After finishing the noodles and resting for a bit, Song Qiuyu took out her warm gloves and put them on.
She opened her umbrella again and walked out with Jiang Xiao and the others.
The wind and snow had grown heavier. Just brushing against the snowy wind left quite a few snowflakes on their bodies.
After walking a while longer, Jiang Yingxue turned to look at Song Qiuyu and blinked. “Let’s hurry, it’s just up ahead.”
“Okay!”
Song Qiuyu smiled gently and nodded.
After responding, she took a deep breath and clenched her hands.
Her mind involuntarily replayed the things she had done over the years, imagining the current state of Jiang Xiao’s home.
Even though she had tried to ask Jiang Xiao on the way, it seemed there were some things even he was unsure of anymore.
She knew very well that this was all because of her. She balled her fists; she wouldn’t run away anymore.
Finally. She was about to face Jiang Xiao’s family.
Stealing a glance at Jiang Yingxue — who was a bit eccentric but generally easy to get along with — she couldn’t help but pray silently that everything would go smoothly.
As long as she could make it to this year’s summer vacation, she would be able to be a girl openly and rightfully.
Then, she could atone to Jiang Xiao’s family in the identity of Shen Xi.
A moment later, Song Qiuyu’s footsteps faltered.
She looked up, staring in shock at the great mansion in front of her. Her brain gradually began to stall.
This great mansion exuded the aura of passing time, appearing as if it had been built a very long time ago.
To be more specific, it looked like one of those four-walled courtyards in the capital.
This… This was too big!
She had only ever seen this kind of grand mansion on television! Song Qiuyu’s eyes widened.
She really hadn’t known much about Jiang Xiao’s family background before, but looking at this, had she miscalculated many things regarding Jiang Xiao? It made sense. In reality, she didn’t understand Jiang Xiao’s affairs at all. No, it wasn’t just Jiang Xiao; she didn’t know much about anyone around her.
“Old Jiang, are you actually a rich second generation?” At this moment, a look of bewilderment appeared on Xie Zhuran’s weather-beaten face. He looked at the two stone lions in front of the mansion and spoke.
“I’m not, I don’t have that, don’t talk nonsense!” Jiang Xiao immediately retorted.
“At most, we are a well-off family,” Jiang Li added expressionlessly.
“Then?”
Xie Zhuran tried to look for other houses near the great mansion.
Song Qiuyu chose to believe them, trusting that Jiang Xiao and his sister wouldn’t lie at a time like this.
When she noticed her own dad and mom looking around as well, seemingly following Xie Zhuran’s lead to find another house, she felt like she was about to lose it.
There were many houses of various sizes nearby, but the problem was that Jiang Yingxue had already brought them to the front door.
“Hahaha! My fault, my fault! It’s the first time any of you have been to our home. I should have told you on the way!”
After saying that, Jiang Yingxue had them follow her into the mansion. As they walked, she gave a brief overview of their family’s situation.
It turned out this great mansion was left behind by their ancestors, who were businesspeople and had once been extremely wealthy.
They were still quite rich during their grandfather’s generation, but because the building where they did business was destroyed in a fire, the family’s fortune had declined since then.
Now, they were just at the economic level of an ordinary well-off family.
After listening, everyone had their own thoughts. Song Qiuyu held her breath, stealing glances at Jiang Xiao beside her.
For some reason, she suddenly really wanted to hold his hand.
She clenched her small hands, moving her long legs as she pretended to look around casually, pondering in her heart.
The environment inside the mansion was very serene, with bamboo, trees, various flowers, and even goldfish.
Perhaps the Jiang family members were the type who preferred quiet and were more conservative.
Recalling what Jiang Xiao was like back in middle school, she became even more certain of her judgment. A vision of Jiang Xiao’s mom’s face from a parent-teacher meeting even surfaced in her mind.
She should be an elegant and dignified woman with exceptionally beautiful hands.
“Brother Yu —”
Suddenly, a little potato popped out from somewhere and hugged Jiang Xiao’s thigh. This little potato could only be Jiang Yu.
Seeing this, Song Qiuyu held her breath again, her hands clenching tighter.
She looked in the direction the child had run from.
Sure enough, two figures were standing there, a man and a woman.
The man was tall with a cold expression, and the woman was slender with a refined temperament.
If she hadn’t guessed wrong, they must be Jiang Xiao’s parents.
Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat. Feeling a bit guilty, she lowered her gaze and furrowed her brows, swallowing hard. ‘It’s fine. I’m only here as Song Qiuyu this time. I can’t let any flaws show!’
“Jiang Xiao, are those your parents?” She took a shallow breath, tilted her head toward them, and poked Jiang Xiao’s arm to confirm.
“No,” Jiang Xiao shook his head.
“Then they are?”
Song Qiuyu was startled.
“That’s my uncle and aunt,” Jiang Xiao said calmly.
Hearing this, Song Qiuyu’s pupils trembled slightly. She subconsciously glanced at Xie Zhuran and pursed her lips.
Because her own family didn’t have many relatives, she had overlooked a problem.
Jiang Xiao’s family might not just consist of an aunt, grandparents, and parents… There were a bit too many people to face now.
Jiang Xiao’s uncle and aunt both had dark expressions, appearing less easy to talk to than Jiang Yingxue, as if they didn’t particularly welcome their arrival.
However, after Jiang Xiao took the initiative to speak and greet them with a smile, the ice in their eyes seemed to melt in an instant.
Song Qiuyu could clearly see complex emotions on their faces. They were obviously — shocked by the change in Jiang Xiao.
This shock continued to appear on the faces of the Jiang family members, including Jiang Xiao’s actual parents.
Jiang Xiao’s mom was named Hua Shuying.
Just as in her memory, she was elegant and dignified, with a pair of very beautiful hands.
She was similar in age to Song Qiuyu’s own mother, but clearly much more composed.
Her whole being radiated the kind of reliability that suggested she could hold up the sky with her hands even if it fell.
Jiang Xiao’s dad was named Jiang Rongxuan.
He wore a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose, and the vertical frown lines between his brows were deep.
At her first glance of him, Song Qiuyu thought of the deans at every school; her body involuntarily tensed up, feeling uneasy.
The parents looked at their own children and then moved their gaze to her, their eyes becoming profound. Moreover, it wasn’t just them; everyone from the Jiang family in the room was looking at her.
“…”
Song Qiuyu clenched her small hands.
The pressure was so explosive that she truly felt like she was sitting on a bed of needles. ‘Don’t just look at me and not say anything. It’s terrifying.’
This immense pressure also fell upon Su Luo and Song Zhaoye.
Because they were aware of what their own child had done and knew the source of all the trouble lay with them, they couldn’t help but become restrained as well.
Additionally, since they were guests from afar and were only here as family members of a classmate, they couldn’t speak before the hosts did.
If it were an acquaintance or an ordinary family, it might be fine, but looking at the decor style of this great mansion, the Jiang family definitely placed high importance on etiquette.
Su Luo and Song Zhaoye had no choice but to keep their mouths shut and wait for the Jiang family to speak first.
However, they weren’t completely suppressed by the atmosphere; they were secretly observing everyone’s reactions.
They needed to judge from the overall performance of the Jiang family whether they could actually marry their daughter into this family. Once this thought emerged, the already heavy atmosphere became even more solemn.
Even Xie Zhuran felt like he was about to stop breathing.
He had originally thought Jiang Xiao was just a bit aloof and cold at the start of the semester, but looking at it now, the situation in Jiang Xiao’s home seemed even more complicated than he had imagined.
The way they looked so shell-shocked made it seem like Jiang Xiao had been a broken stone when he left and returned as a piece of crystal-clear jade!
And why was none of them talking? Why were they all staring at Old Song? Old Song’s parents were also acting a bit strangely in a way he couldn’t describe. ‘What on earth is going on?’
In the atmosphere he deemed eerie, he held it in for a while until his scalp felt numb, and then he had a sudden inspiration.
“Uh, well,” Xie Zhuran spoke up. “Uncle, Aunt, is it possible that you also think of Old Song as a girl and have misunderstood his relationship with Jiang Xiao?”
In the crowd, someone suddenly sighed. Immediately afterward, expressions of disappointment and regret surfaced on the faces of the Jiang family members.
This Song Qiuyu was quite good-looking and seemed like a well-behaved child.
Most importantly, he was truly devoted to Jiang Xiao.
When Jiang Xiao ran into trouble, he really helped regardless of the cost.
If it weren’t for this child this time, there was no telling how much more time Jiang Xiao would have wasted in the shadow left by that bad woman, Shen Xi.
His whole life might have been ruined by Shen Xi.
‘Such a wonderful child, yet he just happens to be a boy who can’t give birth…’
“Everyone, please sit. Don’t just stand there,” Hua Shuying said to the four people from afar and her own children, smiling with a gentle voice.
As soon as she said this, all six of them nodded and sat on the sofas, still carrying some restraint.
After sitting down, Xie Zhuran breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at his two roommates, whose complexions had clearly improved, he couldn’t help but feel secretly lucky.
‘Good thing I came. Otherwise, I don’t know how much longer they would have stood there like that.’
At this thought, he shot a look at his two roommates.
Song Qiuyu and Jiang Xiao both clearly read the meaning of that look. It was three words: ‘No need to thank me.’
Seeing this, they suddenly felt a bit nostalgic for their former roommate who was always a bit of a goofball, rather than the weather-beaten, mature, and reliable roommate in front of them.
Afterward, the room full of people finally began an official conversation.
Su Luo and Song Zhaoye also gave the gifts they had brought.
Even if the content of the conversation was trivial, the Jiang family’s gratitude for the change in Jiang Xiao was always apparent in their words.
Because of this, the pressure on four of the people continued to increase rapidly.
After all, the more grateful they were now, the more furious they would likely be when they found out that this person they were grateful to was the same person who had created the shadow in the first place.
Even with the immense pressure, they all kept smiles on their faces.
Just as they were all chatting nicely, three sets of footsteps approached from outside.
In a way Su Luo could never have imagined, they crashed straight into her field of vision, causing her to stand up from the sofa in fright.