Mind reading saves the whole family; I'm firmly in the role of a charlatan.

Chapter 98 Is this fate?

Upon hearing this, the banquet hall fell silent. Many of Du Anrao's relatives, who had been secretly observing him, widened their eyes in unison, looking as if they had seen a ghost.

Du Junyan and his companions had anticipated this, and they secretly noted down the expressions of these close relatives and friends who had changed, planning to visit them one by one to "catch up" later.

Among this group of people, the one who was most affected was the fifth uncle who was standing in front of Du Anrao. He was the youngest son of Du Anrao's second grandfather and was a full twelve years younger than Du's father. Because the elders in the family had been deceived by some swindlers, they deeply hated those so-called extraordinary people and events.

He looked completely dazed, as if he were dreaming: "This...she..."

Mr. Du grabbed the hand that was pointing at Du Anrao and said with a faint smile, "The two children look very alike, don't they? Although they didn't grow up together, their appearances and personalities are very similar as they grow up. It's hard to say that it's not fate."

Fifth Uncle was taken aback for a moment, but he wasn't stupid. He could tell that his elder brother didn't want him to break the ice, so he chuckled awkwardly, "Yes, yes, it really does look alike."

Du Anrao looked on with a face that he could not bear to look at.

[Dad, how can you lie through your teeth without batting an eye? Putting aside my and Fourth Sister's personalities, who in their right mind would categorize a sweet girl and a mature woman together? You've even left Fifth Uncle speechless.]

Upon hearing this, Fifth Uncle's face twisted again. He thought to himself, "I'm not speechless because of your father, but because I'm scared by this little brat!"

Seeing that the initial exploration had yielded preliminary results, and to avoid any unforeseen complications, he quickly gave Du Yuxi and the others a look, telling them to take Du Anrao away for a while, while he and the Du Junyan brothers took their fifth uncle and others to entertain other relatives.

According to Du's father and others, the relatives who were able to hear Du Anrao's thoughts were basically on good terms with their family, and most of them were Du Anrao's elders, of good character and upright conduct.

This also proves that their previous guess was correct: people who harbor malice towards Du Anrao and have bad character, even if they are related to her, cannot hear what she is thinking.

With this condition in mind, the Du family members finally felt a little relieved.

After a brief silence, the surrounding chatter resumed.

Some people chose to remain silent and observe the situation, while others, seeing Mr. and Mrs. Du acting separately and deep in thought, wisely took the lead and went to find out what was going on from the three members of the Du family.

Of course, a small number of people chose to approach Du's mother and her group directly, but they didn't immediately point the finger at Du Anrao and arouse her suspicion. Instead...

"What exactly is going on? How come you have another daughter all of a sudden? Did you have twins back then?"

The woman who spoke was in her early fifties, wearing a long black dress. She was slightly plump, with a round face, and looked very auspicious.

At this moment, she stood in front of Du's mother, arms crossed, chin slightly raised, looking arrogant, but for some reason Du Anrao was reminded of the heterochromatic Persian cat next door that liked to take walks in their area every day.

[Am I just imagining things? Why does the second half of that auntie's sentence sound a bit... sarcastic?]

Du Yuxi, who was very familiar with the person in front of her, almost burst out laughing. Du's mother also couldn't help but chuckle. Only Ruan Xiuru's expression stiffened slightly. She wanted to lash out but had to hold back, feeling extremely frustrated.

After Du Yuxi lowered her head and laughed, she quickly pulled Du Anrao aside and whispered, "This is Fourth Aunt."

"Fourth aunt?"

"Yes." Seeing that Du Anrao was still a little confused, Du Yuxi quickly continued to explain.

"Fourth Aunt is Fourth Uncle's wife. Fourth Uncle and Fifth Uncle are both Second Grandfather's sons. Our great-grandfather had a total of four children: our grandfather, Second Grandfather, Third Grandfather, and Fourth Grandmother. Grandfather only had one son, Dad. Second Grandfather also had four children: Second Aunt, Third Aunt, Fourth Uncle, and Fifth Uncle. As for Third Grandfather, he only had one son, Aunt Lian Shuang."

Du Anrao was stunned for a while before he figured out the relationship between the person in front of him and them: "Actually, the relationship is quite close."

"It is quite close. It's just that Second Grandma is from Y Province. After Second Grandpa married her, he volunteered to go to Y Province to expand the company's business, and eventually settled down there. Now, most of my aunts and uncles also live in Y Province. We don't see each other much, and we only get together during holidays. It's not like Aunt Lian Shuang, who comes to visit us from time to time." "I see." Du Anrao nodded, then glanced at Ruan Xiuru, who was talking awkwardly with Du's mother not far away. "But I feel like Fourth Aunt and Mom seem to have some kind of conflict."

Du Yuxi seemed to have thought of something and laughed even harder: "They don't have any conflicts, they're just too familiar with each other."

"Too familiar?"

"Yes, Mom and Fourth Aunt were elementary school classmates. Fourth Aunt's family and Grandpa's family were neighbors. They practically grew up together. They were the same age, went to the same school, and were even in the same class occasionally. Inevitably, their parents would compare them. From small things like hobbies, weight, and height, to big things like school grades, education, and jobs, they compared almost everything."

"...So who wins and who loses?"

"Both sides have their wins and losses, but Mom probably wins more." Otherwise, Aunt Si wouldn't be so full of fighting spirit every time she sees Mom.

"I thought we could put an end to the conflict after graduation and starting work, but I never expected that Mom would take a fancy to Dad, and my fourth aunt would take a fancy to my fourth uncle..."

Du Anrao: "..." Ah, this is hard to judge. Should she sigh and say: This is fate?

"And then they competed again?"

"Compare husbands, children, children's studies, and... the number of children."

Du Anrao was full of questions: "The number of children?"

"Correct."

Du Anrao: "..." No wonder Aunt Si sounded sour when she mentioned that their family had another child.

How many children did Fourth Aunt have?

Du Anrao originally thought that Ruan Xiuru must have had three or four children, which is why he was so concerned about their family having another child.

Unexpectedly, Du Yuxi's answer was quite surprising: "One, Fourth Aunt only gave birth to one."

"one?"

"When my fourth aunt gave birth to my cousin Hongyun, she had a difficult childbirth and damaged her health. My fourth uncle felt sorry for her and didn't want her to have any more children. However, my fourth aunt adopted an orphan from a family that had been a close family to her grandfather's generation as her youngest daughter, so their family actually had two children."

"Oh, I see." Du Anrao listened to the gossip while stuffing juice into his mouth. Halfway through, he suddenly remembered something, and his eyes widened. "Wait a minute, what did you just say was the name of Fourth Aunt's brother?"

"Um, Du, Du Hongyun."

"What about her adopted sister?"

"It seems her name is Zixuan, Du Zixuan."

Du Anrao: "..."

[Good heavens! I never imagined that the wildly popular pseudo-incestuous romance novel about a pregnant woman running away with her baby actually came from Fourth Aunt's collection!]

Ruan Xiuru, who had just been talking to Du's mother about Du Anrao's situation, was left speechless. "What orthopedics? They don't own a hospital, so where would they get an orthopedics department?"
(End of this chapter)