Chapter 228 - Why Are Your Eyes so Red? Did You Cry? (2/2)
Qi Chenglin was at a loss for words. “…”
This naughty brat. Did he purposely trap him?
Is his IQ so high?
“You see, you refused to buy one for me again. I wanted to do what kindergarten kids should be doing, but you didn’t give me the chance!” Qi Youxuan distressfully slapped his chubby thigh and gave him a helpless look. “Dad, I’ll marry Muran in the future. Nowadays, girls don’t like staying with their in-laws. Of course, if you don’t marry anyone, then Muran would only have father-in-law, and this would make things more inconvenient. What should I do if you fall for your daughter-in-law? I can’t stop worrying!”
“Not only that, my father-in-law surely won’t allow Muran to stay with you. At that time, you’ll be all alone—such a pity! What I did was for your good, so how could you be so stubborn!”
“…” Qi Chenglin could not bear it anymore, he said with his mouth twitched and his teeth gritted, “Qi Youxuan, enough is enough. Where did you learn all this nonsense?!”
…
…
“New Year’s Eve Special Edition”
This was the first time Song Yu celebrated Chinese New Year’s Eve with Qi Chengzhi at the Qi family’s old manor. Glittering snowflakes were falling outside. The ground, lawn, holly trees, and all the other various plants were covered by a blanket of white, just as how it was described in paintings and fairy tales. The joyous New Year’s atmosphere in the Qi family’s manor was lively and palpable.
Song Donglin and Yu Qianying went to celebrate New Year with the Song family, so Song Yu was not worried that her parents would feel lonely.
The Qi family also experienced some changes compared to before as Qi Chengyue had followed Cheng Dongge back to Li City for New Year’s celebration. This was the first time she was not together with her family on New Year’s Eve.
Aunt Liu also returned to her hometown and would be back on the seventh day of the Chinese New Year.
Song Yu, Xia Wenna, and Guan Liya were wrapping dumplings together. Guan Liya smiled and said, “I wasn’t used to not having her around on New Year’s Eve. She wasn’t very helpful in the chores but she loves wrapping dumplings, although her dumplings were not good-looking. The filling was too few and the skin was too thick—just a glance and we could identify which dumplings she had made after cooking.”
Qi Chengzhi smiled at her. He was sitting beside Song Yu, fiddling with his phone with his arms around her waist. There was a large cot beside the sofa with an infant was lying inside. The skin of his face was still wrinkled with a tinge of yellow.
Qi Youjin was just one month and a half old. Song Yu had completed her confinement half a month ago and she had not completely slimmed down. There was still some flabby flesh around her waistline.
Qi Chengzhi enjoyed it when he held her flabby tissue in his palm intermittently and pinched it.
He opened the WeChat app and saw a photo sent into the Qi Family’s group which showed two hands holding a dumpling each, one of the dumplings was larger than the other.
The dumpling on the smaller hand had visibly much fewer filling and thicker skin whereas the one on the larger hand was well-made.
Needless to say, Qi Chengzhi already knew which dumpling was wrapped by Qi Chengyue. She passed the phone to Guan Liya.
Guan Liya grinned when she saw the photo. “This girl, no improvement at all after wrapping for so many years. Her mother-in-law would surely laugh at her!”
After he said that, Qi Chengzhi’s phone received a request for WeChat video call, “Gee!” said Guan Liya. “Chengzhi, quick, a video call from Chengyue.”
Qi Chengzhi accepted the video call while finding a perfect angle to fit all of them into the camera.
Grandfather Qi and Grandmother Qi moved closer to them. All of them were trying to squeeze to fit into the camera.
Qi Chengyue cheerfully called the names of people who were present one after another. Guan Liya asked with a grin, “Hopefully you’re not causing inconvenience to your husband’s family!”
“Mum, what are you talking about?” Qi Chengyue asked with her face flushed.
“No, absolutely not!” Sun Shaoyun and Cheng Zhaohui appeared on the screen together. Sun Shaoyun was waving her hand. “Grandfather Qi, Grandmother Qi, and Mrs. Qi, Chengyue was really great. When she came back with Dongge yesterday, all of our neighbors who met her praised her because she was pretty and well-mannered. They envied us a lot!”
“Big Brother, let me see my little nephew!” Qi Chengyue urged.
Qi Chengzhi passed his cellphone to Qi Chenglin and he lifted it. He went to the cot beside the sofa and carried the baby in his arms for Qi Chengyue to see.
“Yahoo, little Youjin, your aunt missed you the most when I’m here!” Qi Chengyue looked like she truly wished she could extend her arm out of the screen to stroke his head.
Her voice had startled Qi Youjin. He blinked her eyes a few times and suddenly burst out crying.
Qi Chengzhi tried to calm him down. “Maybe he peed. I’m changing his diaper now.”
After quite a while, Qi Chengzhi carried little Youjin back and confirmed, saying, “Yes, he did pee.”
Qi Chengyue had hung up the video call. Qi Chengzhi put the baby back into the cot and lulled her to sleep.
Meanwhile, Qi Youxuan was staring at the dumplings while holding a pair of chopsticks. He was holding some edible red coloring on the other hand. That was given to him by Aunt Liu, and it was used for coloring the eggs when they were cooked after the birth of Youxuan. Qi Youxuan asked for it when he saw there were leftovers.
He seized the opportunity to draw a red dot on one of the dumplings with the chopsticks and the coloring when Xia Wenna and Guanliya were picking up them.
He had skillfully drawn a red dot on five of the dumplings before Grandmother Qi noticed his misdoing. “What are you doing?”
Qi Youxuan looked at her with his grape-like big black eyes and innocently said, “It would become better-looking after drawing the dots. We stamped the steamed buns during New Year, so I thought it would be a good idea to do the same on the dumplings.”
“…” Grandmother Qi studied the dumplings suspiciously for a long time and sensed something was wrong in it. Then, she took one of the dumplings and finally discovered the truth. “You’re marking the dumplings with money wrapped inside!”
“…” Qi Youxuan twisted his round tummy and said in an embarrassed manner, “People say the coming year would be more prosperous if we ate more dumplings with money wrapped inside them during New Year! I don’t believe in luck, so I decided to work for it!”
Previously, Qi Chengxuan was responsible for wrapping the money into the dumplings, thus he could effortlessly identify those dumplings. However, she was not around this year, so he had to find another way.
“…” Grandmother Qi made no reply. Everyone else fell into a mutual silence as well.
Grandmother Qi confiscated the chopsticks and the red colorings from Qi Chengxuan. “Stop fooling around—you already drew 5 dots, and there are only eight in total. You should be satisfied!”
Surprisingly, Qi Youxuan did not disagree. He ran towards Song Yu instead, twisting his buttocks and sticking out his little belly. He beckoned to her with his finger crooked, Song Yu lowered her head and heard him whispered, “Aunt, when you cook the dumplings at night, please cook the other three dumplings with money inside separately, and put them together with the red-dotted ones in my bowl!”
“…” Song Yu looked at this greedy little boy who wanted her to include all eight dumplings with money among the ten dumplings he would get. She nodded with a smile. “Sure.”
…
…
After having their reunion dinner, they sat down in front of the television to watch the Chinese New Year Gala. The Chinese New Year Gala was different this year—the channel had collaborated with various platforms to send out digital red packets, and the audience could follow the instructions given to fight for them.
Although the members of the Qi Family were wealthy, and most of the time there were only a few dollars or a few cents in the packets, they still participated in it for fun. It was quite interesting and fun—even Grandfather Qi and Grandmother Qi were holding their cell phones.
Grandmother Qi did not understand how these things work, hence she asked almost everyone she met about it before the New Year. She had asked all the Qi’s siblings about it, and they had had a difficult time explaining it until she eventually understood.
Song Yu was tapping for digital red packets on Alipay right after she finished shaking for the red packets on WeChat. She was delighted because she managed to win 17.78 Yuan, and the amount was the most in the family.
Qi Changzhi was smiling while combing her hair using his long and bony fingers. Her hair became less tidy after she bowed her head for so long to tap for the red packets. He did not have the heart to ridicule her when he saw her excitement.
Song Yu’s cell phone vibrated. She checked her phone and found out that Qi Chengzhi had just sent her a digital red packet via WeChat.
“Wow, you’re so in, even know how to send this!” Song Yu smiled. She thought Qi Chengzhi was just having fun with her.
She created a WeChat group with Wei Ran, Qi Chengyue, Ruan Danchen, Lu Nanxi, Fang Jiaran and Ning Wan before. They would send red packets into the chat group whenever they were free and see who got them first.
Song Yu tapped on the digital packet that was sent by Qi Chengzhi, and she was astonished by the number displayed.
5201314!
“Keep it for fun.” Qi Chengzhi was smiling. “This is for tonight. I’ll give you another one as the New Year’s lucky money 1 tomorrow morning.”
“…” Song Yu’s face turned red and she beamed at him. She felt that he was very romantic and sneakily kissed him. “Thanks, hubby.”
—
Author’s note:
Did you see the easter egg? Yes, it was Song Yu’s child. In the main text, Song Yu was pregnant for less than three months, but I had let her baby feature in this special edition. Please do not demand a twin, Orange Juice is still young, let them come one by one.