Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  As Zhai Yaohui’s steps were bigger than hers, Zhai Yaohui had already walked quite far after she counted to ten.

  Qi Minlan really became angry when Zhai Yaohui still ignored her for the third time, and this scene was witnessed by her classmates.

  Qi Minlan swore that unless Zhai Yaohui realized his mistake and apologized with flowers and gifts, she was never going to bother with him.

  When she was young, Qi Minlan was already used to Zhai Yaohui’s care. When she grew up, Qi Minlan was similarly used to boys taking the initiative to get close to her. In the face of Zhai Yaohui’s cold reaction, how would Qi Minlan not lose her temper?

  However, as days passed, none of the flowers, gifts, or apology that Qi Minlan had in mind arrived.

  It came to the point that as long as she didn’t work hard, the two of them wouldn’t even be able to have a ‘chance encounter’ in school.

  Upon thinking that it had been many years since she had a good chat with Zhai Yaohui, Qi Minlan felt a little panicked.

  However, upon thinking how good Zhai Yaohui was to her and how Grandma Zhai treated her like she was her biological daughter, Qi Minlan felt that if she wanted to marry Zhai Yaohui, it would be impossible for him to reject.

  “…” After knowing this situation, Old Master Shi felt speechless. “Minlan, a girl doesn’t need to endure hardship but can’t be willful or pretentious. When you were giving Zhai Yaohui attitude, a lot of girls were willing to display their gentleness to Zhai Yaohui. Don’t regret it only when Zhai Yaohui marries another girl. That will be too late.”

  Qi Minlan didn’t believe it. “Impossible. Zhai Yaohui is as cold as ice. Aside from me, when did you see other girls appearing by Zhai Yaohui’s side? It’s either Zhai Yaohui doesn’t marry, or he will definitely want to marry me. However, I’m angry. He doesn’t know how to coax girls at all. He doesn’t know how to make me happy. Even if he wants to marry me now, I’ll have to think about it. I’m not prepared to get married yet.”

  She was still so young. There were a lot of good times ahead of her.

  Aside from her, there were no other girls by Zhai Yaohui’s side. However, she was different. Aside from Zhai Yaohui, she had so many pursuers.

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  Aside from being not as good-looking as Zhai Yaohui, not having as good family backgrounds as Zhai Yaohui, and not as outstanding as Zhai Yaohui, these men were sweet-talkers. They knew how to coax her and make her happy every time.

  They could tell if she was wearing newly-bought clothes. They could also tell what hairstyle she had, what makeup she used, and what lipstick she put on. Then, they would keep complimenting her.

  How were they like Zhai Yaohui, who was a block of wood?

  She deliberately dressed up and wore new clothes to meet Zhai Yaohui. Only Zhai Yaohui enjoyed this special treatment.

  In the end… She was infuriated!

  Qi Minlan expressed that if she were to get married to Zhai Yaohui, she would definitely be bored to death by his character.

  Before getting married, she had to enjoy the pursuit of other boys more.

  After all, if she were to get married to Zhai Yaohui, she could no longer be close to other men. This wasn’t appropriate.

  Qi Minlan had such a mindset. It was obvious that she naturally wasn’t in a hurry to restore her relationship with Zhai Yaohui as a couple. She was just dissatisfied now that Zhai Yaohui didn’t care about her as much as other men did.

  “If that’s really the case, then that’s great.” Old Master Shi also hoped that his daughter was Zhai Yaohui’s only target as a marriage partner. As long as he became in-laws with Old Zhai, he didn’t believe that he wouldn’t be able to obtain benefits from him.

  Old Master Shi had long planned well. Once the two families were in-laws, Old Zhai would no longer refuse to give him benefits.

  However, the premise was that the person who married Zhai Yaohui must be Qi Minlan. Otherwise, no matter how well Old Master Shi had thought of things, they would just become thoughts in the end and wouldn’t be realized.

  Life was unpredictable. Furthermore, the Shi family didn’t have that good a relationship with the Zhai family. How would the father-daughter pair guess everything correctly?

  “Come in. Miao Miao, treat this as your own home in the future. Don’t be polite toward Dad—I mean, Uncle.”

  Upon hearing the sound at the door, Grandma Zhai walked over. Her man was back and there was a young girl next to him.

  “I’m home.” Upon seeing Grandma Zhai, Old Zhai’s eyes shone. “Did you miss me the few days that I was away?”

  Grandma Zhai blushed. “You’re still so indecent…” At their age, what was there to miss?

  One had to know that when he participated in the war of resistance, she was the only one raising Yaohui in the family. Why didn’t he ask her then if she missed him or not, especially since he was away for such a long period of time?

  After knowing that Grandma Zhai was Old Zhai’s wife, Miao Jing bowed to Grandma Zhai in a proper manner. “Hello, Auntie. I’m Miao Jing. I might have to disturb you for a while, but I will definitely work hard to move out soon.”

  After being used to living in a short mud house, Miao Jing couldn’t adapt well to living in a tall brick house suddenly. She always felt that there was no place she could set foot on as she wasn’t sure if her shoes would dirty other people’s floor.

  They were not the same kind of people, to begin with. However, Miao Jing felt that this feeling was more obvious now.

  “Oh, you’re Miao Jing. I often hear my husband address you as Miao Miao. Can I address you as Miao Miao too?” Before seeing Miao Jing, Grandma Zhai was still quite worried.

  Her husband had made meritorious service and became the chief, so there was a bunch of people who harbored ill intentions toward them.

  If this girl from the countryside was eyeing something from their family, she was worried that there would be trouble at home since her husband would only be focused on repaying kindness.

  In reality, when Miao Jing said “I will definitely work hard to move out soon” the first time she met Grandma Zhai, she felt that these words were a bit blunt and weren’t particularly polite. It was as if the Zhai family wanted to chase her away and couldn’t include her in their family.

  However, Grandma Zhai noticed the self-esteem and persistence in Miao Jing’s words. How could she be unhappy?

  “Yes.”

  Old Zhai felt that his partner wasn’t repulsive to Miao Jing. Thus, he winked at her. ‘How is it? My taste is not bad, right? Yaohui is my biological son. Would I be casual in finding my daughter-in-law? If she wasn’t a good girl, would I allow her into our family?’

  Grandma Zhai ignored Old Zhai’s cheekiness. She smiled and held Miao Jing’s hand, where she felt some calluses. “Are your parents alright at home?”

  Was the Miao family patriarchal? This young girl had thick calluses on her hands. The feeling of holding her hand was worse than that of holding hers, an old woman’s.

  If that was really the case… Grandma Zhai started to worry again.

  When she was in the countryside in the past, Grandma Zhai had seen too many cases where the married daughter would try to take as many things as she could from her in-law family to give to her own family so that her younger brother at home would be taken care of…… In the end, both families didn’t lead a good life.