Returning home, Shen Zhaoran changed into comfortable pajamas, hugged her design drafts, and ran straight to Shen Junhuai’s study.
Shen Junhuai was reviewing documents. Seeing her enter, his originally sharp gaze softened quite a bit. “What is it?”
“Hehe, nothing.”
She dragged the lazy sofa over to Shen Junhuai’s feet, lay down, and immediately went back to modifying her design drafts. “You go ahead and work.”
Shen Junhuai ruffled her hair and went back to preparing for his upcoming meeting.
At first, Shen Zhaoran was diligently revising her drafts, but later, listening to the sound of the meeting, she gradually grew drowsy. Finally, her eyes half-closed, and even her pen dropped onto the carpet.
Shen Junhuai glanced at her, put on his headphones, muted his microphone, got up to fetch a blanket from the sofa to cover her, and turned up the study’s temperature by a few degrees.
The sky gradually grew dark, and with a gloomy look, it started raining at some point.
When Shen Zhaoran woke up, she could still see the raindrops outside through the window.
She curled herself into a ball and asked, sleepy-eyed, “What time is it?”
“Half-past seven.”
“I have slept for this long.”
She thought she was just taking a little nap.
“Brother, why are you still working?”
Shen Junhuai closed his laptop, pulled her up, and smoothed down her tufts of sleep-moussed hair. “Clean up and let’s go eat.”
Shen Zhaoran nodded and walked out wrapped in the blanket.
Xia Qiaoya happened to be back. Seeing the two of them coming downstairs, she said, “My precious baby and older brother are home.”
Shen Zhaoran ran over in small steps and called out, “Mom.”
The three of them finally had today’s dinner at eight o’clock in the evening.
Coming out of the dining room, Shen Zhaoran pulled Xia Qiaoya along to talk about going to the hospital today.
Xia Qiaoya stroked her head to soothe her. “You should have gone.”
“Our Zhao Zhao has really suffered. She used to be happy every day without any worries.” Xia Qiaoya pulled her into her arms and patted her back. “Let Shen Junhuai handle all the things that require worry from now on. Anyway, he is never idle day in and day out.”
Shen Zhaoran held back a smile. “Brother stayed with me all day.”
“What a surprise, our CEO Shen could actually restrain himself from going to work.” Xia Qiaoya said in a very exaggerated tone.
Shen Zhaoran didn’t have the heart to say that she had slept all afternoon, and Shen Junhuai had also spent the entire afternoon in meetings.
Shen Junhuai didn’t know how his biological mother was badmouthing him again. After going upstairs to finish the work that had piled up, he went to Shen Zhaoran’s room.
At this moment, Shen Zhaoran had finished taking a bath and was lying face down on the bed studying Xie Xiangxue’s medical records, occasionally taking photos and sending them to Dr. Xu.
Seeing her like this when he entered the room, Shen Junhuai turned directly into the bathroom and brought out a hair dryer.
“Where are your assistants?”
“I gave them a holiday.”
Shen Zhaoran had several lifestyle assistants, but she had not been in a very good mood these past few days and didn’t want the assistants to walk on eggshells around them, so she simply sent them back.
Shen Junhuai turned on the hair dryer and tested the temperature. Shen Zhaoran consciously came over and sat down.
During the process of drying her hair, she kept turning her head to look at him like that.
Once her hair was completely dry, Shen Junhuai asked while putting away the hair dryer, “What is it?”
Shen Zhaoran didn’t answer and silently looked away.
Shen Junhuai pinched her chin and turned her back around. “Is there anything you can’t tell me?”
Shen Zhaoran’s expression was very conflicted, but she still asked, “Will you also blow-dry Xie Cangyue’s hair in the future?”
Shen Junhuai frowned. “What kind of horror story are you telling?”
“Indeed.”
“Brother, I think you might have a bit of a wrong perception of her.”
“What?”
“You seem to treat her like some kind of existence akin to Xia Zeyu.”
It didn’t look like treating a younger sister, more like treating a disobedient younger brother.
“Unbelievable.”
Although it was bizarre, Shen Junhuai felt that this instantly hit the nail on the head regarding the dynamic between him and Xie Cangyue.
Although Xie Cangyue’s identity had not been made public yet, the family members still needed to be informed.
The older generation of the Shen family lived overseas for a long time, and fearing that the elders would worry, they planned to talk about this matter when people came over for the Lunar New Year. As for the Xia family, they had been told quite early on.
Grandpa Xia wanted to see her again, so he simply set a time for the whole big family to gather together.
On the appointed day, Xie Cangyue waited early downstairs at the apartment building.
Shen Zhaoran came over with Shen Junhuai to pick her up. Seeing the tall and long-legged Xie Cangyue through the car window, Shen Zhaoran let out an exclamation: “Wow, so cool.”
Today, Xie Cangyue was wearing a light-brown custom trench coat, stepped in short boots, with her long hair draped over her shoulders and wearing sunglasses, which made her aura appear even more powerful.
Xie Cangyue sat in the back seat and replied indifferently, “Xiao Zhu matched it.”
Xiao Zhu was the lifestyle assistant Shen Junhuai found for her.
Ever since she moved into the apartment, people had been sending things to her place every day. At first, when Shen Junhuai asked if she wanted a lifestyle assistant, she was still wondering what a lifestyle assistant would do.
It wasn’t until the living room was piled high with things that she turned around and called Shen Junhuai back: “The assistant you mentioned, when can they start work?”
Shen Zhaoran got out of the front passenger seat and also sat in the back. She held up her tablet to show Xie Cangyue pictures: “Let me tell you about grandpa, my uncles, and their family.”
Today, Shen Zhaoran was dressed like a cute ragdoll cat. Xie Cangyue remembered that the cat her grandmother raised downstairs in her hometown looked just like this: long-furred, very pretty, and very obedient.
Xie Cangyue touched her scarf, thinking it looked a lot like the ruff of fur around a ragdoll’s neck.
“So cute.”
Shen Zhaoran: “?”
“This.” Thinking Xie Cangyue was talking about the scarf, Shen Zhaoran glanced at her outfit, which looked indeed very thin, and unbuttoned her scarf to wrap it around Xie Cangyue’s neck instead. “I’ll give it to you to wear.”
Xie Cangyue: “?”
Just as Xie Cangyue wanted to refuse, she felt the car speed up noticeably.
She exchanged a glance with Shen Junhuai through the rear-view mirror.
She thought to herself, what a crazy sister-con.
Xie Cangyue accepted the scarf, leaned very close to Shen Zhaoran, and listened to her introduce the situation of the Xia family members.
When getting out of the car, Shen Zhaoran was still wondering, “We’re here already?”
Xie Cangyue sneered at Shen Junhuai.
Without even looking at her, Shen Junhuai simply took another scarf of his own from the car and wrapped it around Shen Zhaoran.
Although the dark brown scarf didn’t quite match Shen Zhaoran’s style for today, keeping warm took precedence.
When they arrived at the entrance, Shen Zhaoran pulled Shen Junhuai aside to say a few words, then told Xie Cangyue to follow Shen Junhuai inside while she herself headed toward the back garden.
Xie Cangyue asked with her eyes, and Shen Junhuai explained, “She just thinks that if she’s not around, everyone will feel more relaxed facing you.”
Xie Cangyue glanced again in the direction Shen Zhaoran had left before retracting her gaze and saying, “Let’s go.”
Even in the dead of winter, Shen Zhaoran didn’t wander around aimlessly. She went straight into the greenhouse and caught Xia Zeyu, who was hiding in a corner, busy and acting all sneaky.
“What are you doing?”
“Holy crap!”
Xia Zeyu patted his chest. “You scared me to death. I thought my mom came.”
“I accidentally knocked over my mom’s flowers.”
Shen Zhaoran glanced at the devastating scene all over the ground. “I advise you that turning yourself in to the authorities is probably for the best.”
“I feel like it can still be saved.”
Shen Zhaoran didn’t know how to grow flowers either, but just looking at it made her feel like these fragile flowers were about to be loved to death by Xia Zeyu.
After fussing around for half the day, Xia Zeyu ultimately had to call a gardener over. The gardener looked at the mess on the floor in silence, let out a long sigh, and began replanting.
Xie Cangyue found her way over at some point. Standing beside Shen Zhaoran, she also fell silent upon seeing the chaos.
Seeing her arrive, Shen Zhaoran briefly introduced the two to each other.
Xia Zeyu leaned closer to appraise her. “Have we met somewhere before? You look so familiar.”
Shen Zhaoran looked at him speechlessly.
Xie Cangyue stared back calmly.