Morning Longing for Warmth – Chapter 15
by Little PandaCompliment
Your handwriting is as beautiful as you are.
Because of the dog, Shiyi didn’t go back for lunch. She shared her newly bought bread with the dog, splitting it in half. After that, she poured out some mineral water, but without a bowl, she had to break off two large leaves from a tree and pour some water in them. Seeing the dog drink happily, she couldn’t help but feel joyful too.
Actually, several of her previous masters had kept dogs, but those dogs all had special caretakers looking after them carefully. They could only look at the dogs from afar – sitting next to one and petting it like this would have been completely impossible. Shiyi particularly liked this dog because she felt it was just like her – they were both homeless.
This small path truly had no one passing by. Shiyi leaned against the tree until evening without seeing anyone. Looking at the sky, she figured it was getting late. The dog was still sleeping soundly beside her, and Shiyi patted its head, saying softly, “I’ll come see you tomorrow.”
The sleeping dog heard the movement, opened its eyes, and immediately stood up. It rubbed its head against Shiyi, getting her light yellow clothes all covered in dirt color, an earthy gray. Shiyi rubbed its head and got up to leave.
When standing at the Wei family’s main gate, the guard didn’t ask where she’d been, just opened the gate and respectfully bowed. Shiyi walked in feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
Wei Hui hadn’t returned yet, so Shiyi took the opportunity while everyone was busy preparing dinner to go upstairs and take a shower. She changed out of her slightly dirty clothes and carefully washed her long hair. Just as she finished getting ready and opened the door, she heard sounds from downstairs.
Wei Hui was sitting on the sofa in the living room.
Pei Tian stood beside her and said, “Deputy General Manager Luo wants to use cost reduction as an excuse to renovate the unfinished buildings.”
This was the issue discussed at today’s board meeting. Luo Zhouping had been frequently contacting construction material companies because he wanted to directly renovate the unfinished buildings. Since part of it was already built, this would greatly save on funds. The key issue was that quite a few board shareholders actually agreed with him. Wei Hui really wanted to curse them for being muddle-headed old fools. These buildings were originally abandoned because they failed quality standards and the boss ran away, resulting in their unfinished state. Yet these people still wanted to directly renovate them. After so many years, the quality was already poor, and now they were completely uninhabitable. While others might not know, how could Wei Hui not understand Luo Zhouping’s intentions? On one hand, he was trying to profit through the construction materials company, and on the other hand, if anything went wrong with the renovated buildings, she would be the one responsible. Luo Zhouping was trying to pull her off her horse (a Chinese idiom indicating an attempt to remove someone from power).
Fortunately, quite a few shareholders opposed it today, including Shen Hao, who also disagreed. That’s why Luo Zhouping’s proposal wasn’t accepted. However, Wei Hui believed he wouldn’t give up so easily.
Especially after Shen Hao had suffered several quiet losses (meaning losses without being able to complain openly) from her side, if he couldn’t get any benefits again, he might turn his weapon around (switching allegiances).
This kind of person is easy to have on your side, but even easier to have as an opponent.
Therefore, they needed to quickly finalize plans for the unfinished building renovation. Besides this, Wei Hui’s red lips parted lightly as she said, “Contact Mr. Du tomorrow.”
Pei Tian’s sword-like eyebrows furrowed: “Mr. Du?”
Wei Hui nodded: “Rather than letting him sit on the mountain watching tigers fight (meaning to watch others fight while staying uninvolved), we might as well give him a share of the soup (meaning to let someone have a share of the profits).”
Pei Tian immediately understood Wei Hui’s meaning. Shen Hao was like a time bomb – no one knew when he might explode. For safety’s sake, they needed to put some insurance in place first.
Only the Du family could take a bite out of the Shen family’s meat, so the Du family was undoubtedly this insurance.
But whether the Du family would wade into these muddy waters (meaning to get involved in a troublesome situation) was still uncertain.
Wei Hui clearly understood this too. She had interacted with Du Yuehan several times and had some understanding of him. Whether they could bring him in was still an unknown variable. Thinking of this, she said, “You contact them first, and I’ll visit Old Mr. Du on the weekend.”
Pei Tian nodded: “Understood.”
Just as the words fell, there was a sound from behind. Wei Hui turned her head to see Shiyi standing at the stairs. Remembering her last meeting with Du Yueming, she spoke up: “I’ll bring her along.”
Pei Tian turned his head to look at Shiyi, his expression grave, but still lowered his head and walked out.
Shiyi accepted his puzzling glance and lowered her head to call out: “Third Miss.”
The Wei household rarely had other people around; usually, Su Ziyan visited the most. So when she first brought this child back, Wei Hui thought she would feel uncomfortable. Now thinking about it, she had just been needlessly worrying herself. This child knew best how to minimize her presence – if she didn’t make a sound, you definitely wouldn’t notice someone was beside you.
She nodded: “Dinner will be ready soon, have a seat.”
Shiyi sat on the sofa across from her, the loose casual clothes making her small frame look even more petite and frail. Her face was clean and clear without any makeup, showing the natural glow that young girls should have, except for two scars on her forehead. Though last night’s bump hadn’t broken the skin, it had turned bluish after one night, looking worse than the previous spot where the skin had broken. Wei Hui stared for a few seconds and asked: “Should we have Ziyan come take a look?”
He had said that scars on a girl’s face weren’t good.
Shiyi immediately shook her head and said softly: “No need to trouble Doctor Su.” She paused: “I still have the medicine he prescribed before.”
Wei Hui responded with a neutral “mm.”
Dinner wasn’t ready yet, and the servants were busy in the kitchen. Occasionally, fragrant aromas would drift into the living room. Shiyi sat properly on the sofa, and looking up, she saw Wei Hui working. Her eyes were lowered to the documents in front of her, her expression serious, the sharpness of her eyebrows undiminished. When not speaking, Wei Hui’s whole person gave off an aura that clearly said ‘keep strangers away’.
Though her aura was intimidating, Shiyi quietly thought to herself that Third Miss was truly the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Her facial features were delicate, as if carefully carved, with perfect proportions. She had long eyelashes and big eyes, with deep-set, three-dimensional features. Her brown elegant hair fell carelessly behind her, with a few disobedient strands hanging down her chest, clinging to her front. Shiyi’s gaze fell on the ends of her hair, thinking about last night’s dream where the child in her arms was as beautiful as Wei Hui. The person she was staring at gave a light cough, and Shiyi suddenly withdrew her gaze, sitting up straight.
Half an hour later, it was dinner time. Wei Hui’s meals had always leaned towards vegetarian dishes with light flavors, but the table was set with many meat dishes. Shiyi had hurriedly swallowed just half a piece of bread for lunch outside today. Now, smelling the food, her stomach growled. She looked embarrassedly at Wei Hui, but saw her calmly say: “Alright, everyone out.”
Zhang Ma gave others a look, then turned and led them out. Wei Hui said: “Eat.”
Without everyone’s watching eyes, Shiyi finally started eating with her head down. Suddenly, a plate of fragrant braised ribs sprinkled with sesame seeds was placed before her, its aroma wafting up. Wei Hui said: “I don’t have the habit of serving food to others, so help yourself to whatever you want to eat.”
“This is the Wei household. You don’t need to feel constrained, and you don’t need to be so careful. If you need anything, you can directly tell Zhang Ma.”
Wei Hui watched Shiyi, her gaze calm as she finished speaking. It wasn’t that she disliked Shiyi’s cautious attitude, but seeing her so restrained, not even daring to take food without watching others’ expressions, with such a frail body – even if she agreed to the deal later, she would definitely need proper nourishment.
She had never liked wasting time. Since she was confident Shiyi would agree, they might as well start improving her health now.
And first, they needed to fix her timid, weak personality.
Shiyi looked up and met her serious expression, her heart tightening as she nodded: “Okay.”
Wei Hui ladled a bowl of soup, watching as Shiyi ate a few bites of rice with her head down, then used her chopsticks to take some ribs, beef, and meatballs. Perhaps due to her upbringing, her eating manners were refined – though far from elegant, at least not crude or unsightly. Wei Hui sipped her soup, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and said: “I’m full.”
Just as Shiyi was about to put down her chopsticks, she heard Wei Hui say: “Continue.”
“Until you’re full.”
Shiyi gripped her chopsticks and glanced at Wei Hui, nodding: “Okay.”
After Wei Hui left the dining room, Shiyi ate another small half bowl of rice. This was her first time eating without holding back, so she inevitably lost count and ate too much. Sitting on the stool, she could feel her stomach was completely full, but it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, and there was even a slight sense of happiness.
After she finished eating, Zhang Ma came in to clear the dishes. Shiyi saw her putting the bones and unfinished ribs together, which were probably going to be thrown away. Thinking of the dog still tied up outside, she immediately called out: “Zhang Ma.”
Wei Hui’s words echoed in her ears: ‘This is the Wei household. You don’t need to feel constrained, and you don’t need to be so careful. If you need anything, you can directly tell Zhang Ma.’ Shiyi said: “Please put these dishes in a bag and give them to me tomorrow.” After a few seconds, she added: “Is that okay?”
Zhang Ma frowned, wanting to ask why she needed this, but remembering her current status, she could only say: “Okay.”
Shiyi hadn’t expected Zhang Ma to agree so quickly. A rare smile appeared on her face as she said sincerely: “Thank you, Zhang Ma.”
Zhang Ma replied in a stiff tone: “No need.”
When Shiyi returned to the living room with a grateful heart, Wei Hui was already gone, and the documents on the tea table had disappeared too. She looked up at the second floor – Wei Hui’s door was tightly closed.
Having just eaten, her stomach feeling full, she decided not to go upstairs and instead walked out of the living room to stroll near the flower beds. There were several stone paths in the garden, with street lamps on both sides. The dim yellow light shone on the delicate flowers, and when the wind blew, waves of fragrance wafted through the air.
Shiyi wandered around twice before sitting down on a bench next to the flower bed. After sitting down, she closed her eyes, breathing in the faint fragrance in the air. Everything around was quiet. The dim yellow lamplight cast upon her, making her shadow stretch very long. When the wind blew, there came a rustling sound. Shiyi opened her eyes and saw a book placed on the edge of the bench, its title page fluttering in the wind, making the pages rustle.
The book was thick with a black title page, and the text was embossed in gold, reading “The Way of Business”.
This must be Third Miss’s book, right?
Before she could think further, another gust of wind came, flipping more pages. Shiyi casually picked up the book, intending to return it to Third Miss later, but unexpectedly saw writing inside. The dense, tiny characters were hard to make out under the street lamp, and moreover, she couldn’t understand the professional terms inside at all.
“What are you looking at?” A voice came from behind. Shiyi startled and immediately turned around to see Wei Hui standing behind her, wearing light gray pajamas with a sleeveless cardigan. The wind lifted her elegant hair, revealing her beautiful features.
Shiyi held up the book respectfully: “Your book.”
Wei Hui lowered her eyes to look at the book for a few seconds, then asked calmly: “Can you understand it?”
“I can’t understand it,” Shiyi bit her lip somewhat embarrassedly: “I just thought your handwriting is very beautiful.”
Remembering Wei Hui’s words during dinner about not being constrained, Shiyi attempted her first compliment in life: “As, as beautiful as you are.”
With sincere words, earnest gaze, and serious expression – Wei Hui, being stared at like this, seemed to choke on the wind, giving a light cough twice before saying: “It’s cold, go back and rest early.”
After speaking, she turned and left without waiting for Shiyi’s response.
The author has something to say:
Question: How does it feel to be sincerely complimented by your own wife?
Third Miss: It’s a bit sweet.
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