Su Qingran breathed a sigh of relief, then her eyes lit up. “Ah, now I definitely have to try it! While Aunt Chen isn’t here, I’ll let you in on a little secret—your cooking skills are actually better than hers!”

Wen Yue immediately laughed. “With Xiaoran’s compliment, just wait and see your uncle’s skills in action!”

The atmosphere quickly turned lively again, except for Pei Jingyan, sitting about a meter away from Su Qingran. That space felt like untouched territory, impervious to the warmth of the room.

He didn’t leave, but he also didn’t join in on the conversation. His presence, though, was still unmistakable.

Wen Yue kept trying to liven things up, Jiang Ruo chatted with Su Qingran, and Jiang Chenlin chimed in from time to time, often bringing up their shared past experiences. Yet, none of these memories ever included Pei Jingyan.

He seemed out of place. Several times, Su Qingran wanted to steer the conversation toward him, but his quiet intensity made her hesitate each time she tried to speak. And in those moments of hesitation, the topic would shift elsewhere, and her chance to include him would disappear.

If she were to deliberately engage him in conversation, it might seem too forward.

Su Qingran wasn’t quite sure why Pei Jingyan had come today. After all, in the past few years, she had never encountered him during her visits to the Jiang family.

So, when there was a brief lull in the conversation, Su Qingran decided to excuse herself to the bathroom, giving the family some space to talk—perhaps Pei Jingyan had come back this time to discuss something important with them, and her presence might be an inconvenience.

Just as she was about to speak, her phone rang.

Seeing that it was her eldest senior brother calling, Su Qingran seized the moment, telling Jiang Ruo and the others, “I’m going to take this call, and I’ll check out the grapevines while I’m outside.”

With that, she got up and answered the call outside. “Senior Brother.”

“Xiaoran, are you going to participate in the carving competition during the New Year?” Zhai Wei asked.

At the age of 11, Su Qingran had apprenticed under master carver Hong Yiru, who already had three disciples at the time. Her youngest third senior brother was over ten years older than Su Qingran, while Zhai Wei, her eldest senior brother, was nearly the same age as her father.

“Yes, I found a nice piece of Qin purple jade a while ago and plan to use it for the competition,” Su Qingran replied. “But I haven’t fully decided yet.”

Zhai Wei had watched Su Qingran grow up, and if she won an award, he would be more excited than if he had won one himself. So when he heard from their master that Su Qingran planned to participate in the triennial jade carving competition, he had been on the lookout for good materials.

“Don’t rush to make a decision just yet,” he said. “I heard early this morning that a mine in Ruoqiang has produced an excellent piece of yellow jade. I’ll send you a video once I get it. If you like it, you can fly over to check it out. There’s also a jade auction happening in Yutian soon—you might find something you like there too.”

Knowing that her senior brother only recommended top-tier materials, Su Qingran smiled. “Alright, I’ll wait for your video. But either way, I plan to go out there—I’ve had a lot of inspiration recently, and I’m running low on materials at home.”

Curious, Zhai Wei asked, “Where’s the inspiration coming from?”

Hearing this, Su Qingran thought of the design she had in mind for Pei Jingyan and couldn’t help but smile. “I met someone who gave me inspiration.”

They chatted a bit longer, and Zhai Wei reminded her to let him know once she finalized her plans before hanging up.

As Su Qingran put away her phone, she thought that perhaps now, with her gone, Pei Jingyan would talk with Jiang Ruo and the others. So, she decided to actually head to the grapevines.

Wen Yue had already picked the ripe grapes, but there were still quite a few green ones hanging on the branches. Su Qingran took out her camera and began snapping some photos.

Just then, she sensed something running toward her. She turned and saw a Labrador bounding over.

“Alpha!” Su Qingran’s eyes lit up as she crouched down.

Alpha leapt into her arms, enthusiastically sticking out his tongue to lick her.

Su Qingran quickly pulled her face back a bit and reached out to rub Alpha’s head. “I knew something was missing when I came to the old house today—turns out, it was you, Alpha!”

Alpha had been just a pup when Su Qingran and Jiang Chenlin brought him home from a friend’s place. Now, he was already eight years old.

“Oh no, I came straight from the studio today, so I didn’t bring any treats—” Su Qingran lamented, just as Alpha suddenly turned his head and began sniffing something nearby.

Following his gaze, Su Qingran’s eyes landed on a pair of black leather shoes and black casual trousers, attached to two long, straight legs, then up to the familiar brown-striped sweater she had seen just half an hour earlier.

It was… Pei Jingyan.

Su Qingran instinctively stood up quickly, but the sudden movement left her feeling a bit light-headed for a moment, and her vision blurred.

It seemed that Pei Jingyan lightly steadied her—or maybe he didn’t.

By the time her vision cleared, she saw that Pei Jingyan was holding a bag of beef jerky.

“Mr. Pei, you—” Su Qingran started to ask, confused.

But Pei Jingyan crouched down, letting his actions speak for themselves—he took out a piece of dried beef and fed it to Alpha.