Shen Wenta: “Do you really have to drag everyone into getting roasted before you’ll be satisfied?”
“No—” Shen Ruxu lifted half his face from the pillow, revealing a pair of wrinkled brows. “The four of us were all insulted once.”
He raised one finger and began counting.
“Big Brother is a Crybaby.”
“You’re a Drama Queen.”
“Shen Xun is a Robot.”
“And I’m the Hopeless One.” Shen Ruxu pointed at his own nose, then hugged the pillow and rolled over. He curled up on his side, peeking over the edge of the pillow and sneaking glances toward Shen Yi.
Qin Ruolan was still speaking softly.
“How wonderful.”
“Seeing all of you grown up reminds Grandma of a few things from the past.”
Before Shen Yi could ask, she continued on her own. “In a distant land, there lived a poor couple.”
The woman spoke in the unhurried, gentle tone of someone telling a fairy tale. “Whenever they ran out of money, they would send one of their children to our house to ask for some, barely scraping by on our charity.”
The living room fell silent for a moment.
“Oh dear.” Wen Ya gave a light cough and pretended not to notice anything as she slipped into the kitchen. “I’ll go check on the soup.”
The clanging of the spatula against the pot rang out, considerably more forcefully than usual.
Shen Sixing’s skin was probably as thick as the load-bearing wall in the living room.
Sitting on the sofa, he leaned back slightly and replied without changing expression, “Yes, we really must thank that kind couple for helping us through our most difficult days.”
Qin Ruolan turned to look at him, her eyes narrowing with a smile. She walked over to the chair opposite him, sat down, crossed her legs, and clasped her hands over her knee.
“Oh?” she said. “That kind couple. Do you know what their names were?”
The corner of Shen Sixing’s mouth twitched.
“It was so long ago. I can’t quite remember.”
“Is that so?” Qin Ruolan’s smile deepened. “Then let me jog your memory. The kind couple—the man’s surname was Shen, and the woman’s was Qin.”
“One of them is sitting right in front of you.”
Shen Sixing: “…That was all in a previous life, wasn’t it?”
Qin Ruolan looked around at the tense expressions filling the room and leaned back against her chair.
“All right,” she said. “I’m not here to dig up old scores.”
“I’m here to celebrate the New Year with all of you.”
“…”
Really?
The entire family fell silent in perfect unison.
They all felt that she had come here to pick a fight.
…
Qin Ruolan’s forceful move into the household brought a certain amount of pressure with it.
First of all, the furniture had to be arranged symmetrically.
The fruit bowl and remote control on the coffee table had to form a straight line. The creases in the sofa cushions all had to face the same direction. Even the slippers in the entryway had to be lined up from left to right in order of size.
Secondly, everyone had to be dressed neatly and properly. No one was allowed to leave their room in pajamas, and no one was permitted to appear before her with messy hair.
On top of that, she liked putting together outfits for everyone.
The first victims were the boys.
They were all dressed as though they had come off an assembly line, dragged from one outfit to another and forced to change again and again like a group of human mannequins.
Shen Wenta was the first to completely lose it.
He angrily hurled a Western-style hat onto the floor. “Why do we have to dress like this? Are we her toys?”
He was wearing a black turtleneck under a short dark-gray wool coat, the collar buttoned with meticulous precision. Standing there with his icy expression and pale complexion, he looked like a vampire who had just crawled out of a coffin.
Shen Ruxu had been dressed like an insurance salesman.
He had never worn a suit before, and now he was being squeezed into a navy-blue one, his tie knotted properly and pulled so tight that he could barely breathe.
He tugged at the collar twice, feeling as though something had locked itself around his neck, and let out a cough.
“Grandma, I think I’m suffocating.”
“Endure it.”
Qin Ruolan held a traditional cross-collared robe up against Shen Zhizhao, comparing it from one angle to another as she tried to dress her eldest grandson like a young man from an ancient-style drama.
Shen Zhizhao’s expression remained calm throughout.
He rarely looked anything but composed.
Shen Xun, meanwhile, had been turned into a Little Puppy.
A fuzzy dog-ear headband had been placed on his head, with two white pom-poms dangling from its edges.
He stood expressionlessly before the mirror and stared at his reflection—the boy wearing dog ears—for three seconds.
Then—
The teenager reached up, ripped off the headband, and threw it viciously onto the floor, looking as though he wanted to stomp on it a few times to vent his fury.
He and Shen Wenta were the most visibly outraged.
“All right, all right.” Shen Ruxu laughed as he patted Shen Xun’s dog-eared head. He bent down to pick up the hat Shen Wenta had thrown, brushed off the dust, and set it aside. With a teasing smile, he said, “You’re a cute little Little Puppy. How adorable.”
He rather liked Shen Xun’s outfit, and he pinched the two white pom-poms, making them swing back and forth.
Shen Xun slapped his hand away.
Qin Ruolan picked out several outfits for Shen Yi.
One was an ivory knitted dress paired with a pair of short brown boots.
The other had been chosen by Wen Ya.
It was a butter-yellow dress with a ring of fluffy fur around the edge of the hat. Once Shen Yi put it on, her entire face was nestled in the fur collar, leaving only a pair of curved, smiling eyes visible.
She cooperatively stood in the middle of the living room and spun around. Her skirt flared like a flower opening in the wind.
Shen Yi had barely turned once before she effortlessly elicited a succession of shrieks from the two women.
Qin Ruolan couldn’t help letting out a small squeal. “Ah!”
Wen Ya cried, “Mommy’s darling is so adorable!”
…
The Shen family was bustling with activity.
It was New Year’s Day, and Shen Sigui had finished dealing with the most urgent matters at work early that morning. He dumped the rest on his subordinates, happily taking the day off so he could return home early to celebrate.
Only to discover that his brother’s family had not gone back to the old residence at all. The only person there was Shen Shu, who looked like a gloomy old recluse living beneath a sewer grate.
Shen Sigui immediately changed direction and prepared to spend the New Year at Shen Sixing’s home.
Shen Shu, however, emerged from his study, put on his coat, and said calmly, “I’m coming too.”
Shen Sigui froze for a moment, then laughed. “I thought you’d never set foot in Shen Sixing’s house again in this lifetime.”
After all, things had ended rather unpleasantly between them back then.
Shen Shu said, “That was then. This is now.”
In the end, he was probably just lonely.
Shen Sigui looked at him for two seconds, then did not press the matter. He smiled faintly and followed him out the door.
The two of them drove over. The moment they entered, they found clothes scattered all over the floor.
Several pairs of discarded slippers were piled up in the entryway. Various colored tags and packaging bags were strewn across the living-room carpet, like the aftermath of a small fashion show.
The cushions on the sofa, however, were arranged perfectly, clearly tidied up by Qin Ruolan along the way.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” Shen Sixing asked kindly after opening the door. He looked up at the two rare visitors with a beaming smile.
“Tea? You still have the heart to drink tea?”
Shen Shu’s eyes were practically blinded.
Standing in the entryway, he swept his gaze across the grandsons dressed in all their finery. His voice turned cold.
“Why don’t I pour you each a cup to help you come to your senses? Who allowed you to dress like this?”
Shen Sixing only said, “It’s an elder’s preference.”
“What elder? Which elder? Who exactly gave you permission to dress like this? Even if the Son of Heaven himself showed up—”
He had only gotten halfway through his cold retort when the words caught in his throat.
Qin Ruolan had just come out of another bedroom. Turning around, she folded her arms and looked at him leisurely. “What were you going to say?”
Shen Shu fell silent for a moment.
Then, with effortless calm, he smoothly finished, “Even if the Son of Heaven himself showed up, I was just about to pour you two a cup of tea.”
As he spoke, he walked over to the coffee table, picked up the teapot, and poured a cup.
His movements were relaxed, and his expression remained unchanged, as though that abrupt change of course had never happened.
…
Next chapter: The whole family’s return to the village. Haha, are you all really that curious?
