Chapter 366 - Do You Want to Run Away?
Xu Moyan thought, ‘Perhaps Wei Mingli will be embarrassed by now.’
Even if he was not happy with her, with Old Master Wei by her side, he had no choice but to accept her.
Xu Moyan did not think that Wei Zilin’s father would be like this. To be honest, she did not like him even though he was Wei Zilin’s father.
It was not because of his attitude towards her, but the fact that he did this in front of the whole family. It was not appropriate, and he was not being considerate of his family members at all.
Basically, he was being selfish.
Xu Moyan thought to herself, ‘It doesn’t matter if he likes me or not.’
If he could accept her, then it would be great, but if he could not, then Xu Moyan would not beat herself up over it.
At the same time, it looked like Tian Fangyu had the same idea as her.
Ignoring Wei Mingli’s bad attitude, she turned around and asked Xu Moyan, “Moyan, Zilin didn’t tell me anything about you. I only know that you’re in advertising.”
Tian Fangyu changed a lot during the years when Wei Mingli was absent, with the biggest change being that she would not entertain Wei Mingli’s temper anymore.
If Wei Mingli was being reasonable, then she would side with him. However, if he was being unreasonable, she would just ignore him.
“Moyan has a Weibo account that teaches people how to cook. She’s quite famous online and has a lot of fans. I’ve seen everything.” Old Master Wei added.
Xu Moyan grinned. It sounded like Old Master Wei was already on her side.
Wei Zilin did not think that Old Master Wei would side with Xu Moyan so quickly. He initially thought that it would be good enough if Old Master Wei would just accept her.
“Really? I like to cook too, but somehow I can’t get it right most of the time.” Tian Fangyu smiled sheepishly. “I liked to cook when I was young, but I don’t have much talent in it so I stopped pursuing it in the end. Zilin had to eat so much of my... what do they call it on the internet? Hellish food?”
Xu Moyan could not bring herself to say it, so Wei Zilin replied, “Hellish cuisine.”
“Right, that’s it.” Tian Fangyu nodded.
“I’ll be making some dishes for lunch. You’ll get to try them then,” Xu Moyan said.
Tian Fangyu nodded her head pleasently. After a while, Wei Minghao and Wei Liqing’s families came in.
Tian Fangyu quickly got up. “Brother, Sister-in-Law, Third Brother, Third Sister-in-Law. Why are you all together?”
“We bumped into each other at the door,” Wei Minghao explained shortly.
The laugh lines at the corner of his mouth made his face appear less serious.
Xu Moyan had a good impression on Wei Minghao after Wei Zilin’s descriptions of him. Looking at him now, he looked as serious as she had imagined.
“Why are you so late? Moyan has been waiting for so long,” Old Master Wei said sullenly.
Wei Minghao and Wei Liqing were both surprised by how fond Old Master Wei was toward Xu Moyan.
They both subconsciously looked at Xu Moyan and wondered what she had done to make Old Master Wei so happy.
Xu Moyan felt uneasy. She was not sure what she had done either.
After they left, Jian Muhua asked Old Master Wei in secret, to which he replied, “It’s because this child is acting all spoilt with me. She’s such a good girl.”
When the two families sat down, Wei Minghao began, “I came out very early, but then I realized I forgot the gift for Moyan so I went back to take it.”
It was not anything expensive – just a skincare set. Since it was Xu Moyan’s first time visiting, they thought that she would feel awkward receiving expensive gifts.
Thus, Xu Moyan accepted the gift and thanked them.
Tian Fangyu also took out her welcoming gift. It was an ancient jewellery box that was about the size of a palm.
Xu Moyan accepted the gift and found an emerald bangle inside. It was dazzling, and even though she had no knowledge of precious stones, she knew that this was a secondary deposit jadeite. Therefore, it was hard to estimate the value of it.
No one had expected Tian Fangyu to give her such an expensive gift.
Tian Fangyu said while grinning, “Don’t you worry. This is a gift from my mother when I got married. She, in turn, got it as a gift when she got married. I don’t have a daughter, so I’ve decided to give this to my future daughter-in-law. This bangle has been passed down for generations. I don’t think you can buy something like this now even if you have the money. You should keep it safe.”
When Xu Moyan heard this, she felt even more stressed out. The bangle was just too valuable.
Old Master Wei did not expect Tian Fangyu to give such a valuable gift. This showed that she had also accepted Xu Moyan, which pleased him.
He smiled. “Just take it. It’s okay, we’ve already accepted you as our family. Do you want to run away?”
Xu Moyan blushed. How was she supposed to answer this question?
Everyone laughed at her reaction.
Wei Zilin took the bangle from her hands and put it in her bag. “Take it. This is how my mom is.”
Wei Mingli did not expect his wife to do this, hence his expression became glum. Nevertheless, Tian Fangyu just pretended not to see him.
Wei Liqing had also prepared a welcome gift from Xu Moyan.
Soon after, Xu Moyan realized that they were running short of time. Thus, she rushed to the kitchen to prepare lunch as Wei Zilin followed behind her.
“What are you doing here?” Xu Moyan asked. The kitchen felt small with the two of them inside.
There was a housekeeper helping her which meant that she did not really have to do anything aside from moving the spatula.
“I’m here to help you. Anything I can do?” Wei Zilin looked around. The food on the table looked delectable.
“No, you don’t have to. There’s nothing for you to do here. The housekeeper can help me, so you’ll just create trouble by sticking around here.” Xu Moyan pulled him to a corner and said quietly. “It won’t look good for you to follow me in here while I’m cooking.”
“It’s nothing. This was the Old Master’s idea anyway,” Wei Zilin said before adding, “Even if he didn’t say it, I would still come in and help you.”
“Why are you explaining things to me? I won’t blame you anyhow,” Xu Moyan mumbled.
“I’m not afraid that you’ll blame me. I know you’re fair and rational. I’m just afraid that you will think that I’m not being considerate enough.” Wei Zilin said quietly. Since he was speaking softly to avoid being overheard by the housekeeper, his head was pressed close to hers. This caused his warm breath to hit her ear while he talked. As expected, Wei Zilin saw her ears twitch when he spoke.
Stifling a laugh, he got even closer and quickly placed a kiss on her ear.
Xu Moyan covered her ear hurriedly. “The housekeeper’s here. Behave!”
Wei Zilin simply laughed at her. He did not really care.
“Don’t kick me out. I can talk to you while we’re here. Besides, the Old Master might scold me if I go out.” Wei Zilin said aggrievedly. He was acting like a small child, but his voice was still as dreamy as ever.
Xu Moyan could not do anything about him, so in the end she could only agree.
As she was frying the vegetables, Wei Zilin refused to go sit down. Rather, he chose to stand beside her and, in turn, got covered in grease and smoke.
“You’re disturbing me by standing here,” Xu Moyan said after she bumped into him while on her way to get the condiments.
“Just tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you,” Wei Zilin said.
Xu Moyan wondered how she had never noticed how stubborn this man was before.
“Are you sure you know where everything is?” Xu Moyan raised an eyebrow. She just wanted him to stay away from her.
Upon hearing this, Wei Zilin opened each cabinet door one by one, looked inside, then said to her, “Now I do.”
Xu Moyan, “...”
In the end, lunch was prepared with Wei Zilin’s help, or rather, his messing around.
After this, Xu Moyan’s dishes were all presented in front of Old Master Wei. She considered that, because of his age, he would need more vegetables, so she only made one plate of double-cooked pork slices, instead making vegetarian dishes for the rest. She did not put a lot of salt and oil in the dishes either, so they were very healthy.
The men were not so observant, but when Jian Muhua saw this, she could not help but smile.
Everyone tried Xu Moyan’s dishes first. The double-cooked pork slices were sweet and sour, but Xu Moyan added a twist to it. She added some red chillies as well as some hot peppers. The red and green of the chilli and peppers stood out amidst the golden meat. One would get hungry just by looking at it.
Xu Moyan figured that since the Old Master was getting old, he would not have as much of an appetite as he did before, so it would be good to prepare some sour food that would most likely be more appetizing for him.
She also cut out the stem of the hot peppers since the spiciest parts of the peppers were its stem and seeds. After removing this, the spiciness level would be lessened to the point that even the people with a low spiciness tolerance could enjoy her dishes.
Because of her little trick, the hint of spiciness in her double-cooked pork slices made it delicious when paired with rice.
On the other hand, the vegetarian dishes were all stir-fried or served cold with dressing. After adding the dressing, they became tasty and refreshing. Even though the Old Master’s appetite was not as good as before, he still preferred meat and other high calorie food. Because of this, he would refuse to eat vegetables.