147: Chapter 147 The gift your mom gave away was quite unique!

Seeing Niu Xiaojun's murderous look, Xia Ning was startled.

She quickly glanced outside and saw that Qin Xun was already nudging the iron gate of the small courtyard with his shoulder.

Without a word, she grabbed Niu Xiaojun's hand and led her toward the kitchen.

Going all the way to the back, she opened the inner door and stuffed Niu Xiaojun into the small room where she kept the fish.

Xia Ning looked at the stunned Niu Xiaojun and put a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture.

"Brother Niu, there's no time to explain!"

"Wait in here for a while. I'll distract Qin Xun as soon as possible and let you out."

The door closed!

Niu Xiaojun was dumbfounded.

She looked around at the various fish and shrimp in the tanks, finally settling her gaze on a turtle.

She let out a long sigh.

"We really are brothers in misfortune!"

"In middle school, we agreed to grow old alone, but now she's starting to feel spring fever."

Qin Xun pushed open the courtyard gate with his shoulder, a suitcase in one hand, a bag of food containers in the other, and a package tucked under his arm.

He made his way into the living room with difficulty and looked at Xia Ning.

"I'm exhausted."

"I was calling you just now, why didn't you come to help?"

Xia Ning: "I didn't hear you."

Qin Xun sensed something was off. Seeing that her expression was a bit unusual, he asked,

"You... aren't hiding a man in the house, are you?"

Xia Ning was taken aback, then became annoyed. She looked at Qin Xun and said coldly,

"Yeah!"

She pointed at Qin Xun.

"Aren't I hiding you?"

Qin Xun: "..."

He felt a bit embarrassed instead. He put down the suitcase and package, then took out two portions of soup noodles and placed them on the coffee table.

"Let's eat!"

Xia Ning sat down.

She had always been used to eating at the dining table, but since living with Qin Xun,

Qin Xun preferred eating at the coffee table.

After eating there a few times, she stopped struggling to correct Qin Xun's bad habit and was instead assimilated by him.

She even gradually started to ignore the rules of no talking while eating and no talking while sleeping.

Suddenly.

She saw the package Qin Xun had tossed onto the sofa and asked,

"Your delivery?"

Qin Xun nodded, then shook his head.

Xia Ning didn't understand.

Qin Xun explained with a smile.

"This is a gift my mom sent to you."

Xia Ning was surprised.

"A gift for me?"

Qin Xun picked up the delivery and handed it over.

"Remember when I took that photo of us to trick my mom out of 2,000 yuan?"

"Even though you later said you were just a passerby, after my mom's meticulous analysis, she decided you were lying."

"She thinks we might be dating. So, she sent you a gift."

Xia Ning held the package, her mood turning a bit strange as she fell silent.

Seeing this, Qin Xun thought she didn't remember and reminded her,

"It was that rainy day."

Xia Ning looked up: "Huh?"

Qin Xun explained further, trying to jog her memory.

"The day you chased me with a stun baton."

Xia Ning's face instantly turned red, and she glared at Qin Xun.

"I remember."

"No need to be so detailed."

Xia Ning lowered her head and looked at the medium-sized package in her hands. She peeked at Qin Xun and saw him focused on his food.

She began to open the package.

She heard Qin Xun say,

"It's good stuff."

"I originally wanted to give you a surprise."

Xia Ning looked up and gave a small smile.

She lowered her head again and continued unwrapping.

As it turned out... she pulled out three pairs of underwear.

Red ones.

Bright red.

The color was very vibrant!

She was stunned!

Suspecting that Qin Xun had picked up the wrong delivery, she quickly checked the information on the box.

It was indeed addressed to Qin Xun.

She stuffed the three pairs of underwear back into the box and looked at Qin Xun, who was still slurping his noodles.

"This is the surprise your mom had for me?"

Qin Xun looked up with a face full of smiles.

"Yes."

"Do you like it?"

Xia Ning: "..."

She didn't know how to answer.

As a polite person, regardless of whether she liked a gift or not, she would usually say she did.

But three pairs of red underwear?

The word "like" was truly hard to say.

Seeing her hesitation, Qin Xun knew she was repulsed. He reached out, pulled out a pair, and shook them.

"These aren't just any ordinary underwear."

Xia Ning asked,

"Is there some kind of meaning behind them?"

Qin Xun laughed.

"These are the underwear from Wang Wei's poem."

Xia Ning: "???"

Her eyebrows shot up in annoyance.

Qin Xun's smile widened as he quickly said,

"Just kidding!"

"Didn't I tell my mom before that you were three years older than me?"

"Her clever little brain did the math and figured out you're twenty-four."

"It just so happens to be your zodiac year."

"So she bought three pairs of red underwear and went to a very famous local temple to have them blessed."

"The main point is to turn misfortune into good luck and disaster into blessings."

Xia Ning: "..."

What kind of temple would bless someone's underwear?

Seeing Xia Ning dazed, Qin Xun shook the red underwear again.

"Do you want them?"

Xia Ning was a bit displeased seeing Qin Xun waving the red underwear around with no respect for her privacy.

"Put my underwear down."

Qin Xun obediently put them down.

He knew that Xia Ning had accepted them.

He lowered his head to eat, speaking casually as if he were mentioning where to have breakfast tomorrow.

"For the Mid-Autumn Festival, come home with me and pretend to be my girlfriend."

"I need to fulfill my duty."

Xia Ning looked up at Qin Xun. Seeing him focused on his noodles, she also lowered her head.

"We'll see when the time comes."

Qin Xun: "Okay."

Xia Ning: "Mhm."

The two of them kept their heads down, eating in silence.

Suddenly.

There was a splashing sound, like a fish jumping in water.

Qin Xun looked up and listened carefully.

"Xiao Xia, it sounds like a fish jumped out of the tank in the kitchen. I'll finish these noodles and take a knife in there to prep it."

"We can have it braised for dinner."

Xia Ning felt nervous upon hearing this.

She guessed that Niu Xiaojun had heard them talking about the "fake girlfriend" thing and was venting her anger on the fish in the tank.

She really didn't want to imagine the scene if Qin Xun walked into that small room with a knife and saw Niu Xiaojun.

Not only would the two of them get into a huge fight,

but it would also expose her relationship with Niu Xiaojun and reveal that Oak Tree was actually her company.

That might make Qin Xun quit immediately.

Xia Ning forced a smile and pointed at the turtle in the living room aquarium.

"I think it sounds more like the sound of this turtle splashing water."

Qin Xun was taken-back and shook his head.

This girl's hearing really was a major problem.

He looked at the turtle in the tank and nodded.

"The turtle works too."

"Braised turtle with chicken feet, the spicy kind—do you want some?"

Xia Ning turned to look at the turtle swimming leisurely in the tank and said calmly, without batting an eye,

"Let it be."

"It's quite cute."

Qin Xun turned to look at the pitch-black turtle.

Huh?

Cute?

What kind of sense of aesthetics was this?

...

The two of them continued eating their noodles.

The living room was very quiet.

Suddenly.

Qin Xun said with some worry,

"Xiao Xia, what if I run into Fatty Niu at the company tomorrow?"

Xia Ning looked up, her voice sounding a bit tense.

"Fatty Niu?"

Qin Xun explained,

"You know, that short, fat, dark, and unrefined Niu Xiaojun!"

"'Fatty Niu'—how's that for a nickname? Accurate, right?"