Chapter 425: Are You Two Together Now?
“Ugh!”
The first thing Li Yi felt when he opened his eyes was the room spinning, and his head was heavy and foggy—the aftereffects of a hangover.
He lay on the kang for a while, and once the discomfort in his body had eased slightly, he slowly sat up.
He looked around and realized he was actually in his new house.
“Wasn’t I hosting a full-moon banquet for the baby? How did I end up back at the courtyard house?”
Li Yi’s memory was still stuck at the full-moon banquet—he’d completely blacked out!
But after thinking for a moment, he finally remembered: the full-moon banquet had been a huge success, with a large number of relatives and friends coming to support him.
They had originally expected sixty or seventy guests, but unexpectedly, over a hundred people showed up, which made Li Yi very happy.
During the toasting session at the end of the banquet, to express his welcome and gratitude, he refused his third sister’s suggestion to swap the wine with water and instead went around to every table with a small wine cup to toast everyone.
Although he only drank a small cup at each table, there were more than ten tables, and by the time he made his way around the entire room, he had downed nearly half a pound of liquor.
Man, with his drinking capacity—where just two liang of baijiu would send him crawling under the table—the consequences of downing that much all at once were predictable.
So, he was pretty much out of the picture for what happened afterward!
He glanced at his watch—it was already past eight o’clock!
He looked outside—it was pitch black; night had clearly fallen.
Hearing murmurs coming from outside, Li Yi got up, put on his shoes, and walked out of the bedroom.
Opening the door to the living room, Li Yi saw his third older sister chatting with his mother on the sofa, but neither his father nor Juanzi was there.
Hearing the sound of Li Yi opening the door, the two immediately stopped talking, and their eyes all turned to him.
“Xiao Yi, you’re awake. Just wait a moment—Mom will bring you some food!”
Before his mother could get up, his third older sister stood and headed straight for the kitchen next door, muttering as she went, “You really are something. You can’t hold your liquor, yet you try to prove yourself. You’ve made a fool of yourself!”
Li Yi gave an awkward smile and said, “I was just in a good mood today!”
“You can’t drink that much just because you’re happy. Don’t you know how worried your father, mother, and Xiao Xue were when they saw you crawl under the table?”
“Yeah, I won’t do that again!”
With that, Third Sister brought Li Yi a small bowl of warm millet porridge from the kitchen, along with two large white steamed buns.
“Don’t eat anything greasy after drinking—have plenty of porridge!”
“Got it!”
Li Yi then took the bowl and chopsticks and began eating heartily.
Although dinner was simple, for someone who’d been drinking, nothing could have been more comforting.
After finishing his meal, his stomach felt warm and cozy, and that queasy feeling vanished instantly.
“Mom, where are Dad and Juanzi? I don’t see them.”
“They’re at your shop!”
“What are they doing there…”
Before he could finish, Third Sister chimed in, “You just drank until you dropped, but someone’s gotta clean up the mess you left behind after your ‘adventures,’ so Dad and Juanzi stayed at the shop to help out!”
“So that’s how it is. Does that mean they won’t be coming back tonight?” Li Yi asked.
“Probably not. It’s so late—how would they get back? Don’t do anything so reckless again…”
Watching Lao San constantly nag at her son, Zhang Yuehong hurriedly interjected, “Come on, Nana. After all, it’s the baby’s full-moon celebration today—it’s understandable if he had a few too many!”
Hearing her mother’s words, Li Na couldn’t help but shake her head.
The reason her younger brother had turned into such a good-for-nothing was precisely because their mother had spoiled him rotten.
Every time the kid got into trouble outside, whenever her father and second sister wanted to discipline him, her mother and eldest sister would do everything in their power to stop them.
Over time, this had fostered the fearless, street-wise attitude of a troublemaker.
“Mom, Third Sister is right. I really was in the wrong this time!” Li Yi admitted his mistake of his own accord.
Just then, the door next to them opened, and to Li Yi’s surprise and delight, Jiang Xue walked in.
“Xiao Xue, you’re back too? I thought you’d be spending the night at the old family home tonight!”
Jiang Xue smiled and said, “This is our home, after all. I haven’t been here once since we bought it. Now that I’m finally out of my postpartum confinement, I just had to come take a look!”
No sooner had she finished speaking than Third Sister “mercilessly” exposed the lie of her best friend and sister-in-law: “Give it a rest. You’re just worried about this kid. He’s just had a few drinks—what’s the big deal? And you even called me back specifically to take care of him!”
Jiang Xue’s face flushed, and she retorted, “What? Are you blaming me for interrupting your romantic moment?”
“No, don’t say that…”
Hearing Jiang Xue’s words, Li Yi suddenly recalled how, earlier that morning when he’d gone to the kitchen to look for Long Zhanjun, the guy had given him a somewhat evasive look.
Combined with the resentful tone in his third sister’s voice just now, Li Yi immediately sensed that things weren’t looking good.
Could it be that the two of them had finally taken the plunge, and she’d actually made Long Zhanjun her brother-in-law?
“Third Sister, just tell me the truth—are you and Dalong…”
“Mm-hmm!”
“You… you two are together?” Li Yi asked urgently.
“We are together!”
Li Yi instinctively glanced at his third sister’s stomach, and Li Na, noticing her brother’s strange look, blushed and said, “What are you thinking? We’re not as quick as you and Xuexue—we’ve just made our relationship official!”
“You haven’t slept together yet?”
“No, no way!”
Li Yi breathed a slight sigh of relief; he’d genuinely feared the two of them might lose control and make things official before they were ready.
It wasn’t that he wanted to oppose them—in his previous life, both his third older sister and Dalong had ended up alone, and neither had found happiness in the latter half of their lives.
If the two of them could end up together, it would actually be a decent choice.
But Li Yi understood men well: they never cherish what comes too easily. Besides, in this day and age, getting pregnant out of wedlock could severely damage a woman’s reputation, and Li Yi certainly didn’t want Third Sister to be the subject of gossip.
Although, given his third sister’s feisty personality, she might not care about such things, Li Yi did.
So, it’s fine for the two of them to date, but it’s best not to cross that final line before marriage.
At that moment, Zhang Yuehong, who had been watching the spectacle from the sidelines, suddenly realized: Could it be that her third sister had actually started dating Comrade Xiaolong?
After the initial shock, Zhang Yuehong immediately asked, “Nana, are you really dating Xiaolong?”
Upon hearing this, Li Na instinctively lowered her head.
No matter how carefree she was, discussing her love life in front of her parents was still a bit embarrassing.
“Well, say something!” Zhang Yuehong urged.
“Um…”
Although Li Na’s voice was soft, Zhang Yuehong heard her clearly. She immediately exclaimed excitedly, “Oh my, thank goodness! You’ve finally found someone, you little girl!”
The moment those words left her mouth, everyone else in the room was stunned!
“Mom, what are you saying? Aren’t you afraid I’m being taken advantage of?” Li Na frowned.
“If he were going to deceive me, he would have done so long ago. It’s too late for me to say anything now. Besides, I can tell Xiaolong is a good fellow—you’d be lucky if he didn’t take advantage of you!” Zhang Yuehong said.
Li Yi and Jiang Xue couldn’t help but burst out laughing upon hearing their mother’s words.
That was truly their mother—no one else would understand their third sister so well.
In truth, Li Yi knew that his mother and others like her weren’t just worried about him—the troublemaker—but had also been fretting over his third sister’s marriage prospects all along, and they felt a twinge of guilt about it.
Normally, girls in the neighborhood start looking for a husband at seventeen or eighteen, and most are married by the time they’re twenty.
But their third sister was already 25 this year and hadn’t even found a husband yet.
At this age, she was already considered an “old maid” in the local community. On top of that, the Li family’s financial situation had never been particularly good, so any young man with even slightly better prospects wouldn’t even consider her.
Her parents had lost count of how many gray hairs they’d gained worrying about her marriage.
“Mom…”
“All right, this is wonderful news. We’ll find a time to make this official!” Zhang Yuehong said with a smile.
To be honest, she never imagined happiness would come so suddenly.
When she went home for the New Year, the third son hadn’t even mentioned this.
The New Year had barely ended, and yet such a major matter had already been settled—how could she not be happy?
“Mom, aren’t we rushing things a bit?” Li Na asked, blushing.
No sooner had she spoken than Jiang Xue chimed in with a laugh, “Don’t pretend—you’re dying to marry into the Long family as soon as possible!”
Caught red-handed, Li Na was instantly “flustered and angry,” and retorted, “How dare you talk to your elder cousin like that! Just you wait, I’ll teach you a lesson!”
With that, Li Na charged at Jiang Xue, and in an instant, the living room was filled with the sounds of the girls playfully wrestling…
……..