Chapter Twenty-Five: Under the Old Mansion

  Xia's old house is a typical Beijing quadrangle courtyard. Xia Yifei stopped the car and then greeted the tall man who came out of the house: "Yan Ge, is the old man inside?"

  The man nodded silently, looking at Ao Yuan who was standing beside her with a frown.

  Xia Yifei had also mentioned this person to Ao Yuan before. Chen Yan was the child of an old friend of Old Master's, who had died in a fight and left Chen Yan behind. Old Master had taken him in as his own son. Chen Yan knew how to repay kindness and now he was basically Old Master's most capable and trusted bodyguard. By generation, Xia Yifei should call Chen Yan "Uncle", but since Chen Yan was only three years older than her, she really couldn't bring herself to say it. Chen Yan also felt awkward about it. Since childhood, Xia Yifei and the younger ones had all called him "Yan Ge".

  Most people would subconsciously take a step back when faced with Chen Yan's scrutinizing and guarded gaze, but Ao Yuan stood his ground with an easy smile, the two of them engaging in a silent stare-down without either one backing down.

  Xia Yifei felt that she had heard the sound of thunder and lightning, so she opened her mouth: "Yan Ge, this is Ao Yuan. Hmm... my friend."

  A strange silence.

  Xia Yifei felt for the first time that maintaining her usual smile was so tiring.

  When Chen Yan heard the two words "friends", he looked at Xia Yifei with a strange gaze, and then broke the silence by opening his mouth: "Finally know to bring back? The old man is waiting for you in the house, go in."

  After finishing speaking, he led the way into the house, leaving Xia Yanzhi, who had heard this sentence, to petrify on the spot into a stone statue with an extremely distorted expression.

  What's with this slightly relieved tone?!

  Yue Ge, did you just imagine something weird? Tell me honestly!!!

  Xia Yifei stared blankly at Chen Yan's back, shouting in her heart, and then looked at Ao Yuan with a resentful gaze: "I said I was just going back to the old mansion, why did you follow me..."

  Ao Yuan actually thought of what Xia Yu Fei had thought of too, but he was happy to pretend not to understand: "What?"

  "Never mind, you probably didn't hear it." Xia Yu Fei habitually rubbed her temples, and she found that since meeting Ao Yuan, she had been doing this action more and more often.

  But she didn't know that Ao Yuan had a secret pleasure in his heart that even he himself couldn't understand.

  Although Mr. and Mrs. Xia are over sixty, nearly seventy years old, they are still in high spirits and physically robust; if not for that head of white hair, it wouldn't be excessive to say they're just fifty.

  It's clear that Chen Yan had already told the old man about Ao Yuan before the two of them came in. At this time, the old man smiled with a look of relief: "I thought you were going to stay holed up in your basement or that pot for the rest of your life."

  I think... Grandpa, you must have misunderstood something.

  Xia Yifei sat down neatly while complaining in her heart. Although the old mansion had many rules, she was already used to it: "This is Ao Yuan, Yan Ge should have just told you, my friend."

  Xia Yifei reached out to take the tea handed over by Chen Yan, and in the blink of an eye, he didn't see it, but Ao Yuan clearly saw the look of surprise that flashed across the old man's face when he heard his name.

  This matter seems to be getting more and more interesting. He also reached out, took a sip of tea, and incidentally covered up the playful smile at the corner of his mouth.