"Okay."

Jiang Liu lay down on the sofa.

He felt her small hands massaging his feet.

It was very comfortable.

He opened WeChat on his phone.

A lot of unread messages popped up.

Manager Xu had sent him some more ads.

And a reminder with some pointers about using his new car.

He tapped on his chat with Jun Qingmeng.

Jun Qingmeng: "Safely home. My clothes didn’t get wet. What about you?"

Jun Qingmeng: "[Photo]"

Jun Qingmeng: "[Photo]"

Jun Qingmeng: "You should see my bestie now. She’s completely obsessed with your buns. She’s like a starving ghost every day, just waiting for your buns and juice. Every time she finishes eating, she plays dead. (smirk)"

Jun Qingmeng: "The rain outside is so heavy, just like my thoughts of you."

Below that, Jun Qingmeng had sent many photos.

There was a group photo with Jiang Liu and Tongtong in the car.

There were also some landscape shots she had taken, as well as some beautiful selfies.

One of them was a picture Jun Qingmeng had just taken.

She was wearing a dress, sitting on her bed hugging her lovely legs.

After seeing it, Jiang Liu mentally filtered out certain implications.

He replied to her message ("Safely home. My clothes didn’t get wet. What about you?"): "I’m home. About to go wash the bedsheets and clothes."

He sent another reply: "If your friend likes them, I’ll bring more for her next time. The buns can be kept in the fridge and steamed the next morning to eat."

Jun Qingmeng: "Okay, go on then. You’re so diligent. Tell me when you’re going to sleep, okay?"

Jiang Liu didn’t reply again.

Every time he replied, Jun Qingmeng would respond instantly, as if they had an endless amount of things to talk about.

Yang Yixue had also sent him messages:

"How’s Tongtong? I’m not mad at her anymore. Please let her know for me that her mom wants to take her out to play next time."

"What are you doing? I have something to ask you."

"Why isn’t the washing machine at home draining? Do you have time to come over and fix it for me?"

"When you have time, send me a message and come over. We can sit down and talk."

Today, Yang Yixue had even specifically sent one of her company’s employees to stake out Jiang Liu’s bun shop.

They discovered that business was indeed very good.

There was an endless stream of people lining up every day.

Even during the hours when the shop was temporarily closed, people were lining up in the wind and rain.

Yang Yixue finally saw things clearly.

Jiang Liu had definitely made it.

In comparison, she felt a secret sense of urgency.

She had gone on another blind date today.

The result was even more dissatisfying. They were either ugly, old, or just greasy.

Yang Yixue was growing more and more frustrated.

’Jiang Liu is actually a pretty good match.’

’He’s handsome, has a great body, and can make money now.’

’If Jiang Liu were willing to apologize and coax me a little, I would definitely agree to remarry him.’

’That man is dense as a block of wood!’

’No wonder we had so many conflicts back then.’

Yang Yixue believed that Jiang Liu still had deep feelings for her.

After all, they had lived together for several years, and she was beautiful and capable of earning money.

As long as Jiang Liu remarried her...

she had ways of getting her hands on his food shop.

’I’ll definitely be rich then!’

Jiang Liu scrolled through the messages.

He treated them as a joke.

’This woman thinks way too highly of herself, asking me to go fix her washing machine.’

’Forget about going over myself on a rainy day, I wouldn’t even give her a second glance if she came to beg me in a gilded sedan chair.’

’What the hell does it have to do with me?’

Before, they were married and had a daughter, so he couldn’t do much about it.

But now they were divorced.

They should each live their own lives. As long as they didn’t bother each other, it was fine.

After reading them, Jiang Liu found there was nothing of substance.

He couldn’t even be bothered to reply with a single punctuation mark.

He then opened the chat with his mom.

Mom: "Do you have money? How is Tongtong doing?"

Mom: "[3000 Yuan Transfer]"

Mom: "I got paid. I have more than enough, so take this and buy some food."

Jiang Liu smiled. His mom would always love him. He was absolutely sure of that.

He casually returned the money.

He replied, "Mom, I don’t need it. You should take it and buy yourself some nutritional supplements or some skincare products."

Lin Qiu, who was on her phone, replied instantly: "You silly child, why did you return the money? I gave it to you so you could spend it."

Jiang Liu replied, "Mom, I really don’t need it. Your son earns a lot of money every day, I’m not short on cash. I even bought a car today."

Lin Qiu was surprised: "You bought a car?"

She remembered he had only just opened his food shop. How could he afford a car so quickly?

’Did he take out a loan?’

But then she remembered that her son was very sensible, and Lin Qiu felt a little relieved.

’Since my son bought a car, it must mean he’s doing pretty well.’

Lin Qiu sent the money again: "Just take it, son. Your father and I don’t spend much, so there’s no use in us holding onto it. Use it to buy Tongtong some food and clothes."

Jiang Liu accepted it with a sense of helplessness.

A parent’s love was always so selfless and stubborn.

Jiang Liu: "Okay, I know, Mom."

Lin Qiu sent another message: "Your dad said he found a bun shop that makes incredibly delicious buns. He’s sweet-talking the team leader right now to try and get the recipe for you, so you can learn from it."

Jiang Liu was a little curious. ’A bun shop?’

He sold buns too.

He replied, "Whatever works. Your son’s buns aren’t bad either, you know."

Lin Qiu: "Haha, of course. My son is always the best."

As Jiang Liu was texting,

Tongtong, fresh from her bath, crawled under the covers from the foot of the bed and started wiggling around like a lost little caterpillar.

Finally, she burrowed her way out from under Jiang Liu’s arm and flopped onto his chest.

Seeing Jiang Liu typing, Tongtong asked warily, "Daddy, who are you chatting with?"

"What, are you going to supervise me?"

Jiang Liu pinched her little nose.

Tongtong furrowed her brow and said, "Yes! I have to supervise you for Teacher Qingmeng."

"Such a little imp."

Tongtong peered at the screen and relaxed. "Oh, it’s just Grandma."

Jiang Liu nodded with a smile. "Your grandma sent me money to buy you snacks."

"Really? Grandma’s the best! Tongtong wants a cola-flavored popsicle right now."

"You can have a cola popsicle, but not right now."

"Okay then."

Tongtong pouted, gave Jiang Liu a big smooch, and then started giggling happily to herself.

Jiang Liu asked, "Do you want to chat with your grandma?"

"Yes, yes!!"

"Okay."

Jiang Liu handed the phone to Tongtong.

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

"Oh? Want to tell Grandma some secrets? Go on."

"Mhmm!"

Tongtong sat on the toilet.

She held down the voice message button and said in her sweet, childish voice, "Grandma, Grandma, Tongtong misses you! Are you okay? Daddy spanked my butt again. Can you spank him for me? He spanked my butt into eight pieces! I’m so pitiful."

"Grandma, can you come visit? We have two rooms now."

Previously, when Jiang Liu and Yang Yixue were together,

their house had three bedrooms and a study.

One was for Jiang Liu, Yang Yixue, and Tongtong. Of the other two, one was for Yang Yixue’s mother, Li Xiaoyan, and the other Yang Yixue had turned into her private dressing room.

It was filled with her handbags, jewelry, several large wardrobes, and drawers.

Because of this, every time Jiang Liu’s parents came to visit, they had to stay in a hotel three hundred meters away.

It wasn’t that Yang Yixue was short on money. She said they could stay wherever they wanted and she would reimburse them.

But they couldn’t stay in the house.

She had many valuable pieces of jewelry stored at home and was afraid they might get damaged.

Jiang Liu had fought with Yang Yixue about this many times.

It wasn’t easy for his parents to come all the way from the county, and she wouldn’t even let them stay in the house.

It was infuriating.

Tongtong also thought it was very upsetting.

But Tongtong was too scared of Yang Yixue. Every time the two of them argued, she would shrink into a corner and tremble.

Jiang Liu also grew more and more silent, his heart weary.

Eventually, Jiang Dahai and Lin Qiu stopped coming. They were worried about causing discord between their son and daughter-in-law.

Lin Qiu was overjoyed to hear Tongtong’s voice.

She and Jiang Dahai were very fond of girls.

"Tongtong, Grandma misses you too. How about I come see you in a few days? You tell your dad that if he dares to bully you again, I’ll let you spank his butt next time."

Jiang Tongtong’s smile almost reached her ears. In her excitement, she let out a PSHHHHH as she peed.

"Okay, okay! Tongtong thanks Grandma!"

Feeling a little guilty, Tongtong deleted the voice message where she had tattled.

’Phew, Daddy won’t find out now.’

’Tongtong, you’re such a clever little devil, hehe.’

...