Chapter 229: A Sweet Family (Part One)
Seeing his niece displaying warmth and affection, Huang Lihan finally felt much better.
Jing Zhongxiu understood clearly what his old buddy wasn’t happy about.
He shook his head and said jokingly, “Huang, why are you so jealous of such a matter at your age, you are just going backwards.”
Huang Lihan’s face flushed and he glared at him, speaking in anger, “You got a daughter for free. That’s why you can talk in such a calm way. I am concerned about my girl who got injured after marrying into your family.”
He addressed Shangguan Ning as “my girl” when he was talking with others, because he regarded Shangguan Ning as his own daughter.
Jing Zhongxiu stayed silent when Huang Lihan mentioned that Shangguan Ning was injured because he also thought that they had not taken good care of Shangguan Ning, although he had nothing to do with it at all.
Jing Zhongxiu knew pretty well how Huang Lihan used to take care of Shangguan Ning when she was young. He cared about her in every possible way and dressed her up as a little princess. He didn’t allow her to get wronged. He had also fought with his wife because of the same.
But when Shangguan Ning married to Family Jing and got injured, it was his responsibility as a father to have protected her well.
Seeing Jing Zhongxiu stay silent because of what he said, Huang Lihan finally let out a sigh of relief – no way that he would get the girl from him.
He surveyed Shangguan Ning from head and foot and saw that she was completely fine, so he couldn’t help but ask, “Where is your wound? Let me see if it has healed? Does it still hurt? Better not to go to work if you are injured. Stay at home instead. You have become much thinner than before. Have you not been eating at Family Jing? How does Jing Yichen treat you?”
Shangguan Ning showed him the wound on her arm to him and consoled, “I have recovered completely. Yichen takes great care of me, don’t worry. If it wasn’t for him, I would have lost my life. He saved me. You mustn’t blame him!”
The gunshot wound on her arms had healed well, leaving only a light scar. Mu Qing said that the scar of gunshot tended not to disappear completely, but it would fade away as time went by so that it wouldn’t look so conspicuous. Even Old Mu wouldn’t be able to remove the scar completely.
Shangguan Ning didn’t care about the little scar, because there was a big scar on Jing Yichen’s chest because of her. Eveything else was minor compared to that.
Jing Yichen didn’t offer any justification upon hearing Huang Lihan scolding him. Instead, he just stayed silent and listened.
Jing Zhongxiu, who was sitting on the sofa alone, felt satisfied seeing his daughter-in-law defend his son.
He patted the seat next to him, telling his son to sit down.
Jing Yichen went quietly and sat next to him.
The father and son were meeting for the first time after Zhao Qing’s death anniversary. Nothing had changed between them, yet it seemed that everything had. They seemed to be more relaxed facing each other.
The servants called them to dinner after a bit.
There was hot-pot for dinner, which was what Huang Lihan and Jing Zhongxiu enjoyed a lot. They hadn’t expected that Shangguan Ning and Jing Yichen would show up, otherwise they would have prepared a formal dinner.
The servants served four little hot-pots. The four of them came to the dining room and sat down to eat around a small-sized round table.
Jing Zhongxiu and Huang Lihan were now basically single men. They often got together but had never had such a lively mealtime.
Shangguan Ning kept talking. Sometimes she asked the servants to add some soup and sometimes told them to add some food. She even praised the fresh fish on the table, which had been caught by Jing Zhongxiu and Huang Lihan in the afternoon.
Jing Yichen didn’t seem to behave like his haughty self. He chatted more than what he normally did. Sometimes he checked to see if Shangguan Ning was okay.
Mist came out of the four little hot-pots, and the flavor of fish soup and the scent of vegetables were floating across small-sized dining room. It was a harmonious scene.
Huang Lihan had always been a talkative man. He kept chatting with Shangguan Ning whilst asking Jing Yichen and Jing Zhongxiu to eat as much as they wanted.
He was actually quite satisfied with Jing Yichen, but he just felt a bit jealous seeing his niece leaning towards his side. He suggested drinking wine at dinner, and Jing Zhongxiu who almost never touched alcohol was forced to drink several cups with him as well.
As the spicy and fragrant white wine went down, Jing Zhongxiu started to loosen up in the happy atmosphere. He even started to argue with Huang Lihan about which of them had caught more fish today.
“I got seven, you got only six. I got one more than you did, so I should eat more. This dish is mine now. You better wait!”
“No way, Jing, you mustn’t cheat! I got seven, you got six. Your memory is too poor to remember it clearly just after a few hours. You better eat more fish brain.” Huang Lihan said as he put a fish head into Jing Zhongxiu’s little hot-pot and then grabbed the remaining fish from his side.
“I never remember wrong. You do! I got one more than you did at the very beginning and you failed to catch up with me.”
“You did at the beginning, but I caught up and even surpassed you. You have remembered wrong, so it must be I who caught more fish!”
“No, I did!”
“I did!”
…
Jing Yichen stared at the two men who were arguing over a fish in surprise. It was such a funny scene.
He never knew that his father could be childish sometimes. It was just a matter of few fish, and his father, who was an affluent man, had seen every kind of them. But at this moment, he had started to reconstruct the scene and use theories to prove that he caught one more fish than Huang Lihan.
But Shangguan Ning didn’t think that there was anything wrong with them arguing with each other. She knew her uncle well and she knew that he liked to take everything seriously. As for Jing Zhongxiu, she didn’t think that it was weird for him to argue with Huang Lihan on this topic, either.
First she was a spectator for the argument of the two seniors, then she became the judge listening carefully to what they said about the situation in the afternoon, so that she could decide who got more fish.
Jing Yichen became totally speechless seeing them argue fiercely over this topic.