Shen Wuqiu didn't move. "No rush, Da Mao is still drinking."
Gu Lingyu glanced at the little one who was going against her. She saw the baby squinting, but her mouth was still sucking rhythmically. She felt incredibly jealous: "She really knows how to enjoy herself."
Shen Wuqiu kicked her, saying, "You don't act like a mother at all."
Gu Lingyu didn't dodge, and took the kick, then snorted, "If I had known they would fight me for you, I wouldn't have had them so early."
"..."
About ten minutes later, Da Mao finally finished eating.
Upon seeing that the little girl was rubbing her nipples, Gu Lingyu quickly grabbed a tissue and wiped them off for Shen Wuqiu, then immediately buttoned up her clothes and pulled them off.
"..." Shen Wuqiu was both amused and annoyed by her petty behavior. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
Gu Lingyu gave a soft snort before taking the baby from her. "Go downstairs and eat."
Shen Wuqiu nodded. "Da Mao should be able to sleep for a while, so you can put her in the rocking bed."
Gu Lingyu urged her to come downstairs, while she remained upstairs. Only after hearing her footsteps disappear did she pinch her daughter's little nose in her arms.
Da Mao was sleeping soundly at the moment, only shaking his head uncomfortably.
"You're something else, you eat your fill and then sleep, all you do is try to steal my wife, you shameless thing! That's my wife, you're already a month pregnant and you still want to drink milk, how embarrassing..."
Da Mao opened his eyes with a pout, and when he saw his fierce mother, he wanted to cry.
"This trick won't work on you. I'm not your mother..." Gu Lingyu preemptively said, "If you cry, I'll beat you up."
Da Mao pouted but didn't cry, just stared at her with his watery eyes.
"No more milk. Starting tomorrow, you'll eat by yourself, understand?"
Da Mao closed his eyes again, stubbornly turning his little face to the side.
Gu Lingyu took it as her child's consent, then put the child in the rocking crib and swaggered downstairs.
The three downstairs each finished a small bowl of goat milk and fish paste. Full and satisfied, the three of them were sitting neatly on the coffee table washing their faces.
Mr. Shen and the others watched the adorable cubs from afar, thoroughly enjoying the sight.
"No wonder more and more people are raising cats like sons these days. Look, it's much more fun than raising children."
"What are you saying? Our precious grandson is incomparable to those little bastards. No matter how well those bastards are raised, can they be as cute and intelligent as ours?"
"Well, you're enjoying your grandchildren now, having a wonderful old age. Don't say that other people's cats are inferior to yours; I think even their grandchildren are inferior to yours."
"That's natural."
The saying goes that grandparents love their grandchildren more. Mr. Shen is a strict father, but when he's with his granddaughters, he becomes a loving grandfather, truly spoiling his little ones.
Watching from afar wasn't enough, so they ended up grabbing the small towels and using them directly.
The three cubs, who had been excited and lively all day, were a bit lazy by now. After being held in their father's arms and having their mouths wiped, they stopped running around. Only Er Mao still had some energy, jumping back and forth on the sofa, sometimes nibbling San Mao's ear, sometimes stepping on Si Mao's tail.
Unfortunately, no one paid any attention to her.
Perhaps feeling that enjoying herself alone was a bit boring, after making a fuss for a while, Sanmao calmed down, found a spot on the sofa, and fell asleep on her back, just like her two younger sisters.
Three little kittens lay side by side on the sofa, stretching out their bodies. They were so cute that Stephen Chow took out his phone and kept recording videos.
Seeing that she had been in the same position for so long, Shen Wuqiu asked her, "Don't you get bored?"
"What's so boring? Don't you think the little ones are just too cute?" Zhou Xingxing's girlish heart was completely captivated by the furry little ones. Thinking of something, he asked her, "Qiuqiu, can I post photos or videos of the little ones online?"
"Huh?" Shen Wuqiu didn't quite understand what she meant by "online." "Where do you want to post it?"
"Just posting on WeChat Moments or Weibo." Zhou Xingxing kept staring intently at his phone, looking at the three little ones lying in a row on the screen, and he was very excited. "Waaah, they're so cute. I want to show them off to the whole world."
Shen Wuqiu was a low-key person and not one to show off, so she didn't quite understand her mentality, but she didn't refuse, "Okay, go ahead and post it."
With her permission, Zhou Xingxing exited the shooting mode and eagerly selected a few photos from her album. When editing her WeChat Moments, she hesitated for a moment, then deleted them, and finally opened Weibo.
She has too many acquaintances on WeChat Moments, and she's afraid her kids will be targeted. But Weibo is different; it's where she can let loose. The few people she interacts with regularly are complete strangers in real life. When she shares things here, others will only feel genuine envy.
She quickly edited the Weibo post, clicked send, and then opened the camera to continue recording videos of the children.
Shen Wuqiu couldn't understand what was so interesting about taking pictures of the babies who hadn't even turned over. She asked her, "The babies are sleeping, why are you taking so many pictures?"
Stephen Chow: "I take them out and look at them when I miss them."
Upon hearing this, Su Yunzhi, who was clearing the table, immediately asked, "Are you going back?"
Zhou Xingxing nodded. "I'm going back tomorrow."
Shen Wuqiu: "Have you bought the tickets?"
"My mom bought me a ticket for tomorrow at noon." Zhou Xingxing sighed, "On my mom's side of the family, I'm the only girl in my generation, and I'm the only one who hasn't gotten married. She says my grandma misses me the most..."
Su Yunzhi: "How old is your grandmother?"
"He is ninety-five years old."
Su Yunzhi: "Oh, that's quite an old age. If the old man isn't in good health, you really should go back and visit him. At such an advanced age, every meeting is one less time you'll have to see him."
Stephen Chow smacked his lips. "Sigh, it's not that I'm unfilial, it's just that every year for the past few years, she would make a scene once or twice. Every time, my mother and several aunts would cry their eyes out, but after she woke up from a nap, everything would be fine again."
Mr. Shen said with a smile, "That old man is still a playful old man."
Stephen Chow shrugged. "Probably."
*****
The next day, after breakfast, Zhou Xingxing prepared to leave. Knowing that she was in a hurry to go home, none of Shen Wuqiu's family tried to stop her.
"I don't have anything fancy to give you, these are all from our own farm, take them back and try them." Su Yunzhi took out all the bags and packages she had prepared earlier.
"Auntie, you don't need to be so polite. To be honest, I will come again." Zhou Xingxing really meant it; he hadn't even packed much of his luggage.
Su Yunzhi: "We welcome you, but these are also our tokens of appreciation."
Looking at this huge pile of things, Zhou Xingxing felt a bit overwhelmed: "Auntie, there's so much, I can't carry it all."
"You don't need to worry about that. Qiuqiu has contacted an experienced driver for you. He will help you get all these things into the station."
Unable to refuse such hospitality, Stephen Chow had no choice but to accept.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Gu Lingyu helped her move all her things to the car. Once everything was settled, she casually took two things out of her pocket and gave them to her, saying, "Here, these are the best I've saved for you, not the scraps."
Zhou Xingxing glanced at the luminous pearl in her hand, somewhat unimpressed. "I'm not short of money. I don't want this thing. You can keep it for the kids as a family heirloom. But what is this thing? It looks like red jade, but it's not quite?"
“We have plenty of these, we don’t care about this one.” Gu Hanhan said in a wealthy and generous tone, shoving the things into her hands. “As for this red bead, it’s a life-saving item. I suggest you don’t give it away easily. After all, I hope you live a long life so that Qiuqiu doesn’t lose you as a friend too soon.”
Stephen Chow was unconvinced, and held the red bead up to the light: "Is this thing really that magical?"
Gu Miaomiao rolled her eyes at her.
Stephen Chow examined the red bead for a while, then casually stuffed it into his bag in front of her, saying, "Then I'll rely on this thing to live to be a hundred years old."
Gu Miaomiao: "That's probably a bit difficult."
Stephen Chow: "Then why do you say that this thing can't even fulfill such a simple wish as saving your life and living to be a hundred years old?"
Gu Miaomiao: "A hundred years old is not a long life at all."
"..." Zhou Xingxing blinked, understood, and then quickly took the beads out and carefully put them back into the inner pocket of her bag.
Gu Miaomiao was finally satisfied. "Then I wish you a safe journey."
Zhou Xingxing nodded, and the two sisters patted her on the shoulder affectionately: "Be good to Qiuqiu, okay? Don't be jealous of the kids."
Speaking of this, Gu Miaomiao felt a little annoyed: "Let me ask you something, how do you humans wean your children?"
"I've never had a child, how would I know?" After a pause, Zhou Xingxing gave her a suggestion, "Cats really hate the smell of lemons, why don't you try putting some lemon on Qiuqiu's little cherries?"
Gu Miaomiao: "..."
Chapter 111
As soon as Stephen Chow left, Shen Wuqiu immediately put the matter of the child's holy water baptism on the agenda.
For the civet clan, the baptism of cubs is a major event in the clan, and such a sacred occasion naturally requires everyone to witness it.
Therefore, Mr. and Mrs. Gu Junshan extended a warm invitation to the Shen family for this trip back to the mountain.
Mr. Shen accepted their warm invitation without hesitation. Although he accepted that his in-laws were not human, he still had the mindset of a father-in-law marrying off his daughter. He couldn't let his daughter lose face in his husband's family on such a big occasion, or let those cats think that his daughter was easy to bully.
The night before their departure, Mr. Shen pulled Su Yunzhi and Shen Wujun, who had been called back at the last minute, aside:
"I didn't know before that the Gu family was after Qiuqiu. I accepted all the nice things they sent, guessing it was partly a way of presenting a betrothal gift to Qiuqiu. Although those two girls don't have our traditional wedding customs, we still need to observe the proper etiquette. Even if the Gu family doesn't necessarily care about these things, we still need to prepare something since we're going with them this time..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Shen Wujun yawned halfway, then abruptly stopped himself. "I don't understand these things."
“You’re Qiuqiu’s brother, so of course you have to stand up for her, his older sister, in these matters.” Mr. Chen was annoyed by his listless appearance. “Have you been out without eating or sleeping? You’re so thin and weak, and you have no energy at all.”
"After working overtime for several days, what kind of energy do I have?" Shen Wujun leaned back lazily on the sofa. "Just tell me directly, how am I supposed to support people?"
Mr. Shen glanced at him, then looked at Su Yunzhi, who hadn't said a word, and hesitated for a few seconds before saying, "I've prepared 200,000 yuan for Qiuqiu."
Seeing how difficult it was for him to say, Su Yunzhi thought he was going to say something shocking. "Anyway, I haven't touched the money you left for Junjun. Give me as much as you want."
Mr. Shen was a little surprised. After thinking for a moment, he decided to tell the truth, "The 200,000 yuan was something I prepared for Qiuqiu a long time ago, as her dowry."
"So you've been hiding so much money from me?" Su Yunzhi was a little annoyed. She didn't control the family finances, but she always felt that her father, Mr. Shen, respected her enough when it came to money.
"It wasn't exactly a secret stash of money." Mr. Shen felt a little guilty. "Back then, I was just thinking that it wasn't easy for Qiuqiu, a girl, to be alone out there. She wasn't very close to us, and I thought that after she got married, we shouldn't make her suffer too much."
Su Yunzhi sneered: "You just think I'd be mean to your daughter, right?"
So that's really what Mr. Shen thought. He knew his wife's personality to some extent. If Qiuqiu got married, things would be alright on the surface and wouldn't leave any room for gossip, but he certainly wouldn't be very generous.
He felt he owed his daughter something, so he secretly prepared this money, intending to use it to buy her dowry in the future.
However, now that the rift between the mother and daughter has disappeared, he no longer needs to hide it like this.
Of course, these thoughts in one's mind cannot be openly shared with others. "If I were thinking like this, I wouldn't have told you so today, would I?"
Su Yunzhi scoffed, not pressing the issue, but her tone was a little harsh, "After all, I've been called 'Mom' by her, so naturally I'll make sure other daughters have the same wedding glory they deserve."
"Yes, I misunderstood." Mr. Shen said with a smile. The family was all happy and harmonious, which was the best thing ever.
Su Yunzhi pushed away his hand that was reaching for her shoulder and asked Shen Wujun, "Your father's fortune was already divided between you and your sister last time. Although you didn't have the same wedding ceremony as others, it's still your sister's first time visiting her husband's family. Our whole family can't be too shabby when we go. What are your plans?"
Shen Wujun listened for a long time but still didn't understand: "What am I planning to do? I've never been married... Wait, what are you asking me?"