When Leng Yuchen came out of the bathroom, An Qi was about to fall asleep. Leng Yuchen looked at the snacks on the bedside table and could not help but make a face. An Qi was such a glutton, as she had eaten a whole week's worth of snacks in order to ease her tension!
An Qi's emotional eating used to really bother him. However, when he saw how much delight An Qi got from eating, he suppressed his bad thoughts toward her. But, he did promise himself that he would ask her the reason behind her obvious nervousness the next time he had a chance.
"Miss, you are back!" At that moment, he heard the housekeeper greeting An Yufei downstairs. From the sound of it, An Yufei seemed to be in a good mood as she had just returned home from school.
Leng Yuchen gently patted An Qi to wake her up. Every day, when Little Yufei would get home from school, was the most comfortable time that the three of them enjoyed as a family.
"Oh? Little Yufei is back?" An Qi wiped the saliva from the sides of her mouth, whil Leng Yuchen nodded at her with a smile.
An Qi then said, "Give me just a moment to get dressed! I'll be ready in a minute."
Removing the sheer chiffon blouse that Leng Yuchen had chosen for her to wear in the bedroom, An Qi quickly changed into her home attire. She finished changing before Leng Yuchen had even had time to blink. Or... Maybe Leng Yuchen simply could not bear to blink his eyes in view of the beautiful sight in front of him!
Although An Qi felt that Leng Yuchen's taste in clothing was odd, she did not dare ask him to make another purchase for her after seeing the exorbitant price tag on the clothes that he had bought for her to wear. But, then again, even if he were to purchase more clothes, they would surely be either more expensive or even sheerer than the ones she had now! This was yet another example of how Leng Yuchen's "bad" was only known by An Qi.
"Little Yufei, are you back? Did anything interesting happen at kindergarten today? If so, would you like to share it with us?" An Qi asked as she smiled at her daughter.
An Yufei put down her schoolbag and tilted her neck as she replied, "No."
Upon hearing her daughter's blunt reply, An Qi poked Leng Yuchen's waist. At her prodding, Leng Yuchen tried to to extract more information from his daughter, asking, "Little Yufei, tell daddy what you saw today."
"Well, I heard that the primary selection for the Top Ten Most Influential People has been completed. Father, are you one of the candidates?" she asked.
"Yeah. No surprise there, as it's the same every year. It's actually become somewhat of a cliche." Leng Yuchen's arms were crossed behind his head as he answered her casually.
He seemed not to care much, but the smile on his face gave him away. After all, his daughter, who had always been cold to him, cared about how many votes he had received, and this made Leng Yuchen very happy.
"What else?" Leng Yuchen urged her to share more.
"I heard that the Banking Regulatory Commission and the Insurance Regulatory Commission will merge soon, and the President of the State Bank will be replaced." An Yufei glanced at An Qi, who was salivating as she looked at the food on the dinner table.
An Yufei rolled her eyes at An Qi, then asked, "Mother, can you explain this news to me?"
"Huh?" An Qi hadn't really heard a word that they had just said, as she was distracted by the food.
"Can you say it again, Little Yufei? I missed it the first time..." An Qi smiled and tried to shift her focus away from the food and back to her daughter.
Although they were close, An Qi was concerned about how her daughter viewed her as compared to Leng Yuchen, whom her daughter had reconciled with a few days ago. If An Qi was being honest, Little An Yufei made her quite nervous sometimes, especially when An Yufei stared at her like she was doing now.
An Qi felt a shiver run down her spine. At this moment, like she often did, An Qi wondered who had given birth to who. So many times, An Qi felt like the child of the two.
"Were you not paying attention at all?" An Yufei asked with some disgust in her voice, while her small hand firmly gripped her schoolbag.
An Qi was speechless and couldn't help but blush. She looked toward Leng Yuchen with panicked eyes, clearly waiting for him to come to her rescue.
"Little Yufei, your mother studied journalism and communication, but not economics. Thus, your question might be too challenging for her." Leng Yuchen cleared his throat before jumping into the conversation.
Lately, he seemed to be the only one who could reach An Yufei. At the moment, Leng Yuchen wanted to show An Yufei that he would never let anything bad happen to An Qi suffer, and that included preventing An Qi from being berated by her own daughter, Little Yufei herself!
Although this was his intention, An Qi interpreted his actions and words quite differently. She looked at him with a subtle glare as she wondered...
What do you mean that it is too challenging for me? Are the two of them convinced that I am just some fool?
She truly did not understand what was happening, though, as she had indeed been distracted by the food and was not paying attention. But, she could not bring herself to say this truth.
After An Qi composed herself, she realized that the father and daughter had left to discuss economics without her. As she looked around, she realized that she had been left alone, with a servant in the hall to keep her company.
However, after feasting on the food that she had been salivating over, she smiled with satisfaction and touched her round belly. Fortunately, whenever she was feeling sad or lost, she could mask those feelings via a mountain delicious food.
That economic problem was obviously in line with An Yufei's interest, and it had simply been a miscommunication that had kept her from contributing to the conversation. She felt left out, as the father and daughter were still lingering at the table, discussing the matter without her. They continued to explore this topic that they just assumed that An Qi could not understand.
An Qi turned on the TV out of boredom. During her days spent in Paris, because of the nature of her work, she had to spend the majority of her time in the library, giving her no time to watch TV. Now that she could eat to her heart's content and slump lazily on the sofa to watch television, she considered it a rare pleasure.
However, as An Qi surfed the channels, they all seemed to be displaying the same scene: In a bright studio, a host was anxiously waiting for someone to arrive.
"How come the TV stations are all lovey dovey with their programming now? Are they not competing for ratings, and if so, shouldn't they portray other themes too?" An Qi muttered.
As a professional broadcaster, she was quite familiar with the operation procedures of local TV stations. In order for the TV stations to broadcast the same type programs at the same time, it must either be breaking news or the programs must be covering a very important interviewee.
An Qi continued to channel-surf helplessly, finding nothing of interest to her whatsoever, even after a long while. Soon, she was so bored that she figured that she would have a second dinner. But, just as she was about to turn off the TV, a familiar face suddenly flashed on the screen.
An Qi's big eyes seemed to grow even bigger in an instant. When she saw Wu Linzhi on the TV, she was very excited.
Even though the TV program's host had many years of experience, her voice was still trembling a little as she said, "Hello! Everyone sitting in front of the TV at home, we're sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. Let's welcome the famous Linzhi Oppa to our stage!"
The host's adoring eyes swept over Wu Linzhi as she continued, "But, judging from the size of audience that we have attracted here today, I feel that the long wait has really not been in vain. Friends, after so many years, our interview of the multiple award winner, Wu Linzhi, is about to begin!"
A rousing cheer could be heard from the live audience. As the live camera spanned across the studio audience, the cameraman apparently did not turn off the microphone on time, so all of the crowd's comments were caught and broadcasted on TV...
"It was definitely worth the wait!"
"For Linzhi Oppa, we are willing to wait forever!"
"Yes! No matter how long it takes!"
In fact, the crowd's commentary was so loud that An Qi's eardrums were in pain, even as she listened to the broadcast from home! At the same time, the noise from the TV also attracted Leng Yuchen's and An Yufei's attention.