The 1970s: Married First, Fell in Love Later-Chapter 142 - 141: Silly, He Hasn’t Given You the Red Envelope Yet

Chapter 142: Chapter 141: Silly, He Hasn’t Given You the Red Envelope Yet

"You’ve been waiting long, haven’t you? Sorry to trouble you, Uncle Zheng." Xue Yue and the others had originally planned on staying at a hotel, but Zheng Guofeng was so considerate that he had been waiting outside the train station since early in the morning.

"No trouble at all," Zheng Guofeng said with a wave. "I don’t sleep well anyway, so I’m used to waking up early. What’s more, knowing you all were coming has kept me in high spirits for days."

By now, Zhang Qian had figured it out. This was Xue Xingzhou’s biological father—her father-in-law. A sudden wave of nervousness made her palms begin to sweat. ’Oh god, I basically stumbled off the train half-asleep. Is my hair a mess? Do I have sleep in my eyes?’ She wanted to reach up and check, but both her hands were full. Zhang Qian could have died of embarrassment.

Zheng Guofeng noticed Zhang Qian and turned to Xue Xingzhou. "This is your wife, isn’t it?"

Xue Xingzhou glanced at Zhang Qian. Seeing her blush, he smiled and said, "Yes. This is Zhang Qian."

A gentle smile spread across Zheng Guofeng’s face. "It must have been a tiring journey."

Zhang Qian, more forward than Xue Xingzhou, replied directly, "Not at all, Father."

Hearing her call him "Father" absolutely thrilled Zheng Guofeng. "Yes, yes, what a good child." As he spoke, he hurriedly took the luggage from Zhang Qian’s hands.

Zhang Qian felt a bit embarrassed and tried to refuse. "It’s alright, Father. They’re heavy, but I can manage."

Smiling, Zheng Guofeng pointed to a car not far away. "It’s no problem. I drove. Let’s get the luggage in the car and head home."

Zhang Qian stared at the car in the distance, marveling to herself. ’My father-in-law has his own car.’

"I knew you’d have a lot with you, so I made a special request to borrow it from my work unit."

"Oh." Only then did Zhang Qian breathe a sigh of relief. ’Otherwise, just what kind of family did I marry into?’

Watching the pair walk ahead, Xue Yue and Xue Xingzhou exchanged a look, their eyes brimming with mirth.

However, once they arrived at the Zheng family home...

They were greeted by the sight of a two-story house with its own private courtyard. Even from the outside, it was clear the house had some age to it and possessed a somewhat Western-style architecture.

Stepping inside, they saw that the interior staircase and all the furniture appeared to be made of redwood.

"This house was taken back by the state for a while," Zheng Guofeng explained. "When I returned last year, other people were still living here. I only moved in after they vacated the property."

Zheng Guofeng led them to the second floor. "I usually stay on the first floor. There are three bedrooms up here. The one in the middle is a little larger, so Xue Yue, you, your husband, and the children can take that one. The other two are pretty much the same."

"With you all here, the house will be a bit livelier. I usually live here all by myself. The house is so big, it gets very lonely."

Xue Xingzhou glanced at him but decided not to mention that he and Zhang Qian were also planning to move out.

Ziqing and Daya simply stared wide-eyed, looking all around. They thought everything was beautiful.

"You must be tired from the journey. Rest this morning, and I’ll come back at noon to take you out to eat." Since Zheng Guofeng had to get to work, he left as soon as he had them settled in.

Xue Yue led the children into their room. Directly opposite the door was a huge bed, more than big enough for their family of four. The room even had its own private bathroom. Xue Yue took a peek inside and saw that it was spotless.

She couldn’t help but exclaim, "This is Beijing City, all right. There’s no comparison to back home."

The corners of He Lang’s mouth turned up. "Not everyone in Beijing City lives in a house like this. It’s probably an old, pre-revolution house. If you like it, we’ll buy one just like it when we’re rich."

Xue Yue shook her head. "How much would that cost? Tsk. I’d rather just dream about it."

They had just arrived in Beijing City. All Xue Yue wanted now was to get settled quickly and find a permanent place to live. Buying a house like this was pure fantasy.

Then, remembering something, she turned to the two children who were exploring the room. "Ruanruan, take your little brother and go play with Sister Ziqing and Big Sister Daya. Your father and I need to talk."

"Okay."

Ruanruan didn’t ask what they were doing. She just obediently took Shiyi’s hand and led him out to find the other girls in the room next door.

Xue Yue shut the door, then turned to He Lang and whispered urgently, "Quick, get that stuff off you! You’ve been carrying it for days. It must be incredibly heavy."

He Lang chuckled and began to unbutton his shirt. Sewn into his innermost layer of clothing were numerous small pockets, and inside each was one of the family’s gold bars.

He Lang pulled out all the gold bars, placed them on the bed, and counted them.

Xue Yue’s excitement was palpable as she touched the small gold bars. "This is what we’ll use to buy a house in Beijing City. But where can we sell them? Is there a black market here?"

He Lang thought for a moment. "There has to be. We’ll just have to ask around to find out where. I’ll go out tonight to check."

Xue Yue considered it. "You should probably take Big Brother with you. It’s too dangerous to carry that much money alone. Two people would be safer. We’re brand new here and don’t know the first thing about this place. Besides, Big Brother is a good fighter, just in case... But if we do that, we’ll have to tell him our secret."

It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Xue Xingzhou, but Ruanruan’s safety was at stake, and they couldn’t afford to be careless.

He Lang said thoughtfully, "It’s fine. We’ll just tell him Ruanruan accidentally found them in our yard. Big Brother won’t ask too many questions."

"That could work."

Meanwhile, in their room, Zhang Qian was touching one thing and then another, looking around and letting out occasional sighs of wonder. Xue Xingzhou sat on the edge of the bed, just watching her pace back and forth, his eyes crinkling with a smile.

After a while, Zhang Qian finally sat down next to Xue Xingzhou. She turned to him and teased, "Am I marrying up?"

Xue Xingzhou raised an eyebrow. "You’ve got that wrong. None of this is mine."

Zhang Qian pouted. "I feel like you’re just being smug. I think our father is very nice. He’s so gentle and refined. He seems easy to get along with."

"It rolls right off your tongue, doesn’t it?" Xue Xingzhou teased.

Zhang Qian blinked, then realized he was talking about her calling the man "Father." "What? Was I wrong to? Isn’t he your father?"

Xue Xingzhou gently poked her forehead. "Silly. He hasn’t even given you the red envelope for calling him that yet."

Zhang Qian let out a little "Whoa!" and threw her arms around Xue Xingzhou’s neck. "Oh, well! Who keeps track of things like that? I’ve already said it anyway."

Xue Xingzhou burst out laughing.

Xue Yue and the others took showers and, feeling refreshed, had a good nap. Around noon, Zheng Guofeng returned from work to take them out for roast duck.

"Since it’s your first time here, you have to try the local specialty."

It was a quaint, old-fashioned roast duck restaurant, clearly a time-honored establishment. The rich aroma of roast duck greeted them the moment they walked in.

They went up to the second floor and entered a private dining room. Tea was served as soon as they were seated.

Zheng Guofeng raised his teacup. "I’ll use tea in place of wine to welcome you all to Beijing City. And to you, Xingzhou and Zhang Qian—when you two got married, I was tied up with business and couldn’t make it. So let me take this opportunity to wish you both a long and happy life together."

Zhang Qian and Xue Xingzhou both stood and raised their teacups, thanking him.

After speaking, Zheng Guofeng took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Zhang Qian.