Chapter 472: She Is Not My Adopted Child
“But it’s already nine and I have an important meeting…” Sheng Xiao answered, even as he groped Mu Qiqi little bottom. “Secretary He would be there too…”
Mu Qiqi leapt off him at that, and wrap her arms around his waist instead. “Then go…”
“Or do you want to get back in our room and do battle?”
When Mu Qiqi saw his vague smile, she released him noncommittally and muttered to herself, “The professor told me to be there early. It’s time I go.”
This silly little one… she had the guts to set fire, but not the guts to extinguish it.
***
Soon, Third Brother had left the Sheng residence with Hu Ran, but when they reached the manga hobby group, Hu Ran promptly chased Third Brother off. “Little Brother, you could go play yourself. Just come two hours later to fetch me.”
“I should accompany you here…”
“No need. I don’t want anyone bothering me when I draw… you could go play…”
Hu Ran hoped that Third Brother could seize the moment to meet his lover.
That was why she promptly closed the door after she entered the drawing room.
Third Brother did not follow her inside as she expected, but he took a seat on the bench outside the room. With a huge tree obscuring him, Hu Ran thought that he had left.
“Sis Hu, shame, shame. Everyone is saying you went to sleep with a man and would bear a silly child.”
Hu Ran was taken aback—it seems that even grade schoolers know how to tease others with such matters these days.
Still, not willing to nitpick with children, Hu Ran retreated to a corner, but the two children were relentless, and splashed color paints on her. “Idiot, you’re an idiot. My mommy said that you’re twenty years old now, and you’re still drawing manga with children. So shameless.”
Unable to bear it, Hu Ran opened the door of the drawing room, but she did not expect that Third Brother to be beneath the tree, and turned around towards her.
He did not leave?
When Third Brother found Hu Ran covered in paint, he promptly put away his phone and walk up to her. “Xiao Ran, what happened?”
“Little brother, I was bullied.” She answered in grief. “Those kids say that I’m stupid and called me an idiot.”
Third Brother walked up to her and picked her up. “You should ask for a leave, and try not to catch a cold… As for the kids, I would help discipline them since their parents wouldn’t.”
Hu Ran could not say a thing right then, because she didn’t know how she could put up an act.
Soon, Third Brother brought Hu Ran home, leading her to their new room as the servants casted them weird looks.
Thanks to Gu Ziling, their room was no different from a suite.
Of course, there was a large enough bathroom.
“Take your clothes off… can you bathe by yourself?”
Hu Ran nodded. “I can bathe by myself…”
“Then I’ll wait for you outside.”
Forbidden from soaking at the bathtub and told to taking a shower instead, Hu Ran breathed a long sigh when she remembered that Third Brother did not go off to see his former flame.
Why was that man so brain dead? She gave him such a perfect chance but he still wouldn’t take it.
After her shower, Hu Ran returned to the bedroom, where Third Brother was waiting with a towel and came to help her dry her hair. “Tell me if anyone bullies you again. Little brother will stand up for you.”
“Little brother is sad too, right?” Hu Ran asked tentatively.
“Little brother wants for nothing.”
However, it was his apathy to it all that kept him from wanting anything. Even if Hu Ran could feel Third Brother’s incredible patience towards her, there was no genuine sentiment between them—he was only shouldering his responsibility as a husband.
That was why Hu Ran suddenly turned around towards Third Brother, and reached out to touch his cheek. “If little brother is not happy, Xiao Ran not happy.”
“It has nothing to do with you. Come, dry your hair.”
“Little brother must be laughed at after marrying Xiao Ran, like the kids who laughed at me.”
“It’s fine. It would all pass.” Third Brother said nonchalantly.
“Then… do you have something you want, little brother? Xiao Ran can do magic.”
Third Brother thought about it, and chuckled self-deprecatingly. “I have nothing I want. As long as you’re happy, Xiao Ran.”
Right now, the Sheng family was treating Third Brother like normal, but Hu Ran knew that after he had married a halfwit like her, the Sheng family could not wait to leave the house, as if fearing that they would get involved with her.
If she was Third Brother, she would have been coming up with every way to torment her, let alone drying her hair so delicately like this.
That was why her opinion of this man was not wrong.
“Well, since you can’t attend your hobby group today… should we have a stroll at the garden?”
“Little brother is not working? Xiao Ran never sees Dad around every day at home.”
“The Sheng family doesn’t need me. Let’s go.”
How tragic a life could be? Third Brother’s single line: The Sheng family doesn’t need me.
Nonetheless, the both of them arrived at the garden. The sun was mild, but just as they sat on the mat they brought, Third Brother noticed Gu Ziling waving at him.
Gu Ziling approached her reluctantly and asked impatiently, “What?”
“Did you know that Grandfather sent your father to the middle-east?”
“Doesn’t Grandfather know that the region is not stable?” Third Brother exclaimed, flustered.
“It must be something important. I’m just giving you a heads up.”
Third Brother nodded and held his hips. “Thanks, Second Sister.”
“There’s another thing. Although Grandfather has let you free, he still don’t trust you—he doesn’t need you at Huang Yao, and all he wants is for no else in the Sheng family going to Sheng Xiao.”
“Right now, you have basically adopted a kid. Your whole life might pass without anything significant now.”
Third Brother turned towards Hu Ran, who was enjoying herself in the distance. “I don’t think she is an adopted child,” he replied. “The days would be worse if even myself thought of it that way.”
“Do what you like.”
The most important reason that Third Brother stayed with the Sheng family was so that Old Sheng would not give his parents a hard time. However, he did not expect that the old man would not spare them even if he stayed.
Even from afar, Hu Ran could see Third Brother’s gloomy look, and could guess that something had definitely happened to him.
Still, he said nothing even after he returned to her… He would rather suffer it all himself!
This man was such a fool.
In truth, the old man’s plans were a secret and only Sheng Kai was aware.
So why would Gu Ziling tell Third Brother so deliberately?
Perhaps, seeing others suffer was a major hobby of hers now.
After all, Sheng Kai couldn’t give her a child to strengthen her status, she could not afford to let Third Brother to repair his relationship with the old man. Even if the child Hu Ran were to bear a halfwit as well, there was a chance that the child would be born healthy and hence receive the old man’s favor.
She would have to be prepared!