Lu Jingming let out an oh and said, "While waiting for my flight today, I watched the behind-the-scenes footage your official account posted. It seemed like a lot of girls were trying to take photos with him."
"The comments below were also quite lively."
"I think I heard Ye Shu mention it just now too."
Xu Yanxia told him, "But this guy really has genuine skills, and he looks decent too. Even Ye Shu is completely mesmerized by him."
"You call that decent?"
Lu Jingming raised his eyebrows on the other end of the video call. "He just dresses a bit neatly. He's far worse compared to me."
"..."
Xu Yanxia laughed at him, "What are you doing, getting jealous over him? Don't worry, I don't like him."
"Of course,"
He nodded proudly and said, "After all, your heart is full of me."
"What nonsense..."
Xu Yanxia was amused by him again.
After laughing, she turned a bit more serious and said to Lu Jingming, "Speaking of which, I think this Dr. Feng is a bit strange."
"Hmm?"
Lu Jingming also asked her seriously, "Strange how?"
Xu Yanxia explained, "This guy grew up abroad and graduated from a top-tier global program like the food science department at Wageningen. I noticed yesterday during the show recording that he wasn't really familiar with the domestic terms for some professional jargon, which shows he hasn't been active domestically."
"Deducing from this, he should be employed by a large foreign company. Why would he suddenly come back to the country to be a judge on a food variety show? I think he has a very rigorous personality and doesn't seem like the type who likes to be famous."
Lu Jingming thought about it and said, "In this kind of situation, it's usually because his company, or he himself, wants to start a business in the country. He's coming back early to build momentum, considering how big the domestic market is now."
"That's definitely possible."
Xu Yanxia nodded and casually asked him, "How are things on your end? Any progress on the German project?"
"Still negotiating."
Lu Jingming said, "I haven't paid attention to it today. If there's any progress, they will tell me."
He then asked her, "The recording for Jincheng is done today. When are you heading to Xijing?"
Xu Yanxia told him, "My brother and I will go tomorrow afternoon after meeting some people. By the way, Xijing is Shushu's hometown. We agreed to have Shushu take us out for authentic barbecue tomorrow night."
"That sounds great, have fun."
Lu Jingming smiled and said, "Tomorrow is already Friday. Next weekend will be our engagement party."
Xu Yanxia also smiled and gave an affirmative hum.
The previous proposal had trended online, prompting many relatives and friends from both families to ask them about it.
Plus, seeing that her brother and sister-in-law were holding their wedding on New Year's Day, and her grandparents and aunt also needed to go home early to prepare, it was about time they held their engagement party.
"Rest early,"
Lu Jingming smiled and told her, "I need to head back for dinner too."
"Okay, drive safe."
Xu Yanxia waved at him and hung up the video call.
...
A night passed.
The next morning, Xu Yanxia waited for her brother, Xu Zhanpeng, who took an early morning flight.
The meeting place with their uncles was the hotel's coffee shop.
Since the recording for the Xijing stop was starting tomorrow, the production crew staff had already begun relocating early this morning, making the hotel much quieter.
When the siblings arrived, three people were already seated at the table.
Besides the two uncles Xu Yanxia had met yesterday, there was a woman around their age, with a round face and a slightly chubby figure, dressed like a local.
"Little Peng, Yaomei'er."
The group waved at them, and the siblings sat down.
After introducing themselves, the siblings confirmed that these people were their eldest uncle, youngest uncle, and eldest aunt.
Their youngest aunt was out of town taking care of her grandchild and wasn't in Jincheng, so she didn't come.
After exchanging updates on their family situations, their eldest aunt spoke up.
"Little Peng, Yaomei'er, we are really sorry! When you went back to the village to look for us last time, we had already moved out for many years. That village party secretary did call us once, but your eldest uncle accidentally lost the number, so we had no way to contact you."
"We didn't intentionally avoid looking for you! You are both good kids, please don't take it to heart!"
This made both siblings pause.
Xu Yanxia said, "It's fine, we just happened to pass by on our way to school and went to take a look. Anyway, it's enough that we've all met now."
She then tentatively asked, "By the way, do you have any news about our mother?"
Unexpectedly, their eldest uncle sighed and said, "No. That girl Biqiong was cruel-hearted since she was young. Back then, she ran off to Qingcheng without a word to find your father, and later she abandoned the two of you and ran away."
"If your grandparents hadn't gone to Jingcheng to look for her back then, we wouldn't have even known she had long left your place."
Biqiong was their mother's name. Their maternal grandmother's family surname was Tang, so their mother's full name was Tang Biqiong.
"After all these years, not to mention you two kids, even we don't know where she ran off to."
As soon as the eldest uncle finished speaking, the youngest uncle also sighed. "Exactly, you two kids were still young and didn't know the truth of what happened back then."
"It wasn't that your grandparents were cruel. That's just how things were in our local area back then. She was a girl who didn't get into any university, and seeing as she was almost twenty, it was the age to start a family. Going out to work would just mean hardship, so your grandparents wanted her to marry early."
"In the end, she didn't say a word and just ran off. If your dad hadn't called later, we would have thought she was trafficked! During those days, your grandparents worried so much their hair turned completely white."
The siblings nodded but didn't say anything.
They knew that the version they heard from their aunt was that back then, in order to get enough bride price to find a wife for their youngest uncle, their grandparents wanted to marry their mother off to the son of a wealthy local family, and the guy was a fool.
"Yes,"
Their eldest aunt chimed in, "Later, when we knew she went to find your father, we finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, your father was a soldier in our area back then, and his character was truly impeccable."
"It's just that God is too blind."
Pausing for a moment, the eldest aunt continued, "Kids, you are grown up now and understand how things work. Don't blame us for not contacting you for so many years."
"You've been to our place. It's mountain after mountain, and it takes half a day just to drive out. It can't compare to your Qingcheng. We also had our own families to take care of. Your two uncles have been working out of town for so many years, and it was hard enough to raise your cousins and see them get married. Only now are we a bit more relaxed."
"Our lives might actually not be as good as yours. But thankfully, God has eyes, and both of you have made something of yourselves, your grandparents in heaven can be a bit happier now."
"Yes, yes,"
The two uncles also nodded in agreement, saying, "We have our own difficulties, too. Please don't hold it against us, you two good kids."
Whether it was the local genes in their blood or simply because the Jingcheng dialect wasn't that hard to understand, Xu Yanxia and her brother caught every single word perfectly, even though the men were speaking in a regional dialect.
After a brief moment of silence, Xu Yanxia nodded.
Come to think of it, she had no idea if her brother had ever met their maternal grandparents when he was little, but she herself had grown up without even knowing what they looked like.
