Chapter 344: Chapter 344: A Pleasant Dinner
Fu Junyuan grabbed his sister’s hand and stormed out of the house, heading straight for the new home he’d bought.
When he and Geng Haoyi were helping Su Shuochi and his wife house-hunt, they had found three villas they liked.
Su Shuochi had picked the standalone villa, so he and Geng Haoyi had bought the other two, which were a pair of semi-detached villas.
This meant he now had a place to land. He just needed to add some furniture, and they could move in.
"Big Brother, are we really going to sever ties with Dad?" Fu Junyuan’s younger sister asked him cautiously.
She was eighteen and had just been accepted into Imperial Capital Medical University. Because her mother had died from an illness, she had sworn to study medicine.
Although her older brother was an idle good-for-nothing, he had always been very good to her.
Her second brother was an outstanding soldier who also doted on her, but he was stationed with the military year-round and rarely came home.
"Yeah. That woman is too vicious. She actually dared to hire thugs to beat me up. Don’t be afraid, Guoguo. Big Brother will protect you."
"Big Brother, if we just leave home like this, do we have a place to stay?" Fu Guoguo asked worriedly.
"We do. Big Brother bought a small villa near the university you’ll be attending. I originally planned for you to live there while you study."
"Now, it’ll be a place for the three of us siblings. Su’s house is right next door, and my bro Geng Haoyi bought one too."
Fu Junyuan said happily. No matter how much of a scoundrel he was, he always doted on his younger sister.
Seeing that her brother wasn’t lying, Fu Guoguo grew even more worried. ’Did he rob a bank to get the money for the house?!’
While she didn’t want that vicious woman to marry her father, she wanted even less for her brother to go down the wrong path.
She was eager to meet her brother’s so-called "shady friends." "Big Brother, someone called for you earlier. He said their son-in-law invites you over for a housewarming meal."
"Heh heh, that’s our brother Su. Oh, right, Guoguo, our sister-in-law also got into Imperial Capital Medical University. I’ll take you to meet her right now."
When Fu Junyuan spoke of Gu Jiaojiao, he was simply effusive, his expression growing animated as he happily recounted stories.
Fu Guoguo listened with great interest. ’My brother actually knows a disciple of Divine Doctor Su Gu?!’
’When did my brother become so impressive!’
Fu Guoguo felt she should ask, but she was afraid her brother would chew her out if she did.
So, she obediently followed her brother and took a car to meet the disciple of Divine Doctor Su Shuo.
「At the Su residence」
Su Shuochi and Geng Haoyi were busy in the kitchen. They had closed the door to keep the cooking fumes from wafting into the living room.
Han Jingyi had already arrived after picking up the Gu Family. Second Brother Gu hadn’t returned yet from dropping Eldest Brother Gu off at his new post that afternoon.
Therefore, only Grandpa Gu, Mr. Gu, and Mrs. Gu had come. Xiao Rui was enthusiastically serving them tea and water.
Gu Jiaojiao was still in her lab, grinding medicinal herbs, compounding ingredients, performing alchemy, and rolling the mixture into medicine pills.
She figured that with so many elderly people around her, someone was bound to get a headache or a fever sooner or later.
She really disliked brewing bitter medicinal soups, so she turned everything she could into pills, which were easier to store and take.
It couldn’t hurt to prepare some extra medicine pills, especially things like emergency heart-relief pills, nerve-calming pills, and cognitive enhancers...
The medicinal herbs from her space were far more potent than those from the outside world, especially now that she had the spiritual spring water.
’If only Su Shuochi could build a pill-making machine,’ she thought. ’Otherwise, this is going to work poor Jiaojiao to death!’
"Jiaojiao! Jiaojiao! Are you busy making pills? Is there anything Grandpa can do to help?"
Grandpa Gu’s booming voice rang out from the lab doorway, startling the engrossed Gu Jiaojiao.
"Grandpa, let’s go wash our hands and eat. There’s nothing for you to help with here. Once the medicine pills are dry, I’ll give some to you."
Gu Jiaojiao lied. In truth, Grandpa Gu and the others could have helped roll the pills, but she didn’t want to get too close to the Gu Family.
Because Eldest Brother Gu was completely fixated on Sheng Yueyue, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t call and ask Sheng Yueyue to come to the Imperial City.
Rather than deal with endless trouble later, it was better to keep her distance from them now. Still, she couldn’t just cut off all contact with the Gu Family.
’I’ll just try not to get too close,’ Gu Jiaojiao thought, immediately standing up and taking Grandpa Gu’s hand to lead him out.
Old Sir Gu didn’t think much of it. He assumed making pills was a technical job they couldn’t handle, so he didn’t insist.
Led by Xiao Rui, Mr. and Mrs. Gu had already toured the entire villa. While it wasn’t as large as the old Gu Family estate, it was still a very nice house.
It had three floors. The first floor had an enormous living room, a good-sized dining room, a small laboratory, and then the kitchen and a bathroom.
The second floor had a locked master bedroom, two secondary bedrooms, and two studies. The third floor was entirely dedicated to guest rooms, with six guest bedrooms all set up with beds and bedding.
Mr. and Mrs. Gu secretly thought that if they were to move in with them, there would be plenty of room.
Just as Fu Junyuan arrived with Fu Guoguo, everyone was getting ready to eat. There were exactly ten people sitting around a large table.
Fu Guoguo was a bit timid. Seeing that Mrs. Gu seemed quite kind, she sat down next to her, positioned between Mrs. Gu and Fu Junyuan.
Gu Jiaojiao, meanwhile, sat between Su Shuochi and Grandpa Gu, directly across from Fu Guoguo.
The young girl would occasionally lift her eyes to sneak a peek at Gu Jiaojiao. ’She’s so beautiful,’ she thought, ’prettier than any other beauty I’ve ever seen.’
Both Fu Junyuan and Mrs. Gu put food on her plate. The atmosphere at the table was very relaxed, and Fu Guoguo slowly began to feel much more at ease.
"Everything is delicious today. I never expected Shuo Ci’s cooking to be this good," Grandpa Gu said cheerfully.
"He truly lives up to having a master chef for a mother. Tsk tsk, Shuo Ci’s skills have surpassed his teacher’s," Mr. Gu added in praise.
"Grandpa, Dad, have you considered that he has a wife who knows how to cook? That’s why his skills are so good, hehe..."
Gu Jiaojiao teased Su Shuochi even as she enjoyed being doted on by him, making everyone roar with laughter.
Because Eldest Brother Gu hadn’t come, Gu Jiaojiao was in high spirits. She even took out the best red wine from her space for everyone to try.
Xiao Rui enthusiastically poured wine for everyone. The men downed several glasses in a row and were still going.
Su Shuochi was a cut above even Geng Haoyi and Fu Junyuan, who were both very handsome young men themselves.
He was also a level above the two youths, Han Jingyi and Xiao Rui, in the looks department. He was, one might say, at the pinnacle of handsomeness.
Faced with this "pinnacle of handsomeness," Fu Junyuan and Geng Haoyi, who were merely on the "mountainside," were naturally a little vexed. They relentlessly tried to get Su Shuochi drunk.
As elders, Grandpa Gu and Mr. Gu didn’t feel it was appropriate to participate. After one round, they simply clinked glasses with Gu Jiaojiao and took small sips instead of downing their drinks.
Mrs. Gu and Fu Guoguo weren’t big drinkers, sticking to just one glass the entire evening. After having a little wine, Fu Guoguo became more talkative.
It was only then that Gu Jiaojiao learned that Jiang Ruyan was trying to become their stepmother. ’It really is a small world,’ she thought. ’You run into people you know at every turn.’
She had always felt there was more to Fu Junyuan than met the eye, but she hadn’t expected him to be so decisive as to sever ties with his father. As expected of a future tycoon.
The pleasant dinner party finally came to a reluctant end when everyone realized how late it had gotten.
Seeing the longing looks on Mr. and Mrs. Gu’s faces as they sat in the car made Gu Jiaojiao feel like an unpardonably wicked heartbreaker...
