Qu Xiujie sat up and changed his posture. He had been looking in the direction of the kitchen earlier but now, he was sitting upright as he looked at Ji Ziming and Pei Ge. He continued, “Not letting me into the kitchen makes me very nervous. It’s been so many years since we last met and I’ve become bad. I’m afraid your mom will despise me.”
“Why would she despise you? We’re a family, so we definitely won’t despise you. Uncle, don’t think too much about it. My mom won’t. She’s a very good woman.”
Pei Ge’s words eased the awkwardness and nervousness in Qu Xiujie’s heart. She knew that Qu Xiujie’s reputation was not good. Before Pei Ge knew that she was part of the Qu family, she was not willing to interact with anyone with the surname Qu, including Qu Xiujie.
However, since she could not decide her birth, there was only so much that she could do.
If you could not change something, then face it. If you could not even face it, then change it.
A person’s birth was something that they could choose. All the love and hatred would eventually melt into a puddle of blood. This was because what one could not give up the most was the kinship with the people they loved.
“Ge Ge, you don’t know. All these years, I’ve —”
Pei Ge was still not used to Qu Xiujie suddenly becoming loving but there was a hint of affection in his eyes. This man who pretended to be very bad actually became as nervous as a child when he was about to face the family member whom he had been looking for all these years as he was afraid of being abandoned.
“Uncle, we don’t despise you. You have to believe that we are a family. Since we are a family, it’s even more impossible for us to dislike you. You just have to believe in yourself. I know that you are just putting up an act. I know that everything you are doing is for Old master Qu and Old lady Qu to see. Since that’s the case, Uncle, you don’t have to feel guilty.”
Pei Ge said a lot and consoled Qu Xiujie for a long time. Knowing that Zhang Manhua had opened the kitchen door and brought the dishes one by one to the dining table, the three children obediently ran to the dining table with the small bowls and chopsticks and waited for the meal to start.
“Ran Ran, give this to grandma; you can’t carry it.”
Zhang Manhua tried to take the heavy bowl from her granddaughter’s hands, but before she could reach it, a large hand snatched it from her.
Although his fair and strong hands were manly, Zhang Manhua could see an obvious scar on his hand. It had been a long time, but the white scar would never disappear.
“Sis, I’m here.”
Qu Xiujie stood at the entrance of the kitchen with the bowl of soup in his hands and looked at Zhang Manhua with sparkling eyes. He was no longer as arrogant and domineering as before and there was a hint of gentleness around him.
It was as if she was not looking at her sister but a brand new him.
Zhang Manhua did not say anything and only looked at Qu Xiujie. The gentleness in her eyes had long betrayed her. Tears flowed out of her eyes and her fair face was slightly warm and wet.
“Uncle…”
Pei Ge was about to stop Qu Xiujie but was stopped by Ji Ziming, who signaled her to keep quiet.
“Uncle will handle it himself, so don’t worry.”
His voice was soft but it gave her a sense of security that she could rely on.
“Sis, I’m here to see you. Don’t cry.”
Qu Xiujie looked at the tears on Zhang Manhua’s face and did not know how to comfort or explain himself. He kept telling her not to cry but did not realize that his eyes were already red.n
“I know. I won’t cry.”
Zhang Manhua was very surprised when she heard Pei Ge say that Qu Xiujie was her uncle. She even rehearsed the scene of them meeting in real life in her mind. However, she did not expect that they would actually meet while standing at the kitchen door with Ran Ran between them; one was holding a bowl of soup and the other was holding a spoon.
This scene caught Zhang Manhua off guard. She did not even bother saying what she had rehearsed as if all the lines she had rehearsed disappeared.
“I know.”
Zhang Manhua nodded and reached out to wipe the tears on her face, but Qu Xiujie took the chance to do so. His gentle hand was filled with warmth and was totally different from that person’s romantic touch.
Zhang Manhua could only feel that the most empty spot in her heart slowly gaining warmth because of this reunion and the act of wiping away her tears.
Perhaps the reason back then was not important at all. As long as they were a family and as long as they were together, there was nothing that could truly separate them. Even if it was an outsider’s obstruction, it could not be achieved.
“Sister, you’re much prettier than I imagined.”
The moment Qu Xiujie said this, Zhang Manhua laughed and scolded, “You still know how to joke with me.”
The two of them stood at the entrance of the kitchen with one of them crying before laughing while the other laughing before crying.
“After you and Mom had left, I missed you guys so much. I thought that you guys would come back and bring me along, but I waited for a long time and didn’t see you guys return. I thought that I would never meet you guys again, but when I saw Ge Ge and her face which was similar to Mom’s, I knew that you guys didn’t really abandon me.”
Warmth always came too suddenly. Before Zhang Manhua could explain why her mother brought her and left the Qu family, she heard Qu Xiujie telling her everything.
It was as though what she knew was far from what Qu Xiujie knew.
It turned out that all these years, in Qu Xiujie’s heart, he was the most insecure child. It was precisely because of this that he was so childish and sought the attention of the people around him. It was also because of this that in Qu Xiujie’s heart, he thought that he was thoroughly bad and all his merits were nonexistent.
“I know that it hasn’t been easy for you all these years. Although we were very young when I left, I still remember that rainy day when you cried at the door and begged Mom not to abandon you.”
Zhang Manhua choked.
She still remembered the time when she left the house, but she had long forgotten where she had left.
“But you guys still left.”
