Gu Kai was quite worried.
Miss of the Jiang family’s boyfriend would soon be coming to visit, and the one from the second child’s family had already made himself quite at home.
But, he and the Third were still unacquainted.
Gu Kai feared that showing up too late would put his standing within the family at risk.
He could see that the Eldest’s boyfriend had already charmed his mother-in-law, and the second one was even better, winning over both father-in-law and mother-in-law with their sweet talk and knack for networking, especially good at ingratiating themselves with the Jiang family. However, Gu Kai, with his straightforward and stubborn nature, was neither sweet-talking nor good at communication, always wearing a cold expression; such a man was truly not endearing.
He was also aware that the women who said they liked him were actually after his money.
It could be said our paths were not meant to cross, only brought together by my spending money.
The only significant thing he could offer was money.
However, the Jiang family didn’t really care about money.
Jiang Anping wasn’t the kind of girl who could be bought with money.
Also, the families of both the Eldest and the Second were not lacking in money; not only were they wealthy, good-looking, they were also particularly savvy.
It could be said that Gu Kai’s only strong point was a bit insufficient.
He had no choice but to call his dubious friends while sitting on the couch.
"Liu San, what are you up to? Oh, out visiting for New Year? Sure, you keep at it, we’ll catch up later."
"Shunzi, got a minute? Need advice, got my eyes on a girl and wondering how to woo her?"
"What? Buy flowers? Jewelry, designer bags... No, she’s not that kind of person, I’m not just flirting, I’m seriously pursuing a wife, you’ve got the experience, give me some advice."
"She’s young, still in university. Yes, yes, I know I’m the old bull eating fresh grass, can we not talk about that, just give me some advice?"
Gu Kai felt he had spoken more today than he usually did in a week.
"Right, right, got it."
After hanging up, Gu Kai started choosing his outfit.
Entering the walk-in closet again, picking and choosing, he realized all his clothes were formal wear; they made him look stylish and smart, but also made him appear too serious, not a good match for Jiang Anping.
Helpless, Gu Kai could only drive out to buy clothes.
On New Year’s Day, many stores were still closed, but luckily, Gu family owned their own shopping mall and stuff, so Gu Kai made a call, and several sportswear and trendy brand store managers opened their doors.
Gu Kai didn’t waste time, he went there and picked some reasonably priced clothes to be delivered to his home.
Then he changed into a black turtleneck sweater and jeans, wore a blue short down jacket and a pair of sneakers, looked in the mirror and found he indeed looked much younger, then picked up his phone to head out.
As he was about to leave, Gu Kai noticed that the cars in his garage were too expensive, so he picked up the phone to call Secretary Zhao.
"Secretary Zhao, get your car to my place, yes, hurry up."
Secretary Zhao had just finished the reunion dinner, chatting with his family, but had to hurriedly drive over after the boss’s call.
Gu Kai didn’t let Secretary Zhao make the trip for nothing; he let Secretary Zhao leave his car and picked another from his garage for Secretary Zhao to take.
Secretary Zhao had not driven far when he discovered a red packet from Gu Kai via Flying Messenger; upon checking, it was a generous one, totaling a thousand yuan.
Secretary Zhao was quite happy.
Arrived driving a car worth about two hundred thousand, left with one worth millions, and even got a thousand yuan red packet; more of these situations would be great.
Gu Kai drove Secretary Zhao’s car out.
He remembered Jiang Anping mentioned she would go ice skating in the afternoon, he even eavesdropped on Jiang Anping talking on the phone with her classmate, and listened to where she would skate.
As Anning’s family headed back, the Third changed clothes and said she wanted to go out to play.
New Year’s Day was definitely a time to have fun, Mr. Jiang and Mrs. Jiang told her to enjoy herself.
No sooner had the Third left, the Eldest said she wanted to see a movie and also left after changing.
Anning wasn’t in a rush, but soon received a call from Xiao Yuan, and they also arranged to go out together.
Only Mr. Jiang and Mrs. Jiang remained at home.
Mr. Jiang looked at Mrs. Jiang: "How about we go out too? It’s been many years since we really went out for a stroll and a break."
That was also true.
Mrs. Jiang grabbed her phone to search for any good movies playing today.
"I’m booking movie tickets online, let’s go out for a movie later."
"Okay."
Mr. Jiang nodded in agreement.
Mrs. Jiang found a movie she liked, bought the tickets online, and both she and Mr. Jiang changed clothes. They weren’t in a hurry, and walked out slowly.
The movie theater chosen by Mrs. Jiang wasn’t far from home, so they just walked there.
Mrs. Jiang chose a romantic film.
She saw that it had good reviews online, seemingly sweet enough to bring back the memories of youth.
Mrs. Jiang also wanted to catch the tail end of her youth, so she chose this movie.
When they got there, there were already a lot of people waiting at the movie theater, mostly young couples, either holding hands or whispering into each other’s ears, or the guys with their arms around the girls’ waists. It felt like a bit of a dogshow.
Mr. Jiang felt embarrassed once he saw the crowd and started to complain to Mrs. Jiang, "Why did you pick this? Everyone here is so young, what are we, with old brows and eyes, doing watching this?"
Mrs. Jiang was irritated: "Why can’t we watch it? If young people can watch it, why can’t we when we’re old? It wasn’t like you didn’t—"
Mr. Jiang hastily cut her off: "Okay, we’ll watch it, isn’t that fine?"
Seeing many young people buying popcorn and cola milk tea or something, he asked Mrs. Jiang: "Do you want some popcorn?"
"Yes."
Mrs. Jiang said through clenched teeth: "And I’ll have milk tea too."
So, Mr. Jiang bought popcorn and milk tea.
It was already time to start checking tickets and entering. Mr. and Mrs. Jiang weren’t in a hurry and waited; only after all the young people had entered did they slowly go in.
Once inside, they found their seats. As soon as they sat down, Mr. Jiang tugged at Mrs. Jiang’s sleeve and pointed ahead: "Look, isn’t that our eldest up there?"
Mrs. Jiang looked, and it indeed was.
Right across a row from Mr. and Mrs. Jiang were Jiang Anan and Wei Jiaming.
They were sitting close, with Wei Jiaming holding a bucket of popcorn, and Jiang Anan occasionally taking a kernel.
Then, Wei Jiaming smiled as he fed Jiang Anan, and he also let Jiang Anan drink his beverage. After she drank from Wei Jiaming’s drink, she offered her milk tea for him to taste.
Those two were being terribly sweet, Mr. Jiang felt like his teeth were rotting.
When the movie started, Mrs. Jiang watched seriously.
But Mr. Jiang was mainly watching the front where their eldest daughter and her boyfriend were.
He saw them getting closer and closer. The boyfriend set down the drink and popcorn, wrapped his left arm over the eldest daughter’s shoulder, and leaned his head in, about to kiss her. Mr. Jiang got so annoyed he began to cough loudly.
His cough was pretty loud. With that cough, the eldest and the boyfriend split apart.
Mrs. Jiang handed over a cup of milk tea: "Why the sudden cough? Weren’t you fine when we got here? Quickly drink some milk tea to ease it."
But instead of kissing, the pair started kissing hands.
The boyfriend held the eldest’s hand, caressing and kissing it. As a kissing scene appeared on screen, he again impulsively leaned in.
Not just them, several couples started to lean in to kiss.
Mr. Jiang began to cough vigorously again.
This time, the eldest and her boyfriend didn’t separate, and Mr. Jiang watched helplessly as they kissed.
He was so irked by the cough.
A young girl next to him rolled her eyes, "Old man, are you sick or something? If you really find it disturbing, you should just leave. Is it worth it? It’s just a kiss, why so bothered?"
"I..."
Mr. Jiang hadn’t really noticed what the other young people were up to.
He was just focused on his own daughter.
Mrs. Jiang snickered, shoving the popcorn into his hands: "Eat yours, why bother with others? It wasn’t like you dragged me into a cornfield when you were young."
Mr. Jiang’s face turned as red as a piece of red cloth.
The young girl next to them teased: "Old man, just reminisce about your beautiful youth. If you really can’t stand it, isn’t your wife right beside you? You could kiss her too."
"I..."
Mr. Jiang was nearly angered to death.