Chapter 40: The Best Family

After the little interlude, the group finally, dawdlingly, headed out.
Shen Jinglan’s morning meeting had already ended.
She had just come out of her room when she ran into Yi Lan with her face of exquisite makeup.
She paused for a moment, then said faintly, “You’re wearing makeup. Not bad.”

Yi Lan pressed her lips together, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

At this moment, Beiye’s excitement surged again.
She scampered over and whispered in Shen Jinglan’s ear.
It was unclear what she said, but Shen Jinglan’s eyes widened abruptly.
Then, she glanced at Yi Lan, before slowly shifting her gaze to Jiang Wenting.

Jiang Wenting: …

Before she could even speak, Shen Jinglan gave her a thumbs-up without changing her expression.

Jiang Wenting: !!!

She was really done with these two.

Looking at the time, it was almost half-past nine.
It was a bit too late to make breakfast.
The group decided to just eat whatever they found on the road.
Jiang Wenting was worried the kid would be hungry when she woke up, so she ran to the town’s bun shop to pack some steamed buns and soy milk to bring back.

Beiye couldn’t help but tease, “Just a few days ago, you were saying you’d spoiled the kid rotten, and now you’re happily running off to buy her breakfast. If it were me, I wouldn’t bother. Who sleeps in and still expects to be waited on!”

Jiang Wenting retorted, “A certain someone sleeps in every day and has someone wait on her every day.”

Beiye said as if it were a matter of course, “A wife is naturally different!”

Jiang Wenting rolled her eyes, not wanting to deal with her, and pulled Yi Lan towards the door.
Who knew that the person who had been so obedient and docile just a moment ago would suddenly refuse to be touched.
Not only did she refuse to be touched, she also walked away especially fast.
Jiang Wenting was stunned for a moment, then chased after her, shamelessly taking her hand.

At least she wasn’t shaken off.

By the time Beiye and Shen Jinglan slowly walked out, sipping from the same cup of soy milk, Jiang Wenting was already in the driver’s seat, with Yi Lan in the passenger seat.
The other two didn’t stand on ceremony and sat directly in the back to show off their affection.
Jiang Wenting drove while being fed a steady diet of their PDA.
Fortunately, the road wasn’t congested.
Two hours later, the car entered the city’s only tourist spot.

It was a City God Temple with a park.
To call it a tourist spot wasn’t entirely accurate.
It was more that the locals had a strong belief in it.
Every year on May 18th, there would be a grand worship ceremony.
People would also occasionally come to offer incense at other times.
It was said to be quite effective.

And Beiye happened to be someone who particularly loved joining in on the fun.
She didn’t care if it was effective or not; if others were into superstitions, she had to be into them too.
Therefore, the moment they arrived, she insisted on dragging Shen Jinglan inside to pray for good luck.

Jiang Wenting never believed in these things.
Not only did she not believe, she was even slightly repulsed by them.
As her friend for many years, Beiye naturally knew this.
So before entering the temple, she asked, “Jiangjiang, if you find the smoke inside too much and don’t want to go in, you can play bumper cars with Yi Lan outside. We’ll be out soon.”

Hearing this, Jiang Wenting didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she looked at Yi Lan and asked, “Do you want to go? If you do, we can go in and look around together?”

Seeing the woman beside her shake her head, clearly not very interested, she then said with a smile, “Then you guys go ahead. Yi Lan and I will go find something good to eat.”

Beiye made an OK sign.
Jiang Wenting smiled, “Go on, go on. Go in and give the Matchmaker God a good kowtow, so he’ll bless you two wives to be sweet and loving, and to grow old together.”

The four of them separated there.
Beiye and Shen Jinglan went in to pray for blessings.
Jiang Wenting took Yi Lan to wander around the small stalls, eating and drinking.
Because it was a fourth or fifth-tier city, there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic, nor were there many paparazzi hiding in dark corners to take secret photos.
So they could stroll around with almost no psychological pressure.

Apart from the time around the temple fair when it was packed with people, this scenic area was quite leisurely at other times.
But leisurely as it was, some basic entertainment activities still existed.
For example, right now, there were many street performers in the park, like ring toss, balloon shooting, and brandishing swords and spears.

The slightly old-fashioned form of entertainment gave Yi Lan the illusion of being back in her original world, causing her to stop and watch when she saw others playing ring toss.

Seeing this, Jiang Wenting immediately bought a large handful of rings and gave them to Yi Lan.
Worried she wouldn’t know how to play, she demonstrated by tossing one: “Look, like this. See something you like and toss a ring onto it. It doesn’t matter if you miss, you’ll get it after a few more tries.”

The stall owner quickly introduced in the local dialect, “Missy, ya can toss for anything on display. If ya win somethin’ ya don’t want, ya can trade it, y’hear.”

“We can trade them?” Jiang Wenting’s eyes lit up instantly.
She pointed to the stuffed rabbit at the very back and asked, “Boss, if we happen to win something else later, can we trade it for that little white rabbit?”

Before the owner could respond, the woman beside her picked up a ring and casually tossed it towards the rabbit’s head.
The ring landed perfectly and accurately around the rabbit’s neck.

When Jiang Wenting reacted, she couldn’t help but scream, “Ahhh, you got it, you got it! That’s amazing, Yi Lan is amazing!”

She excitedly hugged Yi Lan and spun around in front of the stall.
A passerby chuckled, “My, look how happy that lass is.”

The owner used a hook to pick up the rabbit and tossed it to Jiang Wenting: “There ya go, don’t even need to trade. Ya won it outright.”

Jiang Wenting happily held the rabbit, examining it from left to right in her hands.
The more she looked, the more she liked it.
Words of praise poured out of her as if they were free.
Meanwhile, Yi Lan, who had always been praised, didn’t show much emotion on the surface, but her heart was as sweet as if it had been filled with honey.

She gripped the remaining rings in her hand, looked at Jiang Wenting, and asked in a low voice, “Which one?”

Jiang Wenting looked around and pointed to a small, ugly, and cute doll.

Thus, one by one, the trinkets on the owner’s stall were carried away.
More and more people gathered to watch, marveling at Yi Lan’s precise skills.

At this moment, Jiang Wenting was like a child having the time of her life, stars twinkling in her eyes, bouncing in front of the owner while hugging a pile of small dolls.

Of course, the owner wasn’t scowling like the ancient ring toss owners of old.
After all, the total value of the items on his stall was about the same as what they had spent on the rings.

With most of the rings thrown, Jiang Wenting’s eyes landed on the shooting game next door.
So, while Yi Lan was in the middle of a toss, she leaned over and whispered, “Yi Lan, do you want to play that later?”

Hearing this, Yi Lan glanced in the direction she pointed, then handed the remaining rings to the owner: “Shopkeeper, may I leave the rest with you for now?”

The onlookers heard her blurt out the word “shopkeeper” and couldn’t help but tease, “This lass speaks like someone from the old days, but she’s really amazing at ring toss. Let’s go watch, the shooting game must be fun too!”

The people of the Northwest spoke in a way that was both hearty and a bit cute.
Jiang Wenting also imitated their tone and replied, “You bet.”

Then, the two of them stored the few remaining rings and moved on to the shooting stall.
Unlike the ring toss from before, Yi Lan had never encountered a game like shooting balloons with a toy gun in her own world.

Therefore, when she first started, she was a bit off-target.
Jiang Wenting demonstrated for her a couple of times with her clumsy shooting posture.
Yi Lan quickly grasped the essence of it, hitting a balloon with every shot.
The onlookers also shifted from watching them play ring toss to watching them shoot balloons.
A group of uncles and aunties couldn’t stop praising Yi Lan’s shooting skills.

“My, impressive, impressive! This lass is a powerhouse!”

Jiang Wenting was very happy to hear the praise, and the smile on her lips never faltered as she collected their prizes.
She was on a high the entire time, taking Yi Lan to play along the whole street.

When Beiye and Shen Jinglan came out from offering incense, a growing crowd of onlookers had already surrounded a certain stall so tightly it was impenetrable.
With her love for excitement, Beiye insisted on dragging Shen Jinglan into the thick of the crowd.

As a result, the moment they squeezed through to the very front, the couple froze in unison.

Because at this moment, in the center of the tightly packed crowd, Yi Lan was in her casual clothes, a long spear creating flourishes in the air.
And the great Film Empress Jiang, on the other hand, was carrying a plastic bag full of dolls and screaming by the side, “Yi Lan is amazing… Yi Lan is amazing…”

Her words of praise were drowned out by the crowd.
And the woman holding the long spear, with beads of sweat on her forehead, would occasionally cast a glance over, her eyes reflecting nothing but Jiang Wenting’s smile.

As the fancy performance came to an end, Jiang Wenting rushed forward almost without hesitation and embraced the woman before her.

Two soft bodies pressed together, two hearts beating.
At that moment, it was as if the surrounding clamor had been put on pause.
They could only feel each other’s rapid breathing and the scent of their bodies, a mix of osmanthus and sweat.

“Yi Lan is so amazing, so incredible!”

Jiang Wenting repeated her praise endlessly.
And the person being praised, at this moment, also temporarily forgot everything, happily sniffing the little rabbit in her arms who was exploding with joy.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk!” Beiye finally couldn’t resist clicking her tongue. “I was wondering why you two didn’t come offer incense with us. So you were here showing off your skills?”

Their embrace was interrupted.
Jiang Wenting reluctantly let go of Yi Lan and looked at her friend, her tone quite boastful, “How about it? Is our Yi Lan’s spear-wielding good or what?”

Beiye nodded her head vigorously and said loudly in front of everyone, “I told you the big block of wood time-traveled from ancient times, and you still didn’t believe me!”

The word “time-travel” sent a sudden wave of panic through Yi Lan, who was standing nearby.
But the others didn’t seem to think anything of it.
An old lady next to them also gave a thumbs-up: “This lass is quick on her feet. She’d be great as a grand general in the New Year’s Yangge dance!”

Shen Jinglan, who didn’t like to chat with strangers, also spoke faintly, “Ma’am, you have a good eye. You have the potential to be a great director.”

After speaking, she thought of Zhou Jing a while back, holding her phone and planning.
It seemed that having Yi Lan play a great general was something that could be expected in the near future.

After the talent show was over, General Yi was famous all along the street.
When the group went to a nearby stall to eat wide noodles in savory sauce, the shop owner even gave them a fifty percent discount.

After a joyful morning, the four of them walked around the park in the afternoon, playing bumper cars and other amusement rides.
Considering that Yi Lan’s body might not be able to hold up, they decided to go to the largest mall in the city to watch a movie.

The mall was in the new district, about a 20-minute drive from the scenic area, very close.
Jiang Wenting had already bought tickets online in advance.
After they arrived, they went straight to a milk tea shop.
Each person got a cup of water chestnut boba milk tea and headed to the cinema.
Then they divided the tasks clearly: Beiye and Shen Jinglan would buy popcorn, while Yi Lan and Jiang Wenting would pick up the tickets.

Before entering the theater, Beiye deliberately took a photo of the four cups of milk tea and the popcorn.
After taking the photo, she casually posted it on her Moments feed.

None of them were in the photo, and the caption was just a few simple words—The best family.

And these few short words, falling upon the eyes of Xiao Ru, who was catching up on sleep in the rental house, were like a knife, cutting her so badly her eyes hurt.