On one hand, there were important customers, and on the other hand, there was the male lead.

Xu Han didn’t want to rush them away, so she decided to make a bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup for them since she had bought extra duck offal.

Xu Han’s duck blood and vermicelli soup was on the heavy side.

She heated the pot, added oil, sautéed scallions, ginger, and other ingredients until fragrant, then fried the duck innards.

She had bought the kind of duck raised on corn, which made the aroma particularly rich.

As she smelled it, she couldn’t help but salivate.

After frying the innards, she set them aside and boiled water in the pot.

She sliced the duck blood into small pieces and let it cook in the pot.

Duck blood is tricky to cook thoroughly, so while it simmered, Xu Han soaked a handful of vermicelli in water and washed some fresh vegetable leaves.

When the duck blood was almost done, she added the soaked vermicelli and the well-fried duck innards to the pot, then threw in a few pieces of tofu skin.

Once the vermicelli softened, she seasoned the soup and added a handful of small vegetables to blanch.

The resulting duck blood and vermicelli soup was rich and flavorful.

In fact, Xu Han’s soup was delicious with a rich taste, much better than what one would normally get in a restaurant.

Unfortunately, everyone at the table had complicated thoughts.

After barely finishing this indescribable lunch, Grandma Qiao fed Kou Kou with baby food, Xu Han cleaned up the dishes, and prepared to help Tang Yue with the vegetables he wanted to buy.

“Miss Qiao.”

As she was washing the dishes, a voice suddenly came from behind, startling her so much she almost dropped the dishes.

“Sorry to startle you,” Tan Xin apologized politely, not expecting to scare her.

Xu Han sighed lightly upon seeing it was Tan Xin; she couldn’t avoid this conversation forever. “It’s alright, Miss Tan, go ahead and ask whatever you want.”

“Kou Kou… he’s your and his child, right?” Tan Xin smiled at her own question. “Never mind, it seems dumb to ask such an obvious question.”

Xu Han: “…”

She didn’t understand how outsiders could see any resemblance between Kou Kou and Gu Yanqing.

Perhaps she was just not observant enough.

To her, Kou Kou and Gu Yanqing had absolutely no similarities; they were completely different faces.

Was it because she had looked too much?

Ta. Xin continued to ask, “Are you really divorced from Mr. Gu?”

“No.”

“Then what is Mr. Gu’s relationship with you now?”

“A father-son relationship.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Alright, I understand. Thank you, Miss Qiao,” Tan Xin said, then left the kitchen.

Xu Han quietly breathed a sigh of relief, bowed her head again to wash the dishes.

This ball, she had successfully kicked it back to Gu Yanqing.

If Gu Yanqing had Tan Xin bothering him, he wouldn’t be idly wandering around here.

She managed to stubbornly push the original plot back a bit.

Otherwise, because of her, everything would be destroyed, and who knew what consequences would arise.

After dinner, the Tan siblings finally said goodbye.

Before leaving, Tan Xin hesitated to look at Gu Yanqing a few times.

However, Gu Yanqing was busy playing with Kou Kou and didn’t spare her any extra glance.

Miss Tan left with a disappointed expression.

After seeing them off, as Xu Han was about to walk back, she heard Tan Yue calling, “Miss Qiao.”

She saw Tan Yue, who had originally been in the driver’s seat, getting out of the car again and stopping in front of her.

She asked, “Mr. Tan, is there something else?”

“I’m sorry about today.” Tan Yue knew what he did today wasn’t fair.

Xu Han had a good relationship with him, and he had betrayed her trust.

Xu Han understood his apology and replied calmly, “It’s human nature.”

Tan Yue nodded and after a moment’s thought, he added, “Although I don’t know why you’re here gardening and taking care of children, and how things are between you and him, if there’s ever anything you need help with, feel free to ask me.”

“Alright, thank you.”

Tan Yue smiled gently and said, “Sorry for the disturbance today. Early Happy New Year wishes to you, Miss Qiao.”

Xu Han：“……Happy New Year.”

After seeing off the Tan siblings, Xu Han returned to the courtyard.

She saw Gu Yanqing feeding Kou Kou baby food while Grandma Qiao was cleaning up the messy vegetable leaves on the ground, which could be collected and fed to the chickens and geese.

Their chickens had started laying eggs.

Their eggs were small because they were raised naturally without any feed, making them perfect for Kou Kou.

However, their geese hadn’t started laying eggs yet.

Not only that, they were particularly bossy, behaving like the geese described in legends, pecking anyone they didn’t like.

Xu Han was worried about them injuring someone, so she kept them locked up.

They honked loudly in their enclosure every day, which was quite annoying.

Secretly, Xu Han planned to slaughter the most aggressive one for Chinese New Year—a lesson to the others.

Kou Kou’s baby food today was carrot and fish paste.

Kou Kou loved eating fish, so whenever Xu Han butchered fish, she would cut out the meat from the belly and freeze it in the refrigerator for him.

However, he didn’t like carrots, so even though there was fish meat he loved, he wasn’t eager to eat.

Xu Han saw Yuan Yuan playing with Kou Kou nearby.

When he smiled happily with his mouth wide open, Gu Yanqing took the opportunity to feed him baby food.

Kou Kou looked reluctant, so Gu Yanqing teased him a bit.

The little guy’s mind was still straightforward.

Once someone teased him, he forgot what was in his mouth and obediently swallowed the baby food.

Xu Han really wanted to ask them when they were leaving, but with Yuan Yuan around, she hesitated to ask directly in front of the child.

After all, Yuan Yuan seemed to have a good impression of her.

Since she couldn’t avoid these characters from the novel appearing one by one in front of her, she could only try hard to improve their impression of her.

For the sake of Gu Yanqing’s favorability, she reluctantly adopted a kinder attitude. “When are you planning to leave?” Xu Han chose a more tactful way to inquire.

Gu Yanqing seemed surprised by Xu Han’s “gentle” tone.

He glanced at her and calmly replied, “It’s still early. No rush.”

You may not be in a hurry, but I am!

Xu Han smiled, “If you leave now, you can still catch your flight back to X city.”

“Oh,” Gu Yanqing wiped the corner of Kou Kou’s mouth, saying, “I forgot to tell you, I moved my office to C city half a year ago.”

Xu Han: “…”

Could things really be so coincidental in this world?

“And besides, Miss Qiao, now it’s already vacation time,”

Xu Han felt a bit weary.

Koukou hadn’t been held by his mother for a while, but when she saw her mother walking over, he reached out his hands and said “ah ah” asking her to hold him.

Xu Han picked him up, and Gu Yanqing took a small spoon and snapped his fingers at Koukou.

Koukou exclaimed “ah” and Gu Yanqing quickly stuffed the carrot and fish paste into his mouth.

Koukou reluctantly wanted to spit it out, and Gu Yanqing snapped his fingers twice again to distract his attention.

Unconsciously, Koukou swallowed the baby food in his mouth.

Xu Han didn’t expect Gu Yanqing to have such a knack for feeding children.

“In the past, Yuanyuan wouldn’t eat, so I saw the nanny do this to amuse him,” Gu Yanqing seemed to sense her confusion and explained.

Yuanyuan stuck out his tongue and argued, “I can eat by myself now!”

“Yeah, Yuanyuan is very obedient now,” Gu Yanqing said.

Xu Han found that Gu Yanqing was patient and gentle with children.

Even his overwhelming aura seemed to have softened a lot, like an ordinary father.

The first time she saw Gu Yanqing holding Koukou clumsily, she thought Gu Yanqing was a pampered and ignorant young master.

Gu Yanqing said again, “That Tan Yue, you should have less contact with him.”

In fact, because of what happened today, Xu Han’s impression of Tan Yue had already dropped a lot.

Tan Yue’s image in the book was not good.

He was probably depicted as a businessman who would do anything for profit, using various means to deal with the male lead.

But Xu Han felt that in books, because they lean towards the male lead, they often portray the other characters in a negative light.

Otherwise, what’s the point of good versus good?

Maybe from Tan Yue’s perspective, the male lead was also a ruthless villain.

But the fact was that Tan Yue was indeed prone to betraying friends for his own benefit.

For example, bringing Tan Xin today didn’t affect her, but it did irreparably damage their friendship.

Xu Han knew it well in her heart but couldn’t help arguing with Gu Yanqing, “Hmm? Isn’t he a nice person?”

Gu Yanqing said, “Trust me, I won’t harm you.”

Xu Han was puzzled, “I think he’s nice, he even taught me how to do business. Without him, the vegetables in my two gardens would have rotted.”

Gu Yanqing’s face darkened. “For business matters, ask me in the future. I’ll advise you.”

Xu Han smiled at him, looking somewhat innocent and naive. “But I didn’t ask him actively. He just told me. I think Mr. Tan can see a path to wealth from the vegetables in one of my gardens. He’s quite business savvy.”

Gu Yanqing remained silent.

The Tan family started with small business, so Tan Yue was shrewd and mercantile-minded.

This was why Gu Yanqing didn’t even want to see Tan Xin; he disliked dealing with such people, always feeling manipulated inside and out, which made him uncomfortable.

Compared to this meticulous business acumen, he preferred the challenges and confrontations between major projects in the market.

So, in terms of doing business, he might not really be able to compete with Tan Yue.

“Anyway, I’ll try my best to give you advice,” Gu Yanqing finally said.

Xu Han teased him intentionally, “Then I’ll look forward to Teacher Gu making me rich.”

…

Koukou had eaten almost half a bowl of carrot and fish paste, but no matter how they tried to amuse him, he refused to open his mouth.

Xu Han knew he had eaten enough, so she took out a crawling mat from the side and let him crawl on the floor.

Koukou was starting to crawl a little now.

Xu Han had bought a very comfortable and warm crawling blanket for him.

When she was busy, she let Koukou crawl there by himself.

If someone teased him and held a small toy on the other side, he would happily move his tightly wrapped little body over there, laughing foolishly after crawling a distance, which was especially cute.

Now Yuanyuan was teasing Koukou.

Xu Han watched her own villainous son getting along well with the male lead, feeling complicated.

Clearly, it should have been a drama of brotherly friendship, so why did it end up as hostility?

Ah, it’s all because of the author’s arrangement.