You take a deep breath.
Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down.
You keep giving yourself a pep talk in your head——
Hutou! You’re the head of the household. The more urgent the moment, the more you have to act like a proper family head!
Charge!
You step forward, clench your fists, and firmly shield the beauties behind you.
“Don’t be afraid, your husband will protect you.”
Zhuer shoots you a flirtatious glance and claps with a businesslike smile, “Husband is amazing!”
Then he ignores you.
Following his earlier movement, he reached out with his index finger and hooked Yanyan’s chin, rubbing it gently as Yanyan squirmed in his arms. “Gu Yiyan, hurry up and feed me, or I’ll get mad…”
Yanyan knocks his hand away and turns his face aside expressionlessly, but the tips of his ears quietly flush red.
Yanyan has always had a cool temperament, and after his family’s misfortune he became even less fond of speaking, his whole person like a block of ice radiating cold.
After he came to your home, Qingqing would often go over to keep him company and talk, and Zhuer and Ruanruan would sometimes go tease him too. Only then did he gain a bit of human warmth and stop moping alone all day.
Yanyan can’t withstand Zhuer’s tactics. After quite a while, he barely squeezes out three words.
“…Give me the bowl.”
Then they start showing off their affection.
Seeing this, Ruanruan gets even wilder, flipping over and pressing Qingqing down in one motion, straddling his waist and acting tyrannical, rubbing nonstop against Qingqing’s chest like a little dog.
“Mm… Qingqing gege, feed me…”
Qingqing pushes at him, but fails to budge him. Catching sight of you standing there stunned from the corner of his eye, his expression turns anxious, “Hutou gege, what are you standing there for? Hurry and go put out the fire…”
Then he softens his voice to coax Ruanruan.
“All right, Ruanruan, get up first. I’ll feed you.”
So they start showing off their affection too.
You:……
By now you have already calmed down. You direct the servants in the residence to the back courtyard to put out the fire, and soon the situation is under control.
You go into the storeroom to check, and find that not much has been damaged. Only the account books were too close to the source of the fire and burned to ash.
You are often away from home, and all the household affairs, large and small, are managed by Qingqing, so you are not too worried. After all, Qingqing still has a backup copy of the account books in his room.
You call Qingqing over and casually mention that you’ll go to his room later to get the account books.
Unexpectedly, Qingqing’s eyes widen, and he looks at you helplessly.
“Hutou gege, my… mine was accidentally lost…”
You think:
1. It’s not some important thing, if it’s lost then it’s lost. Forget it.
2. It would still be more reassuring to reconcile the accounts. Go with Qingqing to his room and look again.
3. Act indifferent on the surface, but investigate in secret.