“Shushu, try the coffee from Auntie’s house. This coffee has such a rich, aromatic taste. It’s even better than what they sell in coffee shops outside!”
Cui Ping looked at Qiao Shu with a loving smile, her eyes full of affection for the young girl.
For this little girl, she had even brought out the coffee she treasured the most.
Although her second son was capable, this particular coffee she loved was only available abroad. Who knew how long it would take for someone to bring more back from overseas next time.
So she truly savored every sip of this coffee—it diminished with each taste. Normally, she only drank it herself and rarely served it to guests.
However, Qiao Shu was completely unaware of Cui Ping’s well-intentioned efforts.
In her eyes, it was just an ordinary cup of coffee.
“Hey, what’s so good about coffee? It’s black and bitter, just like drinking herbal medicine. Only you like that stuff.”
He Hong glanced at the cup of coffee in front of her, pushed it away with a look of disdain, and poured herself a cup of Bi Luo Chun.
Seeing that He Hong didn’t appreciate it, Cui Ping wasn’t annoyed. After all, she knew her old rival well—this woman who had been competing with her since their youth. She was straightforward, quick with her words, and though she didn’t always say pleasant things, there was no malice behind it.
“What herbal medicine? No taste at all.”
Cui Ping let out a light scoff, then turned her head and looked at Qiao Shu with gentle eyes.
“Shushu, if you’re not used to coffee and find it bitter, there’s cubed sugar and fresh milk here. You can add them to the coffee however you like.”
Qiao Shu had originally felt a bit reluctant about being tricked by He Hong into coming for this ‘blind date,’ but now that she saw how nice Aunt Cui Ping was—and that she could sip coffee while admiring the flowers—her little bit of gloom instantly vanished.
She even felt immensely grateful in her heart to Cui Ping’s third son, Chu Laosan, who had directly ditched and run off.
“Alright, thank you, Aunt Cui.”
After politely thanking her, Qiao Shu didn’t even taste the coffee first. She directly added five cubes of sugar and poured in a lot of fresh milk.
Fortunately, the coffee cup wasn’t one of those delicate little ones. Otherwise, with how much she added, it really would have overflowed.
Cui Ping, who always loved her coffee, nearly choked on the pure, slightly bitter, aromatic taste in her mouth upon seeing Qiao Shu’s whole operation.
If she had seen anyone else drinking coffee like this—wasting such good coffee—she would have scolded them long ago.
That wasn’t how coffee was drunk.
But as soon as she looked at the girl’s stunningly fairy-like beautiful face, Cui Ping couldn’t say a word.
“Delicious~! Aunt Cui, your coffee really is so aromatic!”
Qiao Shu was a hardcore sweets lover who craved sweetness like life itself, so she wasn’t too keen on coffee. She preferred milk tea.
But in this era, there was no such thing as milk tea, and even coffee was rare. So Qiao Shu had simply treated the coffee like milk tea to mix.
Sipping the coffee loaded with sugar and milk, a look of enjoyment appeared on Qiao Shu’s face. She looked just like a cat that had gotten the cream—utterly content and adorable.
Seeing Qiao Shu’s blissful little expression hooked even He Hong, who didn’t like coffee, into wanting a taste.
“Shushu, is it really that good? Then mix me a cup too, let me try it.”
He Hong couldn’t hold back and spoke up.
“Sure!”
Qiao Shu happily agreed. Then, as Tian Tian—who had been quietly called over by Cui Ping’s instructions—walked in, she saw Qiao Shu right in front of the ever-picky-about-coffee Cui Ping, brazenly ‘wasting’ her coffee like this.
She had just wanted to remind her, but upon seeing her cousin’s aunt looking at Qiao Shu with indulgent fondness, she immediately dropped the thought.
And… she even grew interested in the cup of coffee that Qiao Shu had personally mixed, loaded with sugar and milk.
“Hey, you know, after my Shushu personally mixed it like this, the coffee really tastes much better—no bitterness at all.”
He Hong took a sip and praised with a smile. However, she wasn’t too fond of such sweet things, so after finishing one cup, she went back to her Bi Luo Chun.
Tian Tian, the young girl who loved sweets, glanced timidly at Qiao Shu, her eyes filled with longing. But she felt too shy to ask Qiao Shu to mix one for her too.
Qiao Shu noticed the longing in the eyes of the little girl sitting beside Cui Ping. Though the girl hadn’t said it outright, which young girl didn’t love sweets?
So a friendly, kind smile lifted on Qiao Shu’s face as she said softly.
“Shall I mix one for you too?”
“Ah! Yes! Sure! Thank you, Fairy Sister!”
Tian Tian had already felt a bit nervous facing Qiao Shu’s unreasonably beautiful face. Now that Qiao Shu was smiling directly at her and speaking so gently, her mind grew even fuzzier. So she blurted out the nickname she had in her heart for Qiao Shu.
Tian Tian’s ‘Fairy Sister’ made everyone in the glass greenhouse burst into laughter.
“Oh dear, silly girl. Do you even know how old she is? Calling her sister right away.”
Cui Ping shook her head with a smile and began introducing her in detail to He Hong and Qiao Shu.
“This is a distant cousin from my mother-in-law’s side. Her name is Tian Tian. She’s nineteen this year, living with us now, waiting for the family to arrange a job for her.”
“Oh, what a coincidence. Our Shushu is also nineteen. The two girls are the same age—they can make friends and keep each other company.”
He Hong glanced at Tian Tian. The girl had a round, apple-like face, with big, black, bright, round eyes. She was fair and sturdy-looking, radiating health.
Of course, she wasn’t really ‘stout,’ but had that full-chested, wide-hipped, ‘good childbearing’ figure—the kind of looks and build that elders loved most.
The shrewd He Hong immediately understood what Cui Ping’s mother-in-law meant. She was probably trying to match this girl with one of her grandsons.
As for which grandson…
The Chu family’s eldest was already married. Though the second wasn’t yet, he was already thirty this year—too old. It was probably meant for the Chu family’s third son, who was only twenty-four, as a wife candidate.
Thinking of this, He Hong completely gave up on any thoughts of matchmaking Qiao Shu with Chu Laosan.
She simply thought of it as coming over today to drink tea and admire flowers.
“Since we’re the same age, don’t call me sister. Just call me Shushu.”
Qiao Shu quite liked this Tian Tian with her round apple face. After all, the girl was round and plump everywhere—looking cute and endearing.
“Okay, sure, Shushu. Th-then you call me Tiantian.”
The apple-faced little girl looked shyly at Qiao Shu, feeling her heart pounding like crazy.
She didn’t even feel her heart race this fast when she saw her third cousin usually!
“Tiantian, I’ve mixed it. Here you go.”
Qiao Shu really took a liking to this new friend. After all, among her face-con traits, she also had a cute-con side.
She liked everything cute, whether people or things.
So she felt even more that coming out with He Hong today had been a great choice.
After all, she had made a friend she really clicked with~!
“Wow~! It’s really so delicious!”
After Tian Tian took a sip of the coffee, her round eyes lit up instantly.
Seeing Tian Tian’s reaction, which mirrored her own love for sweets, Qiao Shu sat down beside her. They chatted about other tasty sweets, and she even pointed to the surrounding flowers, saying they could all be made into flower cakes.
Watching the two girls chat so happily, He Hong and Cui Ping felt delighted too.
Especially He Hong. She had felt a bit guilty about tricking Qiao Shu into the blind date, but now seeing how well she got along with a girl her own age, she suddenly thought that even without the matchmaking, she could bring the girl out more often in the future. Let her make more friends her age.
Perhaps… to change Qiao Shu’s severely brainwashed mindset, she didn’t need to introduce blind date partners at all. Just letting her spend more time with peers and see a broader, richer world might change her…
As He Hong sipped her tea and pondered this in her heart, a unfamiliar male voice suddenly sounded in her ear—
“Mom—”
Hearing this ‘Mom,’ joy appeared on Cui Ping’s face. She thought her youngest son had returned.
But she quickly realized—this wasn’t her youngest at all. It was clearly her second son!
“Yo, Mom, what distinguished guest came to our house today? You actually brought out your precious coffee to entertain…”
Soon, a man in a white shirt and suit walked in from outside the glass greenhouse.
Ever since arriving in the Capital and staying in the Military District Compound, Qiao Shu had mostly seen people in military uniforms. She rarely saw anyone in suits, let alone a young man.
Moreover, this man who had walked in from outside called Cui Ping ‘Mom,’ so Qiao Shu immediately knew he was Cui Ping’s second son.
Sure enough, the next second, Cui Ping spoke up—
“Lingchuan, why are you back at this hour?”