He Xiaoying then spoke up: "How long have you been together?"
Since today is New Year's Day, a new year, Chai Qianning answered, "Last year."
He Xiaoying crossed one leg over the other: "What if I don't agree?"
"There's nothing we can do about it, we're already living together."
No sooner had Chai Qianning finished speaking than He Xiaoying picked up a feather duster from beside the sofa: "Haven't I hit you in a long time?"
Chai Renbo quickly pulled her back: "Hey, wife, let's talk this out, don't hit me, don't hit me."
Grandma stood in front of Chai Qianning: "Xiaoying, no matter how big the matter is, you can't hit a child."
"Mom, I never really hit her, I just scared her." He Xiaoying threw the feather duster on the sofa.
"They're all grown up now, not little kids anymore, why are you scaring them like that?"
Chai Qianning chimed in, "That's right, Grandma is right. My young mind can't take such a fright."
“Say it again.” He Xiaoying sat down next to her and grabbed her ear.
"I'm not going to say it anymore, Mom. If you keep pulling my ear, it'll fall off."
He Xiaoying let go of her.
Chai Qianning touched her ears.
The first half of the dinner went relatively smoothly, but Chai Renbo, who had been silent for the second half, finally spoke up: "I heard from Qingqing that the girl you're with is Qingqing's homeroom teacher."
"Ah." Chai Qianning paused, her hand holding the chopsticks still, and turned to look at Chai Shuqing.
Chai Shuqing blinked several times in a row: "My mother forced me to confess. I was at home and had no choice."
"You had no choice in the matter." He Xiaoying pressed her forehead: "You, I told you not to learn bad things from your sister."
"That won't do. I want to have what my sister has. If my sister is with girls, I want to be with girls too."
These words caused an uproar at the dinner table.
The elders stared at each other wide-eyed, almost choking on their rice.
After dinner, He Xiaoying began to question her life, wondering where she had gone wrong during her pregnancy with these two children. She wished she could send them back for a second chance.
Chai Qianning said, "It's too big, it can't be stuffed back in."
He Xiaoying tapped him.
So He Xiaoying and Chai Renbo started talking about the biology of recessive genes. They discussed it for a long time but couldn't reach a conclusion.
That evening, Chai Qianning and Chai Shuqing sat on the sofa in the first-floor living room watching TV. However, neither of them paid attention to the television.
He Xiaoying, Chai Renbo, and their maternal grandmother were chatting upstairs, while Chai Shuqing kept peeking up at them with a curious look in her head.
Chai Qianning sat cross-legged on one leg, holding a handful of sunflower seeds in her hand, cracking them open and throwing them into the trash can as she went.
She placed her phone on the table within easy reach, and picked it up to reply to messages as soon as the screen lit up.
Sheng Muxi: [Did I hit you?]
Chai Qianning: [No, my mom is still reluctant to really hit me.]
We'll video chat when we get back to the room later.
Sheng Muxi: [What are you doing right now?]
Chai Qianning replied instinctively: 【Watching TV.】
Sheng Muxi: [I'm at Teacher Ni's house, also watching TV. What are you watching?]
As Chai Qianning looked up, she turned her gaze to the television and discovered that it was showing an animated film.
Her long eyelashes drooped as she typed a reply: "A flock of sheep and two eggs."
Sheng Muxi: [? ?]
Chai Qianning: [There are still two wolves.]
She turned her head and looked at Chai Shuqing, who was kneeling on the sofa with her hands on the back of the sofa playing on her phone: "What cartoon are you watching?"
Hearing this, Chai Shuqing turned her gaze to the television and asked, "Didn't you press that button?"
"I don't have the remote control, so how could I have pressed it?"
"Then I didn't bring the remote control either."
"Don't try to hide it, I understand. Even though you're in high school now, it's understandable that you still have a childlike heart."
".."
"An animated film featuring ghosts pressing buttons."
No sooner had Chai Shuqing finished speaking than a noise came from the kitchen.
The two looked at each other in bewilderment.
Chai Qianning opened her mouth slightly: "See, even a ghost wouldn't admit it."
"Don't try to scare me, it was clearly blown by the wind." Chai Shuqing slid down the back of the sofa, leaving dents in the soft fabric.
The kitchen door slammed shut with a "bang".
Chai Qianning squinted as she looked out the window. The treetops were bent over by the wind, and it looked like it was going to rain again.
Chai Qianning raised her chin: "Go close the window."
"Oh." Chai Shuqing slid off the sofa and went to close the living room window. Chai Qianning then closed the kitchen window a little smaller, before going upstairs to close the bedroom window.
As I walked to the bedroom door, Grandma just came out of He Xiaoying's room.
"Girl, come here, I have a question for you." Grandma beckoned.
Chai Qianning walked over.
Grandma held her hand: "Why do you like girls? Aren't boys good enough?"
An old glass lamp hung in the center of the living room. Downstairs, Chai Shuqing ran to turn off the TV, and the living room instantly fell silent. Outside the window, the branches and leaves danced wildly in the night, and the faint sound of rain mixed with the wind could be heard.
“Boys…” Chai Qianning blinked slowly, desperately searching her mind for a reason. If she directly told the older woman that she didn’t like boys, she might not understand, so she came up with a ridiculous reason: “Because I can’t beat boys.”
Grandma patted the back of her hand: "Which boy would dare to hit you? I would rush up and grab a knife to kill him the moment I saw him. We're not looking for that kind of boy. How about this, Grandma will take you to meet a few boys and try dating them. Maybe you'll change your mind."
"Grandma," Chai Qianning said, clinging to her arm affectionately, "I feel quite happy being with girls right now. And I don't eat durian."
"What does this have to do with whether or not you eat durian?"
"It's the same principle. Durian is a good thing in terms of nutritional value. But some people just don't eat durian. It's like when you forced me to eat a bite of durian when I was a kid, and I ended up spitting it out. If you forced me to be with a boy, I definitely wouldn't feel good either."
.
I returned to my room in the evening.
Chai Qianning sent Sheng Muxi a message: 【I'm all better.】
Sheng Muxi: [I'll call you.]
The phone rang the next second, and Chai Qianning answered it immediately. Another person's face appeared on the screen: Sheng Muxi, wearing pajamas, sitting on the bed.
Chai Qianning brought her face very close, so much so that what Sheng Muxi saw on the other side was that the entire screen was filled with Chai Qianning's face.
It's raining here, is it raining where you are?
As she spoke, Chai Qianning lifted the curtains and swung the camera around outside a few times.
Sheng Muxi laughed after hearing this: "Of course it's raining, we're still in the same city."
The only difference is that one is in the city and the other is in the suburbs.
Chai Qianning found something to prop her phone up, freeing her hands. She lazily rested her chin on her hand and looked at the screen: "Oh, so we're still in the same city, but it feels like we're so far apart."
"It hasn't even been half a day yet, and you're already missing me?"
"Hmm, do you miss me?"
"I really want to."
Chai Qianning tilted her head; "I want to kiss you."
She rubbed her fingertips against the screen a few times, then pouted and said, "Kiss."
Sheng Muxi thought the gesture was a bit silly, but she still puckered her lips and kissed him from a distance.
Chai Qianning laughed so hard she leaned on the table: "You look so cute when you pout, pout again."
Sheng Muxi licked her lips: "No."
Seeing that the other person was looking into her room, Chai Qianning stood up, held her phone, and took pictures of the room before sitting down cross-legged again.
The two chatted for a while, and when it was midnight, they got sleepy and hung up.
Over the next day, Chai Qianning was called in by Chai Renbo and He Xiaoying for face-to-face discussions about life.
When Chai Qianning was a child, He Xiaoying would object to whatever Chai Qianning wanted to do, but in the end she would let her do it.
The same applies to this.
My initial attitude was that I neither completely agreed nor opposed it.
After a while, He Xiaoying relented and said that she could bring him home for the New Year so they could have a meal together.
Although Chai Shuqing's parents had been called in before, and He Xiaoying had already met Sheng Muxi at school, this time the situation was different.
Therefore, on New Year's Eve, Chai Renbo and He Xiaoying both dressed very formally.
Chai Renbo even got his hair done.
Before setting off, Chai Qianning informed her family in the family group chat.
Sheng Muxi insisted on carrying some things over, so she got out of the car to go to the supermarket to buy them, leaving Chai Qianning to wait for her in the car.
There's been another message in the family group chat.
This time, Chai Qianning was also tagged.
Chai Renbo: [Image] [Is there anything wrong with what I'm wearing?]
Qingqing: [No problem, no problem, Daddy's the most handsome.]
Chai Renbo: [Go play somewhere else.]