I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

After thinking for a while about what to say, she simply put the teddy bear aside, got up from the sofa, and walked to the kitchen.

"Hey, what brings you here? Go and rest." Chen Shuo was pondering what a "yi" was when he saw Bai Xiaoqi shuffling over in her slippers. Her legs moved very slowly, making her movements seem a little unnatural.

"I can't explain it to you clearly."

Bai Xiaoqi reached out and took the soy sauce bottle from his hand, opened the lid and poured it into the minced meat. Chen Shuo, standing beside her, groaned and seemed a little unhappy, "It was supposed to be husband-made meatball soup, what's with you interfering?"

"Who told you to be the stupid Chen Shuo, who can't even cook?"

"I've never done that before, otherwise... never mind, you can help. Anyway, the name of 'Husband's Meatball Soup' changed the moment you got involved. Now it's 'Husband and Wife's Meatball Soup'."

Bai Xiaoqi's heart skipped a beat. She steadied herself and said, "We're not even married yet and you're already calling me husband and wife. You're shameless."

"Anyway, it's just a matter of the next few months."

Chen Shuo hugged her from behind, rubbing her lower abdomen through her thin gauze nightgown. "Besides, I've already ate you up. What's the big deal about calling me 'wife'? We're like husband and wife in name only, but in reality we're husband and wife. That means if you remove all those messy formalities and that marriage certificate, we're practically husband and wife, right?"

"..." Bai Xiaoqi ignored him and continued to add seasonings to the minced meat. Chen Shuo leaned over to take a look and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Come on, call me husband."

"Ah Gou".

"Call husband."

"Dog."

"Call husband."

"Bad dog."

"Listen to me, call me husband." Chen Shuo persisted, hugging her from behind and gently shaking her. "You didn't call me that last night, so call me that to make me happy."

Upon hearing the words "last night," Bai Xiaoqi suddenly felt her body go weak. She bit her lip and softly uttered two words, "Husband..."

"Hey, so good!" Chen Shuo leaned over and gave her a big kiss on the cheek, feeling an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

Chapter 268 The Father's Dissatisfaction

After resting at home for three days, when Bai Xiaoqi felt that the pain had almost subsided and she could walk naturally without the previous staggering, the two of them prepared to go to her parents' house for dinner.

However, I was a little uneasy. We've already reached a point where we're intertwined, so going over for dinner would feel like meeting my in-laws. I was mainly worried about being found out.

When I got home, the air conditioner in the living room was on, and the old man was watching the news out of boredom, while the sound of chopping vegetables came from the kitchen.

"Hello, Uncle." As soon as she entered the house, Bai Xiaoqi greeted him politely.

"Hey, you're here." Chen Jianwen pushed up his glasses. "Sit down, sit down."

Hearing the commotion in the living room, Wu Yulan leaned out to look around and waved enthusiastically, "Oh, Qiqi's here! It's been so long! Come over here and let Auntie take a good look at you."

"Mom, why don't you just take a good look at me?"

"Then come over here too so Mom can have a good look at you."

"..."

This "also" is very spiritual.

Chen Shuo leaned close to Bai Xiaoqi's ear and whispered a few words. Chen Jianwen, who witnessed all of this, frowned and his glasses flashed with a sharp light.

He thought to himself that something was off about the two of them, and they were whispering to each other in secret, especially the kid, who probably wasn't up to anything.

"Um..."

Bai Xiaoqi responded softly, calming her slightly nervous mood before entering the kitchen. Wu Yulan looked her over, smiling, "Going on a trip makes you feel like a completely different person."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Bai Xiaoqi's heart skipped a beat, and her recently calmed emotions became tense again. She stammered a few times before whispering, "No, it's not different, is it?"

"Of course you are! You've become even more radiant." Wu Yulan wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that the lines on her small face seemed to have become more delicate and charming, and her once youthful eyes now exuded an indescribable feeling.

Simply put, she has become more feminine than before.

This discovery surprised Wu Yulan. Looking at her blushing face, and recalling that a few days ago after the two returned from Beijing, the young man had specifically called to say that he had something to do and would come to her house for dinner in a few days.

Could it be that he just did *that*?

As someone who had been through it all, Wu Yulan thought about it more and more and felt it was true, but she quickly kept this guess to herself and changed the subject with a smile, "Tell Auntie, what are some fun things to do in Beijing?"

.....

In the living room, Chen Shuo sat on the sofa and took out a square peach wood board about a foot in size from the backpack he had brought. "Dad, this is a peach wood amulet for peace and protection from disasters, which we obtained from the Baiyun Temple in Beijing."

"what?"

"The peach wood amulet for blessing and warding off disasters and misfortunes, which we obtained from Baiyun Temple. You know Baiyun Temple, right? It's the ancestral home of the Quanzhen Longmen School, similar to the Celestial Master's Mansion on Longhu Mountain. Moreover, this amulet was personally drawn and carved by the purple-robed Celestial Master. It's incredibly effective. Placing this at home can bring wealth, ward off evil spirits, and even cure illnesses."

“…”

Chen Jianwen pushed up his glasses, frowned, and stared at Chen Shuo. This kid looked like a charlatan running a pyramid scheme, a purple-robed celestial master who could also cure diseases.

He felt that these two must have been fooled. Take that purple-robed Celestial Master, for example. What level is someone in Taoism who can wear a purple robe?

Such a high-ranking person, why would they bother drawing and carving some broken peace charms with blessings from a celestial master to ward off disasters? Are they just bored?

Not to mention it can cure diseases, that's pure nonsense.

Despite his disdain, the old man still readily took the peach wood board. Regardless of whether he had been tricked or not, he would treat it as a genuine gift from his two children.

"This is a rabbit figurine, one for you and one for my mom. It'll be nice to have it at home... well, it's just a lucky charm. And this is a folding fan we bought especially for you in the Forbidden City."

Chen Shuo took out a few more things from his backpack, and then opened his folding fan with a swish. On the yellow, thick fan surface were written several large characters: "I really don't know how to pamper you."

"How about it, Dad? Isn't this fan perfect for you?"

"...I'm embarrassed to even take this fan out to use." Chen Jianwen expressed his disdain for the fan, saying it was vulgar, extremely vulgar, and exceptionally vulgar.

Such a common item is probably sold for quite a high price.

It's a complete waste of money.

The old man took the fan and put it aside, then looked at the backpack over there. "You bought me a fan especially for me. What did you buy for your mother?"

"I bought a bracelet."

Chen Shuo took a square box out of his backpack, opened it, and showed it to the old man. "Look, it's made of jade."

"Let me see." Chen Jianwen was about to reach for it when Chen Shuo snapped the box shut. "You can look at it later. I'll take it to my mom first."

Before he finished speaking, he got up and rushed into the kitchen.

"..." Chen Jianwen picked up the fan and looked at it, feeling inferior to it. The bracelet was obviously much more expensive than this broken fan.

The mother had a bracelet and a broken fan, which was enough to appease her father.

The father was not convinced.

The kitchen was a bit messy, with all sorts of ingredients on the cabinets. Wu Yulan was busy working there, while Bai Xiaoqi was next to her tapping away on her phone, showing her photos they had taken on their trip. There were quite a few, and it took her a long time to look through them all.

"Hey, this group photo is pretty good. Who took it?"

"I found a woman I didn't know."

"Which photo? Let me see." Chen Shuo squeezed his head over to look. Oh, it was the one they took at Beihai Park. They thought the White Pagoda was beautiful and wanted to take a group photo, so they just randomly picked a lady who was passing by.

After the shoot, wow, the composition, backlighting, and focus were all fantastic. Then I asked around and found out the lady was a photography student, so everything was fine.

Chen Shuo's head completely blocked the phone screen, and Wu Yulan reached out and pushed his head away. "What are you doing in here?"

"Here's a gift for you. Qiqi and I bought it for you in Beijing." Chen Shuo handed over the box like a treasure. "Mom, open it and take a look. I promise you'll like it."

Wu Yulan was already beaming with joy before even opening the box, and her expression brightened even more when she opened it and saw the jade bracelet inside.

"You two are the same, always buying things recklessly and wasting money."

While grumbling, she reached out and took out the bracelet. Instead of putting it on right away, she held it up to her wrist and asked, "How much did you pay for it? Was it expensive?"

"It's alright, not too expensive, a few thousand yuan."

"A few thousand yuan isn't expensive at all. You two should keep that money instead of buying a bracelet." Wu Yulan put the bracelet back in the box, glanced around and, finding no place to put it, handed it back to Chen Shuo. "Here, take it."

"Mom, you don't want it?"

"Who said they didn't want it? You hold it for me first."

Chen Shuo came out of the kitchen with the box, went over and sat down with Chen Jianwen again, opened the box, and said, "Here, Dad, take a good look now."

The old man looked down at the bracelet, then at the folding fan beside him, and then gave him a deep look without saying a word.

Chen Shuo: "???"

Was it just my imagination? I had a feeling that Old Chen's gaze just now was a bit... like he was jealous.

Chapter 269 Something's Wrong

Around 7 p.m., after finishing their meal, the two didn't linger. With their full stomachs, they picked up their empty backpacks and headed home.

After tidying up, Wu Yulan took the bracelet out of the box and put it on her wrist, muttering to herself, "These two kids are really something, they had to buy me some kind of gift before going on vacation..."

After muttering to herself for a while, seeing that Chen Jianwen didn't react, she happily handed it to him to show him, "How about it, Lao Chen, isn't it beautiful?"

"It's fine." Chen Jianwen gave a perfunctory reply, holding his teacup and drinking tea by himself. Some people just love to show off. He knew who this person was, but he didn't say.

"What did they buy you? Just a fan?"

"What do you mean you only bought a fan?" Chen Jianwen was displeased. He looked around and reached for the peach wood board next to him. "See this? Besides the fan, this is also for me."

"what is this?"

"Good question." Chen Jianwen immediately perked up, sat up straight, and started babbling, "This is a peach wood amulet bestowed by the Celestial Master to ward off disasters and misfortunes. It was personally painted and carved by the Purple-Robed Celestial Master. Do you know what level the Purple-Robed Celestial Master is?"

"I don't know." Wu Yulan shook her head, a little confused, her mind filled with what Old Chen had just said, what blessing and disaster-repelling talisman.

"Even among the most renowned grand masters in the Xuanmen sect, there are probably only a handful in the entire country. Just imagine how precious this thing must be?"

"That must cost a lot of money, right?"

"Spend money?" Chen Jianwen pushed up his glasses and smiled contemptuously. "You can't buy something like this even with money. These two specially got it for me at Baiyun Temple."

When he said the words "especially for me," the proud old man deliberately emphasized the pronunciation, and then continued to boast.

"Do you know what Baiyun Temple is? It's the ancestral temple of the Quanzhen Longmen School, the highest-level Taoist temple in Taoism. To put it simply, it's like Tsinghua or Peking University among universities. Don't be fooled by its unassuming appearance; at first glance, it's just a nice wooden plaque. But placing it at home can bring wealth and ward off evil, and carrying it on your person can protect you from calamities."

"..."