Because of Xie Xi's words, Father Xie and Mother Xie couldn't sleep well for several days. As soon as night fell, they would start guessing who the person he liked was and what their personality was like.
"Xixi has really grown up," Mother Xie said with a sigh.
"Should we call and ask again? Ask our son who he likes, if there are any photos or things like that," Father Xie urged.
Mother Xie shook her head: "If Xixi wanted to tell us, he would have done so that day."
Although in the end Father Xie and Mother Xie never found out who Xie Xi liked, they decided to attend the gala in person.
There were two reasons. First, since Xie Xi couldn't come home for New Year's Eve, they would go to the venue instead, so they could still celebrate together. Second, the program cameras would sweep over the audience. Since their son would appear in front of the entire nation to be seen by the person he liked, they, as parents, should also appear in front of that person Xie Xi likes.
And so, after Xie Xi's stage performance was confirmed, Xie Xi's parents also managed to get two front-row tickets. The cameras would undoubtedly sweep over them.
...
On New Year's Eve, the Ye household was noticeably quieter compared to the surrounding neighbors.
Father Ye and Mother Ye were worried about disturbing Ye Qiusuo's work, moving about and speaking in hushed tones. Apart from the new red lanterns and Chinese knots hung inside the house, there was no festive atmosphere at all.
"Qiusuo, wishing you an early Happy New Year. I'm going out with my siblings tonight to watch the fireworks." Rong Shiyun called via video at noon, even showing her the noisy crowd of people at her home. "It hasn't stopped since early morning. It'll get even crazier on the first day of the new year."
Halfway through, Rong Shiyun suddenly noticed Ye Qiusuo was sitting in front of her computer. She asked in shock, "It's New Year's Eve today, and you're still working?"
"There's a bit of finishing work left to do." Ye Qiusuo didn't see any problem with it.
Rong Shiyun tilted her head, listening carefully for a moment: "Why is your house so quiet?"
"It's always been quiet." Ye Qiusuo smiled slightly. "They're afraid of affecting my work."
"It's the New Year, you..." Rong Shiyun looked pained and exasperated. "Qiusuo, can't you put down your work and go talk to your parents?"
"Talk about what?"
"Isn't there the New Year's Eve dinner today? You should go help your parents. You can wash vegetables, chop them, do something together." Rong Shiyun wished she could reach through the screen and teach her hands-on.
The two of them were indeed a bit different. The consequence of starting school too early was having few friends their own age.
However, Rong Shiyun had many relatives and lots of children in her family. Having played with these kids since childhood, it was actually okay for her. But Ye Qiusuo completely lacked young friends; that kind of lively, youthful energy was completely absent in her.
Ye Qiusuo: "Okay, I'll go help in a bit."
"Alright, I'll hang up then. Stop working and spend a good New Year with your family." Rong Shiyun ended the video call.
Staring at the computer screen for a while, Professor Ye resisted the urge to finish the remaining work, stood up, and walked outside.
Mother Ye was busy in the kitchen. Father Ye had just finished cleaning the windows and was walking outside with a pair of spring festival couplets, ready to paste them on the front door.
"Qiusuo, why are you out?" Father Ye asked immediately upon seeing her. "Are you hungry? Should I ask your mom to make you a bowl of noodles? The New Year's Eve dinner will still take a while."
"I'm not hungry." Ye Qiusuo looked at the couplets in his hand. "Dad, let me help you."
Father Ye didn't agree immediately but asked cautiously, "Is your work finished?"
Ye Qiusuo hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "It's finished."
Only then did Father Ye hand her the bowl of paste he was holding: "You hold this for me."
The two walked to the doorway together. Father Ye stretched open the couplet, stepped onto a stool, turned around, dipped the brush into the paste, and brushed it on one side of the door. Then he held up the couplet, comparing its position, and asked Ye Qiusuo: "Is it crooked?"
"Move it a bit towards the upper left corner. No, down a little."
When Mother Ye came out to get vegetables and saw the father and daughter standing at the doorway pasting the couplets together, she couldn't help but stop, a smile on her face.
"How about this?"
"That's good."
Finally, the pair of couplets was pasted. Father Ye met Mother Ye's smiling face inside the house and felt a bit embarrassed: "Thanks to Qiusuo, otherwise these couplets would definitely have been pasted crooked today."
"Mom, let me help you wash the vegetables." Ye Qiusuo's gaze fell on the cabbage in Mother Ye's hands.
"Let your dad do the vegetable washing. Are you hungry? Mom will make you something to eat first." Mother Ye shoved the cabbage into Father Ye's hands.
Father Ye nodded beside them: "Have some fruit too. Go watch TV. Leave the vegetable washing to your dad."
In the end, Ye Qiusuo didn't get to wash any vegetables. Her parents settled her on the living room sofa, the TV was on, and all sorts of fruits and snacks were placed in front of her.
On this day, all TV channels were filled with jubilant celebrations. Professor Ye sat in front of the television, aimlessly switching channels, her mind in the kitchen.
After watching TV for a while, Ye Qiusuo got up, took out the household garbage to throw away. Passing by several households in the stairwell, some doors were slightly ajar, with constant laughter coming from inside—everyone was very lively.
The house did seem too quiet.
Ye Qiusuo returned home. Father Ye came out carrying a bowl of noodles, with a poached egg on top, several large slices of beef, and a green vegetable leaning against the side of the bowl.
"Qiusuo, your mom made you a bowl of noodles. Fill your stomach first."
"What about you, Mom and Dad?"
"Us? We'll just eat some cooked meat in the kitchen, that'll be enough." Father Ye said cheerfully.
Years of this way of interacting couldn't be changed easily. Both Father Ye and Mother Ye, and Ye Qiusuo herself, were overly polite and courteous with each other.
Ye Qiusuo smiled at her father, took the bowl of noodles, sat down, and started eating.
It wasn't until past seven in the evening that all the dishes were finally ready.
Although there were only three people in the family, Mother Ye, thinking that Ye Qiusuo had finally come home, made an especially large number of dishes.
"Someone's setting off firecrackers outside." Mother Ye stood by the window looking down. At this time, there were still people just starting their New Year celebrations.
"Should we go down and set some off?" Father Ye asked.
This year, there was only one open space in the residential area where firecrackers were allowed. But getting there from their place would take a while and was quite troublesome.
"Let's go." Mother Ye felt the ritual shouldn't be skipped, especially with their daughter home.
Ye Qiusuo disagreed: "Dad, it's too far."
"The sound of firecrackers makes it feel like New Year." Mother Ye still wanted more of a sense of ritual.
Ye Qiusuo thought for a moment: "We can have the sound of firecrackers without going down."
In the end, Father Ye didn't go. Because Professor Ye found firecracker sound effects online, connected them to the speakers, and played them for a full five minutes.
Father Ye and Mother Ye stared at the speakers, listening to the realistic firecracker sounds coming from them, and couldn't help but laugh.
After the firecrackers finished, they finally started the New Year's Eve dinner. It took about half an hour to finish eating, then the whole family cleared the dishes together and washed them in the kitchen.
"Qiusuo, you and your mom go to the living room to watch the program. The gala should have started already." Father Ye stayed in the kitchen, letting mother and daughter go out.
The day had been too lively outside, and the atmosphere inside the house gradually warmed up. Father Ye soon came out too, and the family of three sat on the sofa watching the annual gala.
"These lanterns are really beautiful," Mother Ye remarked, admiring the opening ceremony of the gala.
"I wonder what programs they have this year?" Father Ye said as he pulled the nut tray over and placed it in front of Ye Qiusuo. "Qiusuo, have some of these."
"They'll announce the list later," Mother Ye remembered the usual practice from previous years.
Ye Qiusuo lowered her head to look at the nut tray and slowly began shelling a handful of pistachios, placing them to the side. She remembered her mother had always liked eating these.
On the gala, someone was singing—Lu Mingzhe, dressed in a red suit, singing and dancing.
Ye Qiusuo glanced up briefly before continuing to shell the nuts. It wasn't particularly pleasant to listen to, and for the sake of auspiciousness the lyrics were rather empty—essentially "you're happy, I'm happy, everyone's happy."
Father Ye and Mother Ye mainly watched the skits on this day every year, occasionally pointing at a pretty girl on TV and commenting on her looks, or saying how nice the hosts' voices were, and so on.
After the midway point had passed, Ye Qiusuo estimated her food had digested, and only then did she place the pile of shelled pistachio kernels she had prepared in front of Mother Ye. "Mom, have these."
Mother Ye was taken aback, blinking for a moment before standing up. "I... I'll go wash my hands first."
"Dad," Ye Qiusuo casually handed the peeled orange she had to Father Ye so he could eat it.
"You have some too." Father Ye awkwardly divided the orange in half and gave one half back to Ye Qiusuo.
Mother Ye stayed in the bathroom for quite a while. Later, Father Ye specifically called out to her, and she only then responded, "Coming."
Before leaving the bathroom, Mother Ye made sure to check her eyes in the mirror. They weren't too red, so she walked back to the living room with peace of mind.
After sitting down, Mother Ye carefully picked up the pistachio kernels, almost unwilling to eat them, and ate them very slowly.
Ye Qiusuo turned to look at her, thinking Mother Ye was too full and hadn't digested yet. "Mom, if you can't eat them, just leave it."
"No, how could I not eat them? I can eat them!" Mother Ye sounded a little anxious and flustered.
Father Ye laughed beside her. "Your mom just can't bear to — she doesn't want to eat them all. After all, you shelled these, Qiusuo."
"Mom, you eat them. I'll shell more for you."
"No need for that trouble, you watch the show."
Ye Qiusuo didn't listen. She got up to fetch an empty plate and continued shelling with her head down. Beside her, Father Ye and Mother Ye watched the skit, laughing constantly.
Skit and song performances were usually interspersed. The next program was another song.
By coincidence, the neighbors downstairs started setting off firecrackers again, and someone nearby was probably setting off fireworks too. The noise was quite loud. With her head bowed, Ye Qiusuo couldn't clearly hear who was singing.
Once the noise outside subsided, Ye Qiusuo then heard a clear, bright male voice humming a melody coming from the TV, very catchy.
And also very familiar.
Ye Qiusuo raised her eyes and, sure enough, saw that the person standing on the gala stage was Xie Xi.
"Oh, isn't that the..." Mother Ye squinted her eyes for a long time before suddenly remembering why this young man looked so familiar. Wasn't he the boy who was video calling with her daughter that day?
Father Ye and Ye Qiusuo both looked at Mother Ye.
"What's wrong?" Father Ye had never seen Xie Xi before.
Mother Ye paused. "This young man is quite good-looking. Is he a celebrity? I've never seen him in any TV dramas."
Father Ye turned to take a very, very close look at Xie Xi. "The young fellow really, really is handsome. Since he can be on the gala, he must be a celebrity."
"He's a singer," Ye Qiusuo volunteered.
"A singer, no wonder he sings so well," Mother Ye began praising Xie Xi. "This kid is good-looking, and his songs are pleasant to listen to. Not bad, really not bad."
Ye Qiusuo looked at the person on stage and didn't find anything wrong with what Mother Ye said.
However, in the original book, only Lu Mingzhe's participation in the gala was mentioned. The author completely omitted Xie Xi's participation — after all, according to the original book's timeline, Xie Xi's reputation was already getting worse and worse.
While the family was watching the gala, netizens across the country were watching too. Essentially, as soon as a performance ended, it would start trending on the hot searches—after all, everyone was at home watching the show that day.
Among them was one particularly special hot search topic concerning the audience below the stage.
Who are those two people sitting in the audience?
