The next morning, Pei Ji'an got up early, stopped Mother Wu who was going to the kitchen to cook, and asked her if anyone had come yesterday.

"That's right," Wu's mother complained, "Huo Xiaoling from next door came over and said some indecent things in front of Nongnong. I think she has bad intentions. And that Zhao Xin, Huo Xiaoling said herself that it was Zhao Xin who asked her to come this time."

Pei Ji'an frowned, nodded and said, "I see, she slept late last night, please go to the room and call her later."

Mother Wu said yes, and then asked, "You're not eating breakfast at home?"

"I'm not going to eat anymore. I have something to do so I'll rush you." Pei Jinan strode away.

Pei Zheng had to get up early to go to school. He got up after Pei Ji'an and glanced downstairs. He didn't see Pei Ji'an. "Grandma Wu, my dad is gone?"

Mother Wu came over with rice porridge. "He left. He just left. He didn't even eat. He said he had something to do."

Pei Zheng laughed, jumped onto the stair railing recklessly, and slid down along the railing.

Mother Wu was shocked. "Oh my dear, you are not afraid of falling. How can you do such a dangerous thing?"

Pei Zheng waved his hands nonchalantly, "It's okay, Grandma Wu, don't worry, I've been practicing for many years, I won't fall."

Mother Wu was still in shock and still disagreed, "If you do this again, I will tell your father."

Pei Jinan was Pei Zheng's Achilles' heel. When he heard that Aunt Wu was going to tell Pei Jinan, he immediately begged for mercy and said, "No, Aunt Wu, we are from the same country, you can't betray me."

"Then if you promise not to do such dangerous things in the future, I won't tell your father." Mother Wu was ruthless and insisted that Pei Zheng swear.

Pei Zheng had no choice but to raise three fingers and swear, "I will never do anything dangerous in front of Grandma Wu again." At worst, he could do it behind Grandma Wu's back.

Mother Wu was not so easily fooled. "You little bastard, are you playing tricks on your grandmother Wu? Tell me, you will never slide down the stair railing again. Tell me now!"

Pei Zheng: “…” What’s going on? How can even an old lady be so cunning?

Pei Zheng could only repeat sadly, "From now on, I will never, ever, follow..."

"Pei Zheng - I've received your letter for you, come out and get it." Zhang Kaiping's voice rang out outside the door.

"I'll go get something." Pei Zheng rushed out of the house as if he had been pardoned.

Mother Wu shook her head behind him, "This child."

"Here, for you." Zhang Kaiping handed Pei Zheng's letter to him and asked him curiously, "How come you have a letter from the Northwest?"

"It's a letter from Lacey." Pei Zheng opened the letter and read it quickly. The more he read, the tighter his brows became and his face looked very ugly.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Zhang Kaiping asked.

Pei Zheng took a deep breath and said, "Laixi didn't go to the Northwest voluntarily. He wanted to go to Shanghai to visit his relatives. He was knocked unconscious after getting on the train. When he woke up, he found himself mixed in with a group of young students who were supporting the Northwest. He wanted to get off the train and go home, but the group of people refused to let him go no matter what, and even called him another person's name."

In the letter, Song Laixi also said that he had gone to great lengths to explain clearly that he was Song Laixi and not another person, but the group still wouldn't let him go, saying that if he left there would be one person missing from the quota, and they would not be able to explain if they went.

Song Laixi felt compassion for a moment, and was moved by the spirit of these young people who were not afraid of hardships and supported the Northwest. He could guess that his being knocked unconscious was related to his stepmother. Instead of staying in Beijing and being on guard against his stepmother's schemes and fighting with her all day, he might as well do something meaningful.

I think this was also the stepmother's plan. She took into account his temperament and his choice. It must be said that Zhao Xin was a woman who had an extremely accurate control over people's hearts.

Song Laixi told Pei Zheng to be careful of her stepmother Zhao Xin, a very sinister woman. She also attached a portrait to the letter, which was the face of the man who knocked Song Laixi unconscious.

After he went to the northwest, he recalled the appearance of the man who knocked him out every day. He would draw a few strokes whenever he remembered some features. He wanted to wait a few years before returning to Beijing to slowly look for the man and uncover Zhao Xin's conspiracy. However, Pei Zheng mentioned in his letter that he had been attacked by a strange man. With the mentality of giving it a try, Song Laixi sent the painting to Pei Zheng.

Pei Zheng quickly pulled out the portrait from the envelope. The man in the portrait had a simple and honest look, and did not look like a vicious criminal. It was dark at the time, and he could not see the face of the man who attacked Lu Nong, but Pei Zheng had a hunch that it must be him.

"You should go home first."

Pei Zheng ignored Zhang Kaiping, turned around, went home, picked up his schoolbag and walked out. This clue was very important, and he had to deliver it to the old man personally.

"Hey? You haven't eaten yet, where are you going?" Mother Wu ran out and stopped him.

"Grandma Wu, I have something urgent to deal with. It's urgent." Pei Zheng pushed away Mother Wu, but found an egg stuffed in his hand.

Mother Wu: "Take it and go."

"Hey." Pei Zheng clenched the egg, turned around and ran quickly.

Mother Wu sighed and walked into the house muttering, "How can one or two people skip breakfast? People are made of iron and rice is made of steel. If you skip a meal, you will feel hungry. No matter what you do, you have to eat. You said I was busy all morning, and the meal was ready, and everyone had left. What was the point of busying myself?"

Lu Nong held his waist and yawned as he went downstairs.

"Mom, what are you talking about? Where are Pei Jinan and Pei Zheng?" Pei Jinan and Pei Zheng usually have breakfast at this time, but today there was only food on the table and no one was there.

Mother Wu saw Lu Nong standing lazily on the stairs with a big belly and refusing to come down. She became panicked and hurried over to help her downstairs.

"You are all my ancestors, okay? I told you to hurry up if you want to go up, and hurry down if you want to go down. What are you doing standing halfway up the stairs?"

"They left home early in the morning, saying they had something urgent to do." Mother Wu emphasized the last four words "urgent" to show her dissatisfaction.

"Pei Zheng also has an urgent matter? What is it?" It was definitely not Pei Ji'an who said it was extremely urgent. It was most likely Pei Zheng. But what extremely urgent matter did he have?

Lu Nong couldn't help but become curious.

"Auntie Wu, I'm just an old lady who can't speak well. No one eats the food I cook. How would I know what's going on with them?" Auntie Wu pouted. As she spoke, she didn't even want to pay attention to Lu Nong.

“…”

"Are you angry? Who pissed you off so early in the morning?" Lu Nong quickly said, "It must have been Pei Zheng, you rascal. I'll teach him a lesson for you when he comes back. Don't be angry."

Mother Wu didn't buy it. "Don't push everything onto Xiao Zheng. Xiao Zheng is a good boy. I'm talking about you. I've told you so many times that stairs are dangerous, but you just can't remember. You're going to piss me off to death. Oh, my heart aches..."

Lu Nong: "..." Didn't she just blame Pei Zheng for not staying for breakfast? Why did the blame suddenly turn to her?

Come on.

"Mom, you covered the right side, wrong." Lu Nong reminded.

Mother Wu's expression was blank. The next second, she put her hand on her left chest and said, "Oh my heart, it hurts... Tell me, I'm so mad at you that I can't even tell where my heart is."

"Fuck, I was wrong. I won't make you angry again, okay?" Lu Nong said helplessly.

"Then swear, swear that you will never stand halfway up the stairs, swaying and unable to come down again." Mother Wu seized the opportunity to say.

All right, Lu Nong raised three fingers and became the second person after Pei Zheng to swear at the table, "I swear, I will never stop in the middle of the stairs again, okay?"

Mother Wu put down her hand that was covering her chest and said with relief, "That's good. Hurry up and eat. If you don't eat the porridge, it will get cold. I'll go upstairs and call Xiao Huai to get up."

"You eat first, and call him after you're done." Lu Nong asked Mother Wu to sit down and eat, but Mother Wu couldn't sit still and insisted on going upstairs to call Xiao Huai down to eat together.

Lu Nong had no choice but to let her do what she wanted as she was pregnant and it was inconvenient for her to do so.

The staple food for breakfast was millet porridge and steamed buns, with pickled cabbage and cold potato shreds. Each person also had an egg and a glass of milk. Lu Nong and Zaizai had egg custard, and Mother Wu made a bowl of bird's nest for Lu Nong alone.

There were red dates, apples, and tomatoes on the fruit plate beside the table, and candied walnuts and peanuts and fried soybeans on the dried fruit plate. These were all common snacks in Lu Nong's restaurant.

As for coffee and desserts, Mother Wu took them all away, not allowing Lu Nong any chance to have any contact with them. Dressing was strictly controlled, with keeping warm as the primary goal, regardless of whether it looked good or not. Cosmetics were confiscated, leaving Lu Nong with only moisturizing lotion.

Lu Nong also knew that this was good for the child, so he listened to Mother Wu and only indulged in desserts and coffee occasionally.

After breakfast, Mother Wu led Gu Xiaohuai and the little white dog downstairs. Gu Xiaohuai went about his daily routine, walked over to Lu Nong, touched her belly, and said in a baby voice, "Good morning, little baby. Be good and obedient today."

Lu Nong touched Gu Xiaohuai's soft hair and said, "Good morning, baby."

Gu Xiaohuai answered earnestly: "Mom, good morning."

Mother Wu carried Xiao Huai to a chair and put a bib on him: "Hurry up and eat. Grandma has prepared your favorite egg custard and meat sizzle for Xiao Huai."

The little white dog rubbed against Mother Wu's legs, but Mother Wu dodged and said, "Okay, okay, I know you're hungry too, so I'll go to the kitchen and get it for you."

The little white dog followed Mother Wu into the kitchen.

"Mom, stop busying yourself and come over here to eat together." Lu Nong pulled out the chair beside him and asked Mother Wu to come over and sit down to eat.

The old lady was arrogant. She pulled the chair next to Xiao Huai and said, "Ji An usually sits next to you. I always feel uncomfortable when you let me sit over there."

Lu Nong: “…” No wonder Pei Zheng never sits in this seat.

After dinner, Lu Nong took Zizi and Xiaobai upstairs.

Today is a rare weekend off, so Lu Nong plans to paint with his son.

After his birthday, Zaizai will be three weeks old. Zaizai is precocious and interested in everything. A few days ago, Pei Zheng showed off his basketball skills in front of him, and the little guy took Pei Zheng's basketball and played basketball for the whole day.

When Lu Nong came back in the evening, he saw that his hands were red from clapping, but he still refused to give up and insisted on clapping as skillfully as his brother.

Pei Zheng picked up a stone and hit his own foot. In order to prevent his younger brother from practicing too hard, he had to take his younger brother with him every time he played basketball from then on.

I only took Gu Xiaohuai to the basketball court for a few days, but he could already shoot seven or eight times in a row. He is only a three-year-old kid.

Lu Nong likes painting. She doesn't know whether Xiao Huai likes it or not, but it always makes sense to give it a try. After trying, she found that her son is worthy of being the number one villain in the novel. He is multi-talented. Although his painting is not that good, he is very imaginative and has a wild imagination.

Lu Nong thought of a saying: Hard work is powerless in the face of talent.

When they got to the study, the mother and son each found their own seats and started painting without disturbing each other.

The warm winter sun shone on the photo of Lu Nong holding Xiao Huai on the desk. Gu Xiao Huai painted for a while, and when he looked up, he was attracted by the photo. He picked up the photo frame and played with it for a while. He seemed to think of something, opened the drawer, rummaged through it, and took out a photo of the same two people.

"Mom, Uncle, smile."

"What?" Lu Nong took the photo from Gu Xiaohuai's hand. It was the photo of her and Pei Ji'an in their wedding dresses. After developing it, Lu Nong stuffed it into a pile of photos without having time to look at it carefully.

In the photo, Lu Nong was looking straight at the camera, while Pei Jinan was gazing at her sideways, his eyes were affectionate and gentle, like a silent confession.

Lu Nong was stunned. She and Pei Ji'an were not familiar with each other at that time.

After coming to his senses, Lu Nong asked Gu Xiaohuai, "But no one is smiling in the photo. Did Xiaohuai see it wrong?"

Gu Xiaohuai shook his head, pointed at the photo of Lu Nong and him as mother and son, and said, "Mom is smiling, uncle is smiling."

Lu Nong subconsciously looked at the photo of mother and child and found that in that photo, she was indeed smiling at her son, but in the photo of her and Pei Jianan, Pei Jianan was not smiling.

Then why did Gu Xiaohuai say Pei Jinan was also laughing?

Lu Nong observed it carefully again, and finally he understood.

It’s the eyes. The people in the two photos are different, but the eyes are equally gentle.