Li Weiyu returned to the courtyard and saw two people sitting closely together in the living room, chatting intimately.
Had they made up already?
No, this was a step further.
Love!
Li Weiyu nudged his younger cousin. "An'an ge, another one of our family has ended their single status. You must stay single with me."
Chen An shook his head. "Sister Lili said she'd help me find someone. I can't promise to stay single with you."
"Unloyal!" Li Weiyu glanced at the living room again.
Even his extremely rough elder brother had been conquered by love. Love, it was a terrifying thing.
...
As the sun set, the swimmers got out of the pool, showered, and changed. The group returned to the compound's canteen.
As soon as these people returned, the dishes from the kitchen were quickly served.
For dinner, it was all direct relatives, so chatting across tables was normal.
Ouyang Lei, annoyed by Huang Zongliang, directly told him that he was about to resign and that company matters no longer concerned him.
Furthermore, the company's building materials were purchased directly from the factory, with no intermediaries.
Huang Zongliang didn't believe it. Captain Tian had always stayed out of Jingyuan Company's affairs, and with her status, she couldn't directly manage it. If Ouyang Lei resigned, who would take over?
Ouyang Lei stopped answering any of Huang Zongliang's questions and focused intently on eating.
Such delicious food, to ignore it would be an offense to heaven and earth.
Seeing this, Huang Zongliang inquired again about who was cooking today.
He hadn't managed to find out from the Shen family who the cook was. With this culinary skill, one could open a restaurant and have endless guests.
Ouyang Lei cast a sideways glance at him and continued eating and drinking, thinking, do these Huang family members think everyone else is an idiot?
They were practically writing their intentions on their faces. He wondered how the Shen family had chosen such a person as their son-in-law.
Huang Zongliang paid no mind to Ouyang Lei's attitude. People from prominent families had the right to look down on their small families.
Ouyang Lei: "..."
Once the dishes on the table were wiped clean, dinner concluded.
Ouyang Lei stood up and signaled to Huang Zongliang that he was leaving, but Huang Zongliang still pestered him.
"Renzhi." Ouyang Lei called out, not seeing his son.
Ouyang Renzhi walked out from the kitchen carrying a rabbit cage.
His rabbit hadn't eaten all day, so he went to the kitchen to get a carrot.
Seeing his son, Ouyang Lei urged, "Let's go, we're leaving."
Ouyang Renzhi shook his head. "I haven't had dinner yet."
Ouyang Lei pointed at the six messy tables. "Not enthusiastic about eating, that's a problem with your thinking. Go home and eat."
Ouyang Renzhi hadn't expected that after a quick trip to the kitchen to wash a carrot, all the food outside would be gone.
He could only agree to go home. "Ask Sister Feng to cook."
"Dream on!" Ouyang Lei glared at his son. "Sister Feng has worked hard. I'll cook for you."
Ouyang Renzhi said disdainfully, "Then I'd rather starve."
"You disdain me?" Ouyang Lei tapped his son's forehead. "My cooking might not be delicious, but I raised you this big."
Ouyang Renzhi pouted. "That was before I tasted true delicacies. Compared to now, what you make is pig slop."
"Hmph!" Ouyang Lei snorted heavily. "But I still raised you, this piglet, to be this big. Hurry up and go."
The father and son left first, leaving Huang Zongliang to digest the information he had just received.
Sister Feng, was it?
...
When Shen Xiaoping was asked about Sister Feng by her husband, she shook her head and said she didn't know who that person was.
Huang Zongliang, disappointed in his wife, pointed at her. "Can't you just ask Little Aunt?"
Shen Xiaoping said with dissatisfaction, "Little Aunt doesn't even talk to me anymore. I've been advising Big Sister for a long time not to be so arrogant."
"Even people in our circle aren't as arrogant as she is. Now she's gotten herself into trouble, and she's implicated me too."
"People in our circle! People in our circle!" Huang Zongliang glared at his wife and growled.
"You keep talking about 'people in our circle,' but aren't you married outside of it?"
"How many people in our circle are still willing to associate with you?"
"What's wrong with my eldest sister? She put in immense effort to get our Huang family into Kyoto. We should be grateful to her."
Immense effort?
Heh, Shen Xiaoping sneered inwardly. She had merely helped buy two courtyards, run some errands, and get the Huang family registered.
Immense effort?
Heh, it was just that getting a household registration in Kyoto was restricted now, comparatively speaking.
The Huang family kept boasting about this achievement, but what did it have to do with her?
If the Huang family weren't from Kyoto, if they didn't have money, why would a granddaughter of the prestigious Shen family marry into the Huang family?
"You're talking about the past. Now, who sees me and doesn't say 'Sister Xiaoping, Sister Xiaoping'?"
Hearing his wife's words, Huang Zongliang also felt disdain in his heart.
What was the Shen family's situation back then? They were so suppressed by these so-called people in their circle that they could barely survive.
If it weren't for their Huang family, along with the Tu, Cai, and Wu families, wanting to borrow some influence, who would have married these arrogant shrewish women from the Shen family?
Now that the Shen family had risen again with Captain Tian's influence, they were getting conceited?
That's right, Tian Jing's identity had been leaked by Shen Xiaoping to her in-laws, hoping to use it to boost her status within her husband's family.
"Stop with this nonsense and quickly go ask Little Aunt who Sister Feng is and where she lives!"
Shen Xiaoping retorted, "Why are you asking about Sister Feng? If Little Aunt asks me, how should I answer?"
Huang Zongliang pointed at the messy table and said, "This banquet was likely prepared by Sister Feng. If we opened a restaurant..."
Shen Xiaoping suddenly stood up. "I'll go ask Little Aunt."
Shen Jianrong was discussing the return visit scheduled for the day after tomorrow with Tian Jing.
Yuan Jiyong was holding all the purchase orders, ready to report to the employer for reimbursement.
Shen Xiaoping stared at the receipts in Yuan Jiyong's hand and asked, "Xiao Yuan, is your aunt really not coming back?"
Yuan Jiyong shook his head. "I don't know."
"What's your aunt's full name?" Shen Xiaoping continued to probe, suspecting that Sister Feng was the former cook of Little Aunt's family, Xiao Yuan.
However, although that Xiao Yuan's cooking was good, it wasn't as exquisite and delicious as the dishes at today's banquet.
"Xiaoping!" Shen Jianrong, hearing her second niece so carelessly prying into someone else's privacy, immediately reprimanded her.
Yuan Jiyong stood up with the purchase receipts. "Let's verify these tomorrow."
Shen Jianrong nodded. "You go back and rest first."
Shen Xiaoping stared at Yuan Jiyong's retreating back. This Xiao Yuan had also helped in the kitchen, so she might know who Sister Feng was.
Right, the canteen chef should know too. But she'd still ask Little Aunt first:
"Little Aunt, where is Sister Feng? The banquet was so successful today, and it's all thanks to her. I want to thank her personally."
All thanks to Sister Feng?
With a casual remark, she erased all the efforts of the Li family.
Was this second niece genuinely foolish or intentionally trying to sow discord?
"I don't know any Sister Feng. Get out immediately, or don't blame me for not showing you any respect."
Shen Xiaoping got up and left without hesitation.
Tian Jing watched the direction she was going and said to Shen Jianrong, "Your niece has an agenda."
Shen Jianrong watched her second niece walk towards the kitchen, then stood up, apologized to Tian Jing, and went to find Old Master Shen, who was talking with Wu Zhiyan and Shen Xiaoqin.
"Go away, go away, go away!" Shen Jianrong impatiently shooed away her younger niece and nephew-in-law.
Shen Xiaoqin gently shook her head at her husband, then pulled him and bid farewell to Old Master Shen. "Grandpa, we'll go see Mom and Dad first."
"Go ahead." Old Master Shen waved to his younger granddaughter.
Among the four granddaughters, only this youngest one had some sense, knowing how to manage her in-laws.
When the Shen family was in a slump, she knew how to keep the Wu family's development slow.
Now that the Shen family had risen, she still kept the Wu family in check, preventing them from getting ahead.
Because the Shen family had risen, they didn't need to borrow influence; opportunities and wealth would come knocking on their door.
The Wu family needed to be selective, not accept everything.
Just now, his youngest granddaughter and her husband had earnestly assured him that they would not overstep their bounds and would continue with steady, slow development.
This made him very relieved. The genes of his Shen family had not been completely ruined by two foolish women.