You are my wife, don't doubt it!

"Your father is waiting for you." Johns' voice was flat.

"I thought he was still busy at the company today." Shen Jie acted cynical.

"He should be busy with the company's affairs. Come with me."

Shen Jie followed Johns through the garden in front of her house. This overly large, classically symmetrical European-style garden really amazed Shen Jie when she first walked in, but soon after, she began to miss the old house she lived in before. Although it was relatively not very spacious, the environment was noisy, and there was no such a large yard, it was more lively in comparison.

The saplings in the garden had obviously just been pruned, with sharp edges and corners, but strangely, there were no fallen branches or leaves on the ground. The gardener, who was busy in the garden, saw Shen Jie coming back, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and showed a relieved expression.

"Miss." "Miss." "Miss."...

In just one hour, it was like traveling through a time tunnel, Shen Jie thought.

Just now it seemed like I was walking in the alleys of the 80s, but now I have come to a place that seems to be abroad.

Two worlds with such sharp contrasts are only separated by a "wall" considering the size of this city.

This place was very familiar, because it was the home she had lived in for many years, but it seemed a little strange at the moment, because there was a tense feeling in the air. All the servants and employees were in a state of nervousness and busyness, but she couldn't understand what they were busy with.

The servant Lao Li saw Shen Jie and smiled: "Miss, you are back!"

"Uncle Li, how are you doing lately?"

The news that "the young lady is back" quickly spread among the employees in the house and became known everywhere.

The tense and busy atmosphere just now seemed to disappear as the news spread, and the home gradually returned to the way Shen Jie remembered it.

Shen Jie thought to herself, logically speaking, her father should be at the company at this time. She didn't say when he would be back, so has he not been to the company recently?

It couldn't be that I was targeted as soon as I left Xiao Yao's place, right?

If that was the case, perhaps he would have already accepted Xiao Yao.

With such an ostrich fantasy in mind, Shen Jie followed Johns into the main entrance of the villa.

The one who came towards her was a Filipino maid. Because she was young, not very proficient in the language, and did not have particularly complicated interpersonal relationships, Shen Jie had a good relationship with her.

"Lisa!" Shen Jie greeted the little maid enthusiastically.

Lisa's eyes were filled with worry: "Lady, the Master is waiting for you in the studio."

She saw Johns's expression and closed her mouth again.

"Uh..." Shen Jie's heart tightened.

She sat on a chair at the door. Lisa squatted down skillfully, placed Shen Jie's right foot on her knee, and untied her shoelaces.

Then, Lisa followed the same method and helped her take off her left sneakers and put them neatly into the shoe cabinet.

Shen Jie was wearing only white hollow socks as she stepped onto the spotless hall floor.

The design of this house was done by my father himself. As he said, it is your own home that you have the final say.

The three-story grand hall in front of him was what he was so proud of. Although it was indeed as magnificent as a palace with luxurious crystal chandeliers, sculptures and other decorative elements, Shen Jie felt that the reason why her father was most satisfied was that he could overlook most of the public areas of the house from the third floor, which fully satisfied his core need to control everything.

The house only has a sightseeing elevator in one corner, which is mainly used for entertaining guests. Normally, family members go up and down the stairs by stairs, and even my father is no exception.

This is a rule set by my father himself. His original words were, "Laziness is not welcome here."

The escalator upstairs is a spiral structure. Although this kind of staircase is magnificent, it also takes up a lot of space in the house - there is enough space for Xiao Yao to live under the stairs. Shen Jie always felt that this was unnecessary, and even secretly suspected that her father made the house like this because he deliberately didn't want her grandmother to live there.

As they spiraled up the stairs, Shen Jie asked Johns: "Johns, how does my dad look? How is his mood?"

Johns replied: "I think that's hard to say."

Lisa opened the study door for the eldest lady and stepped aside.

Shen Jie took a deep breath and walked in with Johns.

"Dad, I'm back." Shen Jie said in a pretentious voice.

The walls of the study were covered with dark wallpaper covered with stripes woven from golden threads, emitting a shimmering glow, and on the ceiling was another crystal chandelier, flickering white light, illuminating the entire room.

My father was standing behind an exquisitely hand-carved wooden table with his back to me, looking at the spines of books printed in various foreign languages ​​on the bookshelf.

The antique clock hanging on the bookshelf was ticking, and next to my father was an antique chair with a woven horsehair cushion that made it more textured.

There is a huge oil painting hanging on the wall. The woman in the painting is wearing a gorgeous long dress, leaning over the desk, thinking deeply.

"Dad, I'm back." Seeing that the other party did not respond, Shen Jie said it again.

"I'm glad you're back." My father said in a gentle voice.

Shen Jie was somewhat touched and called out, "Dad."

The father turned around, and the girl saw that there were indeed some graying spots on his 3:7 split hair.

"You've lost weight—why did you cut your hair?" The father adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and changed the subject: "It seems that you haven't lost weight. Have you lost weight, Johns?"

Johns replied in fluent Chinese: "In my opinion, a little bit fatter."

Really? Shen Jie lowered her head nervously and examined her figure.

So, Xiao Yao really takes good care of himself?

"Johns." My father called the butler's name again.

"Sir." Uncle Johns stood up straight and pushed his glasses on his nose.

My father didn't say anything, just waved his hand slightly.

"Sir!" There was a hint of care and reluctance in Johns' eyes, and this time the "Sir" sounded like an advice to his master.

"Do what I told you," the father insisted.

"I beg your pardon, My lady." The amiable Uncle Johns turned around and bowed deeply to her.

Then Johns reached out and locked the study door with a click.

? Shen Jie then realized that the situation was not good.

In other words, it's very bad.

Dad, come over here.

Chapter 176 It’s not easy to be a stepmother

2023-04-29

Yu Luying, Shen Tianyun and Xiao Yao had lunch together.

Yu Luying cooked the common Shanghai cuisine of four dishes and one soup: the first was braised pork, which was bought by Xiao Yao. It was lean, but cooked with rich oil and red sauce, and the second was stir-fried sword beans. In fact, Xiao Yao bought Xiaohan beans, but he believed that they were sword beans, so Yu Luying followed his lead and made the beans fragrant and tender and crispy. The other two dishes were stir-fried shrimp and fried asparagus, both of which were delicious. Finally, there was a bowl of classic tomato egg drop soup, in which the delicious eggs and delicate tomato soup blended together, refreshing and pleasant.

Yu Luying is the chef and Xiao Yao is her assistant, and they work together in surprisingly good harmony.

However, what should have been a mouth-watering sumptuous lunch was somewhat hurtful to the attitude of Xiao Yao and his daughter in enjoying it.

Xiao Yao was absent-minded, preoccupied with something, and would glance at his phone every ten seconds.

"Did I reply to you?" Shen Tianyun asked.

"No reply." Xiao Yao said gloomily.

He switched his phone's interface to his text message inbox, then to his mobile QQ, and so on.

"Don't be too anxious. It's already come to this. Let's eat first." Yu Luying said gently: "Maybe he just got home and was criticized by his parents, so he didn't have time to reply to your message. Just wait a while?"

"Yeah," Xiao Yao said, "When she was in the taxi, she kept replying to me on QQ. Later, she told me that she was almost in the community. I asked her to take a picture of the message and send it to me. But she hasn't replied to me since then."

Yu Luying was about to say something, but Shen Tianyun said what Yu Luying wanted to say: "Maybe the young mother just doesn't want you to know where she lives, so she deliberately didn't tell you. You still want her to take pictures, and the young mother must think you are deliberately trying to get information from her, so she left you aside."

"This is ridiculous. We are already in this situation, but she still deliberately doesn't tell me where she lives. What is she thinking?" Xiao Yao said anxiously.

When she heard "We are both like this", Yu Luying raised her eyelids and looked at him.

"You're a failure as a human being," Shen Tianyun teased, "It's been so long, and you've done everything you should do, but you still can't let your mother completely let down her guard."

"Don't talk nonsense," Xiao Yao said, "I want to know where she lives. Can't I just ask you?"

"Well..." Shen Tianyun told Xiao Yao: "Our family moved to a new house later. I only lived in the place where she lives now before I was 4 years old. I don't have any impression of it. At most, I can tell you the approximate location. Besides, do you think grandpa only has one house in Shanghai?"

"There is a palace here?" Xiao Yao muttered.

He originally wanted to say “a cunning rabbit has three burrows”, but then he felt that was not a good thing to say, so he changed it to “a temporary palace”.

"Where does your mother live at this time? Can you call me and her?"

"Alright, alright," Shen Tianyun smacked her lips and said, "If he really is missing, I'll ask for you."

"Xiao Yao, don't worry too much," Yu Luying advised again: "Tian Yun is still sitting here eating well, shouldn't that be your biggest reassurance?"

"That's true..." Xiao Yao muttered casually.

"If it doesn't work, just call them?" Shen Tianyun suggested.

"No," Xiao Yao shook his head and said, "I've already told Shen Jie not to call for at least the next two days, in case your grandfather sees it and gets even angrier."

At this moment, the boy's cell phone suddenly rang, indicating that a new text message had come in.

The young man was perked up and looked hurriedly.

Then, like a deflated ball, he slumped in the chair.

"What's wrong?" Yu Luying asked him.

"Stupid cutlassfish, I'm going to kill him." Xiao Yao said.

"Hey," Yu Luying suddenly remembered something: "Do you like eating hairtail? I'll fry it for you tonight?"

"Okay," Xiao Yao said nonchalantly, "Well, let's not do that. How can we let you cook three meals a day? Let's order takeout or go out to eat."

"What does it matter?" Yu Luying smiled and said, "Cooking is my hobby."

"I agree," Shen Tianyun said in a sarcastic tone, "I can't get used to Aunt Yu's cooking. I still..."

"Eh?" Yu Luying was surprised: "Sister Tianyun... Tianyun, if you think there's something wrong with it, tell me and I'll make some improvements."

She originally wanted to call her "Sister Tianyun", but she felt that since she and her mother were sisters, this would be inappropriate; if she called her "niece Tianyun", it would seem like she was showing off her seniority, so she had to just call her "Tianyun".

"Okay, Aunt Yu told me to say this, so I'll just say it straight." Shen Tianyun stuck two chopsticks into the rice and said, "The braised pork is too woody, and it wasn't stewed long enough, so it's not flavorful. It's a failure.

"This kind of Xiaohan beans is not suitable for dry stir-frying at all, it's neither fish nor fowl. It's better to blanch it directly and mix it with cold water, failure.

"The shrimps have a fishy smell. They are not fresh. At least add some ginger and cooking wine. If that doesn't work, add chili peppers. Failure."

Yu Luying's face turned embarrassed.

Finally, Shen Tianyun took another sip of the tomato and egg drop soup and said, "This soup is so nauseating, a failure among failures! Hey, isn't salt free? Isn't our pepper free?"

Xiao Yao received another text message from China Telecom. He was already feeling irritated. Seeing Shen Tianyun deliberately picking on Yu Luying, he became furious: "Nonsense!"

This loud shout coupled with the sound of slamming the table startled not only Shen Tianyun but even Yu Luying.

Xiao Yao was so angry that he stuttered: "Have you watched too much "God of Cookery"? This fails, that fails, you know so much, why don't you cook it yourself? Can you not cook such dark dishes that people will be sent to the hospital every time?"

"If you don't cook it yourself, you can order takeout. What's so great about being able to cook?" Shen Tianyun said disapprovingly.

"What did your mother tell you when she left? You started to act up right after she left, didn't you?" Xiao Yao half stood up, leaned forward, and pulled out the two chopsticks from Shen Tianyun's bowl: "Who taught you to stick chopsticks into rice at the table? Do you have any manners? You're praying to me? Your father isn't dead yet?"

"You..." Shen Tianyun widened his eyes in disbelief and looked at Xiao Yao.

In fact, Xiao Yao is not superstitious, so she doesn't care about sticking chopsticks in rice. However, Shen Tianyun is not the only one who would take advantage of the situation to find fault.

Xiao Yao gradually got into the role, imitating his father's behavior in childhood, and knocked the unplugged chopsticks towards Shen Tianyun's head - but he didn't use any strength at all: "Yu Luying is here to help me with my studies and cook for us two, and you don't even say thank you, but deliberately find fault with me, and are sarcastic. The minimum courtesy is to be a human being -"

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Tianyun is just—” Yu Luying hurriedly tried to smooth things over.

"Okay!" Shen Tianyun also slammed the table and stood up, pretending to be in pain: "You are angry with me because of this woman, right? You are fighting with me, right? I'll let you do it this time, and next time, do you think I won't fight back?"

"You still want to fight back! You've become more capable!" Xiao Yao laughed angrily.

"You really look like a dad. You really think of yourself as a dad. Get down!" After saying this, Shen Tianyun opened the closet door and bumped into the mirror.

Xiao Yao jumped up and tried to chase him, but was hugged by Yu Luying from behind: "Dog, calm down."

The boy felt the girl's chest against his back, and her two thin arms wrapped around his waist. The anger in his heart suddenly dissipated a lot: "You...what did you call me just now? Silly girl?"

Yu Luying blushed and let go of Xiao Yao's waist: "It was a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue."

"Silly girl," Xiao Yao calmed down and said, "Don't be like her..."

"Don't call me that!" Yu Luying was so embarrassed that she gently hit Xiao Yao's arm with her pink fist.

"What does "full of daddy flavor" mean? Am I not her daddy?" Xiao Yao seemed to be talking to himself: "What does "lower" mean? I've only heard of "upper"."

Just then, Xiao Yao heard a series of "beep beep beep" sounds coming from his mobile phone.