After Ding Jing’s remark, the elderly woman finally shifted her attention to Gu Qimiao, then said, "Are you talking about Xiaoxiao? Xiaoxiao is about to start school, so she went to her school. Besides, she usually lives with her parents and only comes here to play during holidays."
Seizing the opportunity, Ding Jing shifted the topic to Gu Qimiao: "And who is this..."
"Yes, Yanchen, you brought a friend here without introducing them?" The elderly woman pretended to be dissatisfied, but then directly asked Gu Qimiao, "Young lady, what is your relationship with our Yanchen?"
Gu Qimiao put down her chopsticks and was immediately awash with embarrassment. She glanced at Shen Yanchen and stammered, "...Friend."
It was obvious that the elderly woman and Ding Jing thought it wasn’t as simple as being friends. Firstly, Shen Yanchen never had female friends around him except for his two younger sisters; secondly, who brings a friend home to see their grandmother for no reason?
"A friend in life or a work friend?" the elderly woman asked again.
Gu Qimiao was calculating what would be the best thing to say, but her mind was in a jumble. At this moment, Shen Yanchen, who sat beside her, spoke up: "Childhood friends."
"Oh~" The elderly woman suddenly understood, "Friends from childhood?"
Gu Qimiao was stunned, realizing that besides friends and former ’younger sisters,’ they were also childhood friends... She quite liked this kind of relationship.
Even though they were only childhood friends for two years.
The elderly woman scrutinized Gu Qimiao for a while. Although her grandson didn’t make it clear, she knew perfectly well that to her precious grandson, this girl was definitely not simple. So she asked again: "What’s your name?"
"How old are you? What do your parents do?"
Gu Qimiao was taken aback and hesitantly replied, "... I’m 23, my parents..."
"Let’s eat; the food is getting cold," Shen Yanchen interrupted the conversation, then instructed the servant behind him, "Bring a bowl of hot soup."
The servant was momentarily stunned, thinking the soup had just been served. Yet, not daring to hesitate, she picked up the basin on the table to get a new bowl from the kitchen but accidentally knocked against the chair, spilling the soup over Gu Qimiao.
Gu Qimiao returned a smile and said lightly, "It’s okay." Then she looked down at the wet stain on her pants.
Seizing the opportunity, Shen Yanchen pulled her up, "I’ll take her upstairs to change. You go ahead and eat."
The elderly woman nodded, muttering as she watched Gu Qimiao’s back, "23? Still a bit young."
Following him hesitantly, Gu Qimiao said, "Thanks for earlier."
"Thanks for what?" He pretended not to understand.
Gu Qimiao was just about to explain when she suddenly saw a wedding photo hanging on the corridor wall. She froze for a moment; wasn’t the man in the photo him? And the woman seemed to be a famous actress. Did he get married?
Why hadn’t she heard any news about it? Oh right, if the girl was a celebrity, these matters would be kept confidential...
Lost in the surprising news, Gu Qimiao suddenly thought, if he was married, why would his grandmother still be setting him up on blind dates? Had they divorced?
Shen Yanchen followed her gaze to the wedding photo and deliberately asked, "What are you looking at?"
With one sentence, he clarified her widening misunderstanding: "It’s my parents’ wedding photo."
Upon hearing this, she immediately felt relieved and then awkwardly laughed, "You and your father look so alike."
He turned and continued walking forward, "Yes, that’s what they say."
Gu Qimiao began to follow, "Your mother looks a lot like An’an, that actress."
He stopped at a door, "Yi An? She’s my sister. I look like Dad, she looks like Mom."
Gu Qimiao carefully thought over the family dynamics and couldn’t help but marvel, how could this whole family look so good?