"Okay, Grandma Li, you can stop worrying about my sister. When the time comes, worry about my own marriage instead!" An Ping joked with a mischievous grin to the elderly lady.
"You get out of here, you little brat who’s barely grown hair," Grandma Li scolded him with a laugh.
"Who says? Don’t believe me? Feel it, I’m about to grow a beard." An Ping teased Grandma Li a good deal, then let go of An Hao and went to open the door.
Grandma Li’s eyes landed on Qin Jian and the other two men, examining them for a while, she nodded, "Hello, engineer, hello, engineer, our darling girl is going to marry an engineer! He’s a bit old, but he knows how to cherish someone! An Hao is a lucky girl indeed!"
An Hao was startled, people in the village called Grandma Li "Li the Clairvoyant," nearly seventy years old, very fit, often saying things that made no sense.
Whether it was coincidence or what, she often managed to predict certain things correctly.
Some of the more superstitious old folks in the village would even come to her to ask about fortunes and misfortunes. An Hao, born and raised under the new China and its red flag, would never believe in these things.
But this time, she was truly shaken when she met Qin Jian and without thinking, Grandma Li had mentioned that matter.
It seemed that in this life, she and Qin Jian might indeed have a marital fate.
An Hao couldn’t help but look up at Qin Jian, whose calm eyes met her gaze and then, inexplicably, a smile appeared and gradually widened.
"Ahem, ahem!" Jian Ying, making a show of it, lightly coughed twice with his fist to his mouth and casually asked Tian Niu, "Tian Niu, do you know what those four words ’expressions convey feelings’ mean?"
Tian Niu chuckled, "I’m an uncultured brute. I don’t understand what ’expressions convey feelings’ means, but I know when a young man has affection and the girl’s got feelings. I also know, ’A man chasing a woman is like climbing through mountains, a woman chasing a man is like piercing through a veil.’"
"Hehe." Jian Ying looked at Qin Jian with a giggling smile. Where did the tenderness he had when he was smiling at An Hao just now gone?
Oh, the exhaustion for this old Jiang! Is it easy to bring these two together?
They clearly both have eyes only for each other, yet neither is willing to express it.
It’s understandable with An Hao being a girl, but Qin Jian, such a grown man, and yet so taciturn, cold-natured. What’s wrong with speaking up a bit?
If only he had a third of the determination he had when chasing his wife back then, he would just go after the one he fancied directly, court her, hold hands when it’s time, kiss when it’s time, then write a report to the higher-ups, get the certificate, and wouldn’t he have the beauty in his arms then?
"Alright, alright, you two stop with this ’mutual affection’ act and come in," An Ping unlocked the door and led them inside.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, Qin Jian saw the dilapidated yard and felt a chill in his heart.
The yard wasn’t small, overgrown with weeds. There were two peach trees planted in the yard which had gone wild due to long neglect, with branches growing haphazardly all over the place, blocking the view and making the small courtyard dark and oppressively narrow.
The eaves were broken, revealing a big hole. When it rained, it couldn’t keep out the wind and rain, and it might even be dangerous.
"You’re staying here tonight?" Qin Jian hadn’t expected the place she was going to live in to be so run-down and felt uneasy.
"Mm." An Hao smiled at him, "Don’t judge it by its current state, once An Ping and I fix it up, it’ll be much better."
"This place is a bit desolate, aren’t you scared by yourself?" Jian Ying couldn’t help asking, after all she was a girl, and it was indeed worrying for her to be staying in such a place.