Chapter 3: Children and grandchildren have their own blessings; without them, I will enjoy my own happiness…

He reached for the can of Wangzai on the table, unzipped the ring with one hand, and placed it next to Jiang Yao.

“Don’t drink until your leg is healed.”

Xu Chaoyang also realized this and slapped his forehead. “Yes, yes, yes, I almost forgot. You can’t drink.”

Jiang Yao belatedly understood Cheng Lie’s intentions, but before she could think about it, Xu Chaoyang raised his beer can. Seeing this, Jiang Yao quickly raised her milk glass and clinked it with his.

Jiang Yao didn’t know if it was an illusion, but she thought she heard Cheng Lie laugh as they clinked glasses. But when she turned around, he still had the same expression on his face.

Jiang Yao thought she was overthinking it, but the next second, just as she was about to withdraw her hand, Cheng Lie suddenly touched her milk jug lightly with two fingers, holding the beer can.

Jiang Yao: …

Well, to them, that’s a provocation.

This man truly deserves to be single until retirement.

Xu Chaoyang couldn’t stop talking. While eating, he kept pestering Jiang Yao with questions about her and Cheng Lie’s “relationship history.”

Jiang Yao wanted to tell him several times, “Young man, your relationship is fake,” but each time, Xu Chaoyang would interrupt her before she could even begin.

A little after ten, this exhausting barbecue finally ended with beer cans on the half-empty table. Xu Chaoyang paid and took a taxi, leaving Jiang Yao and Cheng Lie staring at each other in bewilderment.

Cheng Lie coughed, breaking the awkward silence. “Will you take me home?”

“No need.” As Xu Chaoyang left, Jiang Yao’s true colors were revealed. “When are you going to fix my car?”

“If not, when are you going to take your car away?”

“Not if I don’t.”

Jiang Yao mimicked his tone, snorted, and stood up to get her cane. Cheng Lie, being closer, took it and handed it to her.

Jiang Yao pursed her lips, not taking it, and simply stood there. Cheng Lie understood and placed the cane on the table. “Okay, take it yourself.”

Before anyone could get far, Cheng Lie stood up and grumbled loudly, “Primary school kid.”

Jiang Yao heard him and turned to glare at him. Cheng Lie returned the gaze without fear.

After irritating him, he froze for a moment, pressed his brow together, and chuckled, “Cheng Lie, you’re really getting more and more childish.”

Why bother arguing with a child?

That said, he couldn’t just let her go home alone so late at night. Cheng Lie grabbed his phone and followed.

Jiang Yao hailed a taxi and waited by the roadside. She propped her crutches in front of her, her chin resting on them, looking like she was about to fall asleep.

After Cheng Lie passed, Jiang Yao remained motionless, glancing at the long legs that came into view. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for a taxi.”

Jiang Yao uttered an “oh,” yawned, and rubbed the corners of her eyes.

Waiting for a taxi was incredibly agonizing for Jiang Yao. Cheng Lie stood nearby. Although she was annoyed that he had gone to such lengths to fix her car, at least he had helped her out tonight and even treated her to a barbecue.

Jiang Yao, unusually coy, spent a long while preparing herself. When the car arrived, she opened the backseat door and got in, quickly saying to the ground, “Thank you for what we did today.”

After that, Jiang Yao quickly pulled her legs back into the car and closed the door. She gave the driver a location and was just trying to calm herself when the passenger door suddenly opened.

Cheng Lie got in and explained, “I just wanted a ride. I couldn’t find one, so I’ll take you home first.”

Jiang Yao’s heart, which had finally calmed, stopped beating. The air around them suddenly became awkward.

Thankfully, Cheng Lie didn’t say anything the whole time. Jiang Yao consoled herself by thinking he was probably hard of hearing and didn’t hear the “thank you” she’d mustered up the courage to say, even though it wasn’t whispered.

The journey was uneventful until the car stopped outside the villa complex and Jiang Yao got out and closed the door. Cheng Lie rolled down the car window. A faint smile seemed to flicker in his eyes, barely discernible under the streetlight.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

He spoke slowly, each word enunciated clearly, as if deliberately for Jiang Yao to hear.

Jiang Yao: “!!!!”

Jiang Yao didn’t wait for him to say anything else and practically fled.

Back home, lying in bed, the image lingered in her mind. She didn’t really have to have Cheng Lie fix her car; it could be done elsewhere. Perhaps this was what’s called rebelliousness.

You could also call it the rebelliousness of a teenager.

An old man wouldn’t understand this!

“Old man” Cheng Lie returned home, fresh out of the shower, and checked his phone. There were several calls, all from Ms. Fang.

Cheng Lie called back and, after the usual initial chat with Ms. Fang Hui, she got to the point: “Your Aunt Ning’s daughter has returned to Lincheng. You two haven’t seen each other in ages. Why don’t you find a time to meet up?”

Okay, a blind date.

Cheng Lie put his phone on the bed, wiped his hair with a towel, and asked casually, “How long do you mean by long time? We’ve met? Why don’t I remember that?”

Ms. Fang choked, but quickly shifted her focus. “Oh, you two met at the hospital, not long after you were born.”

“So it’s been 26 years,” Cheng Lie pointed out.

Every time Cheng Lie discussed a blind date, it felt like a battle between two armies. Seeing this tactic wasn’t working, Ms. Fang resorted to emotional appeals: “Ah Lie, you said Mom is already fifty, and you still haven’t found a partner. I wonder if I’ll ever have grandchildren in my lifetime.”

“Mom, have you ever heard that saying? Children and grandchildren have their own blessings.”

Ms. Fang said, “Hmm,” in a hypocritical, tearful voice.

Cheng Lie stabbed her throat and added, “Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. Without them, I’ll enjoy my happiness.”

“Cheng Lie!” Ms. Fang’s voice nearly broke with rage, and she began to act like a scoundrel. “Tomorrow at 3:00 PM, if you don’t show up, I’ll die in front of your shop!”

Cheng Lie wasn’t worried about Ms. Fang dying in front of his shop, but he knew that if she didn’t go, she would definitely bring her daughter with her.

The thought of that scene was too much to handle.

So the next day, Cheng Lie duly went to the location Ms. Fang had sent him on WeChat. With Xu Chaoyang covering for him, he wasn’t worried.

But despite all his calculations, Cheng Lie hadn’t anticipated Xu Chaoyang’s flaws.

After receiving Cheng Lie’s text, Xu Chaoyang was terribly anxious and sleepless all night. He pondered over it all, feeling it was wrong for his brother Lie to go on a blind date when he already had a “sister-in-law.” Tormented by both friendship and moral concerns, he dug out Jiang Yao’s WeChat, whom he had added the previous day, and told her everything.

He finished by admonishing her, “Sister-in-law, my brother was forced into this. Don’t be angry. The mission of saving him is now yours.”

Elsewhere, Jiang Yao looked at the address Xu Chaoyang had sent her, then glanced up at the cafe in front of her, sighing, “It’s a small world.” She hadn’t intended to get involved, but then she spotted Cheng Lie sitting by the window.

Across from him sat a woman, her back to the door, her expression unreadable. Cheng Lie, on the other hand, looked deeply distressed, glancing toward the door repeatedly, presumably waiting for Xu Chaoyang to arrive.

Jiang Yao suddenly became malicious.

After she pushed the door open and entered, she bounded straight for Cheng Lie’s table and unceremoniously sat down beside him.

Cheng Lie and the woman across from him were both stunned. It took only a second for Cheng Lie to realize she was here to rescue him.

Ning Zhen glanced at Jiang Yao, who looked unfriendly, and frowned, “What’s this?”

Jiang Yao looked so much like the wife caught cheating. Her expressionless face made her wonder if she was about to pick up her cane and whack her over the head.

The next moment, Jiang Yao’s serious demeanor shifted, and she suddenly smiled with a slanted smile, extending her hand kindly: “Hello, sister. This is my cousin. My aunt sent me here to check on your progress.”

Ning Zhen, startled, said: “???”

Cheng Lie, who was about to say she was his girlfriend, replied: “???”

This script is wrong.

Seeing that Ning Zhen didn’t shake her hand, Jiang Yao didn’t hesitate. She twisted her hand, still suspended in mid-air, and patted Cheng Lie. “Sister, my cousin has always had this bad temper. Don’t be angry, he’s actually a nice guy. By the way, there’s a movie theater next door. There’s a new movie coming out. Why don’t you two go see it together later? There’s no point just drinking coffee here.”

She wasn’t sure if she believed Jiang Yao’s words, but she stood up and nodded, “I’m going to the bathroom.”

After they were gone, Jiang Yao withdrew her hand, a pained expression on her face. “It hurts.”

Cheng Lie sneered, “You deserve it.”

She slapped him down, hitting his arm muscles and hurting her hand.

Jiang Yao wasn’t angry at the rebuke, but shook her head smugly. “Oh, my dear cousin, I wish you good luck on your blind date.”

She held onto the table and tried to stand up, but Cheng Lie quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

“Name your terms.”

Having achieved her goal, Jiang Yao tried hard to suppress the corners of her mouth that were about to turn up to the sky. She paused for a few seconds before saying, “Fix my car.”

Cheng Lie locked eyes with her, not relenting. Only when he caught a glimpse of the woman approaching from the corner of his eye did he step back and say, “Deal.”

So, when Ning Zhen returned, she noticed a change in the atmosphere between the two people across from her. They hadn’t changed their sitting positions, spoken, or made subtle movements, but their eye contact lent a touch of ambiguity.

Ning Zhen sat down and tentatively asked, “You two?”

“We’ve made up,” Jiang Yao propped her chin up, looking innocent. “Sorry, sister. I was just having a little fight with my boyfriend, but now I’ve calmed him down.”

To appear genuine, Jiang Yao even pretended to hug Cheng Lie’s arm and leaned against it, “Isn’t that right, dear?”

Cheng Lie stiffened almost imperceptibly.

Ning Zhen looked at Cheng Lie.

Jiang Yao also tilted her head back and blinked.

Sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, shimmering in her eyes, a glint of cunning in her dark brown eyes.

Cheng Lie understood, reaching up with his other hand to touch her hair. He turned to Ning Zhen and said, “I’m sorry.”

“Cheng Lie,” Ning Zhen slammed the table and stood up. She seemed furious, calming herself down before pointing at Jiang Yao and saying, “You’re even flirting with underage girls? You’re such a beast.”