After parting with his assistants at the airport, Yang Feng rushed to the Zhao Mansion. At first, he debated the idea of simply sneaking into Zhao Lifei’s room, but ruled out the idea for being too foolish. He was the great Yang Feng, why should he sneak around?
Thus, he found himself at the doorsteps of the Zhao Mansion with a heavy wooden box consisting of the exquisite Da Hong Pao [1] tea worth a million per gram, and expertly crafted teapots made from the highly valuable emerald jade that was once used by the Imperial Family. By buying these expensive gifts, Yang Feng hoped to appease Zhao Moyao,
When Old Butler Tang opened the door, he was surprised to see Yang Feng, but quickly fixed his composure by offering a bow. "Good evening, President Yang." He greeted, opening the door for Yang Feng who strolled in. Zhao Moyao was waiting for him inside and the minute the door was shut, the atmosphere was tense.
"Good evening...grandfather." Yang Feng coyly said, the edge of his lips tilting upwards in an attempt of an amicable smile. Despite the fact it came out dry, it didn’t diminish the blindly perfect features of his.
Zhao Moyao narrowed his eyes at the name. "Good evening...Yang Heng." Two could play the game of foolish nicknames.
"I have prepared a few gifts as a thank you for allowing me into your house." Yang Feng passed the handcrafted wooden box to the Old Butler who showed it to Zhao Moyao.
"Hm, Da Hong Pao tea and an emerald jade tea set crafted by the Great Master Ren Cong." Zhao Moyao, despite the slight excitement he had, did not make moves of touching the gifts. Instead, he focused his sharp and desolate gaze on the young man in front of him. Hmph, did he think his precious granddaughter’s hand in marriage could be brought with such gifts?
Though it came as fast as it left, Yang Feng was able to catch the slightest spark of approval from Zhao Moyao’s eyes. "If these are not up to par with your expectations, would you like Master Fan Min’s latest Calligraphy work? There’s an auction taking place in a couple of days, I can bid for one."
Zhao Moyao chuckled, this silly boy. Master Fan Min only made one piece of calligraphy painting a year, thus, his insightful calligraphy was valued in the high millions, nearly reaching one billion per piece. To what extent was he willing to spend just to have his approval?
Yang Feng took out his phone to contact Chen Gaonan to prepare another auction ticket when a delightfully honey-sweet voice, clear as day and soft as the clouds, spoke up. "Grandfather, the dinner is getting cold—" She paused upon seeing Yang Feng, whose devilishly handsome face was twisted into a mischievous smirk when he saw her.
"Yang Feng, what are you doing here?" She tilted her head, walking to him, but he quickly crossed the distance between them and placed both hands on either side of her waist.
"What are you doing out of bed?" He asked her, supporting her body weight.
"The doctor said I should have some light exercises, so it’s fine for me to walk around." She carefully said, resting her hands on his firm chest.
One of his arm slipped around her waist whereas the other reached to brush her hair away to reveal her gentle expression, her eyes that shimmered like gold underneath the crystal chandelier, and her tiny smile blindly beautiful, he didn’t realize he was awestruck by her until her eyes crinkled while she naively smiled up at him, completely unaware of his gawking.
"Don’t overexert the light exercise," He finally said, pulling her closer to him, bending his head in an attempt to capture her delectable lips but she was swift to dodge it, the kiss landing on her adorably squishy cheeks. She slowly nodded her head, her innocent smile twisting into a teasing one.
She reached up to her tippy toes and tapped his nose. "Take a picture, it’ll last longer." She winked, reciting the words for the second time, causing a peal of low laughter from Yang Feng who adjusted her body so that she was standing on his shoes, instead of straining her body to reach his height.
"Will you promise to not attack me if I do?" He hummed, gesturing back to the time she pinned him onto the couch just because he had snapped one picture of her. He wondered what her reaction would be if she discovered he had not only saved the picture onto his computer, but also backed it up with multiple flash drives and disks, then had a version printed out, lamented, and stored away in an indestructible safe.
Zhao Moyao didn’t want to look at their loving scene any longer, for if he did, he feared he might puke blood.
How could these youngsters blatantly ignore him? His irritation slightly thawed out when he saw the serene and genuinely happy expression on his granddaughter’s face. It was the first time ever since she had gotten here from the hospital did she smile like that. The anxiety he felt for her was put to ease upon seeing her bright expression. Perhaps letting this Yang Heng into the house wasn’t so bad after all...
"Ahem!" He cleared his throat, clearly catching their attention. "The dishes are getting cold." He pointed out, walking to the dining hall, accompanied by Zhao Lifei who managed to break away from Yang Feng’s grip.
An unhappy expression fell on Yang Feng’s face when he saw how eager his woman was at leaving him, but his grim expression lightened when he realized she was being a filial granddaughter by supporting Zhao Moyao, despite the fact that the Elder clearly didn’t need help, but pretended to just so he could have his granddaughter worry over him.
At the dinner table, Yang Feng felt neglected. While Zhao Lifei was busy deboning the chicken and peeling the shrimp for her grandfather, Yang Feng’s bowl of rice was empty. She tended to her grandfather, while Yang Feng continued to pile dishes onto her plate.
"My dear, you also have to eat." He said, his lips tugging down into a slight scowl. His eyes swirled with aggravation upon seeing she had barely touched her food the entire night. She was already too skinny as it is.
Zhao Lifei paused and noticed her bowl was filled with dishes to the brim, ranging from all sorts of protein and vegetables to the perfectly deboned fish. She chuckled upon hearing his sullen tone. He looked like an abandoned and lonely child in desperate need of love.
"I’ll eat, I’ll eat. Don’t get mad over something like this." She mused, picking up the chopsticks and digging into the food.
"Take bigger bites." He instructed. "Here, you should have more of the ginger-boiled quail eggs. The sea cucumber, abalone, and Japanese flower mushroom soup is very nutritious. Drink some." He poured her a hot bowl of soup, continuing to hover over her like an obnoxious pest that wouldn’t go away.
He saw her take small, elegant bites and continued to nag, "We’re not in public, you don’t have to worry about your image." He ranted while placing cauliflower and bok choy into her bowl, the mountain of dishes piling up.
"Yang Feng!" She exasperated, her eyes going dizzy at the food he was trying to force her to eat. "I can’t eat that much." She sighed, picking up the spoon to drink the soup just so that he could stop boring a hole into her head.
"Then, eat the healthiest items first. The soup is packed with—"
"Yeah, yeah, nutrition. I know." She mumbled, finishing the bowl of soup and then attempting to tackle the food mountain in front of her. She warily stared at it.
"You don’t have to finish it all." He said, patiently waiting for her to start eating the vegetables to which she finally relented and did. "But at least eat a big portion of it."
After eating for a while, she noticed he didn’t touch most of his food. "You’re not going to eat?"
"I’ll eat after you finish your bowl." He firmly said, his words shocking her to the core.
He was the Yang family’s Young Master, the treasure of their family! To say he would eat lastly scared her. This man probably grew up sitting at the head of the table and enjoying the first bite of everything delicious, yet here he was, willing to eat the leftovers for her!
"You have to eat as well." She shook her head, placing down her chopsticks which earned a fierce glare from Yang Feng’s direction.
As he had done for her, she deboned the ginseng poached chicken, perfectly peeled the shrimps for him, and scooped fish into his bowl. She concentrated on placing the best of the best onto his plate.
She was completely unaware of the delight within Yang Feng’s eyes. His lips twitched, a grin threatening to break out upon seeing her pamper him. It was as if the sun was shining upon him because the overwhelming happiness he had in his eyes was hard to miss.
Even Zhao Moyao couldn’t help but snicker upon seeing this. This poor boy was so neglected by his granddaughter to the point of where simply placing food into his bowl was enough to make him this happy. He had to admit, his granddaughter was good at making Yang Feng work for her. This granddaughter of his was truly remarkable.