The sun had just risen when the old lady came over looking for someone, “Zhi Xia, is your fourth brother at your place?”
“Fourth brother?” Zhi Xia had not seen anyone, so she went to ask her son, “Chenye, is your fourth uncle in your room?”
Because these days, he often went to hang out with Chenye.
Sure enough, Chenye came out from the room to answer, “He’s here. He came back so late last night and is still not fully awake.”
“This rascal, he said he was going to leave early this morning. Look how late it is and he's still asleep.” The old lady said as she walked towards Chenye’s room, complaining, “Running over here in the middle of the night, doesn't he know Chenye has school?”
An ZhiAng hoarsely sat up from the bed, “My dear granny, with this kid's IQ, missing a day or two won't affect him. Don't worry. And today is the weekend, what school is there!”
He had heard that Chenye was ranked 2nd in the mid-term exam, only because he jumped directly from 2nd grade to 4th grade. And in the placement test at the start of this semester, he had steadily scored 1st.
Even if An ZhiAng didn't want to admit it, he had to admit that this was definitely due to inheriting Pei Jing's genes.
Not completely though. After all, apart from him being unreliable, the other three siblings in their family were quite reliable. His younger sister had even self-studied her way into Jin City University.
Thinking this way, it seemed like he was the worst in the family, which was quite disheartening.
“Chenye is smart. That can't be a reason for you to disturb him. The old lady glared at him, “Didn't you say you were leaving? I had Mrs. Zhou prepare some spicy sauce for you to share with Xiao Jing.”
An ZhiAng thought about what happened last night. Feeling guilty, he didn't dare look the old lady in the eye. “Granny, I...I won't leave yet. I'll call to ask for a few more days of leave.”
“You're not leaving?” The old lady was very surprised. She didn't want him to leave the past few days, after all, though the cast was removed, there's an old saying that recovering from injuries to muscles and bones takes a hundred days. He still wasn't fully recovered. Unfortunately, she just couldn't stop him.
Now that everything was prepared, he suddenly didn't want to leave. The old lady couldn't help but ponder.
“Fourth child, you didn't get into trouble again, did you?” She couldn't be blamed for overthinking. After all, she had a lot of experience with things like this happening before he joined the army.
Every time he got into trouble, this kid would hide here, if not, he would go to Zhou Village.
“Granny, can't you think better of me?” An ZhiAng pleaded hoarsely, “I've thought it through. I'll listen to you and marry Su Ying.”
“What did you say?” The old lady didn't hear clearly. But looking at the awkward expression of her grandson, she guessed it wasn't good news.
“I said I'll marry Su Ying.”
It was a bolt from the blue, leaving the old lady speechless for a while.
When she finally reacted, she let out a sigh instead.
An ZhiAng frowned, seeing that the old lady didn't look very happy. He asked, "Didn't you hope that I would marry Su Ying? I agreed, so why the expression?"
The old lady glared at him and turned to leave.
An ZhiAng stared wide-eyed at her back, then looked at Zhi Xia, "What does this mean?"
"I guess...she doesn't approve of this marriage anymore." Zhi Xia deliberately teased him.
"That's not..." An ZhiAng suddenly felt helpless.
Seeing him chasing after the old lady, Zhi Xia followed along too.
Although she didn't know what was going on, her instinct told her something must have happened between the fourth brother and Su Ying, which made him change his mind.
When the old lady got home, An ZhiAng had caught up. "My dear granny, what do you mean?"
Grandpa put down his newspaper and looked up to ask, "What's the matter?"
An ZhiAng quickly explained the situation to Grandpa. Grandpa stole a glance at the old lady's expression, lightly coughed, and silently picked up the newspaper to continue reading where he left off.
Seeing they were both like this, An ZhiAng felt even more uncertain.
Zhi Xia quietly asked the old lady, "Granny, why do you suddenly disapprove of the fourth brother marrying Su Ying?"
"Who said I disapprove? I'd love for it to happen. It's just that your fourth brother gets ideas out of the blue. Marriage is for tying families, not feuds. When I first tried matchmaking them, he was unwilling. Now out of the blue he says he wants to marry her. If I readily agree, and he changes his mind afterwards, how will I explain to Su Grandpa?" These were the old lady's words. "If he wants to marry her, he should go propose to her himself. I don't have the face to speak for him anymore."
Zhi Xia smiled, "You know the fourth brother's temperament. He didn't understand his own feelings at first. Now that he's finally come around, you're overly cautious. Don't make him repress it again."
"If he can really repress it, it shows his feelings aren't that firm. It'd be better not to marry in that case." The old lady complained, "In my opinion, he's just mischievous. When I was eager for it to happen, he didn't want it. He has to tease me before he'll do it. I'll find a chance to have a good talk with that Su Ying girl, don't let her be so easily lured by this kid. He needs to suffer a bit first to learn to cherish in the future."
That's what the old lady said, but Zhi Xia was certain she would be the first to give in.
An ZhiAng was already asking Pei Jing for leave, using the reason that his arm still wasn't healed.
In fact, it had recovered over half a month ago. After all, having taken enhancement drugs before, his body functions and recovery speed weren't like ordinary people.
Pretending it still hadn't recovered was just to cover things up, afraid of attracting attention for being too special.
Of course Pei Jing also understood the situation.
So using this reason to extend his leave wouldn't work for him. But considering that An ZhiAng also hadn't taken any leave these past few years, he reluctantly approved the leave.
After putting down the phone, An ZhiAng went to pull Zhi Xia along, "Let's go, little sister. Big brother will take you to see your sister-in-law."
He deliberately glanced at the old lady, "Since a certain old lady is unwilling to help, don't regret it!"
In response, he got a cold snort.
Watching the siblings walk away hand in hand, Grandpa laughed to himself. "Fourth child, time is tight. You have to hurry and prepare. Our family will soon have an additional mouth to feed. Fourth child still has to return to the army. And Su Ying still needs to take care of her grandfather. Let's hold the wedding here, and after marriage, they can live at the Su house. The Su house only has Su Ying now. They'll have to see Su Grandpa off one way or another."
Once out the door, Zhi Xia rescued her wrist from his hand, "Fourth brother, you two should nurture your feelings. What's the point of me going along, being a light bulb? I won't go. You go yourself."
"Of course you have to go. She'll be your fourth sister-in-law in the future. You have to go take care of business, don't you?" An ZhiAng didn't dare say he was too embarrassed to look for Su Ying himself.
Last night's events had given him dreams all night. He had taken two cold showers in a row, and actually barely slept at all.
Let alone going to see Su Ying now, just thinking about it made him feel restless.
In the end, Zhi Xia was still forcibly dragged along.
On the way, Zhi Xia saw a flower bed with many small flowers planted in it in front of a household, exuding a kind of messy beauty.
She suddenly thought of something and asked An ZhiAng to stop. She ran over, gave the owner 5 cents, and plucked a handful of pretty blooms tied with a rubber band.
"Fourth brother, there are proper methods to pursuing girls. No girl can resist the charm of gifts. Since you didn't prepare in advance today, start with a bouquet of flowers." In Zhi Xia's eyes, An ZhiAng deciding so decisively earlier to stand firm saying he would marry her was quite sudden after all.
"Tsk, I think you're the one who likes it. These things only last a few days before having to be thrown away." An ZhiAng disdained.
"Straight man!" Zhi Xia rolled her eyes from behind him.
