Meanwhile, in the kitchen.
“Old Mr. Yi, why did you give the young lady your token?” asked the middle-aged man enviously.
He gave Old Mr. Yi a complicated look.
He had worked for this man for years, but had never seen him think so highly of anyone. Moreover, Huo Yao had turned down his generous offer to become his disciple.
Old Mr. Yi was getting ready to make the soup one more time after receiving Huo Yao’s pointer.
He replied to the middle-aged man without even looking up. “No harm in having one more friend.”
“But there was no need for you to…”
Old Mr. Yi interrupted the middle-aged man and said, “You are too narrow-minded and lack good judgment about people.”
His hands paused and he shook his head gently. “Do you think Young Master Min’s friend is someone who doesn’t know anything?”
Regardless of how the young lady denied knowing anything about Chinese medicine, how could Min Yu be a shallow man? Would Old Mr. Yi not have lived his years in vain if he could not detect the low profile they were trying to maintain?
The middle-aged man went quiet. Although he felt that his mentor’s words made sense, how much pharmacology could a teenage girl really know?
The man pursed his lips without paying any heed to Old Mr. Yi’s words. But, in the end, he did not go on with the subject.
After all, the old man was genuinely getting on with his age.
**
Zhuo Yun sent Huo Yao back to her estate soon.
As she got off, she bumped into Song Ning and Huo Jinyan, who had just returned from their new villa.
When Huo Yao saw them, she subconsciously stood still and spoke up without closing the car door. “Mom, Dad?”
Song Ning and Huo Jinyan had told the driver to drop them outside the estate near the fruit store. The two of them were on their way back with a bag of fruit. They were stunned when they saw their daughter getting out of the black car.
Song Ning looked inside the car instinctively after she composed herself. Even with the streetlamps on, it was too dark for her to see the passenger’s face. She could only tell that it was a man.
“Did you just come back from having dinner with a friend?’ asked Song Ning quizzically.
Huo Yao replied softly. “Mhm.”
Then she turned to thank Min Yu without introducing him and shut the car door, effectively cutting off her parents’ line of sight.
Zhuo Yun sat in the driver’s seat, thinking that he did not want Huo Yao’s parents to see Min Yu. He heaved a sigh of relief and swiftly started the engine.
Song Ning and Huo Jinyan watched as the car left. After some time, Song Ning finally asked her daughter. “Why didn’t you invite your friend upstairs?”
Huo Yao’s stunning face looked aesthetically pleasing under the dim streetlamps. She went over to help Song Ning carry the fruit bag and said, “It’s too late at night, so it wasn’t convenient.”
Song Ning touched her nose and asked her softly. “Is it a guy?”
“Yup,” said Huo Yao frankly. A thought crossed her mind, and she deliberately added. “He used to give me tuition!”
Song Ning was surprised even more. “Your tuition teacher?”
Huo Yao nodded and continued to speak with a straight face. “I used to do badly at school in Fuxian County. Fortunately, he gave me some tuition.”
Song Ning could not help recalling how Huo Yao’s teacher said that she had poor grades when Song Ning went over to Fuxian County last year to check on her daughter’s situation.
She figured that he was the one who helped Huo Yao with school and hurriedly said, “Oh! Why didn’t you say so earlier? How could you do this? We ought to thank him for helping in pulling your grades up so much!”
Huo Jinyan listened quietly with a strange look on his face.
