It was dusk. The setting sun was sinking toward the horizon, and the half still showing above it had stained the clouds in the west red. The green maple leaves along both sides of the road rustled in the light wind. This was the kind of quiet that belonged only to a small city.
Once the two of them had everything ready in the kitchen, Xu Ye called Wang Manning and Wang Yuxin over to help carry it all out to the courtyard.
He set the grill up, lit the smokeless charcoal, and sat down beside it to wait at his leisure for the coals to redden.
Jiang Meilin brought out several glasses of iced lemon water and joined them.
The house was rarely this lively. At the company Jiang Meilin worked around the clock with no time for anything else at all, and at home she spent almost the whole day indoors, still dealing with work email much of the time.
When she was younger she had thought being on her own was perfectly fine.
Now, though, she found she preferred a bit of noise. Even if she couldn’t join in with what the young people were talking about, the sight of all those smiling faces as they talked was enough to lift her mood.
Seeing the smile on her mother’s face, Chen Qingqing started signaling frantically to Xu Ye with her eyes. He had no choice but to get his phone out, take a photo of the grill and send it straight to Chen Hansong.
Chen Hansong received the picture and hurriedly zoomed in on it.
He knew at a glance that Xu Ye was in the courtyard of the villa at Red Leaf Estate. He got to his feet immediately and reached for his car keys, ready to hurry over.
But Xu Ye’s second message came through right behind the first.
“Bring a few bottles of something to drink on your way.”
Chen Hansong replied with a brisk Sure and went straight out the door.
Once the message was sent, Xu Ye shot Chen Qingqing an OK look. She nodded, then pointed at the charcoal in the grill. “That’s ready now, isn’t it?”
He stood up and checked, then laughed. “Watch closely. Chef Xu is about to begin.”
“Tch~”
With the ease of long practice, Xu Ye brushed a coat of oil over the wire rack, which would keep the meat from sticking to it later.
Then he took a big handful of pork belly skewers and laid them out evenly across the grill.
Eating barbecue out, you get only that much meat on each skewer. Doing it yourself at home, you can put on as much as you like. And the greatest advantage of all is that at home it’s a great deal more hygienic.
The charcoal had gone red, and the skewers had barely gone on before they started sizzling and running with fat.
Xu Ye worked the brush, evening out the oil and rubbing on the barbecue seasoning, and the smell of grilling meat filled the courtyard almost immediately.
Wang Manning and Wang Yuxin stood across from him watching the barbecue come along, and both were swallowing hard.
“It smells so good~”
In front of everybody, Xu Ye picked up one of the skewers, blew on it to cool it a little, and held it to Chen Qingqing’s mouth. “Taste it.”
Chen Qingqing wrinkled her small nose. “Am I your guinea pig?”
Xu Ye laughed. “Trust me.”
Only then did she lean in and bite off a small piece. She chewed a few times and burst out, delighted, “It’s good!”
Xu Ye quickly took the skewers off the grill, put them on a plate that was standing beside him, and carried it over to Jiang Meilin.
“Let the girls have them first.”
“It’s fine. You try them first, Auntie. There’s plenty more coming.”
Only then did Jiang Meilin take the plate, and even so, once she had one skewer she called Wang Manning and Wang Yuxin over. Xu Ye went back to his post and carried on as grill master.
Chen Qingqing held up the washed enoki mushrooms. “How do you grill these?”
“There’s a grill basket. Clamp them in it and grill them. They cook fast.”
“Then I want these.”
“Wait your turn, greedy little cat. They’ll be ready in a minute.”
Ten minutes or so later Chen Hansong came driving up.
From outside he could already hear laughter in the courtyard. Finding that the gate wasn’t fully latched, he simply reached out and pushed it open.
The people in the courtyard saw somebody arriving and looked up at him one by one.
Chen Qingqing introduced him quickly. “That’s my dad.”
Wang Manning and Wang Yuxin then called out together, “Hello, Uncle.”
“Hello.” Chen Hansong walked over. Jiang Meilin saw the two bottles in his hand and knew Xu Ye or Chen Qingqing must have asked him to come. She didn’t want to break the peace of the evening, so for once in her life she said nothing about it, and only told him mildly, “Go inside and bring out some glasses.”
Chen Hansong could not have been more obedient. He trotted off to do it.
Once the sun was down the sky darkened.
But the streetlights in the complex were very bright, and there were a few downlights set into the ground of the courtyard too, which gave the little yard an elegant look.
Standing beside the grill, Xu Ye was sweating steadily by now, wiping his face with his hand every few minutes. In the end there was so much of it that he simply called Chen Qingqing over to wipe it off for him.
Chen Hansong watched this and was sick with envy.
His own precious daughter had never wiped the sweat off him like that.
The boy had it far too good!
Unable to watch any longer, Chen Hansong turned his eyes away in silence — and they soon settled on Jiang Meilin’s face.
Jiang Meilin was enjoying the easy pleasure of the moment. Where Chen Hansong had been jealous, she found the sight of her daughter wiping the sweat off Xu Ye touching, and a faint smile sat naturally on her face.
Chen Hansong rarely saw Jiang Meilin smile, and just now he simply stared.
Until—
“What are you looking at? Is there a flower on my face?” Jiang Meilin had noticed him staring and asked immediately.
Chen Hansong, whom everyone at the bank had to treat with respect, could only answer in a small voice, “Nothing.”
Xu Ye was almost lost for words.
If I were him, he thought, I’d have answered: yes, there is — right there.
Chen Hansong, Chen Hansong. No wonder you’re single.
Seeing that there were still plenty of skewers left on the table, Xu Ye took a break himself, working through them and drinking iced Coke. It could not have been more pleasant.
“Xiao Xu, how’s that film you invested in doing now?” Jiang Meilin asked.
“They’ve held it over. On current projections the box office could come close to a billion.”
“A billion?”
Chen Hansong asked in astonishment, “So how much can you make out of that investment?”
“Uh…”
Xu Ye glanced at Wang Manning and Wang Yuxin before he answered. “Thirty million or so.”
“That much?!”
Xu Ye nodded. “I didn’t expect the market to respond this well either. But with that money the company will be able to take on a lot more.”
Wang Manning had been listening in a daze. Only when he had finished did she manage to speak. “Cousin, you… you made thirty million?!”
“Keep it to yourself for now. Don’t make trouble for me.”
Hearing that, Jiang Meilin found herself regretting it. She had assumed his family already knew, and it hadn’t occurred to her that he had been keeping it from them all along. Had she known, she would never have asked the question in front of Wang Manning and Wang Yuxin.
Then again, to make that much money and still hold back from showing it off — there could not be many people his age capable of that.
At that thought, Jiang Meilin suddenly smiled again.
So my daughter’s judgment is better than mine.
(End of Chapter 279)