After becoming a widow, I became the apple of a rough man's eye.

As soon as the car door opened, Li Dongye jumped out first.

Ignoring the lingering vibrations in the car, he turned around and reached out to the passenger seat, his posture more like waiting to pick someone up than helping them up.

Lin Qingqing ignored the hand. She grabbed the car door frame with one hand and jumped out.

My feet had barely touched the ground when my legs were still a little weak and my body swayed.

Li Dongye clicked his tongue, stretched out his long arm, and casually reached out to put his arm around her shoulder: "Slow down, cousin, why are your legs shaking? Did you bounce too hard just now?"

His words were loaded with meaning, deliberately spoken for the two door gods at the entrance to hear.

Lin Qingqing ducked down, like a slippery eel, and slipped right under his arm, quickly walking towards the courtyard gate.

Li Dongye missed his target, chuckled, put his hands in his pockets, and whistled at the two men with dark faces at the door: "Big brother, second brother, what's with that look? Don't you welcome me home? Or don't you welcome me taking my cousin for a drive?"

Xiao Yong stood at the front, his hammer still in his hand, the black grime on it not yet wiped clean. He stared at Li Dongye's nonchalant attitude, puffed out his cheeks, and threw the hammer to the ground.

He strode over, and before Li Dongye could even pull his hand out of his pocket, a thick arm grabbed his neck.

"Fourth brother, you've been breaking the rules ever since you got back!"

Xiao Yong's voice boomed like thunder, making everyone's ears ring. He tightened his grip, forcing Li Dongye to tilt his head back. "Who gave you the right to touch Qingqing like that! Is that something you can just dabble in?"

Li Dongye's face turned red and his neck bulged from being strangled, but the smile on his lips hadn't faded. He nudged Xiao Yong's ribs with his elbow:

"Second brother, be gentle...cough...I was just helping her up, can you please stop having such dirty thoughts? Besides, my cousin hasn't said anything, why are you so anxious?"

"Is that what you call helping? I could hear you calculating on your abacus from two miles away!" Xiao Yong tightened his grip, almost lifting Li Dongye up. "I think you just need a beating!"

Lin Qingqing stood to the side, unsure whether to advance or retreat.

Just then, Qin Lie, who hadn't said a word, walked over and said, "Stop fooling around."

Xiao Yong and Li Dongye, who were wrestling, froze.

Xiao Yong grunted twice, loosened his grip, but still flicked Li Dongye's forehead hard. Li Dongye rubbed his neck and coughed twice.

Qin Lie walked up to Lin Qingqing and his gaze fell on the exquisite little iron box in her hand.

"Give me."

Lin Qingqing bit her lip, hesitated for a moment, and then obediently put the face cream into his hand.

Qin Lie held the tin box, still warm from her body, and rubbed his thumb against the portraits of the two modern women on it. The tin box wasn't big; in his hand, it looked like a toy.

He raised his head and looked at Li Dongye.

Before Li Dongye could explain that it was a personal item he had bought, Qin Lie spoke up first: "This is a nice item."

As he spoke, he stuffed the metal box directly into his shirt pocket, the movement as natural as if the thing had always been his.

"Her skin is delicate, so she needs these kinds of products. From now on, you don't need to worry about these delicate tasks; the money will be paid for from the family's public account."

This one sentence directly transformed Li Dongye's "private exchange" into "official business."

The gift was still the same gift, but its nature had changed. It had become a gesture of care from the head of the household to the women of the family, and Li Dongye was no longer involved.

Li Dongye's smile froze for a moment, then he resumed his nonchalant demeanor, shrugging: "Sure, whatever you say, big brother. As long as my cousin is comfortable using it, that's all that matters."

At this moment, Jiang He, who had been hiding in the back, slowly walked over.

He was carrying the fabric and sandals he had bought for Lin Qingqing, his hair was messy from the wind, and he looked particularly harmless.

He walked to Lin Qingqing's side, stretched out two fingers, and gently tugged at the hem of her clothes.

"elder sister……"

That cry was so dramatic and evocative that it gave Xiao Yong, who was standing next to him, goosebumps.

Jiang He didn't look at anyone else, just kept his head down, his clean eyes filled with guilt:

"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have taken you out to play. Now my brothers are unhappy. Second brother was so angry just now, it must be because I didn't take good care of sister. If you want to scold someone, scold me, don't blame fourth brother."

These words cleared his name completely, while also labeling Xiao Yong as "temperamental" and Li Dongye as "being implicated." Finally, they also garnered goodwill from Lin Qingqing by portraying him as sensible and well-behaved.

Xiao Yong stared wide-eyed, opened his mouth to curse, but didn't know what to say.

After all, what the other person said wasn't wrong, and he was indeed a little unhappy. He held it in for a long time, finally managing to mutter, "Who's blaming you! I'm just angry because of Lao Si's shady dealings!"

Qin Lie glanced at Jiang He, said nothing, and turned to walk into the house.

"Come inside and have dinner."

……

The meal was ready in the main room. At a square table, Qin Lie sat in the main seat, with Xiao Yong and Li Dongye on either side. Jiang He squeezed in next to Lin Qingqing.

On the table was a large pot of stewed chicken and a pot of fish soup, which Qin Lie had brought back from the mountains that morning.

The atmosphere was a little strange. No one spoke; the only sound was the clinking of chopsticks against bowls.

Xiao Yong was a straightforward person and couldn't stand the dullness. He picked up his chopsticks, stirred the chicken in the bowl a couple of times, grabbed the biggest chicken leg, and shoved it directly into Lin Qingqing's bowl.

"Eat!" Xiao Yong slammed the bowl of rice down. "Look how skinny you are, you'd fall over in the wind. Eat more meat, gain some weight so you can give birth... no, so you can work."

Lin Qingqing looked at the oily chicken leg, but before she could say anything, Li Dongye took a soup ladle, ladled out a bowl of milky white fish soup, skimmed off the surface oil, and gently placed it next to Lin Qingqing.

"Second brother, your chicken leg is so greasy, how can your little cousin swallow it?"

Li Dongye smiled and tapped the table with the end of his chopsticks. "Come on, have some fish soup. This fish soup is good for your complexion; it will make your skin smoother. Our Qingqing is already fair-skinned; after drinking this, she'll look even more like a freshly peeled egg."

Lin Qingqing looked at the chicken leg on the left and then at the fish soup on the right, and felt her stomach starting to feel bloated.

"Sister, watch out for the thorns."

Jiang He's voice rang in my ears.

He didn't even bother to eat himself; he was looking down, intently picking out the tiny bones one by one from a piece of fish belly meat.

With meticulous movements, after removing the bones, he gently placed the snow-white fish meat into Lin Qingqing's bowl, which then covered the chicken leg.

"This piece of meat is the most tender. I've tasted it, and it's not fishy at all." Jiang He smiled at her, revealing two small tiger teeth. "Sister, eat quickly, it won't taste good when it gets cold."

Three men, three pairs of chopsticks, piled up the small bowl in front of Lin Qingqing like a small mountain.