“I’ll go!” Gu Fuying declared, rising awkwardly and walking towards Wu Qingsong. “Wu Qingsong!”
“What are you doing?!” Wu Qingsong looked up, and the sight of Gu Fuying instantly made his head ache.
“Thank you for saving me yesterday,” Gu Fuying said, her voice laced with hope. “Is this your partner? I’ll treat you to dinner.” She gazed at him, silently pleading for him to deny it. But Wu Qingsong offered no explanation. “No need,” he said, his tone dismissive. “What happened yesterday, anyone else would have been able to do the same . Thank you for your kindness, we are already settled.”
“Mom, I’m hungry,” Zhang Lancao’s youngest son whined from the side, watching others eat with envy.
Gu Fuying was stunned when she heard the child call the woman “mother.” “Wu Qingsong, are these both your children?” she stammered, her voice barely a whisper.
Before Wu Qingsong could speak, the older child immediately denied it. “We are not his children.” A flicker of complexity crossed Wu Qingsong’s face, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. Gu Fuying breathed a sigh of relief, but soon, a deeper discomfort settled in. She felt inferior to a woman who already had children from a previous marriage.
Zhang Lancao looked a little embarrassed, especially after seeing Gu Fuying’s fashionable dress and youthful appearance. After Gu Fuying walked away, Zhang Lancao’s unease lingered. “Qingsong, is that your friend?”
Wu Qingsong nodded, then shook his head. “We’re not friends. We’ve only met a few times.” Zhang Lancao nodded, but a subtle hostility towards Gu Fuying sparked in her heart. Wu Qingsong was young and unmarried. She, on the other hand, was a divorced woman with two children, and several years older than him. She couldn’t compete with other girls in terms of youthful appearance, but she could certainly be caring and virtuous.
Zhang Lancao didn’t dare to order for herself, but the two children eagerly chose a few dishes. As soon as the food was served, Zhang Lancao thoughtfully placed several pieces of braised pork onto Wu Qingsong’s plate. When Zhang Lancao’s eldest son saw this, his eyes burned with anger. His grandmother was right: if his mother remarried, she wouldn’t be kind to him and his brother.
“My brother and I want to eat too!” Zhang Xiaoda demanded, his face contorted with resentment, glaring at Wu Qingsong as if he were an enemy.
Seeing this, Zhang Lancao hit her son with her chopsticks. “You can eat whatever you want. Why are you yelling? Isn’t this much enough for you?” Zhang Xiaoda’s face hardened with resentment, and he shut his mouth. Zhang Lancao looked at Wu Qingsong, an embarrassed smile on her face. “The child is still young and doesn’t know any better. I’ll educate him when we go back.”
Wu Qingsong paid no mind to the boy’s outburst. He only wanted Sister Lancao to live a good life.
“Are Wu Qingsong and Sister-in-law Lancao in love? Are they going to get married?” Xu Ying asked, her face full of curious gossip as she placed her meal before Huo Chen and sat opposite him. In this era, there were many difficulties for widows, and Sister-in-law Lancao was indeed pitiful, raising two sons on her own, and her mother-in-law was not a good person. It would be fine if Wu Qingsong was serious, but if it was just a fleeting fancy, alas!
“It’s about getting married,” Huo Chen confirmed.
“Can Sister-in-law Lancao’s mother-in-law agree?” Xu Ying wondered aloud.
Huo Chen looked at her gossipy expression and couldn’t help but curl his lips into a faint smile. “Why are you worrying about this?”
“I’m just curious!” Xu Ying said, propping her chin on her hand, a look of mock sorrow on her face.
[Congratulations to the host, you gained 99 favorability points and 80 extra favorability points.]
When Xu Ying heard the system prompt, the playful sadness on her face vanished, replaced by bright, shining eyes as she looked at Huo Chen. Huo Chen’s hand, holding his dish, paused slightly. He glanced at Xu Ying from the corner of his eye, his expression tense and slightly unnatural.
This was the first time Xu Ying truly noticed how striking Huo Chen looked while eating. His fingers were long and slender, like a work of art, and his posture was dignified. “Huo Chen, what do you like about me?” Xu Ying suddenly asked.
Huo Chen nearly choked on the soup he had just brought to his mouth. His throat bobbled as he swallowed the liquid. His earlobes turned a deep, fiery red. Meeting Xu Ying’s playful eyes, he felt certain she was teasing him. “Then what do you like about me?” Huo Chen countered.
“I like that you’re handsome, tall, and in good shape,” Xu Ying said shamelessly, giving him an exaggerated head-to-toe appraisal. “You look safe, and most importantly, you can make money.” She stared at Huo Chen with an unabashed gaze. Huo Chen felt as if he had been stripped naked, displayed for her inspection. He sat there cautiously, his heart fluttering, his lips slightly dry.
“I like everything about you,” he confessed, his voice low and earnest. “Every single thing!”
“Then is there anything you hate about me?” Xu Ying asked carefully, a vulnerability in her tone.
Huo Chen shook his head, his face filled with tenderness. “In my heart, you are the best in every aspect.”
When Xu Ying heard this, the corners of her eyes welled up slightly. This was the first time anyone outside her family had ever praised her like this. In her previous life, after Dong Wenzhong had gotten together with her, he constantly found fault, criticizing her endlessly. For a time, she had truly believed she was inadequate.
“I’m going to work now. You eat slowly,” Xu Ying said, standing up quickly, trying to hide her tears from Huo Chen. As Xu Ying entered the kitchen, the system prompts began to ring incessantly.
[Congratulations to the host, the favorability value is +99, the extra favorability value is +86…]
[Congratulations to the host, you have unlocked a new recipe, a universal pig product, a bag of Level 1 healing powder, and a bottle of Level 2 marrow cleansing pills…]
Xu Ying’s eyes widened with surprise at the mention of the “universal pig product.” It couldn’t be what I think, could it? Holding back her surging curiosity, Xu Ying quickly accessed the “universal pig product” in her mind. It was exactly as she had imagined: all manner of braised meats and fried foods, and most importantly, roasted pig’s trotters.
Counting the days, it was almost time to get paid. Xu Ying was quite curious about how much salary she would receive from the food factory.
“What are you happy about?” Sun Lifang asked curiously.
Xu Ying didn’t hide her excitement. “I’m thinking about how much money I’ll make when I get my salary.” Everyone at the restaurant knew about Xu Ying’s two jobs, and hearing her talk about her salary filled them with envy.
“Master Xiao Xu, your salary this month must be over a hundred yuan, even higher than my master’s salary!” Liu Guohua said, his eyes filled with admiration. Sun Lifang also admired her greatly; Xu Ying had such incredible cooking skills!
“No way,” Xu Ying said modestly. “I was just being opportunistic.” If Chef Ge were as shameless as she was and found a part-time job, his salary would definitely be higher than hers.
“What’s so opportunistic? It’s all because of your ability!” Gao Guihua stretched her neck, a fawning smile on her face. If these words had come from anyone else, no one would have found them strange. But coming from Gao Guihua, everyone stared at her in shock. Even Chef Ge, who usually paid no attention to their idle chatter, rarely looked up, but this time, he raised his eyes to stare at Gao Guihua.
Gao Guihua, caught under their bewildered gazes, a flicker of unnaturalness crossed her face. She forced an extremely awkward smile. “Why are you all looking at me? Is there anything wrong with what I said?”
“It’s okay, but you have a problem,” Sun Lifang interjected, giving her a pointed glance. “Is’nt you’ve always disliked Yingying. What’s going on now? Has your conscience finally emerged?”
Gao Guihua chuckled nervously. “Look at what you’re saying! I don’t dislike Yingying anymore. It’s too late for me not to like this girl. You said Yingying is good-looking and smart. The most important thing is that she’s kind. I felt that the Wu family was vicious, but Yingying wasn’t afraid of power and even went against them. What a good girl she is!”