He’s very capable?!
What sort of thing was that to say?
Pei Jianhua stared at his sister, his expression saying: Sis, how could you possibly come out with something like that?
Pei Youwei really had blurted it out. It was the only word of praise for Xu Ye that had come into her head.
She hadn’t noticed the change in her brother’s expression, and went on eating her lunch, rattling away. “Sister-in-law made this, didn’t she? It’s much better than Mom’s.”
Pei Jianhua was in no mood to discuss that with her. He pulled out a chair and sat down opposite her, then asked with a worried look, “Youwei… how old is he this year?”
“Twenty, I think.”
“Only twenty?!”
Pei Youwei looked up at him and frowned. “Brother, why are you asking all this?”
“I’m… I’m only looking out for you, aren’t I?”
She went back to her lunch. “I’m well into my thirties. I don’t need looking after. I can decide my own affairs. Brother, do you know how much money I made this month?”
Pei Jianhua didn’t much care about that. The family had always been comfortably off. Never mind their parents — he was a deputy chief at the police bureau, and while the salary wasn’t especially high it was more than enough to keep a family. His own father-in-law, moreover, was a senior executive at Sinopec, so the household was thoroughly well-to-do.
Their parents were visibly getting older year by year, and Pei Youwei was old enough now to count as a leftover woman. The most pressing matter for the whole family was solving the problem of her being single.
“I don’t care how much money you made. But this business with that boy just now — you’d better think it over seriously. I’ll grant you he’s good-looking. But there’s a big age gap between the two of you. They say a wife three years older brings you gold bricks, but you’re a full twelve years older than him. If the two of you got together, even if the family said nothing, outsiders would certainly gossip. These days—”
Pei Youwei looked up at her brother, wide-eyed, her expression full of disbelief.
Pei Jianhua frowned. “What are you looking at me for? I’m your brother. Naturally I think these things through more thoroughly than you do.”
“Brother, what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you. Don’t play dumb.”
“No.” Pei Youwei put down her chopsticks. “Wives three years older, getting together — what nonsense are you talking?”
Pei Jianhua was baffled. “You’re not seeing that boy?”
“Seeing him?”
Pei Youwei laughed in exasperation. “Brother, is there something wrong with you? At my age I could be his aunt.”
“But—”
“He’s only my business partner. And besides, he already has a girlfriend. Brother, you are unbelievable. A man your age, saying something so far off the mark.”
Pei Jianhua thought it over carefully for a while, then let out a breath. “I read too much into it. But you can’t blame me. I think about your situation every single day. When exactly are you going to find someone?”
“Bring that up again and you can stop bringing me lunch.”
“You—!”
Pei Jianhua let out a long sigh. “When you talk like that, I almost wish you were seeing that boy. At least you’d have a home of your own.”
“Brother!”
“All right, all right. I’ll stop. I’ll stop.”
……
When Xu Ye finished work he didn’t go straight to Red Leaf Estate.
Instead he turned off partway there into an Apple Store, and only once he was inside did he message Wang Manning. “Which model iPad do you want?”
Wang Manning was lying on the hotel bed. She replied straight back. “Stop lying to me, mangy dog.”
Wang Manning: I’m not believing you again.
Xu Ye gave the phone a flat look and simply started a video call.
Half believing him, Wang Manning picked up — and when she saw that he really was in an Apple Store, her face lit up immediately. “I want the iPad Air 2.”
In a little over a month the first iPad Pro would be released, but for now, apart from the mini 3, the Air 2 was the newest model.
Xu Ye didn’t hesitate. Still on the video call, he waved over a sales assistant and, without even asking the price, had one boxed up.
Once he had scanned the code and paid, he said to Wang Manning, “I’m going to your sister-in-law’s place now. I’ll be back around eight. Wait at my house and behave.”
“You got it.”
Once Wang Manning saw that he really had bought her the iPad, her attitude finally turned a hundred and eighty degrees. She promptly changed his contact name from mangy dog to Cousin Xu Ye.
Coming out of the store, Xu Ye bought two kumquat lemon teas and one hot mango black tea from the Gong Cha next door.
By the time Xu Ye arrived.
Jiang Meilin and Chen Qingqing had themselves only just gotten home.
Xu Ye handed the hot one to Chen Qingqing and another to Jiang Meilin, who was fresh from her afternoon at the salon and looking very well indeed. She took the tea and asked with a smile, “Are you two eating at home tonight, or going out?”
“Either’s fine with me.”
Then he nudged Chen Qingqing with his elbow. She took a sip of the warm black tea, thought what are you nudging me for, and elbowed him back.
Jiang Meilin took it all in and thought: So you don’t even bother hiding the flirting from your mother now?
Jiang Meilin: Noodles for dinner, then?
“Oh.” Chen Qingqing said it meekly, and Xu Ye nodded along, then said, “Tomorrow’s the weekend again. How about we do a BBQ at home in the evening?”
Chen Qingqing immediately looked at Jiang Meilin.
Jiang Meilin agreed readily enough. “Fine by me, but I can’t grill.”
“Doesn’t matter. I can.”
Jiang Meilin got up to go boil the noodles, and only when she reached the doorway did she remember that one of the bulbs in the pendant light over the dining table had gone. She turned back to Chen Qingqing. “Qingqing, use my phone to call the property office. Tell them a bulb’s gone at home and ask them to send somebody over to change it.”
Chen Qingqing was reaching for the phone when Xu Ye said, “It’s a lightbulb. I can do it.”
Chen Qingqing: You’re sure?
Xu Ye was exasperated. “You just need hands.”
He got a new bulb from Jiang Meilin, then brought a chair over and climbed onto the kitchen island. In less than a minute the bulb was changed.
“Try the switch.”
“Oh.”
Chen Qingqing pressed the switch, and the broken dining-room light came on.
Xu Ye dropped the old bulb in the trash, dusted off his hands and grinned. “Well? I told you it was simple, and you didn’t believe me.”
“Stop preening. Go wash your hands.”
Listening to the voices from the doorway, Jiang Meilin was suddenly struck by the feeling that Xu Ye was already one of the family. Smiling, she poured water into the pot, and found herself looking forward to the life Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing would have once they were married.
On the sofa.
Chen Qingqing asked quietly, “Dumb pig, do you want to ask my dad over tomorrow evening?”
“No.”
Xu Ye folded his arms across his chest and said it with perfect righteousness. “Your dad already offended me last time. I’m not helping him again.”
Hearing that, Chen Qingqing quickly put a hand on his arm and gave it two little pushes, and then — of all things — started wheedling. “Come on, don’t be so stingy.”
“Kiss me, then.”
“My mom’s right there.”
“She’s in the kitchen. She can’t see.”
Chen Qingqing glanced toward the kitchen, then leaned in immediately and kissed him on the cheek, leaving a faint strawberry-flavored lip print.
(End of Chapter 276)