"It's true that you can make or lose money in business, but with such a large reservoir, so much investment, and such little return, I don't believe there's nothing fishy going on. I'm sure you all think so too."
Shen Xianghua spoke bluntly and didn't spare his son any face. "I know what kind of person Pengzi is. Ever since he started hanging out with that Wei Maotou from the village, he's been acting strangely."
The "Wei Mao Tou" he mentioned was the younger brother of the former village chief. He was a lazy good-for-nothing who was over thirty years old and still sponging off his parents. Later, his older brother got him a government-subsidized fish farming project, which gave him some work.
"As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. I don't like Wei Maotou either, and I really need to advise Pengzi to have less contact with him."
“I’ve told him so many times, but he won’t listen.” Shen Xianghua sighed, his anger growing with each word. He downed the wine in his glass, stood up, and was about to leave. “Brother, sister-in-law, Wuqiu, I promise you, I will definitely give you an explanation regarding the reservoir. I’ll head back now.”
"Why are you in such a hurry? You can eat first and then leave. It's just a short walk anyway."
Shen Xianghua shook his head, refusing to let Su Yunzhi see him off, and walked out.
A few minutes after he left, Shen's father said to Shen Wuqiu, "Since your uncle has already said so, you don't need to worry about Pengzi's side."
Shen Wuqiu nodded. "Let's see what my uncle has to say."
Su Yunzhi: "Will he still be in charge of this reservoir in the future?"
Shen Wuqiu hadn't thought about this issue yet: "Let's talk about it in a few days. I didn't plan to only raise fish in this part of the reservoir."
Su Yunzhi couldn't get a word in edgewise about these matters, so she didn't ask any more questions.
After dinner, Mr. Shen, missing his daughter Wangcai, wandered around the yard looking for her without success. His mood soured again, and naturally, he started to dislike someone. He then spoke to Shen Wuqiu in a sarcastic tone:
"Wangcai hasn't been seen for two days, why aren't you worried at all?"
Shen Wuqiu said calmly, "When the time comes, she will come back."
“It’s been two days already. In the past, I would only disappear during the day at most. Such a beautiful kitten, aren’t you afraid it will run into someone’s house and get locked up?”
Shen Wuqiu glanced at the person beside her and said, "That's perfect, it's perfect that I have one less troublesome person."
With her completely unyielding attitude, Mr. Shen could only glare at her in frustration, then said sarcastically to someone, "You're not getting any younger, haven't you thought about finding a job or anything?"
Gu Lingyu was engrossed in watching TV and casually replied, "Whatever my sister does, I'll do for her."
"...You're always clinging to Qiuqiu like this. Qiuqiu is getting married soon. Are you going to marry her too?"
Gu Lingyu then turned to look at him, her expression very serious. "My sister can only marry me."
"..." Absurd. Mr. Shen stared at her, then after several seconds he comforted himself: Never mind, children say the darndest things, it's just that there's a big generation gap between him and an eighteen-year-old girl.
Shen Wuqiu dared not let anyone continue talking. She secretly glanced at her father's expression, then pulled Gu Lingyu to her feet. "I'm going upstairs to sleep. Do you want to come?"
Gu Lingyu naturally wanted to be her partner's little shadow, and remembering something, she ran outside again, saying, "Sister, wait for me."
Shen Wuqiu didn't want to wait for her, but she was worried that if she turned around, the cat would say something to her father again, so she had no choice but to stand there and wait.
Not long after, Gu Lingyu came in.
Shen Wuqiu didn't ask her where she was going, and led her upstairs.
Upon reaching the door, as soon as Shen Wuqiu opened it, Gu Lingyu shamelessly squeezed in.
"...Go back to your own room."
"Wait a minute." Gu Lingyu looked at her, her eyes sparkling, and then, as if by magic, produced two flowers from behind her back: a red rose and several jasmine flowers. "I only saw these two kinds in the yard. Which one do you like, sister?"
It was utterly baffling. Shen Wuqiu glanced at them and said, "I don't like any of them."
This was a bit of a dilemma. Gu Lingyu moved the flower closer to her and said, "Take a sniff first. Maybe you'll like one of these two."
Shenwu Qiu simply did not hear.
Gu Lingyu smelled it herself, and in her opinion, the scent of roses was more elegant, and they looked more delicious.
So, when Shen Wuqiu looked over again, she saw someone eating...flowers with a worried expression. "...What are you doing?"
Gu Lingyu swallowed the flower petal in her mouth with difficulty. "Eat the flower."
"...Didn't anyone offer you dinner?"
"No." Gu Lingyu shook her head. "It must be because I've been eating too much meat lately that my sister thinks my breath smells bad."
"...When did I say you had a foul mouth?"
"When we were in the car, you said you looked pale, not because you were constipated, but because I smelled bad."
Looks like he's not stupid after all.
Watching her struggle to eat the flower petals, Shen Wuqiu suddenly felt that while the woman in front of him was speechless, she was also somewhat cute, especially her lips stained with the petal juice, which were both innocent and alluring...
Perhaps, as the doctor said, her hormone levels were somewhat disordered during pregnancy, which prompted her to lower her head and kiss him.
A few seconds later, reason returned instantly.
"Don't get me wrong, I just want to see if your breath still smells bad after you ate the flower."
"Oh. Does it still smell bad?"
"Smelly."
So, the cat had no choice but to continue munching on flower petals with a long face.
To give her partner a better kissing experience, it seems she'll be munching on flower petals for quite some time.
Chapter 40 Happiness
At six o'clock in the morning, a light drizzle began to fall, adding a touch of coolness to the air. In the sweltering summer, such a morning was perfect for sleeping in.
Half-asleep, Shen Wuqiu glanced out the window, watching the curtains billowing in the wind. She pulled the air-conditioning blanket up a little more, turned over, and prepared to go back to sleep when she heard her father calling "Wangcai" repeatedly.
After listening to a few more sounds, Shen Wuqiu could no longer fall asleep. She got up and leaned against the bed to wake herself up for a while before finally getting out of bed.
After leaving the room, she didn't go downstairs. She stood at the top of the stairs and glanced down at the hall. The sky was gloomy from the rain, and the whole village was shrouded in a gray rain. The house was somewhat dark, but her father's voice calling "Wangcai" was clear and bright, impossible to ignore.
Shen Wuqiu looked up at the ceiling, feeling both incomprehensible and helpless about her father's tireless search for a new daughter, Wangcai, so early in the morning. After sighing for two seconds, she walked to another room across the street.
After knocking three times, the door slowly opened from the inside.
Gu Lingyu looked sleepy, and her expression was clearly impatient when she opened the door, but as soon as she saw her partner standing there, her eyes and face instantly lit up: "Sister..."
Shen Wuqiu glanced over and his gaze immediately fell on her chest:
The cool summer nightgown hung loosely on her body, with one thin shoulder strap dangling down to her arm, causing the fabric covering a certain area of her breasts to droop as well, revealing a patch of bulging, snow-white skin.
For some reason, she suddenly got a little angry: "Is this how you open the door for people?"
Gu Lingyu, still half asleep, was not quite clear-headed and completely failed to grasp what was wrong with her, letting out a series of innocent "ah" sounds.
Shen Wuqiu was too lazy to say anything more. He squeezed through the gap in the doorway and subtly helped her pull up her slipped shoulder strap. Then he got straight to the point: "My dad has been looking for you since early this morning."
"Looking for me?" Gu Lingyu yawned, then lay back on the bed, closing her eyes and saying, "I'll sleep for another ten minutes, then I'll go downstairs."
The person sprawled on the bed had no idea how alluring their posture was. Their calves dangled over the edge of the bed, and the thin silk nightgown clung to their skin, making their buttocks look firm and perky.
Shen Wuqiu glanced at her, intending to look away, but then saw the large expanse of snow-white skin exposed on her back, which annoyed him. Yet he couldn't control his gaze, so he said, "It's raining outside today, and it's gotten a bit cold. Aren't you cold?"
Only half of her words reached Gu Lingyu's ears. She rubbed herself against the blanket and shook her head after a while. "I'm not cold."
"..." Shen Wuqiu was both annoyed and irritable, so he reached out and wrapped the quilt around her.
Sure enough, out of sight, out of mind, I felt much more refreshed.
Suddenly found herself wrapped in a blanket, Gu Lingyu lazily opened her eyes. "Sister, you don't need to worry about me. I'm really not cold."
Shen Wuqiu ignored her self-delusion and continued to talk to her about serious matters: "When are you going to turn into a cat? You haven't shown up for days, and my dad keeps asking about it."
Gu Lingyu turned her head to look at her, "Sister kissed me twice yesterday, I guess it can last for another two or three days."
"...Can't you just turn into a cat yourself?"
Gu Lingyu felt a little aggrieved: "I could have changed freely, but my mother bound my spiritual power."
"So you mean that until your parents come back, you won't be able to switch freely between human and cat forms?"
"If my sister kisses me, I can turn into a human."
"...I want you to turn into a cat so my dad can see you. Don't worry!"
Gu Lingyu lowered her eyes and remained silent.
After staring at her for a few seconds, Shen Wuqiu sat down beside her. "You were originally a cat. You might need some kind of spiritual power to become human, but I don't believe you need any power to become a cat..."
After all, in TV dramas and novels, all those demons and monsters automatically revert to their original forms when they are at their weakest.
Gu Lingyu felt a little guilty under her gaze and stole a glance at her, "...Okay, actually, there is a way to turn into a cat."
"What method?"
Her partner is a human, but when she turns into a cat, everything becomes inconvenient. For example, when she went to the hospital for a prenatal checkup, even though it was her partner and her child, the hospital refused to let her in because the cat was the mother, and she had to wait in the car.
Anyway, she doesn't really want to live like a cat.
But... Gu Lingyu secretly glanced at her partner, hesitated for a long time before slowly saying, "Just... just when we feel very comfortable, we will involuntarily turn into cats."
"...What do you mean by 'when you feel very comfortable'?"
Gu Lingyu pursed her lips, then secretly covered her eyes, a little embarrassed. "For example, when I'm doing naughty things with my sister, and I see how happy she is, I... I've involuntarily..."
"..."
Shen Wuqiu couldn't hold back any longer and grabbed a pillow from the side, smashing it over her head. "Gu Lingyu, I'm talking to you seriously. Why are you being so flirtatious with me so early in the morning?"
"...I'm being serious."
Despite the cheesy flirting, she couldn't sense any mockery in the other person's words.
Shen Wuqiu was embarrassed and annoyed, not knowing what to say. She took a deep breath and forced a very stiff smile: "I'm quite happy right now. Why don't you try it involuntarily?"
Gu Lingyu peeked at her through her fingers, "It's not that I'm happy."
"...Are you going to turn me into a cat or not?"
Gu Lingyu suddenly covered her face again.
After a brief silence, low sobs reached Shen Wuqiu's ears.
"..." Shen Wuqiu thought she had misheard, then looked on in astonishment, "Why are you crying?"
"Waaah... I just feel so useless, I can't really make my sister happy..."
"...Don't cry."