Music brings joy.

This was absolutely true. As the song came to an end, Lu Nong opened her eyes happily and found that the whole family had arrived at the bedroom. Pei Zheng, her godmother and Gu Xiaohuai were sitting on the sofa.

Pei Jinan was leaning against the door, standing tall, with a military jacket draped over his shoulders, his long legs placed at an angle, and he was listening to the music with his ear tilted to the side.

Lu Nong's attention was attracted by his long legs. Pei Jinan noticed it and also looked at Lu Nong. The two looked at each other. There seemed to be something hidden in his deep eyes that Lu Nong could not understand.

"It's so beautiful! The young lady's piano skills are even better than before." Mother Wu noticed that something was wrong between the young lady and the aunt, and interrupted their eye contact. She was the first to applaud, and then led everyone to applaud together.

"Nice!" Zizi looked at Wu Ma beside him and learned a new word. He nodded heavily and repeated, "Nice!"

Pei Zheng stood up and walked to Lu Nong's side. He curiously reached out his hand to touch the instrument in Lu Nong's hand. He thought to himself that his stepmother was really unusual. She was usually very low-key. You think she is very good, but she will tell you someday that she can be even better.

No one could guess how much she had seen, how much she knew, and how powerful she was. Anyway, Pei Zheng was completely convinced.

Pei Zheng couldn't help but be curious about Lu Nong's family background.

He had seen people playing Western musical instruments in the concert hall. The performers were full of energy, reserve and elegance.

Pei Zheng thought it was indeed good, but he felt that Chinese musical instruments were no worse than Western musical instruments, and Chinese music was no worse than Western music. However, Chinese culture was too complicated, and music was only one of the aspects. Chinese people attached much less importance to music than people in other countries.

Foreigners believe that music is an art, something elegant, and something that rich people enjoy, so they brought music to concert halls, and the people who played music were also elegant people. When Western music was introduced to China, it brought that set of concepts about Western music with it.

Anyone in this country who knows how to appreciate Western music and can afford to learn to play Western musical instruments must come from a very wealthy family.

Pei Zheng guessed that Lu Nong's family background was generally not bad, but Lu Nong never mentioned her own family, so there must be some hidden story. The old man must know it, but it would be a pipe dream to get it from the old man. Pei Zheng rolled his eyes and decided to start with Grandma Wu.

"Stepmother, you play the piano beautifully. Please play another one."

Pei Zheng had just finished speaking when he heard a voice from outside the house: "Big sister, are you home?"

The sound of rain almost drowned out the voices outside the house. The man seemed to be afraid that the Pei family didn't hear him, so he called out again, "I'm the neighbor next door. Is Miss Lu home?"

Lu Nong looked out of the door from the bedroom and saw a woman with an umbrella standing in the yard. She held a large bowl in her hand and kept looking towards the house to see if anyone had come out. Perhaps the umbrella blocked her vision, so she did not notice that the Pei family members were all in the bedroom with the door open.

"It's Aunt Huo from the Cui family next door," Pei Zheng also looked outside the house and told Lu Nong while waving his hand and saying loudly to the middle-aged woman, "Aunt Huo, we are here."

When Huo Xiaoling heard Pei Zheng's voice, she quickly turned around and found that Pei Zheng and Lu Nong were peeking at her from the door of Baoxia. Huo Xiaoling wanted to go over, but to go through here she had to pass through the vegetable garden and flower garden, which were very muddy, so she was a little hesitant.

Lu Nong noticed her predicament, walked from Baoxia to the living room, and welcomed Huo Xiaoling in through the main door of the living room, "Sister Huo, it's raining heavily outside, please come in quickly."

Huo Xiaoling heaved a sigh of relief, put away her umbrella and went into the house. She handed the large bowl in her hand to Lu Nong, "Sister, these are salted duck eggs and soybeans pickled by my sister-in-law. Both adults and children in our family love to eat them. Don't think they are rustic. Try them and see if they are delicious. If they are, tell my sister-in-law and she will send them back for you again."

"Sister-in-law, you are too polite. Without your cooking skills, I can't eat these things even if I want to. How can you think they are rustic?" Lu Nong reached out to take them, and handed the large bowl to Pei Jinan, asking him to take the things into the kitchen and empty the bowl.

Then he turned to Cui Xiaoling and said, "Sister-in-law, please sit down. I'll pour you a glass of water."

Cui Xiaoling saw Pei Jinan naturally take the things that Lu Nong handed to him. She paused and thought that they were right. Pei Jinan was very good to this young wife. She saw that Pei Jinan did not dare to look him in the eye, but Lu Nong dared to tell him to do things casually.

"As long as you like it, I also want to thank you for the snacks. Our children said they were delicious."

After saying that, Huo Xiaoling smiled at Pei Ji'an again, "Old Pei, you went home so early today? Your brother Cui is still in the army and hasn't come back yet. I thought you were late for class selection again."

Pei Ji'an: "I left early. Please sit down, sister-in-law." He walked into the kitchen holding the bowl.

Mother Wu, Pei Zheng, Zi Zi and Xiao Bai came out of the hugger one after another and greeted Huo Xiaoling one by one. Pei Zheng was holding Lu Nong's violin in his hand.

Huo Xiaoling finally responded, "When I came here, I vaguely heard someone playing music. It was your house. Did I disturb your happy family life?"

Lu Nong placed the cup of water in front of Cui Xiaoling and said, "Don't disturb us. We just finished. You came at the right time."

Cui Xiaoling nodded with a look of envy and mixed feelings in her heart. Although they were both reconstituted families, the family atmosphere of the Pei family was completely different from her own. When they had free time, the other family would get together to play the violin and listen to music, but it was difficult for their family to get together.

Their family used to be harmonious and happy, but since she and Lao Cui started quarreling every day, the family has changed. Did she do something wrong?

Cui Xiaoling felt a tight pain in her chest, and she felt unwilling to give up. Her family was harmonious and happy, but that happiness was built on her forbearance and sacrifice. Now she didn't want to endure it anymore.

She let out a breath of resentment, came back to her senses and looked at little Gu Huai carefully. She saw that little Gu Huai had a nice nose and eyes, and his facial features were very good. He was white and tender like a fairy boy. She was very curious, "Is this your little son? What's his name? He looks like you, so handsome."

Lu Nong: "Call Gu Huai, Xiao Huai, come and call me auntie."

The baby is not shy. When he hears his mother's words, he calls out in a baby voice: "Auntie~"

"Hey, you are so good and smart," Cui Xiaoling touched the little Gu Huai's head, "Go play with your brother, auntie wants to talk to your mother about something."

Pei Zheng had been listening on the side. When he saw Lu Nong nod, he picked up little Gu Huai and said, "Let's go. I'll take you to learn how to write."

The little white dog followed Pei Zheng one by one, climbing the stairs with its round body. Seeing that it was having difficulty climbing, Mother Wu picked up Xiaobai and carried him upstairs.

Only Lu Nong and Huo Xiaoling were left in the living room. Huo Xiaoling then revealed the real purpose of her visit to Pei's house: "Someone asked me to come and thank you."

When Lu Nong heard this, he immediately thought of Zhao Xin. As expected, Huo Xiaoling said, "You saved Zhao Xin yesterday. She wanted to thank you and Pei Zheng in person, but unfortunately, she fell ill as soon as she got home. The doctor said she couldn't be exposed to the wind and couldn't go out for a few days, so she asked me to tell you that she will treat you to a meal to thank you when she recovers."

Lu Nong smiled and said, "It's what I should do. There's no need to thank her in person. Is her illness okay?"

"Alas," Cui Xiaoling's face showed a sad look when she mentioned Zhao Xin's illness, "She has always been in poor health, like paper, can't stand being frightened, tired, or exposed to the wind. She didn't even dare to have children because of her poor health. She will not be able to have children when she is older. Laixi was ignorant and had trouble with the family, so she ran away to the northwest. Old Song was busy with work, so she was left alone at home. It was pitiful."

Lu Nong: “…”

Lu Nong looked at Huo Xiaoling calmly and found that she was really worried about Zhao Xin, without any pretense. From this point, it can be seen that Zhao Xin did not have any handle on Huo Xiaoling.

Moreover, from Huo Xiaoling's words, it can be heard that Zhao Xin has no children. She is in poor health and may not be able to have children in her lifetime. Huo Xiaoling also sincerely believes that Zhao Xin is good to Song Laixi, and it was Song Laixi's own fault for going to the Northwest.

This is a very powerful point. Just imagine that if a stepmother has no children, people will naturally think that there is no conflict of interest between the stepson and the stepmother. Maybe the stepmother will try hard to please the stepson and be nice to him in order to prepare for old age. How could she possibly harm the stepson?

Zhao Xin is really amazing. She appears sweet on the outside but is actually bitter on the inside. Her superficial efforts are flawless. It seems that except for Pei Zheng and a few other children in the compound, who understand that Song Laixi was forced away by her stepmother, the adults know nothing about it and even secretly blame Song Laixi for being ungrateful.

Seeing that Lu Nong had no reaction after she had said so much, and without even a hint of sympathy on his face, Huo Xiaoling wondered how a young wife like Tian Xian'er could be so hard-hearted.

I couldn't help but say, "If you have time, go and talk to her. We are all stepmothers, and life is not easy for us. We should help each other. I wanted to meet you at Sister Zheng's house that day, but you didn't come. How about I make some time for us to get together?"

Lu Nong: “…”

"Mrs. Cui, we all live in the same compound, so we have plenty of time to get to know each other. Besides, Sister Zheng's family often holds tea parties, so there's no need to specially invite everyone out. It would just waste time, wouldn't it?"

Lu Nong politely declined Cui Xiaoling's suggestion, and did not even mention the matter of going to see Zhao Xin.

Huo Xiaoling was not satisfied. She had come here in person as a lobbyist, but Lu Nong still took advantage of her. Her face darkened, thinking that there would be a time when you would come to me crying. "Okay, since you have an idea, I won't say any more nonsense. I still have some work to do at home. Bye."

As she stood up from the sofa and was about to leave, Pei Ji'an happened to come out of the kitchen with an empty bowl. Lu Nong handed the bowl to Cui Xiaoling, "Big sister, take care."

Huo Xiaoling: “…” I feel tired. Why is this young wife so stubborn and won’t listen to me?

After Huo Xiaoling left, Lu Nong pursed his lips and said, "Did you hear that?"

Pei Ji'an walked to the sofa and squatted down to help Lu Nong tie her shoelaces. "Don't be afraid. She is just testing you now. Don't act rashly. You just need to maintain a neutral attitude towards her. If you become too close to her, she will become suspicious."

That's the truth. It seems that Cui Xiaoling is just a smokescreen. What Zhao Xin really wants to see is whether Lu Nong will visit her and what his attitude towards her will be when he goes. If Lu Nong gets close to her, she will think that something is wrong and will become alert.

Lu Nong nodded and came to his senses, wondering why Pei Jinan hadn't stood up yet. Pei Jinan, who had just tied his shoelaces, suddenly frowned. He reached out and touched it, and found that the toe of Lu Nong's shoe had been wet by the rain, but it was not noticeable because of the dark sky and the dark color of the shoes.

He took off Lu Nong's shoes, pinched her fair feet, and changed her into slippers.

"Play the song for me again." He stood up and looked down at her, and she raised her eyes and looked up at him.

After a long time, the sound of "Serenade" rang out in the house again, gentle and pure, blending with the night and the sound of rain, it was a different kind of tenderness.

Lu Nong thought of the English poem that Pei Ji'an had read. That day she felt that Pei Ji'an's voice matched the song very well. Today was her way of repaying Pei Ji'an for giving her a wonderful afternoon.

The song has not yet ended.

Suddenly, the phone rang, breaking the happy atmosphere.

Pei Ji'an answered the phone. He didn't know what was said on the phone, but his expression became noticeably cold, which was the expression he often showed on his face when Lu Nong first met him.

"Okay, I understand. I will take Nong Nong with me."

Pei Ji'an hung up the phone, and Lu Nong asked curiously, "Where are you taking me?"

"My parents' house, they want our family to have dinner there during the Mid-Autumn Festival." Pei Jinan said lightly.