"Miss Xu, Mr. Qi called and said he has to work overtime and will be back late. He asked you and the young master to have dinner first."
Just as Xu Tingyu was in a daze looking out of the window, the maid in the house knocked on the door and walked in.
Just like last time, since she entered the house, the others in the family seemed to automatically disappear.
They would never show up until they were needed.
They gave her a great deal of freedom.
"Okay, I got it. We'll come down right away."
She nodded and reached out her hand to Youyou.
Youyou quickly packed up his things and then reached out to hold Xu Tingyu's hand.
The two of them went downstairs. Dinner was already ready.
Xu Tingyu looked around and finally saw Aunt Zhang's figure in the kitchen.
Aunt Zhang had been hiding behind the glass door, looking towards the dining room. When her eyes met Xu Tingyu's, she was stunned for a moment, then turned around, as if wiping away her tears.
Xu Tingyu couldn't help but have red eyes too, but she still walked over quickly.
"Aunt Zhang, why are you avoiding me?"
She grabbed Aunt Zhang's hand and gave her a big smile.
After not seeing each other for four years, Aunt Zhang still looked about the same as before. It seemed that she had been doing quite well.
Seeing Xu Tingyu grab her hand, Aunt Zhang cried even harder. "Madam, you're finally back. How have you been these years?"
Aunt Zhang was also at the scene when Zhang Qiu stabbed Qi Shifeng back then.
She also knew how things had developed later.
When Xu Tingyu left, she didn't even get to say goodbye properly.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I really appreciate you taking such good care of Youyou."
Xu Tingyu thanked her sincerely.
They worked for Qi Shifeng here and were paid accordingly, but their dedication to taking care of Youyou was surely out of affection.
"It's all we should do, Madam. You and the young master have dinner first. We can talk slowly later."
Aunt Zhang lovingly glanced at Youyou and found that he was curiously looking at her and Xu Tingyu. She quickly wiped away her tears and said.
Since that was the case, Xu Tingyu wasn't a coy person. She took Youyou to start having dinner.
"Did Dad have dinner with you every day before?"
Xu Tingyu picked up a piece of fish for Youyou, carefully removed the fish bones, and asked Youyou.
Youyou thanked her and then shook his head. "Not every day. Dad is very busy at work, but he would come back to have dinner with me most of the time. Sometimes he would pick me up and we'd have dinner in his company."
Actually, Youyou didn't like going to Qishi Group. Every time, there were always many people secretly looking at him.
But he liked being with Dad, so he would go every time Dad came to pick him up.
Now that Mom was back, when Dad didn't come home for dinner, he would have Mom to accompany him. He didn't have to go to the company anymore.
Xu Tingyu sighed again at how well Qi Shifeng had taken care of Youyou.
He really loved this child.
"By the way, Mom, have you met Auntie? She sometimes comes to our house for dinner, but I haven't seen her recently."
Youyou suddenly looked up at Xu Tingyu.
As far as Xu Tingyu knew, Qi Shifeng didn't stop Qi Ruixi from getting close to Youyou.
But except for her, Youyou had no contact with other Qi family members.
So it was normal for Youyou to be affectionate towards Qi Ruixi.
"She may be busy recently. Mom will ask her. If she's free, we can have dinner together on the weekend. Okay?"
Xu Tingyu also wanted Youyou to have contact with Qi Ruixi.
They were related by blood, and Qi Ruixi was easier to get along with than other Qi family members.
It wasn't a bad thing for Youyou to have one more relative.
The two of them chatted while having dinner. The meal was very enjoyable.
Qi Shifeng seemed to be determined to let her be part of Youyou's normal life. He even asked Aunt Zhang to bring over the records of Youyou's daily life.
This man clearly told her last time not to take shortcuts and to discover everything about Youyou on her own.
Now he was willingly handing over these materials. He was just a tough - talking but soft - hearted man.
Xu Tingyu took Youyou for a walk in the yard. When Youyou went to take a bath, she held the materials and read them very carefully.
She then found that although Youyou was only a little over four years old, he had already started to learn a lot of things.
He even had Chinese classics classes and logical thinking classes every week.
From these, it could be seen that Qi Shifeng was really raising Youyou with great care.
She secretly memorized all these. When Youyou came out after taking a bath, she dried his hair herself.
"Mom, go take a bath too. I'll wait for Mom to sleep with me."
Youyou could do many things independently and couldn't wait to urge Xu Tingyu to take a bath.
Xu Tingyu couldn't resist him, so she went to take a bath too.
But she took a bath in the bathroom in his children's room and used Youyou's shower gel and shampoo.
After getting into bed, Youyou hugged her and took a deep breath. "Mom smells so good."
This silly child. They had used the same things.
She lovingly hugged Youyou in her arms and opened a storybook.
"Mom, I don't want to listen to the storybook today. I want to know where Mom has been and what Mom has done in these four years. Okay?"
Youyou hugged Xu Tingyu's arm. His beautiful eyes, like two black gems, were full of expectation.
Who could refuse such a cute request?
Xu Tingyu definitely wouldn't refuse her son's request.
She thought for a while and began to organize her words to tell him the series of funny things that happened when she first went abroad.
"Mom was a bit poor at that time, so I could only buy discounted bread at night and then eat it with hot water when I got back."
"But Mom met some really nice friends at that time. She often invited Mom to dinner."
...
When telling Youyou, she of course beautified this series of stories and even deliberately told them in a humorous language.
But actually, she had a really hard time at that time.
At her poorest, she didn't have a single cent in her hand.
She never thought that one day she would go hungry for a whole day because she had no money.
But she was too proud to ask her friends for money to buy food.
So she worked even harder to find a job. Before getting paid, she also learned from others to go to the church to get free meals.
Later, she finally found a part - time job with daily payment. Only then did she feel a bit relieved.
The money she earned was only enough for food, but she never went to the church to get free meals again. It wasn't because she was arrogant, but because she knew that there were people who needed it more than her.
Relying on that part - time job, she began to have the energy to slowly look for a full - time job, and finally successfully got a job in a dance studio.
That was when her life started to get better.
But there was serious discrimination there. At first, she was isolated and excluded, and she was alone for a long time. She even had to worry about her colleagues setting traps for her behind her back.
Fortunately, her luck changed. She soon won favor with a dance, and her situation improved greatly.