CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 38: GET READY TO BE BRUTALLY BEATEN TO TEARS

Coughing, she hurriedly explained: "No, no, no, Xie Qingci is just a younger brother. Those rumors you saw are fake. I have no plans to date anyone in the near future."

Yue Ling still smiled, with a hint of mischief: "How do you know I was talking about that Xie Qingci? I meant that curly-haired little brother. You used to be really into the cute types for a while."

"...My phase of liking Lazy Lamb is over."

She quickly changed the subject, pulling Yu Yue into the conversation as he quietly ate.

"Actually, I think there’s still hope for Xiao Yue. Just cut off his internet and lock him at home to study. Elementary school relationships are so fragile. Just telling them they haven’t finished their homework is enough to break them up."

Elementary school kids with no data, living off wifi — he would be lost without it.

Yu Yue: "...Aunt, are you back to harm me?"

She picked up a duck head without any meat for him, smiling sweetly: "You guessed it."

Across from them, Yue Ling and Yu Heng exchanged glances.

Yu Heng wiped his mouth and put down his chopsticks, frowning, still looking displeased: "Tell me the truth, what’s with those rumors?"

Yu Xia calmly picked up some food: "Just paparazzi taking random photos and writing nonsense. They’re just people I’ve worked with. One rumor a month, how could it be true?"

If it were true, I’d be exhausted.

"Oh," Yu Heng glanced at her, "then why were you coughing just now? If those are fake, is something going on with this Xie?"

"..." It’s true, just not yet.

"Fake," she answered steadily, "Besides, I’ve never had a rumor with him."

It was Shu Ran who had a rumor with him, haha.

Yu Yue suddenly stretched his neck, cautiously joining the adults’ conversation: "What is this? Aunt, what show are you on? I’ll tell my classmates to watch!"

Yu Heng’s eyes swept over him coldly: "It’s the show your mom watched until midnight."

The tone was both sour and uncomfortable.

Yu Yue and Yu Xia simultaneously looked up at Yue Ling.

Yue Ling: "...Ahem, there are a few good-looking guys on the show."

Yu Heng snorted.

Thanks to his sister-in-law, the topic was automatically ignored in the end.

A sister, a wife, and an unlucky son, the three of them shrank in their seats, getting a few sarcastic remarks from the stern-faced boss.

Then the stern-faced boss slammed the door and went to work.

Once he left, the three of them let out a collective sigh of relief.

Yu Xia looked at Yue Ling: "Sister-in-law, you actually watched young, handsome guys right in front of him. My brother must have been so upset he couldn’t sleep!"

Punishing his son might have been because he was already angry to begin with.

Yue Ling countered: "He wasn’t. Even if he couldn’t sleep, it was because of your stuff. He grinded his teeth for half an hour reading those rumor reports."

Yu Xia leaned back, giving Yu Yue a sidelong look: "There’s nothing really to be mad about. The key issue is Yu Yue, at such a young age not behaving well, that’s why your dad gets so angry!"

Yue Ling: "Exactly!"

Yu Yue felt wronged, watching the two of them singing in harmony, feeling so aggrieved he wanted to message Little Strawberry for comfort.

When he carefully slipped into his room to get his phone, he quickly sent three messages.

After a while—

"Mom!!! Why is there no internet?!"

Yue Ling was in the kitchen, ignoring him, just voicing her opinion on the noise: "Are we slaughtering pigs here?"

Yu Xia, gloating, stood at his door: "The next step is to lock you at home to write ten sets of Chinese exams. Kiddo, seems like you’ll have to have a long-distance relationship now."

Yu Yue could only protest: "I can find them when I go to school tomorrow, it’s the same."

He’d been forced to stay home today; it was only Thursday after all.

Yu Xia wagged her finger: "nonono, you never know with girls. Not contacting her for a day could have you out in the cold palace already."

"No way, they like me so much they can’t eat or sleep without me!"

...Men’s mysterious confidence truly starts young, must be a genetic trait?

She forced him onto the desk: "Not even Indian Flying Cake is as thick-skinned! Hurry and do your Chinese homework, I’ll tutor you!"

Yu Yue whined: "No! Can’t I do math homework?!"

"You can’t even recognize all the characters. If your Chinese is this bad, how can you understand the math problems? Hurry and do it!"

The tiger mom roared, shaking the entire house. Yu Yue quickly shut his mouth, succumbing to her tyranny.

After a while, having done all he knew how to do, he sheepishly asked: "Aunt, how do I do this question?"

Yu Xia, with a cold face: "You don’t know the four-word idiom AABC?"

"I-I can’t remember."

She pointed at his head: "What’s in there?"

Yu Yue pondered for two seconds, innocently replied: "Brilliant?"

"It’s empty, like a void!"

He quickly wrote it down. Yu Xia, still with a cold face, asked him: "Now, read your expanded sentence out loud for me."

"Oh," he lifted the paper, reading the question first, "Please use the learned words to expand the following sentence. Original sentence: Dad smiled at me."

"Read your expanded sentence, louder."

Yu Yue read aloud: "My old dad gave the weak me a vicious smile!"

She recorded it, hit send to Yu Heng, then said: "Unlucky kid, wait for your dad to viciously scold you."

——

Driving back, Yu Xia was still sighing endlessly.

She felt sorry for her brother and sister-in-law, once such a loving golden couple, their love so perfect it seemed to live in a storybook, unreachable by ordinary people.

Who would have thought that having an unlucky child would bring the couple to their knees on the narrow path of tutoring, completely entangled in the mundane human life—

It’s the kind that explodes with the slightest spark.

Wrapped tightly, she returned home, not even considering resting, changed clothes, changed styles, and had to check on those hardworking younger participants in the show.

In the afternoon, because the public stage was the day after tomorrow, rehearsal was tomorrow, they didn’t have much time. So a hundred trainees were soaking in the rehearsal room, practicing desperately.

Yu Xia followed the staff, passing by several rehearsal rooms, music repeated, mixed with a few "one more time" and "hang in there."

The hundred people almost all saw this show as an important starting point for their careers, knowing they couldn’t slack off, striving to be at the forefront.

So no matter how they usually sought attention, they were all working their hardest to do their best now.

This is probably what being young is like, they harbor hope, eagerly sprinting towards futures they deem full of promise.

Thinking of the impending elimination rounds, and the increasingly familiar younger contestants, Yu Xia sighed inwardly.

Then she pushed the door open, entering one of the large rehearsal rooms.

Xie Qingci sitting on the floor and Song Xi standing in front of him turned their heads to look at her simultaneously, a bit surprised.