Xidan Shopping Street

  It's been over half a year since Zhao Zhibang and Xingzi returned to their home country. After the Chinese New Year, under the strong request of Zhao Zhibang and his family members, Xingzi resigned from the hospital and went back home as she was already pregnant for more than 4 months. The news of Xingzi's pregnancy made the Zhao family extremely happy, but it seemed that the happiest person wasn't even Zhao Zhibang, who was about to become a father, but rather Zhao Chuanfu. Since Xingzi became pregnant, he had been beaming with joy every day, and it was him who gave the order, so Xingzi had no choice but to obediently resign from the hospital and focus on taking care of her pregnancy.

  She was extremely reluctant to resign and go home, because she thought it would be too boring. Usually, only Zhao Yidian could play with her. However, the younger sister had to go to school, and there seemed to be nothing to talk about with Li Yu'e either. Fortunately, there was Li Yu'e's distant cousin Xu Yunqiao, who was 5 years younger than Xingzi. When they were together in private, they still got along well, after all, they were both young people. However, when Li Yu'e was around, she always treated herself as a maid of the Zhao family, although the entire Zhao family had never treated her as an outsider.

  "Xiang, shall we go out to Xidan today? It's been a long time since we last went out!" Just after finishing breakfast, Xingzi sat at the door, massaging her slightly swollen legs while talking to Yunqiao who was sweeping the floor. Actually, Yunqiao was right next to her, so close that there was no need to speak so loudly. Since she became pregnant, her mother-in-law had been taking care of her, even cooking meals for her, despite Xingzi and Zhibang mentioning it multiple times, but Li Yujiao ignored them and continued as usual.

  Since she returned home, Li 'Yu' E has not allowed Apricot to go out. At most, it was just a walk in the yard or hutong. Although Apricot was very reluctant, she couldn't help but listen. At this time, Apricot's words were naturally said to Li 'Yu' E, which was also the plan she and Yun Qiao discussed yesterday. At this time, Li 'Yu' E was preparing a diaper for Little Sun in the room.

  Apricot Child

  "Ah, ah, ah..." Anzi heard her mother-in-law calling her and responded with some embarrassment. She knew that Li Yu'e must have also heard and that her loving mother-in-law would definitely agree, but she couldn't help feeling a bit uneasy about using this method for the time being.

  "Yunqiao, go call Master Yuan to bring the car out. Let's take advantage of Old Master and Zhibang not being here, we'll sneak out and have some fun today," said Li Yujiao with a wink at Xingzi, and both of them burst into laughter, understanding each other without needing to say more. From that day on, their relationship transformed from the formal mother-in-law and daughter-in-law dynamic to one that was more like a mother-daughter relationship.

  "Ah! Alright, I'm going out now!" Yun Qiao responded with a single word and immediately stopped what she was doing, hastily leaving the driver's residence in the west courtyard. She had been feeling suffocated for these past few days as well.

  After the driver drove the car out, Li Yu'e helped Xingzi into the car and handed over a few words to the butler before getting in. Since Zhao's business improved in Guan Nei and Xingzi became pregnant, Zhao Chuanfu added another car and even hired a driver and an old partner from the Shenyang store as a butler to help Li Yu'e with household chores, which was also a compensation for his years of contribution to the Zhao family antique shop.

  "Xingzi, tell your mother the truth, were those words you just said intentionally for me to hear?" The car drove out of the alley entrance. Because of Xingzi's reason, the driver drove very slowly. As soon as they left the alley entrance, three women who had not gone "out" for a long time suddenly became excited. Li Yujiao sat beside Xingzi and asked with a smile.

  "Hehe... " Anzi didn't respond, just laughed a few times, which was taken as acknowledgement of her mother-in-law's question.

  "Oh my! I've been thinking of saying this for a long time, being cooped up at home for so long, not to mention you young people can't take it, even I wanted to get out early, hehe... But, I'm also afraid of your dad and Zhi Bang scolding me! Oh, right, don't tell Old Master about the thing with Yuan Shifu, or else they'll definitely scold me!"

  "Girl... why are you so afraid of dad? I think dad is more afraid of you!"

  "Hehe, even if I'm not afraid of your dad, I'm still afraid of Zhi Bao! Oh my, thinking back to when I was pregnant with Zhi Bao, I was still working at the counter just half a month before giving birth! Look at how tense these two are now... Little treasure, do you think so?" Li Yu'e said with a smile while rubbing Xingzi's belly.

  The car soon arrived at Xidan Street, and Li Yu'e took out 2 silver dollars to hand over to the driver: "Driver Yuan, just park the car nearby and have some fun, we'll come back later and look for you."

  "Madam, what are you doing? Please hurry up and get in! Otherwise, I'll park the car somewhere and go with you, is there anything I can help carry?"

  "No need, the three of us 'girls' are going shopping, you're a man and it's not like there's any point in following us. Besides, we probably won't buy anything! We just want to get out and clear our minds." Li Yujiao said, not allowing Yuan Shifu to decline, and put two silver dollars into his outer pocket.

  "Alright then, I'll just wait for you here, this money..."

  "It's okay, you're alone here and it's quite boring, just find a place to drink some tea and kill time!" After saying that, he pulled Xingzi inside.

  "Thank you very much, madam..."

  The three of them strolled along, and naturally they spent most of their time browsing stores that sold clothes and cosmetics.

  "Yun Qiao, don't you think that dress would look great on you?" The three of them walked to the entrance of a clothing store called 'Xin Xidan', and Xingzi pointed at a cheongsam hanging inside the store.

  "Three of you, please come in and take a look around." Seeing that the three people were not dressed like ordinary villagers, the shop owner quickly put down what he was doing and warmly welcomed them.

  "Which one? This one?" Li 'Yu' Jiao pulled Xingzi's hand and walked in, pointing to a pink cheongsam hanging on the wall.

  "Ah, yes... this is it! Mom, what do you think?"

  "Ah, Yun Qiao is wearing it and it should look pretty good!" Li Yu Jiao reached out to touch the fabric of the clothes and then looked at Xingzi again before saying: "Boss, take this piece of clothing down and let's take a look!"

  "Alright, madam, just wait for a moment."

  "Oh, no need for Sister Yu'e to buy me clothes anymore, I have plenty of them already!"

  "Little sister, you'll definitely look great in this one. This style is made by a famous master craftsman from our northern city. Try it on first and see how it looks." The boss's wife said hastily as Yun Qiao strongly declined.

  "That's right! Never mind, let's go out and try it first. If it doesn't look good, we won't buy it." Li Yu'e also echoed the boss's words.

  "It's not that it doesn't look good, it's just... this dress is too tight and has such a long slit, I..." Yun Qiao said softly with a red face.

  "Haha... Haha... Silly girl, this city is full of women wearing cheongsam dresses!" Li Yujiao couldn't help but burst out laughing after Yun Qiao finished speaking. She patted Yun Qiao's hand while chuckling and said.

  "Mother, I think it's fine! Hehe... otherwise buying it back would be a waste if Yunque really doesn't wear it." Li Yu'e smiled and made Xingzi laugh too. She looked at Yunqiao's completely red face and held back her laughter as she said this.

  "Haha... forget it, let's go somewhere else, I don't want to bother the boss..."