"Mom, please have a seat here; it’s warm." Seeing her finally come in, Ye Ning, who was sitting next to her son, picked him up and gave her the spot.
However, it was a bit odd that the boy seemed visibly stiff and resistant when she held him.
Ye Ning sensed this and, thinking he was just a child who didn’t understand, explained in his ear after picking him up, "Xiaobao, this is Grandma, we should respect her, understand?"
Xiaobao didn’t speak, but from the moment this woman entered, his eyes, filled with wariness, never left her, and his little body remained seated between her and his mother as if he were protecting his mom.
The old master saw this and, suddenly, his gaze guiltily shifted elsewhere.
Bai Tingfang noticed it too, and as she walked over, her body stiffened as well, the feeling of being starkly scrutinized made her even more embarrassed and uncomfortable.
Indeed, the child’s mother remembered nothing, but the child himself remembered everything clearly.
"Sit down; this is the seat your daughter-in-law offered you!"
Bai Tingfang finally sat down, feeling somewhat relieved, happy, but also a bit... guilty and remorseful.
Ye Ning had no idea what she was thinking. She started eating after seeing Bai Tingfang sit down, and Xiaobao, also silent, began eating while staying close to his mom.
After eating for a while, Bai Tingfang could no longer hold back and spoke, "Ye... Xiaoning, how are you feeling now? Are you feeling a bit better?"
Ye Ning looked up, "Much better, I’m not sleeping much these days, and my spirit has greatly improved; thank you for your concern, Mom."
"No, no, no, it’s nothing, it’s what I should do." The usually domineering mistress of the Ou Family suddenly stuttered so much she could barely complete a sentence.
The old master was eating nearby and, hearing this, his tense face finally softened a bit...
He understood his wife quite well; she was arrogant and haughty, considering herself above everyone in the Ou Family, but when she would stutter to this extent, it meant that she was ready to compromise.
So, was she now finally compromising to this daughter-in-law?
The old master picked up a meatball from the family dish, "Eat this. Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and it’s Xiaoning and Xiaobao’s first time coming home for the holidays. You’re in charge of making it special, remember to do it grandly."
As the words fell, Bai Tingfang, who had been racking her brain on how to strike up a conversation with the young girl next to her, was shaken to her core. Looking at the meatball placed into her bowl, she froze completely.
She was to be in charge of preparing for tonight’s New Year’s Eve?
This was... this was...
"Mom, would you like some help? I don’t have anything to do upstairs; I could lend a hand," Ye Ning offered.
"Yeah, even if I don’t know how, you can teach me." The girl who couldn’t remember anything, looking at her mother-in-law, had nothing but a sincere smile on her face.
When Bai Tingfang saw that, in an instant, it seemed as if something finally cracked open in her heart, and the swiftly rising warmth enveloped her entire being, causing her hand holding the chopsticks to tremble violently!