Li Qianxue could not be blamed for distrusting Su Chenghui. She only thought that way because she had seen through that man.
He was heartless, or rather, his true heart was never for her. It was for someone else.
Thinking of her daughter, Li Qianxue put on a sour face again. “Su Chenghui, don’t think that being nice can make me forgive you. I won’t talk to you until Peizhen comes back.”
“Qianxie,” Old Master Li couldn’t bear listening to her words. “Are we going to celebrate the New Year or not?”
Li Qianxie was very unhappy, but for the sake of Old Master Li, she still raised her glass.
She didn’t clink her glass with Su Chenghui, though. All she did was raise the glass slightly and then take a sip of the wine.
Watching her move, Su Chenghui didn’t relax but had his heart sink deeper.
Li Qianxue loved Su Peizhen so much. If one day she found out that Su Peizhen wasn’t her daughter…
The New Year was supposed to be a warm festival, but somehow, Su Chenghui felt icy cold in his heart.
…
After dinner, Su Qingsang tidied the table. She bought quite a few dishes, but only a small portion of each.
She and Xiang Caiping finished the larger part of the food while watching TV.
After throwing away the leftovers and washing the dishes, she sat back down and watched New Year’s Gala on TV.
Su Qingsang rarely watched New Year’s Gala. This year, she watched it together with Xiang Caiping and found it less awful than people said online.
Xiang Caiping looked at Su Qignsang, smiled faintly, and said, “Qingsang, I’m so happy to celebrate the New Year together with you.”
“Me too,” Su Qingsang looked back at her and said, “I’m finally not alone anymore.”
“Sometimes, I feel that I’m in a dream. I can’t believe that I have such a wonderful daughter.”
Su Qingsang laughed. “Mom, what are you talking about? I’m right here. Are you still feeling like you’re in a dream?”
“Yeah,” Xiang Caiping sighed, recalling all that she had been through these years. “I didn’t consider myself a lucky person. So now I always question myself, ask myself if I really have the great good luck to be the mother of a lovely daughter like you.”
Su Qingsang’s heart missed a beat. She held Xiang Caiping’s hand and said, “Mom, I’m going to be unhappy if you say that again. Shouldn’t I be thinking that I’m so lucky to have a great mother like you?” Her voice sounded a little awkward.
“Alright, alright,” Xiang Caiping finally ended the topic. “Let’s not talk about that. It’s the New Year. We should talk about something that makes us happy.”
“That’s more like it,” Su Qingsang silently sighed with relief. At that moment, the TV was playing a skit, so Xiang Caiping focused on it.
Xiang Caiping was injured and not young anymore. After spending a short while watching TV, she started nodding off. Su Qingsang fetched some warm water, carefully helped her to wash, and then let her sleep.
After Xiang Caiping fell asleep, Su Qingsang gently turned off the TV, picked up her phone, and left the room to call Huo Jinyao.
The phone was ringing, but no one answered the call. Su Qignsang frowned and gently put the phone back into her pocket.
She prepared to go back to the room to sleep but worried that Huo Jinyao might call her back. She struggled for a short while, then turned her phone to vibrate mode and returned to the room.
In the room, she lay on the tiny bed meant for the caregiver but couldn’t sleep.
What was Huo Jinyao doing? Why didn’t he answer the call?
Earlier, he said that many relatives would be visiting his family. Perhaps he was busy talking to them.
Su Qingsang fell asleep while making all kinds of guesses. In her sleep, she felt her phone vibrating under the pillow.
She automatically reached her hand under the pillow and picked up the phone. She was still not fully awake when she saw the glowing screen.
She glanced at Xiang Caiping, who was still sleeping, then put on her coat and went out to the hallway to answer the call.
“Were you sleeping?”
Huo Jinyao’s voice was heard on the other side of the line. Su Qingsang blinked. The cold wind that blew across the hallway woke her up immediately.
“Yeah.”
“Did you call me just now?”
“Yeah. What were you doing?”
“Nothing.”
In fact, the Huo Family celebration was a lot busier this year than the last year.
Because Huo Jinyao got married this year, Old Master Huo’s younger brother, Huo Yangyuan, went back to Rong City for the New Year. His sister, Huo Yangxiu, and her husband would arrive in a couple of days.
Huo Yangyuan worked in another city in the province. He always stayed where he worked for the New Year. After all, he had many visitors every New Year.
He rarely came to Rong City, because he wanted to spare himself the trouble. All those people would follow him to Rong City, and Old Master Huo would have to meet them too.
Huo Yangyuan was a high-ranking official, but still, he respected his elder brother, Old Master Huo.
This year was different. First, Old Master Huo’s eldest grandson was married. That was great news. He was not in Rong City earlier, so he couldn’t attend the wedding. So at the New Year, he grasped the opportunity to come back to meet the wife of his brother’s grandson.
In addition, he was about to retire. He had already gone through the retirement procedure earlier this year. He planned to come back to Rong City to live after retirement.
As for his network, he wasn’t worried about that at all.
Unlike Huo Mingguang and Huo Mingliang, who liked doing business, his oldest son, Huo Mingfan, had already gained some experiences in the world of politics. In a few years, he would be able to climb up to a higher position.
As young people were going uphill, the old ones would naturally retire.
He was eager and excited to meet Huo Jinyao’s wife.
However, he arrived to find out that she wasn’t there.
As a senior official, Huo Yangyuan knew how to conceal his feelings.
His two sons weren’t as good-tempered as he was.
“Great-uncle, I think you’re probably not important enough to make our cousin-in-law travel all the way here.”
“I agree. Jinyao is too nice to his wife. I suppose she’s the only girl in Rong City who didn’t celebrate her first New Year after the wedding with her husband’s family.”
Huo Mingmei laughed exaggeratedly. “Why are you talking about this on New Year’s Eve? If you ask me, I’d say that Jinyao is probably not married at all. After all, Dad is always asking for great-grandchildren. Many people hire girlfriends to celebrate the New Year together with their parents nowadays, right? I think a man can hire a wife as well, can’t he?”
“Speak of which, sister-in-law, I think you really need to talk some sense into Jinyao. How can a man from a family like ours hire a wife? People would laugh at us if they knew about it.”
Huo Jinyao expressionlessly listened to those people talking. Unlike him, Liu Tongjia’s face darkened when she heard those words.
She glared at Huo Jinyao. The dissatisfaction that Huo Jinyao and Su Qingsang brought her went straight to the top.
