Huo Jiusi tilted his head back and gave Ye Zhiqiu a gentlemanly, graceful smile—totally giving off that little prince vibe.
“Zhiqiu.”
Wan Jiayin heard his voice and came out from inside to greet them. Ye Zhiqiu quickly stepped forward. “Mom.”
“Come here, let me have a good look at you.”
“Mhm, not bad, not bad at all. You haven’t lost any weight.” Wan Jiayin patted Ye Zhiqiu’s hand. “I was worried you wouldn’t be used to the food over there.”
“It was a bit hard to get used to.”
Ye Zhiqiu laughed. “There’s nothing like home-cooked meals. I kept thinking about Aunt Zhao’s cooking while I was away.”
They chatted as they walked inside. Meng Fang rose from the sofa. “Zhiqiu, you’re finally back!”
“Second sister-in-law.”
Ye Zhiqiu touched Meng Fang’s belly, crouching down to greet the little one inside. “Hey there, Stinky.”
The baby hadn’t even been born yet, but somehow the nickname “Stinky” had already stuck. Everyone in the family called him that.
As soon as Stinky heard Ye Zhiqiu’s voice, he popped out a tiny fist, making a little bump on Meng Fang’s belly. Ye Zhiqiu placed her hand over it. “Alright, Stinky, you go back to sleep now.”
Stinky calmed down. Meng Fang rubbed her belly, and Ye Zhiqiu asked with concern, “Second sister-in-law, how have you been these days?”
“Great! I’m on maternity leave now. This little one’s pretty well-behaved—doesn’t fuss much. Though when Yaya plays with him, he gets a little too excited.”
Ye Zhiqiu then brought out the gifts she’d prepared for the family, handing them to Wan Jiayin and Meng Fang.
For Wan Jiayin, there was a maroon wool coat. For Meng Fang, a loose, long-sleeved dress.
Yue Minghui’s gift was the easiest—she was crazy about perfume, so a bottle of that was always a safe bet.
Lu Shuangshuang loved handbags, so Ye Zhiqiu got her a classic lambskin one.
“Mommy, what’s that stinky smell?”
Yaya sniffed the air, then pinched her nose and fanned vigorously in front of her face with her little hand. “Eww, so smelly, so smelly! It stinks!”
“Stinky?”
The whole family was confused—none of them had smelled anything off.
“This! It’s this!”
Yaya sniffed again and pointed to a gift bag. Ye Zhiqiu pulled out what was inside—a velvet dress-style coat she’d bought for Yaya.
She’d fallen in love with it at first sight, imagining how adorable Yaya would look in it. Even though it was a bit pricey, she’d paid for it without hesitation.
“Smelly?”
Ye Zhiqiu brought it up to her nose to smell it, but Yaya dashed forward, snatched it out of her hands, and threw it to the ground. The coat immediately burst into flames—just like the sachet Li Yan had given Yaya before.
Now the whole family could smell that foul odor, and Meng Fang was so nauseated she started retching.
“It’s her! She tampered with Yaya’s clothes!”
Ye Zhiqiu immediately thought of Wen Shengnan’s visit to their dorm.
“Zhiqiu, who?”
Wan Jiayin frowned. “Is someone trying to harm Yaya again?”
“It’s Wen Shengnan from the Qianjin Song and Dance Troupe. She was in the training program with me.”
She turned to look at Yue Mingyuan. “Wen Shengnan likes Mingyuan.”
Yue Mingyuan looked utterly wronged. “I don’t even know who she is.”
“She thinks I ‘stole’ Mingyuan from her. She’s been obsessed with beating me for the top spot the whole time. During the final assessment, she even sabotaged my training clothes and got caught. Professor Tang said he’d report her behavior to her superiors. But I never expected that after we left the dorm, she’d go after Yaya’s clothes.”
Ye Zhiqiu gave a brief rundown of what had happened. Meng Fang was furious just hearing it. “Mingyuan doesn’t like her—what’s that got to do with you? As if he’d ever look at her even if you weren’t in the picture. Does Mingyuan have something wrong with his eyes or his brain?”
Yue Mingyuan quickly chimed in, “Besides Zhiqiu, I don’t have eyes for anyone. I’ve got good taste—I chose the best.”
Ye Zhiqiu blushed a little and shot him a glare, but Yue Mingyuan secretly took her hand.
He’d never dated anyone before, but putting himself in her shoes—if she had some other man who left a deep impression on her, he’d definitely feel uncomfortable. So naturally, he had to keep his distance from other women and make his stance clear.
Yaya had told him not to be a closed-off gourd—that he needed to speak up and let people know how he felt. He thought she was absolutely right! No one’s a mind reader; you can’t expect people to just know what you’re thinking without saying it.
Marriage was all about honesty and openness.
“She said she’d confessed to you before, and even gave you a love letter.”
Ye Zhiqiu would be lying if she said she wasn’t at least a little jealous. Even if it was all in the past, it still stung.
Yue Mingyuan blinked and quickly racked his brain. “Oh, that did happen. But I didn’t accept the letter, and I told her right then that we weren’t compatible.”
“Women like that are terrifying.”
Meng Fang felt relieved that Yue Mingli wasn’t as good-looking as Yue Mingyuan—otherwise, he’d definitely have swarms of women buzzing around him too.
“Mingyuan, you caused this mess, so you deal with it.”
Wan Jiayin gave him a stern warning. “If you ever do anything to wrong Zhiqiu, I’ll kick you out and pretend I don’t have a son. Zhiqiu will be my daughter instead.”
“Mom, I promise you—I’ll never give you that chance.”
Yue Mingyuan was dead serious. “Zhiqiu will always be your daughter-in-law, and only that.”
“Daddy, if you ever hurt Mommy, I don’t want you either.” Yaya hugged Ye Zhiqiu’s leg and chimed in.
“Yaya, Daddy will never hurt Mommy.”
Yue Mingyuan patted his left chest. “Right here, there’s only room for the two of you.”
He always kept their family photo in that pocket.
“Mom, I’ll take care of this.” Yue Mingyuan’s eyes turned icy cold.
Anyone who dared to harm his wife and child was his enemy!
And he never showed mercy to his enemies.
——–
Meanwhile, after Wen Shengnan was brought back to the troupe by her superiors, she was suspended from duty pending a final decision.
They’d already fired Jiang Miao. If they fired Wen Shengnan too, their troupe would be left with only Fan Xue as a leading dancer worth mentioning.
Their troupe had always managed to stay ahead of the Hongxing Song and Dance Troupe precisely because they had more top-tier principal dancers. Hongxing used to have Kang Zhimiao; now they only had Ye Zhiqiu.
As for Lu Shuangshuang and the others—they didn’t even register on Wen Shengnan’s radar.
But now, losing two principal dancers in one go erased that advantage entirely. In fact, Hongxing could even surpass them now.
Fan Xue was good, but Ye Zhiqiu was better.
After that last cultural performance, they’d noticed that Ye Zhiqiu had actually grown stronger as a dancer since having a child. During this training program, she’d consistently ranked first and won Professor Tang’s favor. Her future prospects were limitless.
Wen Shengnan was desperate not to get fired. She’d been busy pulling every string she could.
She knew that if she lost her job, she’d have zero standing at home. Her parents, for the sake of money, would marry her off to God knows who.
That short, chubby guy who’d been showing up at her house lately was definitely no distant relative—he was probably someone her parents had their eyes on for her.
