Chapter 570 - What A Fool (1/2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Zhang Yichen’s car was parked outside the house. He was walking toward it at that moment.

Huo Jinyao was driving toward the location of the gathering. He stopped to greet Zhang Yichen when he saw him.

“Uncle, let me give you a ride. The restaurant isn’t far away from here. Also, I’d like to have a chat with you.”

Zhang Yichen stopped walking. Zhang Xinghua and the others had gotten into their own cars. He paused for a second and then got into Huo Jinyao’s car.

Liu Tongjia had already got a ride with her husband, Huo Mingguang. Following behind Huo Jinyao’s car was Huo Yifan’s car.

Su Peizhen was sitting in Huo Yifan’s car. Watching Zhang Yichen get into Huo Jinyao’s car, she smiled a bigger smile.

‘Huo Jinyao, you consider yourself smart, but you can’t even tell when someone has his covetous eyes fixed on your wife,’ she said in her head.

‘What a fool!

‘Never mind, I’ll kindly give you a heads up, so you won’t stay blind and stupid for long.’

In Huo Jinyao’s car, Su Qingsang was sitting in the front seat while Zhang Yichen entered and sat in the backseat.

“Uncle, how many days off do you have this time?”

“Three days,” Zhang Yichen answered simply.

Su Qingsang glanced in the rearview mirror. Somehow, she felt as though Zhang Yichen didn’t seem as happy as he usually was.

She had no particular interest in how Zhang Yichen was feeling, so she turned her eyes away.

Then, she saw a street stall by the roadside selling roasted sweet potatoes. That made her eyes glow.

But she remembered that she was on her way to lunch. There would be no room left in her stomach for lunch if she put a roasted sweet potato into it.

At the traffic light, Huo Jinyao stopped the car and noticed Su Qingsang staring at the stall.

“You’re not wanting a roasted sweet potato again, are you?”

“Why can’t I be?” Su Qingsang glanced at him and retorted. “It’s good.”

“We’re going to have lunch soon. If you eat a roasted sweet potato before lunch, you won’t be eating anything at lunch.”

“I’m aware of that. I’m just looking at it.”

Despite what she said, her eyes expressed a completely different emotion. Huo Jinyao helplessly pulled over when the light turned green and got off the car.

Under Su Qingsang’s doting gaze, he quickly went to the stall and bought the roasted sweet potato. Then, he came back to the car and put the sweet potato in her hands.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

Su Qingsang took the sweet potato from him, grinned like a satisfied cat.

“Don’t thank me. If I find that you are unable to eat anything at lunch because of this, I’ll never let you touch it again.”

Huo Jinyao talked to her like a parent threatening his child. Su Qingsang pulled her tongue and made a face to him.

“I’ll eat half of it and leave the other half to you. That way I’ll still be able to eat something else later.”

Huo Jinyao didn’t bother responding to that. He turned the car away from the curb and started driving again.

“No? It’d be such a waste to throw the other half away.”

Huo Jinyao reached out a hand to rub Su Qingsang’s cheek and said, “Alright, just eat. I’ll eat the other half, okay?”

“Oh Jinyao, you’re so nice,” Su Qingsang cooed and then leaned toward Huo Jinyao, kissing him on his cheek.

Only after that did she remember that Zhang Yichen was sitting in the backseat. She blushed and quickly shrank back with a very chastised expression.

Huo Jinyao noticed her reaction. He didn’t take it to heart though. In his eyes, Zhang Yichen was about the same age as he was, but he considered him an elder to be respected.

He looked at Su Qingsang and said, “Really? Does a simple roasted sweet potato make you that happy?”

Su Qingsang glared at him, as if to say to him, ‘You’ll never understand!’ He would never understand that kind of pure and simple joy.

To be polite, Su Qingsang asked Zhang Yichen if he wanted the roasted sweet potato.

Zhang Yichen looked at her and shook his head with no expression on his face. Su Qingsang found herself feeling silly. Who else would be so eager to have a roasted sweet potato as she did before lunch?

The sweet taste of the roasted sweet potato helped to distract her from the embarrassment. She ate less than half of it and then stopped herself.

Before getting off the car, she lifted the rest of the roasted sweet potato and held it out to Huo Jinyao, calling his name, “Jinyao.”

Huo Jinyao looked at her. Without taking the sweet potato from her hands, he finished it with a few large gulps.

In the meantime, Zhang Yichen got off the car without saying a word to the two of them.

The door was slammed loudly. Su Qingsang’s hands which were holding the sweet potato trembled ever so slightly. She glanced at Zhang Yichen who had begun heading toward the restaurant and couldn’t help but look at Huo Jinyao questioningly.

“Is your uncle angry?”

“Why would he be? He doesn’t get angry that easily.”

Huo Jinyao glanced at Zhang Yichen’s retreating back and had that weird feeling again.

2

In fact, part of the reason he had offered Zhang Yichen a ride earlier was to test him.

Zhang Yichen never wore his heart on his sleeve, but through careful observations, one would notice that he became increasingly sullen every time he saw Su Qingsang with him.

Huo Jinyao grew suspicious. His eyes flickered to Su Qingsang’s face.

She didn’t seem to think much more about Zhang Yichen’s behavior. Realizing that, Huo Jinyao felt slightly relieved.

But still, he wanted to test Zhang Yichen to see if his hunch was right.

There were so many people gathered for lunch that one table couldn’t fit them all. In the end, it took two large tables to settle the entire family.

The elder ones took one table while the young people took the other. Somehow, Zhang Yichen ended up on one side of Huo Jinyao, and Su Qingsang on Huo Jinyao’s other side.

Zhang Yichen and Huo Jinyao were close, so having the two of them sit together didn’t arouse anyone’s suspicions.

Next to Su Qingsang was Su Peizhen and Huo Yifan.

Su Peizhen waited a while before sitting down because she wanted to sit next to Su Qingsang.

Huo Jinyao didn’t plan to drink any alcohol because he needed to drive home. Su Qingsang didn’t like drinking, so she politely declined the alcohol as well.

Su Peizhen didn’t want to give up the opportunity presented to her so easily. She raised her glass, looking at Zhang Yichen.

“Uncle, this is our first meeting. Let’s clink our glasses.”

Su Peizhen raised her glass and made a toast. Zhang Yichen usually refused to drink alcohol, but today, for some reason, he started drinking.

Su Peizhen smiled, drank half of the wine in her glass, and then glanced at Huo Yifan.

“Aren’t you going to offer a toast to your uncle?”

Huo Yifan glanced at her, wondering what she was trying to do. But indeed, he was rather close to Zhang Yichen, even though he was not as close as Huo Jinyao was to Zhang Yichen.

“Uncle, for you,” he said and raised his glass.

Following the two of them, Huo Manzi, Huo Yiyang, Huo Qinghan, Huo Wanqing, and their other cousins each offered a toast to Zhang Yichen, who was their uncle as well.

The younger family members often got together, but Zhang Yichen rarely showed up due to the nature of his job.

Almost every New Year or any other holidays, he had to stay in the army or go on missions, rarely getting the time to attend family gatherings.

Zhang Yichen usually kept himself very strictly disciplined. But today, he drank a shot each time someone offered him a toast. Maybe it was because of the festive atmosphere, or because he hadn’t met up with the family for too long.

Su Qingsang was having a good time with Huo Jinyao. However, seeing Zhang Yichen drink so much, she started to feel a little bit uneasy, like something wasn’t quite right with him.

She glanced at Huo Jinyao and signaled for him to stop Zhang Yichen from drinking.

Zhang Yichen was an uncle of all at the table. He could have reasonably refused to drink like he usually did if he didn’t want to drink so much.

Huo Jinyao turned to Zhang Yichen. He had also sensed the strange atmosphere around Zhang Yichen.

But he didn’t try to stop the man from drinking as Su Qingsang had wanted him too. On the contrary, he glanced at Su Qingsang and signaled for her to pick up her cup.

Neither was he nor Su Qingsang had alcohol in their cups.

“Uncle, we’ve replaced alcohol with tea, but we still want to offer a toast to you.”

Su Qingsang paused briefly with surprise. She didn’t understand why Huo Jinyao wanted Zhang Yichen to drink some more. He had already drunk a lot.

Zhang Yichen raised his glass, looking at Huo Jinyao and Su Qingsang.

His eyes seemed to land on Huo Jinyao, but the one he was actually focusing on was Su Qingsang.

He emptied his glass in one shot when Huo Jinyao raised his cup.