Chapter 73 Extra-five: Raising Baby 1

The barrier of transparency was gone, a level of intimacy never felt before.

Wei Lai clung tightly to his waist.

Zhou Sujin took a deep breath, almost losing control. He lowered his head to kiss the person beneath him, and the strap of her black camisole slipped off her shoulder.

Kissing her lips, he asked, “Could you loosen up a bit?”

He couldn’t move.

Zhou Sujin was gently rubbing her sensitive fingertips, which made Wei Lai loosen her grip a little.

After much effort, she pulled her hands free from his and clasped them around his neck. “Have you thought of a name for the baby?”

Zhou Sujin replied, “I have. The nickname will be Chenchen.”

“The ‘Chen’ from Kunchen Group?”

“Yeah.”

“Chen” also refers to the stars, and she loved the starry sky the most.

Suddenly, Wei Lai buried her face in his neck. Whenever her moaning got too loud, she kissed his Adam’s apple.

The fresh scent filled her senses. Their fingers interlocked, merging as deeply as they could.

The next day, they were awakened by the alarm clock—they had a family gathering at the old house of her grandparents today.

Wei Lai dragged her exhausted body up from the bed. Her legs felt like they didn’t belong to her.

She opened the curtains. After the snow, the sky was clear, and the sunlight was blinding.

“Is Dad home?” Wei Lai asked on their way to the old house.

“Yes, he just got back last night,” Zhou Sujin told her. “My father will be at the gathering today as well.”

He held her hand. “I’ll sit next to you during the meal. If you don’t feel like talking, you can speak less, or not at all. It’s fine.”

Wei Lai reassured him instead, “It’s okay for me. If you don’t want to talk, I can speak for you.”

Zhou Sujin looked into her eyes, staring at her for a long time.

As Wei Lai’s heart began to race, she buried herself in his embrace.

Zhou Sujin wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you.”

The last time he formally thanked her like this was when they had their contract meeting with his family, and she had carefully prepared gifts for them.

In over two years of marriage, every time they visited Beijing, it was always inconvenient, and Zhou’s father was never home. Today would be her first time meeting him in person, and he looked about the same as in the video calls.

Zhou’s father and grandfather shared the same commanding presence, with sharp and authoritative gazes.

“Dad.” Her greeting sounded a bit unnatural.

Zhou’s father nodded. “Jiangcheng is warm. Are you used to it here?”

Zhou Sujin interrupted, “My dad spent a few years in Jiangcheng.”

Wei Lai: “?”

She looked confused, having never heard anyone mention that before.

Zhou’s father paused for a few seconds, then said coldly, “That was when Min Ting’s father held office in Jiangcheng.”

Sitting beside them, Zhou Jiaye almost burst out laughing. His younger brother had deliberately diverted the conversation, and it worked perfectly.

Zhou’s father shot a glance at his younger son. “Don’t you remember where I’ve been over the years?”

Sensing a potential argument between father and son, Ning Ruzhen pulled out a red envelope and handed it to her husband. It was a New Year’s gift prepared for Wei Lai, and she gave her husband a meaningful look.

Zhou’s father cast a glance at his younger son and then, with a calm expression, handed the red envelope to Wei Lai. “Please send my regards to your parents.”

“Thank you, Dad.”

Ning Ruzhen signaled to her younger son. “Take Wei Lai upstairs to check things out. Your cousins are playing cards up there.”

At the staircase, Wei Lai felt a sense of relief.

Once the younger ones were out of earshot, Zhou’s father voiced his displeasure. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t speak for Zhou Sujin at home?”

Ning Ruzhen responded, “Why argue with the kids? Didn’t you see he was deliberately misspeaking?” She patted her husband’s shoulder. “Alright, calm down. Don’t get so worked up that you give yourself high blood pressure during the holidays.”

Zhou’s father was still irritated. “I asked him to hold an engagement banquet in Beijing, and he ignored me.”

Ning Ruzhen replied, “If he really did listen to everything you said, Wei Lai might not have been able to enter this family, and it’s even less likely they would be married for two years without attending a family banquet.”

Zhou’s father: “…”

He glanced at his wife but said nothing in response.

Ning Ruzhen leaned forward, picked up a teacup from the tray, and handed it to her husband. “This is tea from Jiangcheng. Try it.” Influenced by her sister and brother-in-law, she had gradually grown accustomed to drinking Jiangcheng tea.

It tasted light and smooth as it went down the throat.

Amidst the bitterness, there was a faint hint of fragrance.

Zhou’s father accepted the teacup. “Stop changing the subject.”

Ning Ruzhen took a cup for herself and sipped slowly. “In the first few years after we got married, I really didn’t want to stay at your family’s house for New Year’s. I wanted to go back to London and spend it with my parents.”

After a brief pause, she didn’t continue and just sipped her tea.

Zhou’s father looked at his wife with complicated feelings, squeezing her hand.

Ning Ruzhen realized she had completely changed the subject, to the point where her husband was starting to feel guilty.

She truly missed her parents in those early years, and even resisted integrating into his large family. Naturally quiet and disliking crowds, she felt the most tormented during the annual Mid-Autumn and New Year gatherings, especially when her husband couldn’t attend due to work.

Father Zhou: “From now on, I won’t care where they hold their wedding, where they spend New Year’s, or whether they come back for family dinners, okay?”

He took a sip of tea and said to his wife, “The tea is good.”

Ning Ruzhen smiled, “Don’t force yourself.”

—

Corrupted by Lu Yu, everyone’s now into playing custom-made poker. Zhou Sujin pushed open the door to the upstairs game room, just in time to hear his cousin say, “I play two cards of my dad.”

Second cousin: “I’ll play one card of Grandpa.”

When it was Zhou Jiaye’s turn to play, he drew two cards of Zhou Sujin, “These two will definitely make Grandpa mad enough to book a specialist for Grandma.”

The whole room burst into laughter.

Zhou Sujin knocked on the door and said to his older cousin, “One card will be enough next time.”

His cousin, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth, laughed, “Give me your red envelope this year, or I’ll tell Grandpa you want to be on equal footing with him.”

While joking around, they warmly invited Wei Lai to join them in the game.

His cousins were all married, and their spouses were there as well, making the room full of over ten people. Back when she and Zhou Sujin got engaged, they all went to Jiangcheng for the engagement banquet. They had only met once, and after so much time had passed, Wei Lai found it hard to match faces to names.

Zhou Sujin pulled a chair next to her and, during their conversation, called out the names of people a few more times for her to remember. Wei Lai quietly committed them to memory.

It was her first time playing the custom poker game, so she whispered to Zhou Sujin, “What are the rules for playing cards?”

“There are no rules, just play whatever feels right.”

Wei Lai drew two cards with her own name on them. She showed them to Zhou Sujin, her eyes asking him how her name got there.

Zhou Sujin leaned in and said, “Joker cards, specifically to beat me.”

Wei Lai almost laughed.

Zhou Sujin turned to his older cousin, “How about we change the format of this year’s dinner?”

Older cousin: “Change it how?”

“Everyone makes a dish, and those who can’t cook help in the kitchen.”

Second cousin: “That sounds good. Just playing cards every year gets boring.”

The older cousin slowly said, “I can make cucumber salad, that counts as a signature dish.” Then he looked at Zhou Sujin, “You probably can’t even help out in the kitchen.”

Zhou Sujin replied, “I can make tangyuan (glutinous rice balls).”

Third cousin chimed in, “I happen to want to try Jiangcheng’s tangyuan.”

Zhou Jiaye was the first to play a card, saying, “Once this round is over, let’s go downstairs and cook. Whoever loses has to make two dishes.”

They worked together to make the older cousin lose.

The older cousin, amused and exasperated, said, “Just you wait.”

He planned to add a tomato salad to the mix.

Zhou Jiaye quickly packed the cards away to avoid their grandfather seeing and scolding them for being unfilial.

A group of over ten people headed downstairs to the kitchen in high spirits.

“What are you all up to?” Grandma asked from the kitchen.

“Grandma, we’re making a meal for you. We haven’t cooked much before, so it might not taste great, please bear with us.”

Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle were all astonished, “What’s gotten into these kids?”

Ning Ruzhen commented, “Every year Sujin spends New Year in Jiangcheng, he cooks with Wei Lai, so this was probably his idea.”

Grandma was both touched and emotional, “They’ve all grown up.”

Laughter constantly erupted from the kitchen. Besides Wei Lai and Zhou Sujin, everyone else was clumsily knocking things over with loud bangs.

The old house had never been this lively before.

Suddenly, Wei Lai remembered something, “There’s no filling for the tangyuan, how are you going to make them?”

Zhou Sujin replied, “I brought some from Jiangcheng, it’s in the car’s portable fridge. I’ll go get it.”

Wei Lai laughed, “So you planned this all along, cooking together today?”

“Yeah.” On New Year’s Eve, while cooking with He Wancheng, he had already thought about changing the format of the family gathering.

Zhou Sujin checked the fridge. There was glutinous rice flour, but worried that Wei Lai might feel uncomfortable in his absence, he said, “Come with me to the car to get the tangyuan filling.”

As they reached the yard, Zhou Sujin’s phone vibrated. It was a call from Lu Yu.

Lu Yu asked if he was free today to have lunch together and specifically reminded him to bring Wei Lai along.

Zhou Sujin asked, “What’s the occasion?”

“I’m going on a blind date today. You two should come too, the more people, the less awkward…” By the end, Lu Yu could barely hear his own voice.

Zhou Sujin said, “I’m busy, we’re having a family dinner at my grandpa’s house today.”

“Doesn’t your family usually celebrate on New Year’s Eve?”

“We changed the date.”

Lu Yu rubbed his temples and sighed deeply.

Yesterday, he had thought, fine, let’s just go on the blind date since I have to get married eventually. But after waking up this morning, he regretted agreeing to his mother’s request.

After finishing a cigarette and extinguishing it in the ashtray, his phone vibrated again. His blind date had sent a long message detailing her expectations for her future partner, followed by another: “Could you tell me what you expect from your partner?”

Lu Yu replied: “Someone who doesn’t talk much, is intelligent, simple and pure, has a unique temperament, and is at least 174 cm tall.”

After sending it, he suddenly realized that he was describing Zhao Yihan.

He immediately retracted the message.

His blind date messaged: “The person you like must be a cool beauty, right?”

She added: “I also admire that type of beauty. But I’m not one.”

Lu Yu didn’t know how to respond.

His blind date asked: “So, are we still having lunch?”

Lu Yu replied: “Let’s meet. I still need to give my family an answer.”

—

The morning after the family dinner, Wei Lai flew back to Jiangcheng, and that evening she had a corporate retreat with the management team of Weilai Corporation.

She had no idea that Lu Yu had gone on a blind date on the third day of the New Year, nor did she know what had happened afterward.

This time, it was her mother who came to pick her up at the airport, while her father was out with her grandparents on a short trip to a nearby city and wouldn’t be back until the evening.

Cheng Minzhi had only come to pick up her daughter and didn’t see her son-in-law.

“Sujin didn’t come with you?”

“He and my older brother are going to visit our grandparents in a couple of days, so I didn’t ask him to come.”

Wei Lai had only a small suitcase with her, holding her mother’s arm in one hand and pushing the suitcase with the other, unaware of the change in her mother’s left hand.

All the way to the basement of Jiang’an Yuncheng, Wei Lai’s mother helped her carry the luggage from the trunk, and it was only then that Wei Lai noticed the ring on her mother’s hand.

Wei Lai pretended not to see it and asked her mother to go upstairs first, saying that she needed to go out for a while.

Cheng Minzhi thought her daughter was going to the supermarket. “What do you need to buy? It’s just the two of us for lunch, let’s just eat whatever is in the fridge.”

Wei Lai had no choice but to lie, saying it was something for Wei Lai & Baiduo.

She drove her mother’s car out of the garage, bought a four-inch cake, and then went to the nearest flower shop to buy a bouquet of flowers her mother liked.

When she got home, her mother had already prepared three dishes and a soup.

“Mom, wishing you happiness and joy.”

Seeing the flowers and cake in her daughter’s hands, Cheng Minzhi’s eyes filled with tears. She hugged her daughter and said, “Thank you, sweetheart.”

Wei Lai asked her mother, “When did Uncle He propose to you?”

“That afternoon when we had coffee.” Actually, it was almost evening. They unknowingly spent more than three hours in the café, refilled their coffee once, and each had another glass of milk.

On the bustling old street, people were coming and going, and the café had customers entering and leaving constantly, but nothing disturbed them. She and He Wancheng quietly chatted.

He took out a ring and asked her if she was willing to spend the rest of her life with him like this.

“So when are you getting the marriage license?”

At first, Cheng Minzhi didn’t plan to get a license, but He Wancheng insisted, saying that without it, it didn’t feel like they had a home. Every time he came over, it felt undefined.

“Your Uncle He said we should go on February 14th to register, and go early to avoid the queue.”

Wei Lai laughed, “The most romantic middle-aged couple.”

Amidst the laughter and conversation, she and her mother finished all the food, and they ate half of the cake.

During their chat, Cheng Minzhi mentioned Yuan Hengrui.

On the first day of the new year, she went to inspect the store and ran into Yuan Hengrui coming out of the supermarket after buying cigarettes. He was wearing an elegant coat, standing tall and handsome. They chatted briefly, and his words were steady and calm, with no trace of his previous impulsiveness and recklessness.

Yuan Hengrui also shared some good news. Jiang’an Group had already climbed into the top six of Jiangcheng’s listed companies in terms of comprehensive strength.

“I didn’t expect him to become who he is today.”

Wei Lai sighed, “I didn’t expect it either.”

It felt like it wasn’t that long ago when he fought with Zhang Yanxin and got kicked by his dad.

The team-building event for Wei Lai & Baiduo’s management team started in the evening, at the cafeteria beneath the main store of Wei Lai Supermarket.

After expansion, the cafeteria was spacious and bright. After Yu Younian figured out Zhao Lianshen’s preferences, he set up a hidden stage. Normally, it was used for displaying plants and flowers. In winter, with enough heating, it was perfect for gatherings.

This year’s team-building, Zhao Lianshen attended as promised.

Like last year, everyone had to cook a dish. The kitchen was bustling with activity.

Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) was a staple. Grandma had heard that they loved the tangyuan filling she made, so she had spent a whole day making more for them, half sweet and half savory.

Zhao Lianshen prepared more than thirty red envelopes, one for everyone, including Wei Lai.

Someone joked that team-building events like this could happen a few more times a year.

There was food, drinks, and money to take home.

Wei Lai posted a moment about the team-building on social media, and as she refreshed her feed, she saw a post from the manager of the flagship watch store and casually liked it.

The manager sent her a private message: “There’s still no news about the watch.”

Wei Lai almost forgot. She had ordered a watch for Zhou Sujin two years ago for Valentine’s Day. It would take at least three years, and that was the best-case scenario. It might take four years, or even five.

If there were other VIP orders ahead of hers, three years certainly wouldn’t be enough.

By the time Zhou Sujin received the watch, their daughter Chenchen would be fourteen months and five days old.

Wei Lai & Baiduo was at a critical stage of going public. Wei Lai’s business trips had become so frequent that she barely had time to spend with her daughter, who had just started saying a few words.

There were nannies and childcare assistants. Her aunt often came to Jiangcheng to help, and her mother came over every afternoon without fail, but even so, Wei Lai couldn’t put her mind at ease when she was on business trips.

Tomorrow, she was going on another business trip, and this one would last at least a week.

Zhou Sujin, wearing his new watch, pulled Wei Lai into his arms and said, “I’ve taken three weeks of leave. Starting tomorrow, I don’t have to go to the office.”

Wei Lai could hardly believe it. “How long?”

Zhou Sujin: “Three weeks. I’ll work overtime at night to catch up. It won’t affect anything.”