, look at that, this is the son I've raised for 18 years."

Gao Meilan said to Tan Zhizhi: "Little Zhizhi, never find a boyfriend like this in the future; he's too stingy to even buy his own mother a pair of gloves."

Tan Zhizhi was smiling with her eyes curved, and just as she was about to say something, her phone rang with a "ding-a-ling."

After finishing the call, Tan Zhizhi stuck out her little tongue: "Uncle Yang, Auntie Gao, I have to head back first. I didn't ask for leave from my counselor this morning, and she called to ask about the situation. Little Yang, you stay here and have a meal with Auntie Gao."

"Alright, hurry back and explain the situation to your counselor, stay safe on the way."

Gao Meilan urged with concern.

After Tan Zhizhi left, the expression that had just been so affectionate on Gao Meilan's face instantly turned cold.

Yang Tianxing pretended not to notice, saying: "These gloves are really nice, Little Zhizhi really put effort into picking them out."

Gao Meilan "hmphed," snatching the gloves away so Yang Tianxing couldn't touch them.

Yang Tianxing didn't mind, and with a grin, he took the knitted gloves out of his pocket: "These are what Liu Jiaoyue knitted for you overnight."

Gao Meilan was somewhat surprised and wanted to take them; the texture of the gloves was exceptionally clear, which showed that Liu Jiaoyue often did chores at home.

Looking at the leather glove on her left hand, then at the knitted glove on her right, Gao Meilan remained silent for a long time, then suddenly picked up the kettle by the window as if to smash it at Yang Tianxing.

"You little bastard, look at what you've done!"

Yang Jianjun hurriedly went up to stop her; there was real hot water in that kettle, and getting burned for real was no joke.

Yang Tianxing ran, shouting: "Mom, the ancients say 'take the small stick, run from the big stick'; if you're in a bad mood, you can scold me a few times and I'll take it, but if you're going to scald me with boiling water, then I'm running away."

"Otherwise, if I really get burned, you'll be the one feeling bad later."

Hearing Yang Tianxing still offering his glib explanations, Gao Meilan became even angrier, but she put down the kettle and picked up a hotel slipper to throw at Yang Tianxing instead.

Seeing it was a slipper, Yang Tianxing simply didn't dodge or evade; he threw himself onto the bed, covered his head with the quilt, and let Gao Meilan hit him wherever she pleased.

"Pitter-patter."

Empress Dowager Gao was truly using her strength, but how much lethality could a hotel slipper have, and with the thick clothes worn in autumn, Yang Tianxing almost fell asleep.

Gao Meilan probably also knew how shameless this son of hers was; she was already sweating, yet Yang Tianxing didn't have a single reaction.

"You hit him!"

Gao Meilan handed the slipper to Yang Jianjun, panting for breath.

Yang Jianjun had always disapproved of losing one's temper and hitting people, as he advocated for resolving internal family conflicts through negotiation, but seeing his wife so angry, he took the slipper and gave Yang Tianxing's butt a "smack."

Yang Tianxing suddenly threw off the quilt and jumped up.

"Old Yang, why are you playing for real???"

Yang Jianjun glanced at Gao Meilan, thinking to himself, if I don't give him a real one, will your mother be able to calm down?

Yang Tianxing rubbed his butt, and seeing Gao Meilan still sitting on the bed, puffed up with anger, he went up with a grin and hugged her shoulders: "Mom, you've hit me and scolded me, let's go eat lunch."

"Sigh, your father and I are both honest people, how did we give birth to a son like you."

Seeing that the hard approach wouldn't work, Gao Meilan switched to the soft one; she took two pairs of gloves and said emotionally: "The palm is flesh, and the back of the hand is also flesh, but you can't possibly want both, can you?"

Yang Tianxing pretended not to understand: "Do you want to eat duck feet for lunch?"

Gao Meilan glared at him and simply laid her cards on the table: "Let's be direct, which pair of gloves do you want me to wear?"

"Whichever pair you like to wear, wear that one; it's not me wearing them, what does it have to do with me."

Yang Tianxing said with an innocent face.

However, he added another sentence: "If I were you, I'd want both; if this pair gets dirty, just switch to the other, it's better to wear them interchangeably."

The room suddenly went quiet; after a long while, Gao Meilan rubbed her chest, which was tight with anger, and called out to Yang Jianjun: "Do me a favor, pass the slipper over again."

"Pitter-patter."

Another round of cheerful "bamboo shoots stir-fried with meat" followed.