Chapter 295

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Protagonist:

Lin Xiyu

The babies are two and a half years old.

The two-and-a-half-year-old babies are energetic, and the small courtyard can no longer satisfy their curiosity and desire for exploration; the three nannies spend their days on tenterhooks, afraid that if they are not careful for a moment, the babies will slip out of the courtyard on their own and vanish without a trace.

To burn off the babies' energy, Guben decided to move up the plan for them to learn martial arts.

Except for Lele, Pingping, Anan, and Xixi — the three babies were all forced by their father to practice basic skills for more than two hours every day, without the slightest slacking off.

Dabao is the most enthusiastic about martial arts; usually he is as hyper as a monkey, but as soon as he is told to practice boxing he settles down.

Imitating his father's movements, waving his little fists, performing childish Military Body Boxing, causing all the adults to burst into hearty laughter.

Xixi refuses to be outdone; don't look at her as a little girl, not as strongly built as her brothers, but her body is even more agile.

Guben started teaching from basic skills, having the babies practice backbends.

The older brothers still haven't learned it, but Xixi succeeded after one try, making Grandma Gu and Sixth Grandpa unable to close their mouths with joy, praising her nonstop as a fine seedling from a military family who will grow up to attend military academy and serve the country.

Anan prefers stillness to movement, his interest in practicing martial arts is lacking; most of the time he just does it to get through the task.

When Father watches, he lazily throws a few punches.

The moment Father turns his head, he puts down his sore, numb little arms and takes the chance to slack off for a while.

Guben is very helpless about this son.

With the two elders present, he can't hit him, can't scold him; even if he really wants to teach a lesson to the lazy, slippery little brat, with the two elders watching at all times, he has the will but not the power.

——

Pomegranate flowers bloom and fall, summer goes and autumn comes.

Golden autumn September, another harvest season; the babies are three years old.

Lele's surgery was very successful, and his body is gradually recovering.

Guben is in a good mood, and calls up relatives and friends one by one, inviting them to come to the house for a banquet to celebrate the babies' birthday.

An unexpected guest arrived at this birthday gathering.

When Zhu Luoxuan appeared at the old house in the capacity of Chen Xiaoyi's girlfriend, she genuinely gave Guben and Lin Xiyu a shock.

Li Qing also brought her son; as an insider, her shock was no less than the couple's, even surpassing it.

"What is your younger brother thinking?"

Before the banquet had even started, she took the opportunity to come before Lin Xiyu, expressing extreme dissatisfaction: "That woman's heart is clearly not on him; is he blind or what, insisting on entangling himself with a woman of ulterior motives, and even bringing her home."

"You seem even angrier than me?"

Lin Xiyu glanced at her in surprise: "She is my love rival, not yours; why are you getting so worked up?"

"I detest any woman with ill intentions."

Li Qing fought against Wang Fan's mistress and suffered a silent loss; the two words 'mistress' are what she hates hearing most.

"I'm not clear on this matter either."

Lin Xiyu understood in her heart, rubbing her brow with a headache: "That woman wanted to come, I didn't know at all beforehand; Xiaoyi has been in Shanghai, it was my negligence, I didn't clarify the truth in advance, letting that woman exploit a loophole."

"You'd better be more careful."

Li Qing felt utterly speechless: "I already warned you, yet you didn't take it seriously; that woman is clearly not simple, she so easily got your younger brother wrapped around her finger, willingly being her backup."

"This guy Xiaoyi......"

Lin Xiyu was exasperated: "He looks like quite a sharp person, yet he's actually muddle-headed in relationships."

"He's not stupid, he's blinded by lust."

Li Qing glanced at Zhang Juan sitting next to the female cousin, sneering: "If Zhu Luoxuan looked like that girl, do you think he would be moved? Men are all the same; seeing a beautiful woman they can't move their legs; whatever overflowing sympathy, it's all just an excuse for lust."

"You can be angry, but don't drag others into it."

Lin Xiyu followed her gaze, displeasure in her eyes: "Juanzi has nothing to do with this; lower your voice, a young girl's mind is delicate, it wouldn't be good if she heard."

"I'm just making a comparison."

Li Qing couldn't care less: "Not saying she has anything bad; it's just that girl looks very ordinary, nothing stunning about her is also true......"

"You mind your own business, worry about yourself."

Lin Xiyu's brow suddenly furrowed, looking past her body toward the small courtyard doorway.

Wang Fan doesn't know which nerve is acting up, showing up uninvited once again; not content to just attend the babies' birthday banquet, he brought a bewitching, seductive woman.

That woman is very unfamiliar; Lin Xiyu can be certain she has never seen her before.

"Xue Fangyu?!"

Li Qing turned her head, and her face changed instantly.

"You know her?"

Lin Xiyu looked at her with sympathy.

"She's not worthy."

Li Qing let out a hum from her nose, eyes showing contempt.

"You'd better watch out."

Lin Xiyu used her own words from just now to admonish her in turn: "Don't let her produce another son right under your nose; Ding Sheng's assets can't withstand the turmoil; one illegitimate son is already worrying enough; if a few more come, your son's inheritance rights really won't be secure."

"Jiarui is Ding Sheng's legitimate heir; no one can take that away."

Li Qing's gaze toward that woman was vicious as if dipped in poison.

"Illegal things can't be done......"

Lin Xiyu was startled by her sudden outburst of hostility, her heart giving a lurch; she patted her shoulder to soothe her: "Nothing else needs saying, Jiarui is a good child, you mustn't be muddle-headed for a moment and affect your son's future."

"No need for you to say that, I understand perfectly well in my heart......"

Li Qing narrowed her eyes, rapidly composed her mood, and once again resumed the elegant, stately, imposing image of a wealthy noble lady she had when she first entered.

This person, her face-changing is truly fast enough......

Lin Xiyu witnessed her expression, comparable to Sichuan opera face-changing, and her mood was complex to the extreme.

At this moment, she truly felt a bit of sympathy for her.

Facing a husband who doesn't love her, a mistress constantly giving her trouble, hating them to death in her heart yet having to pretend not to care and deal with them.

Such days, placed on herself, she couldn't last a single day, yet she has to bitterly endure for a lifetime for the sake of so-called inheritance rights.

——

"The two of us today count as being on the same front line."

Li Qing didn't know what she was thinking, glanced at Zhu Luoxuan, and the corner of her mouth rippled with a trace of mockery: "A woman with ulterior motives has been pursued right to the house, now you can experience my feelings too, right?"

"I'm different from you......"

Lin Xiyu didn't hesitate in the slightest, one sentence blocked it back: "You'll swallow your anger for inheritance rights, I won't; no matter what kind of man, as long as he betrays me and has entanglements with other women, I'll leave without hesitation, and never have any dealings with him again in this lifetime."

Li Qing: "......."

——

"What are you two talking about over there?"

The two spoke privately for a bit long; Wu Meng waited impatiently, stood up from her seat, and shouted at them across several tables.

"We barely got to come once, no whispering allowed......"

Qu Peng's wife Qiao Lin also smiled in agreement: "If you chat, everyone chats together; what gossip, sisters listen together for fun."

"Coming, coming."

Everyone in the yard was drawn by Wu Meng's shout, craning their necks to look in the direction where the two were talking.

Lin Xiyu smiled helplessly, took the chance to end the conversation, carried the washed fruit, and walked over from the sink side.

Li Qing also followed her back to the wine table.

"Washing fruit takes this long?"

Wu Meng's gossipy little eyes kept staring at the two: "What are you chatting about, chatting so enthusiastically?"

"Eat grapes then......"

Lin Xiyu picked up a grape from the fruit plate, stuffed it into her mouth: "Just you have lots of business, the whole yard's people added together don't have a voice as loud as yours."

"Hehe."

Wu Meng chewed the grape, covered for herself: "I'm just trying to give you a reminder, you're the birth mother of four babies, the protagonist of the banquet, leaving a whole table of people to hide aside and chat, what kind of thing is that......."

"Just say it straight, you want to hear gossip."

Lin Xiyu stuffed another grape into her mouth, teased with a smile: "Ears not long enough, don't use others as an excuse."

"Hahaha."

Qiao Lin heard and was amused, slapped her thigh laughing heartily.

"Haven't seen each other for some days, Qiao Lin is still this straightforward."

Li Qing took the chance to interject: "You and Qu Peng have been married over two years too, right? Any plans, when will you also give birth to a little baby, let us share some joy?"

"Not possible in the near two years."

Qiao Lin stopped smiling, revealed a few points of helplessness: "My work nature, you all understand; if something really comes up, forget giving birth, even getting sick I have to hard-support through it, can't easily ask for leave; pregnancy and childbirth are a luxury hope for me, better to struggle a few more years, wait until older, transfer to a different post, not working in the Criminal Police Team anymore, then we'll talk."

"That's true."

Li Qing smiled in agreement: "You Criminal Police Team people really have it hard......."

"Let's not talk about this."

Qiao Lin didn't want the topic pulled onto herself, didn't wait for her to finish, decisively switched targets: "Let's chat about something else, today's quite lively, quite a few unfamiliar faces, several I've never seen."

"You mean Xiaoyi's girlfriend?"

Wu Meng's gossipy little eyes instantly lit up, speed keeping up with the rhythm: "First time I've seen her too, this kid has good fortune, found a girlfriend this pretty."

Li Qing's face color slightly changed, she lifted her eyelid, glanced at Lin Xiyu.

Lin Xiyu was calm and composed, picked up another grape, peeled the skin, leisurely put it in her mouth, chewing with relish.

"Right, I'm talking about her."

Qiao Lin didn't know the inside story, looked toward the neighboring table again, gave a fair evaluation: "That girl's temperament is not bad, at a glance she looks quite cultivated, unlike certain people......"

Not satisfied after speaking, she disdainfully glanced at her own table, at the "mistress" seated right next to Wang Fan.

Xue Fangyu's mouth corner twitched, constrained by Wang Fan's face, couldn't flare up, could only swallow a mouthful of stifled anger.

"This is spoken too early."

Li Qing saw her eat a setback, a trace of mockery flashed in her eyes, then continued Qiao Lin's words: "Know the face, not the heart; judging by appearance alone is too shallow, who knows what kind of heart hides inside the painted beautiful skin?"

The neighboring table had a moment of silence.

Lin Xiyu's natal family were all sitting at that table, the two tables were close, obviously they all heard her words.

Zhu Luoxuan lowered her brows and eyes, expression unclear; on the surface she looked like she had suffered great grievance.

"Are you questioning my judgment?"

Qiao Lin looked at Li Qing in surprise, didn't know why she was acting up on her big happy day, speaking ill of someone's girlfriend to their face: "I'm a criminal police officer, my judgment of people is accurate, good and bad, I can distinguish at a glance."

"Your judgment I naturally wouldn't dare question......"

Li Qing pointed at the mulberry and cursed the locust: "Just that some things, you don't have my experience; whether it's a beautiful skin harboring ill intent, no need for a demon-revealing mirror, I can distinguish it."

"Are these words aimed at me?"

Xue Fangyu really couldn't endure it, just wanted to explode, then saw Wang Fan frown, impatiently coughed once.

She was so startled she trembled, and hurriedly shut her mouth.

Zou Yan was the precedent; she embarrassed herself at the Gu Family babies' birthday banquet and was chased out on the spot.

Ever since then, alone in the United States with her child, she never received a shred of pity from Wang Fan.

"The speaker means nothing, but the listener reads into it; if you think I'm insinuating something at you, then that's that........"

Li Qing watched this scene with great satisfaction, her mood instantly becoming incomparably wonderful.

What use is looking like a fox spirit? In the end, isn't she just a vase dependent on a man?

In front of outsiders, she doesn't even dare let out a fart.

Not like me — I say whatever I want; even if I anger Wang Fan to death, he wouldn't dare fall out with me on the spot.

——

Wang Fan seemed to have seen through her thoughts; he lifted his eyelids and gave her a cool, cold look.

What are you looking at? Is what I said wrong?

Li Qing glared back impolitely.

The couple stared at each other for several seconds, then mutually averted their gazes in dislike.

"Li Qing, I'm truly convinced by you."

Qiao Lin enjoyed the show thoroughly and couldn't help teasing: "You two really come with built-in comedy color; every time you come you add a lot of fun for us."

"As long as everyone's happy."

Li Qing was in a good mood and didn't mind her teasing at all; on the contrary, she was rather smug.

"Stupid."

Wang Fan glared at her annoyed once again.

"Oh my......"

In front of the mistress, Li Qing had to save face; she retorted with sour sarcasm: "Chairman Wang rarely bestows a bit of thin face and opens his golden mouth once; I'm truly a bit flattered......"

"Pfft."

Wu Meng couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.

Wang Fan was choked with anger; he averted his gaze once more, not wanting to bother with her anymore.

Li Qing didn't care about his reaction in the slightest; she raised her eyebrows proudly and looked at the mistress provocatively.

In this way, defending the Chairman's wife's dignity.

Xue Fangyu lowered her eyelids slightly, avoiding her sharp edge.

"Jiarui, didn't you bring gifts for the little brothers and little sisters?"

Li Qing grew even more pleased with herself, deliberately pushing her son forward to show off her superiority as a wealthy madam: "The banquet is about to start; hurry up and take them out, let the younger brothers and sisters see if they like them?"

"Good thing Mom reminded me, almost forgot.."

Wang Jiarui had been silently watching his parents duel, playing the invisible man, until this moment when he spoke up right on cue, feigning great annoyance as he stood up from his chair.

A 13-year-old youth, clear-browed and bright-eyed, tall and slender in build; his speech and bearing carried a thick scholarly air, making anyone who saw him feel instant goodwill.