Qin i froze, looking in surprise at the approaching Mr. Xie. ’He’s calling Xiao i again. It looks like my mother-in-law had a talk with him.’
’Her mother-in-law was sincere with her, but her father-in-law was just putting on a false front.’
Qin i didn’t call him out on it. She didn’t really care about her father-in-law’s attitude. Getting along with him wasn’t important; all that mattered was that she and her mother-in-law were on good terms.
Qin Xiang stood up again. This ti, he didn’t wait for Qin i to introduce him and introduced himself. "Hello, sir. I’m Qin i’s older brother."
"Hello. Welco to our ho. Don’t be so formal, make yourself at ho," Mr. Xie said with a smile.
"Okay, sir. I will," Qin Xiang replied with a smile and a nod.
"Don’t just stand there, please sit," Mr. Xie said, gesturing for Qin Xiang to take a seat.
Qin Xiang was about to sit, but seeing that the other three had no intention of doing so, he felt it would be awkward. He would feel uncomfortable being the only one sitting while they all stood.
"Sit, sit, let’s all sit." Mrs. Xie, ever so perceptive, pulled Qin i down onto a stone stool. Qin Xiang sat in a wicker chair, and Mr. Xie placed his briefcase on the stone table before sitting in another wicker chair.
"Xiao Xiang, our Jing Si told you’re from Yangcheng City?" Mr. Xie asked.
"Yes, sir, we’re from Yangcheng City," Qin Xiang nodded.
"Xiao Xiang, when can we arrange for our two families to et?" Mr. Xie asked.
"Do you even know how to talk? What do you an, ’when can we arrange for our two families to et’? We should be the ones going to visit his parents," Mrs. Xie corrected her husband.
"Right, right, you’re right. We should be the ones visiting them," Mr. Xie quickly caught on and agreed with his wife.
"Ma’am, sir, whenever you have the ti is fine." Only then was Qin Xiang satisfied. ’For his little sister’s sake, he wouldn’t mind having their parents co to Shijiu City, but it would just give the villagers sothing to gossip about.’
Mrs. Xie patted the back of Qin i’s hand and said to her, "Once things at the hospital aren’t so busy, I’ll ask the director for a long leave of absence."
"Let know before you take your leave, so I can arrange my work schedule in advance," said Mr. Xie.
"Okay." Mrs. Xie gave her husband a satisfied look. ’He hadn’t tried to make any excuses. She’d already made up her mind: if he didn’t accompany her to visit the in-laws, then after the visit, she wouldn’t be in any hurry to co back. She’d just take the children straight to Xiangjiang to stay with her parents for a while.’
’Other than the life-saving debt she owed to Zhang Hongyan, she didn’t owe anyone a thing in this life—except her parents, who had worried themselves sick over her.’
"Xiao Xiang, what do your parents do for a living?" Mr. Xie asked.
"My parents are farrs," Qin Xiang replied with a smile, without specifying what they did.
Seeing that Qin Xiang was reluctant to share too many details, Mr. Xie didn’t press the matter and asked another question. "How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
"I have three older brothers," Qin Xiang answered.
"So you’re the fourth child?" Mr. Xie asked.
Qin Xiang shook his head. "I’m the fifth. My sister is Little Six."
Mr. Xie didn’t ask any more questions. There had been six siblings, but now there were only five. Everyone understood the unspoken reason why.
Qin i was a little surprised. ’The original owner of this body actually had four older brothers. No wonder they implented the family planning policy.’
"So Xiao i is the only daughter in your family?" Mrs. Xie couldn’t help but ask. ’Their only daughter married so far away—could they really bear to let her go? If it were her, she could never bear to marry off Jing Qi so far away.’
’As for Jing Ling, there was nothing she could do about the national policy. She couldn’t keep Jing Ling from being sent to the countryside; if Jing Ling didn’t go, Jing Er would have had to.’
"Yes." Qin Xiang nodded, his gaze toward Qin i full of affection. "My parents just really wanted a daughter, so they kept having children. The first few didn’t fulfill their wish, but they didn’t give up. It wasn’t until my little sister was born that their long-held dream ca true, and they finally stopped. My mom often says that if my third brother had been a girl, they wouldn’t have had , and if I had been a girl, there wouldn’t be a little sister."
"Thank heavens you weren’t a girl," Mrs. Xie said, feeling incredibly fortunate. ’If Qin Xiang had been a girl, Qin i would never have been born. And without Qin i, who would her son have married? Without Qin i, who would have treated Jing Qi’s leg? It must have been fate.’
"Don’t worry, Ma’am. If there were no little sister, I’d just marry Jing Si instead," Qin Xiang joked.
"..." Qin i pictured the scene in her head: Qin Xiang running ahead with Jie Jingchen chasing after him. The image made her shudder uncontrollably.
’The image was too horrifying. She didn’t dare think about it any further.’
"..." Mrs. Xie glanced at Qin i, then back at Qin Xiang, and squeezed Qin i’s hand a little tighter. ’She was perfectly happy with Qin i as her daughter-in-law. As for Qin Xiang... better not to think about it.’
"..." Mr. Xie also looked at Qin Xiang with distaste. ’He just couldn’t picture Qin Xiang as a woman.’
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