Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 348: Cousin-in-law from Singapore

The drive from Jinling to their hometown, which was originally supposed to take four hours, stretched on until they finally got off the expressway at five in the afternoon. Zhou Yuwen's mother called practically every half hour, asking where he was and what time he would arrive.Zhou Yuwen kept reassuring her that he was almost there and would be home soon.

Eventually, his mother grew annoyed and muttered, "I told you to come back earlier, but you insisted on returning at this hour. I see you've really run wild out there!"

Zhou Yuwen replied, "Alright, alright, I get it. Just tell me which hotel it is, and I'll head straight there."

After saying that, he hung up.

During this time, Li Shiqi's mother had called her to ask when she would be home and if she needed to be picked up from the station.

Before Li Shiqi could even speak.

Li Shiqi's mother continued on her own, "Sigh, forget it. The mahjong parlor is at its busiest right now. Just take a cab back yourself, and I'll reimburse you for the fare."

After saying this, she hung up the phone.

Liu Shuo and Su Qing didn't know about Li Shiqi's family situation, but hearing this phone call made them feel her mother was far too cold. For a moment, neither knew what to say.

Zhou Yuwen asked Li Shiqi if she was in a hurry to get home.

"If you aren't in a rush, just come eat with me," he suggested.

When Zhou Yuwen said this, Su Qing couldn't sit still and opened her mouth to speak.

But before she could say anything, Li Shiqi shook her head and said, "Forget it."

"Just taking me home is enough."

Li Shiqi understood etiquette well enough. Zhou Yuwen's casual invitation to his family banquet made her feel a bit awkward, but mainly, she felt she was in too sorry a state right now and didn't want to leave a bad impression on his family.

Seeing her decline, Zhou Yuwen didn't insist.

Li Shiqi originally wanted Zhou Yuwen to just drop her off at the alley entrance, but to her surprise, he navigated the entire way without asking for directions once. After getting off the expressway, the car traveled along the newly built roads in the south of the city for a while before weaving its way into a shantytown.

Li Shiqi was surprised. How did Zhou Yuwen know she lived here?

Did that mean he knew exactly where her house was?

The roads in the shantytown were truly terrible. Although they had been repaired a few years ago, there were many vegetable vendors crowding the area.

Liu Shuo complained from the passenger side about how difficult the road was to navigate.

Zhou Yuwen simply mentioned that the whole area would be demolished in a few years.

"If that's the case, won't Class Monitor's family strike it rich?" Liu Shuo asked.

Li Shiqi remained silent, and Zhou Yuwen also stayed quiet.

Getting rich was one thing, but it had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Li Shiqi had followed her mother when she remarried. Her stepfather was a cripple who had some property in this shantytown, running a place called Cripple's Card Room.

It was just up ahead.

Considering Li Shiqi's pride, Zhou Yuwen pulled the car over slightly ahead of the card room and said, "I'll drop you off here?"

"Hm? Oh."

Li Shiqi was just wondering to herself, 'Why does Zhou Yuwen know the location of my home?' when she noticed that he had only dropped her off by the side of the road.

In a way, Li Shiqi was grateful to Zhou Yuwen because she knew he was doing this to preserve her dignity.

So Li Shiqi stepped out of the car.

Zhou Yuwen told Liu Shuo to get down and help her with the luggage.

Liu Shuo was quite attentive, even as Li Shiqi kept insisting she could handle it herself.

After the luggage was unloaded, Li Shiqi actually wanted to go and thank Zhou Yuwen, but Liu Shuo happened to be standing right between them.

"Go on back,"

Zhou Yuwen said to Li Shiqi after rolling down the window.

Li Shiqi nodded.

"Shiqi!"

The middle-aged woman who had just come out of the mahjong parlor—none other than Li Shiqi's mother—saw a car parked at the alley entrance from afar. Two people were unloading luggage, and the girl looked increasingly familiar.

Wasn't that her own daughter?

Having not seen her daughter for so long, Mother Li was quite happy. She ran over with a look of pleasant surprise to help take the luggage. Then she noticed Liu Shuo standing nearby, and saw Zhou Yuwen sitting in the driver's seat.

She was very puzzled. Who were they?

Zhou Yuwen took the initiative to greet her, "Hello, Auntie. We are Shiqi's high school classmates. We just came back from Jinling and brought her home along the way."

Hearing this, Mother Li was very happy and quickly said, "Oh, oh, thank you for the trouble, young man."

"You young students must be so tired. Would you like to come in for a cup of water and rest a bit?"

Zhou Yuwen waved his hand to decline, explaining that he still had to drop the other classmates home.

"Then we will be on our way."

After exchanging a few brief pleasantries, Li Shiqi's mother helped carry the luggage and took her daughter back to the mahjong parlor.

When they arrived beside the parlor, some card players coming over to play saw Li Shiqi and joked, "Yo, the university student is back!"

Li Shiqi was truly her mother's pride and joy. So, faced with the teasing of the card players, Mother Li unconsciously held her head high. After all, her child was a student at Nanjing University.

After Liu Shuo got back in the car and watched this scene through the windshield, he asked in surprise, "Bro, Li Shiqi is from Cripple Chen's family?"

Zhou Yuwen replied, "You didn't know?"

"No, Cripple Chen's surname isn't Li!"

Zhou Yuwen replied as he turned the car around, "You just realized?"

"Damn, bro, my brain can't process this."

It turned out they had been completely oblivious to Li Shiqi's family situation. However, it didn't really matter. During high school, people might have cared about such things.

But after starting university, there was truly no need to gossip about someone's original family. It was best to just gloss over it.

Zhou Yuwen briefly explained Li Shiqi's situation to the two of them. Liu Shuo didn't think it was a big deal, declaring, "My dad remarried too!"

Zhou Yuwen pointed out that it was entirely different.

When his dad remarried, Liu Shuo remained a young master.

When a mother remarried, the daughter essentially became a servant girl!

"Bro, that's not right. Haven't you heard the saying? When you get a stepmother, you get a stepfather too!" Liu Shuo argued.

Hearing this, Zhou Yuwen laughed and said, "You sure speak from experience."

After a few more words of casual chatting, Zhou Yuwen's mother called him again.

Zhou Yuwen told her, "I still have to drop my classmates off at home."

"Male classmates or female classmates? Do you need to drop them off yourself? Just have them take a cab back!"

Mother Zhou didn't know Zhou Yuwen had bought a car, so she just found his words very strange.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yuwen thought for a moment and said to Liu Shuo, "With your family situation, going home or not is probably the same thing."

"Of course. A home with a stepdad and stepmom, what's there to go back to," Liu Shuo said nonchalantly.

Zhou Yuwen said, "I'll take you to get something to eat."

"Ah?" Liu Shuo was startled, and indeed incredibly flattered. In his eyes, Zhou Yuwen bringing him home to eat was a massive deal. This was basically meeting the parents!

"Bro, bro, is this appropriate?" Liu Shuo swallowed hard, straightening his clothes as he said, "I'm not prepared at all."

Zhou Yuwen replied, "What do you need to prepare? Look at the person behind you, she isn't worried in the slightest."

Without anyone to chat with in the back, Su Qing had almost fallen asleep.

Hearing Zhou Yuwen say this, she groggily opened her eyes and asked in a daze, "Are we home, Zhou Yuwen?"

Zhou Yuwen told her they weren't home yet and that she could go back to sleep.

"Oh." Su Qing obediently went back to sleep.

Liu Shuo asked if Zhou Yuwen was planning to bring both him and Su Qing home.

Zhou Yuwen said yes, adding that it wasn't her first time meeting them anyway.

"Wait, bro, you two have progressed this fast?" Liu Shuo expressed his shock, thinking to himself, 'Didn't you two date in high school? How are you already this familiar with each other's families?'

Zhou Yuwen told him to cut the nonsense and just say whether he was coming or not.

"I'm going!"

Liu Shuo readily agreed.

The place they went to eat was called Small City Flavor.

Despite the humble name, it was the most popular restaurant in their hometown.

It was said that an auntie who previously managed the city hall canteen stepped out to start her own business and opened this restaurant. Coming from city hall, she naturally had some connections. In less than two years, she made the restaurant a resounding success, even taking over the former five-star hotel.

Zhou Yuwen's home was in Xuhuai, but not in the downtown area; rather, it was in a small subordinate county. The counties in Su Province were different from those in other provinces. Although called a small county, it boasted a population of at least 1.5 million. Moreover, whether it was the towering high-rises or the Land Rovers and Jaguars parked along the streets, they were practically lined up one after another.

In reality, with ten years having passed, revisiting his old haunts made Zhou Yuwen realize that everything had traceable signs. In his previous life, he had lived in a muddle, always feeling that the economy had developed overnight.

Only now did he notice that even back in 2014, his hometown was already filled with luxury cars.

"Bro, what's wrong?" Liu Shuo grew curious when he noticed Zhou Yuwen had stayed silent for a while.

Zhou Yuwen replied, "Nothing, just feeling a bit sentimental."

Regarding this, Su Qing could actually understand Zhou Yuwen.

As the old adage goes, the closer one gets to home, the more apprehension fills the heart, leaving one too timid to even ask for news.

Ten years felt like a fleeting moment, and in the blink of an eye, he had returned to the place of his past.

It was a profoundly subtle feeling.

The black BMW SUV drove into the hotel's parking lot.

In front of the hotel building, there were four children playing.

As the car drove past, the kids didn't even bother to move out of the way.

Liu Shuo absolutely hated kids and couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, whose wild brats are these!"

Zhou Yuwen fell silent for a moment upon hearing this. He rolled down the window and shouted at the little girl who was currently arguing about whose house was bigger, "Erya!"

The little girl with braided pigtails, who was at most in the third grade, froze upon hearing this. She looked over in disbelief, squinting at Zhou Yuwen for a long time before she couldn't help but let out a joyful scream, "Brother!"

Then, another younger brother and sister froze as well. Immediately after, all three little kids swarmed over, calling him brother.

Zhou Yuwen was quite popular among his younger cousins. After all, he came from a good family background, knew a lot of fun games, and had a great personality.

They bounced and jumped around Zhou Yuwen's car. Zhou Yuwen asked, "Why aren't you brats inside eating? What are you doing running around out here!"

Zhou Yuwen's slightly older little cousin, whose nickname was Erya, replied that their parents and uncle were inside drinking.

"They had Fourth Cousin bring us out to play."

Only then did Zhou Yuwen notice.

Standing a short distance away was another cousin.

She was wearing a black down jacket. Although tall and pretty, she had a face that looked entirely too docile and honest—or as her mother would say, too wooden.

She waited until Zhou Yuwen noticed her before coming over to call out, "Brother Yuwen."

Zhou Yuwen nodded at her and asked, "Aunt had you bring Erya and the others out to play?"

"Mhm."

His Fourth Cousin was one year younger than Zhou Yuwen, currently a senior at the county's No. 1 High School. Her personality was a bit stiff, but her grades were decent.

Zhou Yuwen said, "Alright then, you guys keep playing. I'll go park the car first."

He said that, but the younger cousins clearly adored him, all of them chasing after the rear of his car.

One little brother was even pointing and asking, "Brother, you're driving a BMW!"

These kids were still young, but heavily influenced by their parents, they probably recognized more car logos than Zhou Yuwen did.

After Zhou Yuwen got out of the car.

The children all crowded around him.

Zhou Yuwen picked up the youngest cousin and held him in his arms, while the little boy just kept repeating the word BMW.

The other little sisters also looked on with envy, saying, "Brother, you're driving a BMW!?"

"Brother, when I go to university, will my mom buy me a BMW too!?"

Zhou Yuwen replied, "How would I know? I'm not your mom."

"Brother, is this your girlfriend!? She's so pretty!"

One of the little sisters pointed at Su Qing and asked.

Su Qing giggled, bursting into laughter as she said, "Zhou Yuwen, your little sister is so good with words."

Zhou Yuwen said, "Since she's so good with words, aren't you going to give her some candy?"

These words were essentially acknowledging Su Qing's status. Su Qing was naturally overjoyed. Although she didn't have any candy, she had brought plenty of snacks before heading home.

This was the perfect time to distribute all of them to the kids.

Once the children got their snacks, they were all absolutely thrilled.

Chirping one after another, "Thank you, Cousin-in-law!"

"Thank you, Sister-in-law."

This teased Su Qing so much that her face turned bright red from smiling.

Zhou Yuwen held the youngest brother and asked, "Which private room is your mom eating in?"

His little cousin Erya tugged at Zhou Yuwen's pant leg and piped up, "Brother! Don't ask him, he doesn't know. I know! Hug!"

Saying that, she reached her arms out to Zhou Yuwen.

Zhou Yuwen said, "You're already in second grade, and you still want me to carry you?"

"I'm in third grade!" Erya looked very unhappy.

Zhou Yuwen laughed, "Oh, third grade and you still want a hug!"

"Hug!"

His little cousin was just extremely clingy when it came to Zhou Yuwen.

Zhou Yuwen felt helpless. If he hugged two of them, the remaining little cousin would be left out.

Left with no choice, Zhou Yuwen picked up Erya, causing the other one to immediately look a bit upset.

Zhou Yuwen coaxed, "Oh, be good, don't cry. Cousin-in-law will hold you, let your cousin-in-law hug you!"

"Ah?" Su Qing was completely caught off guard.

Zhou Yuwen asked, "What's wrong? You don't want to hold her?"

"No, not at all."

And so, right off the bat, Zhou Yuwen entered the hotel with a whole trailing retinue of kids.

However, these younger cousins were trying to outdo each other with how loud they could be.

Seeing Zhou Yuwen back made them incredibly happy, and they started shouting loudly, "Uncle, Cousin is back!"

"Cousin brought a girlfriend back!"

Right before entering the private room, Erya happily jumped down, bolted into the room first, and shouted with a flushed face, "Cousin is back!"

Inside the extra-large private room, there were about fifteen or sixteen people drinking.

They watched as Zhou Yuwen walked in, holding his little cousin in his arms, followed by Su Qing and Liu Shuo.

Then, the entire room full of people stood up to politely greet them.

He recognized the vast majority of the people there.

There really wasn't much need for introductions.

The only exception was Su Qing, which took a bit of explaining.

Everyone was very surprised. "Yo, Yuwen just started university and he already brought a girlfriend back?"

Zhou Yuwen hastily denied it, "No, no, we're just classmates."

His older cousin Peng Xiaoyong looked exactly as he remembered. Having just returned from studying abroad, he wore gold-rimmed glasses and a sharp suit, looking every bit the impeccably dressed gentleman.

The two of them exchanged greetings.

What surprised Zhou Yuwen was that right next to Peng Xiaoyong stood a girl with incredibly long legs.

She had long, straight black hair and a spectacular figure. She was dressed very fashionably. Since they were inside the private room, she wore a long white V-neck sweater that hugged her hips.

Below that, she wore skin-tone tights paired with thigh-high boots.

She was also the tall, slender type.

Zhou Yuwen thought for a long time but couldn't figure out who this girl was.

It wasn't until Zhou Yuwen's father introduced them, "This is your cousin's girlfriend. You all should get to know each other."

"Lu Wanting, and her English name is An Ni. An Ni is Singaporean," Peng Xiaoyong said as he pushed up his glasses, looking incredibly proud.