Qin Mufeng felt resigned.
After breakfast, he stood up and declared, “I need to head over to Tan Mo’s parents’ place now.”
“May I come with you?” Tan Mo caught up to him. “Now that the Wei family has punished Wei Keli, Uncle will probably be there to inform my parents too, right?”
Qin Mufeng nodded. “I suppose so.”
“All right, let’s go. I want to wait for uncle,” Tan Mo said.
With Tan Mo leaving with Qin Mufeng, Qin Muye and Ming Yeqing would be left alone. Qin Mufeng could never allow that to happen. So he asked, “What about you? Aren’t you coming too?”
“Sure, I’ll come with Mo Mo,” Qin Muye answered. Ming Yeqing followed behind her.
Qin Mufeng felt helpless. With that, the group departed for Tan Wenci and Xu Mingzhen’s villa.
A little while later, Qin Mufeng whispered to Tan Mo, “Please look after Qin Muye from now on.”
Right as Tan Mo lifted her head to look at Qin Mufeng, he continued, “As you can see, my sister is a simple and unsuspecting person. She’ll easily fall for the schemes of malicious people. So please take care of her in my place.”
Tan Mo immediately understood who the malicious person Qin Mufeng was referring to was.
“Okay. Don’t worry. Leave it to me,” Tan Mo replied confidently.
In no time, they arrived at Tan Wenci and Xu Mingzhen’s villa.
The three Tan brothers could be seen inside the villa as they opened the door.
Apart from the brothers, Wei Mingwen and Xiao Menghan were there as well.
The atmosphere was rather lively, with all seven of them sitting around the dining table having their breakfast.
As there were many hungry stomachs to fill, Tan Wenci had ordered a table full of dishes. All of them were scrumptious.
The dishes on the table were all Chinese cuisine.
There was congee, salad, youtiao, chow mein, Tianjin-style pancakes, tofu pudding, hard-boiled eggs, omelet, scrambled eggs, fried sausages, and fried ham.
The food they had was a lot fancier than what Tan Mo’s group had eaten earlier.
Although Wei Mingwen and his spouse had already had breakfast before their arrival here, the aroma of the dishes that Tan Wenci had ordered instantly made their stomachs rumble again.
Without hesitation, they both sat down and ate a little to join in the fun.
“Good morning, Grandpa Wei, Granny Xiao.” After Tan Mo had greeted the two, she asked, “Where’s Uncle? Didn’t he come?”
According to Qin Mufeng, Wei Mingwen and Xiao Menghan had gone with Wei Zhiqian back to their manor the night before.
By rights, Wei Zhiqian should have returned since his parents were already present.
Yet, for reasons unknown, he was nowhere to be seen.
“He didn’t come with us,” Xiao Menghan replied. “Apparently, there was still some work left to be done, so he went back to the company early in the morning.”
“I see.” Tan Mo responded with a disappointed look.
Qin Mufeng immediately sensed something was amiss.
The night before, Wei Zhiqian had informed Qin Mufeng that he would be back here the following day.
Moreover, Wei Zhiqian and his friends had even promised to gather today if they were free.
Wei Zhiqian had no work to do at the office.
So why would he head there early in the morning?
“Mufeng, I assume that you’re here to talk about Qin Murong’s future, right?” Wei Mingwen asked him, while having some tofu pudding since he had had his fill of food and was feeling full.
“We just filled everyone in on Wei Keli’s situation,” Xiao Menghan announced.
Upon hearing that, Qin Mufeng told everyone about the Qin family’s decision concerning Qin Murong’s fate.
Even Tan Jinyi, who was normally somewhat ingenuous, understood the Qin family elders’ real intentions behind the decision.
However, Tan Wenci let his feelings be known to Qin Mufeng.
Qin Murong deserved punishment for her wrongdoings.
But from their point of view, her fate did not seem like a punishment enough.
Still, if you knew Qin Murong’s personality, it might be considered a severe punishment.
After a while, Tan Mo called Wei Zhiqian: “Hey, Uncle.”
Wei Zhiqian felt an irritation in his throat upon hearing Tan Mo’s voice.
“Yes?” Wei Zhiqian’s voice sounded a little hoarse when he spoke. Immediately, he covered his cellphone, cleared his throat, and gulped down a mouthful of coffee.
“Uncle? Did you catch a cold? Why does your voice sound a little croaky?” Tan Mo asked.
“No, it’s nothing.” Then, after clearing his throat, he checked that his voice had returned to normal. “What do you need?”
Tan Mo mumbled to herself in confusion. Why did Uncle sound so distant suddenly?
“Uncle, are you in a bad mood today?” Tan Mo questioned.
“No.” Wei Zhiqian frowned a little.
Nevertheless, his mood was not particularly good either that day.
“Okay. But why is your tone…?”
Before Tan Mo could finish her sentence, Wei Zhiqian interrupted her, “Mo Mo, I’ve got my hands full with work here. Is there anything important? If it isn’t something urgent, perhaps we could put off our conversation until next time?”
“Nothing in particular,” Tan Mo replied in a quiet tone. “Please carry on with your work.”
Right after Tan Mo finished speaking, she ended the call without saying good-bye to Wei Zhiqian.
The little snow fairy was suddenly feeling depressed.
Wei Zhiqian’s bizarre attitude toward her that day weighed down her heart tremendously.
His aloofness on the call was unprecedented.
His response earlier seemed to suggest that she was bothering him.
There had been subtle hints in his words that implied she should stop beating around the bush and speak her mind quickly.
Tan Mo murmured in Qin Muye’s ear, “Muye, did I obliviously say or do something that made Uncle upset yesterday? Was it something about my attitude? What have I overlooked?”
Qin Muye had been with Tan Mo the whole time. As a bystander, the former could see from a perspective that the latter might fail to notice.
Even if Tan Mo missed something, she could count on Qin Muye to compensate for her oversight.
Qin Muye did not give Tan Mo a half-hearted response. After pondering for some time, the former shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Well, I’ll exclude the part when Qin Muxiao called for me, and also the part when you followed Brother Zhiqian to Yuan Keqing’s place. Since I wasn’t beside you during those times, I can’t make any judgment. Other than that, I don’t think you did anything that could get under his skin. From what I saw, he was in a good mood yesterday.”
“Could I be that I did something wrong during those two periods?” Tan Mo frowned as she tried to figure it out.
“That couldn’t be the case,” Qin Muye said. “Although I wasn’t around during those two timeframes, Brother Zhiqian seemed to be happy after I came back from Qin Muxiao’s place. It was the same after you two came back from Yuan Keqing’s place. In fact, he looked as if he was on cloud nine at that time. He did not show any sign of irritation at all.
“I’ve been watching you both from the sidelines since you came back. So even if he did feel upset about something during the two timeframes, it would still be impossible to hide it the entire time when I was around.”
“You’re right,” Tan Mo muttered with a troubled expression. “But I still don’t get why Uncle acted so cold toward me just now.”
“Could it be that you are reading into things too much? I think that you’re hypersensitive,” Qin Muye remarked. “After all, you can’t see him through the phone. It’s easy to misinterpret people’s intentions by just listening to their voices without seeing their expressions.”
“Is that so?” Tan Mo could never stay level-headed when it came to Wei Zhiqian.
“Yeah. Let’s take texting as an example. We tend to imagine the tone of the other party’s text, and it more often than not leads to misunderstandings. Likewise, hearing a person’s voice on a call without seeing their face can cause misapprehensions too.” At that, Qin Muye patted Tan Mo’s shoulder. “You’re overthinking. All of us know that Brother Zhiqian loves you very much. Even if he were distant toward others, he would never treat you the same way.”
