Zhang Ying came back from the bathroom and the four of them sat a while longer. When they were getting ready to go she was busy digging out her phone to settle the check, and when she found Xu Ye had already paid she told him off about it for a minute or two.

That evening, after dropping Second Aunt and Wang Manning back at their hotel, Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing found a hotel nearby and checked in themselves.

The door was no sooner shut than Chen Qingqing sat down on the end of the bed, thoroughly indignant, like somebody who had been wronged.

Xu Ye knew she was still sulking over what he had said earlier, so he sat down quickly and talked himself hoarse for a good while before he finally got her smiling again.

The next day, Saturday, Xu Ye took Chen Qingqing — and Wang Manning, who insisted on coming — straight over to Yang Lin's house.

With the operation behind her, Yang Lin had settled in at home to rest through the pregnancy, and had hired a housekeeper just to look after her there. Stuck in the house every day and bored out of her mind, Yang Lin brightened considerably the moment she saw Xu Ye.

Yang Lin did not know when it had started, but she had begun to like having people around. That was part of why she had gone through with the IVF…

"Xiao Xu, and this girl is?"

"Oh, my cousin. She came to Shanghai for her arts exam and insisted on tagging along." Having said it, Xu Ye put a hand flat on top of Wang Manning's head, rubbed it around roughly a couple of times and said without much good humor, "Don't you know how to greet people?"

Only then did Wang Manning say hello to her, and then she knocked his hand away.

"Auntie Ding, could you cut up some fruit for us~"

"Coming~"

Coming to Yang Lin's on Saturday was something Xu Ye had planned well in advance.

Over the New Year his mother-in-law had told…