Chapter 18 Father Li grew increasingly angry.

When Li Songshi opened the door, he smelled a strong aroma of food.

He turned his head and saw his parents and sister already seated at the table in the restaurant. Under the bright lights, he could faintly see steam rising from the table. "It smells so good. There are so many dishes today."

He carried a gray backpack, was tall and thin, with fair skin, and although he was clearly twenty-eight years old, he looked as handsome as a recent college graduate.

"Go wash your hands and eat." Li Chi'an smiled as he saw his younger brother come home from get off work.

"Okay." Li Songshi looked deeply at his sister sitting at the dining table, who was smiling gently at him, and took off his headphones. "You guys eat first, I'll put my bag down and come right away."

Li's mother got up and said, "I'll go stir-fry the sweet potato leaves."

Sweet potato leaves were the only green vegetable on the Li family's table tonight. She was originally going to cook them after stir-frying the beef, but her daughter said that green vegetables don't taste good if they're left out too long, and that it wouldn't be too late to cook them when her younger brother got off work, so they were left until now.

After washing his hands, Li Songshi came out and sat down next to his sister. When he saw the soup bowl in front of him, his eyes lit up, and he asked in a low voice, "Did you fill the soup bowl?"

He knew that only his sister's bowl contained soup, while his parents' bowls always contained at least half a bowl of solid ingredients.

Li Chi'an smiled slightly, "Were you tired from work today?"

"It's alright." Li Songshi smiled, his clear gaze falling on his sister's fair and jade-like face. Seeing her peaceful expression, his tense expression relaxed slightly. "After dinner, shall we go out for a walk?"

He usually lives in a talent apartment near the company.

His workplace and his home are located across several districts in Xianghai City, making them quite far apart.

Therefore, he came back today specifically for Li Chi'an.

Mr. and Mrs. Li did not know the real reason for their son's return home, but that did not stop them from being happy. "Songshi, you should rest tomorrow."

"Okay." Li Songshi picked up his chopsticks and put a piece of food on each of his parents' plates. "You should eat too. Don't just watch us eat and not eat anything yourself."

"Eat, eat, eat." Mr. Li chuckled as he ate the eel his son had put in his bowl, then picked up his Coke and took a satisfying sip.

As the children grow up, there is less time to spend with them. Li's mother cherishes the time like now, when the four of them sit down to eat together. Her loving gaze cannot bear to leave her two children.

"Songshi, I'll give you a few hundred yuan later. Just transfer it to me via WeChat."

"You eat first, and I'll transfer the money to you after you finish eating."

"What do you need Songshi's money for? Don't you have any money of your own?" Li's father became agitated when he heard his wife asking his son for money.

“I have cash, but no money in my WeChat account.” Knowing that her husband disliked her taking the children’s money the most, Li’s mother quickly explained, “We’ll go shopping after dinner and see what we can buy for Xiaogu.”

Upon hearing that he was going to buy something for his beloved nephew, how could Mr. Li refuse?

They even ate their rice faster.

"I'll pay for it later."

When talking about their nephew, Mr. and Mrs. Li couldn't help but nag about their daughter, saying, "It's too lonely for Xiao Gu to be the only child in the family. An'an, when you and Chen Li get old, he will have a hard time. You two should have another child."

"Whether it's a boy or a girl, having another child will give Xiao Gu a companion and make her easier to care for."

"Look, I gave birth to you and your brother, and you grew up together. Isn't that wonderful?" The Li family parents always expressed their pride and joy in their two children.

“Your mother-in-law is young, and her uncle is unmarried, so they can lend a hand.”

"You're not that old yet, so you'll recover quickly after giving birth."

"Enough!"

Lee Song-shi's hand, gripping the chopsticks, turned white from excessive force.

He angrily interrupted his parents' conversation, "My sister won't have a second child, so you two should never bring this up again!"

The name "Chen Li" is now a potential trigger for his anger.

Although he knew that his parents were unaware of his sister's current situation, he held back his anger and couldn't help but shout it out.

Mr. and Mrs. Li were startled by their son's outburst.

For a long while, he didn't react. Then, Li's father slammed his chopsticks on the table. "Your mother and I didn't say anything to you. Why are you taking it out on us?"

He glared at his son, his voice even louder than the son's.

He was not a very good-tempered person to begin with, and now that his son had suddenly embarrassed him, he felt both angry and ashamed.

His expression was inevitably unpleasant.

Li's mother didn't feel humiliated by her son; she just thought his temper was acting out of nowhere. "I was talking to your father properly, why are you yelling?"

Li Chi'an knew exactly where his younger brother's anger came from, so he tried to smooth things over gently, first persuading his parents, "Mom and Dad, Songshi feels sorry for me taking care of the child alone, not that he's angry with you."

She then explained softly, "Didn't I tell you? It's very hard for me to raise Xiao Gu by myself. I simply don't have the energy to raise another one, so please stop trying to persuade me. I won't have any more children in the future."

My daughter is married now, so it's rare for her to come home.

Even though Mr. Li had a bad temper, he restrained his anger. However, that didn't mean he wasn't angry. "You too, both of you, didn't your mother and I bring you along? Did we have anyone to help us back then? You even had Grandma Xiaobao to lend a hand."

He was the one in the family who had the most objections to his daughter not having a second child and his son not having a girlfriend or getting married.

After scolding his daughter, he frowned and scolded his son, "Isn't it because you are selfish? You only want to earn money and spend it yourself, eating and drinking well every day, neither getting married nor having children. Seeing your mother and me getting older day by day, you don't even think about us. Do you think we can live for many more years? I can't die before I see you leave an heir for our family."

Mr. Li has this bad temper. When he gets angry, his mouth is like it's been poisoned. He insists on saying things that others don't want to hear, without caring what others think. He just says what he wants to say.

Li Songshi and Li Chi'an both broke down, took a few deep breaths, looked at each other, and buried their heads in their food.

"I think I should quit. I don't even know why I'm making money working myself to the bone. I don't even have any descendants. What's the point of doing this? It's all meaningless."

Li's father became increasingly angry. "Songshi, you're going to a blind date in a few days. There's a woman in Building 6 of our community who says she has a niece who's a teacher at the No. 1 Middle School and graduated from a teachers' college. She's a good match for you."

Li's mother looked at her son and daughter, then at her husband who was still making sweeping generalizations, and patted his arm. "Old Li, you've had too much to drink. You're just talking nonsense."

Actually, she didn't think much of the girl introduced by the woman in Building 6. She had seen her photo and thought she was just average-looking and not very pretty.

"What nonsense am I talking about?!"