Chapter 98

Chapter 98: Is This Fate?

As soon as these words came out, the banquet hall suddenly fell silent. Many Du family relatives who had been secretly watching Du An Rao all widened their eyes at the same time, looking as if they had just seen a ghost.

Du Jun Yan and the others had already expected this. They quietly noted which close relatives and friends had changed expressions, planning to “catch up” with them one by one later.

Among this group, the one hit the hardest was Fifth Uncle, who was standing in front of Du An Rao right now. He was the youngest son of Du An Rao’s Second Grandfather, a full zodiac cycle younger than Father Du. Because an old veteran in their family had once been cheated by a bunch of con men, he hated those so-called strange people and supernatural things the most.

Right now his face was dazed, as if he thought he was dreaming: “This… she…”

Father Du grabbed the hand he was using to point at Du An Rao and said with a mild smile: “The two kids look a lot alike, don’t they? Even though they didn’t grow up together, their looks and personalities are very similar now that they’re older. You could say it’s fate.”

Fifth Uncle froze for a second, but he wasn’t stupid. Of course he could tell his older brother didn’t want him to tear this layer of paper open, so he let out an awkward laugh: “Yeah, yeah, they really do look alike.”

Seeing this, Du An Rao could hardly bear to look.

[Dad, how do you manage to lie through your teeth without even changing your expression? Forget our personalities. What normal person would say a cute, sweet girl and a cool queen-like big sister look the same? Look at Fifth Uncle, you’ve left him totally speechless.]

Fifth Uncle’s face twisted again when he heard that. In his heart, he thought that he wasn’t speechless because of her dad, but because this little girl had scared him half to death!

Seeing that his early probing had already produced some results, and not wanting to create new trouble, Father Du quickly exchanged a look with Du Yu Xi and the others, signaling them to take Du An Rao away for a bit. He himself, along with the Du brothers, Du Jun Yan and his younger brother, led Fifth Uncle and the others off to greet other relatives.

From Father Du and the others’ observations, almost all the relatives who had just reacted to Du An Rao’s inner voice were on good terms with their family. Most of them were Du An Rao’s elders, upright in character and proper in their conduct.

This also proved that their earlier guess was right: people who had bad intentions toward Du An Rao or bad character could not hear what she was thinking, even if they were related to her by blood.

With this condition confirmed, the Du family finally let go of a bit of the worry they had been carrying in their hearts.

After a brief silence, the chatter around them became noisy again.

Some people chose to stay calm and quietly wait and see. Some watched Father Du and Mother Du splitting up to act separately, looked thoughtful, and then very wisely hurried over to the Du father and his two sons to find out what was going on.

Of course, a small number chose to go straight to Mother Du and the others. But they did not immediately point the finger at Du An Rao and arouse her suspicion. Instead…

“What on earth is going on? How did your family suddenly gain another daughter? Don’t tell me you actually gave birth to twins back then?”

The woman speaking was in her early fifties, wearing a long black evening dress. She was a bit plump, with a round, bright face that looked very blessed.

Right now she was standing in front of Mother Du with her arms crossed and her chin slightly raised, looking high and mighty. For no reason at all, she made Du An Rao think of the odd?eyed Persian cat from the neighbor next door, the one named Tian Tian that liked to run over to their place for walks.

[Is it just me, or does the second half of this auntie’s sentence sound kind of… sour?]

Du Yu Xi, who knew the woman in front of them very well, almost burst out laughing. Mother Du also looked like she was struggling not to smile. Only Ruan Xiu Ru’s expression had gone stiff; she wanted to explode but had to hold it back, feeling extremely stifled.

After lowering her head to laugh, Du Yu Xi quickly pulled Du An Rao off to the side and lowered her voice: “This is Fourth Aunt.”

“Fourth Aunt?”

“Yeah.” Seeing that Du An Rao was still a bit confused, Du Yu Xi hurried to explain.

“Fourth Aunt is Fourth Uncle’s wife. Fourth Uncle and the Fifth Uncle from just now are both sons of Second Grandfather. Our Great?Grandfather had four children: our Grandfather, Second Grandfather, Third Grandfather, and Fourth Grandmother. Grandfather only had Dad. Second Grandfather had four children too: Second Aunt, Third Aunt, Fourth Uncle, and Fifth Uncle. As for Third Grandfather, he only had one daughter, Aunt Lian Shuang.”

Du An Rao stared blankly for a while before finally sorting out how the woman in front of them was related to them: “So we’re actually pretty closely related.”

“Yeah, pretty close. It’s just that Second Grandmother is from Y Province. After she married Second Grandfather, he volunteered to go to the branch company over in Y Province to open up the market and in the end they settled there. Now all those aunts and uncles basically live in Y Province too. We don’t see them much except during the New Year and holidays, unlike Aunt Lian Shuang, who drops by our house all the time.”

“I see.” Du An Rao nodded, then glanced at Ruan Xiu Ru not far away, awkwardly talking with Mother Du. “But why do I feel like Fourth Aunt and our mom kind of have some conflict?”

Du Yu Xi seemed to think of something and laughed even harder: “They don’t really have a grudge. They’re just too close.”

“Too close?”

“Yeah. Mom and Fourth Aunt were classmates in elementary school, and her family was neighbors with Grandfather’s family. You could say the two of them grew up together. They’re the same age, went to the same schools, and were sometimes even in the same class. Of course their parents kept comparing them. From small things like hobbies, weight, and height, to big things like which school they got into, grades, diplomas, and jobs, if it could be compared, it was compared.”

“…So who won?”

“They both had wins and losses, but Mom probably won a bit more.” Otherwise, Fourth Aunt wouldn’t get so fired up every time she saw her.

“They thought they could stop competing after they graduated and started working, but then Mom fell for Dad and Fourth Aunt fell for Fourth Uncle…”

Du An Rao was speechless. It was really hard to comment. Maybe this really was fate.

“And after that they started competing again?”

“They compared husbands, then kids, then their kids’ grades, and also… the number of kids.”

Question marks filled Du An Rao’s head: “The number of kids?”

“Yeah.”

No wonder Fourth Aunt’s tone had been so sour just now when she mentioned their family having another child.

“How many kids does Fourth Aunt have?”

Du An Rao had thought Ruan Xiu Ru must have had three or four kids too, which was why she cared so much about them suddenly gaining another one.

But the answer Du Yu Xi gave was surprising: “One. Fourth Aunt only had one.”

“Just one?”

“Fourth Aunt had a hard labor when she gave birth to Cousin Hong Yun and hurt her body. Fourth Uncle felt bad for her and wouldn’t let her have any more. But Fourth Aunt later adopted an orphan from a family that had been close with her grandfather’s generation and raised her as a daughter, so they actually count as having two children.”

“So that’s how it is.” Du An Rao listened to the gossip while still sipping her juice. Halfway through a drink, something suddenly hit her and her eyes widened. “Wait, what did you say Fourth Aunt’s son is called?”

“Uh, Du… Du Hong Yun.”

“And the girl she adopted?”

“I think her name is Zi Xuan, Du Zi Xuan.”

Du An Rao: “…”

[Oh my god. I never thought that super popular fake?sibling, pregnant?and?runs?away, sweet?but?angsty romance actually came from Fourth Aunt’s family!]

Ruan Xiu Ru, who had just been talking with Mother Du about Du An Rao’s situation: “???” Orthopedics? Their family didn’t run a hospital. Where was this “orthopedics” coming from?