She did not want Yan Beicheng to be with Lin Chu as she looked down on Lin Chu. She wanted to match-make Lu Weining and Yan Beicheng. It was just that the Yan Family were clear on their dislike towards Lu Weining and were blunt toward her. They had even said some undue words to her once. She could not even guarantee that Lu Weining was not bearing a grudge toward her as well. 

Therefore, she decided to attack Lin Chu to force her to retreat. As for Lu Weining, the Yan Family would discover sooner or later that she would be the most suitable person to be the Yan Family in-law.

Seeing that Yan Zhiqing was quiet, Old Lady Yan was not curious what was on her mind. She was probably having one of her childish and naive thoughts. 

"Zhiqing, why did you want to bring Lu Weining over today?" Old Lady Yan seemed as if she had let go of her anger and asked amiably. 

"It"s Big Sister Lu"s first time in B City, she doesn"t have any friends here and her family members are not around. She"s all alone so I brought her over to have fun," Yan Zhiqing replied.

Old Lady Yan sneered in her heart but kept her expression as kind as before. "She"s been complaining to you?"

"No, it"s just casual chatting. We"re bound to talk about these things occasionally." Yan Zhiqing paused for a short while and continued following Old Lady Yan"s conversation, "We were on the phone yesterday and she asked if I was doing anything today, if not she"d bring me out shopping."

Yan Zhiqing also wanted to please Old Lady Yan, and she was not foolish. She knew how important it was to get the support of the Yan Family, and she did not want to get on Old Lady Yan"s bad side. "Today"s also Ningbai"s birthday so I"d be dropping by anyway, so I told her about it. Big Sister Lu did not say that she wanted to tag along, she said she was going to go shopping alone. I thought that she"d be lonely, so I asked for her to tag along."

Yan Zhiqing did not understand which part did Old Lady Yan not understood. The corner of her mouth was sneering.

It was clear that Lu Weining was deliberately being pitiful and led Yan Zhiqing to say all these.

"Alright, ask Lu Weining to come here, I have things to discuss with her," Old Lady Yan replied coldly.

"Granny, what are you going to say to her?" Yan Zhiqing thought about what Old Lady Yan just said and looked at her anxiously.

Old Lady Yan laughed grimly, "If you don"t call her over, I"ll do it myself. Since she"s fawning over Beicheng, why doesn"t she come herself to win my favor? She must be eager to present me her performance."

Yan Zhiqing had no other option but to call Lu Weining over.

Back in the living room, Lu Weining looked pitiful all alone without anyone acknowledging her. Yan Zhiqing sympathized with her even more. As she looked over at Lin Chu playing joyfully playing with the kids, she a.s.sumed Lin Chu was deliberately giving Lu Weining the cold-shoulder. 

As she pa.s.sed by Lin Chu, she b.u.mped into her on purpose. Lin Chu was not on guard and she almost got knocked over.

She then heard Yan Zhiqing"s grunt toward her. Lin Chu gave her a look and said nothing in return.

Today was Yan Ningbai"s birthday, it was a joyous day. She did not want anything unpleasant to occur, so she held it in. 

Although Yan Beicheng was talking to Qi Chengzhi and the others, he was always glancing over to look at Lin Chu. He then saw everything that happened. 

He frowned and was just about to make Yan Zhiqing apologize, Lin Chu shook her head indicating to him to let it slide. 

In front of so many people, Yan Zhiqing would be put on the spot. It would be impossible for her to apologize, the scene might turn ugly and the children might get scared.

Yan Beicheng frowned a while more and decided to hold it in.

Yan Zhiqing walked towards Lu Weining"s side, and whispered, "Big Sister Lu, my granny wants to have a word with you."

Lu Weining looked over in surprise. Yan Zhiqing lowered her head and guiltily tugged Lu Weining"s sleeve. "Maybe… it won"t be words of kindness, please don"t take it to heart."

Lu Weining"s gaze shook as she bit her lip with a nervous expression. She paused before finally holding onto Yan Zhiqing"s hand. "It"s alright, I"m aware that the Old Lady might"ve misunderstood something about me. It"ll be fine after a thorough explanation."

"Big Sister Lu, you—"

"Don"t worry, no matter what the Old Lady will say I won"t take it to heart. I know you can"t stop her as well. I know the hardsh.i.p.s you went through," Lu Weining a.s.sured her she held her hand.

Yan Zhiqing nodded with a sigh of relief. "You can be a.s.sured that no matter what, I"m on your side."

Lu Weining smiled softly. "Hey, don"t quarrel with your family for me. No matter what, you"re supposed to be closest to your family. If there was a misunderstanding between you and your family because of me, I"d rather never have relations with you anymore."

"Big Sister Lu, you are the best." Yan Zhiqing was touched by her words, "You"re the only one that would care this much about me."

On the contrary, it was her family that persistently wanted her to stay away from Lu Weining. They never tried to empathize with her and were unwilling to accept her friend just for her. 

Yan Zhiqing felt that Lu Weining was even better now by comparison. 

Lu Weining smiled as she patted her hand. "I have to go now, it"d be rude to let the Old Lady wait for me for so long."

Yan Zhiqing nodded. Lu Weining got up and left. 

Yan Zhiqing then averted her sight to Yan Beicheng and his circle of friends. She put on a sweet smile and walked towards them, putting up a cute and adorable look. "Big Brother, I just came and had no chance to greet you just now."

Yan Beicheng thought about Lu Weining and grew cold toward her as well. He nodded his head twice and said nothing else.

Yan Zhiqing smile stiffened, she felt as if she had been given a perfunctory nod. She put on her smiling face once more, poked Yan Beicheng"s arm and asked, "Big Brother, aren"t you going to introduce me?"

After finis.h.i.+ng her sentence, she looked at Han Zhuoli who was indulging in fruits. "You"re Big Brother Han, right? Do you still remember me?"

Han Zhuoli gave her a weak smile and replied, "I did know that Yan Beicheng has a sister."

It was just that he knew there was a sister but did not remember what she looked like.

Yan Zhiqing wrinkled her nose and acted coquettishly, "Then you should try to remember my face now. I"m going to film school, and once I graduated, remember to sign a contract with me."

Han Zhuoli smiled, yet he did not promise her that he would.

Yan Beicheng looked at her and knew she had no intention of leaving. He did not want Yan Zhiqing to get too awkward at the situation, hence he did a round of simple introductions. 

When it was Wei Zilin"s turn to get introduced, Yan Zhiqing gave out a bashful sweet smile and said, "Big Brother Zilin, can I call you that?" 

"..." Wei Zilin had a cold look on his face and gave Yan Beicheng a look.

If not for her being Yan Beicheng"s little sister and dared to call him in such a manner, he would have already satirized her bluntly.

Everyone present was able to see through Yan Zhiqing"s small gestures in a single glance.

The way she called Big Brother Han just now was different, it was Yan Zhiqing"s usual fawning. Yet when she was calling Big Brother Zilin, her eyes sparkled and it gave out a type of indescribable radiance, even her cheeks blushed slightly in bashfulness. Her affections shown for Wei Zilin were hard to cover up.

"I"m scared I"ll mix up in calling you and Big Brother Wei," Yan Zhiqing said bashfully.

Wei Ziqi raised his eyebrows and said nothing.

Before you hit one"s dog you need to know who was its master 1 , even if he disliked Yan Zhiqing, he still had to respect Yan Beicheng.

If Yan Zhiqing knew what Wei Ziqi was thinking, using a dog-related idiom to describe her, she would be p*ssed. 

The living room was not big, Wei Ran heard everything that Wei Zhiqing was saying. She had not overlooked the radiance on her face and immediately knew what was going on.

She knew Yan Zhiqing was not after Wei Ziqi, so there were no sparks of jealousy. Instead, she wanted to leisurely look at the scene that was happening. She then intentionally walked towards Lin Chu"s side nonchalantly to pretend to play with the children with her. Nevertheless, her true intentions were to make fun of Wei Zilin"s current situation by raising her eyebrows towards him.

Wei Zilin was speechless, "..."

He then looked at Wei Ziqi, "can you please control your wife!"

Seeing that Wei Ran was enjoying the scene, Wei Ziqi certainly would not help him out of the situation. He smiled at Wei Zilin, "just think of it of entertaining your sister-in-law!"

Consequently, he just sat there and stayed unruffled as he watched pa.s.sively from the sidelines. He was determined to sell out his little brother to entertain his wife!

Wei Ran was able to enjoy the scene, but Lin Chu could not.

Yan Zhiqing was still Yan Beicheng"s sister. Moreover, Old Master Yan was around as well, she could not tag along and laugh at Yan Zhiqing like what Wei Ran was doing. Even if what Yan Zhiqing was doing was hard-on-the-eyes to watch.

Old Master Yan could not bear to watch any longer and said in a cold tone, "Zhiqing, go and look for your granny."

Yan Zhiqing paused and turned around. She saw Old Master Yan"s unexpected expression, as well as a glimpse of Wei Ran"s ridiculing expression that she had not recovered on time. 

Although Lin Chu was not showing any expression, Yan Zhiqing still a.s.sumed that Lin Chu was laughing at her for making fun of herself.

Yan Zhiqing"s expression turned ugly and she almost burst out in anger. Seeing that Wei Zilin was still present, she could only hold it all in.

In the backyard, Old Lady Yan watched in difficulty as Lu Weining walked over nervously like a shy daughter-in-law. 

Saying that Lin Chu was not a match for Yan Beicheng, and watching Lu Weining being pretentious right now, was she supposed to be the perfect match for Yan Beicheng then?

When had Lin Chu ever acted like Lu Weining, acting as if she were constrained when she was meeting her?

In front of them, Lin Chu was always frank and never deliberately tried to please them, also she never cowered in fear. 

She did not know how Lu Weining usually acted, but if it was because she knew she did not like her and was intentionally giving out a nervous expression, she hated that even more.

Lu Weining saw Old Lady Yan sitting on a wooden bench under an old tree, she walked over and timidly greeted, "Granny."

Old Lady Yan looked at her with cold eyes, "Miss Lu, just call me Old Madam."

Lu Weining suppressed the embarra.s.sment in her heart and greeted once more, "Old Madam."

Old Lady Yan disregarded her and gave Lu Weining the cold-shoulder for a while before she continued, "Miss Lu, the Yan Family does not welcome you."

Lu Weining looked at Old Lady Yan, her face in disbelief as her pupils shook. She knew that Old Lady Yan would be blunt with her, but she had not expected it to be so straightforward and unmerciful.

"Old Madam, you…" Lu Weining"s lips were shaking, so was her shoulder.

"I"m afraid I"ve not been blunt enough with you and you didn"t understand me. You"re still holding on to those fantasies," Old Lady Yan said with no mercy. She was not as kind to Lu Weining as she was with the other houseguests. "I know what you"re doing, using our Zhiqing as an excuse to come and get closer to Beicheng. That"s precisely why today I"ll make things crystal clear, Lin Chu is someone we"ve accepted to be our granddaughter-in-law. There"s no one else other than her, it"s especially impossible for you."

"Even if Lin Chu was not in the picture, we"ll never accept you. To be frank, today is Ningbai"s birthday and you were not on the guest list. You showing up uninvited put us in a difficult spot. Your presence does not bring joy to us as well. I don"t wish for today"s birthday party to be ruined because of you, so please leave. Never show up in front of us anymore, and don"t do anything to try and win us over. No matter what you do, we"d never accept you as our own."

Watching Lu Weining"s face went pale, Old Lady Yan smiled and continued, "That said, even if you"re close to Zhiqing and you spoil her to death, it"s useless. Also, Jiang Changdai"s not allowed to visit in our household, I don"t know if you knew about that?"

As she watched Lu Weining"s face turned astonished by this, Old Lady Yan mocked her further. "What, didn"t she tell you? Did she tell you things like Beicheng would listen to her just because she"s Beicheng"s mother?"

Lu Weining said nothing. Old Lady Yan then continued, "Did you know that we banned her from entering the Family Mansion ever since she went back to Ning City? We only allowed her to visit a few days ago, but did you know why? It"s because she went and look for Lin Chu and said some ridiculous things to her. That"s why we called her back to warn her. So, no matter how much of a good term you are with Jiang Changdai, we"ll just get fed up with you even more." 

"Old Madam, why do you hate me this much? You"ve never seen me before and you don"t even know me, so why? Just because I like Bei…like Master Yan?" Lu Weining asked with a pale face. "Yes, I do like him. But I"ve never planned to do anything with my feelings, just watching him from afar was enough. I"m not a shameless woman, knowing the other party doesn"t like them but would charge ahead brazenly. I just want to quietly like him in my heart, can"t I?"

"The matter of Aunt Jiang going out of her way to look for Lin Chu, I didn"t know about that. I never even thought about breaking them up. I came here today because Zhiqing invited me. I hesitated as well, and I didn"t know if it was okay to come here. But then I thought about it, and you guys are Master Yan"s family members, the family member of someone I like. I wanted to be respectful, even if I can"t be with Master Yan. It"s because I like him, so I wanted to respect you guys unconditionally," Lu Weining explained sincerely. She started to cry as she felt wronged. "Old Madam, can"t I even do this much?"

"I"m not a brazen person, Old Madam. You don"t even understand me, how could you hate me so? Just because I"m secretly liking Master Yan?"

Old Lady Yan smirked in her heart, was this a secret?

If it was a secret, how did the whole family find out?

"Miss Lu, I"m not going to play games with you. There"s no need for you to say these things to me as well. Even if you were to treat us well, it"s of no use to us. We have our children in the household to respect us, and Lin Chu"s as well. I don"t need to understand you. I know you like Beicheng and that"s not a secret. We all knew about it, even Lin Chu knew about it. Your affections are superfluous to us, we don"t want it. Do you understand?" Old Lady Yan looked directly at Lu Weining as she asked sternly.

Lu Weining shook her head as she cried, "Old Madam, I won"t give you guys…"

"Do you understand!" Old Lady Yan interrupted Lu Weining harshly as she looked at her coldly.

Lu Weining was stunned by her stare. Facing her this way, Old Lady Yan was in no way kindhearted. 

"Now wipe your tears off, find an excuse to say goodbye to everyone. Today"s Ningbai"s birthday and we"ve only invited friends and family. Miss Lu, you"re not one of them." Old Lady Yan got up and stared at her coldly. "Don"t cry on our Ningbai"s birthday, are you here to curse us?"

Lu Weining lowered her head, her smooth, long hair cascaded down her shoulder and covered almost half of her face. Revealing only the lower half of her face and the lips she was biting on, it covered up her eyes that were filled with anger and sorrow.

Old Lady Yan did not give her a second look, she walked past her and entered the house.

Lu Weining took two long deep breaths and raised her head slightly. She was about five steps behind Old Lady Yan as she stared with cloudy and fierce eyes at Old Lady Yan"s shadows that looked frail.

She had an impulse from the heart to push Old Lady Yan for her to fall and lost consciousness, then…

Lu Weining clenched her fist to restrain her impulse. As Old Lady Yan reached the door, she saw Yan Zhiqing coming out from it.

"Granny, Big Sister Lu." Yan Zhiqing called out.

Old Lady Yan acknowledged with a cold grunt and said, "Miss Lu just remembered she had some matter to attend to and won"t be staying long."

Yan Zhiqing, sure enough, did not believe this, she hesitated before looking over and Old Lady Yan shot her a glance. "If you feel apologetic, you may accompany her."

It was a rare opportunity to get to know Wei Zilin today, Yan Zhiqing did not want to miss the chance. "Big Sister Lu…"

Lu Weining sniffled and wiped her tears away. She toughened up and shot a trembling smile towards Yan Zhiqing. "You don"t have to accompany me. Today is Ningbai"s birthday, you should be here to celebrate with him."

"But I…" Yan Zhiqing"s eyes flashed with relief and joy, yet her expression gave away an apologetic look.

Lu Weining gently pinched on Yan Zhiqing"s hand and whispered, "Master Lin is here today as well. It"d be a rare opportunity. Don"t lose it because of me, we"ll chat another day."

Yan Zhiqing gave her a thankful nod.

Lu Weining returned to the living room concealing her red eyes. She put on a smile and walk to Old Master Yan and Old Lady Yan. "Old Master and Old Madam, I just got a call from the company, they need me to return right away. My apologies as I have to bid farewell now."

Old Master Yan and Old Lady Yan replied her half-heartedly. No matter what, she was still the daughter of Lu Zhenting, it was good enough that they were willing to entertain her.

Lu Weining kept the smile on her face and walk towards the children. Before she spoke, Chu Xi that was lying down on the ground with his stomach facing up got up suddenly. It dashed towards her and started to "woof woof" continuously. 

Lu Weining stared at Chu Xi coldly, how annoying was this dog!

Lin Chu had no idea why Chu Xi hated Lu Weining so much, was it that simple animals had their own set of sensitive intuitions?

Out of courtesy, Lin Chu still tried to appease Chu Xi. "Chu Xi, quiet down. Hey, be obedient!"

Chu Xi made a "Woowoo" sound, it then lowered its head and rubbed it against Lin Chu"s leg, asking to be pet.

Lin Chu smiled as she patted its head, and saw Lu Weining stoop over handing a bag over to Yan Ningbai. "Ningbai, I have somewhere to be so I"m going to leave now. This gift is for you."

Yan Ningbai took the bag and took out the item, it was a remote-control helicopter.

"Do you like it?" Lu Weining asked coyly, purposely prolonging her accent as she asked.

Yan Ningbai gave her an innocent smile, "I like it very much, thank you, Auntie!"

Lu Weining, "..."

Usually, he called Yan Beicheng big nephew, and when he called out to Lin Chu it was big niece-in-law. Why did he call her Auntie, the difference in seniority was just too big!

She suspected that the b.l.o.o.d.y child was doing it on purpose!

The gift was given, Lu Weining had no more excuses to stay longer. She bid farewell and left.

When she was gone, the house turned happy once more. Even the two elders were much more comfortable and were humored by the children.

It was just that Yan Zhiqing was trying hard to move closer to Wei Zilin intentionally to talk to him. Wei Zilin was helpless, because of Yan Beicheng he could not help but entertain her although he remained indifferent toward Yan Zhiqing.

If it were anyone else, they would have felt embarra.s.sed to stay beside Wei Zilin. Yan Zhiqing appeared as if she could not sense it. She bent her head as she asked Wei Zilin, "Big Brother Zilin, I heard my sister-in-law is working in your firm. She didn"t cause you any inconvenience, did she?"  It"s a Chinese idiom 打狗也得看主人, it means before you disrespect someone you would need to know who was standing behind them