Chapter 1028: The Qi Family Encounters Misfortune

"Then what about our Ranran?"

"We'll talk about that later. They are still young, and there are too many variables in the future; nothing is certain yet."

Jiangzhou, airport.

The plane landed, and the exchange students from A Country walked out of the arrival gate.

"Ranran, over here."

Shi Youxuan waved at her daughter. It had only been a little over a month, but her daughter seemed to have lost a circle of weight; she had a pointed chin before, but now it was even sharper.

Her expression was also a bit haggard; although there was a smile on her face, the smile was very forced.

"Mom, why did you come again? Didn't I say you didn't need to pick me up?" her daughter pouted.

"I want to. Picking up my daughter is the thing I most want to do. Who dares to stop me?" Shi Youxuan was unreasonable, and she didn't care who was in front of her.

Shi Ran pulled Chen Ran, who was behind her, to the front: "Mom, let me introduce you. This is my classmate, Chen Ran. He came here as an exchange student with me this time."

"Hello, Auntie." Chen Ran bowed politely.

"I've heard Shi Ran mention you for a long time. She said you are the best mother in the world. You look so young; you don't look like a mother at all, you look like a big sister." Chen Ran was very good with words.

There is no woman who is immune to others complimenting her on being young.

Shi Youxuan was no exception.

But she didn't follow Chen Ran's lead; it wasn't just the two of them who had arrived, there were other teachers and students as well.

She just politely greeted Chen Ran and then went to greet the others.

However, Chen Ran had left an impression on her; she thought this child looked a bit familiar.

It wasn't that his features were familiar, but rather the temperament he carried was very familiar.

Very polite, his speech and conduct were impeccable, but one just couldn't feel close to him!

As everyone was walking out, Shi Ran whispered to her mother to discuss: "Mom, can you help Chen Ran arrange a place to stay? Would it be okay for him to stay in the house next to ours?"

Shi Youxuan was slightly stunned: "The school isn't arranging accommodation?"

When the children were young, they often went to other countries as exchange students; back then, they were accompanied by parents or stayed at each other's classmates' homes.

At that time, staying in a home was very normal.

Later, when they reached middle school, the children grew up and needed a certain amount of private space, so they generally stayed in hotels.

Of course, the schools would help arrange these things in advance.

But Shi Ran and Qi Heng didn't need to stay in hotels when coming to Jiangzhou; they could just stay at home directly.

Now that her daughter was proposing for Chen Ran to stay at home, Shi Youxuan asked a question.

Shi Ran: "Of course not, the school has already arranged it. But Chen Ran is very interested in Jiangzhou culture, and he wants to take this opportunity to learn about Jiangzhou folk customs."

She smiled: "So that's how it is. If you want to learn about Jiangzhou folk customs, you won't learn anything by staying at our house. You have to stay at an ordinary commoner's house. Our family is too wealthy; we don't represent Jiangzhou."

Shi Ran:...

The mother and daughter were whispering in front, and while Shi Ran's voice wasn't loud, Shi Youxuan's voice was not small.

Chen Ran had good hearing, and every word the mother and daughter said was heard by him without missing a single one.

Chen Ran sent a message to Shi Ran—"I'm sorry, Ranran. I've decided to stay at a hotel after all. I've caused you trouble."

"I'm the one who should be saying sorry. I'm very sorry; I didn't expect my mom to say that," Shi Ran replied.

"It's okay."

The two only exchanged two sentences before Shi Youxuan became impatient: "Put down your phone. You just got back and you're already looking at your phone. Look at me."

On the way, Shi Ran complained to her mother: "You really are something. That's my classmate. He took good care of me in A Country. Now that he's in Jiangzhou and unfamiliar with the place, shouldn't we take care of our classmate?"

"Even if you don't want to take care of him, I was just saying a few words to my classmate. Was it necessary for you to give me the cold shoulder? It makes me lose a lot of face in front of my classmates and teachers."

Shi Youxuan: "I don't care if you take care of others, but this person called Chen Ran, you stay away from him, you hear me?"

"Why?"

"He is not a good person."

"Pfft—"

Shi Ran laughed, and she teased her mother: "Don't you usually teach us that when looking at people, you can't simply distinguish them as good or bad? You have to judge the matter on its own merits and not judge the person by the matter. Why are you using double standards?"

Shi Youxuan was full of arguments: "I'm not using double standards. I told you not to distinguish simply, but that Chen Ran is just not a good person, very purely so. Listen to me and don't bother with him in the future; staying far away from him is definitely the right thing to do."

Shi Ran:...

She didn't believe it, and she was even more unconvinced.

"What you said is wrong. You are looking at people through colored glasses."

"Oh, I know. It must be that A Heng called you and told you something, right?"

He began to feel insulted: "He is going too far, and his reach is too long."

Shi Youxuan:...

"Don't slander A Heng, and don't call A Heng. A Heng is having a very hard time in L Country right now. You can't help him, so don't go and add to his troubles."

"What happened to A Heng's family?"

She didn't know anything. Qi Heng had always had a temperament of reporting good news but not the bad. No matter how difficult things were at home, he wouldn't say, and what he did say was always downplaying the serious issues.

Shi Youxuan told Shi Ran about the things that had recently happened in Qi Heng's family.

Only then did Shi Ran suddenly realize, and at the same time, all her resentment toward Qi Heng vanished. So that was what was going on.

She took the initiative to contact Qi Heng and told him about her itinerary and what she did every day.

If it were in the past, for every sentence she said, Qi Heng would say three, but now it was the other way around.

Shi Ran was the one who took the initiative more often, and Qi Heng was very passive.

With her granddaughter back, Wang Yinghao's heart ailment improved a lot all of a sudden.

For the first time in many days, she walked out of her room and personally cooked a table full of dishes to treat her granddaughter.

Shi Ran kept her grandmother company at home, saying some comforting words to make her happy, and took the initiative to suggest accompanying her grandmother for a walk in the residential compound.

"Going out?"

Wang Yinghao hesitated; she did not want to go out.

The nasty rumors and ugly words from the previous days had left her with a significant psychological shadow.

Since then, her grandmother had stopped going out, and she always had Fang Jie go buy the groceries.

Although her daughter-in-law had assured her that Wang Yingzhi would not come to cause her trouble again, she simply could not set her mind at ease and dared not go out.

Others could not persuade her, but she still had to give her granddaughter some face.

She said to her granddaughter, "Wait for me a moment, I'm going to change my clothes."

Twenty minutes later.

Her grandmother came down from upstairs, and at first glance, she was unrecognizable!

A trench coat reaching her ankles and a huge headscarf not only covered her hair but also obscured more than half of her face.

The other half of her face was blocked by sunglasses.

"Grandma, we are just going out for a walk; isn't this outfit of yours a bit too exaggerated?"

The seventh lunar month was sweltering.

With the weather like this, wasn't she afraid of heatstroke from being bundled up so tightly?

"I've been allergic to ultraviolet rays lately, so I'm wearing more to protect against the sun."

Shi Ran:...

Sheng Zihan pointed outside with his chubby fingers: "Grandma..." He wanted to say that the sun had already set outside.

But he had only just started when his mouth was covered by his mother, and he was dragged away.

Her mother-in-law had finally made up her mind to go out for a walk, so she absolutely could not dampen her confidence.

The grandmother and granddaughter walked out the front door, and her grandmother walked very quickly.

As she walked, she urged, "Ranran, walk faster."

"Grandma, why walk so fast for a stroll? It's not a race-walking competition."

Shi Ran did not walk fast, moving along at a leisurely pace.

Wang Yinghao was afraid of running into neighbors, and even more afraid of being recognized by them.