Break out of the courtyard

"Did you bring those five cars parked outside?"

Xie Jia, the future father-in-law, had just returned. He glanced at the mountain of gifts piled on the dining table and asked a question with a stern face.

Zhang Long and Zhang Hu were still being questioned by their sister-in-law Cheng Bei when they were suddenly asked questions by the newcomer. Their minds were in a mess as they tried to guess who the newcomer might be while also wondering what was going on with the car outside.

"dad!"

Xie Wan and Xie Ting spoke up in time, relieving Zhang Long and Zhang Hu of one more thing to think about.

Then Zhang Long and Zhang Hu stood up, first greeting "Hello, Uncle," and then Zhang Long spoke:
"Are those cars blocking the way? I'll call them right away and have them move."

Xie Jia's stern face softened a little as his two daughters held his hands, but he still glanced at the Zhang brothers out of the corner of his eye.

Judging from Zhang Long's self-questioning and answering, this kid cleverly defused Xie Jia's problem, avoided getting caught up in it, and quickly turned the tables.

Listening to what he's saying on the phone now, telling Captain Lü to drive the car away first and to call them over again before leaving, it's not hard to see that this guy has even patched things up.

When Xie Jia saw the five black Peace sedans and the men in matching black clothes inside, he guessed that Zhang Long and Zhang Hu were at his house, and then he came up with the question at the beginning.

If the two brothers honestly answer "yes," then Xie Jia will have to give them a serious talk about what it means to be low-key and what it means to have influence, and give these two brothers a good talking to!
But after hearing Zhang Long's answer and his subsequent response, Xie Jia, the future father-in-law, couldn't help but start thinking about how to handle the two brats who were about to steal away his twin daughters!
"Is this Zhang Long and Zhang Hu? Please sit down! Please sit down!" He Fang, who hadn't heard what was coming from inside, walked in with a smile.

The couple had already discussed who would play the bad cop and who would play the good cop outside the door.

"Hello, Auntie, I'm Zhang Long!"

"Hello, Auntie, I'm Zhang Hu!"

The two brothers greeted each other politely and then sat down.

He Fang, the future mother-in-law, quickly glanced at the changes in the room and exchanged a lightning-fast look with her lover Xie Jia. They both vaguely sensed the sharpness of the Zhang brothers, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu.

When the two brothers greeted Xie Jia earlier, they simply said "Hello, Uncle" and seemed rather reserved.

But when He Fang appeared and warmly invited them to sit down, the two brothers began to introduce themselves, clearly showing a different approach.

It's not hard to see that if Xie Jia had continued to say something inappropriate, the two brothers might have had other ideas.

Xie Jia and He Fang asked themselves honestly, their two daughters weren't as pretty as the Hong Kong actresses in the magazines. Their chubby faces were at best just average-looking.

Considering what Xie Wan and Xie Ting said when they got home, that none of the Zhang siblings were dating or were having affairs, one can imagine that the children in this family are very picky about their partners.

Even though He Fang had already noticed the difference between Zhang Long and Zhang Hu in her reply, she still didn't discover any further discrepancies.

When Zhang Long and Zhang Hu introduced themselves to their sister-in-law Cheng Bei, they referred to them as "Little Long" and "Little Hu".

The reason for this was that when the two brothers were bored in the house, they were chatting with their sister-in-law Cheng Bei while using their spiritual energy to explore the surroundings. As soon as Xie Jia, He Fang, and Xie Qiang entered the backyard, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu discovered them.

Even though Zhang Long and Zhang Hu were somewhat flustered when they first met Xie Jia, their flustered feelings quickly turned into dissatisfaction as Xie Jia kept coming in one by one to test them.

Who wouldn't want to receive a sincere and warm welcome when visiting their future father-in-law's house?

What kind of test is this?

Sure enough, the third person outside, Xie Qiang, the brother-in-law, walked in with a serious expression. Just like his father, he didn't give Zhang Long and Zhang Hu a friendly look.

Zhang Long and Zhang Hu exchanged a smile, stood up, greeted Xie Qiang, and then took their leave.

Even before they came to the capital, Zhang Heping had asked Zhang Long and Zhang Hu how the men of the Zhang family would react if Zhang Nuo brought her boyfriend home to meet her parents.
Should we teach that brat a lesson? So he won't bully my sister in the future!

Conversely, if Zhang Long and Zhang Hu visit their future father-in-law's house for the first time, will they be deliberately made difficult? How should they deal with it?

Today is a workday. Xie's eldest sister-in-law, who was supposed to go out to buy groceries and prepare dinner, gave up her intention to go out after being kept away by Zhang Long and Zhang Hu because there was a group of bodyguards waiting outside and all sorts of complicated cosmetics usage methods.

In this way, the Xie family no longer had a reason to invite Zhang Long and Zhang Hu to stay for dinner.

This meeting has come to a simple end.

As for the gifts, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu simply said that they were their family's token of appreciation and none of them were valuable items, and then let it go.

If the Xie family didn't want to marry off their daughter, they would absolutely refuse to accept these gifts, but unfortunately, they really wanted to marry off their daughter.

After Xie Jia and He Fang watched Zhang Long and Zhang Hu leave the backyard from their own doorway, Xie Qiang and Cheng Bei accompanied Xie Wan and Xie Ting to see them off at the courtyard gate. Only then did the Xie family close the door and talk to each other.

“Dad, you didn’t go out just now, so you didn’t see the state of those bodyguards.”

"As soon as the two boys stepped out, two groups of people rushed out from both ends of the alley and surrounded them."

"I thought he was some clueless street thug, but I didn't expect him to be a bodyguard from the Zhang family."

At this moment, Xie Qiang was nowhere near as serious as when he entered the door; he looked like a gossipy spectator who had seen something extraordinary.

If his wife, Cheng Bei, hadn't tried to signal him with her eyes but it didn't work, and hadn't pulled him back a couple of times, Xie Qiang probably would have said something more.

In the short time it took to say that, Xie Wan and Xie Ting had already sat down in a corner of the room and started wiping away their tears, while He Fang was comforting the two girls.

“Every time we go to their house, no one gives us a hard time! If you do this, what will we do in the future…”

"Grandma Zheng and Grandpa Hua were very polite to Brother Long and Brother Hu, but you guys acted like officials and put on airs!"

"If you hadn't said you wanted to meet, they would still be doing experiments with Uncle Zhang right now, and they wouldn't be here to see your sullen faces!"

Seeing that the two maids' complaints were getting louder and louder, Xie Jia, who was sitting by the window near the door, gave his eldest son and daughter-in-law a wink.

The next second, Xie Qiang and his wife went to the corner to comfort Xie Wan and Xie Ting.

After his wife had tried to persuade him for a while, Xie Qiang finally spoke up from the side, "Sis, didn't you say there were Zhang Long, Zhang Hu, and older and younger sisters?"

"Just you wait and see! When their older and younger sisters bring their partners home, their family will do the same thing as ours."

Meeting Xie Wan and Xie Ting's teary-eyed, questioning gazes, the eldest brother, Xie Qiang, chuckled and said, "Do you think those two rascals, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu, didn't expect our family to give them a hard time?"

"Your sister-in-law took the afternoon off to stay home and cook dinner to entertain the two of them."

"And then, to prevent us from establishing our authority, those two boys spent the whole afternoon talking to your sister-in-law about cosmetics, keeping her from cooking dinner; and then, as you saw, as soon as Mom, Dad, and I got back, they made up an excuse and ran off!"

"Let me tell you, those two rascals are incredibly cunning. They're probably still gloating over successfully dodging our family's challenge."

"They certainly won't think, as you fear, that Dad and I gave them a hard time, and then get angry and take it out on you."

"If you don't believe me, call them now and ask them where they're planning to eat."

"If they're planning to go to a restaurant, it means they're in a great mood; otherwise, it means they're in a bad mood."

Xie Wan and Xie Ting were persuaded by their older brother's words to take out their phones, but instead of making calls, they sent QQ messages.

He Fang glanced at her eldest daughter-in-law, and the two silently stepped back, leaving their eldest son to continue fooling the two silly girls.

With so many bodyguards with them, could Zhang Long and Zhang Hu really afford to eat at a small restaurant on the street? Cheng Bei ate a biscuit his son handed him, then went to boil water and mix the seasonings, waiting for the noodles to be cooked.

He Fang walked to the dining table, closed the lid of the tin biscuit box that had already been opened among the pile of gifts, and glanced briefly at the manufacturer information printed on the tin box.

As she sorted through the gifts, she would glance at the manufacturer's information every time she picked up a different gift.

"Mom, what are you looking at?" Cheng Bei, the eldest daughter-in-law, came over and helped move the gifts off the table.

He Fang frowned slightly and said, "I'm looking at these gifts to see if they're products from the Peace Group."

"Why are you looking at that?" Cheng Bei didn't understand her mother-in-law's thoughts.

He Fang patiently explained, "If they are all products of the Peace Group, it means that the value of these items can be calculated based on their cost price."

“Those three silver-white suitcases next to us, the OEM price for Tingmei Luggage Factory is around 400 US dollars, but the selling price overseas is as high as 50,000 US dollars!”

"50,000! And it's magnesium?" Cheng Bei looked at the three suitcases filled with gifts in astonishment, then glanced at the neatly stacked gifts beside them. "And these..."

"Go get me a notebook and pen. I need to write down the value of these gifts, and I also need to think about how to reciprocate!" He Fang's tone was somewhat helpless.

The eldest daughter-in-law, Cheng Bei, also wanted to know how much these gifts were worth, so she quickly took her son's paper and pen and handed them to her mother-in-law.

Just as He Fang finished her work and sat down on a chair by the window with a frown, whispering to her husband that the cigarettes and alcohol were worthless but the five sets of toiletries were a bit expensive, Xie Wan and Xie Ting's anger subsided, and they were called to the dining table by their sister-in-law to eat noodles.

“The current magnesium-to-yuan exchange rate is 1 to 8.3. Even at cost price, those gifts would cost close to 30,000 yuan,” He Fang said with a worried expression. She had no appetite for the noodles her eldest daughter-in-law had placed on the coffee table in front of her.

"The two girls sent back quite a bit of their wages. Do you think we could use some of it?"

Xie Wan and Xie Ting have been working at the World Advanced Technology Research Institute for so long, and they have both become assistants. The combined monthly salary they send home is more than 10,000 yuan.

They've saved over 300,000 yuan in the past three years, which can be considered their dowry.

Xie Jia shook his head, holding an unlit cigarette, and slowly said, "Returning a gift isn't about how much money you have!"

"The gifts that the Zhang family sent this time were not only for us, but also for the second son and his family who were not at home."

After being reminded by their sister-in-law, Xie Wan and Xie Ting, who had just finished eating noodles, realized that their parents were worried about how to return the favor.

……

After having dinner with their bodyguards and driver, Zhang Long, Zhang Hu, and Zhang Hu returned to their home on the north bank of Houhai Lake.

Because there are limited rooms available, only four bodyguards were allowed to stay here, while the others stayed at the Capital Hotel as usual.

By the way, the suite at the Capital Hotel is still being rented.

Tang Xin sent a video chat invitation right on time, inquiring about the situation in the capital.

However, after hearing about her two sons' evening plans, she frowned and asked, "Didn't they invite you to stay for dinner?"

"Mom, it's Monday today, their parents and older brother have to go to work!" Zhang Hu tried to defend Xie Ting's family, but he didn't mention that the two brothers had been keeping their sister-in-law from cooking dinner.

When Tang Xin heard that he was using work as an excuse, she changed the subject, "Have you asked about meeting each other's parents?"

"No!" Zhang Hu retorted, "We were too nervous at the time and forgot to ask."

"Alright! You two should get some rest and not stay out too late." Tang Xin was clearly dissatisfied with her two sons' answer.

But then she remembered that the Xie family hadn't invited her two sons to stay for dinner, and she couldn't help but feel a little resentful.

After all, Tang Xin had never mistreated the two Xie girls when they were in Shenzhen.

Sometimes, a perfectly good thing can turn into a bad thing because of one small misunderstanding or another.

Fortunately, the Xie family knew that Zhang Long and Zhang Hu would be returning to Shenzhen for the Chinese New Year, so the next morning they sent Xie Wan and Xie Ting over to have dinner with the two boys at a restaurant.

It was February, and the ice on the capital was beginning to thaw.

In addition, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu will be representing their grandparents and father to visit some relatives and friends to wish them a Happy New Year, so they won't have time to take the Xie sisters sightseeing.

My uncle-in-law, Chang Sheng, took a day off today to accompany Zhang Long and Zhang Hu to visit some of Lao Zhang's comrades-in-arms to wish them a Happy New Year in advance. They also visited the Cancer Treatment Institute of Xiehe Hospital to offer their condolences and gave away most of the gifts they brought from Shenzhen.

As dinner time approached, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu took two bottles of red wine and two bodyguards to the banquet.

Zhang Long wanted to pay for the meal first, but the Xie family had already taken this into account and didn't give them the chance. So he could only arrange for two bodyguards to dine in the lobby while they followed the waiter to the private room.

Hello, Uncle and Aunt!

"Brother Qiang, Sister Bei, Xiao Rong!"

As soon as Zhang Long and Zhang Hu entered the private room, they greeted the Xie family.

"This is wine that my parents made together. It has a unique flavor, and they say it can detoxify and beautify the skin," Zhang Long said, handing out two light yellow wooden boxes.

Xie Wan and Xie Ting took the wooden box and handed it to their parents.

"Mom!" Xie Wan enthusiastically promoted, "This is the red wine that Aunt Tang treasures so much, the one we told you about last time."

“When those wealthy women from Hong Kong Island visited their home, each person could only have a little bit to try.”

"Xiaolong, Xiaohu, come and sit down!" He Fang smiled and invited her two handsome prospective sons-in-law to sit down beside her.

The lights in the private room were as bright as day, much better than the dim lights at the Xie family's house last night, and allowed the Xie family to see Zhang Long and Zhang Hu's faces clearly.

After Zhang Long and Zhang Hu were seated, He Fang nodded to the waiter at the door, and then the restaurant began to serve the dishes.

"I've heard from my daughters Xiaowan and Xiaoting that your parents have amazing youthful looks, they only look like they're in their thirties. Tell me, is there any secret to their secrets?" He Fang asked casually.

Zhang Long had come with a mission, and upon hearing the hidden meaning in the other party's words, he couldn't help but laugh and say, "Auntie, your question has stumped us!"

"If you want to know, you can come to our house as a guest and ask our parents in person."

Under the table, Zhang Hu's foot was stepped on by Zhang Long, and then Zhang Hu chimed in, "Uncle, Aunt, actually our parents have wanted to invite you to visit Shenzhen for a long time, but Xiao Wan and Xiao Ting have always said that you are too busy with work."

"When do you have time to visit Shenzhen? We'll drive to pick you up then."

He Fang was surprised that these two boys understood things so quickly, and she grew to like them more and more as she looked at them.

However, she couldn't make the decision about heading south to Shenzhen, so she turned to look at her man.

However, Xie Jia's next words made the atmosphere awkward.

"I heard you have a stepmother!"

...(End of this chapter)