Chapter 414 Village Banquet

Chapter 414 Village Feast

"I'm leaving, goodbye!"

Ye Xiaoxiao said goodbye to Zhang Erni and then walked toward Lu Hanchuan.

Zhang Erni held her child while seeing Xiaoxiao off, sneaking glances at her fiancé.

Hmm... quite the looker.

Ye Xiaoxiao and Lu Hanchuan walked off hand in hand, chatting along the way.

"You two had fun chatting?"

Ye Xiaoxiao: "Yes, I even held Erni's daughter—such a cute little chubby thing."

Lu Hanchuan squeezed Xiaoxiao's fingers. "We should make one of our own."

Ye Xiaoxiao glared at him. "Hmph, don't try sweet-talking me into having a baby."

"How could I? Didn’t you say the little one was cute?"

"Well, that’s true..."

Ye Xiaoxiao thought having a child might actually be nice.

But... definitely not now.

Because she hadn’t yet decided whether to become a military wife. If she did, what would happen to her career?

Could she open a clinic on the island, she thought?

If she could open a branch of Rende Pharmacy there, then maybe it would be worth considering.

Lu Hanchuan didn’t realize Xiaoxiao was still wrestling with this dilemma. When she stayed quiet too long, he said, "If Xiaoxiao doesn’t want to have a baby, then we won’t."

Ye Xiaoxiao gave his cheek a pinch. "Keep that kind of talk at home."

Lu Hanchuan: "..."

After they got home and had lunch, Ye Changqing went to fetch the kids and their grandfather.

Meanwhile, Ye Xiaoxiao opened her suitcase. "This is what I'm wearing tomorrow, along with my red leather shoes."

It was a red dress, cinched at the waist and reaching mid-calf.

Simple but perfect for the occasion.

Lu Hanchuan: "Xiaoxiao could make a potato sack look good."

Ye Xiaoxiao did a little spin with the dress. "Of course."

Lu Hanchuan wore a plain white shirt and black dress pants—dressier than his usual casual clothes.

Red and white looked great together.

Ye Xiaoxiao dug out a camera from the suitcase. "Tomorrow, we’ll give this to Ye Baocheng—he'll be our photographer."

Lu Hanchuan: "You sure he can handle it?"

Ye Xiaoxiao: "Of course! Kids these days are sharp. And the three key elements for portrait photography are..."

Lu Hanchuan waited expectantly for Xiaoxiao to reveal the secret.

Then he heard her say: "Subject’s gotta be hot, hot, and hot."

Lu Hanchuan couldn't help but laugh. "You’re killing me with the cuteness."

"Stop messing up my hair - it'll make me go bald."

Ye Xiaoxiao dodged Lu Hanchuan's outstretched hand, then clutching the garments, went to iron the dress and shirt.

"You got this ironing thing down? Want me to take over?"

Lu Hanchuan thought Xiaoxiao didn't seem very skilled with an iron.

Ye Xiaoxiao wasn’t great at it, but she had practiced many times.

"I got this."

Confidently holding the iron, Ye Xiaoxiao spritzed some water on the dress and placed the warm iron on it.

Seeing her sure movements, Lu Hanchuan eased up a bit. "Don’t sweat it too much - just remove the obvious wrinkles."

"Yeah yeah, I got it."

After ironing the dress, Ye Xiaoxiao started on the shirt and trousers.

Kids’ chatter came from the door. Lu Hanchuan headed to the door to greet them while Ye Xiaoxiao lingered in the doorway looking outside.

Then she greeted her grandfather.

"Grandpa!"

Miao Fengshan beamed at his granddaughter. "Haven’t seen you in forever, Xiaoxiao."

"We saw each other during New Year!"

"It's been months - I've missed you."

"Hehe..." Xiaoxiao was still giggling when she suddenly remembered something. "The iron!"

She hurriedly ran back inside.

Ye Xiaoxiao had only saw this in movies before.

But now it was happening to her.

Leaving the iron on clothes could actually burn through them and leave a damn hole.

But... Lu Hanchuan's shirt...

Lu Hanchuan knew exactly what went down the moment he saw Xiaoxiao rush into the room.

Ye Xiaoxiao held up the ruined shirt, peering at Lu Hanchuan through the hole.

"What do we do..."

Lu Hanchuan said helplessly, "I have a spare shirt."

"Ah! Really?"

"Really, I originally brought it as a spare in case the white shirt got dirty."

Ye Xiaoxiao said, "Then hurry up and get it, give it to me."

Lu Hanchuan took the iron, "You go get the clothes, leave this to me. Remember to unplug the iron when you're done, or it could easily start a fire."

Ye Xiaoxiao slumped out dejectedly, "Got it..."

Ye Xiaoxiao carried the scorched shirt outside and happened to run into her sister-in-law, Zhang Xue.

Zhang Xue saw Xiaoxiao holding the shirt, "Ironing clothes, Xiaoxiao?"

Ye Xiaoxiao nodded, "Yeah, but I burned a hole in it."

Zhang Xue couldn't help but laugh, "You burned it, didn't you? The temperature shouldn't be too high. Need any help?"

Ye Xiaoxiao whispered, "No need, Lu Hanchuan is handling it himself."

Zhang Xue chuckled, "At least one of you knows how to iron, it's fine. And it's not your fault—sometimes I forget to turn off the iron too."

Ye Xiaoxiao gave an embarrassed smile and went back to the room to bring the other shirt to Lu Hanchuan.

Lu Hanchuan was a pro at ironing. Once done, he hung the clothes on hangers in the room.

The next day, a crowd showed up early in the morning.

Ye Xiaoxiao also saw Ye Changjun and his girlfriend.

The girl was quite tall, must've been at least 5'7".

She was outgoing and direct, completely different from Ye Changjun's somewhat shy personality.

Ye Xiaoxiao even suspected that she was the one who pursued Changjun.

"Hey there, sis," Ye Xiaoxiao said sweetly, deliberately calling her that.

Wang Chunxia was meeting Xiaoxiao for the first time but thought the girl seemed sweet.

"Congratulations, Xiaoxiao. Changjun's told me so much about you—finally meeting you today."

Ye Xiaoxiao thought this must be a lie because someone as quiet as Ye Changjun wouldn't talk about her frequently.

Ye Changjun stood nearby, grinning goofily, "This is Chunxia. Xiaoxiao, you can call her Sister Chunxia or sister-in-law."

Wang Chunxia said, "Don't be silly, we're not married yet."

Though it won't be long now.

"Then I'll go with Sister Chunxia," Ye Xiaoxiao smiled knowingly. "But I’ll probably change that soon."

Wang Chunxia blushed slightly, "I didn’t expect Changjun’s sister to be so different from him. Xiaoxiao is such a sweetheart."

Zhang Xue came over to welcome the guests, "Changjun, show Chunxia inside to sit down. The other guests won’t arrive until noon—these are just the helpers for now."

Being the guest of honor for the day, even in the morning, Ye Xiaoxiao had a bunch of people lining up to talk to her.

Ye Xiaoxiao had already taken several photos with Lu Hanchuan when they got up that morning.

Now the two were surrounded by different groups of people.

Ye Xiaoxiao was surrounded by aunties and older women.

Lu Hanchuan, on the other hand, was getting grilled by uncles and older guys.

Lu Hanchuan, who was usually composed in everything he did, was uncharacteristically flustered for a change.

It wasn’t until the guests gradually arrived that the situation improved.

Ye Xiaoxiao and Lu Hanchuan finally managed to escape their relatives' attention and went inside to take a break.

"Let’s just stay in the room and go out when it's time for the banquet," Ye Xiaoxiao suggested.

She'd done her makeup in the morning, but it was already a little smudged now. She took out her lipstick to fix it up.

Suddenly, Lu Hanchuan moved in and kissed her.

Her lipstick smeared even more.