Chapter 131 - Maple Residence Gathering (4)
It fell silent for quite a while.
Seeing her puzzlement, Mu Yuchen’s voice suddenly softly entered her ear as he simply explained, “Lingshi grew up with us. All these years, she’s been living abroad. She’s a few years younger than you. She manages the company’s branch of entertainment nightclubs in France and is considered a pretty experienced DJ. She’s a brat that’s easy to get along with him. She’s as dumb as you, but her personality is more like a boy’s and she’s very straightforward.”
Her brows raised as she looked a little astonished at him. Mu Lingshi, entertainment nightclub, female DJ?
She did not know why, but she vaguely felt that whenever Mu Lingshi was mentioned, the atmosphere became a little weird, but she was quite excited to meet this legendary sister-in-law of hers.
Yesterday or the day before, when the Mu residence called, she had vaguely heard Wang Hui complain to Mu Yinan about Lingshi not coming back to celebrate the New Year or something…
Now that she heard them discuss her again, she started to become more curious.
…
After dinner, Su Chen and Zhou Zimo walked straight to the living room. They steeped some tea and began to play some cards.
When the few of them gathered together, they had quite a lot on the agenda. Usually, they would go golfing, wander around the horse ranch, drink tea and play cards, go to the club to pass time and so on.
Initially, Xiaye was mulling over tidying up the dishes herself, yet just as she picked up one bowl, the man that had gone to brew the tea had returned.
“Let me. You go play with them.”
When Xiaye saw him tidying up, she stopped him. “If you do this yourself, you’ll go on till midnight.”
He ignored her and quickly cleaned it up himself. He brought the dishes to the kitchen. Stumped, Xi Xiaye followed him.
The man had already begun to silently wash the dishes.
He had drunk quite a lot earlier, so his exceptionally handsome face was faintly blushing. As she moved closer to him, she could even faintly smell the light scent of alcohol. Su Chen and Zhou Zimo had poured him quite a bit to drink.
She stood behind him and watched him for quite a while, then she poured him a glass of water. “Do you want to go upstairs for a shower first?” She said as she handed the glass of water to him.
He looked at her from the side, then took the glass. He had two gulps before he said in his deep and slightly raspy voice, “I’m not in a rush. It’s still early. Tonight, you have to work a little harder. We all drank quite a bit, so it’s not good if we drive. Later on, you’ll have to drive. We’ll send them home together, okay?”
She nodded and shifted her feet slightly. Her fair arms reached into the sink and she lowered her head to quietly wash the bowls.
Quite a while after that, she suddenly remembered something and softly called out to him, “Mr. Mu?”
“Mmm? What is it?” He answered, his hands not stopping what they were doing.
“Tomorrow afternoon, I want to make a trip back to the Shen residence. The day after tomorrow, I”ll follow you back to the Mu residence on the evening of New Year’s Eve, okay?” Xi Xiaye said, then she slowly looked up at him, her eyes holding a hint of hope and even anticipation.
The Shen residence seemed to have been always cold and cheerless. When the New Year came, Grandpa would let the servants go on holiday, so it would be even more deserted with only Grandpa, Shen Yue, and Shen Wenna. In the past, she would go home to celebrate the New Year, but now…
“Grandpa’s old. Every year, I would go back to the Shen residence to celebrate with him… I hope that he can get through every New Year a little happier. Actually, he’s someone who quite relishes the bustling of excitement. Grandma has left us for quite a few years now, so he’s always been lonely. When Mother’s not home, he’d always stay in the office to work overtime.”
When she said this, she suddenly paused. After quite a while, she then continued, “But every time when I go back, he’d always return from the office at the quickest speed. Since I have some free time now, I want to spend more time with him…”
At this moment, she seemed to experience the feeling of being a daughter that had been married off.
In fact, from just Shen Wenna’s call that day, she could not help but admit that she did feel a little worried, yet she did not know how to console her mother. She kept thinking about it and decided to make a trip back to the Shen residence the next day and have a New Year’s Eve family dinner the day after that with them before returning to the Mu residence.
“The New Year merchandise have been prepared. Tomorrow I’ll accompany you, then the night after that, I’ll return to the Mu residence immediately,” he responded softly in a tone that sounded gentle. “Are you considered enlightened now? Is it because you’ve been married to me for so long that you know how to miss home now?”
“Do I have to tell you when I miss home?” Xi Xiaye shot him a look. Every time he spoke, he did not seem to have kind things to say.
Mu Yuchen chuckled without a word.
After the husband and wife were done tidying up and walked out of the kitchen, Su Chen and the rest were battling it out vigorously. They were lacking one out of four players, so they could only play Fight the Landlord!
When they saw Mu Yuchen walk out, Su Chen immediately said, “Ah Chen, come over to play cards with us. Quick! We’ve waited on you for so long!”
Mu Yuchen took the towel that Xi Xiaye handed to him and wiped his hands as he walked over. Su Chen and the rest had already begun to shuffle and distribute the cards.
“Let me steep you guys a pot of warm flower tea to help you sober up.”
When she thought about how these men had downed quite a few bottles of whiskey, and noticing how red all their faces were, she could only helplessly bury her head in her hands.
“No need. Just sit. Do you know how to play cards?” Mu Yuchen pulled her down to the chair. Her body reflexively shifted and her hands already begun to pick up the cards.
“Not really,” she answered very honestly, not rejecting sitting down by his side.
She found chess alright, but when it came to playing cards, she was really not too proficient at it. However, she did play it with Su Nan and Ruan Heng once in a while, so she knew one or two ways to play it, but by the looks of their game, it was clear that she was unfamiliar with it.
“Missus, just learn from the Master. His skills are out of this world! Even when Master Su and Master Zhou gang up, they can only end up in a tie at best,” Ah Mo smiled as he said.
“Why? Earlier, didn’t you admit your role in helping him? Ah Mo, I notice that after you’ve mixed with your Master Mu for such a long time, you’ve picked up his personality too!” The moment Ah Mo finished, Su Chen looked at him, then his gaze stopped on Xi Xiaye. He shot Mu Yuchen a sidelong look as he was focused on arranging the cards.
He teased, “Ah Chen, how about you teach your wife some moves? Next time, when we come over, if we’re down by one person, we could even let Xiaye take over. Actually, thinking about it further, later on when all of us buddies are married like you, when we come out to play, the wives could even gather a table…”
Once Su Chen said this, even Zhou Zimo raised his handsome brows and cheerfully agreed.
Mu Yuchen looked at the two of them and grinned. “Wait till you two get married before you discuss this with me.”
Then, he began the game, casually tossing a card onto the table.
“I knew you’d say this. You’d better come and hang out during the New Year. We buddies haven’t gathered properly these past few years… I’ll follow!” Zhou Zimo smiled gracefully and put a card down too…