Jiang Qi was set to spend lunch all by himself with the Ke Family as Ke Yan had left home to go back to the company earlier.
Father Ke had yet to return, and oddly this gave Jiang Qi a sense of relief. For him, facing Father Ke was even more nerve-wracking than facing Mother Ke, perhaps this was because the former had no idea of the true nature of Ke Yan's relationship with him. This was why Jiang Qi was always very vigilant of being overly affectionate with Ke Yan in front of him, but when he had seen that look that Father Ke gave him, it almost felt like the latter knew something was up, and this made Jiang Qi feel immense self-guilt.
"Where's Xiao Yan?" It was only at lunchtime that Ke Shao and Chad Wang had brought Xiao Ke downstairs, and seeing only Jiang Qi at the table prompted them to ask this.
"Something cropped up at the company, he went to go deal with it." Jiang Qi answered.
"That's right, I told Jiang Qi there was no need to go back so soon, so I asked him to stay back and accompany me shopping later."
In shock, Ke Shao turned to look at Lan Ru Yin, "Ma, you had better not have something up your sleeve."
"Just hurry up and eat." Lan Ru Yin's reply did not deny anything, but only Ke Shao knew this, Jiang Qi was still oblivious to this, and Ke Shao gave Jiang Qi a look of pity.
Jiang Qi continued to dig in, his mind was completely on what was next in the afternoon. He was thinking about how he could endear himself to Lan Ru Yin while they were shopping later, but the only issue was he had no idea what to do!
After finishing the meal, Lan Ru Yin passed the car keys to Jiang Qi, asking him, "Do you know how to drive?"
"Mm, yes I do." Jiang Qi took the car keys from her and helped her get in the car.
When they had gotten out on the main road, Lan Ru Yin who had been looking at Jiang Qi while he was driving, suddenly said, "Does Ke Yan usually drive?"
"Mm-hmm." Jiang Qi nodded.
"So to get to work, you usually hitch a ride in Ke Yan's car?"
"That's right. What's the matter?" Jiang Qi had noticed how quiet Lan Ru Yin had gotten, and softly asked.
"You didn't ask Ke Yan to buy you a car?"
By now, even Jiang Qi could hear that there seemed to be a subtext to this, and he reckoned that Lan Ru Yin must be a bit pissed at the fact that Ke Yan traveled to work with him on a daily basis. Trying to explain, Jiang Qi said, "No one sees us, yeah, they also know that Ke Yan and I used to be schoolmates... Uh, I have my own savings, I don't need Ke Yan to buy one for me."
Lan Ru Yin nearly burst into laughter when she heard Jiang Qi's ramble of an explanation, and although she did manage to suppress her mirth, an awkward cough escaped her.
Jiang Qi glanced at Lan Ru Yin out of the corner of his eye, it really was hard trying to win over this Yuemu (Mother-in-law) of his...
Really now Jiang Qi, are you sure you should be referring to her as Yuemu and not Popo?
T/N: Chinese titles for mother-in-law differ according to whose mother they are. For the husband's mother, they are usually called Popo (hence you have the timeless clash of Po 婆 Xi 媳 which is basically a Chinese social occurrence where the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law don't get along) For the wife's mother, they are referred to as Yuemu 岳母.
Women love shopping for clothes, and Lan Ru Yin was no exception, the minute she stepped into the shopping complex, she headed straight for the Ladies Section.
Jiang Qi too, as he obediently followed behind her.
"Have you ever been out shopping with Ke Yan before?" Lan Ru Yin asked as she looked at a blue jacket.
"We have, but rarely, Ke Yan isn't that big a fan of shopping."
"Mmm." Lan Ru Yin then went to go try out the clothing.
Jiang Qi let out a pent up breath, he really had no idea how Lan Ru Yin felt about him, and whether or not it was good or bad.
"Alright, pack this up for me." Lan Ru Yin only tried on one piece of clothing before she stopped, calling for the salesperson to wrap it up for her.
Jiang Qi carried her clothes as she began to move again, but this time Lan Ru Yin was not headed deeper into the Ladies Section, instead, she headed towards the Men's.
"You want to buy some Menswear?"
"Mmm, I want to buy something for Ke Yan, and I need your help."
"My help? Your taste is definitely A-Ok, you don't need my help." Jiang Qi quickly pounced on the chance to butter her up.
"I had no idea you had such a sweet mouth." Lan Ru Yin giggled.
On the surface, Jiang Qi politely laughed along with her joke, inside, he heaved a sigh of relief, glad that he could finally win some favor with her.
The weather recently had gotten quite cold, so Jiang Qi had been planning on buying a sweater for Ke Yan.
On the other hand, Lan Ru Yin had set her sights on buying an overcoat.
The two of them went their separate ways, and soon Jiang Qi found himself staring at two different designs of overcoats, which one should he buy?
One of them was black in color and seemed a very good match for Ke Yan, the other was a dark navy, and Jiang Qi had no recollection of seeing Ke Yan in any coat of the same color. He hesitated for a moment before he slapped himself on the head, why should he waste time being indecisive, he could just buy both of them!
Jiang Qi called for the salesperson, giving Ke Yan's size to him so he could get the right one.
After paying for it, he went to look for Lan Ru Yin, who had coincidentally just made her purchase too.
"What color overcoat did you buy?" After spending nearly a whole afternoon together, Jiang Qi had begun to loosen up around her.
"Black and blue." Lan Ru Yin felt that black made Ke Yan look imposing yet handsome, then she had caught sight of one in blue, and suddenly a thought came to her mind, what would Ke Yan look like in blue? So in the end, she bought both colors.
"I also bought two sweaters, one black, and another one blue." Jiang Qi replied with an involuntary smile.
Lan Ru Yin was somewhat stunned, she had not expected that they would buy the same colors, and she said, "What a coincidence."
"Mmm." Jiang Qi murmured his agreement.
"We should have some tea together." Lan Ru Yin said, all this shopping had made her weary.
"Sure."
Thus, the duo went looking for a restaurant that they could have their tea in, and truthfully, the way they looked now, really felt like your average mother and daughter-in-law experience, with the daughter-in-law accompanying her mother-in-law shopping and even to tea! The only difference was, this 'daughter-in-law' was male.
In the eatery, Jiang Qi and Lan Ru Yin each ordered a slice of cake and a cup of coffee. While they were waiting, Lan Ru Yin took out the overcoat she had bought, and turned to ask Jiang Qi, "Isn't it nice?"
"Mmhm, it looks really good, wait, have a look at the sweater I got." Jiang Qi then turned around to take out the sweaters he had just bought.
Seeing as this was a rare moment where the two of them had a topic in common, so words naturally came to them and their conversation flowed with ease.
When they finally returned home, Jiang Qi made his way upstairs to rest, while Lan Ru Yin instantly parked herself on the sofa. She still had a smile on her face, and Aunt Li noticed this, which caused her to stop and ask, "Madam, you look so happy, what happened?"
"Oh, I went out shopping."
"With Jiang Qi? This child really isn't a bad person."
"Yes,..." Lan Ru Yin's voice suddenly halted, wasn't she supposed to make it hard for Jiang Qi? Why had she ended up hitting it off with him?
Lan Ru Yin's expression had turned quite a bit, she was shocked at herself, and could hardly believe she had that foolish. Still, deep down inside, she really was not that angry.
Perhaps Lan Ru Yin had yet to make this realization, but she had already slowly begun to feel some affection for Jiang Qi.
The minute Jiang Qi entered the room, he received a call from Ke Yan, "Hello, what are you doing?" Ke Yan asked this as he rubbed the space between his furrowed eyebrows.
"I just came back from going shopping with Aunty." Jiang Qi replied from the bed.
"Aunty?"
"Your mother, I also got you two sweaters."
"You went out shopping with her? She didn't try and bully you?" Ke Yan was surprised by this.
"Nope, Aunty was really nice. She also got you two overcoats, we both ended up buying the same colors, black and blue."
"I'll take a look when I come home." Ke Yan let out a soundless chuckle before asking, "Oh, why didn't you call me just now?"
"I was worried you might still be busy, and that I'd disturb you."
"Next time, just call. You don't have to be worried that you'll disturb me, in fact, I like it when you disturb me." Ke Yan replied in a gentle tone.
Jiang Qi's face reddened when he heard this, and he deflected having to answer with another question, "When are you coming back?"
"I might have to go straight out on a business trip from here, the flight is quite soon."
"Ah? You're in such a rush?" Jiang Qi could not help feeling a sense of disappointment, who knew how long this business trip might hold up Ke Yan for.
"Mm, I'll try to come back as soon as possible."
"Alright, I'm hanging up, you can get back to work, and don't forget to take care of yourself."
"Okay, goodbye."
"Mmm, goodbye."
Jiang Qi reluctantly hung up.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Ke Yan made another call to Lan Ru Yi, "Mother, did you ask Jiang Qi to accompany you today?"
"So what if I did? Are you still afraid that I'll be hard on him?"
"I think that you probably wanted to in the beginning, but in the end, you forgot to."
She had been melted. Almost as if someone had seen right through her current emotional state, Lan Ru Yin was not flustered, but rather surprised, "How did you know?"
"That's because Jiang Qi has this innate skill of winning people over... I can't talk anymore, I need to go on another business trip, so don't bully my wife!"
"Hmph, fine. You take care okay, don't forget to eat your meals while you're working..."
"Alright, alright. I know. Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Lan Ru Yin ended the call, thinking to herself, huh,
as they say, once you get a wife, you forget your mother...