Chapter 1749: Side Story for the Younger Generation (22): Gentle and Fiery, Off to Fly a Plane
Chapter 1749: Side Story for the Younger Generation (22): Gentle and Fiery, Off to Fly a Plane
Qi Family
A girl came downstairs. It was the first chill of autumn; she wore a thin white sweater and dark denim pants, her slightly wavy hair falling to her waist, like autumn sunshine—warm and bright, pretty and pleasing.
"Bro, look at my shoes, how are they? Do they look good?"
The little girl was wearing a pair of white sneakers.
The curly-haired teenage boy sitting on the sofa tilted his head and glanced over. "Pretty good."
"Thanks, bro."
The shoes were a gift from Qi Lie; the brother and sister were wearing the same style in different colors.
"When are we going over to great?grandma’s? Are we picking Sister Xiaoruan up on the way?" The girl went to find a mirror, lowered her head and checked out her new shoes again.
"Your Sister Xiaoruan’s busy. We’re going by ourselves."
"Bro, can Sister Xiaoruan actually become my sister?in?law or not?"
"What’s with you, girl? You’re wearing my shoes and still have the nerve to tease me." Qi Lie picked up the throw pillow beside him and pretended to throw it at her, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Qi Zeyan coming downstairs, so he resentfully stayed his hand.
"What are you up to now? Bullying your sister?" Qi Zeyan frowned.
"No, we’re just having a heartfelt exchange." Qi Lie arched a brow, then lowered his head and went back to his phone.
"Zhiyi?" Qi Zeyan looked at his daughter.
Qi Zhiyi smiled. "My brother didn’t bully me. Look, he even bought me a pair of shoes. They go with everything."
Qi Zeyan’s little girl was named Qi Zhiyi. He and Ruan Mengxi chose the name together, taking it from the same line of poetry that her name came from:
[The south wind knows my heart, and blows my dreams to the Western Isle.]
It also carries the meaning:
Knowing each other’s feelings.
After Qi Lie grew up, he had quite a few complaints about the origin of this name.
From his sister’s name you could sense how loving their parents were, but his own name... it felt like a burden of expectations, like he was supposed to be the "clear stream" of the family.
"You’ve stayed in Nanjiang quite a while this time..." Qi Zeyan sat down on the single armchair and sized up his son. "How’ve you been getting along with Ruan Ruan?"
Qi Zeyan knew all too well how much Jiang Chengsi doted on that daughter of his; he’d watched the little girl grow up since she was small, and he genuinely liked her. He kept thinking it’d be a shame to let such a good little cabbage be eaten by outsiders.
He was secretly plotting if he could somehow trick her into marrying in.
He’d actually gone through multiple rounds of comparison.
Jiang Xiaowu’s family didn’t have a daughter. Jiang Yanting’s daughter was a bit older; they all respected her as an older sister, but there were no sparks. As for Jiang Shiyi’s daughter... well, that little girl was too solemn.
The old Huo Family’s...
Didn’t dare make a move!
Just sneaking a couple extra glances, he was afraid someone would glare him to death. More importantly, that little lass was too formidable. When she was little she’d been a gorgeous little pink dumpling, soft and powdery, and Jiang Xiaowu had had his eye on her more than once.
She’d loved planes and tanks from early on, tagging after Huo Zheng and Huo Qinqi, soaking it all up. Every "My Dream" essay she wrote as a kid was about becoming a pilot.
The teacher said she had ideals and ambition, and even praised and encouraged her in front of the whole class.
The result...
She actually went and did it!
The whole Huo Family supported and agreed, except for Huo Qinqi, who was against it. Supposedly the Huo Family even called a special little meeting just for him, to give him a good ideological talking?to.
The man had a stubborn temper to begin with, fixated once he decided on something. In the end it was his daughter who asked him one question:
"Dad, when you enlisted, have you ever regretted it?"
"If it was my own choice, I don’t think I’d regret it."
"You’ve been telling me since I was little to do what I believe is right. So why aren’t you supporting me this time?"
Huo Qinqi was left speechless by his daughter’s retort and could only agree.
Before, everyone thought the Huo Family’s little girl looked soft and sticky, and her temper seemed soft too, as if she’d always been so well?behaved. This whole bunch of juniors followed Jiang Mutang around calling her "little aunt," and she’d smile gently at every one of them. Who would’ve thought that once she graduated from high school and chose a college, she’d be that tough about it. After all, she was Huo Qinqi’s daughter...
No matter how soft she looked on the outside, she was fierce in her bones, and stubborn too.
Huo Qinqi couldn’t do anything about it and had to agree. But when she went off to university, it was Huo Qinqi who personally drove her to campus. After he came back, he met up with Jiang Jinsang and the others and drank quite a bit.
Jiang Jinsang could only sigh:
Raising sons and raising daughters are really different. When Huo Tinglan enlisted, Huo Qinqi had even reminded his superiors not to give him any special treatment and to toughen him up as much as possible. That night, Huo Qinqi had also come out for a drink, feeling like he’d finally sent off a little debt collector.
Now his daughter was only going to study flight and piloting, yet it had this old father heartbroken.
Qi Zeyan, after weighing all the families—
Came to a deep conviction:
Jiang Chengsi’s daughter was still the easiest target.
...
Qi Lie had been bent over his phone. Faced with his father’s questioning, he answered casually, "Getting along how?"
"You ran off to Nanjiang and then came back together with her, and nothing happened between you two?"
"Happened what? I ran errands at the duty?free every day doing purchases for people, she went to class. Usually we just had meals together. I wanted to freeload off her meal card and get her to treat me to a few meals at the cafeteria, but in the end I was the one picking up the tab." Thinking of it, Qi Lie was still a bit annoyed.
"You little punk, you went to Nanjiang just to do purchases at the duty?free?" Qi Zeyan was fit to be tied. "How are you ever going to chase a girl like this?"
"What else could it be?" Qi Lie looked at him. "Dad, you’re already at this age, can’t you think about something pure and clean for once? I’ve already told you, Ruan and I are just like brother and sister."
"Besides..."
"I heard when you were chasing my mom you were pretty goofy. You have the nerve to judge me?"
What happened between Qi Zeyan and Ruan Mengxi was a classic ’karma for chasing your wife’ case, it really was a bit...
Dopey!
But hearing this kind of thing from his son’s mouth, he still looked indignant. "Who told you that! That’s complete nonsense! Your mom and I were love at first sight, mutual affection, and the third step was settling our life together."
"Uncle Yun." Qi Lie said bluntly.
"Yun..." Qi Zeyan was so mad he was choking. Yun Hezhi, you bastard!
"If you don’t believe it, you can go confront Uncle Yun," Qi Lie finished, and even Qi Zhiyi beside him had a look like she was ready to watch a good show.
"Weren’t you two going to visit Grandma Jiang? Why aren’t you heading out yet?" Qi Zeyan immediately shooed them away.
He watched the siblings leave before calling Yun Hezhi to hold him accountable.
"It just came up by accident when I was chatting with Qi Lie," Yun Hezhi laughed and shot back, "Did I say anything wrong?"
"Even if you didn’t, you still have to pick what you say. You can’t tell them everything. And don’t forget, back when you married your little cousin, I helped you."
"You really have the nerve to bring up something from over ten years ago."
"..."
Qi Zeyan finished that call thoroughly pissed off.
Qi Lie was driving, gossiping with his sister about the stuff he’d heard from Yun Hezhi:
"...Anyway, when Uncle Yun got married, he invited tons of people. The uncles from the Jiang Family, obviously, all went. But Uncle Yun himself also knew that bunch from the Jing Family, Fu Family, and Duan Family, so the wedding banquet was super lively."
"I can totally picture that."
Qi Zhiyi nodded. Actually, she had attended the wedding back then, she’d just been too young to remember anything.
"I heard that night, Dad and the uncle from the Duan Family were at the same table, the two of them got drunk and almost ended up hugging each other."
"Seriously? Aren’t they supposed to be mortal enemies?"
"Neither of them handles alcohol well, and people always say ’a good drunk washes away all grudges.’ But when they sobered up and realized they were lying next to each other, it sounded like they were both totally disgusted."
Qi Zhiyi muffled a laugh. "Dad really can’t hold his liquor. So what happened after that?"
"I only heard Uncle Yun mention a couple of lines, I don’t know the rest."
"Dad and Duan Uncle don’t actually have some deep blood feud. They’re not young anymore, why are they still acting like kids playing house, always bickering and sulking whenever they meet?" Qi Zhiyi lowered her head, scrolling through her phone.
"Who knows." Qi Lie also found it strange. "Probably they just can’t stand the sight of each other."
"Bro, if I made friends with someone from the Duan Family, what kind of reaction do you think Dad would have?"
"Someone from the Duan Family, who?" Qi Lie focused on driving.
"Just asking randomly."
"Dad would go nuts, give you a full-on ideological lecture, tell you there’s not a single decent person in the Duan Family, and then make you cut all ties," Qi Lie said with a chuckle.
Qi Zhiyi nodded with a hum, rubbed her nose, turned her head to look out the window, and cleared her throat to change the subject:
"I wonder what Sister Xiaoruan’s up to? I was going to ask her to go shopping. I’ll send her a message and see."
Qi Lie had his mind entirely on driving, and Qi Zhiyi sounded half joking, so his reply was casual too; he didn’t take the question to heart at all.
**
Si Family
When Jiang Ruan received Qi Zhiyi’s message, she was still sitting on the living room sofa, watching Yan Chi and Si Yushan play Chinese chess.
Honestly, she didn’t really have any special relationship with Yan Chi. She just felt inexplicably guilty, worried her family might notice something fishy, which made her even more nervous.
"I lost again." Yan Chi sounded a bit helpless.
"It’s not that you can’t play. Once you’ve got the rules down, with how smart you are, you’ll definitely pull off a comeback soon." Si Yushan smiled. It was rare for anyone to be willing to keep him company over a game.
Jiang Chengsi had been busy lately with the company’s Mid-Autumn and National Day arrangements and didn’t have time to play with him. His two grandsons were in high school with heavy coursework; on weekends he’d rather let them sleep a few extra hours than drag them over to keep him company on the chessboard.
Right then Si Qingxiao shot Jiang Ruan a look, and she hurried into the kitchen.
"Take these out." Si Qingxiao pointed at the tea and small plate of snacks on the tray.
"Me?"
"Who else?" Si Qingxiao laughed. "You’re acting weird today. We’ve got a guest at home, and you’ve just been zoning out. It’s so rude."
"Even though you call him Uncle Xiaoyan, he’s not that much older than you, so don’t be too nervous. When you go to Nanjiang later, if you run into trouble and ask him for help, he’ll definitely be able to do something."
"Don’t be fooled by how cold he looks. He’s chilly on the outside and warm on the inside."
...
Si Qingxiao thought her daughter had been intimidated by Yan Chi’s serious demeanor and kept comforting her.
"Go on, take this over." Si Qingxiao shoved the tray into Jiang Ruan’s hands, and she could only bite the bullet and carry it out.
Actually, she really wanted to tell her mom:
She already knew this Uncle Yan was someone with a warm heart.