Feeling guilty, Xu Ye slipped out as soon as dinner was over.

Feeling just as guilty, Chen Qingqing went upstairs the moment she'd finished eating.

Her poor father sat alone downstairs, completely baffled.

Qin Zhiwei had stayed in Shanghai instead of coming home, and over the holiday there was nowhere else for Xu Ye to go.

For once, Xu Ye got to sleep in. He got up after ten, and when he came out of his room, Old Xu was sitting alone on the couch looking at his phone.

"Where's Mom?"

"Out chatting with somebody."

Xu Ye washed up and heated the dumplings on the table in the microwave. Once he'd eaten, he grabbed the Audi A6 key off the table and got ready to head out.

Old Xu called after him. "You coming back for lunch?"

"Hard to say."

"Text me ahead of time, so I know how much rice to cook."

"Got it."

"Take it easy. Don't scratch my car."

Xu Ye rolled his eyes. "If I scratch it up, I'll buy you a new one."

He drove Old Xu's car straight to Red Leaf Estate.

The front gate was open. Xu Ye parked and walked right in. Jiang Meilin and Chen Hansong were in the living room, one kneading dough and the other rolling out wrappers. From the look of it, they were making dumplings. Chen Qingqing sat next to them in her pajamas. She must have only just woken up too.

Xu Ye walked over. "Don't they sell ready-made dumpling wrappers? Why make them yourselves?"

"We asked at several places and nobody had any. We're home for the holiday with nothing else to do, so we figured we'd give it a try."

"That's so much work."

Jiang Meilin remembered something from earlier. "Xiao Xu, didn't you already buy me a pearl necklace before? Why did you buy another one this time?"

It wasn't the first pearl necklace Xu Ye had given Jiang Meilin. The earlier one hadn't been cheap, but its luster and size weren't as good as the ones from Yunshuizhai. The salesclerk had probably…