Chapter 114

Chapter 114

The dumplings had already gone into the pot, and the rich aroma of them wafted out from the kitchen. Yun Li kept glancing back so often that she eventually drew Xia Wanzhi’s attention.

“Your eyes are about to stick to your boyfriend,” Xia Wanzhi teased. It wasn’t hard to tell that Yun Li desperately wanted to go over and help.

Xia Wanzhi had been pampered since she was little, a treasured young lady held in her parents’ palms, and she was used to being waited on. More importantly, in her family, her father had always been the one who cooked, so she had never felt there was anything wrong with a man cooking.

Besides, Xie Qiyan’s cooking was delicious. Every time he cooked for her, he came to her afterward to ask for a reward. Clearly, he was the one getting the better deal.

Yun Li, on the other hand, seemed a little uneasy.

Xia Wanzhi could tell that Yun Li couldn’t calmly and naturally enjoy her boyfriend being good to her. She couldn’t sit still. She felt overwhelmed by the favor.

This was the influence of her family of origin. A heart ailment. In the future, Jiang Baichuan would have to be the one to cure it.

Yun Li only felt emotional. She shook her head and laughed softly. “It just feels so unreal.”

Before she was ten, her parents’ relationship had been considered harmonious, and her family had been considered whole. But for as long as she could remember, her mother had always been the one who could handle both the living room and the kitchen, while her father left early and came home late. The moment he returned, there would be piping-hot food waiting for him. Even when he wasn’t working, if he got hungry, he would call for her mother to cook.

It was as if it had always been perfectly natural for her mother to be the one who cooked.

Back then, Yun Meilan had never complained, but Yun Li had only felt sorry for her.

Yun Meilan had undoubtedly been virtuous and capable. Yun Li was good at cooking too, and thinking about it, she had probably inherited that from Yun Meilan.

Pulling herself out of her memories, Yun Li turned to look at Jiang Baichuan again, her eyes faintly warm with moisture.

Xia Wanzhi hugged her arm and gently pinched the flesh on the back of her hand. “Still unreal?”

Yun Li sniffed and didn’t hide her emotions in front of Xia Wanzhi. “I want to cry.”

“Then you’re done for. Jiang Baichuan loves you so much, you’ll have plenty more chances to be moved in the future.” As they talked, the two of them started play-fighting again. Beside them, Xie Tan rubbed her arms. All this love and romance-she couldn’t join in their conversation at all, so she simply focused on munching on her snacks.

After fooling around for a while, Yun Li brought up something else. “Jiang Baichuan’s sister’s new movie comes out the day after tomorrow. I have four tickets. Do you want to bring your man along and watch it together?”

The meaning behind giving four tickets was already very obvious.

Everyone on the Jiang family side knew that Yun Li and Xia Wanzhi were closest. When Jiang Baichuan had been pursuing Yun Li, Xia Wanzhi had given him plenty of assists. The people over there probably saw her as a matchmaker and felt grateful to her.

But Xia Wanzhi had never been willing to take credit for that.

Jiang Baichuan and Yun Li hadn’t met because of her. Their fate had been destined by heaven. Even without her, those two would definitely have ended up together.

“What movie?” Xia Wanzhi rarely paid attention to these things.

“I think it’s called Safe Year After Year. It’s pretty touching. Search for the trailer and take a look.” Yun Li’s phone was in Jiang Baichuan’s pocket, so she casually picked up a phone from the coffee table and handed it to Xia Wanzhi.

Xia Wanzhi took it. “This is Xie Qiyan’s phone.”

Yun Li blurted out, “You can’t use Xie Qiyan’s phone?”

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

That wasn’t exactly what she meant. She had just never used it before.

When she and Xie Qiyan were alone together, they rarely looked at their phones. The two of them were too busy making out. And when they did look at their phones, it was usually to handle work matters.

Come to think of it, Xia Wanzhi had never looked at Xie Qiyan’s phone before.

She didn’t even know his passcode.

“President Xie, Wanzi is using your phone to search for a movie trailer!” Yun Li had been teased by Xia Wanzhi so much over the past few days, and now she had finally managed to win back a round.

Jiang Baichuan was cooking the dumplings. Hearing her, he looked at Yun Li with amusement in his eyes. Xie Qiyan had started making dessert by then and reminded her, “There isn’t a passcode.”

He answered a beat too late. Xia Wanzhi had already swiped to unlock it. Xie Qiyan’s phone didn’t have any short-video apps, so Xia Wanzhi tapped into Weibo instead.

Then the phone screen immediately displayed-

“App encrypted. Please verify with facial recognition.”

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

A Weibo app needed a password?

Yun Li was just as surprised for a second. She and Xia Wanzhi looked at each other, their gazes filled with huge question marks.

“Xie…” Yun Li had just been about to ask Xie Qiyan for the password when Xia Wanzhi promptly covered her mouth.

Xia Wanzhi cleared her throat. “I’ll ask him myself tonight.”

If he had set a password, then there had to be a secret.
Since it was a secret, and there were so many people around, it didn’t seem appropriate to ask him about it now.

With her mouth covered, Yun Li could only nod. Seeing that Xia Wanzhi had opened a search engine and could find it just by searching, she leaned in to watch with her. As she watched, she kept secretly glancing back at Xie Qiyan, unable to figure out why he would encrypt his Weibo.

What kind of secret could there be on Weibo?

Xia Wanzhi stared at the trailer, but her mind had already drifted elsewhere.

Exactly. What secret could Weibo possibly hide?

Xia Wanzhi puffed out her cheeks, wondering if Xie Qiyan could have followed someone on Weibo.

But even if he had followed someone, there was no need to encrypt it, right?

Could he have followed something restricted?

But Weibo was a civilized app.

The more Xia Wanzhi thought about it, the more the surrounding noise faded away.

The only person likely to look at Xie Qiyan’s phone was her. So was Xie Qiyan guarding against her?

Xia Wanzhi was offended.

Yun Li called her several times and failed to bring her back to her senses, so she had no choice but to shake her hard. “Come back to earth, my princess!”

Xia Wanzhi snapped back to herself. “What is it?”

“The dumplings are done. President Xie just told us to wash our hands.” After explaining, Yun Li took one look at her and guessed she must have been overthinking. “If you want to know, ask Xie Qiyan. Don’t waste the mouth you were born with.”

Xia Wanzhi smiled. “I know.”

She had already made her plans.

Once the night was dark and the wind was high, she would tie Xie Qiyan up and interrogate him.

Xie Tan had already washed her hands and was sitting upright at the dining table. The moment the dumplings were served, she eagerly picked up a pan-fried dumpling and popped it into her mouth.

Ever since Xie Qiyan returned to the country, she had someone to back her up and had become much more unrestrained. On top of that, she was still a child at heart, so sometimes she forgot the rules. She had started eating before the adults were seated, and now, afraid Xie Qiyan would come over and glare at her, she called out to Xia Wanzhi and Yun Li, “Sisters-in-law, hurry over! My brothers’ cooking is amazing!”

Her voice was so loud and full of enthusiasm that no one could say she wasn’t doing her part.

From far away, Xie Qiyan glanced at her. Pleased by that cry of “sisters-in-law,” he couldn’t be bothered to expose her little trick.

On the dining table, there were boiled dumplings, steamed dumplings, and pan-fried dumplings, everything one could ask for. The fillings were pork and cabbage, and corn and pork-the former was Yun Li’s favorite, and the latter was Xia Wanzhi’s.

As for Xie Tan, she wasn’t picky.

Good food could not be let down. Once Xia Wanzhi started eating, she tossed the Weibo matter to the back of her mind. Halfway through the meal, she remembered that her grandfather, grandmother, father, and mother, who were far away in the UK, would definitely be celebrating Winter Solstice too, so she raised her phone and took a few group photos to send over.

Jiang Baichuan secretly shot Xie Qiyan a look, asking why he still hadn’t begun to act.

Xie Qiyan gave him an expressionless sidelong glance.

Jiang Baichuan understood. Either the proposal ring wasn’t ready, or he hadn’t won over his future father-in-law and mother-in-law yet.

Not long after, the Becker Family group chat also sent over several photos of them eating dumplings, followed by four Winter Solstice red envelopes.

Xia Wanzhi happily accepted every one of them.

Opening red envelopes came with a sound notification. Xie Qiyan glanced at Xia Wanzhi, and after she finished claiming the four red envelopes, he followed up by sending…

Ten.

Perfect in every way.

Xia Wanzhi looked up at him in surprise, both amused and exasperated.

He had to compete even over this?

Xia Wanzhi accepted red envelopes until her hands grew tired.

There were still many dumplings left, so they put them in the fridge. Xia Wanzhi asked Yun Li to take some home, but Yun Li went dazed for a moment, then shook her head and said there were some at home.

No matter how bad Yun Meilan was, she had never let her go without a meal of Winter Solstice dumplings.

Xie Tan was the last to leave. Xia Wanzhi stuffed several boxes into her arms and told her to take them back for Old Master Xie.

Once everyone had gone, the house quieted down, and Xia Wanzhi naturally thought of Xie Qiyan’s Weibo again.

“Sleep at my place tonight,” Xia Wanzhi said coolly, cheeks puffed out. Meeting Xie Qiyan’s puzzled gaze, she scratched her cheek. “Come over and sleep with me.”

After sleeping together for so long, Xie Qiyan had gotten used to it.

Perhaps because the weather was cold, the distracting thoughts in his heart were easier to suppress than they had been back when it was hot.

He simply assumed Xia Wanzhi had grown tired of the bed on his side and wanted to sleep in her own again. In any case, as long as he was sleeping with Xia Wanzhi, he didn’t care where he slept.

But Xia Wanzhi was thinking that if the secret Xie Qiyan was hiding made her unhappy, she would kick him right out.

It was time to restore her authority as his girlfriend!