A charming widow in her 70s married a factory manager and raised his children.

Zhuang Qingxiang was terrified by Lu Congyue, fearing he might say something shocking, so she quickly pinched him on the lower back.

Lu Congyue paused.

Then, Lu Yue asked, somewhat annoyed, "Why is Mom even prettier when Daddy comes back?"

Lu Congyue coughed lightly, squeezed Zhuang Qingxiang's hand, and replied with a smile, "Because Dad treats Mom like a flower, and when she's well cared for, the flower is beautiful."

Xiao Luyue nodded as if she understood but not quite.

Zhuang Qingxiang quickly said, "Our Yueyue is a little flower too, Mom and Dad will raise her to be beautiful, okay?"

"Are the younger brothers also little flowers?" Xiao Luyue asked.

The two little kids couldn't understand, but that didn't stop them from staring at them longingly.

Lu Congyue glanced at them, his lips involuntarily pursing slightly: "Them... I guess they're passable."

"What do you mean by barely qualifying?" Zhuang Qingxiang glared at him.

Lu Congyue continued to purse his lips: "These two... they look like foxtail grass no matter how you look at them..."

Zhuang Qingxiang: "..."

This is really...

When my child isn't around, I miss them terribly; they're the most precious treasure in the world, and I absolutely can't lose them.

They've only just reunited, only spent one night together, and they've already turned into weeds...

"You're the one who's like a weed!" She shoved Lu Congyue. "Don't talk nonsense, it'll upset the child."

Lu Congyue raised an eyebrow: "Cheng Lin! Dong Hua!"

The two little kids: "Aaaaah..."

"Are you upset when people call you foxtail grass?" Lu Congyue asked.

Two little kids: "Daddy, daddy, daddy..."

Lu Congyue laughed and said, "Do you think they're just babbling or calling for their dad? Those two clueless little brats, they wouldn't be upset, would they?"

No wonder!

Besides, what's wrong with foxtail grass? It grows wildly and is robust!

"Alright, enough with the nonsense." Zhuang Qingxiang said speechlessly, "I'll go cook for them."

"I'll do it," Lu Congyue quickly said. "You've been working hard all night, go and rest. I'll take care of these little things."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Luyue immediately asked, "Mom, were you tired all night? What did you do last night? Why didn't you ask me for help?"

"It's nothing, your mother just drank too much and acted crazy, she's tired." Lu Congyue quickly made up a lie, which earned him another eye roll from Zhuang Qingxiang.

Zhuang Qingxiang was finally convinced. This guy was two-faced. He put on a serious face in public and would only respond to one out of ten things someone said, but when he got home, he loved to talk nonsense, and she could never argue with him.

"Alright, then you go and get busy in the kitchen." Zhuang Qingxiang gently nudged Lu Congyue, signaling him to stop talking nonsense in front of the children.

She was playing with her three children in the yard.

Soon, breakfast was ready. After the family finished eating, Lu Congyue had to go to work to report back from his leave.

"These past few days, your superiors and colleagues have been thinking about Cheng Lin's situation and have helped a lot. You should thank them properly," Zhuang Qingxiang instructed in a rambling manner.

"I know, don't worry." Lu Congyue said, but then stopped, turned around, scratched his head, and looked at Zhuang Qingxiang with a troubled expression.

Zhuang Qingxiang asked, puzzled, "What's wrong?"

Lu Congyue said dryly, "How much money...does my family have left? I left in a hurry, and I had to borrow all the money..."

I forgot all about these trivial things after seeing my wife last night, but I only remembered them now that I'm about to leave. If I don't bring any money to work, I'll be so embarrassed if a colleague asks to borrow money from me.

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Qingxiang quickly ran into the house and soon came out with an envelope.

"All the money and tickets at home are here. See if it's enough? If not, we'll go buy some..."

Her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper, "Sell some small yellow croakers to make ends meet?"

"That should be enough. I'll take these to return to my colleagues at work first, and the rest... we'll talk about later." Lu Congyue took fifty yuan and some food coupons and put them in his pocket.

Money is easy to repay, but favors are not.

I spent a lot of money this time, but the majority of it was borrowed from Shanghua. I need to go to the post office to wire the money back to Shanghua.

However, the Public Security Bureau and the soldiers Shang Jianjun borrowed all had to find a way to repay the favors, as well as some people he had asked for help from on the ground, and he also had to repay those favors.

After calculating, it seems like two or three hundred is too much.

Lu Congyue regretted not asking for more compensation when he thought about how he had to give away so much money for no reason because of Guan Jing and Lu Guoqiang.

"I might not be back for lunch or dinner. I'll see if everyone's free. I'll have to treat everyone..." Lu Congyue hesitated for a moment before adding, "If I'm not coming back, I'll have someone come and let you know."

"Okay." Zhuang Qingxiang quickly agreed, "Don't worry about me, you should focus on your business."

"If I'm not coming back, don't go to the alley. I'll call Peiran and ask him and his wife to come over for dinner after work. They can take a walk back afterward."

"By the way, what's Huang Yuejin's attitude like now?"

Lu Congyue kept rambling on and on, and Zhuang Qingxiang quickly called him to stop: "Go to work first, we can talk about other things after you're done. By the way, you can ask Yueyue about her transition class."

Because she was afraid something might happen to the children, Zhuang Qingxiang had been keeping both children with her and hadn't let Xiao Luyue go to kindergarten.

In just one more year, Lu Yue will be seven years old and will be a first-grade elementary school student. Children her age now have to attend bridging classes to learn some knowledge in advance.

Zhuang Qingxiang was afraid that if she didn't ask, Yueyue would fall behind in her studies if she delayed any longer.

Lu Congyue said he understood and would handle the matter well before riding his bicycle to work.

Zhuang Qingxiang closed the gate, turned around and looked at the three children playing in the yard, a smile appearing on her face.

It's great that everyone is finally together again.

The morning passed peacefully, but around noon a young man arrived, saying he was relaying a message from Director Lu that he wouldn't be coming back for lunch.

Zhuang Qingxiang quickly thanked him, then grabbed two more pieces of her homemade pastries, wrapped them in paper, and gave them to the man.

"Thanks for making this trip. I made it myself, it's not worth much, just take it and have some fun."

The man knew he shouldn't accept it, but the sweet aroma was just too tempting. He swallowed hard, took it anyway, thanked the man repeatedly, and then left.

Zhuang Qingxiang wrapped a few more pieces of the dried pastries in oil paper and took the three children to the kindergarten to find Sun Yongxian. Sun Yongxian was at the age where she was picky about food, so they could have some to tide them over when she was hungry.

Sun Yongxian was almost moved to tears, and she hugged Zhuang Qingxiang tightly, refusing to let go.

"Sister Zhuang, you still care about me the most! That bastard Shi Peiran doesn't care about me at all, he doesn't even care if I ate well at lunch!"

Zhuang Qingxiang was both amused and exasperated: "Dr. Shi will be wronged to death by you sooner or later, and he doesn't even care about you? Go ask around, which man cares more about his wife than him?"

"Brother Lu, Brother Lu takes even better care of his wife than he does," Sun Yongxian winked at her. "Everyone knows Brother Lu dotes on his wife the most now. Look at how radiant you are today, Brother Lu has been spoiling you rotten, hasn't he?"