Chapter 359: Chapter 356: Pillow Talk
"Bao’er, you found out?" Li Xiu asked softly, glancing at Zhou Lian.
Zhou Lian smiled and said nonchalantly, "You found out too? It must have been the Li Bao brothers. It’s no big deal. Just let them cause a scene. It won’t get to us."
"That’s true. The first and third branches aren’t fools; they’ll definitely put a stop to it. But, Bao’er, what exactly is happening?" Li Xiu asked, a little curious.
Zhou Lian looked at him and said softly, "They want to coax Grandma into making trouble for us. But we don’t need the first and third branches to intervene. This morning, Sister Fang got to the bottom of it and had a good, long cry in front of Grandma. I doubt Grandma will have a soft heart for them from now on!"
"Is that so? But tonight, both Grandma and Sister Fang acted as if nothing had happened. I never knew Sister Fang had it in her!" Li Xiu said with a smile.
Zhou Lian looked at him gently and said, "What’s so strange about that? You know Sister Fang has always been a sharp woman. Last night, neither of us noticed anything was wrong with Grandma, but Sister Fang picked up on it. Then she heard we were taking Grandma back to the Capital City, and I guess she was afraid something might go wrong, so she put her foot down with Grandma right away."
"Bao’er, tell me everything."
Zhou Lian watched his excited expression with a doting look, smiled, and said, "I have no idea how she found out, but anyway, after you left this morning, she had someone take the two kids out to play. Then she sat with Grandma on the heated brick bed and just cried. She cried about how hard you work, about how difficult my life is... The way Sister Fang told it, you’d think we were the two most pitiful little cabbages abandoned in a field."
She glanced at Li Xiu and continued, "She said you overtax your mind and shouldn’t worry so much in the future because, after all, a mind that burns too brightly is bound to burn out, and she fears it will shorten your life. Then she talked about how I was so utterly exhausted that I ran a fever of nearly forty degrees Celsius, leaving me with lasting health problems, and that I can’t handle any major shocks, anger, or grief. In short, we’re just a couple of poor, abandoned cabbages that nobody looks after! We’ve worked ourselves to the bone just to gain a foothold in the Capital City, where we have no family to rely on."
"For the sake of the Li family, you—Li Jincheng—have nearly worked yourself to death. Sister Fang even pleaded with Grandma to keep a close eye on you when she gets to the Capital City and make sure you get some rest. She said you’ve already arranged everything that needs arranging, and all that’s left is Li Bo, who’s still young. You’ll support him for a few years, wait for him to grow up and graduate, and then you’ll arrange things for him, too!"
Li Xiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He looked at Zhou Lian and asked, "Bao’er, you just stood by and watched Sister Fang put on a one-woman show like that?"
"I had no choice. If I’d stopped Sister Fang, Grandma would’ve thought we were beyond saving. But you’re right, she really was a drama queen in that moment. To be honest, listening to her, I almost started to believe her version of us was the real one. After all, the only reason I saw a doctor in the first place was because you tricked me into it, and I was standing right there when the doctor spoke. Otherwise, I might actually suspect we both had some kind of terminal illness!" Zhou Lian said with a smile after a moment of thought.
Sitting up to lean against the headboard, Li Xiu gently pulled Zhou Lian into his arms. "What kind of stunts was the second branch pulling to make Sister Fang throw caution to the wind and confront Grandma directly like that?" he asked.
"What else could they do? They just keep bringing their children over to see Grandma. After all, our two kids and the two from Li Bao’s family are far away in the Capital City. No matter what wrongs the adults from the second branch have committed, the children are still young and don’t know any better. I suppose Grandma has a soft spot for them because of the children."
Li Xiu’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. "Someone in the second branch has gotten clever all of a sudden," he said nonchalantly.
"I don’t know, and I can’t be bothered to find out. I also told Sister Fang not to get involved anymore," Zhou Lian said languidly. ’It doesn’t matter who it is. Clever or not, it makes little difference. When it comes to scheming against Li Xiu... and it’s not just because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in this lifetime, I’ve yet to meet anyone who could outwit him.’
Shaking his head in resignation, Li Xiu smiled. "Sister Fang is treating me like a child she needs to protect."
He said that, but deep down, Li Xiu was rather pleased. ’It might not sound great for a grown man like me to be protected by a woman, but for someone like me who has had weak family ties in two lifetimes, having someone shield me like a child feels... novel. I quite enjoy it.’
"Sister Fang is an incredibly loyal and caring person. All these years, she’s been protecting us in ways we don’t even notice. I really felt it last time when I was sick with that fever. There’s a huge difference between pure affection and affection that’s mixed with other motives," Zhou Lian said with a smile.
Looking at Zhou Lian tenderly, Li Xiu asked softly, "What happened?"
"You and the children were away for a few days. When I went to the garden, it wasn’t convenient for Sister Fang to accompany me, so she always waited at the ornamental gate. The day I suddenly fell ill with a fever, it was around noon, right after I had brought my teacher and her husband home. I didn’t wake up until evening. Sister Fang arranged everything that entire afternoon. Aside from trips to the bathroom, she practically watched over me around the clock!"
At this, Zhou Lian smiled and continued, "Sister Fang treated me like I was a fragile doll. I had just started to feel a bit better when the Ping Family’s Eldest Young Madam and Ping Jing came to see me. Jin Chen, you should have seen her then—she looked like she was facing a formidable foe. And she’s such a brilliant actress. She played the part of a nagging, tactless nanny to perfection, chattering on and on. She even deliberately used my teacher and her husband as an excuse to pressure me, and before the Ping Jings knew what was happening, she’d ushered them out the door in a complete daze!"
"Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?"
"I didn’t? I probably assumed Sister Fang had told you, and you never asked me about it. No, wait... what exactly did Sister Fang tell you?" Zhou Lian asked in surprise. ’Knowing how much Li Xiu cares about me, and with Sister Fang’s fiercely protective nature, something feels a little...’
Li Xiu said softly, "Sister Fang didn’t go into detail. She just said that you were called to the garden that morning, and when she met you at the ornamental gate on your return, you were as exhausted as if you’d just fought a battle. You hid in the study to have some quiet time, and about an hour later, when she went to find you with Teacher Xiao and her husband, you were already unconscious. The doctor said you were overcome with a fit of rage and anxiety, and your fever had shot up to nearly forty degrees."
His heart ached as he looked at Zhou Lian. He continued, "You finally woke up in the evening, and the doctor said you were completely drained. He said the rage and anxiety had damaged your health and ruined all the progress you’d made in building your strength back up! Then she said you were sick for days with no one checking in on you. The moment you felt slightly better, the Ping family’s Eldest Young Master and Eldest Young Madam showed up. They made you sit and talk in the courtyard for ages on a freezing day, and after you finally saw them off, you nearly had a relapse!"
"That’s what Sister Fang told you?"
Seeing Li Xiu nod, Zhou Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "That Sister Fang is really something else. The timeline is correct, but her choice of words was so extreme. How should I put this... she knows us too well, especially how much you care about me. She knows exactly what to say to make you furious. It’s like she cranked your anger up to two hundred percent. I was a little upset at the time, but it wasn’t nearly that serious. I was just in the study for a long time and caught a chill because I fell asleep without a blanket!"