A small candy

Chapter 44: Good Brother Becomes Niece-in-Law

After Jian Ling finished her phone call with Ye Xianxin, she pondered quietly for a while and suddenly felt that she could not delay any longer. She had to find time to tell her family soon - she had a boyfriend.

Otherwise, I don’t know how many lies I would have to tell to cover up the truth. It would be so tiring.

The aroma of food wafting from the kitchen brought Jian Ling back to her senses. She shrugged, dropped her phone, and went to the kitchen in her slippers to inspect.

Cheng Zhixu stood by the sink, holding a spatula to flip the ribs in the pan. The ribs had been marinated in advance and were fried in oil until both sides turned reddish-brown. They looked great even before they were out of the pan.

Jian Ling curled her eyes, hugged Cheng Zhixu's waist from behind, and leaned her head forward from his arms: "Boss Cheng, you are so awesome!"

"Stay away, be careful of the oil splashing on you." Cheng Zhixu patted her head, "If you have nothing to do, go and clean up the dishes. After cooking the garlic short ribs, we can start eating."

"Who said I have nothing to do?" Jian Ling smiled slyly, "Aren't I just trying to cheer you up?"

Cheng Zhixu smiled slowly, and placed his free hand on the back of her hand.

Jian Ling stroked his soft wool sweater, pressed her cheek against his back, and whispered, "Boss Cheng, I was wrong. It's not you who's awesome, it's me."

Cheng Zhixu raised his eyebrows: "What do you mean?"

"Think about it, if I wasn't amazing, would I have been able to pick you out of such a huge crowd to be my boyfriend?" Jian Ling said proudly, "When I was in school, there were so many people chasing after me, the line stretched from here to outside the Fifth Ring Road."

Cheng Zhixu nodded and said cooperatively, "Well, my pleasure."

Jian Ling smiled, stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek, then turned to clean up the dishes for both of them. What she didn't say was that she really enjoyed having dinner with him in the quiet house. It felt like a peaceful and beautiful "three meals for two, four seasons" atmosphere, and it would be perfect if she could bring Dora along.

The phone rang in the living room. Jian Ling put the washed dishes on the dining table and went to the living room to answer the phone: "Well, I'm at home. Can you please send it over?"

Cheng Zhixu heard the voice and asked loudly in the kitchen, "Who's calling?"

"Express delivery." Jian Ling said, "The things I bought before I left the country were delivered yesterday. Since the courier couldn't contact me, I haven't been able to deliver them yet."

She opened the shopping app on her phone and took a look, and sure enough, the box of blind boxes she bought had arrived.

The doorbell rang. Jian Ling put down her phone and ran over to open the door for the courier downstairs. Then she opened the door and stood in the hallway waiting quietly. Not long after, someone came up and came out of the elevator holding a cardboard box.

"Hello, are you Ms. Jian Ling?" The courier lowered his head to check the delivery note on the carton, then looked up to confirm the house number.

Jian Ling replied "yes" and gave her cell phone number. She took the cardboard box and brought it in. She couldn't wait to find a utility knife from under the coffee table to cut the tape on the express box.

Inside the carton was a large, pastel-blue box. Opening the lid revealed twelve blind boxes neatly arranged in four rows and three columns. Jian Ling hovered her finger over the box, selecting the characters. She randomly pulled out a blind box and opened it. Inside, she found a silver bag. She felt the outline of the box and tried to guess which character it was. If she couldn't guess, she'd tear the bag open.

"Ah, I already have this." Jian Ling frowned dejectedly. The "Little Match Girl" in her hand instantly fell out of favor and was thrown aside.

When Cheng Zhixu brought out two plates of food, there was already a pile of small dolls on the coffee table, with discarded cardboard boxes and bags next to them.

I don’t know why she is so keen on buying these little dolls. There are already several rows of them in the wall cabinet at the entrance, and many of them are exactly the same.

Cheng Zhixu put the dishes on the table and looked at Jian Ling who was sorting the garbage. He shook his head. As expected, she had the mind of a little girl. He smiled and said, "Wash your hands and come over to eat."

"Okay." Jian Ling brought a trash can and dumped all the useless cardboard boxes and bags into it. She stood up, clapped her hands, and skipped to the kitchen to wash her hands.

The snow-white dining table was filled with three dishes and a soup, the aroma overflowing. Jian Ling nibbled on a small piece of pork ribs, quite satisfied. "I have to express my doubts. How did you get such an outstanding man?" Before Cheng Zhixu could respond, she answered her own question, "Of course I chased him!"

Cheng Zhixu couldn't help but chuckle. Under the dim warm light, his eyes were warm and gentle as he looked at the girl in front of him. He couldn't imagine what she would be like as a wife and mother in the future. It couldn't be that she would still be so quirky, right? Who knows.

"Why are you looking at me?" Jian Ling spat out a bone and noticed the man across from her was stealing glances at her. It couldn't be considered a stealth glance; his gaze was direct and honest, without any concealment.

Cheng Zhixu smiled: "Look at you."

Jian Ling sat upright, coughed lightly, and announced solemnly: "Congratulations on discovering a runaway Disney princess. To express my gratitude, I give you this reward!" She picked up a piece of pork and put it in his bowl.

Cheng Zhixu tilted his head, his lips curled slightly: "Is this the reward?" He cooked the dish himself, he served it to the table himself, and her reward was to pick up the food from the plate and put it into his bowl, that's all?

Jian Ling supported her chin with one hand and said very easily: "Then what reward do you want?"

"Is it so easy to find a fugitive princess?" Cheng Zhixu glanced at her calmly and said slowly, "At least you have to give the princess to me. What do you think?"

"I say, I say..." Jian Ling was speechless as she couldn't wrap her mind around it. Should she follow his wishes and give him the princess?

Just as she was racking her brains to think of what to do next, the ringing of her cell phone saved her. Putting down her chopsticks, she said, "I'm going to answer a call," and went to pick up the phone on the coffee table.

The caller ID showed Ye Guizhou. Jian Ling was slightly puzzled. Her uncle was back from England?

"Hello, dear uncle, what do you want to talk to me about so late?" Jian Ling answered the phone while walking back to the dining table and sat down. She changed her hand to hold the phone, picked up the chopsticks again, picked up a bean sprout and put it in her mouth.

Cheng Zhixu gave her a questioning look, and Jian Ling silently mouthed to him: My uncle.

Ye Guizhou's voice on the phone seemed to be accompanied by the whistling wind, and he said calmly: "Are you home? I came to bring you soup at your mother's request."

Jian Ling was startled, her chopsticks dropped onto the table, and she blinked furiously, "Now?"

"What else?" Ye Guizhou stretched his arm, revealing his watch hidden by the sleeve of his down jacket. "It's not even eight o'clock yet, you're not going to bed that early, are you?"

Jian Ling looked at Cheng Zhixu's face, swallowed nervously, and said in a slurred voice, "Well, I...actually, I've already gone to bed. I just came back from abroad and have jet lag, and I wasn't feeling well, so I went to bed early."

Ye Guizhou stood downstairs, looking up at Jian Ling's floor from afar, and snorted coldly, "Really? Then why do I see the light in your living room is still on?"

He has become more capable, really more capable. Not only did he go to Switzerland for fun on New Year's Day, but he didn't even go home immediately after returning home. Now he is even lying.

Jian Ling was a little confused: "What?"

"I won't waste my time talking to you. Open the door for me. I'm downstairs." Ye Guizhou didn't bother to be polite with her. His tone was unyielding and he hung up the phone right away.

He had a spare access card in his hand. When he helped Jian Ling move, he had recorded his fingerprint in the door lock in case of any unexpected situation. If he hadn't given the girl some privacy and called her first to let her know, he would have rushed in long ago.

Jian Ling's scalp was about to explode. She stood up quickly and spun around in place anxiously, scratching her head and muttering, "What should I do, what should I do?"

Cheng Zhixu didn't hear the content of her conversation with Ye Guizhou clearly, but he knew the general meaning and asked, "Ye Guizhou is coming over?"

"He's not coming over here, he's already downstairs! Help!"

The next second after she finished speaking, the doorbell rang like a death curse, and Jian Ling almost jumped up. She grabbed Cheng Zhixu's arm and pulled him upstairs. "It's too late to leave. Go upstairs and hide first. My uncle won't come into my bedroom casually."

She planned to introduce Cheng Zhixu to her family in a formal setting, not like now, in the middle of the night, a man and a woman alone in a room, both wearing home clothes, it was impossible to explain it.

Cheng Zhixu wanted to say that since Ye Guizhou was already here, he could just face him, but Jian Ling didn't listen at all. When she heard the doorbell ringing one after another, her nerves were highly tense.

"Jian Ling, I..."

Cheng Zhixu had just uttered a few unclear words when Jian Ling pushed him up the stairs without further explanation. He had no choice but to obey her and go upstairs for shelter.

After the others had gone up, Jian Ling turned around, patted her chest to calm herself, and ran to open the door like a soldier charging into battle. "What took you so long?" Ye Guizhou, expressionless and with a scrutinizing look in his eyes, surveyed Jian Ling from head to toe. He walked in without even changing his shoes, carrying a cotton bag containing a stainless steel thermos.

Jian Ling closed the door and followed him closely, clutching the hem of her clothes. She was so nervous that she couldn't speak. "Uncle, uncle, give me the soup. It's so late, please drive carefully on the road."

As she spoke, she reached out to take the cotton bag from Ye Guizhou's hand.

Ye Guizhou didn't give it to her. Her words, which sounded like a warning to leave, made him suspicious. He looked around and finally stopped at her face: "Are you sleeping?"

"Yes." Before he could question her, Jian Ling had already thought of an excuse. "You saw the light in my living room was on, but I forgot to turn it off."

"Heh." Ye Guizhou sneered. He prided himself on being a gentle gentleman, but his face turned black with anger at his niece. He pointed at the corner of her mouth and asked, "Don't you know how to wipe your mouth before you lie?"

Jian Ling paused and subconsciously raised her hand to wipe the corner of her mouth. A little brown sauce stained her fingertips - the sauce from the garlic short ribs. She was so engrossed in her eating that she didn't notice.

"I want to see what other lies you can tell!" Ye Guizhou walked around her and headed straight for the dining room. The food on the table was clearly visible, two sets of bowls and chopsticks, two cups, and the bowl of seaweed and shrimp soup in the middle was still steaming.

"uncle……"

Jian Ling called him weakly, reached out and tugged at his sleeve, not daring to say anything further. Blame her for not thinking carefully and forgetting to clear the table.

Ye Guizhou glanced at her indifferently, put the thermos on the dining table, shook her hand away, and said with suppressed anger: "Man?"

Jian Ling closed her eyes and said resolutely, "Boyfriend."

"Okay, Jian Ling, you're amazing!" Ye Guizhou nodded, then nodded again, then laughed in anger. He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the living room. His strides were so big that Jian Ling was practically dragged over. "Where's she? Hiding in the bathroom or upstairs? You even want such an irresponsible man. Did a donkey kick your head?"

Ye Guizhou was convinced that Jian Ling had been deceived by a man.

Because he knew his niece too well. She had been spoiled by her elders since she was a child. She had never been in love and had no social experience. She was stupid and had a lot of money. Any man with a little trick could deceive her. Maybe she would even happily count money for others.

Late at night, she brought the man home, and who knows what happened.

The more Ye Guizhou thought about it, the more angry he felt in his chest, and his heart ached with anger. If something irreversible really happened, how would he explain it to his elder sister and brother-in-law?
At this moment, footsteps were heard on the stairs, and a familiar face came into view.

Ye Guizhou was slightly stunned.

Cheng Zhixu wore a light gray V-neck sweater and loose black trousers, the bottoms of his trousers tucked over his slippers. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing a hint of his forearm. He wore no watch. In stark contrast to their previous meetings, he looked handsome and well-dressed. Now, he truly looked like the kind of man who could be considered a "homebody."

"Cheng Zhixu?" Even at this point, Ye Guizhou still didn't think much about it, but was a little incredulous. "W-why are you here?"

Cheng Zhixu glanced at Jian Ling. He shouldn't have listened to her and hidden himself. Not only did it make the situation more awkward and stiff, but his image in Ye Guizhou's heart also declined significantly.

Seeing that he didn't respond, Ye Guizhou got angry: "Say something?"

Cheng Zhixu grabbed his wrist, signaling him to let go of Jian Ling's arm. Ye Guizhou might have hurt her, but she didn't dare to say anything, her face pale with fear.

Ye Guizhou let go of his hand and watched Cheng Zhixu protect his niece behind him. He said to him in his usual calm tone, "Stop scolding her."

"Don't tell me that the boyfriend Jian Ling is talking about is you, Cheng Zhixu." Ye Guizhou took a step back. His good upbringing prevented him from swearing. His face became even more gloomy and terrifying, like the dark clouds before a storm.

Cheng Zhixu hummed softly and held Jian Ling's cold hand under his nose.

Ye Guizhou lowered his gaze, looking at the two people's tightly clasped hands. He felt that everything before him was extremely unreal: "You and Jian Ling, are you together? Outrageous!"

"Why is it so outrageous?" Cheng Zhixu really didn't want to argue with Ye Guizhou. His status was different now, so he couldn't criticize him as recklessly as before. He took a breath and tried to remain calm. "I'm unmarried, and she's unmarried. Our ages aren't that different either. Is it okay for us to have a free love relationship?"

Jian Ling stole a glance at Cheng Zhixu's profile and wanted to interrupt to ruin the atmosphere, "Are you rapping?"
"Cheng Zhixu, do you know..." Ye Guizhou was halfway through his words when something suddenly flashed through his mind. He took out his mobile phone from his pocket, opened WeChat Moments at an extremely fast speed, and found the post posted by Jian Ling.

In the fifth photo, the man’s hand.

The screen flipped, and facing Cheng Zhixu's face, Ye Guizhou pointed at the photo and questioned him: "So, it was you who accompanied her to Switzerland. You are not a good friend at all."

Having said that, there was no point in hiding it any longer, so Cheng Zhixu nodded: "It's me."

Ye Guizhou's expression darkened even further. He was also a man who had been in love and married before, and he knew all too well what it meant for a man to travel alone with a woman. If nothing had happened between them, he would have pronounced her name backwards. Ye Guizhou's gaze flicked back and forth between the two of them, and he suddenly rushed forward, grabbing Cheng Zhixu's neck with his arm. "When you were 'bullying' her, did you ever consider that she was my niece?"

His movements were so swift that Jian Ling didn't even react. By the time she understood what Ye Guizhou was saying, she felt so embarrassed that she blushed and pulled him away: "Uncle, let go first."

Ye Guizhou yelled at her: "Get out of my way!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think this through." Cheng Zhixu had already made up his mind. Even if he got beaten up, he wouldn't complain. "I'm serious about marrying Jian Ling. You should know me well. I'm not frivolous, and I certainly wouldn't do anything foolish or reckless. You said Jian Ling is a 'troublemaker,' so I'll protect her from now on, and you can rest assured."

Ye Guizhou sneered and said in a deep voice, "You've said all the good things and taken advantage of me. What else can I say?"

He couldn't do the thing of breaking up the couple, but he couldn't swallow this humiliation. His face turned blue and black, as if he had been poisoned.

"I'm telling the truth." Cheng Zhixu felt the strength in his arms gradually loosen, and decisively stated his stance to him, "If I treat Jian Ling badly in the future, you can hit me and never fight back."

That night, he thought that if Ye Guizhou knew that he had made Jian Ling his own without even meeting her parents, he would definitely use his fists. However, it turned out that he had underestimated Ye Guizhou's temper. He was a true gentleman and didn't resort to violence or verbal abuse.

Ye Guizhou gritted his teeth: "I want to beat you up right now."

Having said that, he loosened his grip on Cheng Zhixu's neck and glanced at him coldly.

What is going on? My good brother becomes my nephew-in-law.

Wait a minute! Good brother, now, nephew-in-law? This generation...

Ye Guizhou licked the corner of his lips, unable to control his expression, and suddenly smiled. He watched Cheng Zhixu's eyes slowly change from anger to mockery, and his face also changed from stormy to sunny.

After letting out his anger and saying what he needed to say, Ye Guizhou calmed down, walked a few steps to the side and sat down on the sofa, resting his arms on the back of the sofa, in a very relaxed posture.

"Hey." He raised his chin towards Cheng Zhixu and said seriously, "Are you going to call me 'Uncle' now, or later?"

No matter what, if Cheng Zhixu wants to be with Jian Ling, he can't escape being called "uncle".

Ye Guizhou thought about how he had been humiliated countless times by Cheng Zhixu. He had never been able to win a debate or outmaneuver him in business. Even in mergers and acquisitions, the Cheng Group always had a five-point advantage.

Now that he has reached a higher level of seniority, he suddenly feels relaxed all over.

Cheng Zhixu met his gaze and sighed helplessly. What was coming had finally come.

Jian Ling looked at this, then looked at that. She hadn't said a word from beginning to end, and a question mark popped up in her head: Did they agree on this?

　Cheng Fox: I really want to play dead...

　　Ye Guizhou: Stop pretending, Xiao Cheng, hurry up and call me uncle.

　　Cheng Fox: ...?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)