Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  Li Zhaodi and Mu Teng were preparing food with the children on the side. Looking at their backs, Li Zhaodi told Mu Teng happily, “Father of my children, I think Jingzhe and Buwang can really succeed. Who knows, they might be able to hold a wedding in two months. At most, after New Year’s.”

  Mu Teng glanced at Jingzhe and didn’t object, which was rare. Now that he looked at them, things were indeed a little different.

  Li Zhaodi saw hope this time, so she even walked with a gust of wind. Later on, when she went shopping, she subconsciously started looking at the ceramic basins with the words ‘Happiness’ written on them. When she saw some big red blankets, she happily touched them. She even looked at wedding candy and asked Mu Jingzhe for her opinion.

  Mu Jingzhe: “…”

  It wasn’t like she wanted to say it, but it was really obvious. Li Zhaodi’s expression made it apparent that she really wished her daughter would immediately get married and get sent straight to the bridal chamber.

  “Mom, stop looking at these.”

  “Don’t tell me you and Buwang are still not getting married?” Li Zhaodi looked reluctant. “What I meant is that you should hold the wedding before New Year’s. Otherwise, you’ll be older by a year. It’s too scary for a girl to remain unmarried at 25 years old. The older a girl gets, the less valuable she is.”

  “Mom, not this again. What does this have to do with timing? We didn’t say we were getting married anyway. If you keep this up, I’ll go to Ocean City.”

  “What are you youngsters thinking these days? Why aren’t you in a hurry? The children aren’t dissatisfied with this, are they?”

  “I told you, it’s too early to say. It’s too early for you to ask.”

  Li Zhaodi looked at Mu Jingzhe, whose face was a little red, but she still said the same thing. Feeling helpless, she could only roll her eyes. “Alright, I won’t rush you then.”

  Sigh… Now that she thought about it, it had actually been more exciting when she’d secretly dated Mu Teng back then. At the time, she and Mu Teng had been introduced by a matchmaker. Later on, after they’d gotten engaged but before they’d gotten married, they had also secretly gone on dates together.

  At the time, he had held her petite hand and even kissed her mouth, scaring her quite badly. She had been afraid that she would get pregnant and had hated herself for not being able to hold it in. It was only later on, when they’d gotten married that she had realized there were still so many more steps to go before one got pregnant.

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  She decided Jingzhe and Buwang could probably experience that excitement for a little longer. After they were done holding hands, hugging, and kissing, they could talk about marriage again.

  After all, one’s heart might only beat that way once in a lifetime.

  Mu Jingzhe heaved a sigh of relief when she heard that. Although she and Buwang felt differently now, they hadn’t made it official yet.

  However, this time, Mu Jingzhe was very certain that she wasn’t imagining things. It wasn’t like before, when she had been the only restless party. She was very sure that Ji Buwang felt the same way!

  Li Zhaodi didn’t urge her anymore, but she still didn’t stop secretly taking action. For example, she asked the children if they would accept Ji Buwang as their stepfather.

  Xiao Wu was the person Li Zhaodi felt the most assured about. After all, that was his biological uncle. However, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei might not agree.

  Hence, Li Zhaodi found an excuse to ask Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei one by one. She coaxed them the same way she did when wanting to find out something from other children, but Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei knew exactly what she wanted to ask.

  “As long as Mommy likes him, we have no objections.”

  Only then did Li Zhaodi feel at ease. In the blink of an eye, it was November. The weather was getting colder and colder, and Mu Jingzhe was secretly knitting a scarf. In the past, she had also knitted scarves and even sweaters for the children.

  However, it was different this time, as she wanted to give one to Ji Buwang.

  In the past, Mu Jingzhe had either bought knits or knitted herself, arming her children and Shao Qiyang with winter protection. At the time, she hadn’t thought much about it and hadn’t thought of giving something to Ji Buwang. After all, Ji Buwang had everything.

  Unexpectedly, Ji Buwang had always remembered it and felt a little regretful. During this period, he had been dropping hints in front of her, so she decided to knit him something.

  However, she felt a little guilty about knitting for Ji Buwang, so she could only secretly do it while the children weren’t around.

  “I’m really virtuous. I’ll be done by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”

  Mu Jingzhe was secretly knitting a scarf when there was a knock on the door. She went to open the door and saw that a few policemen had arrived. The policemen said that something had happened to Xiao Wu.

  The whole matter had started at school. There seemed to be a mischievous classmate in every class, and Xiao Wu’s class was no exception. Besides, those children weren’t just mischievous. They were also a little wicked. They kept bullying a timid and chubby classmate, and Xiao Wu, who couldn’t take it anymore, had helped stop them from bullying the boy.

  When the teacher found out, she severely criticized the children and asked them to write a self-reflection essay.

  When the students found out, they liked Xiao Wu even more. The chubby classmate was, needless to say, extremely grateful.

  Xiao Wu was the most special student in the class. Firstly, he was the youngest and he had skipped a grade. Secondly, he was also the most impressive student in the class. He was famous in the entire school, and the teachers and the principal cherished him.

  Perhaps because Xiao Wu was polite and exceptional, many classmates liked to play with him. No one liked those children to begin with. After this incident, everyone stopped playing with them entirely and even called them bad.

  Children at this age were quite sensitive. They were normally indignant, especially when the people around them kept instilling in them that Xiao Wu was the most outstanding one and constantly nagged at them to learn from him. Now, they were even treated like this.

  It didn’t feel good to be isolated, so they decided to teach Xiao Wu a lesson. However, there were always people around Xiao Wu, so they didn’t get a chance for a while.

  After waiting for a few days, they finally got the chance to catch Xiao Wu, who was on duty, alone.

  Xiao Wu had learned martial arts before, so he wasn’t afraid of them. He quickly gained the upper hand. Seeing that they were no match for him, one of the children, who was in pain and felt panicked, took a book out of his bag, lit it with a lighter, and threw it at Xiao Wu.

  When this brat saw adults smoking, he thought that it was very cool and liked the lighters, so he had stolen some cigarettes and a lighter from his father.

  They had secretly smoked cigarettes previously and choked quite badly. They didn’t know why adults liked it, but they had kept the lighter.

  It was dry in the winter, so he threw the book into Xiao Wu’s hoodie while Xiao Wu wasn’t paying attention.

  At first, Xiao Wu didn’t know that someone had thrown a burning textbook at him. By the time he discovered it, his clothes had already started burning. Those children didn’t seem afraid at all and even clapped and cheered.

  Even though Xiao Wu was usually smart, he was shocked at that moment. Fortunately, at the most critical moment, he remembered some safety fire defense knowledge that Mu Jingzhe had taught him previously.

  He wanted to take off his clothes as quickly as possible, but as he hurried, the zipper that was usually fine got stuck and he couldn’t take his clothes off for a while.

  Xiao Wu gritted his teeth and rolled on the ground to put out the fire, but because his clothes were burning too quickly, he couldn’t put out the fire for a while.

  At that moment, the brats beside him saw the fire on Xiao Wu’s body getting bigger and bigger and finally felt afraid. “What should we do? What should we do?!”

  “Quickly, help put out the fire!”

  The children wanted to help, but they didn’t have a better solution, so they used their hands to do it…… How could they extinguish the fire like this? They looked at Xiao Wu on the ground and wailed in fear.