Chapter 151

Chapter 151

The brother and sister glanced at Xia Wanzhi, who was secretly trying not to laugh.

A war was about to break out.

“You can’t scold kids during New Year’s!” Xie Tan looked utterly aggrieved, her lips jutting out as she complained. Then she turned to Xia Wanzhi and accused Xie Qiyan, her eldest brother, of bullying a child. “Look at him!”

Xie Qiyan snorted. “Feudal superstition.”

“Sister-in-law-”

“Watch your attitude. Don’t be mean to her.” Xia Wanzhi’s heart softened the second she heard that “sister-in-law,” and she quietly scolded Xie Qiyan.

Xie Qiyan held himself back. Annoyed that Xie Tan was competing with him for attention, he argued in his own defense, “She didn’t do her winter break homework. She’s the one with the bad attitude.”

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

Clearly guilty, Xie Tan immediately pulled out her trump card. “Sister Wanzi, I think you need to reevaluate his character. I suspect he has a serious child-abuse syndrome. If he becomes a dad in the future, what will happen then?”

Xie Qiyan remained unmoved and said faintly, “If I become a dad, I’ll be the strict father, and your sister-in-law will be the gentle mother. A gentle mother paired with a strict father-isn’t that perfectly normal?”

Xie Tan was thoroughly defeated. “…”

Xia Wanzhi had no idea how the topic had suddenly veered toward becoming parents. She cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Anyway, weren’t we just about to talk about why Xie Nan looked at me with such resentment? Xie Tan, come on, tell us what’s going on.”

“What else could it be? Envy, jealousy, and hatred.” Xie Tan plopped down in a huff, casually grabbed a cookie, tore open the wrapper, and stuffed it into her mouth. “It’s not just Third Brother. Second Brother is the same. Deep down, they’re all complaining that the marriage partners the Old Master chose for them don’t have family backgrounds as good as yours, Sister Wanzi.”

“You don’t even know. One time, Third Brother got drunk and actually started spouting nonsense. He said if he’d known earlier that Sister Wanzi was Grandpa Richard’s maternal granddaughter, he would have made a move on you first.”

The more Xie Tan spoke, the angrier she became, completely failing to notice Xie Qiyan’s face darkening beside her.

“Tell me, why did the Old Master have to arrange marriage alliances for them? Second Brother and Third Brother too. They obviously don’t like Sister Luo and Sister Lin, but they still agreed to marry them…”

Many people said that among the wealthy, there were only interests and no love.

If love did exist, it was rare-and those people were lucky.

And Xia Wanzhi was very lucky, because she had married Xie Qiyan.

Marrying Xie Qiyan meant marrying love.

The human heart was the most difficult thing to read. Xia Wanzhi had no answer to give Xie Tan on that question.

“But they’re still willing to marry your Second Brother and Third Brother, aren’t they?” Xia Wanzhi wiped the cookie crumbs from the corner of Xie Tan’s mouth and smiled. “Both sides are willing. As for why, that’s their own business.”

Xie Tan lifted her chin and said solemnly, “When I grow up, I don’t want an arranged marriage alliance. I want to be like Sister Wanzi and marry the person I love.”

Xia Wanzhi patted her head. “All right, I know. With your brother and me here, we won’t let you marry someone you don’t like. So now, dear little Xie Tan, could you please go do two problems to at least put on a show and express your determination to work hard?”

In other words, she wasn’t going to check her homework.

Xie Tan pressed her palms together and nearly dropped to her knees in gratitude. She glanced at Xie Qiyan, who had turned back into the King of Hell. Though she didn’t know why his face had gone so dark, Xie Tan knew that at this very moment, leaving first was the wisest choice.

As she cheerfully trotted upstairs, Xie Tan looked back and saw that Xie Qiyan, who had been coaxed by just a couple of words from his wife, had already gone from stormy to clear skies. She couldn’t help sighing that having a sister-in-law really was wonderful.

If something happened, her sister-in-law would take the hit for her.

Xia Wanzhi pinched Xie Qiyan’s fingers and laughed softly. “You weren’t thinking of going over there and beating someone up, were you?”

Xie Qiyan gave her a look that said, Can I?

“It’s New Year’s. That wouldn’t be auspicious,” Xia Wanzhi said tactfully.

Xie Qiyan didn’t answer. Who knew what he was plotting?

Xia Wanzhi had no choice but to change the subject. “Xie Tan’s younger sister is named Xie Tong. I noticed that several of their names all include the wood radical. Is there some significance to that?”

Among this generation of the Xie Family, aside from Xie Qiyan, it seemed everyone else’s names had been chosen by the Old Master.

“The Old Madam’s name was Lin Shan.” Xie Qiyan spoke more slowly as he brought it up. “She was the Old Master’s only wife, and also my grandmother.”
No one in their generation had ever met the Old Madam.

All they knew was that she had died of illness when she was still young.

Back then, the eldest of the three Xie brothers had only just started middle school.

For the Old Madam, and for his three sons, the Old Master never remarried for the rest of his life.

Xie Lin had been named Xie Lin because he had once been the Old Master’s first grandson.

Giving his grandson his late wife’s surname as part of his name was the Old Master’s way of hoping that the Old Madam’s spirit in heaven would bless the child and let him grow up safe and healthy.

Whether it was Xie Lin, Xie Nan, Xie Tan, Xie Tong, or even Xie Qiyan, all of them knew the Old Madam’s name and knew what kind of person she had been.

They had never met her, but the Old Master had used his own way to make sure they remembered her.

Xia Wanzhi suddenly thought of the dowry the Old Master had once given her, the one the Old Madam had left behind.

If that dowry were to be passed on, it should have been given to one of his daughters-in-law.

But the three Xie brothers…

When Xie Tianqi was young, he eloped with someone and left without looking back. Years later, he abandoned his wife and child and married someone else.

A scumbag. The Old Master disliked him.

The wife that the Second Uncle of the Xie Family, Xie Wenqi, married was arrogant, domineering, and petty. The Old Master disliked her too.

As for Third Uncle Xie, Xie Yongqi, he had married three wives.

The Old Master no longer had any hope of passing his wife’s dowry on to a daughter-in-law, so he kept it all this time-until he learned that Xia Wanzhi and his grandson were dating.

And so, he gave the dowry to Xia Wanzhi.

At the time, Xia Wanzhi and Xie Qiyan had only been pretending to be a couple. It had not been appropriate for her to accept such a gift, and she had originally wanted to leave it to Xie Tan. But now, somehow, she had truly become a granddaughter-in-law of the Xie Family.

“Grandpa was such a devoted man, and yet his sons…” Xia Wanzhi felt, for some reason, that it was almost an offense against the natural order. Such good genes, yet none of his three sons had inherited them.

Thankfully, they had skipped a generation.

“Wasn’t Xie Tianqi devoted?” Xie Qiyan lowered his eyes, unconsciously curling his fingers inward. “Back then, he cut ties with his family for my mother and pursued love. But in the end, he still couldn’t withstand the cruelty of reality. He abandoned his woman and child and married someone else.”

“Second Aunt may be overbearing and unlikable, but Second Uncle coveted her family background and spent most of his life with her. Isn’t that, in a way, another kind of devotion?”

“And then there’s Third Uncle. He loved each of his wives with blazing intensity. That is also devotion.”

Xie Qiyan took a deep breath and held Xia Wanzhi’s hand, speaking slowly and steadily. “Perhaps they were all devoted once. But the most important thing in love is loyalty. It is two people being honest with each other, trusting each other, relying on each other, and liking each other.”

“Xia Wanzhi, we are each other’s Lover. We are family. We are each other’s one and only.” Xie Qiyan focused on her, his gaze more serious than it had ever been. “We are going to stay together for a lifetime. And what a lifetime means is that I will love you until the moment I die.”

Fireworks were forbidden in Beicheng. Even during the New Year, the entire Xie Family Old Mansion was quiet. Xia Wanzhi could even hear Xie Qiyan’s heart pounding as he said those words.

So fierce. So clear.

Bang-

It was Xie Qiyan setting off fireworks in the depths of her heart.

“I love you too, Xie Qiyan.” Xia Wanzhi wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, lifted her chin slightly, and answered his love with a smile.

Infatuation was a wild, obsessive longing. It was also the beginning of love.

But love was not only a beginning.

It had a long process, and an undetermined ending.

During that process, one had to hold on to the infatuation from the beginning, let it transform into deep affection through the days and nights spent together, and finally continue loving each other until the end of this life.

That was lasting love.

And the Old Master was precisely such a man-one who loved for a lifetime.

It was true that Xie Qiyan held resentment toward the Old Master, but he had taken the Old Master’s lifelong devotion to the Old Madam as his example.

Her Ayan was telling her that he would use time and action to prove that he was someone who could love for a lifetime.

He hoped she would believe him.

And he hoped she would be the same as him.

One person for one lifetime.