"Go ahead, and don’t starve our little Xiaojiu and Xiao Shi," Zhou Xiuhua had yet to say anything when Mr. Xie hurriedly waved her off. "Don’t worry, we will take good care of the guests."
Upon hearing that her treasures were crying, Yan Jinsu’s attention was completely diverted, and she nodded before heading upstairs.
Xie Tiesheng really listened to Yan Jinsu’s words, took out the chess set from under the coffee table, and set it up without asking if the others knew how to play.
"Old man, you and your lousy chess, don’t embarrass us." Zhou Xiuhua sat by and glanced over, realizing that Secretary Zhou really knew how to play...
Anyway, Zhou Xiuhua couldn’t really make out the skill involved, but every move the old man made took him a good three to five minutes of wild guessing. She figured that this future son-in-law likely had some decent skills in chess!
Those who didn’t understand the game found it boring. Xie Jingzi wasn’t interested in this mental sport either. Seeing her mother getting up, she stood up as well.
At that moment, she saw her mother nodding satisfiedly, finished speaking to her younger daughter and then turned to Zhou Zhenghui with a beaming smile:
"My dear, come with me, let’s prepare dinner together, so that these men don’t feel we are in the way. Xiao Zhou, please have a seat; stay for dinner."
"Sure, auntie, you go ahead and don’t mind us. Elder, it’s your turn." While talking to his future mother-in-law, Zhou Zhenghui pretended to carelessly make a wrong move with the canon—
No choice, his future father-in-law’s chess skills were really nothing to brag about!
His own grandfather had taught him chess hands-on from a young age, so of course, he was several levels above Mr. Xie.
Not only was Zhou Zhenghui intellectually superior, but his EQ was also high, and even if he lost, he needed to make it look artistic. From the moment he started playing, his thoughtful gestures showed that he was making an ’effort’.
Anyway, Xie Tiesheng and Zhou Zhenghui played three rounds, each lasting over twenty minutes... To keep Mr. Xie from losing face, Zhou Zhenghui had to ’rack his brains’.
Look, if you want to marry their daughter, you must play humble—otherwise, the father-in-law won’t clueless son-in-law!
Yan Jinsu said it would only take ’a moment,’ but that was just talk. It could hardly be just a ’moment’.
Once upstairs, she hurriedly cleaned up and fed the twins right away; then, Sister Jiang had her herbal bath ready.
Speaking of which, Yan Jinsu was rather speechless.
She didn’t know if bathing in those herbs was really necessary, but ever since she was discharged from the hospital, she and the twins had been bathing with herbal water.
Of course, after the herbal bath, she would quietly rinse off with hot water because otherwise, she would feel uncomfortable and couldn’t sleep at all!
As for the twins, since the mother-in-law and Sister Jiang were the ones bathing them, as their mother, she was helpless to stop it.
For the good of everyone and to maintain family harmony, she genuinely tried her best to cooperate.
From Yan Jinsu’s modern perspective, are these ’traditions’ really effective? Some might be, but others are simply outdated practices that needn’t be followed.
For instance: not, exposed, to, wind!
Damn, it’s July already! Do you know how hot it is outside?! There’s no air conditioning at this time! Want air conditioning? Keep dreaming for another ten years!
Dear life~~~ Just think about it, she lives on the third floor, and the roof has no insulation layer! This means her apartment gets hot, hot, hot, like a sauna!
If she wasn’t an alien with resources in her Space, she and her babies would have been steamed into one big and two small buns by now!
Even though she had advanced home appliances in her Space, to fit in with the reality, she had to think everything through. She first had her husband cover the roof with an anti-corrosion tarp, then using all the available resources, had her brother-in-law and husband fill it up with soil and casually plant some seeds. Only after creating a ’thermal insulation’ did the temperature in her apartment begin to drop!
With no air conditioning and not even a fan, relying on the ’natural breeze’ from outside, how cool could it be?
And yet, keeping the temperature around 27 degrees Celsius was already pushing the limit; any lower wouldn’t be realistic.
While Yan Jinsu was busy and frustrated upstairs, Xie Jingyang had just returned from work downstairs.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw his kids playing happily with Little Tiantian, a smile appearing on his face. Lifting his eyes, he noticed a woman washing infant clothes on the third floor, her slender, tall figure mesmerizing Xie Jingyang the moment he saw her.
Because his arrival was so quiet, even the three children playing hide-and-seek downstairs hadn’t noticed him. He stood in the shadow of the gate,
Perfectly concealed by the large tree at the corner of the courtyard. Unless someone specifically came from outside, nobody would spot this living person standing there.
Of course, looking down from the third floor, one could see someone below, but clearly, the woman on the balcony was so focused on her task she hadn’t noticed the tall man below, lips pursed, openly gazing at her.
Xie Jingyang didn’t know what had come over him. She was clearly older than him, a young widow, and most importantly, had a daughter. This kind of woman, paired with him, would surely be opposed by his parents.
But having interacted with this clean, gentle-natured woman for half a month, his heart gradually began to stir. After half a month, he was increasingly falling for her...
Compared to Wang Xiaocui, this woman was streets ahead in both appearance and character!
Most importantly, he had many female colleagues and classmates at his school, but none had ever made his heart flutter .
Having survived the calamity that was Wang Xiaocui, Xie Jingyang understood very well how crucial it was to ’marry a virtuous wife’.
Jiang Xiaoying was like heaven compared to the mud that was Wang Xiaocui!
In Xie Jingyang’s heart, comparing Jiang Xiaoying with Wang Xiaocui was simply an insult to Jiang Xiaoying!
Ever since her husband, Cheng Xianlie, passed away four years ago in his duty as Rong Wei, she had been living alone with her daughter, and the compensation money was supposedly taken by her in-laws.
Yet, this woman had remained faithful to her late husband for three years, raising their daughter well, proving herself to be a good woman and a good mother!
Xie Jingyang sighed internally, uncertain if she would be willing to accept him and his two kids.
As he continued to gaze at the graceful figure lost in thought, unaware, his face unconsciously showed an enraptured expression—