Chapter 34: The Extra Person at the Family Banquet
A few days later, Shen Zhouyue brought the gift and returned to the Yu family’s old residence with Yu Tingzhou.
Upon seeing Shen Zhouyue, Fang Hanyun appeared very excited. She grabbed his hand and said, “Come, Zhouyue, Mom will introduce you to the other uncles and aunts in the family!”
Before Shen Zhouyue could hand the gift to Auntie Chen nearby, he was dragged away by Fang Hanyun. In his haste, he could only leave the wrapped gift with Yu Tingzhou.
Fang Hanyun led Shen Zhouyue to a place where a group of people had gathered.
Pointing to a woman dressed extravagantly, looking as if she had piled all her jewelry onto herself, she said, “This is your Fourth Aunt.”
Shen Zhouyue obediently called out, “Fourth Aunt.” The woman named looked up slightly, glanced at Shen Zhouyue, and her expression was somewhat disdainful.
“Third Sister-in-law, there are some words I don’t know if I should say.”
Fang Hanyun knew her sister-in-law’s personality well. Hearing her say this, the smile on her face faded a bit.
“If you know you shouldn’t say it, then don’t say it.”
But Fourth Aunt Zhou Juanjuan didn’t stop because of Fang Hanyun’s words. Instead, she frowned and said, “Even if you don’t like hearing it, I still have to say it. After all, faithful words grate on the ear.”
“A man being with another man is not the right path after all.”
“With such a big business in the Yu family, a suitable heir is needed. If Tingzhou is with a man, the line will end with him.”
“Back then, Mom wasn’t very satisfied with you, Third Sister-in-law, unhappy that you only gave birth to one child for the Yu family. Now you let Tingzhou be with a man. If Mom finds out, she will definitely be unhappy.”
Hearing her sister-in-law’s words, Fang Hanyun’s face immediately turned cold.
“You gave birth to so many children according to Mom’s wishes, but Mom doesn’t necessarily like you. Besides, your children don’t seem very obedient. Instead of focusing so much on our family’s affairs, you might as well put more energy into your own family matters.”
Zhou Juanjuan’s face was very ugly, her body trembling with anger, but she couldn’t do anything to Fang Hanyun.
After all, Fang Hanyun’s husband treated her well, and her son was filial. If she quarreled with her, her own husband and children wouldn’t help her.
Fang Hanyun didn’t even look at Zhou Juanjuan again and proceeded to introduce Shen Zhouyue to the other elders.
Shen Zhouyue greeted them one by one as Fang Hanyun introduced them, “Eldest Aunt, Second Aunt…”
Except for Zhou Juanjuan looking at Shen Zhouyue with displeasure, the other aunts didn’t have much dissatisfaction with him.
After all, who Yu Tingzhou was with had nothing to do with them.
After Fang Hanyun helped Shen Zhouyue recognize the relatives at home, she planned to take him to meet other friends.
“Madam, something happened in the kitchen.”
Fang Hanyun had prepared for today’s birthday banquet for a long time.
If something went wrong, the subsequent arrangements would have to change, which wasn’t a simple task.
So she temporarily dismissed the idea of introducing Shen Zhouyue to others.
“Zhouyue, wander around by yourself first. I’ll go check the kitchen.”
With that, Fang Hanyun left.
Shen Zhouyue originally planned to find a quiet place to stay, but before he took a few steps, he was blocked by several people about his age.
The leader looked somewhat familiar, resembling Fourth Aunt a bit; he must be her son.
“Excuse me, is something the matter?”
“You are Brother Tingzhou’s wife? You don’t look that good, all dried up. I don’t know how Brother Tingzhou took a fancy to you.”
“Did you deliberately seduce Brother Tingzhou and use his sense of responsibility to scheme against him?”
Shen Zhouyue glanced at Yu Tingzhou, who was chatting with other elders in the family, and silently withdrew his gaze.
“Different strokes for different folks. Maybe your Brother Tingzhou just likes my type!”
“If you have any dissatisfaction with me, you can tell your Brother Tingzhou, instead of saying these things in front of me.”
Shen Zhouyue dropped these sentences and wanted to turn and leave.
But these people were clearly here to cause trouble, so naturally, they wouldn’t let Shen Zhouyue leave just like that.
Several people stood in front of Shen Zhouyue, blocking his way.
“I advise you to be sensible and leave Brother Tingzhou. Only Brother Qiusheng is the most suitable person to stand by Brother Tingzhou’s side.”
Shen Zhouyue had wondered why these people were so malicious toward him; now he didn’t need to wonder.
The culprit had surfaced.
It was actually him!
“Wen Qiusheng likes Tingzhou, so Tingzhou has to be with him? So Tingzhou’s own intention doesn’t matter?”
Shen Zhouyue looked at these people with a teasing smile on his face.
“If Brother Tingzhou really liked Wen Qiusheng, he wouldn’t be with me!”
Even if their relationship was just an agreement, Shen Zhouyue still had this much confidence.
After all, the one Yu Tingzhou had always liked was Yun Xing!
Yu Tingzhou also noticed the situation here and walked over.
“What’s wrong? What were you talking about just now? Your face doesn’t look very good.”
Those people’s faces were a bit ugly, and they kept winking at Shen Zhouyue, trying to get him to help cover up what just happened.
Shen Zhouyue found their appearance funny, but he didn’t intend to cover for them.
“Just now they said I didn’t deserve to be with you, and that you should be with Wen Qiusheng. What do you think?”
Yu Tingzhou wasn’t familiar with Wen Qiusheng at all, and his impression of him wasn’t very good.
Hearing Shen Zhouyue’s words, he froze for a moment.
When he recovered, he said, “I’m not familiar with Mr. Wen at all, I don’t like him, and I certainly won’t be with him. Stop trying to matchmake for me.”
“Tingyu, if you have time to waste on me, why not find something to do? It would save Fourth Aunt from always worrying that you’re idle and causing trouble.”
Hearing Yu Tingzhou’s words, Yu Tingyu’s ears turned red instantly, embarrassed enough to want to find a hole to crawl into.
Taking advantage of Yu Tingzhou’s inattention, he glared fiercely at Shen Zhouyue.
“Tingzhou, your family seems to dislike me very much… How about I leave!”
Yu Tingzhou naturally knew Shen Zhouyue was acting and rolled his eyes at him helplessly.
“Stop messing around; they don’t mean that.”
“Tingyu, I’m not familiar with Wen Qiusheng at all, so don’t link me with him. I don’t like it.”
“And Tingfang, you guys aren’t young anymore, don’t always…”
Yu Tingzhou singled out everyone who came to trouble Shen Zhouyue.
Yu Tingzhou was the oldest among the brothers in the family and the most successful one.
The younger siblings were all afraid of him.
So hearing him say this, no one dared to resist; they all nodded obediently.
It wasn’t until the banquet started that they found a chance to run away.
Yu Tingzhou watched them run like they had seen a natural predator and looked helpless. “Am I that scary?”
Shen Zhouyue stood beside Yu Tingzhou, looking helpless. “You really are that scary!”
“I didn’t expect you to be so long-winded…”
Shen Zhouyue felt that in just this short while, his ears were growing calluses.
“Let’s go over too!”
Seeing Yu Tingzhou reach out to him, Shen Zhouyue put on a sweet act and placed his hand in Yu Tingzhou’s.
The two walked toward the dining table together.
Among a group of Yu family members, the addition of Wen Qiusheng was very obvious.
The few people who had been like quails in front of Yu Tingzhou just now were very lively surrounding Wen Qiusheng.
Shen Zhouyue just approached the dining table when he heard Wen Qiusheng say guiltily, “I originally planned to give Uncle a teapot. That teapot was green throughout and small in shape, but who knew it would be snatched by someone.”
Shen Zhouyue knew immediately upon hearing this that Wen Qiusheng was trying to undermine him in front of Yu Qingfeng.
He immediately kept a straight face and pinched Yu Tingzhou’s waist hard.
Yu Tingzhou felt pain in his waist and sucked in a cold breath. “What are you doing?”
Worried about being heard by others, Yu Tingzhou leaned close to Shen Zhouyue’s ear to speak.
While speaking, the warm breath hit his ear, making Shen Zhouyue a bit uncomfortable.
“You really know how to cause trouble for me.”
Shen Zhouyue glared at Yu Tingzhou, then walked to Yu Qingfeng’s side. “That really is a coincidence.”
“The gift I’m giving Dad is the teapot Mr. Wen mentioned, and the style is similar to what Mr. Wen described. Could it be that I snatched Mr. Wen’s teapot?”
Shen Zhouyue’s words surprised everyone.
Yu Tingyu opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but saw Yu Tingzhou standing behind Shen Zhouyue.
He immediately dared not speak, silently shutting his mouth and lowering his presence.
“That really is quite a coincidence.”
Yu Qingfeng guessed that the relationship between Shen Zhouyue and Wen Qiusheng was a bit off as soon as he saw the situation, but he didn’t want to make it too awkward, so he pretended not to know.
“It’s the thought that counts.”
“Sure enough, he can’t make it to the big stage. If I had known you would let my grandson marry such a man, I might as well have taken my grandson back then and raised him myself, saving you from disregarding my grandson’s happiness.”
Hearing Grandma’s dissatisfaction with Shen Zhouyue, Yu Tingzhou walked helplessly to the old lady’s side, held her hand, and said, “Didn’t Grandma say that as long as I like them, it’s fine?”
“I married Zhouyue because I like him. Isn’t Grandma happy that I found someone I like?”
Youngest son, eldest grandson—the old lady’s treasures.
The old lady had always valued Yu Tingzhou, her eldest grandson, and couldn’t bear to make him unhappy.
So hearing him say this, she snorted coldly but ultimately didn’t continue to make things difficult for Shen Zhouyue.
“Fine, children and grandchildren have their own blessings. You, child, don’t like women but favor men. What can an old woman like me do? When your younger brothers have children, just adopt one under your name!”
The old lady’s sentence gave the other branches of the family some different ideas.
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