Chapter 536: Xu Chan: Stay Safe
‘So these two idiot kids just aren’t planning on coming out, are they!’
Irritated, Old Li picked up his teacup and took a large gulp.
Xu Chan’s shoulders trembled with suppressed laughter at her husband’s expression, which looked like he was about to explode from frustration.
“Alright, Old Li,” Xu Chan said, patting her husband’s tense arm. Her skirt swirled in a gentle arc as she stood. “Look at that long face. You look like someone just stole your precious treasure. But who was it that said we should let the kids have their own ideas?”
Old Li choked, at a loss for words.
“That was then, this is now!”
‘Not seeing it and actually seeing it really were two different things, especially in a situation like this.’
Although Li Zhi had never explicitly told her parents that she and Shen Yuan were dating, how could Old Li and Xu Chan possibly not see it?
‘What could two dating childhood sweethearts possibly be doing, holed up in a room together?’
‘Studying?!’
‘Final exams just ended! Could they possibly be studying?!’
Xu Chan shook her head, then walked to the closed bedroom door. She curled her fingers and knocked lightly three times. Her sweet voice was tinged with amusement. “Zhizhi?”
The wooden door opened a crack, revealing Li Zhi’s face.
“Mom?”
Xu Chan’s gaze flickered past her daughter to Shen Yuan, who was peeking out from inside the room, before returning to Li Zhi’s face.
“Zhizhi, it’s getting late. Time to come home now?” Xu Chan’s voice was gentle, phrased as a question.
The smile on Li Zhi’s face faltered for a moment, replaced by a subtle, smug look—the look of someone who had just gained the upper hand.
She didn’t answer her mother right away. Instead, she glanced toward the living room, though she couldn’t see anything from her position.
Turning back to her mom, the beautiful girl’s eyes narrowed slightly. She deliberately raised her voice, her tone a mix of petulance, willfulness, and righteous indignation. “Go home?”
“We’ll see! Right now… I’m in a bad mood!”
She jutted her chin toward the living room, deliberately drawing out her words with perfect clarity.
“Especially… I just don’t want to see Dad at all! The sight of him just makes me mad!”
With that, she let out a loud huff, her expression a perfect picture of lingering anger.
Outside the door, Xu Chan couldn’t help but snort with laughter. With a hint of schadenfreude, she glanced back at her husband on the sofa, whose expression had instantly frozen.
Shaking her head, she smiled and said to Li Zhi.
“Alright, alright, whatever you say, your highness. So, whenever you’re in a better mood later, you’ll just come back on your own?”
A sly glint flashed in Li Zhi’s eyes. She nodded quickly, then gave Xu Chan a sweet, wheedling smile. “Mhm!”
In the living room, Old Li, feeling utterly rejected, wore an expression of profound suffering.
Even the glare he shot Old Shen was hostile.
His face screamed with the mournful accusation: ‘Your son has stolen my daughter.’
What could Old Shen say?
He could only cower.
Inside the bedroom, Shen Yuan watched Li Zhi’s brilliant performance—her righteous indignation and vivid expressions—and couldn’t stop a low, muffled chuckle from escaping.
Hearing Shen Yuan’s chuckle, Xu Chan looked back at Li Zhi. “Don’t be out too late, okay? And… be safe!”
The moment Xu Chan finished speaking, the smug look on the girl’s face froze solid.
Inside the room, Shen Yuan burst into a fit of coughing.
It was as if a thin veil had been ripped away. All the naked subtext of “be safe” flooded Li Zhi’s mind, and she suddenly realized just how much teasing and innuendo was hidden in her mother’s smiling eyes.
An indescribable wave of heat rushed from her chest straight to her head.
Li Zhi felt her cheeks flush scorching hot, and her delicate earlobes turned so red they looked like they might bleed.
“Mom!!”
Watching her daughter transform from a smug little fox into a flustered kitten with its fur on end, Xu Chan could no longer stifle her delighted laughter. Filled with satisfaction at her successful teasing, she walked away.
In the living room, Old Li had been straining his ears, trying to glean any scrap of information from the crack in the door. Now, he was like an old cat, his curiosity piqued to an unbearable degree.
Watching his wife return with a smile, he instinctively leaned forward, his expression a mixture of urgency and an unconcealable thirst for gossip.
“What secrets were you sharing with our little girl?”
“Hm?”
Xu Chan, still basking in the glow of her successful teasing, paused her light steps when she heard Old Li’s question. A sly glint flashed in her smiling eyes.
She even angled her body slightly, glancing at the closed bedroom door out of the corner of her eye. Then, she answered Old Li in a deliberately clear voice, just loud enough for everyone in the living room to hear.
“Oh, nothing much! I just told Zhizhi, ‘Don’t be out too late, okay? And be safe!'”
She enunciated the last two words, “be safe,” with perfect, ringing clarity.
The moment the words left her mouth—
PFFT—COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!!!
Old Shen, who had just picked up his teacup to take a calming sip, abruptly sprayed a mouthful of tea all over Old Li’s face.
The spluttering Old Shen started choking himself, coughing miserably as he stared at the completely bewildered Old Li before him.
“Oh! Old Li! I’m so sorry, so sorry! I really didn’t mean to! Cough, cough, cough…”
“Here, wipe it off! Oh dear, look at this mess…”
Old Shen hurriedly set down his cup and fumbled to pull tissues from the coffee table, but his face showed not a hint of remorse—only suppressed laughter.
The fact that Shen Yuan and Li Zhi were childhood sweethearts had everything to do with their fathers, Old Shen and Old Li, being childhood friends themselves.
…
Old Li was just recovering from the shock of his tea-water baptism and the subsequent hurricane of a wipe-down.
His head wobbled from side to side as he was being scrubbed, his dazed expression slowly morphing into one of profound… mournful resentment, as if he’d been uniquely singled out by fate.
His eyes were fixed on the completely unapologetic Old Shen, filled with silent accusation.