Today Was Another Day of Brotherly Respect and Fraternal Courtesy

Father Shen wore a light gray pinstriped suit, looking as though he had come straight from the office after work.

To preserve the texture of the sashimi, the private room's air conditioning was set fairly low.

His suit jacket was still properly on him.

When Yan Xianjue poked his head in to look, the first thing he noticed was not the mess all over the floor, but the muscles bulging in Father Shen's arm from exerting too much force.

[Whoa. With a punch like that, wouldn't she have to get on her knees and beg Second Aunt Shen not to die?]

Yan Yi'an chuckled softly behind him. The first generation to get rich had all suffered in their early days, and President Shen was no exception.

Muscles built through real physical labor were naturally different from the thin layer Yan Xianjue had developed by working out sporadically at the gym.

Yan Xianjue understood that too.

But the visual impact of Father Shen's arm muscles bulging was still especially intense.

[If some bad boy ever runs off with Shen Fangli, Father Shen will probably twist his head right off.]

Many years later, Yan Xianjue discovered that the bad boy was actually himself!

Meanwhile, Shen Fangli said, "..."

Shen Fangli said, "???"

Her dad was not that violent.

Yan Xianjue's description was way too exaggerated.

Yan Ci was not in the mood to take things so lightly. All he felt was a headache coming on.

He had just dealt with the dormitory matter and gotten both Li Yang and the coach sent to the police station.

The coach had only been brought in for questioning temporarily and would be back at the base by tomorrow at the latest.

Yan Ci did not need to think hard to know the coach would not let this go. Just thinking about the inevitable back-and-forth made his head hurt.

Now that he wanted to have a nice meal with his family, he had run into another family's train wreck.

If this were not Fatty Bro's restaurant, and if he did not have money invested in it, he could have happily watched the drama with his family, right?

But he could not laugh now.

*

Shen Fangli's second aunt sat on the floor uneasily after falling down.

When she came, she had not expected things to turn out like this. In her original plan, she was merely having a meal with the Shen Household today.

She would repair her relationship with her timid younger sister, then coax her into agreeing to Shen Fangli's engagement.

She had always looked down on this younger sister of hers. She had no opinions of her own and was inferior to her in every way—except that she had married better!

She secretly regretted losing her temper.

How had she let that little brat Shen Fangli provoke her with just a few words?

*

Yan Xianjue finally remembered!

[Father Shen reminded me!]

His voice suddenly rose, and Shen Fangli had to dig her nails into her palms to barely stop herself from covering her ears.

While she put on an expression of pain, she failed to notice the family at the doorway all rubbing their ears.

At the same time, they could not help urging him inwardly. If you remembered something, hurry up and say it already.

Yan Xianjue blinked.

[Lin Shi's family is way too feudal, aren't they? They don't look at family background or appearance when choosing a daughter-in-law—they look at birth charts?]

[Because Shen Fangli's unlucky birth chart can bring Lin Shi prosperity, that's why her second aunt got the idea? She could even curry favor with the Lin Household?]

[Damn, the Qing Dynasty has been gone for eight hundred years, yet Lin Shi's family is still binding their brains!]

[Did Shen Fangli's second aunt first give her own daughter's birth chart to the Lin Household, only to find it unsuitable, and then settle for Shen Fangli as the next best option?]

The Yan Household: Well, damn.

Their family had no dealings with the Lin Household, but they had heard a little about just how unhinged the Lins were. The Lin Household really could do something like this.

*

Unlike the Yan Household, who were merely marveling at the situation, Shen Fangli was truly falling apart.

This reason was too ridiculous!

She was a successor of socialism. She did not believe in feudal superstition!

And what the hell was Lin Shi doing? Did he not like that female lead, Su Su?

Why had he agreed to get engaged to her?

Trash!

[Shen Fangli's second aunt should still have that little slip of paper with her birth chart in her bag, right?]

[She spent a fortune having some eminent monk at a temple compare them.]

Hearing that, Shen Fangli stood and hurried over to her second aunt.

Before either Father Shen or Mother Shen could react, she snatched her second aunt's handbag away.

No wonder the bag had never left her since she arrived. Even when the overturned dining table had knocked her to the ground, she had not forgotten to cling to that lousy bag.

"What are you doing?!" Second Aunt Shen shouted, scrambling up without regard for her appearance and charging at Shen Fangli.

Shen Fangli had been practicing her eight-hundred-meter run every day for her PE exam, so she was far more agile at the moment than an overweight middle-aged woman.

She darted straight to the other side of the room and began searching through her second aunt's bag.

Second Aunt Shen failed to catch Shen Fangli. On the way over, Yan Xianjue secretly stuck out his foot and tripped her.

She simply sat on the ground and cried. "Fourth Sister, Shen—aren't you going to do anything about your own daughter?"

"You're just going to let her rummage through an elder's bag?"

Mother Shen's lips moved twice before she ultimately chose to look at her husband.

Father Shen sighed, feeling somewhat relieved inside.

At least her mother had not said anything else that would hurt their daughter.

He sternly said to Shen Fangli's second aunt, "Lili must have her reasons! Instead of accusing Lili, why don't you think about what shameful things you have hidden in there?"

"You... you... you uncultured nouveau riche!"

Seeing that there was no longer any room to salvage the situation, Shen Fangli's second aunt decided that since they had already fallen out, she might as well throw a complete tantrum.

"Pfft."

Yan Xianjue could not hold back his laughter.

[If we're going back far enough, what first-generation rich family didn't start out as nouveau riche?]

Even the Yan Household had been called nouveau riche in its early days.

His great-grandfather had also been a dirt-poor farmer. He had only turned his life around by catching the tide of the times.

Father Yan nodded. That was true.

The Lin Household, on the other hand, insisted on maintaining the airs of an old aristocratic family.

But it had driven the entire family mad.

*

Hearing the laughter, Second Aunt Shen turned around and realized that the whole Yan family had come out to watch the spectacle again.

She grabbed whatever was within reach, whether plates or decorations, and hurled it all at Yan Xianjue.

"If it weren't for you, you meddling little bastard, how could I... how could I..."

Yan Xianjue sneered. This woman really did not think she was the problem at all.

He sidestepped behind Yan Ci.

Yan Ci said, "..."

No, was his purpose just to be a human shield?

Today was another day he felt this brotherhood could not continue. Smile.

He raised a foot and kicked away two flying dinner plates. "President Shen."

He reminded him to hurry up and end this farce in his family.

*

"Dad! Look at this!" Shen Fangli shouted.

She held up a sheet of paper with her birth chart written on it. There was another person's chart on it as well, which, if she had guessed correctly, should have been Lin Shi's.

A circle had been drawn in cinnabar ink, with the words "ideal for home and family, a match made in heaven" written beside it.

What fucking bullshit.

Shen Fangli cursed inwardly.

That master was probably some wandering con artist.

She also found an activated voice recorder in the bag.

[She came thoroughly prepared. Shen Fangli's second aunt must be very experienced with this sort of thing, right?]

Wasn't that the truth? The Yan Household was shocked when they saw the recorder too. She had even prepared evidence in advance to demand money from the Shen Household afterward. If that was not premeditated, what was?

Father Shen stared grimly at the two items his daughter held out to him.

He gritted his teeth, his molars grinding audibly.

"Call the police!"