Daddy! Come Home for Dinner!

"Don’t worry." Zhao Dingli said with difficulty, "I know my limits."

Besides, not to mention anything else, Li Xiaoyun is Ye Fei’s best friend.

How could he act recklessly?

The old lady, although she nagged a bit,

but she essentially trusts Zhao Dingli a lot.

"Alright then." The old lady said, "Today’s opportunity is rare, so I won’t insist on you bringing Xiao Yun to dinner."

"But in a few days, you have to bring her back home." The old lady continued, "You need to give her a proper title."

Zhao Dingli: "..."

How did it come to giving her a title already?

He hasn’t even caught up with her yet.

"You both are so close now, you should bring her to meet the family, so she can feel more secure." The old lady said, "Just as well, I can subtly express that our family really likes her."

"No issues with seniority or anything, she can be at ease being with you." The old lady added.

Zhao Dingli thought, this actually sounds good.

"Alright." Zhao Dingli readily agreed.

"I don’t think you should delay, do it this weekend. Pick a day and bring her back." The old lady said.

This decisive and efficient attitude really left Zhao Dingli at a loss for words.

"Alright." Zhao Dingli agreed again.

"At that time, have your dad come too." The old lady said, "I just called your dad."

"I know, we just finished a call before you rang," Zhao Dingli said.

"Perfect, your dad said he wants to meet Xiao Yun too. I was thinking, if you bring Xiao Yun home and it’s just you and your dad staring at each other, it would be so awkward. Does your dad even know how to chat with young girls?" The old lady said.

Zhao Dingli: "..."

He really doesn’t know.

"So, why not have everyone together? It will be more lively and less awkward." The old lady said, "It’s settled then, I’m hanging up."

Without waiting for Zhao Dingli to say goodbye, the old lady hung up quickly, fearing he might refuse.

After hanging up, the old lady sighed in relief and said to Ye Fei, "As long as I hang up fast enough, Ding Li won’t be able to refuse me!"

Ye Fei: "..."

The old man chuckled, the sincerity of which was hard to tell: "You’re really clever."

On Zhao Dingli’s side, after hanging up, he promptly told Li Xiaoyun, "That was the old lady on the phone, she must have heard from Ye Fei that we are together and wanted to invite us over for a meal."

Zhao Dingli was quite pleased with how he phrased it.

It sounded like a couple visiting the elders’ house together for a meal.

"But weren’t you going to make soup for me? So, after hearing that, the old lady suggested we go over on the weekend instead." Zhao Dingli said.

Li Xiaoyun: "..."

"I was just planning to buy ingredients from the supermarket, it definitely won’t be ready by tonight." Li Xiaoyun had intended to wake up early in the morning to make it.

Just in time to cook porridge for Zhao Dingli in the morning.

Getting up early to cook soup, to let Zhao Dingli take it to the office.

No matter what he eats for lunch, even if he’s busy with work and only eats a little, at least there would still be soup to fill him up.

Zhao Dingli then deliberately said, "So should we go to the old house now?"

"No need for that." Li Xiaoyun was scared to death.

Even though she’s friends with Zhao Dingli, visiting the family elders’ house for dinner seems too much.

Saying this, Zhao Dingli drove the car into the supermarket parking lot.

The two of them went from the entrance of the parking lot to the supermarket.

Li Xiaoyun held her phone, comparing it to the ingredient list Ye Fei sent her.

After buying the items, she’d mark them off on her phone.

Zhao Dingli followed along, neither of them knew much, they were just following the list.

***

After talking with Li Xiaoyun, Ye Fei started missing Zhao Gushen a bit.

Now, even Li Xiaoyun is always together with Zhao Dingli.

The phone call tonight stirred things up and she really began to miss Zhao Gushen.

She didn’t know when he’d be able to come back.

She was afraid of disturbing Zhao Gushen, and given the time, it should be daytime where he was.

During the day, he must be busy with work.

Thus, Ye Fei only sent a WeChat message: "When are you coming back?"

However, she never got a reply from Zhao Gushen.

Ye Fei thought, Zhao Gushen must be busy.

She didn’t know how busy he must be, to have not responded for so long.

With the time difference these days, Zhao Gushen always had a delayed response to her.

But as long as he wasn’t sleeping, he usually didn’t take more than half an hour to reply.

Today, it was the longest wait yet.

Ye Fei lulled the little one to sleep first, then returned to her own quarters next door.

Before, she and the little one stayed at their own place, she felt it was too empty.

When Zhao Gushen left, the house suddenly became particularly lonely.

Even with the little one, Ye Fei felt it was too quiet.

Despite only adding one person when Zhao Gushen was home,

the difference was quite significant.

Once Ye Fei brought the little one to stay at the old house, the atmosphere improved.

The liveliness of the place made her feel adjusted again.

Thinking of this, Ye Fei laughed at herself.

In the past, she also took care of the little one alone and never felt lonely.

Once life included Zhao Gushen, she became accustomed, and couldn’t go without him anymore.

Even his business trips made her feel unsettled.

So, habits can really be scary.

Since coming to the old house, its liveliness made her feel much better again.

But tonight, influenced by Li Xiaoyun, she started missing Zhao Gushen again.

After putting the little one to bed, returning to her quarters, she remembered how Zhao Gushen always accompanied her when staying in the old house.

Now that she was staying here alone, the little courtyard felt particularly empty.

After washing up, Ye Fei lay in bed and glanced at her phone again.

Still no reply.

It’s been over two hours.

She sighed, unsure what was keeping Zhao Gushen so occupied.

She sulkily tapped Zhao Gushen’s WeChat profile picture: "Gone on a business trip for a few days and forgot all about your wife, huh!"

Wait until he comes back, she’ll see how she’ll deal with him!

With thoughts lingering, Ye Fei found it hard to fall asleep and decided to get up to pour herself a small glass of red wine from the wine cabinet.

Thinking there’s a method where red wine aids sleep?

She figured she might as well try it out.

Surprisingly, it worked quite well.

She drank a bit while watching some videos.

Soon after finishing the wine, she fell asleep while watching.

The video ended, and the iPad screen went black without her noticing.

Little did she know, Zhao Gushen had just gotten off the plane.

Zhao Gushen returned two days earlier than planned.

In order to surprise Ye Fei, he hadn’t told her.

When Ye Fei sent him a message, he was still on the plane, so he hadn’t received it.