When Xu Ruying arrived, the Li household was already emanating waves of delicious aromas.
"What's that smell?" Xu Ruying poked her head in. "Are you eating something good without me?"
Sheng Yuxiao barely lifted his eyelids, lazily answering, "Why would we need to hide it from you?"
Xu Ruying hated her cousin's tone of voice so much it made her teeth itch. She gritted her teeth before moving closer to take a look.
Li Xiaoya was standing on a small stool, frying rice.
Just a bit of rice, lard, eggs, and chopped wood ear mushrooms and other fungi, yet it smelled extraordinarily fragrant.
It even smelled better than the meat Xu Ruying had brought!
Xu Ruying suddenly felt outdone. She looked around and saw Sheng Yuxiao and Ning Heng standing on either side, looking like two guardian statues.
But that's all they were good for at the moment.
Xu Ruying scoffed, "What kind of image is this? Two grown men, letting a little girl stand on a stool to fry rice for you!"
The livestream was still ongoing at this point.
The bullet comments expressed surprise:
[Shocking! The first person to stand up for what's right is actually Xu Ruying!]
[+1, judging from her earlier demeanor on camera, I thought she disliked Li Xiaoya.]
[So who exactly is Xu Ruying? Am I the only one who still doesn't know?]
[She's Sheng Yuxiao's cousin. Her family background seems ordinary.]
[Ordinary people wear Chanel and LV?]
While the bullet comments debated whether Xu Ruying's family background was good or not, and if she counted as part of the second-generation rich,
Sheng Yuxiao answered Xu Ruying's question: "You think we didn't want to?"
Ning Heng sighed beside him: "Li Xiaoya accused us of wasting ingredients."
Xu Ruying: "..."
Xu Ruying berated them, "Why didn't you learn some basic life skills before?" She looked at Sheng Yuxiao: "Didn't you go mountain climbing and camping before? Don't you have to cook your own meals when camping?"
Sheng Yuxiao was also quite helpless: "When did those people ever let me do anything myself?"
Xu Ruying: "..." So this was the tragic result of having too many sycophants.
Ning Heng immediately asked, "Sister Ruying, can you cook?"
Xu Ruying grinned awkwardly: "I... In our family, my dad has always done the cooking. Girls don't cook."
"Is that so? Uncle can cook?" Sheng Yuxiao immediately had an idea. "When we get back, I'll learn from him."
"It's ready," Li Xiaoya interjected.
"I'll get it, I'll get it." Ning Heng finally found a way to be useful.
He was strong enough to lift the entire large iron wok.
The egg fried rice was quickly transferred into a basin. Yes, a basin.
Then Sheng Yuxiao expertly brought out two stools of roughly the same height and placed them in the courtyard, finally topping them with a long wooden plank.
And just like that, a dining table was created.
They gathered around it.
There weren't enough stools, so Sheng Yuxiao and Ning Heng had to sit on rocks.
Add to that the dishes Xu Ruying had brought.
It made for quite a sumptuous meal.
[Xu Ruying lucked out, these past couple of days Li Xiaoya has been generous, even frying eggs to eat]
[Is Qin Sui at home right now, staring at the TV screen, seething with jealousy? Why am I the only one eating sweet potatoes!]
Whether Qin Sui was at home grinding his teeth, nobody knew.
But at this moment, Li Song was truly grinding his teeth at home.
...That young lady had taken all the dishes away in one go, what was he supposed to eat? Just plain rice?
Li Song didn't know that right now, Xu Ruying was staring at the not-too-plentiful but incredibly tempting egg fried rice, unable to help but sigh, "If only I had known, I would have brought that pot of rice too."
"What rice?" Ning Heng asked.
"At the village chief's house, there was someone called Li Song or something. To curry favor with me, he made a lot of food, including a pot of rice. These dishes are from him."
"..."
Everyone froze.
Xu Ruying was confused: "Why did you all stop eating?"
Sheng Yuxiao laughed coldly: "Afraid he might have poisoned it."
"Huh?" Xu Ruying wore a bewildered expression.
Considering she had just returned to the country, Sheng Yuxiao resisted the urge to mock his cousin for not being very bright. He kicked Ning Heng: "You explain it to her."
So Ning Heng took on the role of narrator.
After listening, Xu Ruying sprang to her feet: "Is that true?"
The bullet comments were also exclaiming:
[Now we finally hear the whole process of Li Xiaoya's kidnapping and poisoning! The village chief's family is truly unforgivable!]
[This is so frustrating, still trying to curry favor with Xu Ruying, what a despicable person]
"Check the police report online if you want to know if it's true or not," Sheng Yuxiao put his hand on the table. "Don't flip the table over, or you won't be leaving until you replace it with a full imperial feast."
Xu Ruying calmed down a bit and sat back down: "Why is that Li Song still trying to curry favor with me? Doesn't he know I'm your cousin?"
Sheng Yuxiao picked up some braised pork for Xu Ruying: "You taste it for poison first."
"Sheng Yuxiao!" Xu Ruying glared at her cousin, but she actually picked it up and ate it, then calmly said: "Unless Li Song has gone mad, he wouldn't poison my food."
Sheng Yuxiao nodded slightly, then picked up some food for Li Xiaoya.
Xu Ruying was speechless.
But thinking about how she had also eaten Li Xiaoya's egg fried rice, and wanted more after eating it, she felt a bit tongue-tied and couldn't say anything against Li Xiaoya.
"So only the village chief was arrested?" Xu Ruying asked.
"Mm."
"The village chief's granddaughter is still at my house," Sheng Yuxiao casually dropped another bombshell.
"What? The little girl I met last time is the village chief's granddaughter?" Xu Ruying wanted to stand up again but forcibly restrained herself.
"Oh, you've met her?" Sheng Yuxiao's gaze turned slightly cold. "She didn't hint at you to come here to find me and Li Xiaoya, did she?"
"Oh, she did talk to me, but I was in a hurry to see aunt, so I didn't say much to her," Xu Ruying's brows furrowed tightly. "How did the show's team screen people like this?"
The production team felt a bit embarrassed and interjected to explain: "Adults can be bad, but children often have innocent hearts. That's a separate matter."
"Is that so?"
"Even bad bamboo can produce good shoots."
Xu Ruying quickly finished her meal and said: "I'm heading back. I want to see what that Li Song is trying to pull with me."
The young lady had suddenly become quite interested.
[Whoa? Is Xu Ruying trying to serve justice?]
[She's probably just looking for some entertainment]
[Ah, can someone put a camera on Xu Ruying! I'm so curious!]
[By the way, how's Li Qingqing doing?]
Li Qingqing's illness had finally improved a bit.
She had completely given up on trying to please Xu Qiulai, and no longer held out hope for any results from Xu Ruying's side.
Because just now, she had seen related news about Thousand Gold Pharmaceuticals online.
Sheng Yuxiao's seemingly whimsical investment had actually succeeded!
Li Qingqing suppressed the jealousy in her heart and poked her head out from under the covers, asking, "Grandpa Butler, I'd like to see Uncle. I have something very important to tell him."
The butler frowned inwardly but still replied politely, "Very well, I'll inform the master when he returns."
Li Qingqing knew they all looked down on her now, and she harbored secret resentment. However, she didn't show it on her face. Instead, she forced a smile and said pitifully, "I'm so grateful for Uncle's tolerance and your care these past few days, Grandpa Butler."
Just wait, she thought. Soon, they'd be falling over themselves to curry favor with her.
At eleven o'clock that night.
Sheng Jun finally returned to the villa. He handed his coat to a servant and asked, "Has Madam not returned yet?"
The servant replied, "Not yet." Then he mentioned that Li Qingqing was still waiting up with the lights on, wanting to speak with him.
Hearing this, Sheng Jun also frowned slightly.
He had hoped for a daughter, but Li Qingqing no longer met his expectations of what a "daughter" should be.
Nevertheless, he was an adult, and Li Qingqing was just a young girl. There was no need to display his arrogance and distaste so openly.
Sheng Jun went upstairs. Li Qingqing deliberately came out wearing only a thin nightgown, then shrugged her shoulders and rubbed her eyes, feigning exhaustion from waiting so long.
"Uncle, your work is so demanding," she said.
"Whose work isn't?" Sheng Jun brushed off the comment and asked, "What did you want to tell me?"
Li Qingqing put on an adorable expression. "It's a secret," she said.
Sheng Jun found it rather amusing but still stepped into the room. "Alright, tell me. Uncle's listening."
Li Qingqing's face grew slightly serious. She said, "Uncle, I'm only telling you this... Actually, I have the ability to foresee the future. In three days, you'll sign a big contract with Xiongguan Semiconductor Company."
Sheng Jun's expression shifted from amusement to disbelief, finally settling on a mix of gravity and shock.