Gu Lingyu felt a little wronged: "Mom said she should call her Mom too."
"You really are a jealous person." Su Yunzhi scolded her, then turned to look at Zhou Xingxing, and pointed at Shen Wujun with her chin, "Anyway, you and Qiuqiu have a good relationship. If you become our daughter-in-law, we won't have to worry about the relationship between the sisters-in-law, right?"
"..." Zhou Xingxing blinked, then burst into laughter. After laughing for a while, he called out to Shen Wujun, "Little brother, your mom said you should marry me. Are you happy about it?"
Shen Wujun glanced back at them. "Boring. Who likes old women?"
Su Yunzhi immediately retorted, "It's already good enough that they don't mind that you're just a young punk."
Stephen Chow pretended to shrug and sigh, "Auntie, you see, I still have no objections, but alas, my love is unrequited... Sigh..."
Upon hearing this, Shen Wujun stood up, glanced at the time, and said, "It's 3 PM now. We'll arrive at the Civil Affairs Bureau around 4:30 PM. They close at 5 PM, so we have half an hour. Shall we leave?"
"..." Zhou Xingxing was dumbfounded. "Wh...what do you mean?"
Shen Wujun looked at her and said, "Since you want to marry me so badly, then so be it. Let's get our marriage certificate."
"..."
Damn, this joke has gone too far.
The women in the hall looked at each other in bewilderment.
Stephen Chow unconsciously sat up straighter, took a sip of his drink, swallowed it, and then slowly put down his glass. "Young man, marriage is not a trivial matter..."
Shen Wujun: "You're at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight, are you still a child? I'm twenty-two, am I still a child? My mother is forty-six, is she still a child?"
Zhou Xingxing looked at him, then looked helplessly at Shen Wuqiu: "You, as the older sister, should say something?"
Shen Wuqiu didn't care: "Sister has no objection."
Zhou Xingxing then looked at Gu Lingyu.
Gu Lingyu: "My brother-in-law has no objections either."
Zhou Xingxing then looked at Su Yunzhi, "Auntie..."
Su Yunzhi weighed in her mind whether a five- or six-year age difference was really that big...
Personally speaking, it's a bit too old. What mother-in-law wouldn't want to find a younger and prettier daughter-in-law for her son?
However, her son is usually so slow to understand, and this is a rare occasion when he does understand; more importantly, she was the one who started the conversation, so what would happen if she had a problem with it now?
With a determined look, Su Yunzhi said, "You can call me 'Mom' now, that's fine too."
"..." Zhou Xingxing panicked a little and could only place his last hope on another person involved, "Little brother..."
Shen Wujun frowned and interrupted her: "Didn't my sister tell you my name?"
"Ah..." This... I really didn't tell her. Shen Wujun wasn't home the day she came. Shen Wuqiu really didn't expect this. After she came back, Zhou Xingxing had already become close with her family. Unless there was a specific occasion, she really didn't introduce the two of them.
“Chenwu Jun, you should know which two characters are Chenwu, and Jun is the same as the character Jun in Junyong, but it is pronounced the same as Jun.”
"No..." Zhou Xingxing was completely at a loss for words, "I..."
Shen Wujun's gaze fell directly on her. After a long while, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "What, are you scared, sister?"
That raised eyebrow and glance instantly dispelled the childishness of a teenage boy. Zhou Xingxing's heart, which hadn't stirred in ages, fluttered unexpectedly. She shuddered and swallowed hard. "It's not that I'm afraid..."
What is that?
After racking his brains, Stephen Chow finally managed to blurt out, "I didn't bring my household registration book."
This answer seemed to be exactly what Shen Wujun expected. He shrugged nonchalantly, bent down and picked up Da Mao, who was babbling in the rocking horse: "That's a real pity, Da Mao, your auntie is out of luck."
"..." Zhou Xingxing took a sip of wine with a complicated expression, but still couldn't help but say, "What do you mean it's all over? I'm not dead yet."
Upon hearing this, everyone in the hall was taken aback.
Completely unaware that he had said something wrong, Stephen Chow, holding his cup, asked, "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Shen Wuqiu shook her head, glancing out of the corner of her eye that Er Mao had started whimpering, and nudged Gu Lingyu, "Er Mao is awake, go and hug him."
Stephen Chow quickly put down his cup and stood up, "I'm going, I'm going..."
Er Mao was a child who lacked love. As soon as he woke up, he started howling at the top of his lungs, which woke up San Mao and Simao as well.
The kids woke up, and the previous topic naturally came to an end.
According to the original plan, the Gu family should have taken Shen Wuqiu back the day after the full moon banquet.
However, since Zhou Xingxing, his friend who had come from afar, showed no intention of leaving, Shen Wuqiu was in no hurry to go.
Stephen Chow is a typical person who can adapt to any situation.
She quite enjoyed this life in the remote mountains and didn't feel awkward being surrounded by other people's large, lively families. She ate and slept as usual, not considering herself an outsider at all.
The only thing she found somewhat complaining about was that the internet in this remote mountain village was too prone to malfunctions; she had been without internet for two days.
This is a bit of a problem for the internet-addicted girl: "Qiuqiu, when will your Wi-Fi be fixed?"
"I've already called, but in this remote mountain area, repairmen aren't always available so quickly."
The day after the full moon celebration, a signal tower was to be installed in a remote mountain village. The village roads were too narrow, so the government sent people to trim the tree branches on both sides of the road to make way for the signal tower. Somehow, this damaged the village's internet cable.
Zhou Xingxing shook his head and sighed, looking at his useless phone. "Let me see if your phone has a signal. My own 4G network doesn't work either."
Shen Wuqiu handed her his phone, saying, "Take a look for yourself."
"I refuse to accept this! Why do you have it? Does this 4G network discriminate against newcomers?"
Shen Wuqiu glanced at her. "Probably."
Zhou Xingxing swiped back and forth on her phone screen and saw that all the apps he usually used were there. He then asked, "Do you have any secrets on your phone? Otherwise, I can borrow it to play with. I haven't used my phone for two days, and I'm really itching to play with it."
"Go ahead and play." Shen Wuqiu quickly changed Simao's diaper. After returning to the countryside, cell phones were practically unnecessary.
With her permission, Zhou Xingxing habitually opened WeChat, but then realized it wasn't his own and logged out. "Can I log into my WeChat on your phone? I haven't checked WeChat for two days, and I feel like I'm missing a lot of important messages. Maybe someone's trying to set me up with someone..."
"Go ahead and climb it." Shen Wuqiu paused, then asked her, "Were you serious about you and my brother that day?"
After a couple of seconds, Stephen Chow said, "What do you mean 'serious'? Even rabbits nibble on the grass near their burrows. Even if I wanted to have an affair with a younger woman, I wouldn't go after your brother."
Shen Wuqiu stared at her expression: "You could also call it keeping the good stuff in the family, right?"
Zhou Xingxing tried entering the password several times but couldn't get it right, so he simply threw her phone away. "How could I be so stupid? I could have used your Wi-Fi hotspot. You wouldn't be so stingy with your data, would you?"
"I'm asking you a question."
"Ugh, little brat." Zhou Xingxing muttered, then turned on her phone's hotspot. Although the internet speed wasn't super smooth, she was already quite satisfied and eagerly opened her WeChat.
As soon as she opened WeChat, a series of notifications popped up. She held up her phone to Shen Wuqiu and waved it around, saying, "See? I still have quite a few people thinking about me."
Shen Wuqiu didn't joke with her: "In my heart, you and my brother are the same."
"Oh... I know what you mean." Zhou Xingxing didn't want to hear this right now. The image of that little brother still kept popping into her mind. She must have been single for too long, because seeing a younger man made her heart flutter.
As Zhou Xingxing spoke, he opened the messages. After scanning them all at once, he felt a little uneasy. "What are the return gifts you've prepared for everyone?"
"...Red eggs?"
"Besides red eggs, what else?"
"There should only be red eggs, right? Aunt Dai and the others are arranging the return gifts."
Zhou Xingxing was almost frantic. "What was that thing you gave the class monitor and the others when they left?"
"The things were prepared by Lingyu, but I was in a hurry that day and didn't pay attention."
"...I'm truly impressed by you guys." Zhou Xingxing showed her the relevant information. "Everyone's going crazy about it, saying you gave the luminous pearl as a return gift..."
Shen Wuqiu glanced at the message on her phone and was taken aback.
Stephen Chow got anxious and asked her, "It can't be real, right? Even if it is, it's not natural, is it?"
Her eyes turned red with anger because she was really heartbroken. Her father had always liked collecting trinkets, and after becoming rich overnight due to the demolition compensation, he even took her to an auction. At that auction, there was a natural luminous pearl, about the size of a date, with a starting price of 1.2 million.
"It can't be true, right..." Shen Wuqiu said without much confidence, but deep down she was sure that the thing the cat gave away was real.
Seeing her expression, Stephen Chow had a bad feeling, but then he thought, "Is your wife some kind of hidden rich woman?"
She leaned too close, and Shen Wuqiu, afraid of squeezing Simao in her arms, pushed her away slightly. After thinking for a moment, she said cautiously, "Let's forget it."
"No wonder they're so rich and powerful." Stephen Chow rolled his eyes, then lamented, "There's no need to waste resources like that!"
"What a waste!" Gu Lingyu, who was helping Zhao Jiujiu take care of Er Mao in the next room, came over with the child in her arms and overheard this.
Zhou Xingxing pulled her in and asked seriously, "What did you give the class monitor and the others when they left that day?"
Gu Lingyu didn't care at all: "It's just some scraps. I just prepared something better for the class monitor. It makes me feel like he really takes care of Qiuqiu."
"Some scraps???" Stephen Chow's voice trembled. "Then let me ask you, is the luminous pearl real?"
"What are you thinking? Is that even a question?"
Stephen Chow felt slightly relieved, "It's good that it's not real..."
"Of course it's real! Why would I give them a fake?"
Stephen Chow almost fainted.
Gu Lingyu glanced at her and pursed her lips. "I also prepared a return gift for you, but you weren't in a hurry to leave, so I didn't give it to you that day. More importantly, you are Qiuqiu's best friend, so the gift I prepared for you had to be more valuable."
"Is that what I care about?" Stephen Chow was furious. "Do you even know how to manage money? Do you know how expensive a pure, natural luminous pearl is?"
Gu Lingyu shook her head honestly, "I don't know." Before Zhou Xingxing could explode, she added, "Anyway, we have plenty of these things at home. When the volcano erupted before, the elders in my family collected a lot of them because they were playing around."
"..." Zhou Xingxing's expression was blank as he turned to Shen Wuqiu: "Why do I feel like we're not on the same wavelength when we talk?"
Shen Wuqiu lowered her eyes, speechless.
"What kind of 'human flower of wealth and beauty' are you?" Zhou Xingxing blew on his bangs and asked Gu Lingyu, "So what do your parents do?"
Gu Lingyu blinked. Although she didn't know what she meant, she still answered honestly, "They don't do anything. Before, they mainly sunbathed and occasionally basked in the moonlight, but now, they just help take care of the baby."
"..."
This conversation is going nowhere.
Zhou Xingxing took a deep breath, wanting to ask again, but Shen Wuqiu quickly stuffed the four coins in her hand into her hand: "Look, the four coins are smiling at you."
Sure enough, Stephen Chow's attention was immediately diverted. "How strange! This aloof little princess can actually smile..."
On the other side, Chen Haoyu and the others who received the return gift were also very shocked.
On the way back that day, Fang Miao and the other girls couldn't wait to open their gifts in the car. Zeng Min immediately mocked them, saying that they were just treating a child's glass marbles as luminous pearls.
Not only that, she also filmed the incident and posted it online, along with a caption: