Seeing Stone and Taifeng come in, Yanyan acted coquettishly, "Uncle, Brother Taifeng, why are you coming back just now?"
Stone lightly tapped Yanyan’s forehead. "Why didn’t you notify us earlier? You’ve learned to turn things around now."
Yanyan clutched her forehead, "It hurts. We didn’t do it on purpose. Every time we called before coming back, you were not around. Who were we supposed to talk to? Humph, I’m not talking to you."
Stone quickly apologized with a smile, "Uncle was wrong to blame Yanyan, don’t be mad at me, okay?"
Yanyan remained unimpressed, her little face still upset.
Stone knew that without proper compensation, she would not talk to him, so he said, "After we eat, uncle will take you out for fun, to make it up to you."
Yanyan brightened up at this, but still rolled her eyes, "Considering it’s the New Year, I’ll forgive you. If you wrongly blame me again, I won’t forgive you so easily next time."
Stone couldn’t help but laugh and cry, "Alright, I definitely won’t make you angry in the future."
Then she got up and walked with Stone to the dining room.
********
In another place, Ning Xueling looked at the wedding supplies prepared in the room, thinking about the wedding the day after tomorrow.
Thinking about the gossip from colleagues at her workplace, she sighed. This time she must manage well, because if it fails again, she truly won’t have the face to stay in Capital City.
Previously, Big Brother said that he had already confirmed with Xuyan and others that they would attend on the third day of the New Year. However, she still felt nervous, afraid that they might stand her up that day or say unpleasant things, making her embarrassed.
She knew that marrying three times was shameful, but if her children didn’t attend, she feared that the He family relatives would look down on her, thinking she was easy to bully.
Now she regretted divorcing Luo Haotian the most, but she knew his temperament too well. When he liked you, you were the treasure in his palm; when he didn’t, you were nothing to him.
She had considered swallowing her pride to ask Haotian for reconciliation, but none of her five children had a good relationship with her. There was no one to mediate for her.
Her children did not like her, and Luo Haotian was so stubborn, she felt utterly hopeless.
Although He Qiuping was ordinary in appearance, he had a really good temper and was considerate toward her. At her age, she couldn’t possibly keep living in the company dormitory, tired of the gossip. So, she might as well marry.
Anyway, she had decided that as long as Qiuping treated her well, she would definitely live well with him. But if irreconcilable conflicts occurred after marriage, she wouldn’t suffer. She would just divorce and retire. Then with the pension, travel around the country.
A knock at the door brought her back from her thoughts. Opening it, she saw Qiuping, "Why are you here?"
"I was thinking since it’s New Year’s Eve, I was afraid you wouldn’t prepare properly alone, so I stewed a few dishes earlier and brought them over for you to heat up tonight."
Hearing this reminded Ning Xueling of her younger days in the military when she couldn’t cook or do household chores. Luo Haotian would often take time to run back and prepare everything in advance.
But back then, she was living in unrequited love; she never appreciated what he did for her, no matter how petulant she was, he only treated her better.
When had things started to change? Right, it seemed to be after the incidents with Xuyan and Xuyuan, that he became less passionate towards her, his eyes void of love, only filled with duty and obligation.
It was her naivety, and also Luo Haotian being too good to her, that she thought her dad and Haotian had ruined her love and happiness, not realizing how ridiculous that joke was.
Qiuping set down the things, noticing Ning Xueling in a daze, "Xueling, what are you thinking about?"
Snapped back to reality, Ning Xueling smiled faintly, "I’m wondering whether I can make this third marriage work, whether we will be happy in the future."
Qiuping took Ning Xueling’s hand, "Xueling, it has been so many years since my ex-wife passed away, and I hadn’t found anyone else partly because of the children, and also because there was no one I found suitable."