When it was time for dinner, Du Xiaoruo wanted to see Qiao Lele's reaction because she had given him an apology gift. She didn't realize that she wasn't particularly against having dinner together.
It is said that when Qiao An's father, Qiao Rukun, was alive, his family did not eat after noon, firstly for health reasons, and secondly to commemorate the hardships their ancestors had endured in starting their business.
After Qiao Rukun passed away, his children and grandchildren did not continue his fine traditions. Although they resumed dinner, they did not overeat at night. Today's meal was a small but exquisite kaiseki meal.
Once everyone had arrived, the chef began serving the dishes. The first dish was Kobe beef, with only a bite-sized portion on the huge plate.
After eating the pan-fried beef, Du Xiaoruo noticed a strangely shaped pumpkin on the table in front of Qiao Lele.
She stared at the pumpkin for a while, and then the chef came over to serve the second dish: mackerel belly sashimi.
Du Xiaoruo picked up the fish belly with her chopsticks and saw Qiao Lele staring at her with resentful eyes. Du Xiaoruo froze, unsure whether to continue eating or not.
She carefully placed the fish belly sashimi into her mouth, but before she could savor it, she heard Qiao Lele loudly questioning her.
Why did you give me a pumpkin?
"Huh? Uh, cough cough cough cough..." Du Xiaoruo choked on the sashimi and covered her mouth, coughing desperately.
The housekeeper hurriedly brought water and handed her a towel. It took a long time for Du Xiaoruo to stop coughing.
She looked up, her originally fair and slender cheeks turning bright red, like a boiled shrimp, whether from coughing or embarrassment, it was hard to tell.
"How could it be pumpkin?" Du Xiaoruo pursed her lips and whispered, "It's clearly ice cream."
"Without ice cream, I searched for a long time and this pumpkin felt like a gift."
Du Xiaoruo quickly looked at the butler behind her, stammering nervously, "Butler...you saw...right? When I was...making ice cream?"
She turned to face Qiao Lele again and tried her best to explain, "Really, it was matcha ice cream, and I even left an apology card."
The butler's mouth was slightly open, his small eyes darting around, and when he turned to Qiao An, he gave him a subtle glance.
Qiao An calmly ate her mackerel sashimi, her face displaying a serene expression that said, "This has nothing to do with me."
"How shameless!" the housekeeper thought, but he didn't dare to say a word of the truth. Instead, he pretended to help Du Xiaoruo and Qiao Lele search the refrigerator again.
How strange! The ice cream has just disappeared.
After dinner, Du Xiaoruo returned to her room and paced back and forth with her phone in her hand. Although the ice cream was gone, she felt she should still formally apologize to Qiao Lele.
But should I call to apologize or send a text message?
And since we all live in the same house, wouldn't a face-to-face apology be more sincere?
She pressed her ear against the wooden door, listening carefully to the sounds coming from the stairs. If Qiao Lele came upstairs, she would push the door open and go out, pretending to bump into her by chance, which would look more natural.
However, the solid wood doors of the villa were of such high quality that no sound could be heard from outside. Du Xiaoruo was startled by the sudden ringing of her cell phone.
She took out her phone and glanced at it; the caller ID was "Director Kang".
Who is Director Kang?
Du Xiaoruo rummaged through her memory bank and finally found a memory that corresponded to that of Director Kang.
A month ago, Kang Gaofei, the director of the second season of "Beibei Restaurant", contacted the original owner and invited her and Qiao Lele to participate in the recording of "Beibei Restaurant" as guests in the second season.
This is a wildly popular reality show featuring children. Other participants on the show include award-winning actor Mu Hua and his 3-year-old son, as well as rising star Xia Qing and her 5-year-old daughter.
Moreover, Xia Qingye is actually Du Xiaoruo's sister-in-law, and Xia Qingye's husband, Qiao Qingchuan, is Qiao An's brother.
The live broadcast of the show was scheduled for two months. A month ago, the original owner signed a contract with Director Kang for a fee of two million yuan, payable in two installments: one million yuan upon joining the production team, and the remaining one million yuan to be paid in a lump sum after the live broadcast. If she breached the contract, Du Xiaoruo would have to pay the production team three times the amount of the loss, totaling six million yuan.
Du Xiaoruo quickly searched through her memories again. It turned out that the original owner of this body had acted first and informed Qiao An and Qiao Lele later about recording "Beibei Restaurant".
In other words, Qiao Lele, the person who was supposed to be on the show, is still in the dark. Just two hours ago, he mistakenly thought that Du Xiaoruo had given him a pumpkin, and now the young master is very angry.
It's already strange enough that Du Xiaoruo, a socially anxious person, would do live streaming, but now she has to convince Qiao Lele to agree to appear on the show, and then convince Qiao An to agree to her and Qiao Lele doing live streaming together.
This is absolutely outrageous!
Du Xiaoruo felt her head spinning just thinking about it, but where would she get six million yuan in breach of contract fees if she breached the contract?
Director Kang called Du Xiaoruo three times but no one answered, so he sent her a message instead.
[Teacher Du, filming for the second season of "Beibei's Restaurant" will officially begin in a week. Please call back after you see this message, as we need to broadcast a preview episode live. Sorry to bother you.]
Du Xiaoruo glanced at the text message from Director Kang, then turned off her phone in frustration. "I'd rather be fried in an oven," Du Xiaoruo thought.
Qiao Lele is also quite troubled. The day after tomorrow is the day of the end-of-term parent-teacher conference. Just now, Huang Longyu was showing off in the class group that his stepmother was going to attend the parent-teacher conference for him. Qiao Lele was jealous and said that her stepmother was also going to attend the parent-teacher conference.
The words were spoken, but in reality, Qiao An always attended Qiao Lele's parent-teacher conferences. When Qiao An didn't have time, the housekeeper would go instead.
Qiao Lele sat in front of his computer desk, scratching his fluffy head, racking his brains for a way to bring up the topic with Du Xiaoruo.
"Knock knock knock".
The sound of the door opening came from outside; it must have been the housekeeper bringing in the milk.
"Please come in," Qiao Lele replied weakly.
Unexpectedly, it was Qiao An who walked in.
Qiao An had changed into a gray-brown striped loungewear set. He had just taken a shower and was drying his half-dry hair with a towel as he walked over to Qiao Lele.
"Your homeroom teacher just messaged me; parent-teacher meetings are the day after tomorrow..."
He saw the chat history on the computer screen and stopped talking.
Huang Longyu: [Breaking news! Big news! My stepmother is coming to my parent-teacher conference the day after tomorrow. She'll show you what a real beauty looks like!]
Huang Longyu, [@Qiao Lele, who goes to your parent-teacher conference? It's not your chubby housekeeper again, is it? Hahahaha.]
Qiao Lele: [My stepmother is going to the parent-teacher conference for me too.]
Huang Longyu, [Don't lie to me, is your stepmother really coming?]
Qiao Lele, [Really.]
Huang Longyu, [@Everyone, let's all witness this: Qiao Lele is a little liar if his stepmother doesn't come to the parent-teacher conference.]
Qiao An had been silent for a while after coming in, and only then did Qiao Lele notice that his gaze was fixed on the computer screen. He quickly rushed over and used his body to block the screen.
"What are you trying to hide? I saw everything." Qiao An rubbed her wet hair. "If you want your mother to go, just go and tell her. Why are you acting all shy and timid? Besides, a mother is a mother, what's with all this talk about stepmothers?"
Qiao Lele turned off the computer, turned to face Qiao An, and rubbed his little hands together, pleading.
"Dad, could you go and talk to Mom? I'm too embarrassed to say it myself."
"Can't you be a little more manly?" Qiao An put down the towel and gave Qiao Lele a disdainful look.
Qiao Lele suddenly stood up, put her hands on her hips, and shouted with all her might, "Go and order my mom to hold a parent-teacher conference for me!"
Then, like a deflated balloon, her momentum vanished instantly, and she lowered her eyelashes and asked softly, "Do I look like a man now?"
Qiao An paused for three seconds, then asked, "Do you have a comprehension problem?"
Ten minutes later, Qiao An left Qiao Lele's room and knocked on Du Xiaoruo's door next door.
Du Xiaoruo had just finished showering and was wrapped in a pink bathrobe, her hair styled into two Korean-style buns with a large towel.
After she opened the door, she didn't intend to let Qiao An in. She just stood there blocking the doorway, clearly refusing to chat.
When Qiao An saw Du Xiaoruo's face, which was flushed pink from the steam, and the translucent fragility of it made him momentarily lose his composure.
Qiao An has always believed that her marriage with Du Xiaoruo is a win-win business deal.
Given Qiao An's looks and family background, many socialites in the circle were openly or secretly interested in him. Qiao Qingchuan was afraid that Qiao An would use family marriage to climb the social ladder, so he introduced him to Du Xiaoruo, who came from an ordinary family but was very beautiful.
Qiao An himself disdained any kind of family-arranged marriage, but in order to lower Qiao Qingchuan's guard, he went along with it and agreed to the marriage.
As for Du Xiaoruo, all she wanted was money. He didn't mistreat her financially, nor would he force her to have marital relations.
A year later, Du Xiaoruo would regain her freedom, and Qiao An would be able to do what he wanted, so he never paid any attention to Du Xiaoruo, and never even really looked at her face.
But now, with Du Xiaoruo wrapped in a nude pink silk bathrobe and her eyes glistening like a deer's, he suddenly felt a burning sensation in a certain part of his body.
“You, that…” Qiao An reached out and tugged at her tie, suddenly realizing that she was wearing pajamas and no tie around her neck.
He tugged at his collar in annoyance. "You're going to Qiao Lele's parent-teacher conference the day after tomorrow."
"Mm." Du Xiaoruo nodded, her long eyelashes casting a shadow on her rosy cheeks. Since she was a mother, attending parent-teacher conferences should be her duty, right?
Having delivered the message, Qiao An turned to leave.
Du Xiaoruo called out to him again, "Um, Mr. Qiao, I have something I'd like to discuss with you."
Qiao An turned around and saw Du Xiaoruo pursing her lips, as if she had mustered up her courage to speak.
"Hmm?" He squeezed out a syllable from his throat.
Du Xiaoruo took a breath, ran her thumbnail across the pad of her index finger a few times, and told them that she was going to take Qiao Lele to participate in the live recording of [Beibei Restaurant].
Finally, she asked in a low voice, "Do you agree to this?"
Qiao An shrugged indifferently, "Go if you want. It's only two months of summer vacation, it won't interfere with Xiao Le's classes."
"Thank you. Could you please tell Xiao Le that I think what you said..."
Seeing that Qiao An seemed quite agreeable today, Du Xiaoruo hesitated for a moment before making another small request.
"Me, a mouthpiece?" Qiao An suddenly became irritable for no reason. He reached out and tugged at his collar, then turned and strode away.
Du Xiaoruo regretted making too many demands, but the thought that Qiao An had already agreed to let her participate in the variety show made her feel a little better.
When Qiao An returned to her room, all she could think about was Du Xiaoruo's wet eyes.
Did she always look like this?
Qiao An threw himself into the soft quilt, turned over, and thought to himself, "Why does Du Xiaoruo seem different from before?" Although he had never really looked at her properly before, he just felt that she was different.
Then he remembered the way she pursed her lips and whispered thank you.
Qiao An sat up in frustration, ran barefoot to Qiao Lele's room, and banged on the door.
Qiao Lele opened the door, revealing a head of curly hair.
“Your mom wants to take you to some crappy show. Go talk to her about it yourself. Also, she agreed to attend your parent-teacher conference.”
After rattling off these words like a firecracker, without waiting for Qiao Lele to speak, he stormed back to his room and slammed the door shut with a "bang."
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