Chapter 66 - The First Step
Chapter 66: The First Step
Grandpa Xiao had already started eating, but because he couldn’t eat anything too heavy, there wasn’t a lot of oil added to the dishes. He started with a small bowl of beef stew and started reaching his chopsticks towards the sweet and sour pork before he was stopped by Xiao Sheng.
Upon seeing a glance from the young master, the butler quickly used chopsticks to place a chestnut into Grandpa Xiao’s bowl, making the latter smile bitterly as he looked at the chestnut.
“Grandpa Xiao, eat some of this.” Gu Xiqiao used her chopsticks to take some cucumbers for him and pushed his bowl with the chestnut in it to one side. “Grandpa butler, you know about traditional Chinese medicine, right? Judging from how you knew the quality of the ginseng root I brought here last time.”
The butler nodded and replied, “That would be correct, Miss Gu, I learned some from a traditional Chinese doctor because Master Xiao wasn’t healthy in the past.”
Gu Xiqiao looked at Xiao Yun that was reaching for the cucumber with boiled eggs after she had eaten a goose wing, and reached over and held her arm in place, her expression frigid. “If that’s the case, why didn’t you know about foods that have properties that combat each other?”
The combination of goose with egg would damage their digestive system, while the other combination of foods on the table like peanuts and cucumbers as well as beef and chestnut would be detrimental to health too if eaten together. They must have already had many of these sorts of meals in the past, had he not realized that something was amiss?
“This…” The butler’s expression changed as he looked at the dishes on the table, and he couldn’t respond for quite a while.
After she said this, the table was plunged into silence. Xiao Yun and Wu Hongwen that trusted Gu Xiqiao the most immediately put down their chopsticks, while Xiao Sheng took out his phone, his expression becoming serious.
“It still taste quite good, let’s eat.” Grandpa Xiao was silent for a bit before he spoke again.
If the foods couldn’t be eaten together, they could just eat one or the other.
Everyone there was smart, and they immediately knew that Grandpa Xiao didn’t want to have the person behind this to be alerted, and they all took their chopsticks and started eating again. Thankfully, Wu Hongwen started joking and lightening the mood, or else a bystander would be able to see that something was wrong.
Xiao Yun was in a bad mood, feeling quite guilty that she had let this happen under her supervision when she was the one that invited the two to her house.
“I take it you guys are still plagued with those problems from before?” Gu Xiqiao patted her shoulder comfortingly.
“It’s almost been dealt with, but I owe you one.” Xiao Yun quickly calmed down and turned over to look at Wu Hongwen. “You too.”
“Don’t mention it, we’re friends after all!” Wu Hongwen smiled, and continued, “If you have anything you need help with you can just ask! Even though I haven’t inherited the Wu family, I can still use some people without any problems. If there’s anything you guys don’t want to do because of your family name, our family can do it for you!”
The Xiao family was purely business-oriented, while the Wu family had their fingers in all sorts of different pies, and they had connections to all sides of society, so they could do things that the Xiao family couldn’t do.
Gu Xiqiao wanted to say something too, but her phone rang at just that moment, and she accepted the call and listened for a bit, before nodding and hanging up on the call.
“I won’t bother you anymore today, so you guys focus on your problems okay? I’ve got to go.” Gu Xiqiao waved her hand in goodbye.
Xiao Yun didn’t stop her from leaving because she had a lot to deal with in her own backyard, and so she saw the two visitors off before walking back into the manor and straight to the kitchen, practically leaving a trail of ice as she walked.
She had become livelier after being friends with Gu Xiqiao, but she had become much scarier too as a result. Ever since the time that she and Gu Xiqiao were kidnapped, both she and Wu Hongwen finally understood that they weren’t strong enough, and they needed to become stronger to at least not hinder Gu Xiqiao.
Let this first step of hers to be by rectifying the Xiao family!
Yin Shaoyuan was the one that called Gu Xiqiao, and his car was stopped not far away from Xiao Manor, and the young man that had always been flawless and unbothered now had his eyebrows furrowed tightly, not knowing what to say.
Standing beside him was a young girl that was around four years old who was wearing a surgical mask and was holding a lollipop in her hand.
Yin Shaoyuan initially went to the grand opening to hold the show because not a lot of influential people went there, and his appearance had truly been useful in stopping anyone with ulterior motives. As he was leaving the scene, he saw Mu Jiatong that was sitting by her lonesome on a bench and brought her with him out of pity.
After he did, however, he had no idea how to deal with her because he had never dealt with children before, but Mu Jiatong was a nice child that had a pair of innocent eyes, along with longing towards everything in the outside world.
Yin Shaoyuan practically melted and brought her to interesting places to satisfy this longing of hers, but as she played, she started becoming paler and paler to the point where he was so worried that he got the help of Gu Xiqiao.
“Sister Gu, I missed you so much!” Mu Jiatong looked at Gu Xiqiao with bright eyes, not even blinking.
“Good girl, you can take off your mask when there aren’t a lot of people, you know?” Gu Xiqiao carried her over to sit on her lap, taking off her mask as she did. “Have you eaten yet?”
Mu Jiatong glanced over at Yin Shaoyuan as if she were undecided on how to reply, but it was clear what the answer to that question was, so Gu Xiqiao sent a withering glare at Yin Shaoyuan.
Yin Shaoyuan immediately called up his secretary to reserve a restaurant for them, explaining himself after he did, “I didn’t know what she could eat, or else I would have taken her to eat in the first place! I wouldn’t ask you for help otherwise!”
Gu Xiqiao ignored him completely and held Mu Jiatong’s hand gently, before sending a gentle, small stream of chi into her body. Mu Jiatong only felt a warmth spread through her hand into her body, and she suddenly felt much better, a healthy blush making its way onto her face as she looked at Gu Xiqiao in surprise.
“Tong Tong’s immune system is much weaker than everyone else, so she would need to be sent back to the quarantine room after being in public for too long.” Gu Xiqiao knew how scary the quarantine room could be for a child, in a place where no one could enter except for the nurses that were in charge of medicine.
“Sister Gu, I’m the one that wanted Uncle Yin to play with me.” Mu Jiatong scratched Gu Xiqiao’s hand gently, her expression serious. “Tong Tong has had so much fun today!”
Yin Shaoyuan saw those innocent eyes through the rear-view mirror, and he couldn’t help the warmth and sadness that went through his heart. “I’ll pay better attention next time, I’m sorry.”
Because the people that were with him were Gu Xiqiao and Mu Jiatong, Yin Shaoyuan didn’t take them to any strange places, but just an exceedingly normal private restaurant.
Gu Xiqiao had already eaten, so she only watched as Mu Jiatong ate.
Yin Shaoyuan sat opposite of the two girls, and while he always knew that Gu Xiqiao was a beauty, he was still attracted by her eyes that were like clear springs, and her gentle and warm expression as she looked down at Mu Jiatong.
If it weren’t for Jiang Shuxuan, he would have…
Ahem.
He stopped his thoughts even before they could take form, and thinking of this he reached over and pushed a glass of fruit juice in her direction.
In any case, it was still quite nice to have a new little sister.
“Try this fruit juice, it’s the best in N City!”
Gu Xiqiao took the glass and sipped, before raising her eyebrows slightly. It really was good.
“I’ll go get a call outside.” Yin Shaoyuan couldn’t help but smile as he saw that she liked it, but his phone suddenly rang.
Seeing who the caller was, his expression froze slightly before he accepted the call outside.