茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 109: Sisters

As Yang Zhen’er’s good friend, Tang Baona was somewhat embarrassed and took the initiative to speak, “Zhen’er had just gotten her driver’s license at that time and she wasn’t very skilled…”

Her second uncle nodded with a smile and continued, “In any case, you all saved Old Master Zhang’s grandson. The Zhang family wanted to repay this favor but didn’t want to owe it. That’s why our company got a big order some time ago. This is all thanks to Nana.” He had put in a lot of effort to look up some connections and find out the background story of the Zhang family’s two kidnapped grandsons.

Tang Baona said modestly in a low voice, “We just happened to be there.” Her second uncle had already promised a large commission from the business deal to her.

Her grandfather, Mr. Feng laughed and said, “Anyway, a good deed deserves a good reward, that’s a good result.”

At this time, Tang Baona’s older cousin, the eldest daughter from her elder uncle’s family suddenly said, “I heard that there were four people together that day? Apart from you, Yang Zhen’er, and the tall girl from the Xia family, who was the other one?”

Tang Baona glanced over at her sister and said, “A friend.”

“I heard it’s a guy?” The older cousin asked curiously.

Tang Baona’s sister, Tang Baoting, spoke up, “He is a friend of my classmate’s. I was actually supposed to go with them that day, but something came up at the last minute, so I let him go with Nana and the others instead.”

No one else in her family knew about the blind date that her classmate, Wang Han, had arranged for Tang Baona, except her nuclear family.

Tang Baoting knew that her cousin and aunt would continue to pry if they found out about it, something her sister didn’t enjoy dealing with.

“Oh? So, he’s around your age? What does he do?” Her older cousin asked again.

“He’s a programmer,” Tang Baoting replied. Wang Han and Chang Bin would of course inform her about Xiang Kun’s situation first.

The cousin’s husband suddenly interjected, “Which company is he with? I might have recently evaluated it, these IT companies are all short of money.”

The Tang sisters didn’t respond immediately to the cousin’s husband, both just smiling without a word, fully aware of their cousin-in-law’s mannerisms and habits.

Sure enough, the cousin’s husband quickly switch the topic and said to the second uncle, “Uncle, there are still some small IT companies worth investing in nowadays, like the ones in the AR field, such as the company I visited the other day…”

The Tang sisters looked at each other and shared a knowing smile.

“Did you call a ride share to get here?” Tang Baoting asked her sister quietly,

“What happened to your car? I haven’t seen you driving it for a long time. ‘

“It’s parked in the garage. Since Zhen’er and I live together, I often use her car and sometimes she drives mine. Sis, do you want to drive that car?”

“I’m fine with my own car. What about you? Don’t you want to drive?”

“You know I don’t like to drive. The less I drive now, the more I dislike it.”

Tang Baoting said with implications, “Actually it’s not just about driving. A lot of things are like that – the less you do them, the less you understand them, the less you are used to them, and the more afraid you become of doing them.”

Tang Baona naturally knew her sister was talking about things like dating, but she Dretended not to understand and didn’t resDond.

Tang Baoting looked up and seeing the other relatives were chatting and nobody was paying any attention to them, she asked directly: “Did the guy

Chang Bin introduced show up when you went to Old Xia’s for dinner today?”

Tang Baona nodded, “Yes.” But she didn’t explain that Xiang Kun had cooked tonight’s dinner, and that they had originally planned a surprise early birthday party for him.

“Um, do you see him… frequently?” She had tried several times before to subtly find out about Tang Baona’s interaction with Xiang Kun. The answers were often quite vague, but the ambiguity itself revealed a lot.

“Not that often, maybe once or twice a week, and usually with Zhen’er and Old Xia. I know what you’re asking, we’re just friends right now,” Tang Baona responded directly.

She had taken time to consider her feelings towards Xiang Kun. However, she found that there was no romantic attraction, no fluttering heartbeat, or desire to spend the rest of her life with him.

Still, Xiang Kun was an interesting person when hanging out. He always possessed some dazzling “skills”, whether it was playing cards, archery, or cooking, and had an insight that seemed even sharper than Old Xia’s.

Although they had met through blind dating, she preferred to be friends with Xiang Kun. If Xiang Kun were to confess his feelings to her now, or to express a strong desire to pursue her, she would feel extremely awkward.

Fortunately, Xiang Kun never expressed such a desire. There were no boundaries crossed or inappropriate intimations. It seemed like he also treated it as a pure friendship, without any pretense, which felt quite natural.

His approach relieved her and even gave her a sense of satisfaction, thinking that Xiang Kun shared the same idea. “No feelings?” Tang Baoting asked.

“Yes,” Tang Baona nodded.

Seeing her sister’s response, Tang Baoting said, “Well, I actually also don’t think that classmate Chang Bin is suitable for you. And…he hasn’t found a new job yet, right? Even though our parents are much more open-minded than our uncles and don’t care about family background or social status, he should at least be able to maintain your current standard of living…”.

Compared to their uncles, Mr. Tang was indeed quite unique and eccentric. After making several successful business deals in the early years, he invested all his earnings in real estate. When the properties increased significantly in value, he simply sold his business and became a property landlord.

He and his wife would often go out and about, and they had a laissez-faire approach towards their daughters. They would go with the flow, not compare themselves to others, wouldn’t argue or fight, and were quite zen. His requirements for a son-in-law were also quite simple: a decent character and his daughter should love him.

“He has some ideas now, and he might start a business, so he hasn’t found a job for now. He’s definitely not a lazy person, there’s no doubt about that,” Tang Baona said. She didn’t want her sister to have the impression that her friend was a lazy freeloader.

“Start a business?” Tang Baoting couldn’t help but frown, “You better not get mixed up in it.”

“Don’t worry. When we go out together, it’s always ‘AA’. He’s not the type who calculates these things.”

Tang Baoting thought for a moment and then nodded, “Yeah, that’s true. The people who Wang Han and Chang Bin introduce should have decent characters at the very least.”

Without saying anything more, Tang Baona took the excuse of looking after the playing nephews to retreat to a swing chair in the yard and looked at her phone while scrolling through Weibo.

As she was scrolling, she suddenly stopped, rapidly scrolled back, and halted at a picture. She opened the image and looked at the familiar Baldy, the quiver she had just given away today, and the caption on the Weibo post, causing her to be somewhat startled.

She quickly found more photoshopped images from the trending topic.

Looking at the various manipulated pictures of Xiang Kun’s back view made her burst into laughter.

She selected a few of the most manipulated pictures and sent them to Xiang

Kun’s WeChat.

She also attached a link to the viral Weibo topic “#LoneBaldy”.

Be it the short-haired girl who initially posted the picture and caption on the internet, Tang Baona who realized Baldy’s identity when she saw the picture, or the countless netizens who saw the picture online, took part in discussions, retweeted it, or even photoshopped and redistributed it all thought this was a random incident.

However, after seeing the original, unedited picture, Xiang Kun recalled some details that he had previously overlooked..