Chapter 46
At this moment, Xie Yiling was hiding quietly behind the curtains of the French windows facing the backyard, secretly observing the three people smoking and chatting in the backyard.
After the failed "attack" from Hu Zhizhi, Xie Yiling's heart was still pounding, and her mind was in a mess. She didn't know how to interpret the situation before her, because this noon seemed to be worse than the worst she could have imagined.
However, looking at the harmonious scene of the three people getting along in the backyard, Xie Yiling had to admit that Hu Zhizhi not only seemed happy but also quite relaxed, a situation that hadn't occurred in him for many years.
Moreover, not only was Hu Zhizhi in good condition, but the Cheng couple also seemed quite natural. They treated her son the same way they usually treated her, even better and more relaxed than they usually did when they saw her. This was completely unexpected by Xie Yiling and she found it incredible.
“I think they really like Zhizhi,” Xie Yiling said loudly to Hu Yu, who had already sat back on the sofa, drinking tea and scrolling through his phone.
“Hmm,” Hu Yu heard this time, “Don’t be so nervous. Come sit down for a while and have some tea. This tea is really good. They’ll come back for dinner after they finish talking.”
“I know,” Xie Yiling said, rubbing her chest with her hand, “but I just… feel uneasy. Who knows what kind of trouble will happen next?”
That being said, Xie Yiling's behavior was quite good after that. When the three people came back for dinner, and even during their casual chat after dinner, she basically didn't ramble on with a single nonsense word.
Xie Yiling and Hu Yu willingly became wallflowers, allowing the three young men to chat freely. During this time, Hu Zhizhi's voice also calmed down, no longer as gruff as it had been at the beginning.
The meal went smoothly, but while drinking tea and eating fruit afterward, the three young people started discussing cartoons they had watched as children.
“I love Slam Dunk the most,” Cheng Shi said. “That’s why I joined the school team to play basketball in junior high school, and I was even admitted to high school through a special program. Actually, my grades weren’t very good before my second year of high school. If it weren’t for the extra points for physical education students in the high school entrance exam, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get into the provincial experimental school with my grades.”
"Did you meet Haruko Akagi when you were on the school team?" Huang Ruoyu blinked her eyes and asked Cheng Shi with a grin.
“There’s no Haruko Akagi, only a control freak like Takenori Akagi.” Narumi finished speaking and burst into laughter.
“But you know what, our school’s cheerleading team actually has Haruko Akagi,” Hu Zhizhi said excitedly. “She’s fair-skinned, beautiful, and has long legs! Back then, I hadn’t grown tall yet, and all the girls on the cheerleading team were a head taller than me.”
"Really? Then do you have...?" This time it was Huang Ruoyu's turn to laugh out loud.
"Me? No, not really. I'm on the soccer team because I like Captain Tsubasa. Back then, there were hardly any girls watching soccer at my school. They all went to watch basketball and just cheered for the basketball team..."
These topics were completely unexpected by Xie Yiling. She didn't even remember that Hu Zhizhi could play football or that he had participated in the school's football team when he was in school. In her memory, her son was just a math genius and had nothing to do with any other subjects.
When Hu Zhizhi was a child, Xie Yiling was too busy with work to care for her only son. She had to send him to a private boarding school, and picking him up from school every weekend exhausted her patience. Therefore, she had no desire to talk to her son. However, this cannot be entirely blamed on Xie Yiling. Wasn't Hu Yu, the father, also very busy with work and lacking the time and energy to care for his child? Wasn't he also exhausted and only wanted to sleep on weekends? Since everyone has work and careers, why should the responsibility of childcare fall entirely on the woman?
However, seeing the three young people chatting happily and laughing heartily, Xie Yiling was genuinely happy. Perhaps because her heart had relaxed, listening to the three young people's cheerful conversation, and looking out the window, Xie Yiling felt that even the small and cramped scenery of Napa Valley No. 5 had become more vibrant.
"We had such a wonderful day," Xie Yiling said sincerely as they said goodbye. "Thank you all. Xiao Huang, you cook so well! You're so elegant and capable, there are so few girls like you these days. If you weren't already married, I would definitely encourage Zhizhi to pursue you!"
But at that very moment, for a fleeting second, Xie Yiling suddenly worried that Hu Zhizhi might attack her again, or say something embarrassing.
But this time, Hu Zhizhi didn't embarrass or make anyone feel uneasy. He spoke to Cheng Shi properly and shook hands to say goodbye.
After exchanging a series of thanks, blessings, and promises to meet again in the future, the two families finally parted ways at the entrance of No. 5 Napa Valley.
"You did a fantastic job today!" As Huang Ruoyu and Chengshi walked towards the living room after the Hu family had gone, Huang Ruoyu said to Chengshi, "I don't know what I would have done without you. I mean, dealing with a... lunatic... and his parents who don't seem quite right either..."
Cheng Shi originally wanted to make some more gin and tonic, but at this moment he suddenly changed his mind and felt that he should drink something stronger. So he went to the liquor cabinet, took out a bottle of whiskey, and explained to Huang Ruoyu, "It's not a question of how I 'deal with' him. I just treat him like any other ordinary person, as well as his parents, that's all."
"That's what I wanted to say, which is why I think you're amazing. You didn't treat him differently. If you weren't here, I might have treated him like an animal in a zoo, just like Grandma Xie treated him. Did you notice? When we took him away from Grandma Xie, he suddenly regained his senses. He stopped yelling and shouting, and he stopped walking on tiptoe like that. Actually, I think he's a pretty good person, and quite intelligent too. Some of the things he said were very insightful."
"Um."
"And he understands us quite well. He said we are 'real men' and 'real women,' haha, which is quite flattering to hear."
"Yeah, his mom still wants him to pursue you!"
"Oh, Grandma Xie always talks nonsense!" Huang Ruoyu said with a shy smile. "Speaking of which, Brother Shitou was actually the first person to understand our plan and know what we were talking about, right?"
“Yeah,” Chengshi took a big gulp of wine and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window admiring the rainbow outside—the rainbow had finally appeared. “But have you ever thought about this? This just proves that we’re just as crazy as him.”
Huang Ruoyu walked behind Cheng Shi, wrapped her arms around his chest and waist, then pressed her head tightly against his back and said gently, "I don't care."
"I don't care."
But just as he said, "I don't care," a strange sense of frustration washed over Narumi, a feeling different from the usual Sunday evening melancholy. Narumi knew that this strange yet exciting day was over. As the sky grew darker, he increasingly understood that today was just a brief respite, and in a dozen hours he would have to face the oppressive feeling of "Monday blues" and the irresistible exhaustion.
Even though Huang Ruoyu, who was holding Chengshi tightly from behind, offered him some comfort, the boundless anxiety still awakened within Chengshi: he felt his soul was imprisoned and had an ominous premonition about the future.
At this moment, Cheng Shi gradually realized that Huang Ruoyu was also becoming anxious, because her hug was becoming more and more stiff, but she was trying to make the hug seem more natural.
They stood there, embracing each other stiffly for a long time, as if they knew in unison that the other needed to do so.
"I really don't want to go to work tomorrow." After a long while, Chengshi finally said these words in a low voice.
"Then don't go. Take a day off and rest."
“No way,” Cheng Shi sighed. “I have to go tomorrow. An Zheyuan invited me to have lunch with him tomorrow.”
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